Review: Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl

Tags: YA, historical fiction, Austenian

Summary

Seventeen-year-old Althea lives in a crumbling, laughable faux-castle on a cliff designed by a debilitatingly romantic ancestor. Her family has no money, her two stepsisters are stingy with theirs, their castle is falling apart around them, and they will starve to death unless the practical Althea marries well. Althea sets her sights on the handsome and rich Lord Boring…but in addition to the irritating and unwanted near-constant presence of Lord Boring’s cousin Mr. Fredericks, there’s a lot more that doesn’t go according to Althea’s plans.

Review

KEEPING THE CASTLE is a quick, Austen-flavored story that you can breeze through in a few short hours. Is it a keeper? Well…I enjoyed the voice and the setup, but felt the story was too short to develop the characters and their predicaments into full and empathizable creations.

My favorite thing about KEEPING THE CASTLE was definitely its Austenian influence. Aptly described as a combination of Dodie Smith’s lovely I Capture the Castle (another book I loved) and Jane Austen’s works, KEEPING THE CASTLE features a spunky heroine whose extreme pragmatism is cause for many moments of laughs and head-shaking sighs. Althea’s practical nature make her the perfect foil for the social foibles that typically occur in Austenian novels, but it is when that delightful personality comes up against tired Austenian elements and a too-quick plot development that things stumble for me.

No matter how much I love Jane Austen, there comes a point where Austenian elements tire me out. Unfortunately, I felt like KEEPING THE CASTLE crammed all of the most recognizable elements of Austen’s novels into a quick 250 pages, resulting in sensory/familiarity overload for me. First, Althea seeks a rich husband (youth and attractiveness a plus but not required). Later, she attempts to matchmake between two of her new acquaintances. Okay, to be honest, I’ve only read two of Austen’s novels to their conclusions, but combining the most familiar elements of Pride and Prejudice and Emma into one story felt like overkill to me.

Additionally, the short length of the book prevented the characters and plot from developing thoroughly. It was hard for me to ever get a grasp on the attraction between Althea and Mr. Fredericks. Bickering couples are sometimes fun for me to read about, but unlike the change in Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s feelings toward and understanding of each other, Althea and Mr. Fredericks never seem to undergo the same kind of mental evolution. Secondary couplings are also barely explained, with the result that I flitted from one marital revolution to the other in a state of confusion and only polite interest, instead of emotional investment in the characters and their outcomes.

Overall, KEEPING THE CASTLE is a relatively fun and diverting read for a lazy afternoon (or a sleepless night, if you’re me), but it doesn’t as if it will be a staple of Austenian literature.

Similar Authors
Polly Shulman
Jane Austen
Dodie Smith

Cover discussion: It's pretty unassuming, and I had overlooked this title at first because I wasn't sure from the cover what the book would be about.

Viking Juvenile / June 14, 2012 / Hardcover / 272pp. / $16.99

Personal copy.

Why You Should Enter This STORMDANCER Giveaway

Yes, the cover is astonishingly gorgeous, but here are other reasons why STORMDANCER, Jay Kristoff's debut novel, is worth your notice:

1. It's a different kind of fantasy. It's hard to find fantasies out there that aren't set in Medieval England, and STORMDANCER does Japanese steampunk right, with an almost overwhelming assault of detailed world-building on the reader. You may feel like the first 50 pages are too clunky, with all the world-building, but then, as the plot progresses, you slip right into the world and can really envision it cinematographically. You know how some speculative fiction have underwhelming world-building where inconsistencies and gaps get in the way of the story? Yup, not here.

2. Buruu and Yukiko's relationship is one for the books. Fictional human-creature relationships are often a lot of fun to read about. In STORMDANCER, Buruu has a personality we grow to love, and there are moments when I cracked up from his snark. Jay Kristoff deftly writes how an unshakeable friendship connection can change both parties irrevocably.

3. STORMDANCER is arguably the most relevant book I've read all year. Tears welled in my eyes as I read, for I recognized, in the midst of the different speculative setting, the pain and the frustration of attempting to improve some of the huge problems in our world. And I hope that this is something other readers will be affected by as well.

Synopsis:

A DYING LAND
The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever.

AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST
The hunters of Shima's imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.

A HIDDEN GIFT Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her.

But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire.

STORMDANCER will be published in hardcover by Thomas Dunne Books on September 18, 2012. Visit Jay Kristoff's author website for more info.

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I was fortunate enough to be able to read STORMDANCER early, thanks to the generosity of some lovely people. And now, I want to pass this story on to you, if you're interested. There will be 1-3 winners (I'm not certain how many copies of this ARC I have, haha). This giveaway is open internationally and ends Tuesday, August 14, 2012. I will not be announcing the winners here; you will get an email from me if you win. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

Tags: middle grade, contemporary, friendship

Summary

Georges (the S is silent; yes, his parents are crazy Seurat fans) is just an ordinary boy, slightly north of nerdy, who’s trying to survive seventh grade. Then, in his new apartment building, he meets Safer, a boy his own age, and gets pulled into Safer’s strange spy games. But as Safer’s games get stranger and stranger, Georges has to decide where to draw the line between fantasy and reality…both within himself and without.

