Review: Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

Tags: young adult, fantasy, magic, desert, POC

Summary

Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess. She will dance and summon her tribe's deity, who will inhabit Liyana's body and use magic to bring rain to the desert. But when the dance ends, Liyana is still there. Her tribe is furious--and sure that it is Liyana's fault. Abandoned by her tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert. Until a boy walks out of the dust in search of her.

Korbyn is a god inside his vessel, and a trickster god at that. He tells Liyana that five other gods are missing, and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. The desert tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. But the journey is dangerous, even with a god’s help. And not everyone is willing to believe the trickster god’s tale.

The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she has no choice--she must die for her tribe to live. Unless a trickster god can help her to trick fate--or a human girl can muster some magic of her own. [summary from Goodreads]

Review

I wanted this to be AMAZING. Because it’s Sarah Beth Durst. And there’s a stunning Asian model on the cover. But VESSEL didn’t blow me out of the water, though it was still a fine and unique fantasy geared more towards younger fantasy fans rather than jaded, crotchety SFF readers with high demands for world-building, plot, and characterization (a.k.a. me).

Right out of the gate, VESSEL stands a head above others of its ilk because of its protagonist, Liyana. With her slightly snarky sense of humor, especially when she’s with family, Liyana drew me to her immediately…which helped through the rougher periods of the book, when the features that often drag down a quest-based plot—new characters introduced much too quickly to fully capture readers’ support, a whiplash-inducing quick pace that makes it more difficult for readers like me to remain invested in the story—reared their heads.

As with one of Durst's previous books, Enchanted Ivy, in VESSEL, I sometimes found that I had difficulty keeping the thread of what was going on. Didn’t they just arrive in Place B, and why do they have to move on to Place C so quickly? Weren’t he and she fighting only a few pages ago? The constant barrage of questions going on in my head as I struggled to figure out which of the many minor characters introduced were truly significant, what romance to focus on, which interactions were actually important to the overall plot, really took me out of the story, so that at the end of this swashbuckling desert magic tale I closed the book with a little, “Huh.” It was a decent enough read for me, but several months on from when I read the book, I’m not sure how much of it stayed with me at all.

Similar Authors
Juliet Marillier

Cover discussion: Do I even have to say anything? Do I really have to explain to you why I like--nay, love--this cover so much?

Margaret K. McElderry Books / Sept. 11, 2012 / Hardcover / 432pp. / $16.99

Review copy received from author and publisher. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review it!

Author Interview with Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst has been a steady fixture on the YA fantasy scene for the past few years. Her latest is VESSEL, is recently out from Margaret K. McElderry. Us PoC book lovers have been dedicatedly keeping an eye on this book for a while, thanks in large part to the breath-stealing cover:

And this alluring book synopsis:

In a desert world of sandstorms and sand-wolves, a teen girl must defy the gods to save her tribe in this mystical, atmospheric tale from the author of Drink, Slay, Love.

Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess. The goddess will inhabit Liyana’s body and use magic to bring rain to the desert. But Liyana’s goddess never comes. Abandoned by her angry tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert. Until a boy walks out of the dust in search of her.

Korbyn is a god inside his vessel, and a trickster god at that. He tells Liyana that five other gods are missing, and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. For the desert tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. But the journey is dangerous, even with a god’s help. And not everyone is willing to believe the trickster god’s tale.

The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she has no choice: She must die for her tribe to live. Unless a trickster god can help her to trick fate—or a human girl can muster some magic of her own.

Today, I have Sarah Beth Durst as a guest on my blog to talk more about herself and VESSEL, hooray!

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1. Your cover has a beautiful POC model on it, and that is a total deal-maker for me! Can you tell us a bit about the type of research you had to do for VESSEL, and which cultures, if any, you drew upon for it? What was the most surprising thing you learned in your research?

I researched the lives and cultures of people who live in deserts, specifically the Sahara, the Gobi, and the southwest United States. And I meshed them together and injected them with magic to create my desert world.

A few things I learned: Snakes can stay venomous for twenty-four hours after death. You can eat a scorpion raw (if you cut off the tail). And date palm trees have bark that you can climb, but the bark is also sharp enough to cut you.

2. What was the hardest part of VESSEL to write? What was your favorite part?

I loved creating the world, especially inventing the mythology. (Oral storytelling plays an important part in the culture of my desert land.) The hardest part for me is always the first draft, when the story is the farthest from what it's supposed to be. I love revisions because, for me, that's when the story comes to life.

