Review: Lips Touch: Three Times, by Laini Taylor

Lips Touch: Three Times
By Laini Taylor
Publication Date: October 1st, 2009 (Arthur A. Levine Books)
Hardcover, 266 pages
Genre: Fantasy; Short Stories; Romance; Paranormal; Supernatural; YA
Source: Library

DESCRIPTION:

Everyone dreams of getting the kiss of a lifetime—but what if that kiss carried some unexpected consequences?

A girl who's always been in the shadows finds herself pursued by the unbelievably attractive new boy at school, who may or may not be the death of her. Another girl grows up mute because of a curse placed on her by a vindictive spirit, and later must decide whether to utter her first words to the boy she loves and risks killing everyone who hears her if the curse is real. And a third girl discovers that the real reason for her transient life with her mother has to do with belonging—literally belonging—to another world entirely, whose queen keeps little girls as pets until they reach childbearing age.

From a writer of unparalleled imagination and emotional insight, three stories about the deliciousness of wanting and waiting for that moment when lips touch.

—from the book's dust jacket

REVIEW:

ME: It was very...ordinary.

YOU: How could you say that, Samantha? How can the great Laini Taylor, who is made out of creativity, be ordinary?!

ME: Let me explain...

Yes, Laini Taylor DOES have a wonderful imagination.

For example, there's an Ambassador to Hell, and a girl with a voice that can literally kill. There are salt shakers full of diamonds and, my personal favorite, demons who can smell color.

BUT the way she tells her stories just doesn't have the support the ideas need. 

I don't mean her writing is mundane, because her writing is utterly gorgeous. All of the descriptions and senses and whatnot. Gorgeous. I mean all of the stories are the same, as if she kept the same characters, changed little pieces of their appearances but keep the same personality, and gave them a new conflict to overcome. Each story was like reading the same thing over and over and over again.

For example, the protagonists of each short story were essentially the same in personality. They're described as liking quirky things, and the majority of them have sweet faces, and are demure in nature. If I had to sum up Taylor's main character's personality's in one word, it would be INFP (which is a Myers-Briggs personality type).

(This has nothing to do with the book, but look "INFP" up. Then, if you so chose, take the personality type test. I don't know about you, but I love personality tests. I think it's just interesting to see what general group you're put in.)

While the plots of each story themselves are not really predictable, there is an intense feeling of familiarity, like you've read the story before and know the outcome. And you must definitely have read the story before if you've read any of Taylor's other books (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, perhaps?).

However, I truly enjoyed the romance (what can I say? I'm a big sap-sucker), even if it was nothing new and contained the essence of Taylor's other works. Most of it was sweet, innocent love. True courtship. Young men dancing with young women at garden galas in exotic lands. Fugitive sweet nothings whispered into one another's ear. Dates that consist of exchanging flowers, then walking hand-in-hand to the pond where the lovers feed the ducks.

Lips Touch: Three Times, a collection of three short stories by Laini Taylor, were clones of what an imaginative author usually does in all of her stories. The stories were nothing special, and were ordinary, which was a big surprise coming from an author who's imagination is extraordinary. Lips Touch: Three Times was okay (2 stars), but the ideas get another 0.5 stars.

RATING:

Review: Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1), by Maggie

Shiver
By Maggie Stiefvater
Publication Date: August 1st, 2009 (Scholastic Press)
Hardcover, 392 pages
Genre: Fantasy; Romance; Paranormal; Supernatural; YA
Source: Library

DESCRIPTION:

Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn't know why.

Sam has lived to lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace...until now.

For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it's spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human—and Grace must fight to keep him—even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future.

—from goodreads.com

REVEIW:

Shiver started off slow, as most books to, but it was so painstakingly slow and so in depth detail-and-imagery-wise that I wanted to blow my brains out by page 35 and give up on reading it.  However, if you can get past page 50, you're in luck because it gets much better. :)

The main character's "friends," Olivia and Rachel were really annoying and didn't really have elements to their character. They were just hose friends-who-aren't-friends-percieved-as-the-typical-highschool-girl's-best-friends.

