Covers Matter #1 - Vampires!

Running low on ideas for Saturday features, this March I was inspired by the awesome blog Jacket Whys, examining what does and doesn't work in children's and YA fiction covers, and I figured I'd put my own spin on things.  Because, as we all know, the expression "You can't judge a book by its cover" doesn't really apply to 95% of the books I've read!  And this week I've chosen to pick on talk about...vampire novels.

And if you don't recognize this cover, how the heck did you end up on a YA book blog?  Twilight, the book we have to thank for the current vampire madness, is one of my favorite book covers ever.  I am ashamed to disclose the fact that I actually have a giant, blown up poster of this thing on my wall.  (Not kidding!)  The forbidden fruit motif has always appealed to me (His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman!!!!), and something about the stark coloring of this cover really appeals as well.  (And if you want to see who the hands belong to, read this article.) Too bad the book drives me insane.  Anyway, this and New Moon = good covers, in my book.  Most of the rest of the vampire crowd = REALLY REALLY SUCKY.  Pun intended.

The worst offender has to be the Vampire Academy novels.  I mean, really!  I was a little A LOT embarrassed to be reading these in the first place, but you know what?  I enjoyed them.  I just wish that I didn't feel like putting one of those tacky cloth or cardboard false covers over them while I read!  Even the new, weird-goth-looking redone ones are horrible, and they are a definite improvement over the old ones.  I thought the covers with no heads/faces/eyes were bad - but clearly, with faces things get infinitely, horribly worse.

I can't say I'd be thrilled to be reading these in public either, and also can't say I'm intrigued enough by the plot to bother, anyway.  But this is a cover post, so I'll keep my criticisms strictly superficial - and as far as this goes, see the heads/faces/eyes comment above.  YUCK.  Am I supposed to think this vampire chick is attractive/seductive/compelling/mysterious/all of the above?  Because honestly, she looks like a Photoshopped drama queen to me.  The color scheme is depressing and jarring and the design looks emo Harlequin romance.

I haven't read the House of Night novels either, but I actually don't mind these too much.  They still look way too emo/goth without the indie, offbeat coolness, but with vampire novels, I think that might kind of sort of be the point.  And this one has some mesmerizing kind of geometric design in the back, and a pretty, COORDINATED color scheme.  Still - I'm really not liking books with faces.  Books without faces might be weird, but with them they feel fake and put in image in my mind of how the character should look that I don't necessarily want.  Hmm.

Anyway, you can tell when I've been reading way too much Forever YA because the snarky humor rubs off.  =)  Anyway, I'll try to do a more meaningful (and hopefully less snarky) post next week!  Happy Saturday!

Palace of Mirrors

Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix
ISBN 9781416939160
Associate Links: Amazon/IndieBound

"Somewhere in the world I have a tiara in a little box. It is not safe for me to wear it...It is not safe for me even to tell anyone who I really am. But I know -- I have always known."Cecilia knows that she is not just another peasant girl; she is actually the true princess, in hiding until the evil forces that killed her parents are vanquished. A commoner named Desmia is on the throne as a decoy.
As she gets older, Cecilia finds it harder to study statesmanship and palace protocol secretly at night and then pretend that she has nothing on her mind other than scrubbing the gruel stains out of her best apron by day.
Cecilia knows that it is time to take charge. Along with her best friend, Harper, she flees to the capital city, determined to reclaim her throne and face the danger head on.
When Harper and Cecilia reach the famed Palace of Mirrors, they discover complications: Princess Desmia believes an entirely different version of the story.
Acclaimed author Margaret Peterson Haddix returns to the charmed world of Just Ella, where a princess-in-hiding and a pretender to the throne discover that nothing is as it appears.

I picked this up, hardcover, at my local used bookstore because I loved Just Ella.  I've read the blurbs for many of Margaret Peterson Haddix's other novels, as well, and I've always been intrigued.  Which is why I'm sorry to say that this book was a HUGE disappointment for me.  Maybe my expectations were too high - it's aimed at a younger audience than Just Ella,  I think - but I'd really hoped for more from somebody who shook Cinderella up for me even more than Gail Carson Levine did with Ella Enchanted!

