Review: Strands of Bronze and Gold
Title: Strands of Bronze and Gold
Author: Jane Nickerson
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Release Date: March 12, 2013
Format: eGalley
The Bluebeard fairy tale retold. . . .
When seventeen-year-old Sophia Petheram’s beloved father dies, she receives an unexpected letter. An invitation—on fine ivory paper, in bold black handwriting—from the mysterious Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, her godfather. With no money and fewer options, Sophie accepts, leaving her humble childhood home for the astonishingly lavish Wyndriven Abbey, in the heart of Mississippi.
Sophie has always longed for a comfortable life, and she finds herself both attracted to and shocked by the charm and easy manners of her overgenerous guardian. But as she begins to piece together the mystery of his past, it’s as if, thread by thread, a silken net is tightening around her. And as she gathers stories and catches whispers of his former wives—all with hair as red as her own—in the forgotten corners of the abbey, Sophie knows she’s trapped in the passion and danger of de Cressac’s intoxicating world.
Glowing strands of romance, mystery, and suspense are woven into this breathtaking debut—a thrilling retelling of the “Bluebeard” fairy tale.—via Goodreads
For some reason, I always forget how intensely creepy the story of Bluebeard is.
Though I’ve been keeping my distance from things that are even marginally scary due to my very terrible reaction to a horror movie I watched about six months ago (I’m seriously still having nightmares. That movie ruined me.), I was very intrigued by Strands of Bronze and Gold even though it’s packaged as a retelling of a story I know resides in the scarier region of the fairy tale strata.
Luckily, I enjoyed the book. Jane Nickerson does a fantastic job of creating atmosphere and setting, and her historical research into the time period of on-the-brink of Civil War Mississippi is fantastic. Her writing is rich with detail, from descriptions of fashion to food (but not in a George R. R. Martin way) to depression and loneliness to natural surroundings, and I found myself often impressed with her ability to write in a way that evoked the tone of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre—a book that the main character, Sophie, actually eludes to when she first arrives at Wyndriven Abbey—without it feeling like a retelling of Jane Eyre.
A big reason why I enjoyed reading this despite my reservations is because Sophie is a nice mix of Jane Austen’s Emma and Louisa May Alcott’s Jo from Little Women. Sophie is young and naive with a flair for fashion and sumptuous fabrics, but she’s also smart, observant, and moral. As the plot moves forward and she realizes that her godfather is not exactly who she thought he was, she began to remind me of Sansa in the A Song of Ice and Fire series in how she comported herself—she realized she was trapped in her situation and that the only way to survive it was to patiently, politically play along until a decent opportunity to escape presents itself.
Overall, Strands of Bronze and Gold is a beautifully, richly written retelling of Bluebeard that is well-plotted and well-paced. If you’re in the mood for something like Northanger Abbey or Jane Eyre, Strands of Bronze and Gold will definitely satisfy you.
Review: Dance of Shadows
Title: Dance of Shadows
Author: Yelena Black
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Release Date: February 12, 2013
Format: eGalleyDancing with someone is an act of trust. Elegant and intimate; you’re close enough to kiss, close enough to feel your partner’s heartbeat. But for Vanessa, dance is deadly – and she must be very careful who she trusts . . .
Vanessa Adler attends an elite ballet school – the same one her older sister, Margaret, attended before she disappeared. Vanessa feels she can never live up to her sister’s shining reputation. But Vanessa, with her glorious red hair and fair skin, has a kind of power when she dances – she loses herself in the music, breathes different air, and the world around her turns to flames . . .
Soon she attracts the attention of three men: gorgeous Zep, mysterious Justin, and the great, enigmatic choreographer Josef Zhalkovsky. When Josef asks Vanessa to dance the lead in the Firebird, she has little idea of the danger that lies ahead – and the burning forces about to be unleashed . . .—via Goodreads
At this point, you guys know me. And you know that this books sounds right up my alley—ballet, mystery, red heads, missing sisters—YES PLEASE.
And while I did end up enjoying Dance of Shadows, it took a long time for me to enjoy it. About three quarters of this book is a big, frustrating, seemingly-going-nowhere mystery. In fact, I thought that I’d get to the last page and it would say FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IN BOOK 2!
Luckily, that did not happen.
But I did spend a lot of time thinking, “WHY WON’T VANESSA JUST TALK TO PEOPLE?” Because, as it tends to happen in mysteries, talking to people often solves problems. But, I guess if people got over their pride and concerns that they’d look completely insane early on, most mysteries would be more novellas than books.
Anyway.
