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QUICK TAKE: The Curse Workers by Holly Black

Posted by: on: January 7, 2013

Cover of "Bullies, Bastards And Bitches: ...

Cover via Amazon

This past fall, I read a fascinating book called Bullies, Bastards And Bitches: How To Write The Bad Guys Of Fiction by Jessica Morrell. It led me to search out a definition of anti-hero, which basically is a person who lacks heroic qualities and acts in contrary to society’s standards. He or she is deeply flawed. Just as importantly, that person is unlikely to change. Think John McClane in Die Hard or the female cylons in the science fiction series Battlestar Galactica.

Morrell’s book also led me to start looking for fiction which fit that category. The first books I found were a three-volume set called The Curse Workers by Holly Black. The trilogy features Cassel, who is a con but also part of a mobster family with supernatural powers. If you’re thinking wizards or werewolves, think again. Cassel’s mom can alter how one feels. His brother Barron can change memories. These are pretty unique talents. As for Cassel, at first, he doesn’t think he has any skills. About halfway through White Cat, the first book, Cassel discovers not only does have the ability to invoke curses, but his is the most powerful one because he can transform people. And, apparently he has transformed people, thanks to his family. He just doesn’t remember those acts, also thanks to his family. Once Cassel discovers his powers, he must decide what to do with them. It’s one thing to con his way out of classes or into an appointment, but quite another to transform people into animals or inanimate objects. And while one might forgive someone for unknowingly doing wrong, it’s quite another thing to accept their continual bad behavior once they’re aware of their flaw. Cassel’s initial reaction is to try to help out the good guys or government agents. But being bad has its allure. Especially when the love of his life is also part of a mobster family. What choices will he make? And what will those choices cost him?

Regards what I disliked about The Curse Workers by Holly Black, there’s only a short list. Reviewers tended to like White Cat the best. While I enjoyed all the series, the second and third grew too much into a love story. Also, there tended to be more storylines which would arise but then not receive any satisfying conclusion. For example, the parents of one of Cassel’s friends asks for help for their son but it is never given. Then there are the dreams of one of Cassel’s friends to become a designer, which is often mentioned but nothing ever comes of this either. On a bigger scale, a diamond that causes tension between two mobster families is never found. The last thing I disliked is as I read further into the series is that more situations seemed contrived such as the nonsensical relationship between Cassel’s brother and a college friend.

On the flip side, there are numerous reasons I like The Curse Workers by Holly Black. First, if it were simply a case of which bad guy would win, I probably wouldn’t care. However, Holly Black sets Cassel up as a young adult who tries hard to fit in, but doesn’t succeed too well due to the reputation of his family. He’s also a teen burdened with remorse, because he thinks he killed his girlfriend but doesn’t remember why. Second, there’s the fact that even when Cassel finally figures out who he is and wants nothing to do with the bad guys, his family isn’t so willing to let him walk. Nor are some of the other mob families. Cassel just keeps getting in worse and worse trouble. I couldn’t stop reading, because I wanted Cassel to be safe, make the right choices, but also to be happy. When you’re part of a mob family, those three don’t easily go together, which makes for a suspenseful and gut-wrenching read. Last, Holly Black is a master of details. In the opening chapter of White Cat, Cassel is standing on the window ledge outside his dorm room. We read how it feels to be on the ledge, what it looks like down below, and from behind. In the third book, Black Heart, Cassell gets shoved inside a car trunk. Apparently, for her research into this trilogy, Black took her own ride in the back of a car. These details aside, there’s also the whole culture which Black creates around the curse workers, the mob, and even the boarding school Cassel attends. Every descriptive scene is perfectly crafted to usher us into the Curse Worker world.

My rating? Bag it: Carry the trilogy with you. Make them a top priority to read.

Over the next few weeks for my Quick Takes, I’ll be reviewing other books which feature the bad guys and girls of fiction. Who are your favorite anti-heroes? Why?

