124. "The Burning Bridge" by John Flanagan

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Flanagan, John. The Burning Bridge. New York, NY: Puffin Books,  2005. Print.

262 pages.

Reviewed by J. d'Artagnan Love

The Burning Bridge picks up right where the Ruins of Gorlan left off. Morgarath is planning for a war with the kingdom and Will and Halt are following the trail. Spoiler alert, as the title suggests, Morgarath built a bridge and Will burns it down. The end. 

I want so badly to like this series. People in my life cherish it, but I just did not enjoy this book. The descriptions of battle practice were long and monotonous and there was an obvious subtle misogyny underscoring the entire story. 

The portrayal of women and girls in this series just infuriates me. If there was a woman ranger, I'd be all about it, but the women in this series all have soft roles--negotiator and cook (barf). Women in leadership roles in the kingdom are spoken to rudely and treated as if incompetent. Don't forget a nice dose of mansplaining as the cherry on top. Here's an example:

"I'll speak of her, all right! I'll tell you this. She's a woman meddling in a man's world, where she has no place. She should have found a husband years ago and raised a brood of squalling babies. Surely there's a deaf and half-blind man somewhere who would have ten her" (93). 

The worst part of this dialogue? Nowhere does anyone defend Pauline, the woman being spoken of and nowhere is this attitude refuted as despicable or even questionable. 

This book's target audience is boys age 10-12. If I had a son who wanted to read this series, I would let him because I'm anti-book banning BUT we would have a SERIOUS conversation about the toxic masculinity represented in these stories. 

Would I read it again?

NOPE

Recommended for: 

Maybe someone in gender studies looking for a series that overtly teaches young boys toxic masculinity.

Not Recommended for: 

Pretty much most decent human beings.

Word Bank (new-to-me vocabulary)

• cowl (p. 59)
• fenlands (p. 11)
• nocked (p. 82)
• recurve (p. 82)
• saxe (p. 41)
• sintered (p. 51)
• spurious (p. 93)
• tarpaulin (p. 68)
• triumvirate (p. 16)

1 star out of 5. 

John Flanagan's website: http://www.worldofjohnflanagan.com/

Previous Ranger's Apprentice books reviewed

The Ruins of Gorlan: http://thewritereader.blogspot.com/2017/08/108-rangers-apprentice-ruins-if-golan.html

Connect with me!

Instagram: @jdartagnanlove

Twitter: @jdartagnanlove

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8035862-j-d-artagnan

123. "Who in this Room" by Kathrine Malmo

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Malmo, Katherine. Who in This Room: The Realities of Cancer, Fish, and Demolition. Corvallis, OR: Calyx Books, 2011. Print.

134 pages

Reviewed by J. d'Artagnan Love

Who in the Room contains stories originally published in literary journals. These stories are seamlessly weaved together into a memoir of cancer and coping with its realities, as suggested by the subtitle. At age 32, Kate is diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer  and undergoes treatment. She develops a set of coping skills that takes her through her treatment. 

This book is a short, quick read but don't let that fool you. What it lacks in length, it makes up for in depth. Each chapter is a story within a story. The first story is the literal story of Kate's treatment process. The second story is usually a description of a coping method that also acts as a beautiful symbol or allegory for a different part of the many facets of being diagnosed with breast cancer. 

To me, reading Who in This Room felt like looking at a well cut diamond. There are lots of different surfaces and angles, all reflecting the light in unique and beautiful ways. I laughed, I cried, I was pissed off. I felt like a lived a lifetime in just 134 pages. 

Malmo experiments with point of view in this memoir, and while I don't think she quite pulled it off, I really admire writers who make a strong effort to try something new and add to their craft. 

Would I read it again?

Yes, yes and yes! This is going on my re-read shelf because it is one of the books where you get something different out of it each time you read it. 

Recommend for: Readers who have survived breast cancer or have a loved one going through the process. Readers who appreciate a memoir that will grab you by the feelings and hold on through the end.

Not recommended for: Reader who may be triggered by medical descriptions or readers who want something with a linear narrative. 

Word bank (new-to-me vocabulary)

• algal (p. 103)
• anadranous (p. 77)
• caddisfly (p. 88)
• icthyologist (p. 77)
• fluorocarbon (p. 79)
• gunite (p. 80)
• tippet (p. 84)

Kathrine Malmo's website: http://www.katherinemalmo.com/

Calyx Books: https://www.calyxpress.org/product-category/books/

My Youtube Review

Connect with me!

Instagram: @jdartagnanlove

Twitter: @jdartagnanlove

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8035862-j-d-artagnan

122. "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman

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Forman, Gayle. If I Stay. New York: Speak, 2014. Print.
(Originally published in 2009)

Mia, a teenage cellist, is in a deadly car accident with her parents. She ends up in a coma and finds herself outside of her body, watching everything that goes on around her. She learns that it is up to her whether she stays alive or chooses to let go. 