Grace, the main character, is obsessed with the wolves living in the woods behind her house after she is mauled by them (that's a little...strange. I guess we love the things that nearly kill us). I found Grace relatable at the beginning of the story. I don't know why. Perhaps because she's characterized as this introverted and strange outsider. I say I found her relatable at the beginning of the story because she changed after Sam, the love interest, came into her life, and after that I didn't like her.

All of the characters changed after Sam came into the book as a human. Grace's character became watered down, and she faded toward that Seventh Circle of Hell for unbelievable characters. It was like Hush, Hush, or Twilight, or Jace and Clary in The Mortal Instruments series: after the love interest of the main character is introduced, the characters lose personality and the book seems to SUPERFICIALLY circle more around the depth of the "relationship" rather than the way the two characters in that relationship change. How can you make a relationship deep without highlighting character personality changes and making other characteristics bolder? You can't. That said, the romance in the book was the typical cuddle-in-bed-together-steamy-make-out-sessions, without any real personality.

Sam's character was watered down also, but he never really seemed to have a solid personality anyway. A bit of his background is given, horrible things meant to make the reader pity him, and it works. I feel awful for him. Sam's background stories were groundbreaking-earth-shattering, whatever you wish to call it, and wholly satisfying, but his character was just flat somehow, which was really disappointing after reading his powerful life story. :(

Olivia and Rachel's characters improved, I'm proud to say. :) 

Isabel (another supporting character) improved also. Through the whole book Isabel was mean, but there were little nuggets in there where she could be sympathized with an even adored. If I had to choose my favorite character, it would be her. She's just so determined, resourceful, and intelligent even though her striking beauty would make you believe she's stupid.

The plot was fresh and captivating, and the ideas that made the plot up weren't overly imaginative. They were just right. :)

I just LOVE Maggie Stiefvater's writing style! It's so poetic and lyrical and descriptive, and although the style draws on the story and makes it slow in the beginning, her style adds to the middle and end.

The ending—it was cute. Truly. Well, actually the ending was suspenseful, then tense, then sad, then happy, the cute. A rainbow of emotions. However, not all of the characters get their way...

RATING:

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Just another day in the land of epic Harry Potter quotes.

Review: Trafficked, by Kim Purcell

Trafficked
By Kim Purcell
Publication Date: February 16th, 2012 (Viking Juvenile)
Hardcover, 384 pages
Genre: Contemporary; Realistic Fiction; Social Issues; YA
Source: Library

DESCRIPTION:

The American Dream becomes a nightmare...

Ever since her parents were killed and her beloved uncle vanished, Hannah has struggled to support herself and her grandmother. So when she's offered the chance to leave Moldova and become a nanny for a family in Los Angeles, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime.

At first, Hannah likes her new employers. But after weeks of working sixteen-hour days and not being allowed to leave the house, she still hasn't been paid. As things go from bad to worse, Hannah finds herself doing things she never imagined herself capable of—lying, eavesdropping, even sneaking out late at night to meet Colin, the boy who lives next door. And when she gets caught, the mother threatens her with a fate even worse than being a slave: prostitution.

When Hannah discovers that the father knew her family back in Moldova, she's determined to find out if he knows anything about her missing uncle. But as she uncovers the truth, she may be exposing more than she bargained on—and putting her life in danger.

—from goodreads.com

REVEIW:

Trafficked, by Kim Purcell, made me furious—in a good way. In a "hey-let's-all-go-out-into-the-community-and-spread-awareness-about-human-trafficking-in-the-United-States-because-yes-it-does-go-on-here" kind of way, which is what the author's intentions were, no doubt.

Trafficked isn't about sexual slavery; rather it's more about domestic slavery. In Kim Purcell's Author's Note at the end of the book, Purcell states that trafficked people are "hidden in warehouses, brothels, and regular American neighborhoods," the last fact being chilling because you, dear reader, could have a "Hannah" living in the house next to you.

I feel this way because Kim Purcell has injected her little gem with what I like to call "Emoto-juice," a serum powerful enough to make even the coldest of people emote. The serum is released by unfortunate happenstances when god-awful things happen to a character who does not deserve those awful things to happen to them.

