Book Review: The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Book: The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan, Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2009.

Summary:

The Demon's Lexicon takes place in present day England. Nick, who is sixteen years old and has a HUGE chip on his shoulder, and his older brother Alan, along with their insane mother, Olivia, are on the run from magicians who want to kill them because Olivia stole a charm from one of the most powerful magicians, Black Arthur, years ago. These same magicians killed their father, so Nick and Alan have to take care of each other. Their mother will only talk to Alan and wants nothing to do with Nick, though he doesn't know why.

All of this becomes more complicated when brother and sister Jamie and Mae show up asking for help. Jamie has been demon marked, which means he will die, but Alan agrees to try and help them anyway. Nick is furious; he and Alan have enough problems without taking on any more. And, in the process of helping Jamie, Alan gets himself demon marked. Then they find out that Black Arthur has had enough of chasing the brothers and is going to track them down in earnest and take back his property. During their quest to run away and defend themselves, Nick learns that Alan has been lying to him and covering up some big secrets.

My Thoughts:

I picked up The Demon's Lexicon because I had read great reviews about it, though I'll have to admit, it is not one I would normally read. The cover, with its pouty teenaged boy, did not appeal to me, but I thought I'd better not judge the book by its cover.

In some ways, this is a difficult book for me to review. There certainly were some exciting parts, interesting plot twists, lots of hints, interesting development between the two brothers, and some great descriptions. However, I am not a fan of books where the main character has a big chip on their shoulder the whole time, which Nick certainly does. His anger and angst just seem to go on and on and it gets tiring and is difficult to read. In fact, I nearly did not finish the book because of this. In the end, I did enjoy it enough to keep reading, and am glad that I got to the end, because the ending made the book. Overall, however, I found Nick's pouty behaviour and machismo to be repetitive and off putting. I imagine that if you are a fan of the Twilight series, that you would enjoy this book.

Book Review: All I Can Handle by Kim Stagliano

All I Can Handle: I'm No Mother Teresa by Kim Stagliano is an interesting, funny and very readable autobiography of a mother of three autistic daughters. She candidly tells about her life with her daughters, her husband's unemployment and love affair with golf, and explains how she can be happier than she ever imagined, though this is certainly not what she ever thought her life would be like.

I enjoyed reading this book and felt like I could better understand what it means to have an autistic child. Rather than dwelling on horrible stories or even hour by hour, day by day blow by blows of her day, Stagliano gives us vignettes of memorable or typical times with her daughters. I found this quite powerful. 

Stagliano also introduces us to the world of politics within the autistic, medical, and pharmaceutical worlds. I love how she says that she would never tell anyone what to do, but that she is an advocate of getting all of the information you can and making a decision from there. Stagliano is not afraid to give her own controversial opinions in her book, but she it seems to me that she respects other people's opinions so long as they are informed and non-judgmental. It is very clear that she is quite vocal and is seen as contentious by many. 

The level of humour and grace that Stagliano is able to maintain is amazing - she freely admits that she has bad times, times when she feels like screaming. She is able to take a situation that most of us could never imagine and see the joy and happiness in it. I especially love her last chapter entitled "My Turn," when a friend of hers, who also has an autistic child and has also taken care of her sick and elderly parents, wonders when it will be her turn. Kim counters that this is her turn. This is her life. It is all we get and she is not going to waste it. She has the opportunity to appreciate so many little things about life, things that others take for granted. There is a valuable lesson for us all.

My only criticism of the book is that is it repetitive at times. Though annoying, it can maybe be understood given the chit chatty nature of the book. It almost feels as if she is talking to a friend.

Throughout the book Stagliano believes that treatment of autism is the answer and dreams of the day when her daughters' autism will be cured, not that she doesn't love them, but of course she wants their lives to be better and easier, she worries what will happen to them when she and her husband are gone. Her hope is infectious and becomes our hope as we read this book.

Follow Friday Blog Hop

I am trying something new here called Follow Friday sponsored by Parajunkee's View.  The idea is to check out other people's blogs.