I actually really liked the idea, and I liked the characters of Cecilia and Harper.  What bothered me was Ella, ironically.  Something about her character in this book just didn't fit with her character in Just Ella.  Maybe that's supposed to be a mark of character development, but it just fell flat for me.  It lost the gritty reality of Ella and took on a syrupy fairy-tale style that rubbed me the wrong way.

I guess it had redeeming features.  Like Cecilia and Harper's growth as characters, which I loved.  And Harper was sweet.  But the story just moved too fast and too unrealistically to fit with the world of Just Ella.  Maybe it's because I'm reading it as a sequel, instead of a companion?  I remember similar disappointment with Levine's novel Fairest, which actually was very similar to this.  It's not a sequel - it could definitely be read on its own.  But I just can't see teens getting into it the way they did Ella.

I once was talking with a friend about the difference between *career* writing and *art* writing.  Just Ella was art; this just seems like career.  It's not fleshed out, and the story resolves far too neatly.  I'm not going to let it put me off of Haddix until I read more of her work - but this novel is being swapped back to the used book store.  At least I'll get the 10% discount.

The Final Verdict: Disappointingly saccharine-sweet and wrapped up way too neatly.  (And I hate the cover.)  Two and a half out of five stars.

Disclosure: I purchased this book used as a final published edition.  I received no reimbursement for this review from the author or the publisher.  (See Disclosure in Accordance with FTC Guidelines)

Some Girls Are

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers
ISBN 9780312573805
Associate Links: Amazon/IndieBound

Description from Amazon.com:

Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard--falling from it is even harder.  Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High... until vicious rumors about her and her best friend's boyfriend start going around.  Now Regina's been "frozen out" and her ex-best friends are out for revenge.  If Regina was guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth and the bullying is getting more intense by the day.  She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past who she herself used to bully.  Friendship doesn't come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend... if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don't break them both first.

 This is a review I've tossed and turned over - as anybody who read my  Depressing YA Fiction post might remember.  It's a love-hate book, the sickening kind that you can't seem to stop reading even when you really want to stop.  In some kind of weird Mean Girls twist (remember THAT Regina?), one of the Wannabe Mean Girls is the one we're supposed to sympathize with - even when what you really want to do is hate her.  Because it does seem like a sick kind of justice that she gets iced out, after the four years of terror for the rest of the school that she was an accessory to.  And yet...how do you wish the rotten-meat-in-the-locker on anybody?  See what I mean?  The whole book is like a study on what's fair and unfair, and by the end of it, my head was throbbing.

Maybe MY take on it is less than fair, though.  After all, I'm homeschooled, so maybe that's why I struggled to identify with Regina's plight.  I'm much more able to steer clear of the Mean Girls in everyday life than most normal high schoolers.  Still.  Antacid-popping Regina just wasn't as appealing as she could have been, even when you sympathize with her situation - especially the best-friend's-boyfriend rumors.  This book just reads a little too much like real life to me, without any kind of literary streamlining that makes a novel enjoyable to read.

That said, though, I am glad I bought this one.  Because...well, I still don't know how to put my because into words.  Something about it captures the essence of being a teen in a teen-eat-teen world.  Even without going to school, I've had my share of friend and guy troubles, those moments of I-can't-believe-that-she/he-just-said-that-to-me!, and this book just summed it up.  And I loved the last line, not that I'll spoil it here.  Oh yeah, and I couldn't put it down!  Like watching a train wreck: You just can't look away.  So this is a re-read for a sunny summer day when it's guaranteed that it won't make me all depressed.  I'll definitely get my money's worth out of it.  I just don't know how highly I'd recommend it to friends.

The Final Verdict: Good writing, but characters I just couldn't connect with.  If Mean Girls are your thing, then by all means read it, but if you'd rather not go on antidepressants, I wouldn't recommend it.  Three and a half out of five stars.

Disclosure: I purchased this book as a final published edition and received no reimbursement from the author or publisher for this review. (See Disclosure in Accordance with FTC Guidelines)

Guest Post from Lyn Miller-Lachmann: Chile Rises from Disaster

After reading Lyn Miller-Lachmann's excellent YA novel Gringolandia, about political turmoil in Chile in the 1980s (read my review here), I asked her to do a guest post on my blog, and she graciously agreed.  I thought it would help promote her book and help promote awareness of this amazing country, and of the courage and tenacity of the Chilean people.  That was last week - and then, the earthquake happened.  Lyn rewrote her post, linking the events in her novel with the horrifying events of this week - and I'll let her take it from here.

