The Raven Boys

Maggie Stiefvater was excellent in the anthology "The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories," but I have been lax in reviewing her books, a mistake I will rectify by drawing your attention to the first in her new(ish) triology:   "The Raven Boys."
     
Blue's first love will die after she kisses him.  Gansey wills stop at nothing to find a sleeping, hidden Welsh king of ages past. Blue knows that Gansey will die before the year is out, and because she knows that she knows that she will be the one to kill him.  Gansey is a Raven Boy, an elite and privilege student in the local private school who can make you believe he has everything under control. In Blue's race to save Gansey's life, she may end up killing him.
        Never trust a Raven Boy.

I was not a fan of Maggie Stiefvater's "Shiver" series, because I do not really put up with books that are merely about romance for the sake of romance.  I did like her "Scorpio Races" which was much better, though there was a lot of romance in there, but it was just for the sake of romance.  There were also flesh-eating horses, which is always a bonus.  "The Raven Boys" is by far the best novel she's written, and though it has romance it's romance-y with the threat of death.  So, that's perfectly acceptable.
        Also, it has my favorite thing.  A cast of absolutely crazy characters.  Blue is the main character.  She's a pretty standard tough-girl female heroine, but not in a bad way.  She has her own personality and is not stereotypical at all.  At first, I thought because she didn't have any physic powers the main conflict in the book would be her attaining the powers that were meant to be hers, or something awful and perfectly predictable like that.  I am happy to report, though, that that is not the part of the book.  Throughout the book she remains normal, but also a cut ahead of standard.  Blue is, put simply, I character that I would like to be. Though, I guess I didn't read the description of her appearance close enough, because I never get why Noah says she has spiky hair.
       The Raven Boys are also fantastic.  Noah--we'll discuss Noah in a minute, but Noah is awesome.  Gansey is the ring-leader, who is arrogant, well-intentioned, determined, and hardly able to see past the tip of his own nose.  Metaphorically, of course. Adam is the shy guy who is equally, if not more, determined to make a place for himself in the world. And, of course Ronan Lynch is your bad boy. His father was killed in front of him, so he enjoys getting drunk and getting into fist fights, as well as feeding baby ravens at the crack of dawn.  The juxposition in his personality makes him one of my favorite characters.  Oh, and if you couldn't tell, he's Irish.  (I am too, so I find it amusing.)
      Now, onto Noah.  Since this is Maggie Stiefvater, you accept that you are in her sort of off-kilter world the moment you open the cover (the off-kilter part of the world being flesh eating horses and whacked-out werewolves).  So, one of the first things that Noah says--or, more specifically, is said about Noah in Noah's presence--is sort of strange.  But, hey, this is fiction, so you accept it. Then, about seventy-five pages from the end of the book, everyone all goes like 'Omigod! Noah's actually _______ !' but you're like 'uh, yes, I knew that when Declan first said that, dummies.'  Anyways.  That still doesn't stop Noah from being awesome.
       The plot of this book is pretty good, with enough twists to keep you occupied.  Some of the things I like are the fact that:
             1) A relaxed atmosphere is maintained for the better part of the book.  It's the calm before the storm.  And, maybe people do find out who their true selves are in the face of adversary  but occasionally you want to meet the people before you are thrust into their fight with their adversary   You get to see the personalities of Blue and the Raven Boys fully develop before everything begins to crumble into pieces.
             2) Everyone knows something's going to happen.  It's said multiple times by multiple people.  Occasionally in books it's like normal-normal-normal-normal-DISASTER!  That is a very annoying habit. Because disaster doesn't come on suddenly, you can see it brewing for a while off.  In this book, you can.  Even though it's calm, you can see the storm brewing on the horizon  and you can see that despite all of the build-up and wait, it's going to be one dang good storm.
          Though, sadly, I think I already know what Gansey is going to wish for when he finds the Welsh king. (You get one wish if you find the king. It's not like I'm giving everything away, because it's told to you almost straight off.)  I mean, if you think about it it's pretty obvious.  But, maybe there will be some devastating twist and it won't actually happen that way.  Or, maybe, it'll happen the way I think it will happen and it won't be half-bad because I'm secretly a sap at heart.
          Even if the ultimate ending appears to be a bit predictable, the ending is anything but, and it is fantastic.  Everything is evening out perfectly, coming together in a happy ending in sort of a creepy/sad way.  Happy endings are always nice when they aren't too sappy.  And then my one of my favorite characters says something spectacular.  One of the best things about that line is that it hardly makes any sense.  (You know that you have a good book when the last sentence hardly makes any sense whatsoever, yet you still want to know what it means.)
        And, on that note, I might tell you that the sequel is called "The Dream Thief" is coming out on September 17th (2013, in case you're a time traveler and you were wondering what year you are in), and from the looks of it it's going to be focused around one of my favorite characters, namely one who's bald and tattooed and failing out of school and evidently has a penchant for stealing dreams.
         What did I say?  Never trust a Raven Boy.