This weeks question is:  Do you judge a book by its cover?

Yes, I do!! I find that the cover gives a feel for the book and can often set the tone.  I often use the cover to pick books depending on my mood.  I love a good cover.  That being said, I have been pleasantly surprised by some books and disappointed by others.

Book Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I enjoyed reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner and found the premise interesting: a boy named Thomas finds himself delivered to the Glade, an isolated place full of other boys and surrounded by a maze. There are no adults around and everyone's memory is erased before arriving. Each night the boys are locked in the Glade as the Grievers, nasty, vicious monsters that are a mix of organic and mechanical, roam the maze and kill anyone they can find. Every month for two years a new boy is delivered to the Glade; however, the day after Thomas arrives, a girl is delivered, speaking an ominous message. Something is about to change.

As much as the story was interesting and kept me reading, there were certain levels of frustration that I felt in reading this book. For instance, Thomas is in a fog: he does not remember anything, but does have familiar feelings about some things. He tries to ask several of the other boys questions about their life in the Glade and how things work, but everyone is reluctant to talk about it. Thomas spends a good part of the book frustrated by this, and as a reader, I was frustrated too. Perhaps this was intentional so that we could feel what Thomas feels. However, it also got repetitive. I was compelled to keep reading, however, because I wanted to know why they were in the Glade, what was the purpose of the maze, and what kind of people would send children into this situation.

Another interesting aspect to the book was the almost Lord of the Flies feel to it: what would kids do if left to themselves, would they form a society with rules and structure or would it be a free for all? In this case, unlike the classic tale, Thomas finds himself in a functioning society where order is upheld at all cost.

For me, the book alternated between moving quickly and dragging. There was an interesting cliff hanger at the end, which definitely makes me want to find the next in the series, The Scorch Trials and the groundwork was certainly set to make the second book quite interesting. Overall I did enjoy the book and am glad to have read it and would recommend it to young adults over aged twelve.

The Truth

White lie

Black lie

Stick a needle in my eye,

Cross my heart and hope to die.

A web of lies,

Tangled up in the truth.

We are told to tell the truth,

Seek the truth,

Live up to, uphold and be martyr to the truth,

Do it in the name of the truth.

Truth, wisdom and virtue,

Pinnacles of human achievement.

Truth is a holy grail.

We look outside ourselves to

A higher authority who knows the truth

And judges right from wrong.

What is done in the name of truth,

By those who know they are absolutely right?

Without truth, we are left with...non-judgement,

A virtual chaos of kindness and acceptance.

Truth is Beauty and

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Do we each have our own truth, then?

Can we be all right?

Truth is individual, malleable, changeable and beautiful.

I would rather be kind than true.

c Coreena McBurnie, 2010.

Book Review: Kill All The Judges by William Deverell

In anticipation of the 2011 Shuswap Writers Festival that will be happening in Salmon Arm, BC at the end of May (which I am so excited to attend), I have decided to try and read books from some of the authors who will be there. This particular writer's festival will concentrate on BC authors. I have already read books by some of the authors, but not for all of them.

Recently I picked up Kill All The Judges by William Deverell. Several BC judges have been killed and no one knows if it is just a coincidence. Cudworth Brown, a backwoods, uncouth poet from Gabriolla Island is accused of killing Justice Whynet-Moir. Brown is being represented by Brian Pomeroy, a hotshot lawyer who has gone off the rails after his divorce. He is now on cocaine, is delusional, and is writing a creative non-fiction mystery about the case. After Pomeroy runs from the courtroom on the first day, Arthur Beauchamp, a fellow islander, is reluctantly recruited to come out of retirement and represent Brown. Beauchamp has better things to do: he has a farm to run, his wife is running as the federal Green Party representative, and he is given only three days to prepare for the major trial. That, and he does not like Brown.

First off, I have to say that Deverell has an amazing vocabulary and his use of language is wonderful to read. Also, Deverell was a lawyer himself and has an obvious familiarity with the legal system. I also loved his descriptions of the islands and Vancouver, places where I have spent time.