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The Dark Divine Trilogy by Bree Despain

Posted by: on: August 11, 2012

I’m excited to introduce The Dark Divine trilogy by Bree Despain! It’s Christian fantasy with universal appeal. The books are built smoothly on a religious structure without sacrificing quality. The latter is important. My dad introduced me in my earliest years to both classical fiction and religious fiction, the latter which I have often criticized for its limited focus and inferior quality. Except for obvious exceptions such as The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, I rarely recommend Christian fiction to anyone other than a fellow believer. Yet sometimes religious fiction helped me in my Christian walk in a way that general fiction couldn’t. Therein lies a dilemma. It’s one which plagues special interest fiction (regional, religious, social issues, etc.). While such books serve a legitimate need, even their intended audience might pass on them if the quality isn’t there.

Cover of "The Dark Divine"

Cover of The Dark Divine

Despain uses the parable of The Prodigal Son as the backbone for The Dark Divine trilogy, and yet despite this biblical connection the purpose of these books is to entertain rather than to preach. Fantasy lovers should appreciate that it features werewolves; Christians should appreciate that Despain gives them a religious twist. This twist actually serves as one of the themes of the trilogy. An old court document inspired Despain. It told of a man who was accused of being a werewolf. Instead of trying to fight his accusers, he admitted to being a werewolf but argued that the town didn’t understand what werewolves really were, which were creatures created to protect humans from evil beings. In The Dark Divine trilogy, Despain expands on this idea, making her werewolves creatures made by God to protect humans from evil being but who then became so prideful of their special abilities that they were corrupted by their power. Those characters in her trilogy who are bitten by a werewolf face a choice. Some choose to embrace their volatile nature, turning into creatures who are worse than those they were made to destroy. Others fight against this nature by choosing to love. Yet it’s no easier for them to do that then it is for any Christian to avoid sin. I’ll talk more later about the themes, but definitely each book had me thinking about how we all have a choice in how we live and are not puppets of destiny.

Now that you know The Dark Divine trilogy is a werewolf fantasy, I’ll turn to its treatment of religion. Even though I began this review by labeling this trilogy “Christian,” its take on Christianity was a mystery to me for some time. The books weren’t published by a Christian publisher, and they don’t bear the traditional hallmarks of Christian fiction. And so I started wondering about Despain’s background. After searching the internet, I learned Despain is Seventh-Day Adventist. Also, while her father isn’t a minister, he is a church leader. This information in mind, I started wondering whether The trilogy would be another conversion story. It isn’t. From page one, the Divine family believe in God and live by their Christian faith; there was no one to convert. Satisfied on this account, I considered the possibility that Despain instead intended to trick readers by having the Divine family reject their faith. She doesn’t. Although main character Grace often rails against God, and her mom succumbs to mental illness when faced with a crisis of faith, the family always returns to God. When Grace is at her lowest, a mentor gently admonishes that she must take up prayer again. She does. My next reaction was to think the use of Christianity was superficial, and of this I was critical.  To my surprise, this made me feel guilty; I don’t like Christian books that are overly preachy, so wouldn’t I therefore like books that portray Christianity in a positive way yet are not preachy?  But I realized that I wouldn’t care for a book that simply used Christianity as a character trait.  So where does that leave me? I don’t want to be preached at, but if Christianity is to play a role in a novel, it should actually makes a difference in characters’ lives. In The Dark Divine trilogy, it does.