Chile Rises from Disaster

    I had nearly finished an article on why I wrote my novel about Chile when I learned of the devastating earthquake there, the fifth most powerful to be officially recorded. After spending the day reading the news reports and checking up on friends and family, I decided to write something new.
    My novel, Gringolandia, deals with a different kind of disaster that struck the country of Chile. Coincidentally, it occurred on the familiar date of September 11—in 1973. Three years earlier, the Chilean people had elected a socialist president, Dr. Salvador Allende. The United States government feared that Chile would become another Communist outpost in the Western Hemisphere and through the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) helped to plan and carry out a military coup that ended in President Allende’s death and a dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet. Some 3,000 Chileans died at the hands of Pinochet’s forces, most of them in the weeks and months following the coup. Another 30,000 were imprisoned and tortured, including Chile’s current president, Michelle Bachelet. Bachelet’s father was tortured to death.
    The first political demonstration I ever attended was a year after the coup. A freshman in college, I protested an appearance by the U.S. ambassador to Chile. When I moved with my husband to Madison, Wisconsin in the 1980s, I became friends with a group of exiles from Chile, and together we planned concerts and other events to let people know about Chile’s rich cultural heritage and to support the country’s return to democracy. Gringolandia was inspired by the experiences of some of the people I met during this time.
    In the end, the Chilean people were able to win back their democracy. In keeping with the 1980 constitution that he wrote, Pinochet scheduled in October 1988 a plebiscite (a yes or no vote) on whether he should continue to remain the dictator for another ten years. If he lost, he would have to call an election for a new president and a legislature. Despite his 15-year reign of terror and control over the media, he lost the plebiscite. Freedom returned because of the brave sacrifice and nonviolent actions of millions of Chileans, people like Daniel and his father in Gringolandia.
    The coup was a man-made disaster, and it divided the country. Even today, there are those who suffered terribly at the hands of Pinochet, and those who see him as the savior of the country. My husband’s family has people on both sides, and they don’t speak to each other.
    In contrast, the natural disaster that occurred Saturday morning has brought people together in the way that such disasters in healthy societies often do. Chile in 2010 isn’t the same country that I depict in my novel, which takes place in 1986. In the years since the dictatorship’s end, the country has advanced economically and has a government that people trust and that can get things done. Effective building codes and emergency response prevented one of the most powerful earthquakes of all time from leading to massive losses of life. The Chilean people have the resources and will to rebuild and are proud of their ability to thrive in a beautiful but perilous land.
    There’s a scene in Gringolandia when Daniel’s father, a recently released political prisoner and survivor of torture, refuses to let Daniel’s 12-year-old sister read an article he has written about his experience in prison. He says, “I want her to be able to go back to her country one day. To think of it as a place of great beauty—of sun and sea and mountains—and not of violence and death.”
    The people in Chile who have written to me since the earthquake tell me how frightening it was to go through that experience, that it made them feel helpless in the wake of forces beyond themselves. However, they are confident that by working together, they will recover and make Chile a stronger country than ever. Similarly, in Gringolandia, the two teenage characters, Daniel and Courtney, confront forces that are larger than they are. The arrests of their fathers—Daniel’s in Chile and Courtney’s in Michigan, as a result of her parents’ efforts to help undocumented refugees from El Salvador—lead to both of them having to move suddenly and start over in a different place. Today, two million Chileans, many of them teenagers, have lost their homes and must start over.
    One of the great things about reading and writing is that you can share and compare experiences with people who live all around the world. We can learn from each other and help each other out in hard times. Chile may be a faraway land, but it’s a fascinating place, and one worth getting to know better. And if you’d like to help—anything from raising money to writing cards and e-mails so people know you care—a good place to start is http://nonprofit.about.com/b/2010/02/27/chile-earthquake-and-pacific-tsunami-warnings.htm.

Thank you, Lyn!  Let's all keep Chile in our thoughts, and if you haven't already, read Gringolandia, too.