No, this isn’t what you get after smoking that funny cigarette your long-haired tie-dye-wearing cool uncle from San Francisco left after he visited the one time. Monster High is an under-the-radar tie-in novel written by Lisi Harrison of the Clique series, and my review can be found here.
When her asthma got too bad for Beverly Hills, Melody and her family moved to the fresher air of Salem, Oregon. Here, at Merston High, she can do her best to fit in and feel like less of an outcast in her beauty-obsessed family. Meanwhile, Frankie Stein, fresh from an intensive bout of home schooling, is ready for the full high school experience. What no one knows, however, is that Frankie’s the pride and joy of her parents … or rather, of their laboratory. They built their teenage daughter from scratch, following the family tradition.
It turns out that Merston High’s got a whole lot going on under the surface, with an entire community of monsters-in-hiding sending their disguised kids to school there. Vampires, mummies, werewolves, mad scientists, you name it. And while the younger generation may chafe at remaining hidden, their parents are adamant that things stay as they are. So will Frankie and Melody be the wild cards who upset things?
While there’s a good concept here, the plot is weighed down quite heavily by incessant pop culture references and product placements, so that we can’t go a page without someone mentioning Lady Gaga, Prada, Facebook, YouTube, or Gucci. The tongue-in-cheek naming conventions and airhead attitudes likewise work against the overall appeal. It’s a great bridge between the subgenre which spawned books like the Clique and A-List series and more substantial works, but it feels pretty awkward. There’s a lot of untapped potential, and hopefully future installments will see fewer commercials and a stronger story.
After I wrote the above, I did a little research, only to discover that this was based on a series of webisodes, themselves inspired by a line of toys from Mattel. This explains a lot, but also means we have a product tie-in that doesn’t go out of its way to alert those not in the know (yours truly, shopping the wrong aisles as always), and which actually comes off as inferior to the more stylized webisodes. Like some of the characters themselves, this book is suffering from a real identity crisis.
Because I managed to develop a backlog of books to read and review, some time ago I started trying to claw my way through the stacks. The end result? A bunch of reviews of YA books that were too late or too big for my Realms of Fantasy column. And since I’m always trying to let people know about my awesome website, which archives the many hundreds of reviews I’ve written over the past decade+, I thought I’d do something a little … special.
Hence, FebruarYAY! A name rapidly getting stupider the more I use it, but hey, whatcha gonna do? Every weekday for the next four weeks, I’ll be posting a new review to my website. I’ll be sure to announce to my LJ and my Facebook as well. Some are good reviews, some are bad. Some long, some short. A few were done for other venues that didn’t work out. I may even throw in a contest or two along the way.
Starting off today, because February 1st wasn’t kind enough to fall on a Monday, we have:
The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June by Robin Benway. It’s a charming book about sisters with superpowers, from the author of Audrey, Wait!
When their parents divorce, April, May and June remain with their mother, moving from Orange County out to the Valley. Think fitting into a new school is hard? The three sisters have to cope with amazing psychic abilities, spontaneously emerging after a decade’s dormancy. April, the tightly-wound oldest, is now a precognitive, receiving all sorts of unwanted (and often confusing) visions of the future. May, the wild child middle sister, can become invisible, reflecting her internal turmoil. June, the youngest, can read minds. Keeping these abilities a secret from everyone else, they try to assimilate into their new school, making friends, meeting guys, going to parties, often with unpredictable results. It’s easy to slip into a clique when you can hear their thoughts, tempting to ditch school when you can avoid detection, and unsettling when you know for certain who you’ll date before you even meet him. But when April’s visions turn terrifying, she has to figure out how to prevent tragedy, and she’ll need the help of her sisters.
Benway does a great job of injecting a normal high school atmosphere with that something extra; who hasn’t wished they could see the future, read minds, or vanish when things got too confusing? The sisters have a believable relationship, and their reactions to having and using their powers are appropriately realistic. The rotating cast of first-person narrators, each with her distinct voice, occasionally gets a little grating at times, but in general, this is a genuinely entertaining, feel-good tale of familial ties and super-powered teenagers.