http://maggiestiefvater.com/  I haven't looked at it yet, but it looks like a pretty interesting website, which is always good, because usually book websites can be very, uh, dull.

Through Her Eyes

"Through Her Eyes," Jennifer Archer, is a surprisingly good romantic ghost story.
     Tansy Piper wishes that she could live anywhere, be anyone else.  Her life, the pathetic thing that it is, is in shambles after her move from California, the deception of her ex-best friend, her grandfather's dementia, her mother's determination to hide from the past, and the grapevine of her new small Texas town.  Tansy gets her wish after she begins to see strange, black and white photos through the lens of her camera.  She finds that she can travel through these pictures and back into the past, becoming "Bell" Martin, the sweet girl who was in love with Henry, whom Tansy knows will commit suicide before he's done with Bell, and best friends with Tansy's grandfather.  As Bell's world becomes more vibrant, and Tansy's fades to gray, Tansy must choose which she wants to inhabit -- and she'll decided with the help of the town dreamboat, the local Shakespearean nerd, and the most popular cheerleader on the squad.

This was a really good book.  I even shed a few tears at the end.  See?  So, it's a sappy horror novel.  You really don't get too many of those. Or, at least, I don't.
      The plot of the story is very interesting.  In most books, people are like "Oh, I'm being possessed by a ghost!"  But here, it's very subtle, which is a nice touch.  Tansy denies it to the end, as well.  Which, fits in perfectly with Tansy's character (our next topic, but let me ramble on here for a little while).  The reason for the haunting is quite stereotypical, but, really, can anyone think of a better reason?
     There are pretty much two main characters here:  Tansy and Henry.  Tansy is a shy girl who wants to hide and nurse her wounds, at least in the beginning of the book.  She doesn't want to go out and make friends, she doesn't want to be there, but she winds up meeting people due to circumstance and a bit of guilt. Henry is the same way, nearly the exact same character, save that he's a male.  He doesn't like people, he doesn't want to talk to anyone, but he met Bell because they're neighbors, and he talks to Danny because he feels that he's responsible for them.  To me, this is interesting because in another "romantic horror" novel that I love, the main character and the ghost have conflicting personalities and goals.  Tansy and Henry have the same personalities, and pretty much the same goals.
      You could also see it in a way that would put Henry as Tansy's darker side.  Because sometimes he turns violent and abusive to those around him, while she wants to but never gives into it.  It could be considered as half a moral to us, and half a warning to Tansy not to become what Henry became.  There is also a strong sense of irony throughout the book, because even though Henry only wants to help himself, not caring whether he hurts Tansy in the process he winds up helping her.  Oh, sorry, *SPOILER.*
      Bethyl Ann, the cheerleader girl, and the dreamboat guy (I've forgotten their names) are complex characters as well.  Actual, every character is.  Time was evidently put into each character to make them unique and well-rounded.  Nearly every one is dynamic as well, which is interesting.  Not a lot of them change dramatically, but they change within their personalities, which makes more sense and a better story than if they'd changed dramatically.  Actually, none one, not even Tansy, changes in too dramatically.  It's more about her finding who she really is.
     I already warned you that this was a bit of a sappy book.
    Another strong point of this book was the poetry.  Tansy finds a book of poems that were written by Henry, and, well, you know, sort of obsesses of them.  I would obsess of them too, if I'd found that book, because the poems were good.  Two parts creepy, two parts depressing, and all parts truth.  In my opinion, at least.  I'm a  person that is full of angst as well.
      At first, though, I thought that Henry fell off his roof.  He didn't, just so you know.  And why would it be snowing in Texas?  Was it one of those crazy whether years?  Maybe I don't know my geography well enough to answer that question.  Also, no one really explains what was going on in Henry's mind, which would've been nice to know.  There is hardly any transition between Tansy's world being colorful, and then it being gray.  The best friend from California is dropped with only a few glances back.  Some things could've been explained more, and others could've been smoother.
     It's a good ghost story, though, and a nice fall back when I'm in need of a campfire tale.  Even though I can't remember all of the character's names, Tansy's story will continue to haunt me even as my world fades to gray.