Let’s turn to concrete examples of how Despain integrates Christianity into her books. As I noted above, Grace’s dad is a pastor. There are frequent references to the duties he must perform in that role and how the family help. Connected to that, one of crucial characters in the first book is a is a man who threatens the pastor, receives forgiveness, and joins the church. While not a typical experience for most teenagers, I found it refreshing that Grace and her siblings attend a religious school I also grew up in Christian schools. As for Grace’s classmates, while they’re naturally expected to live up to high moral standards, not all do. Scattered throughout all three books are references to scriptures, prayer, and miracles, which all feel natural because her characters are three-dimensional. There are even references to Jesus, which surprised me–popular religious television shows such as Touched by an Angel and Joan of Arcadia typically refer only to God in an attempt to maintain a broader appeal. Nowhere in secular fiction, even in the classics whose authors held religious convictions, has Christianity been so prominent. Naturally, it helps that Grace’s dad is a pastor. Yet all these references felt comfortably familiar to me, having grown up simply in a Christian home. Even so, I could have just as easily disliked them, if not for Despain making her characters otherwise as ordinary as those found in general fiction. The Divines are a flawed family who experience extraordinary situations and just happen to face them with faith.

Earlier I said that I’d talk more about themes. When Despain first started submitting The Dark Divine for publication, one publisher expressed interest but asked her to drop the religious aspect. Despain didn’t, because she felt it integral to the story she wanted to tell. I am thankful that she stood her ground. The Dark Divine trilogy is about love–not the romantic kind although that definitely exists, but rather the sacrificial kind such as found in Harry Potter. In the Christian world, this type of love is found in the gospel. Scripture even teaches: “Greater love hath no man than to lay his life down for another.” Readers familiar with the Harry Potter series know that his parents made this sacrificial choice for him, which forever changed Harry’s destiny. At some point in The Dark Divine trilogy, at least one of the main characters will make a similar choice with long-lasting repercussions. The Dark Divine trilogy is also about forgiveness–its nature and cost. Daniel is the prodigal son who returns, while Jude is the older son who resents how much attention is given to Daniel. Jesus ended his parable of the prodigal son simply with the father saying, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” In Despain’s story, neither of the two sons have an easy path ahead, for Daniel must fight the temptations within him for his old life while Jude finds jealousy can lead to some dangerous choices. Despain also creates a “Good Samaritan” character, who represents compassion instead of violence. Yet Despain recognizes that nothing about being Christian is simple; one verse will advocate turning the other cheek, but another has Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers in the temple. The Bible is not black and white, and Despain gets this.

There is a lot of teen paranormal fantasy literature out there right now. And frankly, most werewolf and vampire and witch and demon fiction will quickly be forgotten–because it isn’t about anything else. The Dark Divine trilogy rises above other books in this genre because, as you can see, there are so many more layers. I picked it up every chance I had and cried when it ended. I enthusiastically recommend this trilogy to anyone who loves fantasy. It’s the perfect blend of faith and fun! And it’s also well written. Despain will be on my list of authors to watch.

My rating? Bag them: Carry them with you. Make them a top priority to read.

How would you rate these books?

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When Life Hands You An Accident

Posted by: on: August 10, 2012

Teaser time is here! This summer has been a full one with writing courses and family concerns. Now with school just around the corner, it’s time for me to settle back into a routine. This includes my practice of writing daily teasers.

In the spring, I won three fantasy books with no-strings attached. The latter meant I didn’t have to review the set. Yet I’m a reviewer. I can’t resist sharing my opinion of what I read. So, drum roll please: This week I’d like to present Bree Despain and her The Dark Divine trilogy!

Daily Teaser Archives

The only info which I could find about Bree Despain’s childhood and adolescence is pretty much repeated in every biography and interview I could find. Despain grew up with all the instincts for being a writer. As a child, she stapled folded papers to make her own “novels.” As a teen, she wrote stories in notebooks while her friends waited for the next page to be finished. Her teachers told her she should be a writer.

Despain didn’t initially pursue the writing life. Why? Apparently, she thought only special people could be writers and so she settled into the idea of having an ordinary career. Yet her passion to write never left her. Despain rediscovered her childhood love for creating stories when she took a semester off college to write and direct plays for at-risk, inner city teens. When she returned to Brigham Young University, Despain filled her schedule with creative writing and literature classes.

Even then, she still didn’t pursue the writing life. She married, became a mom, and worked at other jobs. If not for accident, Despain might have never seriously tried to become a writer.