For years, Donna Underwood has lived with tragedy and secrets stemming from a vicious supernatural attack: her father dead, her mother driven insane, her own injuries overcome through the application of bizarre alchemical methods. Now she wears gloves to hide the iron and silver tattoos covering much of her hands and arms, is home-schooled by tutors from the mysterious Order of the Dragon, and reluctantly hides the weirder parts of her life from her best friend, Navin. The hiding comes to an end when the deadly, reclusive wood elves emerge from hiding to stalk and attack her, and the problem escalates when they kidnap Navin in order to force Donna into making a fateful decision. Betray the Order of the Dragon, which has been increasingly shady of late, or lose the only friend she can talk to? Complicating matters is Xan, a half-fey boy to whom she’s increasingly attracted, who might make the difference between success and disaster. While the depiction of the Fae as capricious, destructive outsiders (in a throwback to their earliest manifestations) has become popular of late, Mahoney still brings a fresh new spin to things with her feisty, intriguing protagonist, the undeniable chemistry between her and both Navin and Xan, and the fascinating focus on alchemy and scientific magic. Dark around the edges, but shiny at heart, this is a worthy addition to the YA paranormal shelf. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Donna and her world.
Just recieved: my contributor’s copy of the new issue of Realms of Fantasy, cover-dated December 2010. This is the issue which almost didn’t see print, seeing as how it was the last of the Tir na Nog era, and was in the works when the plug was pulled on that era of the magazine. This issue was published online as a free PDF, but after Realms was sold to Damnation Press, they were able to print this issue anyway.
Mind you, due to space and other considerations, my YA column for this issue was posted online, and temporarily posted on my website as well. Currently, it can be found here on the official Realms of Fantasy website, for those who didn’t catch it the first time around. In this installment, I covered:
Starcrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman
Thresholds by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
X-Isle by Steve Augarde
The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa
The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade
Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
The Blending Time by Michael Kinch
With the resurrection of Realms of Fantasy and the news that no issues will be missed in the publication schedule, I’ve taken some of the most recent reviews offline. These were the ones slated for publication in the December and February cover-dated issues, and will come back up at some point after each issue is released. Apologies for any inconvenience or confusion this causes. If anyone absolutely needs the text of a review, let me know. Otherwise, pick up the magazine when it comes out and help support Realms of Fantasy. Thanks!
Reviewerly:
Realms of Fantasy not dead after all. They’ve been picked up by Damnation Press, according to various reports. More details to follow, such as whether or not my YA column will continue to be a constant feature. One would assume so, but we’re still waiting to see what happens with regards to current editorial staff and contributors.
Editorially:
Scheherazade’s Facade pushed back another year to October 2012, due to more problems on the publisher’s end. Still looking for an alternate home for the anthology, and I’ll be sure to announce once I know anything new.
Authorly:
Sold: “Who Killed The Pumpkin King?” to Jack-o’-Spec: Tales of Halloween and Fantasy, a forthcoming print anthology. It’s another untold tale of Nick St. Claus, the only private investigator who really knows if you’ve been naughty or nice, and picks up some time after “Claus of Death.” Details on publication date to follow as I get them.
With Realms of Fantasy making its final round of farewells, the last issue, cover-dated December 2010, is currently available online only on the website.
Even before that, my column from this issue was cut for space considerations, so it would have been online anyway. When we got the word that the magazine was doomed, I’d already turned in my column for the next issue. Thus, I present an amazing bonanza of YA reviews, three columns’ worth of the good, the bad, and the awesome.
OCTOBER 2010 ISSUE
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford
Passing Strange by Daniel Waters
Perchance To Dream by Lisa Mantchev
The Mermaid’s Mirror by L.K. Madigan
For The Win by Cory Doctorow
The Demon’s Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan
Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
Shadow Grail #1: Legacies by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill
DECEMBER 2010 ISSUE
Starcrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman
Thresholds by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
X-Isle by Steve Augarde
The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa
The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade
Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
The Blending Time by Michael Kinch
FEBRUARY 2011 ISSUE
Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride
Leviathan #2: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
Escape From Furnace #2: Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith
Black Hole Sun by David Mcinnis Gill
Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin
Fallen #2: Torment by Lauren Kate
Delcroix Academy #1: The Candidates by Inara Scott
Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers
Good girl Frannie Cavanaugh has just become the latest target in the eternal struggle between Heaven and Hell, with demon Luc Cain and angel Gabriel both going undercover in her high school in order to jockey for her favor and subtly tempt her to one side or the other. Drawn to both guys equally, but for very different reasons, Frannie slowly learns just what’s going on, and why Heaven and Hell will do anything to claim her. Can she decide the fate of the world based on what’s in her heart? The underlying concepts are more interesting than Frannie’s indecisive ways and the Ping-Ponging romantic plot that drives most of the book. Nevertheless, it’s got some good moments.
