Book Review: Doll Bones

Zach, Poppy and Alice have been friends for ever. They love playing with their action figure toys, imagining a magical world of adventure and heroism. But disaster strikes when, without warning, Zach’s father throws out all his toys, declaring he’s too old for them. Zach is furious, confused and embarrassed, deciding that the only way to cope is to stop playing . . . and stop being friends with Poppy and Alice. But one night the girls pay Zach a visit, and tell him about a series of mysterious occurrences. Poppy swears that she is now being haunted by a china doll – who claims that it is made from the ground-up bones of a murdered girl. They must return the doll to where the girl lived, and bury it. Otherwise the three children will be cursed for eternity . . .

I snagged a copy of Doll Bones by Holly Black the day it hit shelves. I'm a huge fan and have read most everything she's published. The Spiderwick Chronicles and beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles were both fabulous series, and so I was excited to read this new middle grade.

Doll Bones is one of my favorite books of 2013. It's fun and adventurous, but also sad and touching. Zach, Poppy, and Alice are all kids on the brink of becoming teens. Soon they'll be too old for their games, running around playing with dolls and action figures, creating these stories with their toys. When Zach's father declares he's too old to play, and tosses his toys out in the garbage, it sets him and his friends on a path to give up their game.

But they have one more adventure before they finish. One of Poppy's dolls, the queen, is a china doll. Poppy claims a ghost comes to her in her sleep and says that her bones are used to create the china of the dolls bones. The ghost vows not to leave her alone until the doll finds it's way to her parents' graves. So Poppy, Alice, and Zach agree to get her there.

This novel is creative and funny and creepy and very entertaining. By then end of the book, these three friends are more grown and on their way to adulthood. It made me think of the games I used to play and how much I miss that carefree time. Being an adult can be so boring. So thank the goddess for books like these.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. Even if middle grade fiction isn't your thing, I think you'll like this one. And if you need a bigger selling point, it had a very similar vibe to Neil Gaiman's, Coraline.

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Book Review: Black Heart

Cassel Sharpe knows he’s been used as an assassin, but he’s trying to put all that behind him. He’s trying to be good, even though he grew up in a family of con artists and cheating comes as easily as breathing to him. He’s trying to do the right thing, even though the girl he loves is inextricably connected with crime. And he’s trying to convince himself that working for the Feds is smart, even though he’s been raised to believe the government is the enemy.

But with a mother on the lam, the girl he loves about to take her place in the Mob, and new secrets coming to light, the line between what’s right and what’s wrong becomes increasingly blurred. When the Feds ask Cassel to do the one thing he said he would never do again, he needs to sort out what’s a con and what’s truth. In a dangerous game and with his life on the line, Cassel may have to make his biggest gamble yet—this time on love.

I’ve been a fan of Holly Black’s since I read Tithe in 2007. And her Curse Workers series is by far my favorite thing she’s written. So imagine my excitement when I got my hands on an arc of Black Heart.

Sadly, Black Heart is the final book in this series. And I needed this book to be great. However, considering how much I’ve loved Holly Black’s other books, I had hope that it would reach my high expectations. And it did! I read this book in two days and didn't want to put it down.

This will be a short review because I don't want to spoil anyone. But trust me when I say you want to read this series. Cassel and Lila are amazing characters. And I really enjoyed Daneca, Sam, and the rest of the supporting cast. The curse work and the mob is new, fresh, and interesting. And something different in YA is so great. Because so often I feel like I'm rereading because so many books are so similar. It tied up all the loose ends left over from books one and two and wrapped up the series very nicely.

I can't wait for Holly's next book: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

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Book Review: Ironside

A Modern Faery’s Tale

In the realm of Faerie, the time has come for Roiben's coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure of only one thing -- her love for Roiben. But when Kaye, drunk on faerie wine, declares herself to Roiben, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Now Kaye can't see or speak to Roiben unless she can find the one thing she knows doesn't exist: a faerie who can tell a lie.

Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth -- that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother's shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben's throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?

Holly Black spins a seductive tale at once achingly real and chillingly enchanted, set in a dangerous world where pleasure mingles with pain and nothing is exactly as it appears.

Ironside is the conclusion to Holly Black’s Faery trilogy and direct sequel to Tithe. It brings together Kaye, Roiben, and Corny from Tithe and Luis from Valiant. Roiben finds himself leading the Unseelie Court. And his love, Kaye, is in danger. To keep her safe, he gives her an impossible quest. As all fans of faery fiction know, faeries can’t lie. Her quest is to find a faery who can lie.

Along the way, Kaye ends up telling her mother who she really is. A faery changeling. Resulting in yet another quest… to find her mother’s real daughter who has been hidden in faery all these years. This leads her back into the dangerous world of Faerie, as she becomes a pawn of the Seelie queen.

Ironside, named for the faery's term for our world, is even more exciting than Tithe and Valiant, with even more twists and turns. When I finished this one, I dubbed it my favorite of the three. But, later, I adjusted that, placing it in second place (just under Valiant). But, regardless, it’s an excellent conclusion to an excellent trilogy, and I highly recommend all three of them. As well as anything and everything else written by Holly Black.

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Book Review: Valiant

A Modern Faery’s Tale

When seventeen-year-old Valerie runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system.

But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends. And when one talks Val into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature with whom they are all involved, Val finds herself torn between her newfound affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

Valiant by Holly Black opens with an introduction to Val and the life she lives with her mother… who is sleeping with Val’s boyfriend. She runs off and finds herself surrounded by new friends who all live together within the subway system: Luis, Dave, and Lolli.

Luis has “the sight” and years prior he was blinded in one eye by a faery simply because he was given the ability to see them. That’s only the beginning of this scary world Val is brought into. Dave runs errands, delivering a substance called “Never” to strange beings. A few of them decide to try the Never themselves, and while on this mysterious drug, they find themselves in Ravus’ home, the troll who makes the Never.

Val ends up trapped delivering the Never for Ravus, in exchange for Lolli’s freedom. While on a delivery, she comes across a dead mermaid. Poisoned. By the Never… Is Ravus behind it? Or one of Val’s friends? Or someone else entirely? But it might not even matter who is to blame when caught up in such a dangerous world.

While in the same series as Tithe, this novel involves a whole new set of characters. And I loved this one even more than the first. It’s more or less a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, as Val falls for Ravus. I love both Val and Ravus, and the romance blossoming between them.

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Book Review: Tithe

What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?

Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces the sixteen-year-old back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms -- a struggle that could very well mean her death.

Newcomer Holly Black's enormously powerful voice weaves teen angst, riveting romance, and capriciously diabolical faerie folk into an enthralling, engaging, altogether original reading experience.

Tithe by Holly Black tells the story of Kaye, a teenage girl who has always been different. She grew up having three imaginary friends: Spike, Gristle, and Lutie-Loo. Only they weren’t imaginary. They’re faeries. Not the sweet, cute little faeries that you see in children’s fairy tales. But real faeries. Scary faeries.

When Kaye meets another faery, Roiben, she saves his life, thus earning the knowledge that is his real name. And she is pulled deeper into this dangerous world. She finds herself in the middle of a faery war, between two powerful courts: Seelie and Unseelie. And it becomes her job to save a human from being sacrificed to the Unseelie court.

This was my first YA faery book, and I read it for the first time about four years ago. To be honest, I had a bit of trouble getting into it. It’s a bit grittier than what I’m used to. I didn’t really relate to Kaye. But I enjoyed Corny and Kaye’s friendship with him. I wasn’t a huge fan of Roiben either. Regardless, I quite enjoyed this novel. The bizarre world of faery is certainly intriguing, and Holly Black did an amazing job of describing it. I absolutely adored Lutie-Loo. And I have to say my favorite scene was the part on the carousel.

If you haven’t read Tithe, what are you waiting for?

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