Once the game is set and we finally finally finally get clued in to what exactly the hell is happening, this book is all of a sudden a little Whedony. Obviously that made me squeal with glee on the train home, which in turn made people look at me weird, but I don’t care. But seriously, Dance of Shadows feels like it could be one of those off-A-plot episodes of Angel in which Fred infiltrates a ballet company to figure out what exactly is going on on the inside. And there would OBVS be a hilariously awkward scene in which Angel has to put on tights and dance while Cordelia looks smugly on from the wings. Oh, wishful thinking.
For those of you who are really into ballet and get upset when a book promises to be about ballet and then only uses one or two terms that end up being plié and arabesque, this book will not disappoint. Ms. Black clearly knows ballet, is comfortable with the terms and vocabulary, and isn’t concerned if those terms are polarizing. Which made me a happy little ballet nerd.
Though I found a lot of this book to be highly frustrating while reading it, I thoroughly enjoyed it in hindsight. Once you have the pieces and understand what all is happening, the clues are just GLARING at you from the page and it all makes fun, dancey, demony sense.
So if you’re in the mood for a dance-centered mystery that you don’t want to try and solve while you’re reading it, Dance of Shadows is the perfect choice.
What’s Making Me Happy {22}
This week was essentially an exercise in fangirling.
1. School of Thrones
In love with this. (Bonus! The girl who plays Sansa is from the same hometown as me! No, I don’t think we know each other. Maybe my brain is trying to make me think that I remember her, but I don’t think I actually do remember her. Regardless, woo awesome Arkansans!)
2. Dylan O’Brien on New Girl!
So, Dylan O’Brien is on Teen Wolf, which I watch with unabashed love and devotion—don’t knock it ’til you try it, is all I’m saying—and I adore him. He is great at physical comedy and has a Jim Carrey meets Adam Brody thing about him. Which means that he’s kind of my perfect man. But I think he’s quite a bit younger than me and now I feel like a creep.
ANYWAY. He’s going to be in an upcoming episode of New Girl, which he plays the guy that Zooey Deschanel’s character lost her virginity to.
Yeah. I know.
3. VERONICA MARS MOVIE ON KICKSTARTER.
Logan & Veronica 4Eva!
So this is pretty much old news by now since this Kickstarter took the Interwebs by storm, but OMG YOU GUYS VERONICA MARS MOVIE AHHHHHHHHHH YEEEEES.
The great thing about it is that even though they’ve already raised the amount of money they were originally asking for (um, $2 million. Who says that fans won’t pay for the entertainment they want?), but they have EXCEEDED that amount. Which is just bonkers. And great and awesome. And there is still time for you to donate, if your soul feels that it should. (It should.)
4. Jon & Dany’s Engagement Photos
Whoever the photo and layout editor is at EW who created the idea for these images KNOWS what we want. And probably deserves a raise.
And those are the very nerdy, awesome things making my heart happy this week.
Happy Sunday (and St. Patrick’s Day) everyone!
So, I Got a Tattoo.
After about four years of thinking about and talking about and Googling about getting a tattoo, I finally did it.
I like it.
A lot.
(Sorry, Dad. Also, surprise!)
Here’s the deal: I read basically everything I could find on the Internet about the experience of getting a tattoo for the first time—what to expect, how to care for it, how to clean it, how to make sure it doesn’t fade quickly or become infected or put you in the E.R. I talked to friends who had gotten tattoos before about what they were most surprised about or what they didn’t expect to happen when they got their tattoo. I watched a bunch of Kat von D television. I felt like I knew what was up and what to expect and how to proceed.
So I go to the tattoo place (I refuse to use the word “parlor” because…ew.) and immediately feel like the preppiest, most inexperienced, most precious idiot on the planet. When I explain to the really incredibly adorable, but also very bad-ass looking front desk lady what I want, she gives me no judgment at all and grabs a tattoo artist who is free so that he can sketch out what I want. We talk about my tattoo and he is not as nice about it. He openly rolls his eye at what I want (it *is* just birds, which I know are popular and therefore not hard core, but I AM PAYING YOU. STOP ROLLING YOUR EYES.) asks me a few questions, tells me to fill out a consent form, and then sketches out my tattoo.
When he brings it over to show me, I’m a little concerned that it’s actually a bit larger than I’d like it to be (I’m that person, shut up.) but I’m too afraid of him to tell him that. So I tell him it’s great and we go over to the chair to get the whole process started.
The actual act of getting a tattoo was pretty much what I expected—it wasn’t a pleasant feeling, but it wasn’t torturous. I bled a little, but I’m not freaked out by blood, so that was no big deal. Because my tattoo is relatively small, it took about 20 minutes to be inked, and all in all, I was at the tattoo place for maybe an hour. I was glad to leave, not because I disliked the tattoo place, but because the guy who tattooed me was the most miserable human ever. I kept trying to make small talk and so I’d say, “This funky disco music y’all are playing is fun,” and he’d be like, “They’ve been playing it all day and I want to fucking shoot myself in the head so I don’t have to listen to it anymore.” For real. Everything I said was countered with something like that.