3. Give us a snapshot of A Day in the Life of Sarah Beth Durst, Writer.

Every morning I wake at the crack of dawn to feed the fire-breathing dragons, then I have to muck out the centaur stables and check on the were-chickens in between writing a few paragraphs...

Okay, I don't really wake at the crack of dawn. But otherwise, it's fairly accurate. My day is a constant mix of writing and daily life. I do my best to balance both.

4. You're stranded on an island. Would you rather do it on your own (Robinson Crusoe-style) or with a group of strangers (Lord of the Flies-style?)

If the island has its own library, then alone is fine. If not... then I suppose I'll take my chances with the people. Aside from being able to type fast, I don't have many survival skills so it would be nice to have other people... at least until they decide I'm Piggy.

5. What is your favorite thing to do after a good writing session?

Collapse on the couch with my husband and a bag of tortilla chips! I'd like to say something a lot more exotic, such as "after I finish writing, I head off to skydive, followed by a snorkeling expedition and a hunt for the Loch Ness Monster," but really, I just like to watch Project Runway then go to sleep.

mongolia-travel-advice.com

milk-and-pumpkin.blogspot.com

6. Complete the following sentences:

- Fans of Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, and Kristin Cashore will enjoy VESSEL.

- When reading VESSEL, readers should prepare date pastries and goat cheese on pita bread as their snacks.

- After reading VESSEL, readers will never be able to think of sand in the same way again.

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Thank you, Sarah! Be sure to check Sarah out at her author website, Twitter, and Facebook. Remember, VESSEL is out now from booksellers!

Review: Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst

Tags: YA, magical realism, college

Summary

Lily Carter, Princeton legacy, visits the campus with her grandfather and sick mother and falls in love with it. A secret society that her grandfather belongs to offers her guaranteed acceptance—but only if she passes the test and finds the Key. What’s the Key? Accompanied by a cute guy named Tye, who may know more than he’s letting on to, Lily traverses the campus on her quest…and makes some shocking revelations about Princeton as well as her heritage.

For there are actually two Princetons, and the university’s famous main gate is the doorway between the Princeton we all know and the other, magical Princeton. And Lily’s family is somehow involved in the heart of a conflict between the inhabitants of the two worlds, and they might stop at nothing to possess her.

Review

What an amazing idea for a story! Who doesn’t love tales about alternate worlds? I know I do. However, ENCHANTED IVY cut some storytelling corners that unfortunately made it hard for me to invest in the story as fully as I wanted to.

As far as the premise goes, it’s extensive, but Sarah Beth Durst does an admirable job of condensing it to a magnitude appropriate for a YA novel. She creatively reimagines Princeton’s campus as one containing magical secrets in the most obvious of places. For anyone who’s acquainted with the university’s campus, as I am, or anyone who has felt the awe-inspiring austerity of an old and regal college campus, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine the gargoyles as “hibernating” magical professors and gateways existing everywhere.

Oh, how I wish this book had gone on for another 200 or so pages! And not exactly because I didn’t want it to end, but because I think that had the book been longer, elements of the story could have been explored more thoroughly, and the book wouldn’t have given me a harried, rushed feeling as I read it. There is just so much packed into 320 pages that I don’t think many elements were allowed breathing room to grow into fully realized beings. Many of the characters seemed like flat projections of people, from the villain of the story to the boys who help Lily on her quest. In particular, when Tye proclaims to Lily within hours of them meeting each other that, due to their similarities, which I won’t divulge here because of spoilers, they are obviously soulmates, I wanted to howl, “Noooooo! How could you resort to such a paranormal romance cliché?!?!” At that point, I still felt so lost with the story that I couldn’t fully invest in Tye as a love interest yet. Likewise with the “purposes” of many other characters.

That was the danger of having the pacing of this book be all snap-snap-snap, one dramatic event/revelation after the other after the other. No sooner was one crucial key to the plot revealed, and I was still digesting it, when another piled on top, and so on. The rushed pacing unfortunately made this book read almost like a parody of its intent: I knew this book could’ve been extremely awe-inducing and breath-stealing in the best way, but I couldn’t help but feel like it attempted to do too much in too little space—oh, here’s a big bad villain! Here’s a love triangle! Here’s a heretofore unknown magical heritage! And then here’s the big bad villain’s deserved horrible ending!—that little was allowed to reach its potential.