WRITING LIFE

When the universe threw a pick-up truck in her path, Despain realized that life is short to not do what one absolutely loves. At Deseret News, she shared: “I was being given a second chance. I realized if I had died I would’ve had two big regrets: I wouldn’t have been around to be a mother to my son, and I had never become an author.”

Having lost her job as result of the accident, Despain and her husband had to move in with her parents while she recovered. Money was tight, but her husband came up with an old, refurbished laptop computer for her to work on. He brought it home, placed it by her bedside, and told her, “You’d better start writing.” The laptop became her lifeline. Although flat on her back, she could still write. And she has ever since.

If you were to die tomorrow, what would be your regrets?

Also helping Despain on the writing path was an old friend Emily Wing Smith. Despain credits Smith with being one of the reasons she is a published author today. In one of her blog posts, Despain tells the story of how Smithe and her met while both were taking a young adult fiction writing class in college. They got to know each other a little bit during that class, but then lost touch until years later Despain attended a writing conference. “I went to that conference looking for a little inspiration, and what I found was Emily.” The two ended up in an advanced writing class together and by the end of the week had re-sparked their old friendship. They put together a small critique group that met once a month to share writing, comment on each others’ work, and lend support.

Who supports you in your dreams?

In an interview at My Pile of Books, Despain reveals how essential chocolate is to her routine. One summer, she went on a diet that didn’t allow her any sugar (including chocolate!) for about a month. Her writing productivity went way up but, when she got my revisions back from her editor, she had to rewrite almost every single sentence she’d written during her chocolate-free-month. Now, she always has a little bowl of dark chocolate chips at her side when she writes.

What is your one sweet indulgence?

“Accept the fact that becoming an author takes time—and a lot of it. Yes, there are those fluke cases where someone writes a book and then has a multi-million-dollar debut book deal six months later. But for the other 99.9% of us, it takes several years to become an author. Ask just about any published author and they’ll tell you that it takes about 10 years to make a name for yourself in this biz. And most of us are better off because of the time it took to strengthen our writing. I thank my lucky stars that my first novel never sold. I’m extremely grateful that the original version of The Dark Divine was rejected by every agent I sent it to. Your writing may not be ready for publication right now, but if you keep working, and learning, and reading, and writing, it WILL get there someday.”–Bree Despain, Writing Tips

RELIGION

By the time I’d finished reading the first book in The Dark Divine trilogy, I felt extremely curious about her religious background. The main characters represent a positive portrayal of a pastor’s family. Yet The Dark Divine trilogy is not published by a Christian press.

Although Despain’s dad isn’t a pastor, he is a religious leader. For that reason, Despain grew up knowing what it was like to have one’s every move watched and evaluated. Because her teenage life centered around religion, she wanted to capture that experience. I appreciate that.

What’s more, I admire that adding religion to her story proved to be a risky move. At Deseret News, Despain shares how at one point an editor made an offer on her book, but only if she removed the religious aspects. The editor suggested changing the father’s occupation from pastor to social worker, a move that Despain disagreed with.

Despain wanted to explore themes of redemption and forgiveness and grace. “I really felt like in order to do that, religion had to be part of who the characters were, not just in the background of their lives,” she said.

English: Werewolf, by Rodrigo Ferrarezi Portug...

English: Werewolf, by Rodrigo Ferrarezi Português: Lobisomem, por Rodrigo Ferrarezi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just as intriguing to me is how Despain integrated werewolf mythology into her religious trilogy. An old court document from the 16th Century inspired her. It told a story about a man who was accused of being a werewolf and was facing a death sentence. Instead of trying to fight his accusers, he admitted to being a werewolf but claimed that the town didn’t understand what werewolves really were. According to him, werewolves were invented to protect humans from evil beings and, if the town killed him, they would no longer be protected. Thinking this was a clever twist on the typical “werewolves are evil” mythology, Despain decided to expand on this idea. In her trilogy, werewolves were created by God to protect humans from demons, but became so prideful of their special abilities that they were corrupted by their power and transformed into monsters even more evil than what they were originally created to destroy.