I hope that someday he finds something in life that he enjoys.
Anyway, what no blog or TV show or person I talked to mentioned about your tattoo-getting experience was that about 15 minutes after you are tattooed it starts to burn. Inside your skin. It is very uncomfortable and all you want to do is writhe around and open your veins and pour water in them. Or go to the hosptial becuase you think maybe your body is rejecting the ink and is going to force it out of your skin. Perhaps in an exploding fashion.
So I look at my sister, who is driving, and who has a tattoo, and I say as calmly as I can, “Olivia. My wrist is burning.” She looks over and says, “Yeah, that’s normal.” And I yelled, “WHY DID YOU NEVER MENTION A BURNING SENSATION?”
She ignored me and kept driving until we hit traffic, which was stopped dead still for awhile. We assumed it was a wreck or a jack-knifed trailer or something, but it turned out that there were hundreds of loaves of French bread that spilled off a truck and people were trying to not run them over. I swear to God, that is the truth. I couldn’t make that shit up.
About an hour later, I took off the bandage the tattoo artist put on. (He told me to take it off after an hour. I’m such an instruction follower it’s ridiculous.) I wasn’t shocked to find that the tattooed area was a) extremely swollen, b) a little bloody around the perimeter, and c) very very very very tender.
So I washed it with the particular soap brand I was told to clean it with and applied some Aquaphor to my wrist.
Everything went as it was supposed to for a few days. The swelling went down, the tenderness subsided, and the tattoo started to heal, which means that it scabbed over. What I didn’t realize would happen is that the scab is black (or, I assume, the color of the ink you choose), and that at the end of the healing process, will start to shed. So it looks like your tattoo is shedding.
Basically what happens is this: You apply some Aquaphor to your scabbed over tattoo, and as you very gently rub the ointment in, big black chunks (I apologize for saying “chunks”) will slough (I apologize for saying “slough”) off of your skin. It is a deeply unsettling thing to watch happen.
But! The good news is that after the sloughing (Really, I’m so sorry. I promise there isn’t a better word to use.), your tattoo is basically healed! Hooray!
Now I’m concerned that my watch is making it wear off. Because I’m clearly insane.
Review: Also Known As
Title: Also Known As
Author: Robin Benway
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s
Release Date: February 26, 2013
Format: eGalley
Being a 16-year-old safecracker and active-duty daughter of international spies has its moments, good and bad. Pros: Seeing the world one crime-solving adventure at a time. Having parents with super cool jobs. Cons: Never staying in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend. But for Maggie Silver, the biggest perk of all has been avoiding high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations.
Then Maggie and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, and all of that changes. She’ll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school’s security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the essential information she needs to crack the case . . . all while trying not to blow her cover.—via Goodreads
I really wanted to love this book.
But it just didn’t happen.
I liked it—I liked it a good amount. I mean, I tend to like anything having to do with spies, especialy when they’re teenage spies. But for some reason this plot didn’t really compel me despite the fact that Maggie is a world-renowned safecracking prodigy whose skills are worth a lot of money. It sounds like exactly the kind of book that should be up my alley, but for some reason, this one fell a bit flat for me.
But! BUT! Let’s talk about the good: I adore Benway’s writing style. While reading I would find myself making notes of sentences like,
“If Iceland was flatlining, then New York looked like it was having a heart attack.” (page 24)
“First rule of New York: Don’t just stand there. Keep moving. We don’t like it when you stand there. It make us angry.” (page 45)
Benway’s style is, as evidenced in the first quote, really gorgeously descriptive, and, also really funny. Okay, maybe I like that second quote because I live in New York and am of the belief that the sidewalk should be divided into a Tourist Lane and a New Yorker Lane.
Seriously, this is the best idea ever.
Aside from Benway’s great style and voice, the characters in this book are a lot of fun. Smart, lively, fittingly jaded and cycnical, Maggie, Jesse, and Roux are characters I want to hang out with. The problem is that once the story got past a particularly swoony stoop scene, it went into fast-forward—every storyline became rushed and went full speed ahead to the end. The nuance and subtley was put aside, and all of a sudden crimes, drama, and mysteries were solved and everything was hunky-dory.
Overall, I really enjoyed the characters. I just wish that Benway (or, I suspect, her editors) had taken some more time with the story so it could unfold more naturally. However, the book is fun, there’s a lot of action, and Benway’s writing is great. If you’re looking for a fun, NY-based spy adventure with quippy, funny dialogue, then Also Known As will fit the bill.
Bethany Larson 