Still, ENCHANTED IVY had the power to surprise and delight me with its twists, turns, and revelations. I particularly loved Lily’s bittersweet relationship with her fragile mother, a woman whose sanity is questionable but all the more endearing as a result of her tremulous hold on reality. If you’re the kind of reader who is often ensnared by an incredible premise, action, and a magical gothic-like setting, do give this book a try.

Writing: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5


Cover discussion: 3.5 out of 5 - Whoa! I find it wonderfully unique and alluring. The model's pose is a little awkward, but I do love the stone gargoyle she's posing with.

Margaret K. McElderry / Oct. 12, 2010 / Hardcover / 310pp. / $16.99

Accepted review pitch from author, review copy sent by publisher.

Waiting on Wednesday (68)

Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst

What Lily Carter wants most in the world is to attend Princeton University just like her grandfather. When she finally visits the campus, Grandpa surprises her: She has been selected to take the top-secret Legacy Test. Passing means automatic acceptance to Princeton. Sweet!

Lily's test is to find the Ivy Key. But what is she looking for? Where does she start? As she searches, Lily is joined by Tye, a cute college boy with orange and black hair who says he's her guard. That's weird. But things get seriously strange when a gargoyle talks to her. He tells her that there are two Princetons—the ordinary one and a magical one—and the Key opens the gate between them. But there are more secrets that surround Lily. Worse secrets.

When Lily enters the magical Princeton, she uncovers old betrayals and new dangers, and a chance at her dream becomes a fight for her life. Soon Lily is caught in a power struggle between two worlds, with her family at its center. In a place where Knights slay monsters, boys are were-tigers, and dragons might be out for blood, Lily will need all of her ingenuity and courage—and a little magic—to unite the worlds and unlock the secrets of her past and her future.

One book (Ice) was all it took for me to automatically pick up anything Sarah Beth Durst writes in the future. And this one sounds extremely interesting! I'm always intrigued by any YA books that have something to do with colleges. It also reminds me a little of Diana Peterfreund's Secret Society Girl series, which I loved--although that might just be because of the Ivy League-secrets connection. Add an alluring cover, and I'm sold. I can't wait!

Enchanted Ivy will be released in hardcover by Simon & Schuster on October 12, 2010.

Review: Ice by Sarah Beth Durst

Tags: YA, magic, retelling, love, adventure, Arctic

Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Summary

Cassie is the daughter of an Arctic researcher and has grown up on an Arctic research station with the knowledge that her mother is dead. However, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie learns the shocking truth: her mother is imprisoned by trolls beyond the end of the world, and she herself is promised to the Polar Bear King in marriage. Cassie agrees to marry the gentle but powerful Bear if he will rescue her mother.

The wedding, which sprang out of necessity, soon blossoms into true companionship and romance. But Cassie makes a terrible mistake that costs her her love. Now, she must draw on all of her Arctic knowledge and courage to make a nearly impossible journey if she wants to save Bear.

Review

Please excuse me if I break from my usual review style for ICE. That is because I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK. It had everything I wanted from a book of its kind: a feisty female protagonist, epic adventures, luscious writing, and the kind of romance that stops hearts and makes you remember why romance exists in the world. It was love at first sight for me and this book, and our love will continue to evolve and endure as long as my memory does not fail me.

From the first page, I was ensnared by Sarah Beth’s writing, which I must describe as “clean and fresh”: it’s like wiping away a dirty window and gazing in wonder out at a beautiful, crystalline winter scene. Sarah Beth wastes no words, and yet manages to describe for readers an unbelievably beautiful and mesmerizing world with simple prose. Her writing style will appeal to fans of fairy tale writing, for its gorgeous, ethereal descriptions, as well as those of realistic fiction, so well grounded in our world it is.

Indeed, the way ICE inhabits a perfect space in between fantasy and reality is one of its unique and strong points. I love that this old Nordic legend is grounded in science: a research station with modern characters and real-time technology. We weave easily in and out of the magic and the real, making this an interesting reading experience. Cassie is feisty and snarky enough to make her a great 21st-century protagonist, and yet she is also courageous and incredibly determined, qualities that connect her with other epic fantasy heroines.

