The dark, dangerous, and desirable

Throughout all my time as a reader, I have found just a few writers that seem to have almost a mystical prowess; that grab their readers attention immediately, and hold them in a trance from the beginning to the end of their novels. Among these spell-casters, Holly Black stands out as one of the best.

I’ve raved over every Holly Black book I’ve ever picked up. I read ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ as a teenager and was entranced. I read ‘Doll Bones’ for a class in college and loved every moment of it. And ‘The Coldest Girl in Coldtown’ is one of my favorite vampire novels of all time, and I read a lot of vampire novels.

Even with her prodigious repertoire of YA and children’s novels, nothing quite compares to her newest release, ‘The Cruel Prince’ a spellbinding tale of the unseen fairy realm.

The book centers on Jude, a mortal girl taken from her home at the age of seven when her parents are killed by a red-cap, Madoc. She and her twin sister, Taryn, along with her older sister, Vivienne, are taken from their mortal home and into the fairy realm. Vivienne is Madoc’s daughter, and, feeling a sense of obligation to his late wife, he raises Jude and Taryn as his own as well.

As ever, Black’s fairy world is less frolicking-through-the-meadow and much more dark and murderous. The everlasting fey of the Fairy Court are both beautiful and perilous. Black’s world is one where danger lurks around every corner, but the danger is enticing, enchanting. A beautiful river flows through the forest, but in the river lurks bloodthirsty kelpies. A golden fairy fruit will taste incredible to a mortal, and poison them at the same time. This dark and fantastical world pulls the reader directly into it, both enchanting and horrifying at the same time.

It is a story of a scrappy main character with a shifty moral code. Perhaps the best thing about her is her mortality. Jude is human, though she longs to be fey. Because she is human, though, she makes human choices, taking actions that surprise even herself. She is spurred on by her parents death and a desire to be in control of herself; The Folk can ‘glamour’ humans, or make them do their bidding. Her desires lead her to lie, cheat, and spy in the Fairy Court’s own version of Game of Thrones.

The rich tale of politics and betrayal gives this story a backdrop of intrigue. And while Princes fight for their place on the throne, Jude takes on problems of her own: her sisters secret suitor, her own fairy lover, and an enemy, Prince Cardan. Jude and Cardan have a chemistry of their own; much like the rest of the book, what is dark and dangerous is also desirable.

It is a spellbinding work, guaranteed to pull you directly into a perilous and exquisite world. Black is a compelling writer who, like the creatures she writes about, will truly hold you under her spell.

This Savage Reviewer

In the past, I have spoiled myself on subscription boxes of adorable, bookish merchandise. The company that I use is Owl Crate, a monthly, Young Adult subscription box. They send all sorts of fun merchandise and a YA novel.

The last book I received was ‘The Serpent King’, a book to which I gave very high praise.

This month, I was less enthused.

‘This Savage Song’ by Victoria Schwab was, for the most part, a frustrating read. The story was interesting, and, toward the end, even compelling. But I often read for style, and the style choices Schwab made were sloppy and made me often set the book aside, too frustrated to read any more.

The following is me nit-picking. If you want to hear what I liked about the book, you can skip ahead a paragraph.

PRONOUNS. They exist for a reason. When there are only two characters interacting through pretty much 80 percent of a book, and one of them is a boy and the other is a girl, you can use the words “he” and “she” and the reader will still know who you’re talking about. Schwab names Kate and August, the two main characters with every action they do, every thought that they think. I was so frustrated that I finally counted how many proper nouns I saw on one page. 8. Three paragraphs. 18 sentences. 8 Kates and Augusts. As I said, it is a nitpicky thing, but something that separates a good book from a mediocre book.

And this book could be a good book, I think. The central conflict is compelling, the characters complicated and interesting.  It is set in an apocalyptic future where acts of violence create literal monsters: the Malchai, who eat blood, the Corsai, literal shadows with teeth that rip their victims apart, and the Sunai, the most mysterious of monsters, who steal souls with a song. Kate Harker is the daughter of a Mafia King Pin, whose mobsters are literal monsters. August is a Sunai who just wants to be a normal person.

Sounds great, right? As I said, it is compelling. I fought through annoying style choices and found my way to the meat of the story. It examines good and evil in an interesting way, looks at what it is to be human. And begs the question: are humans the real monsters?

But for 250 pages, I had to muddle through chapter by chapter, getting more and more frustrated by the mediocre writing, nearly throwing my book in anguish when Schwab hid our two main characters in a restaurant kitchen and said August rammed “some sort of kitchen tool through the door handles,” to keep out the Malchai. Has the author never been in a kitchen? She couldn’t say ladle? Or whisk? Or spatula?