Shortly after, Despain joined a critique group, she decided to challenge herself with a new writing project. Her group encouraged and helped her through many drafts of The Dark Divine over several years.

Cover of "Such Great Heights"

Cover of Such Great Heights

The Dark Divine was born from ideas, thoughts, and memories that had been brewing for a few weeks. Deseret News reports that these all came together one dark January night while Despain was driving. She had just read the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and recently watched the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time, was listening to the song Such Great Heights by the Postal Service over and over again, and needed to teach a lesson about grace at her church. All these things were on her mind, along with a random memory from ninth grade, when she hit a red light. She glanced up at a billboard in the dark and suddenly this conversation between a brother and a sister popped into her head. The brother was warning his sister to stay away from their former best friend. “He’s dangerous. He isn’t the person he used to be. You have to promise to stay away from him.” That was how it all started!

Despain went home and wrote down their conversation in a notebook. She needed to figure out what the deal was with the brother and sister. Despain kept going until she’d written The Dark Divine.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The first incarnation of The Dark Divine was actually a contemporary fiction novel. In becoming a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which used paranormal creatures and events as metaphors for things teens deal with, Despain decided, however, that she wanted to try her hand at paranormal fiction. She started reading paranormal books, even started writing a paranormal novel (not The Dark Divine ), and eventually decided to make The Dark Divine a paranormal story.

After unsuccessfully sending out the original version of The Dark Divine to a few agents, Despain realized that the manuscript needed a major overhaul. Not knowing how to do it, she put the book away and moved on to other projects. When her problems with The Dark Divine finally started to work themselves out in her mind, she pulled the manuscript out again and spent a year overhauling it. This time, when she sent out The Dark Divine, she landed an agent.

At first, Despain saw the The Dark Divine as a stand alone, but one of her mentors suggested that she leave the book open-ended enough so it would have series potential. That way the book could be satisfying on its own, but have room to grow if the demand existed. Luckily, her publisher asked for a second book.

As for the final book, Savage Grace, Despain admits to Magical Urban Fantasy Reads that she felt surprised at how hard it was to write the end. She kept turning in the manuscript without the last two chapters, because she didn’t want to drop the ball on the third book and leave a bad taste in readers mouths about the series as a whole. That’s pressure!

EXTRA STUFF

Sample chapters, soundtrack lists, and book trailers all seem big with social media-savvy authors these days. What do you think of them?

Do you like book trailers? Although movie trailers can be misleading, they’re still one factor in my determining whether I’ll watch a movie. However, cover blurbs still remain my preferred way to evaluate books.

Do you browse the table of contents and/or sample chapters of books to determine whether to purchase them? I don’t often for fiction but regularly avail of the feature on Amazon for nonfiction books.

Do you like to know the soundtracks authors used while writing their books? The first time I heard the idea that authors use songs to put them into the mood for their story I felt intrigued by the idea. While I still don’t actually check out those by others, I do have my own for longer works. As for the short stuff like reviews, it’s all my notes that help me most with them.

Now without further ado, here’s all these items for The Dark Divine Trilogy by Bree Despain.

DARK DIVINE

Chapter One

Soundtrack

Trailer:

SAVAGE GRACE

Sample Chapter

Soundtrack

THE DARK DIVINE TRILOGY

Grace’s Recipe for Divine Apple Pie

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The Emily Trilogy by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Posted by: on: July 28, 2012




If you want to know who I am inside, read the Emily trilogy by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Most everyone knows and loves Montgomery’s most famous creation: Anne of Green Gables. I love Anne too. Yet Montgomery considered herself more akin to Emily. And so do I.

