Tanya Lisle

Tag: young adult

  • Second Star Review

    You guys know I love a good reimagining, and this one is Peter Pan! IN SPACE! I haven’t done a lot of science fiction lately, and it felt like it was calling to me. Like a transmission from deep space. Or my phone. One of the two of those.

    Fair warning, there’s spoilers in the footnotes this time around. You’ve been warned.

    The story focuses largely on Peter, a mechanic on the Jolly Roger who discovered that the dear Captain Hooke was a traitor and getting the ship stranded on a strange planet in an unexplored sector of the universe. While he and the Lost Boys that he rescued from the ship have learned to survive on the planet away from the remainder of Hooke’s crew, he eventually learns that Captain Hooke has gotten a transmission out, one that might cause problems and might also be their way off the planet of Neverland.

    This is when we meet Wendy, brightest of the Academy and recently promoted to Captain and given the mission to recover the renown Captain Hooke, who has been missing for 100 years. She and her crew, including Johns and Michael, make their way to the strange sector of the universe and promptly get stranded themselves.

    The story follows a very different pattern, with Peter helping Wendy and her crew so that he might be able to get home, and a fantastical element being brought in with the introduction of the Natives and the strange god that they must make a sacrifice to.

    I really liked the way it was done. There are a lot of nice nods and homages to the original story that you do really feel like you’re being brought into a version of Neverland, with very similar characters. The story still feels very unique, however, and it follows some of the patterns that I’ve gotten more comfortable with in Neverland retellings.1

    I have my problems with the resolution, but it worked really nicely for the story and I assure you that it is not a problem that anyone else is going to have.2 It didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book, which is ultimately the most important thing.

    Overall, I really liked it and I’d say it’s definitely worth adding to my list of great retellings.

    Get Second Star on Amazon!
    1. The shadow as a bad guy, and Peter and Wendy falling for one another [↩]
    2. Peter has fallen in love with Wendy and that’s what really saves the day. Which. Well. [↩]
  • Which Path You Take is out!

    Which Path You Take is out!

    Which Path You Take, book 7 of The Looking Glass Saga, is out! Digital for now, I’ll let you know as soon as the paperback is ready!

    Alice might have won, but she was far from finished.

    The Bandersnatch is gone and Alice is free of the bet they made. Adrianna is awake. Wonderland may be spiraling further into madness but at least with school back in session Alice can try to get her life back to some semblance of normal. 

    Adrianna, however, is not the same girl she was before. Since she woke up, she is much more aware of the truth behind Alice’s lies and more determined help free Alice of Wonderland’s grasp, whether Alice wants it or not. 

    Get Which Path You Take now!

  • The Black Veins Review

    Okay, so a pitch of a no romance story of any kinds a hook for me. But this now was also an urban fantasy one, a road trip1 and with a title that sounds like we’re getting a little touch of horror elements? I’m checking it out at least.

    The story flows Blythe, a young woman in a magical family with no magic herself. This isn’t a strange thing or treated like it might be an issue, because she knows she is a Guardian, though we don’t know what that means. She is not an outcast in her own family, but she’s moved around so much that she has trouble bonding with people, given that she always has that fear of leaving in the back of her mind. 

    And then it all goes to hell when her parents and little sisters are kidnapped. She’s whisked away as a Guardian to be brought into safe keeping and the adventure starts, with Blythe realizing that the people taking her to safety might not have her best interests at heart and the people who have kidnapped her family are not all they seem. She finds the rest of the Guardians and together they try to rescue her family from the Trident Republic, a rival magical…. Government, I guess. 

    The story is a lot of fun! With a large cast, I wouldn’t have blamed Monet for resorting to more stereotypes, but each of the main kids felt fleshed out and like real people, with their own lives outside of this strange situation they were pulled into and those lives reflected how they dealt with the struggles each of them had. Cords is the only one who I felt had a full character arc happen in the first book, but the rest are well on their way to their own paths of self discovery at the conclusion. 

    I do want to talk a little about how the diversity was handled in the book, because it feels notable. This is a very diverse cast both racially and in terms of queer representation. First off, it didn’t feel like a checklist like some other books I could mention. They all felt natural and like it was part of who they were instead of them being defined by it. 

    As an example, Blythe in particular is a bi black girl, and you never forget either of those. She’s not constantly referencing either thing, but she does state she’s bisexual early on. From that point on, you know every time she’s checking out another character2 you know it’s because she’s interested. And there’s little things that remind you that she’s black, such as her reaction to danger and casual mentions of her hair now and then. 

    This is the trend with everyone else in the cast. There’s the initial mention to make it clear, and then little reminders in the rest of the text so you don’t forget and so that it informs and elaborates on their character rather than being a constant reminder of how diverse the book is. Which, as you’ve probably guessed by now, is what I look for in my representation. 

