Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Angie @ Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc.

Small Gods

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: HarperPrism
Date: 1992
Pages: 344
Genre: Fantasy
Source: A much loved, battered paperback that I keep with me always.

Dear Reader,
There are some books that are nearly impossible to talk about. The silence that follows the reading of such books isn’t because they are bad books, or even worse, books that you feel nothing for, so in turn you have nothing to say. It’s quite the opposite in fact. There are books, that once read, are no longer just paper between, er- thicker paper. They become something else entirely. These books seek out the little empty places in your soul, places you don’t even know exist because they’ve never had anything fill them that you would miss if they were to up and leave it vacant. These books slide right into those little empty soul pockets, settle and suddenly, just like that, there’s a little more you. They become…books that move in. It makes them difficult books to talk about because, well, not many of us can accurately and eloquently express who we are. There in lies the problem. You can no longer make a distinction between yourself and the book.
Small Gods is one of those books, so please forgive me as I fumble inexpertly through this post.

- Laura

______________________________________________________
It is once again time for an Omnian Prophet to appear. A prophet that will impart to the people the will and commandments of the Great God Om. There’s been a whole slew of prophets and they all amble up to the pulpit, like their prophetic predecessors, and decree a new set of rules that they swear were handed down to them by the Great God “Holy Horns” Om. It’s rather difficult to refute the prophet’s claim when the church fully backs the prophet and his commandments- most often at knife point. The Omnian church prides itself on the efficiency of The Quisition, a division of the church whose responsibility and privilege is to uphold enforce the will of God.

“…they were engaged in religion. You could tell by the knives (it’s not murder if you do it for a god).”

So the Omnians believe. They believe like their lives depend on it. Belief gives Om strength. The more belief, the stronger the God. So it comes as a great surprise to the Great God Om when he wakes up in the body of a mere turtle, with powers equal in size and strength of any small, shelled reptile. This shouldn’t be! He has many believers! Or he did. In his absence, the people haven’t stopped believing, oh no, the Church would never allow that. They believe. They believe in fear.

“Fear is a strange soil. It grows obedience like corn, which grow in straight lines to make weeding easier. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground.”

I know I’ve talked about this before, but let’s just rehash. Pratchett writes what on the surface appear to be fantasy novels, stories about his made up Discworld and the people in them. And while they have a nice neat fantasy setting, each book is in fact, a very clever little satire on something the human race holds dear or more often than not, something we take for granted. They are a gentle little nudge, an OK of sorts, to question what we are told to believe. This little number does of course, poke fun at religion, one in particular but essentially all of them, and if you aren’t too tightly wound on the subject (and more so if you are) it contains a great deal of wisdom that outlines centuries worth of “what the fuck?” You’ll follow Brutha, Om’s chosen prophet as he faces the harsh realization that simply believing in something doesn’t make it truth and expecting the world to only see things as you and yours do, isn’t going to do much more than get more knives pointed at you. And I liked the little poke at Om, in which he is basically told that if he’s going to be God, and all these people are going to go to the trouble of believing in him (he gets something out of the deal too- he gets to exist) then he has a bit of a responsibility to his people, to uphold his end of the deal.

“It’s hard to explain,” said Brutha. “But I think it’s got something to do with how people should behave… you should do things because they’re right. Not because gods say so. They might say something different another time.”

But anyway. This is one of those books that move in for me. It’s with me always, shapes how I think and feel which in turn affects how I live. This isn’t exactly rare. After all, so many of us have our thoughts and feelings shaped by a book, and the book affects how we live. Just remember, there are lots of different books.

Shatter Me

Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date: November 1st 2011
Pages: 338
Genre: YA- Dystopian/Paranormal Fantasy

I’ve heard from various sources that the main complaint they’ve had with this story was its being essentially 338 pages of set-up for the next book. We get introduced and well acquainted with some very strong and captivating characters but very little insight into what was actually going on. And yeah, that assessment is pretty much dead on, but it doesn’t mean that the story is short on awesome.

When we begin Juliette believes herself to be a patient in an insane asylum. In her post apocalyptic world, resources, wildlife, safety and humanity amongst humans is growing increasingly rare. The remaining people are subject to a rigid military rule that leaves little tolerance for the unexplained and no one can explain Juliette. It is a complete mystery why the simple touch of her hand on another person can result in excruciating pain, so the world locks her away and forgets about her. Months later, Juliette is given a roommate, a young man named Adam with blue eyes that are unmistakably familiar to her. Adam is her first human contact in a long time and with him she tentatively begins to build a friendship that has her toying with the idea that she might not be crazy. And she’s right, she’s not in an asylum and she’s far from crazy- she’s a military experiment.

Something happened with this book that hasn’t happened for several books now- it’s filled with dogeared pages marking some exemplary passages. Mafi’s writing is tinged throughout with moments of OMG, some had me pausing to reread, or take in what she was describing. There’s nothing I love more than having pages that I simply HAVE to go back and revisit. I felt Mafi’s writing was far superior to the actual story and she could have been telling me anything and I would have bought it.