Of all the great parts about ICE, I think I like Cassie the best. You don’t find girls like her very often in literature or real life anymore, girls who will do anything for love, girls who tire of domesticity and want to be useful, girls who don’t want romance to consume their identities, girls who are scared of growing up too fast and making decisions that will affect them permanently. I related to Cassie so well and admired her so much, I think I cried. I loved how she faced problems of things like love vs. self-identity with—let’s admit it—mistakes and awkwardness. For a character of a fantasy novel, Cassie is remarkably relatable and can instantly be your best friend and role model for realistic issues.

And of course, I cannot end this review without talking about the romance between Cassie and Bear. Fans of Beauty and the Beast (especially Robin McKinley’s Beauty) will see strong echoes of that kind of gradual love in ICE. Bear easily won over my heart with just a few lines of dialogue; if you want a nice-guy love interest, well, here he is. Gradual development of attraction and love are hard to come by nowadays, which is one of the reasons why I’m so happy the romance in ICE was done so well. Theirs is a love that grows subtly out of undramatic scenes, and is proven to be eternal by a literal “epic journey.” It is, once again, the result of the perfect blend between fantasy and realism.

ICE is certainly not without some weaknesses, of course. Supporting characters, especially Cassie’s parents, are rather underdeveloped, and super-picky readers may have trouble following the occasionally choppy plot. However, readers looking for an old-fashioned fairy tale would do well to check Sarah Beth Durst’s ICE out. Maybe I read it at the right time for me to fall head-over-heels in love with it—but I think that you’ll be able to appreciate the gorgeous world-building and story, no matter what kind of genre you enjoy best.

Similar Authors
Robin McKinley (Beauty)
Malinda Lo (Ash)
Donna Jo Napoli
Shannon Hale
Tamora Pierce

Writing: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 3.5 out of 5 - I love the polar bear and the sense of blueness and, well, ice that pervades the cover, closely matching the landscape I imagine this story to be set in. However, the model is a little awkward looking and not as strong as I picture Cassie to be, despite having red hair and green eyes. The paleness of her skin is rather creepy to me.

Simon & Schuster / Oct. 6, 2009 / Hardcover / $16.99

Thanks goes to Sarah Beth for offering me your book for review, and to S&S for sending me copies!! <3

Waiting on Wednesday (19)

Two this week because A) I missed last week, and B) holy cow, I've been discovering some wonderful-sounding books recently!

Dani Noir by Nova Ren Suma

Zoom in on thirteen-year-old Dani Callanzano. The summer before eighth grade, Dani is stuck in her nothing-ever-happens town with only her favorite noir mysteries at the Little Art movie theatre to keep her company. But one day a real-life mystery begins to unravel—at the Little Art! And it all has something to do with a girl in polka-dot tights... Armed with a vivid imagination, a flair for the dramatic, and a knowledge of all things Rita Hayworth, Dani sets out to solve the mystery and learns more about herself than she ever thought she would.

From the synopsis, this doesn't seem like the kind of story that would immediately grab my attention. But after seeing a number of praising reviews, especially Courtney Summers' on Goodreads, I'm definitely intrigued. Middle-grade fiction is kind of hit-or-miss with me, but I definitely want to read this one now that one of my most admired authors has given it her support!

(Also, cover wow. Love the purple accents in the other black-and-white scene.)

Dani Noir will be published in hardcover by Scholastic on September 22, 2009.

Ice by Sarah Beth Durst

When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairytale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth to become a prisoner of the trolls. Now that Cassie is older, she knows that this was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, she is determined to become a scientist, and she has no time for make believe.

Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face to face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned in the troll castle. And that he can bring her back--if Cassie will agree to be his bride.

That is the beginning of Cassie's own real-life fairytale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knew will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her--until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice.

Ice is a retelling of a fairy tale / legend that's been told by authors such as Edith Pattou before, in her book, East. (Er, at least I'm pretty sure this is the story...if I'm not, Sarah, help me out please? *smiles*) I've never read the story of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, but I am a huge fan of retellings, and Sarah's previous books, Into the Wild and Out of the Wild, have gotten rave reviews. (ItW is patiently sitting on my bookshelf, waiting to be read.)

Plus, have you taken a look at that cover?? Wow! The blue tones, the title treatment... it's gorgeous. An eye-catcher for sure.

Ice will be published by Margaret K. McElderry on October 6, 2009.

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What are YOU waiting on today? :)