Review

Rebecca Stead, whose previous book, When You Reach Me, I loved (and, apparently, so did a lot of other people, as it won the Newbery), is back with another middle grade novel, LIAR & SPY. Different in feel and content from When You Reach Me, it nevertheless pays homage to the intelligence and subtleties possible for middle grade literature.

Georges and other characters of LIAR & SPY are fairly average in terms of memorability, but wicked smart in terms of intelligence for characters their age. It’s not every day you get to read a middle-grade novel that involve the attempted English spelling reform movement and the umami taste (that’s the one that recognizes delicious or savory foods). Knowledge can come whenever and wherever, in all forms, as Rebecca Stead proves over and over again.

Safer’s suspicious and passive-aggressive behavior did get on my nerves pretty quickly, as they did Georges’, but the characters’ insecurities, actions, and feelings are all very genuine to the physical and emotional turmoil of middle school. And, as always, Stead writes a killer of an ending, one that nearly singlehandedly bumped my rating of this book up a whole star. Alas, the rest of LIAR & SPY didn’t capture my affections the way When You Reach Me did—the pacing was slower and the characters not as easily likable. Nevertheless, despite the lack of emotional connection on my part, it is a touching and impressive work of literature that fans of middle grade and young adult literature alike should consider reading.

Cover discussion: So unique and deceptively simplistic. I like how it retains similar elements from the cover of When You Reach Me!

Wendy Lamb Books / Aug. 7, 2012 / Hardcover / 192pp. / $15.99

e-galley received for review from publisher and NetGalley.

Review: The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman

Tags: YA, middle grace, juvenile fiction, historical fiction, time travel, American South, Antebellum, slavery

Summary

In the sweltering summer of 1960, 13-year-old Sophie’s newly divorced mother sends her to her family’s old plantation to live. Sophie, awkward in her body and struggling to be the graceful lady her family demands her be while she’d rather bury her nose in books, thinks it will be a miserable summer…until she meets a strange creature who ends up sending her back in time to 1860!

Sophie’s Fairchild ancestors mistake her as a slave, and at first the work demands are unfamiliar and difficult. But gradually, Sophie learns to manage herself, and better understands her white ancestors as well as her fellow slaves. Still, there’s the problem of returning to 1960…

Review

THE FREEDOM MAZE is an odd and intriguing book, blending two historical periods with mystical elements. At its core, though, this is a traditional coming-of-age story—which actually makes it hard for me to decide how I feel about this book.

In middle school, I read a book called The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, which tells the story of a modern girl who gets thrown back in time to WWII Europe. THE FREEDOM MAZE follows the same storypath. It is clear that Sherman has meticulously done her research on both time periods: the dialogue feels authentic, social beliefs ingrained, and details regarding setting extraordinary. It’s hard enough accurately depicting one historical period; Delia Sherman has to make everyone look like underachievers by doing so for two!

All of that is the backdrop, however, for the classic bildungsroman structure of this story. THE FREEDOM MAZE involves slavery and racism and Southern culture, but it’s not interested in that so much as it is in Sophie’s development from a petulant child to a more independent teenager. And that’s where my potential love for this book trips up. Sophie is sympathetic at the beginning of the novel, when she is ordered this way and that by her “Southern belle” mother and grandmother, but when half the book passes and Sophie is still petulant and incompetent, my sympathy for her waned a bit. Of course, it wouldn’t be a bildungsroman if Sophie didn’t eventually learn, but it was a bit of a struggle for me in the middle to continue to be invested in the well-being of a timid and fretful girl. Think Mary from The Secret Garden, thrust into the pre-Civil War American South.

THE FREEDOM MAZE is not a book for those who like their plots and pacing action-packed and always-running. I put the book down several times out of repetitiveness and Sophie’s stagnancy before I began to be invested. And while I’m glad to have finished it, half of a book with a slow plot and fretful main character is still too much for me to like it fully. THE FREEDOM MAZE will be best for patient readers who like their readings challenging, well-researched, and with just a dash of the fantastical.

Similar Authors
Jane Yolen (The Devil's Arithmetic)
Nancy Werlin
Frances Hodgson Burnett

Cover discussion: Oh, I like that it's unusually old-fashioned! Just like the story, the cover is the sort that rewards the discerning and patient: it will grow on you the more time you spend with it.

Big Mouth House / Nov. 22, 2011 / Hardcover / 258pp. / $16.95

Personal e-book purchased.