Killing time isn’t as difficult as it sounds.

     I can shoot a hundred numbers through the chest and watch them bleed decimal points in the palm of my hand. I can rip the numbers off the clock and watch the hour hand tick tick tick its final tock just before I fall asleep. I can suffocate seconds just by holding my breath. I’ve been murdering minutes for hours and no one seems to mind.

Juliette’s story is a scary one, and she’s not only scared for herself, she’s scared of herself. Where so many authors would take this opportunity to have their MC miraculously and heroically discover an untapped source of bravery and brawn, Mafi lets Juliette experience the terror of her situation just as she should. Not everyone with super powers is a hero. Not yet anyway. I prefer to think that in future installments, Juliette will come into her own gradually, as befits her personality.

I’m still not sure what to make of Adam, our captor/hero/love interest. I’m not sold on him completely as he falls into the group of heroes particular to YA fiction in which he lets his love suffer “for her own good.” And he isn’t broody enough- you know how I like them.

Final thoughts? We need more authors like Mafi in YA. You know, ones who can actually write. I can’t wait for the sequel and I’m really interested to see where Warner’s story goes. Underneath he’s desperately afraid of appearing weak and I almost think he feels he needs someone as powerful as Juliette to love him in order to validate his position- which could make a man very, very desperate.

Under the Never Sky

Author: Veronica Rossi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date: January 3, 2012
Pages: 384
Genre: YA- Dystopia, Fantasy

I know this is one of those 2012 YA debuts that we’re suppose to blindly and unconditionally love but I have to be honest- my heart isn’t going pitty-pat in response to this story. Its rhythm is a bit more bradycardic.

In a world (sounds like a movie trailer doesn’t it) devastated by storms that scorch and destroy everything they touch, civilizations have sprung up inside well enforced and protected underground settlements. Denied access to the outer world, the Dwellers have created a life based on continuous virtual reality, living through fantasy, inside their own heads. But beneath the storm ravaged sky, people are still struggling to exist. The Outsiders, a primitive people with heightened senses that allow them to be specially attuned to the land, seek to hold on to a rapidly fading way of life. When an accident forces Aria, a Dweller, out into the world of the Outsiders, a flimsy alliance with one of the rumored savages may be her only means of survival.

There are several things I liked about the story. The romance was really quite touching and the chemistry between our lurvers was nearly tangible. The Outsiders extra senses were kind of cool and the run-in with the cannibals was a stellar touch of awesome (those guys were scary). I always appreciate a good bad guy and Consul Hess was a well played evil. But while Peregrine was extremely crush worthy and competent, I couldn’t find much to recommend Aria.

From the word go the storyline was choppy and I could have really used a roadmap to help me navigate Rossi’s extremely messy world building. Messy, was in fact my initial and over all reaction. Nothing flowed. One scene wouldn’t even be completed before an entirely new and sometimes unnecessary concept was introduced (we can’t all be super human- it’s tedious and boring). I couldn’t get a firm handle, feel or picture of this world Rossi wanted me to envision- it was all skinny, gangling limbs, jutting out every which way when what it really needed was some meat on its bones. Less constant, directionless plot twists and more focus on the world and the way your people exist in it- else they’re just actors in front of a green screen.

I don’t know how I feel about a sequel for I fear it would just be more running around in the same place. In a genre already flooded with trilogies, there are stronger contenders.

Review copy from Amazon Vine

     Supernaturally by Kiersten White

     July 26th 2011 by HarperTeen

     More at:

     Goodreads

     Website

     From Goodreads: Evie finally has the normal life she’s
     always longed for. But she’s shocked to discover that      being ordinary can be . . . kind of boring. Just when Evie starts to long for her days at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s given a chance to work for them again. Desperate for a break from all the normalcy, she agrees.

But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there’s a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.

So much for normal.

If you haven’t read Paranormalcy, the first book in the series, stop NOW and go and do so or you will be the most ungrateful wicked person and the angels will weep for you.

You would think that after single-handedly saving the paranormal world from destruction everything else would pretty much be cake. For Evie, life hasn’t exactly been normal. Nowhere near normal- not even in the same dimension as normal (the world of the fae can really suck you in). So when she left her job at the International Paranormal Containment Agency to try her hand at “normal” life, high school sounded like a welcome retreat. Who knows, it might have been if it wasn’t for the fae suspiciously lurking about and a freaky human boy with the ability to create faery pathways randomly popping up in the girls locker room. The IPCA desperately needs Evie’s help and with the increase in local paranormal activity she couldn’t help but agree. Now she’s juggling fighting evil, her after school waitress job, her full time relationship with Lend oh and constantly trying to suppress the urge to suck out the occasional paranormal soul, and it’s still impossible to weasel out of gym class?? Bleep.

