Review: The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto

Synopsis:

A major literary sensation is back with a quietly stunning tour de force about the redemptive power of love.

While The Lake shows off many of the features that have made Banana Yoshimoto famous—a cast of vivid and quirky characters, simple yet nuanced prose, a tight plot with an upbeat pace—it’s also one of the most darkly mysterious books she’s ever written.

It tells the tale of a young woman who moves to Tokyo after the death of her mother, hoping to get over her grief and start a career as a graphic artist. She finds herself spending too much time staring out her window, though ... until she realizes she’s gotten used to seeing a young man across the street staring out his window, too.

Pages: 192 pages (Paperback)
Publisher: Melville House
Released: May 3, 2011

Before I start, I just want to say that if you see this book at amazon, goodreads, book depository, the library, the book...basically anywhere that you can find this book. Do not, under any circumstances, read the synopsis past the point that I've posted here. Why? Because the synopsis kind of spoils the book. So if you plan on reading this, don't read the synopsis.

I've only read one book by Banana Yoshimoto, Asleep, which I enjoyed. I love her writing style and how it gives off a very dreamy sort of style. I'm still not sure if it's correctly translated, but I think for the most part, Michael Emmerich did a great job.

The story is about Chihiro and Nakajima and their complicated relationship. Chihiro is still suffering from the death of her mother and it's clear that Nakajima has a painful past that no one could ever imagine. (unless you read the synopsis, so don't!) The more Nakajima learns to trust Chihiro, the more she wants to heal him. It's a complicated relationship, but one that both of them want and need.

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Overall:

The Lake is a relatively short book. It's only 192 pages. But after reading Asleep and now The Lake, I've noticed that even though her books are short they feel longer. I remember reading this and feeling like a long time has passed, but I was only on page 70. Now, whether this is a bad thing or a good one is entirely up to the reader.

As far as the story goes, it's okay. There is a sense of loneliness, grief, and pain throughout the pages. This is a pretty dark book, but one that I thought was quite good. Like I mentioned before, I became a fan of Yoshimoto's writing style after reading Asleep and I was glad that the same translator was used for both books. When I read her books I feel a sense of disconnect from her characters, but they still keep me engaged. It's weird, but it's one of the things that I like about her writing.

The Lake does start off slow and I did feel like it dragged on at some points, but I still enjoyed my time reading this.


ps. Did I mention that you shouldn't read the synopsis?

4 stars

This was provided by netgalley

Review: Misfit by Jon Skovron

Synopsis:

Jael Thompson has never really fit in. She's changed schools too many times to count. The only family she's ever known is her father, a bitter ex-priest who never lets her date and insists she attend the strictest Catholic school in Seattle. And her mother--well, she was a five thousand year old demon. That doesn't exactly help.

But on her sixteenth birthday, her father gives her a present that brings about some unexpected changes. Some of the changes, like strange and wonderful powers and the cute skater boy with a knack for science, are awesome. But others, like the homicidal demon seeking revenge on her family? Not so much.

Steeped in mythology, this is an epic tale of a heroine who balances old world with new, science with magic, and the terrifying depths of the underworld with the ordinary halls of high school.

Pages: 384 pages (Hardcover)
Publisher: Amulet Books
Release: August 1st, 2011

Jael is half mortal and half demon. It's not something she's really worried about until her sixteenth birthday when her father reluctantly hands her a necklace. He doesn't want her to have it, but his dead wife made him promise her that he'd give it to Jael when she turns 16. The necklace opens up Jael's demon powers, but also makes her a target for a big demon who has been hunting her for many years. He hates half breeds and wants to kill her, just like he killed her mom.

This is a hard review for me to write. Every time I start to write something, I end up deleting it because it doesn't sound right. Nothing seems to sound right. I kind of what to delete what I wrote above too, but it's too late for that. The reason why I'm having a hard time with this novel is because I really disliked this book. Not just a little bit, but a lot. It might be my least favourite book of the year.