Devil's Kiss

Devil's Kiss, Sarwat Chadda, could be classified as 'dark romance', or whatever you marketing people are calling it these days.
    Billi SanGreal has been part of the Knights Templar, a secret organization that has been around since Roman times who destroyed the things that hide in the shadows, since she was young.  Together with her best friend Kay she navigated the ups and downs of being trained as a warrior, a killer of the supernatural.  But then Kay, a talented physic, left to study in Israel.  When he comes waltzing back, he seems to think that everything can just go back to normal between them. Things in Billi's life have changed forever, though, and she just can't understand why Kay abandoned her to her father and the other members of the Knights Templar who hate her.  Things begin to look up for Ms. SanGreal, though, when she save a handsome guy from muggers on a train.   But it would do Billi good to remember that just as it is always darkest before the light, it is always lightest before the dark.  And it's going to get very, very dark.

As this book starts out, you're like, *yawn*, another typical dark-romance, supernatural-hunting, love-triangle-inspecting, novel.  Oh, joy.  But you stick with it because the writing's good and Billi's real and believable and the demons are creepy, and then, not even half way through the book, there's a twist that makes you hit yourself on the forehead and shout "I should've seen coming!"  But you didn't, even if you did happen to read the end of the book first.
    There's another twist about forty pages from the end of the book, and then another one that's gleefully mischievous and sadly heart wrenching about ten pages from the end of the book.  You could figure out the last twist by reading the end, yes, but it still doesn't make it any less sad.  The middle twist leaves you with your mouth hanging saying "Whaa . . . ?  That came from absolutely no where, with very little background in the plot line at all."  And then you think on it, and a ligthbulb clicks on in your head, and you're like "Oh, wait . . . Now that my thinking device up in my skull's been turned on, it does.  Got it."
      So, good points for the story:  I love the plot twists.  I love the creepiness.  Billi seems to be feasible character, a character who I would love to be (stubborn, street-smart, supernatural-smart, and tough).  Actually, all of the characters seemed to be alive in some way.  I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that they're walking the streets of London right now.  I also enjoyed that the ending of the book didn't give away too much of the story . . .
      My memory's a bit patchy on the finer details of the tale, because I read it two weeks ago, but I remember that I refused to put it down, even as I ate ice cream we got at some ice cream parlor.  I remember that I started it before dinner and finished it at ten at night. And I remember that my heart fluttered with Billi's, my eyes weeped with Billi's, and I felt a murderous desire to hurt the archangel with Billi.  It wasn't an unusual experience, for me, but it was a very nice one.  I usually don't feel all of those emotions in one night.  My range of activities doesn't permit it.  So, we could say that fighting with the Knights Templar through the writing of  Mr. Chadda is a complete and totally escape from reality, as well as an exhilarating way to live vicariously.
       I liked what it said on the back of the book.  I forgot to write it down, but it went something like "There's nothing to fear but fear itself . . . and Billi SanGreal." 
       Um, evidently there is a new book out, but I haven't read it yet.  I will, though, I will.  It'll take Billi SanGreal and a whole lotta Unholy to stop me.  (Ha ha.  Yes, I am a riot.  They do tell me that.  Right before they throw rotten vegetables at me and chase me out of the room.)
      So, Ms. SanGreal, just remember that before you take one step forward into the world of adults, remember to keep a foot in the past, a hand on your best friend's shoulder, and an eye out for things that never are as they seem.  Because if you don't, it could cost you dearly. . . in a currency far more precious than money.

So, for more on Billi SanGreal and Sarwat Chadda please visit www.sarwatchadda.com  Information on his new books and the whatnot can be found here.  Enjoy.