    I will note that there was one thing that never quite clicked with me, and that was the tense. I do not like present tense. It’s a very small thing, but it was there and it was always a little jarring while reading for me. I know this is an issue for almost no one but me. 

    Anyway, I really liked the book! It was a lot of fun, the characters were interesting and believable, and the story was entertaining. I’m a bit sad the second book isn’t out yet, honestly. 

    Get it on Amazon!

    1. I need to start reading more road trip books for the next series [↩]
    2. Which doesn’t happen too often! It at no point gets distracting or detracts from the rest of the narrative! [↩]

  • The Last Dragonslayer Review

    This one has been sitting on my shelf for a while. I got it as a gift and I’m only just getting around to reading it because of course I am. But I finished it, and in a day no less!

    The story follows the adventures of Jenifer Strange, a girl who is two weeks away from turning sixteen1 who has been running an organization that sends wizards out for odd jobs in a world where magic is dying and technology is taking over. When one of them gets a premonition that the last dragon is going to die, she goes out to get to the bottom of it and finds out she was named 400 years ago as the last dragonslayer. 

    It’s a really fun and quick read.2 Jennifer is a fun protagonist to follow and, while she reads a lot more mature than fifteen going on sixteen, she does still feel very young at times. She holds her morals high and it’s nice to see her tempted without compromising them in the end. It’s also nice to see them work against her and to watch her figure out her way out of situations that she got into because of them or in spite of them. 

    It’s also very British. The world building is done very matter-of-factly. This is a universe with dragons of course and yes the dragonslayer is driving a Rolls Royce, moving on. If that bothers you, this might not be your thing, but I found it a good thing to keep the pacing of the story moving. 

    Overall, I really liked it. It was a good read, light, and it certainly didn’t drag. The world is a lot of fun and, while I wish there were more with the wizards for hire business and less with the politics, I would highly recommend checking it out. 

    Get it on Amazon!

    1. As she reminds us several times in the text [↩]
    2. I mean, one day. [↩]

  • Sawkill Girls Review

    I thought I’d take a break from what I usually read and went with something that felt much different. I knew vaguely that there was an ace character in here, but other than that I was intrigued by the idea of a series of murders happening on an island and it being up to a few girls to find out what happened to their friends, This was not quite what I was expecting, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

    The story mostly follows Marion, a young woman who is new to the island. Her, her sister Charlotte, and her mother are relocating to the island for her mother’s work and to try and move on from their father’s death. She doesn’t put much weight on the disappearances of the young girls on the island until her sister goes missing after falling in with the beautiful and popular Val. The outcast, Zoey, who is still mourning the disappearance of her friend from months before, joins her and a whole lot of paranormal stuff starts happening.

    So, as it turns out, this story is about a demon feeding on the girls of the island in an attempt to become strong enough to break free of his human hosts—Val’s family—and the island to go and murder whoever he wants. And Sawkill rock,1 finding young girls to give the abilities necessary to fight and eliminate the demon.

    The movement from creepy mystery to girls with powers fighting a demon is done pretty well and not as jarring as it could have been. The atmosphere is consistently dark throughout and there’s new elements to the world constantly being brought in and introduced, from the demon to the powers to the cult of monster hunters made up entirely of men, and any with lines are incredibly sexist. Who you knew were going to be evil and useless because this book goes a little heavy on the feminism themes.

    There was only one bit that really bothered me, and that was less the scene itself than its purpose in the narrative. Coming into the climax2 two of the characters hook up and the sole purpose of it appears to be so that they can make characters more angry at one another. The results of that conflict are resolved so easily during the main conflict in favour of focusing on longer and more established ones that it felt a little pointless and like it would have been better done earlier if they wanted the conflict to have a bit more punch.

    As for the representation, the queer ladies are done fairly well. I thought the relationship between he girls moved a little fast, but this book is structured very much like a horror movie, so that’s to be expected. Teenagers and their teenage hormones and the murders happening everywhere making them run amok. The asexuality is mostly displayed as an indifference-to-aversion to sex which is… fine? It’s not my experience, but it’s probably good for those who do experience it. The conversations around it sound about right, so it works.

    Overall, I really enjoyed the book! It’s spooky, it has some interesting concepts, and the characters are a lot of fun to follow as they try to figure out themselves and what to do with the demon.

    Get Sawkill Girls on Amazon!

    1. An actual, sentient rock. It makes more sense and is less silly in context. [↩]
    2. It’s a sex scene, there are so many puns, I’m about 20% sorry [↩]

  • Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks Review

    It’s a strange day when Cole starts teleporting between doors. He could never do it before, and now that he is he doesn’t know how to deal with it. More than that, the cutest boy in school has decided that Cole is the one who he wants to talk to now that he’s questioning his sexuality.