This book had a lot of things going for it. The premise and the mythology that was used made me want to like this, but I just couldn't. I think the biggest reason why I didn't get into this book was the writing style. It's not easy to write a present tense novel and make it appealing. It's hard for a lot of readers to get into. I don't mind it, but that's only if the novel is fast paced and a lot of things are happening. When it's like this, I think it works. When the novel is slow moving, then you shouldn't be using present tense.

But using present tense and third person, when the novel is slow moving (at least until the end) that just spells trouble. Because it's written this way, Jael never connected to me. She was just there. And she sounds incredibly annoying, selfish, and stupid. I understand that she's lived a very strict lifestyle, so learning more about being a demon is her way of rebelling to her dad. But why didn't she take the time to actually talk to him about it?

Jael's relationships with other people in the novel never rang true to me either. The other characters, other than her dad, are not fleshed out well and sound more like stereotypes; you have the cool and accepting uncle, the understanding teacher, the bad guy, who is a stupid bad guy, the skater boy, who is good at math and science and the best friend who is a hard core conservative, but fools around with a lot of guys.

There are a few chapters, told in third person past tense that tell us about Jael's parents life before and when they had her. This was slightly interesting, but I couldn't get into this due to my ill feelings caused by the rest of the book.

I found that the more I read, the more nitpicky I got. Brit, the best friend, using J all the time when she is talking to Jael annoyed me. Rob, the boyfriend, using Betty or Bets all the time when talking to Jael annoyed me. Dagon, the uncle, using kid all the time when talking to Jael annoyed me. Jael, the main character, using Uncle D when talking to her uncle annoyed me. Seeing 'says' a lot annoyed me.

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Overall

The cover is beautiful, the content inside not so much. I had to force myself to finish this book, when I really didn't want to finish this book. This had a lot of potential and I can see this becoming a series, but sadly it wasn't executed properly and because of that I didn't enjoy this at all.


1 star

This book was provided by net galley

Review: Ultraviolet by RJ Anderson

Synopsis:

"Once upon a time there was a girl who was special. This is not her story. Unless you count the part where I killed her."

Sixteen-year-old Alison wakes up in a mental institution. As she pieces her memory back together, she realizes she's confessed to murdering Tori Beaugrand, the most perfect girl at school. But the case is a mystery. Tori's body has not been found, and Alison can't explain what happened. One minute she was fighting with Tori. The next moment Tori disintegrated--into nothing.

But that's impossible. No one is capable of making someone vanish. Right? Alison must be losing her mind--like her mother always feared she would.

For years Alison has tried to keep her weird sensory abilities a secret. No one ever understood--until a mysterious visiting scientist takes an interest in Alison's case. Suddenly, Alison discovers that the world is wrong about her--and that she's capable of far more than anyone else would believe.

Pages: 306 pages (Hardcover)
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books; 1 edition
Release: September 1st 2011

Alison wakes up in white room with no memory of how she got there and is told that she'll be transferred to Pine Hills, a mental institution for teens. Sure she can taste sound and smell words, but she's kept that to herself. Other than that she's completely sane. The police, the staff at Pine Hills, and her mother and friend don't think so. It's probably because on the night that Tori disappeared, Alison came home covered in blood screaming that she killed Tori. When police tried to apprehend her, she attacked them and attacked herself as well.

The night Tori died is still a mystery to Alison. One minute they were fighting, the next minute Tori disintegrated and hasn't been found since. Even though the situation is completely unbelievable, Alison believes that she's the cause of Tori's disappearance. In fact, she believes she killed her with her mind.

As the novel goes on, we learn more about Alison's rare, but completely human ability (you can even find it on wikipedia). But sadly, that takes up the majority of the novel. I would have liked to hear more about Tori and the mystery surrounding her. We do find out, obviously, but it's rushed. More Tori would have been appreciated.