First, how awesome is Evie? I mean seriously? How many times have you thrown up your hands and begged the YA gods to give you a strong, competent, kick-ass, “Homey don’t play that”, can-and-will-take-on-the-whole-bleeping-world, lead female character? So many appear that way at first but then you get to a point in the book or the series where for some stupid reason the author decides that her character needs to be “saved”. Not our Evie. She gets helped along the way, sure, but you never once forget just who is in charge. She can kick anything’s ass and is still smart enough to know that even she is no match for the power of shoes. That’s my girl.

As a sequel, Supernaturally is a very good extension of the story. I liked that she didn’t leave the first book behind, and there were no drastic changes in storyline or in Evie’s world. It was a nice continuation of the original story, and you weren’t beat down with recaps meant to bring you up to speed if you hadn’t read or have forgotten what happened in the last book (I hate when sequels do that).

Evie goes back to work for Raquel at the IPCA, thank goodness. I don’t know if I would have liked it as much if the story was just about a paranormal girl trying to make it in a normal world (boring). Evie’s “bag and tag” assignments with the IPCA are what’s fun and what I wanted more of in the sequel. Thankfully, White delivered. It’s really interesting how her relationship with Lend is playing out. He’s such a nice guy and you know as well as I do that there aren’t that many of those, especially in YA.

A large chunk of Evie’s time is spent either in the faery realms or in the passages between them. Jack is a human boy, who having been raised by faeries, has learned the secret of opening their doorways. Raquel has sent Jack to drive Evie around so to speak, making it quicker for her to get to her assignments. He also makes it quicker for her to get into trouble- a whole other world of it. You’ll like Jack- even when you don’t like him.

We get a lot of questions answered in this book, but only enough that I’m already itching for the third book. Exactly who and what is Evie, and what, if any, are the extents of her powers?

Oh….and…..maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m just sick and twisted. Maybe I just have a thing for bad boys. But I’ll say this and you can grab your pitchforks and come after me if you must: Team Reth.

     After a frustrating half hour, I finally caught sight of the glamoured corpse head in the middle of a crowd waiting for the Ferris wheel. He had his arm around a pretty young thing in an incredibly weather-inappropriate outfit that showed off her very slender, very blood-filled neck. She stared at him in that vapid, intoxicated way employed only by women under a vamp’s control. Or the way I sometimes got when faced with cupcakes.
     Mmm. Cupcakes.

Want my ARC? You can have it!

In the story, Evie jokingly mentions that only a faerie apocalypse could keep her from doing something. Now we all FEAR THE FORTHCOMING ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (the end is nigh) but just what would the Faerie Apocalypse entail?

Use this handy-dandy form to tell me: FILL OUT THE FORM

Open to peeps 13 or older, living in the US of A or Canada. Ends August 9th at midnight CST. You don’t have to be a blogger or a follower but you do have to answer the question. I’ll randomly select a winner but you still have to describe the end of the world, faerie style.

*Quote taken from an ARC of Supernaturally and may differ in the finished copy.

From Goodreads:
Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love — the deliria — blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government’s demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

     I had been dying to read this book. It’s dystopian, a love story and an absolutely brilliant concept all in one. Love as an illness? It can seem that way sometimes and I bet there are many people post-break up that wish it never existed. A future where love is not only curable, but a disease whose sufferers must be hunted down and surgically altered to prevent its spread? Brilliant. Plus, I’ve heard only good things about Oliver’s previous work Before I Fall, which I have yet to read and this one was just too tempting to resist. However, in hindsight, turns out I could.

     For me, this story was, I don’t know, awkward. The pacing was choppy and I remember putting the book down at one point and thinking that the whole experience felt like walking around in oversized, heavy shoes. Plodding. That’s it.

     I found Lena to be an inconsistent flake, which yes, maybe that was the point and people do change their feelings and minds but the Lena at the beginning of the story and the Lena at the end were such entirely different people that I don’t see how the one could have existed in the other. Yes, yes, growth and transformation and all that, but really, people are who they are and such an abrupt change of character felt too contrived.

     I loved the snippets from the textbooks, pamphlets and books from this future, details that added to the severity of this society’s campaign against an emotion it equated with plague. The over all sense that the story conveyed was an unexpected jolt. The eradication of love was the community’s main focus and I read the entire book feeling lonely and lost from it, which was perfect.

     And yes, there were moments when the writing stood out to me, even if the story didn’t and I’m still on board to read Before I Fall. I just don’t think I’ll be visiting Delirium’s sequel.

“It’s strange how I instantly recognize the voice even though I’ve heard it only once before, for ten minutes, fifteen tops-it’s the laughter that runs underneath it, like someone leaning in to let you in on a really good secret in the middle of a really boring class. Everything freezes. The blood stops flowing in my veins. My breath stops coming. For a second even the music falls away and all I hear is something steady and quiet and pretty, like the distant beat of a drum, and I think, I’m hearing my heart…”

Would you like my ARC of this book? Be a BOOK BLOGGER, living in the US, and over the age of 13. Leave a comment and I’ll randomly pick a winner in a couple of weeks using the very scientific “Eeny meeny miny mo” method.

*Quote taking from an ARC of Delirium and may differ in the finished copy.