    The second half of that would normally make me put the book down, but there’s ace rep in this book and I wanted to give it a chance, even if it’s only in a side character. And the first half was interesting enough that I wanted to see what was going on and how they dealt with it.

    The story is interesting. It is structured a little like a paranormal romance, with the bulk of the supernatural stuff happening in the last third of the book1 but it is interspersed decently throughout. I thought there were a few times when it could have come back into play a little sooner to make the personal drama and the supernatural stuff work a little more together and it felt less like everything happened all at once at the end. At least, introduce the concept of who the bad guys were a little earlier so they weren’t just looming mystery figures until the end, then reveal the secret society in the last couple chapters.

    With the background of the Rainbow Club, the sheer amount of representation that is in the book feels like it makes sense for the narrative. I really liked how they dealt with the different sexualities, the race stuff, the gender stuff, the disabilities in the book. Namely, they didn’t. The story was not about any of them, so they existed in the book without it stopping everything to explain what asexuality was, or enby or how you should be treating deaf people. They just existed in the story and when it was brought up, it was brought up in a way that makes sense.

    For instance, the love interest, Malik, has the exact same reaction to being ambiguously brown as I did as a kid. And I greatly appreciate it.

    The only time there’s any explaining is done in the context of the narrative. A character thinks they might like boys and girls, but is confused about the distinction about bi and pan. Which Cole doesn’t have an answer to, so he looks it up and asks about it. It makes sense in the context of the story.

    And, because I came here to see the ace character, I liked him a lot. Particularly in how it’s dealt with, namely that someone in the queer community had a problem with it which made him veer away from the community, and the bridges being repaired were done without much fanfare. The situation is more accurate to my experience, and the lack of focus on that resolution works well in the narrative because it isn’t his story. Alec’s story getting more attention than it did would have felt like a distraction to the main plot.

    I really enjoyed this book. The story of the teleporting through doors and how Cole dealt with it was interesting and Cole as a character is different than a lot of other ones I’ve been exposed to in the past. Namely, he’s not spontaneous2 and has multiple hobbies, which makes him feel much more rounded as a character. It’s a bit more romance-y than I typically like, but I didn’t feel like the romance was a distraction from the main plot, and I had fun with it overall.

    Get Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks on Amazon!

    1. No houses eating people or the ocean murdering anyone this time [↩]
    2. He bullet journals, which is another really interesting detail to the narrative [↩]

  • We are the Catalyst Review

    And once again, I pick up the second book in a series without reading the first! I am very good at this. This time, however, Tash McAdams themselves recommended starting here because I am obnoxious and asked for where they wanted me to start. So any problems I might have had was all their fault.

    However, there were no problems! This is the least second book-is of any second book I’ve read. And I meant hat in a good-yet-confused sort of way. There is a lot of rich world building done in this, inclusding a storyline that absolutely feels like it’s a sweeping epic, but the story is framed very much like the first in the series. The alternating perspectives include one character that is new to the world and we see through his eyes how the universe works, which is very much a first book pattern, and a more wizened character who is more familiar with the universe and explains her parts of the universe with familiarity.

    What I’m saying is that it’s written in such a way that I have no idea what came before it. And I’m intrigued.

    As for the book itself, it was a lot of fun! In that way I describe fun. On the one side, we follow Toby, who leaves his comfy life as a rich kid in the city only to be immediately mugged as soon as he leaves, have his finger cut off, and develop incredible super powers. On the other we follow Epsilon 17, who is a child soldier with incredible powers that has to track him down while at the same time really not wanting to find him at all.

    The story follows the two of them as they both struggle with the Institute, who want to catch Toby and do… something with him. The question mark is less interesting than the chase and how the story comes together. It’s well paced, not forgetting about the human element of the post-apocalyptic world, and it ends in a wonderful showdown between just who it should be between. In my opinion, anyway.

    I have a couple small issues with the book, but nothing that detracts from the experience of reading it. The prose is very dense, and there were a couple reveals at the end that felt like they wasn’t led up to enough, but overall it was a lot of fun and I would highly recommend checking it out.

  • Static release!

    Static is officially out!

    Harrison’s boyfriend, Max, is missing. Again.

    Or, well, his ex-boyfriend, he thinks. His memory of the last week is fuzzy. It’s while his roommate, Ally, is trying to help him that they get the phone call; Max has gone missing, and Willow — who’s supposed to be catatonic and locked away — abducted him.

    Harrison sets out on a mission to find him, but he and his friends are placed under house arrest. Is it to keep them safe from Willow, or is Harrison being used for live bait? Trapped with the mysterious new Doctor Gethen who’s taken a keen interest in them, Harrison needs to make things right, find Willow, and get Max back.

    Be sure to get your copy now!

  • Blue Lily, Lily Blue Review

    Oh hey, the plot kicked back in! They’re actively doing things to find Glendower again, which is the main thrust of the series! Find the old dead Welsh king and then… something. Have a wish granted, gain is favour, I’m still not actually sure what they think is going to happen or why it will happen when they find the tomb.