I enjoyed reading this book, especially the different levels of the story. I liked how Deverell used Pomeroy's mental breakdown and novel writing to create different aspects to the story and move the plot along. Some of this was even quite funny. However, there are four different voices in the book and at first it was a bit confusing, but I found it did not take long to figure it out. The dialogue was great as well and the characters all developed nicely. There were some good surprises and some of the minor characters were good as well. I would recommend this book to anyone who like murder mystery or legal books.

Kill All The Judges is the sequel for April Fool, from what I understand, and I will be sure to keep my eyes open for it as I liked the Arthur Beauchamp character.

William Deverell, Kill All The Judges, McClelland & Stewart Ltd, 2008.

Book Review: The Giggler Treatment by Roddy Doyle

I personally love Roddy Doyle's novels. The Irish author normally writes adult fiction, so when I ran across The Giggler Treatment, I scooped it up for my seven year old son. That night, I started reading it to him and, well, let's just say the humour was right up his alley. The story had both of us laughing our heads off. This is a story that he was quite capable of reading himself, but we could not resist the fun of reading it together. It is the first in a trilogy called “The Rover Adventures.”

The entire story of 102 pages takes place in the few moments it takes Mister Mack to step, or not step (I don't want to give the ending away), in a mound of dog poo. This sounds unlikely, but Roddy Doyle pulls it off beautifully. He creates a wonderful tension and children cannot wait to read the next chapter as Mister Mack's foot inches its way closer to the poo.

Where does this poo come from? Well, it turns out that there are Gigglers out there, who cannot be seen because they can expertly camouflage themselves. Their mission is to punish adults who are mean to children by making them step in dog poo, and a large amount of this dog poo comes from an obliging, and now rich, dog named Rover.

There is so much in this story for kids to love: poo, punishing adults, Gigglers who are on their side, silliness, page turning tension and lots of laughs. When we were done, my son started making a list of the friends he wanted to lend it to. To me, that is the best recommendation, to have enjoyed a book so much that you cannot wait to share it with others.

Hint: if your child likes and can read Captain Underpants, they will probably like this. But it is not only for boys, several of the girls in my son's class have read The Giggler Treatment and loved it.

This review was first published on page 21 of the April/May 2011 issue of Kamloops Momma Magazine.  We loved this book so much, if anyone knows of other books in this vein, can you please comment below.  I would love to hear your suggestions.

Book Review: Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Our local librarian recommended Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry for my son; she said she likes to read a couple of chapters of all the new books that come in, but that she could not put this one down. When my son got to borrow the book, he was reading something else and it was sitting around, so I picked it up and was hooked almost immediately. Now, I like to read YA novels already, especially fantasy, but I had never read any of the zombie books. Still, this one immediately caught my attention.

Benny lives in a post apocalyptic world. Fourteen years ago, the dead woke up and became zombies. They bite the living and turn them into zombies, it is almost like a virus. No one knows why this happened, but the result is that the zombies have taken over the earth, except for a few areas where humans are fenced in. Other than killing people, zombies are actually quite passive.

Benny lives with his older brother, Tom, as their parents were turned into zombies on the First Night. Tom is a well respected bounty hunter, someone who goes out into the Rot and Ruin to track down zombies for people and quiet them, or kill them. Benny has just turned fifteen, the age at which he must get a job or have his rations cut in half. After much resistance, Benny decides to join his brother in the family business of quieting zombies. 

Tom, however, is not like some of the other bounty hunters in town, he is not full of bravado and exciting stories of killing zombies. In Benny's eyes, Tom is a coward.

Out in the Rot and Ruin, Benny watches Tom and the zombies and even some of the other bounty hunters. He sees for himself what is really going on and is faced with serious questions, not the least of which is who are the real monsters, the zombies or the humans.