SIMILAR TO ANNE

The two girls, Anne and Emily, have a lot in common: They’re both orphaned from an early age. Each is raised by a domineering woman, with a supportive male figure in the background. Both wish to please their guardians, while firmly adhering to their own opinions of what is right and wrong. In conjunction with these conflicting desires, each craves to be loved not because of how obedient they are but rather simply for who they are. Both are highly emotional and imaginative—and therefore misunderstood by proper and stodgy adults. Each feels passionate about beauty, especially that which is found in nature, and bestows names upon the trees, the flowers, the trails, the lakes, and even the wind.

DIFFERENT FROM ANNE

Yet for as much as Anne and Emily have in common, to many readers including myself, Emily is a more realistic and darker character. Both grow up with literary aspirations, but Emily is far more wedded to the craft than Anne. For Emily, her journals are her lifeline, without which she would be miserable. She regularly writes poems, stories, and essays, pushing herself to explore every genre from romance to crime. Moreover, we constantly read of the acceptances and rejections that Emily receives, as she climbs the alpine path of literary fame. Neither Anne or Emily easily fits in with peers, but eventually both garner respect. Here again though, the differences between Anne and Emily gradually become apparent. Anne learned to play the belle of the party, while Emily often instead paced her room in loneliness when estranged for whatever reason from her small circle of friends. So while I love how Anne could brighten up everyone’s life, I better identified with the less attractive and more morose Emily.

INFLUENCES

Perhaps for that reason, despite dyeing my hair red in college (which Anne would find ironic given how much she loathed her hair color), Emily influenced me far more than Anne. Emily kept “Jimmy” books and wrote poetry, among other literary ventures. “Jimmy” books were so named, not because they differed from regular notebooks, but because Emily’s cousin Jimmy would sneak them to Emily. The first time I labeled my journal a “Jimmy” book, my family teased me for liking a boy in my class with that name. While the practice of naming my journal was short-lived, I wrote my first poem after reading the Emily books and kept up the practice throughout my teens.

When best friend Isle quarreled with Emily, she’d swear and call Emily atrocious names. Emily would smile and stoically wait for Isle’s outbursts to end, because she knew this made Isle even madder. As for the reason Emily could smile, well, she knew that she wasn’t “a lousy lizard” or a “toothless viper”. Similarly, I enjoyed how confounding my best friend in college found me because I’d unblinkingly and calmly tell her why I wasn’t any of the names she’d throw at me when mad.

English: Lucy Maud Montgomery ca 1920 – 1930

English: Lucy Maud Montgomery ca 1920 – 1930 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shortly after college, I decided to stay home with my dad against the better wishes of relatives. No doubt unknown to anyone at the time, Emily’s influence was the reason. After much soul-searching, Emily declined an invitation to move to New York for a position with a magazine in favor of staying with her relatives on her beloved Prince Edward Island. So too I felt I belonged with my dad and in my home province of Newfoundland. Now Montgomery herself did eventually make a different decision than Emily for the sake of love—as did I, although like Montgomery I return to my home province on a regular basis.

One last story, before I move on to summaries of the Emily trilogy. And that is about the role that Emily played as matchmaker in my love life. One day Emily’s Great-Aunt Nancy wrote and asked for Emily to drop her a letter. Because she knew her guardians would read it, Emily felt paralyzed and didn’t make a good impression on Great-Aunt Nancy with her letter. In fact, Great-Aunt Nancy thought her stupid, but still she asked for a photo. This time, before Emily took the letter to the post office, she wrote a new one just for her aunt to see. Later that spring, Emily received an invitation to visit. Embarrassing as it is for me to admit, when I first enrolled in an online dating service I talked with family about what to write. (By the age of thirty, I had experienced much rejection and so felt insecure about my prospects with men.) Sadly, the end result was that the gentlemen I wrote were getting to know me only through other people’s eyes. Under the influence of Emily’s decision, I decided one day to be brave and write my own responses. Within a month, I began an intense correspondence with the guy who became my husband.