    This book tries very hard to give Blue an arc outside of being in love with Gansey and it doesn’t quite land for me. It’s a lot of things happening to her to try and give her other things to do. Her mother is missing and it is something that she has to deal with. It could have been an arc but it kept feeling more like something she was reacting to than something she was part of. 

    And they gave Gansey a magic which no. He was going to be the one non-powered character bringing them together in the quest by his personality and his drive to do all this, but giving him the power to command things as an actual power tosses that out. 

    Adam and Ronan are fine. Adam is still a dick and being portrayed as not a dick. Ronan realizes he likes Adam in this book but, as he’s a male character, he had his character arc established outside of this relationship and he gets to have his own story that isn’t dependent on the love story and guys I do not care about Blue anymore and it makes me sad. 

    So let’s talk a little about the plot and structure of the series as a whole. Each of these books could conceivably be about a single character’s arc and how other people interact with that arc to further their own larger narrative. The first being Adam, second Ronan, this one Blue, and fourth will be about Gansey. Of those four book, only one has not been about the hunt for Glendower, which makes the beats of the series a little weird. 

    If there had been one more book in the series, I think the pacing might have been better. As it is, Blue Lily, Lily Blue feels like it was trying to cram in a lot of setup for the climax.1 There were new things introduced, including characters, that don’t really get much time to land properly. Like Henry Cheng and the “Vancouver crowd” which I will go on about in the next book.2

    Unfortunately, the pattern of Glendower, something else, Glendower, something else, Glendower couldn’t be maintained because it is only four books. If Noah were a more prominent character instead of being relegated to having as much screentime as an animal sidekick, it could have been a bit better paced as a series, but ultimately this is what we get. Which is fine. I liked it a lot more the first time around, though. 

    Get Blue Lily, Lily Blue on Amazon

    1. And I remember the climax feeling very cluttered, so that doesn’t help [↩]
    2. I am Asian. I am from Vancouver. I have thoughts. [↩]

  • Dream Thieves Review

    Dream Thieves is the second book in the Raven Cycle and I can see why Aiden1 likes it so much. It’s all about Ronan, and it’s also a book where the plot and the characters feel like they are actually connected to one another in a substantial way. Mostly because this is a book where Ronan is the plot.

    Which means I actually have something to talk about other than structure.

    Ronan develops into an interesting character in this one, not only because he has developed magic powers. He gains some depth in the form of his backstory, in the form of how he deals with stress, in the form of how he deals with success. We see what he cares about and what he doesn’t care about. And all of that builds him into a wonderful character that I was happy to follow through the majority of the book, even if he has a questionable choice in crushes.

    Weird thing is that I liked Adam a lot more the first time I read this series. Adam played a much larger role in the first book, with his quest out of his abusive home life, but this book left me realizing that he’s a dick. Yes, growing up around abuse makes people process the world differently and he may not be able to relate to people in typical ways, I know. But there’s a constant sense that he sees himself as lesser than the people around him and that makes him better than them that permeates through his perspective. Not to mention that scene between him and Blue, which plays out all too familiarly to any female who had male friends who expected that their friendships meant more than they did.

    This is also where I really notice that Blue is the only female voice in the story, really. There’s mention of her being a raging feminist that is only forgivable because they are teenagers and eye rolling in pretty much any other context. There are things that happen to her where I really feel that lack of female peers around her because there were conversations that really should have happened that never happen. Does she really have no one to talk to about boys? Not one? Hell, not even her mother or cousin or one of the other women in the house who could have pointed out any of these things to? At the very least to talk to about what happened with Adam? Or anything else?

    The love story kicks in and I do not care you guys. Romance is not my thing. I always feel bad when I stop caring about female characters, but their plots always seem to devolve into something related to romance and Blue is no different. In the first book, she was sort of seeing Adam, but in this book she falls in love and the prophecy that she’ll kiss her true love and he’ll die develops a firm target. Gansey, who we knew would be her true love in the first book, is now someone she has fallen for. And just… I stopped caring about both of them in an instant.

    Gansey, though. Let’s have a moment to talk about why he’s so hard for me to sink into despite him still having another plot around him. I don’t know why he wants to find Glendower. He has a lot of reasons. He thinks he’s not dead because of the grace of Glendower. He has an intellectual curiosity about him. He’s got a weird obsession. It’s about the pursuit of him more than what the end goal is, and when there’s no real end goal, I have a lot of trouble hooking into the character’s motivations.

    However, this book is in large part about Ronan. And Ronan is fantastic. I know I’m being a little harsh about the rest of the characters, but it overall is a pretty entertaining read.

    Check it out on Amazon

    1. The person who originally got me to read the series [↩]