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Overall

If you are expecting a supernatural fiction novel, which is what the synopsis kind of tells you, then you might feel disappointed. This isn't supernatural fiction, the beginning is regular teen fiction, but near the end it turns sci-fi. This didn't really bother me and I hope this doesn't deter others from reading this.

I felt like the time spent in Pine Hills did drag on quite a bit, considering that you're expecting to hear more about the mystery. It was interesting though. One of the things that I didn't like was Alison's love interest. As a standalone character, he was alright, but when he’s together with Alison and then they confess their love to each other that was a little off for me. I understood why Alison felt the way she felt, sure it didn’t scream love it was more of confused because you were nice to me when no one else was. But she’s a teen, so it’s normal for her to confuse this feeling with love. Him on the other hand, it never rang true with me.

Ultraviolet did take me a few days to finish, but every time I picked up my iPod to read this I did get hooked. There are a lot of good points in this novel and I could see this turning into a series, but also some things that I didn't quite like. Overall, this was a fun and very different read so I enjoyed it.

3.5 stars

This book was provided by net galley

Review: Secrets, Monsters, and Magic Mirrors by Donald B. Lemke

Synopsis:

Five of the world's greatest fairy tales are retold in the popular and attractive graphic novel format. Beautiful, bold illustrations give these timeless tales a modern edge. The stories include Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, Princess and the Pea, Snow White, and Thumbelina.

Pages: 176 pages (Paperback)
Publisher: Capstone
Released: August 1, 2011

Because this is a collection of stories, I'll be providing a brief review for each story.

Rapunzel
I've heard of this version of Rapunzel before, so this wasn't something new to me. I thought the artwork was fitting for this story. When we see the witch and her scenes, the art is very gray and dark. When we see Rapunzel and her prince, there is a lot more life and colour on the pages. Even when the witch and Rapunzel were together, the witch was gray and Rapunzel was full of life.

Thumbelina
Even though this story is quite famous, I've never read it before. So this was my first time seeing Thumbelina. The art in this story is very colourful, which again fits the story. I quite enjoyed watching Thumbelina go from her home, to the frogs, to the mouse, and everywhere in between.

Snow White
In terms of artwork, I would say that Snow White has a very mature style. Once again, it works for the story, but it doesn't match the theme of this collection. All the other stories have some sort of cuteness to them. Snow White doesn't. It kind of reminded me of the Anita Blake graphic novel. The evil stepmother looked evil, but also slightly manish. I did like how the seven dwarfs looked though, they were very cute.

Beauty and the Beast
In terms of artwork, this was my second favourite story out of the 5. It reminded me of felt artwork and the backgrounds were beautifully done. Everything was simple, but the little details made it really stand out. The story was good too!

Princess and the Pea
This was my favourite story in the collection. The art was colourful and vibrant and the story was incredibly cute. I've read a Princess and the Pea many times as a kid, but it was never a story that I actively sought out. The idea of someone being so fragile that a pea would bother then didn't make sense to me. I wondered why she didn't just get off the bed and sleep on the floor? So I wasn't expecting much in terms of story from this, but I loved watching the prince search for a princess to wed. The characters he meets on his travels were unique, funny, and very weird.

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Overall

I quite liked this collection. I love fairy tales, so I knew that I would be a fan of this right from the get go. One of the things I liked, other than the artwork, was how each story came with a brief history about it. Where the stories came from, how the stories changed throughout the years, when did the Brothers Grimm find it. Reading this was one of my favourite parts in this collection. Also, before each story would start, we'd be told the cast of characters.

The artwork was beautifully done as well, each had its own unique style but still shared some similarities to the other stories. For the most part, it's very kid friendly.

If you are looking for something original or a retelling of these classics, then this might not be the book that you're looking for. But if you're a fan of fairy tales, or want to introduce fairy tales to your kids, and want to see those stories told in graphic novel format, then this might be just for you.


3.5 stars

This book was provided by net galley.