EMILY OF NEW MOON

The majority of the above incidents happened in the first book: Emily of New Moon. Unlike Anne, Emily starts out by living with her dad. Within four chapters, however, Montgomery has orphaned her. Now Emily, who like Anne at first appearance seems eccentric, must adapt to life with the Murray clan. She must also find acceptance with her peers, which is less easy for her than Anne. The latter is introduced to Diana, who immediately becomes a bosom buddy, while Emily faces cruelty from teachers and peers alike. Miss Brownell punishes her for refusing to admit why she is crying at school, while her schoolmates not only tease her for wearing a baby apron and buttoned boots but also taunt her by giving her a box with a dead snake. Yet Emily doesn’t remain entirely friendless, for she soon becomes best friends with the heathen Isle, gets rescued from a bull by Perry who becomes the family’s hired hand, and catches the eye of Teddy who finds creative release with paint and canvas. Whenever I read Emily of New Moon, I am amazed at its delightful endlessness.

EMILY CLIMBS

Montgomery repeats her magic with Emily Climbs and Emily’s Quest. In the former, Emily is offered the privilege of attending high school for three years. The honor comes however with a price. Emily is to give up writing, “except so far as school compositions might be concerned.” Anyone with a passion will readily understand how damning that request is. Cousin Jimmy suggests a compromise, that for those three years Emily write only what is true. My attempt to follow in Emily’s footsteps by writing only down facts proved to be as short-lived as the naming of my journals, but then my education came without conditions and so I had less incentive. Oh, Emily also had to board with her aunt, who kept accusing Emily of being sly. If she innocently turned a cloth on the living room sofa, opened a window, moved a portrait, shifted her bed to another corner, her aunt remained determined to figure out her “real” motives. As she matures, Emily’s friendships are tested. Isle is accused of playing a unforgiveable prank on her. The boys aren’t allowed to visit. Last, as in the first Emily book, there are references to the mystical world of fairies, druids, and elves, along with second sight. The latter crops up in Emily Climbs, when Emily is threatened in a church, calls out to Teddy for help, and is heard by him despite his living a mile away.

EMILY’S QUEST

Of course, as all heroines of trilogies must, Emily plunges headlong into adulthood by the third book. In some ways, Emily’s Quest is the least satisfying, because Montgomery caved again to public pressure to marry off one of her leading women. And of course if one is to write about romance, one must throw in many obstacles, which often result in cliché and convoluted relationships such as shared between Isle and Perry. Case in point, Isle is about to marry Teddy when she receives news that Perry is hurt, and so immediately runs to his side. Readers might remember that Anne finally realizes she loves Gilbert only when he is on his death-bed. Yet to Montgomery’s credit, she made the road to love much more difficult for Emily than Anne. While Anne had simply fooled herself into thinking she could only love a handsome and dashing stranger, Emily always knew she loved Teddy. Unfortunately, his mother hated everyone and everything that threatened to limit her son’s love for her, to the point that she poisoned their pets and destroyed Teddy’s paintings. She also keeps a letter from Emily in which Teddy reveals his true love for Emily. Teddy’s mom is not the only character whose twisted soul reaps tragic consequences. With Teddy out of the picture, old friend Dean Priest need only betray Emily by telling her that her first novel is flimsy and incredulous to clear the path for her to love him. After Emily hears his condemnation of her work, she blindly rushes down the family’s stairs where she falls on one of her aunt’s mending baskets and is pierced by a pair of scissors. For months after her recovery, she gives up her literary aspirations. Eventually though, Emily does pick up the pen again; life must go on, whether in books or in the real world.

CONCLUSION

There are many ways in which Emily’s life differs from mine. For one, I can count my dating ventures on one hand. For another, my novels still remain tucked away in the basement. Yet inside we are very much alike, especially when it comes to our being creatures of moods and individuals who simply must write. It’s been a pleasure to reread the Emily books yet again. I hope to hear from some of you that it’s been a delight for you to discover them.

My rating? Read them: Carry them with you. Make them a top priority to read.