I really enjoyed how this book examined some serious questions and explored what it means to be human, the nature of fear, how societies develop, and how people can close their eyes to what they know is wrong. The writing was good and moved easily and kept me interested. I also liked how the author played with the zombie story line, making it much more than a gruesome suspense or horror book. In a way, the zombies were not a big part of the book, but the set up to explore human behaviour. Rot & Ruin was left open for a sequel, and I have recently found out that it is called Dust & Decay and will come out August 2011. In fact, a four part series is planned.  I am looking forward to reading how the series progresses.

Here is a YouTube video interviewing Jonathan Maberry about Rot & Ruin:

Book Review: "Room" by Emma Donoghue

I had noticed “Room” by Emma Donoghue in the bookstore several times. It's simple white cover with the child's crayoned writing across the front stands out. It won the Rogers Writers' Trust Award. It was shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize. Canadian author. All good things. Several times I was interested enough to pick it up off the shelf, but then I would open the book and read the inside flap: it is the story of five year old Jack and his Ma, who are being kept prisoner in an eleven-by-eleven-foot room. Jack was born in Room, and his entire life is his Ma and Room, except for the arrival of Old Nick in the night, who Jack does not see because he is tucked away by then. To top it off, the book is told from Jack's point of view. This is too much, I thought to myself several times as I put the book back down, a story of obvious abuse and confinement told by a five year old. I don't think I am up for that.

But then, our library announced that Emma Donoghue would be in town and that she would do a book reading. I love book readings and getting out and being around stimulating conversation, so the next time I saw the book in the bookstore I picked it up and bought it. Am I ever glad that I did - once I started to read it, I could not put it down. Then, having the opportunity to hear Donoghue speak about the book, how it came about, the research that she did, the reactions that she has received, her thoughtful and intelligent answers to the many questions made my experience of the book even better.

As I said, the story is told entirely from Jack's point of view. His small world is all he knows and he is quite happy with it. For him, everything outside of Room is unreal and make believe. They do have TV, but Dora and the news are both equally fantasy for Jack. Ma does her best to create a stimulating world for her son – she reads to him, tells him stories, teaches him math, plays games, gets exercise. As Donoghue pointed out in her talk, she wanted the story to be from Jack's point of view, but not as a traumatized child. In this way, “Room” becomes a microcosm for the mother-child relationship. We also learn about Ma and her circumstances entirely through the lens of Jack, who understands nothing about kidnapping and sexual abuse. The reader, then, has the job of piecing together Ma, what has happened to her, and what she is like.

Donoghue, along with some of the audience members, acknowledge that it is difficult to read a book written in five year old thoughts – she said that she had received a lot of criticism for it. Personally, I did not have a problem with it, but perhaps it is because I live with a five year old! It also made the story what it was because Ma's point of view would have been devastating.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading “Room.” Despite its dark circumstances, Donoghue succeeded to write an interesting, sometimes funny, sometimes sad book about the mother-child relationship. Talk to any mother of a young child and she will tell you how confining it can feel. As much as parents love their children, they are “locked in a room” with them and need to get out sometimes. In this way, Donoghue presents universal themes. This is certainly not a morbid book, though parts of it are difficult to read.

Donoghue herself admits that this is a book that she probably would not pick up at the bookstore given the promise of such dark themes. I am glad that she came to Kamloops to speak or I likely never would have taken the plunge and bought her book either.

What Inspires You?

Inspiration

 

Here I sit, waiting for inspiration to hit me.

Like what?

A slap in the face? A ton of bricks?

Something I’ll easily recognize, I hope.

Will I see the inspiration behind my thoughts?

Will I be open to divine intervention?

Would I know a sign,

Even if it had giant, flashing arrows pointed at it?

Would I mistake it for a bug,

An inconvenience?

Something to swat out of existence before it even gets started?

Or would I be offended because someone had slapped me?

Will I be too busy carpooling, cooking, and cleaning bathrooms

To see what is right in front of me?

I’ll take a minute now,

With the kids screaming in the yard,

Trying to figure out what to make for dinner,

And wait to be inspired.

c Coreena McBurnie, 2009


I would love to hear how other people get inspired for their creative adventures?  Do you need a certain "head space", music, place, feeling?  Please feel free to comment.