First Light by Rebecca Stead

First Light by Rebecca Stead

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A little book about a boy who travels with his parents to study global warming in Greenland and encounters a girl from a secret civilization under the ice.



A bit of a disappointment, after her wonderful When You Reach Me. This book is a little younger, a lot simpler; the adults are too competent and the conflicts too reductionist, so a lot of the tension just deflates.



Still, there’s something about the way Rebecca Stead writes. She has a gift for figurative language simple enough to make sense to kids, but interesting enough to also appeal to me. I’m a very synesthetic thinker, so it probably won’t make sense to anyone else, but I think of her metaphors as bell tones. They are clean and clear, simple but pleasing. And when done right, they get me from the chest out.





View all my reviews

Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


MacKayla Lane comes to Ireland in pursuit of the killers of her sister, and then there are five books of faerie wars and power objects and sex and magic.



Huh! I was cruising comfortably along through this series, pleasantly entertained but not blown away by the story of a spoiled, sweet southern princess finding her power and her savvy and her survivor. And then bam apocalypse! Gang rape! Possible end of the human race! My attention, it was grabbed.



This series was absorbing and kind of overwhelming while it was happening to me, but it’s been a few weeks and I find it’s also one of those that I can’t think about too closely unless I want to start going wait . . . really? But if you don’t think about the id vortex aspects too hard, yeah. It’s five books of tense rising action, a lot of very detailed, unique worldbuilding, a long, slow romance.



But the thing I like most? It’s an urban fantasy series with a female protagonist, and there is almost no slut-shaming. Mac is a confident, sexually aware twenty two year old who feels no discernible shame for wanting sex, and who will call bullshit on shady shenanigans with her consent in a heartbeat. I am so toxically sick of all the repression and shaming and prudery you get in most urban fantasy (Sookie Stackhouse, I am looking at you). Mac likes sex; she likes it in an earthy, physical sense, and she doesn’t let anyone tell her good girls don’t. That is so refreshing, I can’t even.





View all my reviews