How would you rate these books?

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QUICK TAKE: Dizzy Miss Lizzie by R.M. Clark

Posted by: on: June 6, 2012




Ah, a good old-fashioned children’s ghost story. When is the last time I’ve read or seen one? You know the type where a child has been killed and is searching for just the right person to find the murderer so that she can be at peace. Or something of the sort. It feels as it’s been, well, since the 70s since this plotline was popular. That’s back when I read Nancy Drew books and watched Walt Disney movies. Then along comes Dizzy Miss Lizzie by R.M. Clark. Ah, I’ve missed the genre.

Dizzy Miss Lizzie  isn’t an exact replica of that motif, especially considering it doesn’t contain a ghost. The summer Kasey turns thirteen, she meets a girl in the basement of her family’s new creepy house. Kasey learns the girl’s name is Elizabeth Bellows, she lived in the nineteenth century, and she was suspected of burning her family’s house with her parents still in it. But no, she’s not a ghost. When a friendship develops, Kasey begins to wonder if there’s a way to exonerate Elizabeth. Eventually, the intrigue thickens, with even more being at stake than Elizabeth’s good name.

English: Lizzie Borden

English: Lizzie Borden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you have heard of Lizzie Borden, you may think that Elizabeth’s story sounds familiar. This is not a coincidence, as the fictional Elizabeth lived in the same town and at the same time as the real Lizzie Borden. If you have not heard of Lizzie Borden, I will just say that she is suspected of having done what Elizabeth is accused of–except with an axe. You will learn much more about her in this book.

I loved many aspects of Dizzy Miss Lizzie , starting with main character Kasey Madrid. Kasey feels like a younger version of the smart and good detective Nancy Drew who remains a favorite with girls today, some eighty years after her first appearance. Kasey has very few rebellious bones in her body, but instead gets her kicks by snooping out answers to who exactly is living in her basement, why she’s there, and how can she help her. In fact, Kasey’s so responsible that the summer she turns thirteen, her parents decide she’s old enough to start being more independent. While they do restrict her from watching television and playing video games (gasp!) during their absence, and require her to do a few daily chores for pay, they allow her to stay at home unsupervised until they arrive home from work. Then there’s Kasey’s friend, who is supposedly the “sneakier” of the two. Yet making arrangement for the two to get dropped off a theater, when in reality the two want to make a return visit to a store which contains info about Elizabeth Bellows, is the most dishonest thing Paula does. Yes, the characters are straight-laced, but I found this refreshingly pleasant.

Now here’s where I tell you what I didn’t like, because there are always  a few of those with first-time authors. Some stuff is minor, such as odd places where the incorrect tense was used or details were skimped. When I started thinking about it how neatly the pieces of the mystery fit together, a few events sadly begin to feel like contrivances. For example, Kasey’s Portuguese grandmother seems to show up at just the right time a little too often. My biggest issue, however, is with the first chapter. Ironically, I loved it—unfortunately it’s meaningless. It deceptively sets readers up to believe that Dizzy Miss Lizzie  is about a middle-school kid who lands in detention by saying an improper word at school. It’s nothing of the sort and Clark shouldn’t tease readers this way. The ending also suffers somewhat from being rushed.

Yet the complete package is what counts, not the little nicks and scratches one might find. Over all, Dizzy Miss Lizzie  is an entertaining  mystery in the vein of Nancy Drew. A great summer read!

My rating? Read it: Borrow from your library or a friend. It’s worth your time.

How would you rate this book?

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Looking Ahead

The end of my thematic review months is coming to a close. Starting mid-May, I'll review an assortment of books.

  • May 22: Regine's Book by Regine Stokke
  • May 25: Zoo Station, true story by Christiane F.
  • May 29: Boy 21 by Matthew Quick
  • June 1: Sort of Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick

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Thirty days. Average of 2000 words per day. A total of 58,600 words. I am a NaNoWrimo Winner in 2012.

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