I can't say much more than that without giving away some serious spoilers. Gayle Forman does an amazing job with pacing in this novel. The story is told in two timelines. The first timeline is Mia's current experience of being in the coma and existing outside her body watching everything doctor's do to keep her alive, and seeing all the loved ones who visit her. This is interwoven with well-timed flashbacks that allow the reader to learn about Mia's life, family, and dreams for her future. The timing between present reality and the flashbacks is perfect. There is just enough time spent in both to maintain tension but also create character depth and move the story forward. Well done, Gayle!

I do think that this book, especially the first third of the book, will be very triggering for anyone who has been in a severe car accident and/or lost loved ones in a severe car accident. There is a scene where Mia is walking around the crash site and describes some of the gore in such detail it made me queasy. I myself have lost loved ones in vehicle accidents and it was quite triggering and upsetting. I had to put the book down and take a break. Once I got past that first third of the book, I didn't feel triggered.

At the end of the novel, I felt like there was an opportunity missed. Forman had an opportunity to make a profound statement of some kind about life, death, love, or loss and she didn't take the leap. She mentioned embracing possibilities briefly, but it was a let down not to have some kind of final message or "moral of the story" to sit with and chew on. 

Would I read it again?
Maybe...probably not. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I will probably try to watch the film. I don't know that I enjoyed it enough to read any of Gayle Forman's other novels, though. 

Recommended for: Readers who enjoy an emotional drama that is well-paced with simple language.

Not recommended for: Readers who have been in severe vehicle accidents or who have lost loved ones in vehicle accidents.

Word Bank (New-to-me vocabulary)

• churlish (p. 94)
• foundling (p. 26)
• gauche (p. 26)
• hock (p. 47)
• trawl (p. 95)
• verve (p. 25)

Gayle Forman's Website: http://gayleforman.com/

The Film: If I Stay.
My Youtube Review

121. "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" by Laini Taylor

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Taylor, Laini. Daughter of Smoke and Bone. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011. Print.

418 pages.

Reviewed by Jess d'Artagnan Love

Karou lives in Prague and where she leads a double life: in one life she is a young art student, and in the other, she works with her chimera family collecting teeth from around the world. The teeth are used by the mysterious Brimstone, essentially her father figure, and Karou is tasked with trying to figure out what really happens in Brimstone's shop. A monkey wrench is thrown in her plans when she meets Akiva, a Seraphim, and her portals to Brimstone's world are destroyed, leaving her stranded in the human realm. 

As I read the book, I found it a bit challenging to keep up with what the chimera look like. Chimera are half human and half animal and each chimera character is a different combination of the two. What I found most helpful, was leaving a post-it flag bookmark on pages of chimera descriptions that I could flip back to for reference. 

That being said, Laini Taylor is a true wordsmith and masterfully describes characters and settings. The way she painted Prague and the Poison Kitchen made me want to hop on a plane and head there to purchase some property--it is the exact kind of place I would love to be to sit and write. 

While Prague was expertly crafted, I definitely related to Karou's sense of spiritual "homelessness." She lives with a sense of not really having a "true" home where things just feel right and whole. I experienced this quite a bit throughout my life and have come to accept that "home" for me is in multiple places across the globe in the same way it is multiple realms for Karou. 

My biggest problem with Daughter of Smoke and Bone was the exceptionally long flashback toward the end of the book. The plot is a typical nonlinear plot that moves from past to present fairly seamlessly until the last third of the novel. In the last third of the novel there is a 75 page flashback. This was exhausting because through that entire 75 pages, I was still trying to maintain the tension created by the present-tense story line. While I understand why Taylor may have chosen to organize the flashback this way (which I will refrain from discussing due to spoilers), I also know there are better ways to handle this. This was my biggest issue with the novel and what kept me from giving 4 stars instead of 3. 

Aside from that, I really loved Taylor's prose. She used some wonderfully cozy animal metaphors and I particularly liked the metaphors she used with butterflies and cats. It created a little bit of hygge in the story that was warming and sweet. 

Would I read this book again? Yes. I am also planning on reading the next book in the series. 

Recommended for: Fans of YA urban fantasy. 

Not recommend for: Readers who don't enjoy fantasy.

3 darts/stars out of 5

Word Bank (new-to-me vocabulary)

• accretes (p. 410)
• atavism (p. 316)
• caracal (p. 362)
• chivvied (p. 81)
• concrescence (p. 391)
• demurral (p. 80)
• djellaba (p. 86)
• effulgent (p. 362)
• eidolon (p. 274)
• enfeeble (p. 199)
• fricative (p. 53)
• gnawa (p. 82)
• hummock (p. 267)
• ineffable (p. 196)
• ineluctable (p. 382)
• limned (p. 77)
• lintel (p. 196)
• medina (p. 78)
• menhirs (p. 112)
• moiling (p. 93)
• nacre (p. 410)
• rickrack (p. 109)
• rill (p. 381)
• sallies (p. 235)
• shrive (p. 172)
• spinnaker (p. 367)
• souks (p. 81)
• susurrous (p. 90)
• tadelakt (p. 299)
• tarboosh (p. 81)
• temerity (p. 193)
• thurible (p. 113)
• touts (p. 80)
• welter (p. 208)
• zelij (p. 299)

Laini Taylor's website: http://www.lainitaylor.com/

My Youtube review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Dns_Gxfd8