It is little things like this that grow more and more off-putting in YA novels. The story is there, but the style isn’t. It has been the case with more and more of the new YA books I pick up: ‘A Study in Charlotte,’ ‘The Lunar Chronicles’ ‘The Haunting of Sunshine Girl.’

When I read a book, I want the whole package, story and style. Although I have heard good things about Schwab’s other books, I will not be picking up another.

A legend that still holds us captive

London is steeped in legend and myth. From King Arthur to Robin Hood, myths have been spread and talked about so much that they’ve become reality. One of London’s mysteries is that of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

I finished reading “Sweeney Todd: The Graphic Novel” this weekend. The graphic novel was adapted from Thomas Peckett Prest’s penny dreadful serial “A String of Pearls.”

The art in this novel was gorgeous. Any pages with Todd were bordered in black, where other characters stories were bordered in white, or other light colors. This distinction, though minor, really added to the story. There was also minimal violence shown in the pages, a plus for younger readers, who seem to be the books intended audience.

That’s not to say the book isn’t scary. The original is very different from Steven Sondheim’s musical and Tim Burton’s screen adaptation, the story that I am familiar with. Todd was not originally the sympathetic anti-hero that these adaptations paint him as. He kills for selfish reasons, namely money, and, twice, for a string of pearls. Often, his face is painted in shadows as he looms over his victims.

Even more scary is Mrs. Lovett, the owner of a meat pie shop and his partner in crime, who locks men in the basement to make the pies. They are only to eat the pies, and when they grow tired of their job, she has Todd “polish them off.” There is a never ending string of cooks who end up in the very pies that they were baking.

Yep. Creepy.

The book includes a helpful afterword addressing the legend of Sweeney Todd. Prest’s periodical was not the only story of a killer barber; Todd was written about in The Newgate Calendar, which published gripping tales of criminals. However, no official records of a trial exist, leading many to believe that the story in The Newgate Calendar was a fabrication.

Whether fact or legend, Sweeney Todd’s story is captivating. Brought to life in vivid color, this graphic novel is the best way I can think of to relive the legend of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Seek ‘Asylum’ in these page turners

Here is something I love: a book that raises the hair on your arms and makes your heart race. Creepy books are the best, because nothing gets me more excited than wrenching through the pages trying to figure out why creepy stuff is happening.

I was drawn to Madeleine Roux’s “Asylum” books by the dreary covers, and the grim photos within.

The books feature Dan Crawford, a regular 16-year-old nerd. Interested in history and psychology, he arrives at a six-week prep course looking to meet friends and do a lot of homework. You know, fun summer activities.

There, Dan meets Jordan, a math prodigy whose parents think he is spending the summer at a Pray-the-Gay-Away summer camp, and Abby, a talented artist with no fear.

While staying in Brookline, the three begin exploring the building and digging up it’s dark past. Brookline was used as an Asylum, where the Warden, used experimental methods on it’s residents, including lobotomies.

Upon  finding out the Warden’s name, Daniel Crawford, Dan becomes obsessed with finding out more about the asylum, and whether or not he had a relation the old Warden. The past comes back to haunt him even worse when students start dying.

Though they make it through their summer alive (barely), Dan, Jordan, and Abby feel compelled to return to the campus after receiving the creepy message “You’re not finished” on the back of a photo of a carnival. In “Sanctum,” the three follow the advice of their would-be murderer, and return to Camford to discover Warden Daniel Crawford’s secrets.

With a secret society of masked people on their trail, the three dig up information on hypnosis and drug tests done long before the Warden was in charge of Brookline. The book becomes a race to take back control of their own minds before someone else can.

Both “Asylum” and “Sanctum” are rapid page turners. I ripped through “Sanctum” in less than three days, eager to discover the mystery along with the trio of characters. Each chapter ends with a cliff-hanger compelling the reader on.

The pictures in both books add to Roux’s storytelling. She is able to set the foreboding scene with the grim photos.

Not only are the books appealing because of the fantastic storytelling, but also for the pop culture references. The characters reference their own favorite YA literature, such as “Harry Potter,” and at one point, Dan flirtatiously calls Abby “Khaleesi.” Pop culture references come up frequently, reminding the reader that Roux’s trio of characters exist in our world.

I loved every heart-stopping second of Roux’s “Asylum” books, and only hope that I might be treated with more. A good creepy novel is hard to find, and it was a pleasure that I happened to come by these.