I'd love to provide you with examples from Trafficked, but each misfortunate happenstance is a spoiler in a way, because through inference and prediction you'd know what would happen (and I'm sure you'd figure it out, because the characters are quite predictable. Concerning the predictability of the plot...

The beginning and end were predictable, but the meat of the story wasn't. The web of plot points was made up of lies and those lies kept being rewritten and rewritten until I was slightly lost in the plot. Some points just didn't seem to make sense, or add up. I was content with the ending because I felt like it left a lot of loose ends lying around, and I wanted to know exactly what would happen.

Even though Hannah could be naive sometimes, she deserves the Badge of Courage. She's beautiful, not much of a physical fighter, but she is a psychological fighter with great intelligence and wits about her. She never, ever cries or yells or talks back because she rightly knows it gives the bully satisfaction. She creates a docile facade she uses around her employer, but she was always buzzing with emotion and thoughts under the surface. Even though it was just as easy for Hannah to numb her emotions and become part of the living dead, she refused to do so.

RATING:

Review: Sabriel (Abhorsen #1), by Garth Nix

Sabriel (Abhorsen #1)
By Garth Nix
Publication Date: 1995 (Harper Collins)
Hardcover, 292 pages
Genre: Fantasy; Adventure; YA
Source: Library

DESCRIPTION:

Ever since she was a tiny child, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father, the Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that world.

Though her journey begins alone, she soon fined companions: Mogget, whose seemingly harmless feline form hides a powerful—and perhaps malevolent—spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories. 

With threats on all sides and only each other to trust, the three must ravel deep into the Old Kingdom, toward a battle that will pit them against the true forces of life and death—and bring Sabriel face-to-face with her own hidden destiny.

A tale of dark secrets, deep love, and dangerous magic, Sabriel introduces Garth Nix as an exceptional new talent.

—from the book's dust jacket

REVEIW:

First of all, let's talk about the book cover: Is that a girl or boy on the cover? Take a moment to look at it.

Odds are you're thinking about his man-hands. However, the truth in the matter is, that that man is a wo-man. Yeah...

Anyway, I don't buy books often. Okay: I try not to buy books often. Sometimes I buy books when I don't really have any money because (not necessarily in the order of reasons I'm most passionate about) 1) I love supporting the work of great authors; 2) I love the smell, the feel, and the look of a new book; and 3) I love sharing great books by lending them to friends. 

Sabriel, the first book in the Abhorsen Series (it was originally a trilogy, but that idea is no more. There are currently four books in the series), by Australian author Garth Nix, is a book I will without-a-doubt purchase.

Sabriel isn't about Sabriel, the 18-year-old female protagonist, journeying into the afterlife to save her dead father from, well, death, by bring him back to, well, life. I thought it might be. Not really though. Sabriel only goes into Death a handful or two handfuls of times in the book. Most of the time is spent in this raw, broken country called the "Old Kingdom," as Sabriel and her companions are chased by the Dead (what we would call "zombies") and an unspeakable evil that is trying to manifest itself again in the world of the living.

Sabriel was a pretty flat character. I liked Mogget, the "cat," and his smugness. Touchstone made me laugh, even though I don't think some of the parts he was highlighted in, such as his crazy-rage parts, were meant to be humorous. Still, I found Touchstone pretty unremarkable.

The world-building in Sabriel is fantastic and the ideas in it are unlike anything I've ever read. 

Sabriel's world is made up of two completely different places: Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre. Think of Ancelstierre as similar to our own world, with perhaps a pinch of World War Two England in it: electricity, modern-ish weaponry, boarding schools. Then Ancelstierre is like some rouge, war-torn country, with Free, lawless magic. Ancelstierre and Old Kingdom are right next to each other, the only thing separating them from one another is a wall and a second-rate army on the Ancelstierre side. Cool world, right? Taking gated communities to a whole new level.

More on the world: there's Gore Crows, which are basically zombie crows; Mordicants, beasts made of human blood, moulded bog mud, and magic freakin' blasts out of their mouths and drips from their claws (aka: awesome); and Mordaut, which are parasitic zombies. Of course there's more, but those are my favorites. 

RATING: