Britten and Brülightly

Britten and Brülightly
Hannah Berry, author and illustrator
Paperback: 112 pages
Publisher: Metropolitan Books (March 17, 2009)
5/5 stars

Britten and Brülightly is a well written, fantastically illustrated noir mystery. Britten is a private detective who, for years, has specialized so in the tawdry love triangle cases that he has been publicly nicknamed "the Heartbreaker". Despite the encouraging words of his much more upbeat partner, Brülightly, Britten has become tired of both his job and his life. "I don't get out of bed for less than a murder," he said, and it potential murder that persuaded him to crawl out of bed into the public again.

Britten has been contacted by Charlotte Maughan after the apparent suicide of her fiance. To her, the pieces don't fit; she feels it must be a murder made to look like a suicide and hires him to investigate.

Britten and Brülightly is film noir in a graphic novel; it is by far the best written noir I have encountered. It contains the classic elements of great noir : a fractured and down main character; a beautiful lady needing assistance; a complex mystery; realistic (leaning toward the unhappy) ending and leaves the reader or viewer sitting silent in amazement.

Berry's amazing art fits and adds to the story and to the noir feel perfectly. The predominant rain and gray days, the angles and corners, and the nearly monochrome color scheme enhance the feel of the story tremendously. The composition and "film angle", if you will, of the panels is that of a well done movie. They are not the common waist up, front on panels that are so predominant in the average graphic novel. From above, from below, half faces, close-ups: all are used to make an enormous contribution to both plot and ambiance. Berry's particular attention to hands is fantastic.

I had one small complaint: the story is hand written in a font that was, only at times, hard to interpret certain words. Oddly enough, though I had to squint and struggle, I found that in the end this rather added to the story, to the feel of uncertainty, mystery and confusion that were so prevalent in the story.

Britten and Brülightly simply awed me. It's a dark tale, and not a particularly happy one, but totally engrossing and simply stunning--text and image--from the first line ("As it did every morning with spiteful inevitability, the sun rose.") to that last breathtaking scene.

~~Read for the Graphic Novel Challenge.~~

Calamity Jack

Calamity Jack 
Dean and Shannon Hale, authors
Nathan Hale, illustrator
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books; First Edition edition (January 5, 2010)
3/5 stars

Calamity Jack  picks up the adventures of Rapunzel and Jack where Rapunzel's Revenge left off, but this time the story is told from Jack's point of view.

Jack had bungled his last job in his hometown, Shyport, with disastrous results for his mother. He returns with Rapunzel with the intention of setting things right, but finds Shyport under the control of an evil giant and much more at stake than he realized.

Calamity Jack takes place in a town and has none of the Wild West charm of Rapunzel's Revenge. While it's an amusing story, especially if reading it as a sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge, it's sadly lacking anything particularly special.

I found it disconcerting that while Rapunzel's Revenge had only a Wild West tall tale type of fantasy, all the sudden in Calamity Jack  there are pixies and giants and talking animals. . . If the two books didn't contain the same principle characters, it would be hard to see how they belonged together.

The art, as with Rapunzel's Revenge, is serviceable but there are no "Wow!" moments revealed through it. The art illustrates the story, rather than advancing and enhancing the storyline.

On the whole, if I hadn't enjoyed Rapunzel's Revenge and been interested in those characters, I probably wouldn't have found Calamity Jack to be worth three stars. As a furtherance of characters looked on with fondness, I enjoyed it; as a graphic novel, it was merely okay.

~~Read for the Graphic Novels Challenge.~~

Note: This is my opinion; on Amazon, it received 5 star reviews 67% of the time.

Rapunzel's Revenge

Rapunzel's Revenge
Dean and Shannon Hale, authors
Nathan Hale, illustrator
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books; First Edition edition (August 5, 2008)
4/5 stars

Rapunzel's Revenge is a very enjoyable retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale which moves the setting to the Old Wild West. Rapunzel has been raised to believe that Mother Gothel is her natural mother, but an act of rebellion on her twelfth birthday leads to the truth and Mother Gothel's retribution.

Rapunzel is imprisoned in a bewitched tree tower for four years, during which time her hair grows extremely long, she exercises and finds new uses for her hair out of boredom, and she continues to displease Mother Gothel on her yearly visit. She finally escapes, meets up with Jack, and the adventure really begins as they plot Mother Gothel's downfall.

This was a delightful story, both whimsical and warm, and the Wild West setting gave it a completely unique flavor. A strong female character, a good friendship and humor all the way through round it off to a very nicely done tale.

The art is pleasing, while not exceptional. It rarely does anything to advance the storyline, but does illustrate it nicely and fully brings out the "tall tale" feel to the story.

I'm surprised at the recommended age range, 9-12, and feel that a somewhat older age would appreciate it and understand it better.

Overall, this is an unusual and delightful retelling of a classic story that should please young adult readers, graphic novel fans and lovers of fairy tale retellings.

~~Read for the Graphic Novels Challenge.~~

Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale

Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale
Carolyn Turgeon
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Broadway (March 1, 2011)
(ARC courtesy of Amazon Vine program.)
2/5 stars

Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale is touted as a dark, gothic retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale, The Little Mermaid. It centers around the mermaid princess, Lenia, and the prince of the Southern Kingdom (Christopher) that she rescued, and the princess of the Northern Kingdom (Margrethe) who found the rescued prince. Lenia falls in love with Christopher immediately, and Margrethe feels that Christopher was brought to her for a reason, namely to bring peace to their warring kingdoms.

Neither particularly dark or gothic, Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale is a quick and somewhat light read. It's less cheerful than most light reads, as it sticks rather close to Anderson's sad tale, but the overall "everyone gets a good finish" ending keeps it from reading like a gothic novel.

I wasn't particularly impressed with this novel. The characters were rather two dimensional and their actions easy to predict (even in instances that didn't mirror the fairy tale). Conversations between characters were also often flat.

While I found the setting interesting, and several of the few descriptions given were quite lovely (the mermaid castle for instance), on the whole descriptions of the place and time were rare, leaving the novel feeling sparse and drab.

Unoriginality bordered on the bizarrely mundane: the kingdoms were called the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, for goodness sake. Given this and the lack of details, I wondered if the novel had been rushed at the end and only the outline published.

The element of time was another problem issue: a mermaid year (between Lenia's birthday) passed abnormally fast; also, she was supposedly completely human and yet gestated a human infant within a few months. The need to make the novel hurry, with few descriptions and conversations and cheats on time, was to the detriment. It's rare that I say a novel would have been better longer, but if more attention had been paid to fleshing out details, this one could have been quite good.

I'm giving it two stars instead of one for the few original ideas and descriptions, but I simply can't recommend this novel, for adults or young adults, as I don't feel it is quality work, even for a light read.

Note: This is my opinion; on Amazon, this book received a 5 star rating 39% of the time.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
Fergus Hume
published c.1889
3/5 stars

I was eager to read The Mystery of a Hansom Cab as it was supposedly one of the most popular (if not the most popular) mysteries of that century and is also, according to legend, what gave Doyle the interest in writing mysteries himself.

The actual mystery in The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a good one: two gentleman get into a cab, one gets out and the other proceeds. When the cab stops for the second gentleman, the cab driver discovers that he is dead. There are no identifying papers or paraphernalia on the deceased and no one comes forward to identify him.

At first, like the detective in charge thinks, it seems a rather cut and dried case. Find the first gentleman and you have the murderer. The success of this novel though, hinges on the depth of the mystery. As the lawyer and detectives begin to peel away at it, they find layer after layer.

Unfortunately for the modern reader, the prose is just plain awful. This was Hume's first novel and it is stupefyingly boring at points as he goes into detail about his opinion of his fellow Australians, for instance, or makes one reference after another to contemporary mystery writers, or recounts everything the reader has just witnessed via a detailed newspaper account. Oh, and Hume's attempts at rendering lower class speech, with dropped letters and a plethora of apostrophes. .. dreadful, simply dreadful. I finally had to just start skimming over that and trust that any important information from these scenes would be recapped in another conversation later. A fourth of the book, of verbiage and descriptions and opinions that didn't contribute at all to the plot, could easily have been removed and it would have been a pretty good read.

If a modern reader is willing to take the time to wade through the chaff to get to the wheat, the mystery itself is a good one. Plus, from an historical point of view, this is a rather important novel in the solidifying of the mystery genre. It's tough going at times, though, so be forewarned.

~~Read for the Victorian Literature Challenge~~

Note: This is just my opinion; on Amazon, 41%  of the reviews were 5 stars.

Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm

Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm
Bill Willingham, author
Mark Buckingham, illustrator
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Vertigo (August 1, 2003)
3/5 stars

Animal Farm picks up right where left off. Snow goes to upstate New York to visit The Farm (where the Fables that can't blend in with humans live) and takes Red with her to work off community service hours.

They arrive at The Farm earlier than is normal for Snow's biannual visit, and find the Farm Fables in the midst of revolutionary unrest. Rose joins with the revolutionists and Snow is left scrambling to find allies.

This story line wasn't nearly as interesting to me as the first Fables volume, despite there being more serious elements. I think this is due, in part, to much of the action being told after the fact. All the real action was over in the first four issues (chapters) and the fifth felt contrived and filled out to make a full issue. Again, there were some memorable lines, and the characters are memorable as well.

Again, I was disappointed in the art. There was nothing original or unusual, or even particularly memorable, to the illustrations. It merely illustrates the story and doesn't seem to give any extra dimension to the story at all. The art is certainly not used as a vehicle to further the story, as it is in other, finer graphic novels.

Despite my interest in the characters, despite the huge following this series has, despite reading that it gets better as it goes on, I'm not sure I'm willing to read a third volume.

~~Read for the Graphic Novels Challenge~~

Note: This is just my opinion;  on Amazon, 61%  of the reviews were 5 stars.

Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile

Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile
Bill Willingham, author
Lan Medina, illustrator
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Vertigo (December 1, 2002)
3/5 stars

The Fables graphic novel series begins with this volume, Legends in Exile. It manages to incorporate both background story as to who the Fables are and a mystery.

The "Fables" are just that: the characters from legends, fables and fairy tales. Their Homelands were invaded and those that had the means to do so escaped into New York City and upstate New York. These refugees form a small Fable Town community, with King Cole presiding and Snow White as second in command.

Jack (of the Tales) discovers his girlfriend Rose Red's trashed and bloody apartment and comes to the one law enforcer of Fable Town, Bigby Wolf (as in The Big Bad). Bigby, with unwanted help from Snow (it's her sister that's missing, after all) questions suspects and unravels the mystery. He delivers the answer in a tongue in cheek, classic mystery "parlor room" setting.

The mystery is interesting and has a good ending. There are some truly witty lines in the dialogue. The characters are generally quite engaging. Bigby is charming in a rough, uncertain way; Snow is arrogant and vulnerable; Bluebeard is appealing and frightening. The twist on their lives and characters is just plain fun fantasy. It's not awe-inspiring, but it is fun.

A short story becomes a graphic novel through the addition of good artwork. The art for this is average. Facial expressions are well done and costumes and fantasy elements are clever. Unfortunately, there were no "Wow" moments, as there are in other graphic novels. The panels don't carry the story forward or add to the story, they are simply illustrations. The one excellent panel was showing Bigby's shadow as a wolf. Other than that. . . well, it felt like any ol' comic book.

That said, and despite my average 3 star rating, I became interested enough in Fable Town to want to read more. I just hope that the illustrations become more of a vehicle to tell the story as the series continues.

~~Read for the Graphic Novels Challenge~~

Note: This is just my opinion; on Amazon 55% of the reviews were 5 stars.

We Need to Talk about Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin: a novel
Lionel Shriver
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (July 3, 2006)
2/5 stars

One of the reading challenges I'm doing this year is the Take a Chance Challenge. Number ten had several options and I chose this one:

Random Book Selection. Go to the library. Position yourself in a section such as Fiction, Non-Fiction, Mystery, Children (whatever section you want). Then write down random directions for yourself (for example, third row, second shelf, fifth book from right). Follow your directions and see what book you find. Check that book out of the library, read it and then write about it. (If you prefer, you can do the same at a bookstore and buy the book!)

With that in mind, the last time I went to our local used bookstore, I went with this written down:

Fiction aisle
Left hand side
20th column
4th row
7th book

We Need to Talk About Kevinis what my hand landed on, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't consider moving one over either direction. Sure, it was sandwiched in between chick lit, which I don't read, but. . . This just didn't look all that good. But, a commitment is a commitment and We Need to Talk About Kevin it was.

In We Need to Talk About Kevin, Ms. Shriver attempts to tell the story of events, reasons, undercurrents leading up to a school massacre. The story is told from the point of view of Eva, the mother of the murderer, in the form of letters Eva is writing to her husband.

This is a very large undertaking and the premise is great. Ms. Shriver has an excellent story to tell, and at times it is well told and even gripping.

Unfortunately, the very style of the story (letters describing events to a person who was there) was a draw back. It made for very awkward language as Eva told Franklin what he already knew (with such phrases as "You told me. . . ", "You gave me. . . ") and gave a very egocentric feel to the novel from the first page, as Eva describes her her life to one who knows it intimately. I suppose this was to set up for surprises later in the book, but it simply didn't work.

The story of Eva's relationship with her husband and son would have made for interesting reading, but it was so hard to get past the fact that I was reading a novel, due to the self-important (and unrealistic) style and language. This is "a novel", and the reader is not going to forget it. There were times, though, that the story was interesting enough for me to over look this (hence the 2 stars instead of 1), but those instances were few.

In addition, We Need to Talk About Kevin is simply too long. Ms. Shriver spends too much time on details and issues that don't add to the story and that could easily have been pared. Other school shooting incidents discussed in detail, the 2000 election fiasco in Florida referred to again and again, feelings examined in minutiae. . . This book weighs in at 400 pages in oversized paperback, and would probably have been a good novel if 1/4 of that had been left out.

Another difficulty I had with We Need to Talk About Kevin was the discussions (generally arguments) between Eva and Franklin (recounted in detail by Eva to Franklin despite the fact he was there) about their son. These conversations were not realistic, read like how a young person might imagine adults talk, and certainly did not read like adults talking about their own children. Perhaps Ms. Shriver intended this, used it show the difficulty between Eva and Franklin. Perhaps, but to this reader it did have any purposeful use, and made reading even more difficult.

Due to the over-scrutiny, the self-importance and the length, by the time the book ended, the "surprise" was no surprise and the ending was simply a relief. If Ms. Shriver had kept with just the basic story, and had Eva give it in a different format, this could have been a stellar read. As it is, I advise you give it a miss.

Note: This is just my opinion; 52% of the reviews on Amazon were 5 stars.

300

300
Frank Miller and Lynn Varley
Hardcover: 88 pages
Publisher: Dark Horse; 1098 edition (December 15, 1999)
5/5 stars


Wow! This graphic novel is a simply stunningly rendered telling of the Battle of Thermopylae. Is it "historical"? Not entirely, no, but then it never makes that claim. The Battle of Thermopylae has become as much legend as history and that is the treatment given in 300: legendary.

300 follows the Spartan King Leonidas as he takes his 300 warriors to stop the Persians. Leonidas is shown as a true Spartan hero and his wit and arrogance toward Xerxes along with his unflinching bravery make the reader (this one anyway) want to take up shield and spear and stand along side of him.

The art is so fitting for the story. Heavy lines, silhouettes, and much red spattering create the atmosphere needed for each frame. The eye is drawn forward--no pulled forward--and eagerly follows. The art tells as much of the story as does the words.

For those like me that had the misfortune to see the movie version first, never fear: the crappy wife subplot is NOT in this book! Huzzah! Nor is the blatantly off-putting, totally not Spartan image of the child Leonidas crying as he was being taken away from his mother for his trials.

Breathtaking and rousing from beginning to end, 300 is a nearly hero-worshipful retelling of a legend, not a historical thesis--and there is nothing wrong with that! Read it, enjoy it and find it haunting the memory for days to come.

~~Read for the Graphic Novels Challenge~~

Star Island: my first "did not finish" of the year.

Star Island
Carl Hiaasen
Publisher: Knopf; 1St Edition edition (July 27, 2010)
Did Not Finish

I enjoy Carl Hiaasen; have been reading his novels for years. Back in August, when I saw he had a new one published, I added myself to the library waiting list. Number 102 of 102 waiting. And I waited. And waited. And waited.

Last week, my turn finally came. I opened it eagerly and began to read. About two chapters in, I thought, "I'm really not into this!"

The story, as far as I got, is about a young pop star starting to spin out of control, her undercover double, and an icky paparazzi stalker. Skink, my favorite returning character is in it as well.

I read for an evening, dutifully, and made it 113 pages. As I turned out the light my thoughts were on how I dreaded picking it back up the next night. I'd waited so long for it. . .

Then it hit me. D'oh! Just because I've waited five months to read it doesn't mean I have to read it! I can admit defeat and go on; I've done it before, I can do it now!

I don't know that the book is really all that terrible, maybe it just isn't the season for me to be reading it. I don't remember Hiassen being so vulgar, crass and tawdry, though, so I'm thinking it's the subject matter that is my problem, and the reason for Hiaasen's more brash and unappealing writing style this go 'round.

Then, it could be that his novels have always been like that and my utter absorption of late into the world of gentler Victorian novels has made my tolerance for such way lower.

Either reason, or both, is good enough. The fact is, while I have enjoyed Hiassen in the past, I could not work up one grain of sympathy for any of the characters this time (including Skink). This one will go back to the library and the other fifty or so in line after me can have their chance at it.

(Hmmm. . . I just looked at Amazon. Out of 173 reviews, this book has a 3.5 star rating. Could be I'm not far off the mark in saying it isn't up to his standard.)

The Eyes of the Dragon

The Eyes of the Dragon
Stephen King
Publisher: Signet (April 10, 2001)
4/5 stars

When I joined the Take a Chance Challenge, I knew exactly which book I'd read for the "Loved One’s Choice" book. Years ago, Bryan handed me The Eyes of the Dragon to read. I put it on my to-be-read shelf and apparently forgot all about it. He mentioned it again a few months ago and after a search, I located it and placed it in a prominent spot so I wouldn't pass it over this time.

Unlike King's usual novels, The Eyes of the Dragon is not full of horror or gore or even profanity. It is an almost gentle story; a fairy tale told with restraint by an unknown narrator who often speaks to the reader personally, as though the tale were being told by a storyteller to a breath-baited audience.

The story is that of a weak king, his evil magician adviser and his two sons. I really don't wish to tell any of the plot; I'd rather you read it yourself. Suffice it to say that bad things happen, worse things are thwarted, heroes show themselves stalwart and dangerous situations make even the weakest strong when it counts.

The Eyes of the Dragon is not a quick read, the language is too rich and reminiscent of vintage fairy tales to allow for that. Instead, it's a book to read slowly, savor and enjoy the experience of being in a fairy tale world.

My complaints were minor, if any, because now that the book is finished I can't remember them. Instead, I remember only that I loved the hero with great devotion, hated the villain with pure hatred, and was sorry when my visit to the land of Delain was over.

(I must add that I thoroughly enjoyed King's quiet nod to the master of the horror story, H. P. Lovecraft. Very amusing for Lovecraft fans, non-intrusive for those not in the know. Well played!)

Graphic Novels Challenge

Okay, just one more challenge. . . . Ever since I started the Sandman series in December I have fallen in love with the medium of the graphic novel. I don't know if it's just Gaiman's writing that makes it so fabulous, or it is really is a great medium, but my intent is to read more and find out. Then, I stumbled across this challenge, the Graphic Novels Challenge 2011. Perfect way to encourage me to do what I was going to do anyway: read! :D

The level of participation:
Beginner (3 comics or graphic novels)
Intermediate (3-10 books)
Expert (10+)

I'm going for the Intermediate. I think I can easily read four new-to-me graphic novels, and possibly more. I'd like to eventually review one of the Sandman novels so that I can show how simply fantastic they are, and rereads are okay for this challenge, so I might easily make ten. Look forward to trying though!

*a post on my view of graphic novels

Graphic Novels Read:
1. 300 by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley. (my review here)
2. Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham and Lan Medina. (my review here)
3. Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham. (my review here)
4.Rapunzel's Revenge by Dean and Shannon Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale. Read 25 January 2011. (my review here)

Woot! Beginner level completed 25 January 2010! On to Intermediate!

5. Calamity Jack by Dean and Shannon Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale. Read 26 January 2011. (my review here)
6. Britten and Brülightly by Hannah Berry. Read 27 January 2011. (my review here)
7. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 by Alan More, author and Kevin O'Neill, illustrator. Read 30 January 2011. (my review here)
8. Locke & Key Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft  by Joe Hill, author and Gabriel Rodriguez, illustrator.  Read 25 February 2011. (my review here)
9. Locke & Key Volume 2: Head Games by Joe Hill, author and Gabriel Rodriguez, illustrator.  Read 8 March 2011.(my review here)
10. Veils by Pat McGreal.  Read 16 March 2011. (review)
Intermediate level completed 16 March 2011!

11.  American Vampire, Volume One by Scott Snyder and Stephen King, illustrated by Rafael Albuquereque. Read 24 March 2011.  (review)

Sunday Salon: On Letting Books Go

This past week has been a lovely week for reading. I read and reviewed King Solomon's Mines (review), The Hunger Games (review), and The Evil Genius (review). Either late last night or early this morning (there is no clock in my bedroom), I finished reading The Eyes of the Dragon, a well written fairy tale by Stephen King; I'll review it later today.

I also finished taking my weeded out books to the used bookstore, finally. I have taken books there two and three times a week for several weeks now, and have weeded my library down to, if not a tenth, then certainly a twentieth of it's former glory. Thousands of books have left. I've received so many hundreds of dollars in trade you fellow bibliophiles would be sick if you knew the amount, and about half those hundreds in cash that came in very handy for various things. I still have a few boxes that need to be donated: old well worn copies or library rejects that the bookstore won't take. I've been taking a crate or two of those with me as I go, and putting them in the "free books" bin as well. The longer they sit in the house, the more tempted I am. I've pulled out a few, replaced a few, pulled out a few more.

We have to downsize. It's of the utmost importance on so many levels, and it's not just books that are being purged. Books are just the hardest to let go of for me.

I (and my husband too) tended to collect books as much for the fact that they were books as for the chance that I might eventually read them. The books I purged were books that had been in my home at least two years and that I had never made the slightest move toward reading. Thousands.

Yes, I purged a lot that I had already read and knew that I wouldn't be in danger of suddenly wanting to reread and not having, or classics that I can get for free from Project Gutenberg or on my Kindle. That was how I started.

But so many were collected just because I collected. Because books are my "thing". Because I love the way a book looks, the dust jacket, the pages, the font, the illustrations.

Oh it has been hard. Sometimes painful. But freeing too. When I took those first boxes, when I realized that I didn't have to actually own the book to still love it, when I realized that I was actually sharing my love of books with others this way, it was as if walls came down.

We still have hundreds, and always will. As long as I have enough walls for shelves, there will be books, but in moderation now. I'll keep the gems, the special ones, the comfort-food books--the wheat of my books, if you will--and I'll let the chaff go. I don't have to actually own a book to love it. I can share it with someone else, and have only the memory of it, and that's just a good. It's been an amazing lesson.

~the Sunday Salon~

The Evil Genius: a Domestic Story

The Evil Genius: a Domestic Story
Wilkie Collins
originally published 1886
5/5 stars

(Project Gutenberg has a free eBook version)

Wilkie Collins is best known as a writer of sensationalist fiction: supernatural suspense, terrifying drama, complex mysteries, and all often used as a vehicle for his complaints against social injustices. The Evil Genius doesn't fall into that category by today's standards, but for Victorians, it's very subject matter was sensational and taboo. The Evil Genius  is novel of marital infidelity, Divorce (yes, with a capital "D"!) and the scandal and injustice that often (in Collins' times) surrounds these issues.

Sydney, a young governess raised without parents to guide her in correct ways, finds her gratitude for her employer gradually slide into infatuation. Mr. Linley (the employer), finds his enchantment of Sydney returned by her infatuation, and an indiscretion is made and immediately regretted. Sydney loves Mrs. Catherine Linley, and considers her a dear friend, and she loves her pupil, Kitty with deep affection. They agree that Sydney must leave and Linley will confess all to Catherine. Catherine forgives, Sydney leaves for another position, and all would have returned to normal except that Kitty became grievously ill and wouldn't rest until she could see her dear Syd again. Accidentally alone, Sydney and Linley renew their forbidden love and are witnessed by Catherine. This time she can not forgive, and she banishes them both.

What follows in the meat of the novel is a, not always under the surface, discussion of the unfairness of the law and society toward women in this situation. For example, as long as they are married, Linley only is the guardian of the child, by law. Only if a Divorce occurs does legal parental guardianship go to the mother. One character, Catherine's lawyer, expresses hope that the future may see a change in this law.

When it is discovered by the residents of a small seaside resort that Catherine is Divorced, despite the fact it was her husband's infidelity, she and her daughter are shunned. Dear friends that are (as Collins puts it) "deeply religious", see any potential remarriage as a sin, in spite of the fact that (again, as Collins notes) the very verse they are quoting follows a verse that presumes the Divorced woman to have been the unfaithful one.

Collins is really stepping out of the Victorian mores and making some controversial statements with this novel, and yet it doesn't read like a morality tale. The prose is excellent and the point of view shifts gently, sometimes so subtly as to be nearly undetectable, between main characters and causes the reader to change views of the characters as the point of view shifts. While melodramatic by today's standards, the story is still tense and interesting. Granted, Collins found a bit of an easy way out with the ending, and one that I (as a non-Victorian reader) was not quite comfortable with as a resolution. This isn't a fault of either novel or novelist, though, it's just a symptom of the times, and shows that Collins, while revolutionary in some ways, was still a Victorian gentleman.

Collins has been one of my favorite novelist for many years, and The Evil Genius only increased my admiration for his talents.

~~Read for the Victorian Literature Challenge
and for the What's in a Name Challenge.~~

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
3/5 stars


The Hunger Games takes place in a future dystopic North America, where (as penalty for a previous rebellion) each of the twelve districts is required to give up two randomly selected teenagers to the participate in a televised fight to the death. The story is told, in a first person point of view, by Katniss, the female competitor from the poor District 12. She and her fellow competitor, Peeta, are wined and dined in the Capitol, primped and preened for the audience, and then finally dropped into the arena to kill and hopefully survive. Various alliances are formed, competitors are brutally murdered, and in the end a rebellious statement is made to the ruling Capitol.

The plot is generally compelling, and I found myself reading on even as I was unconvinced by it. (For example, District 12 has around 8000 people, the size of a small town, and yet it digs enough coal to fuel all 12 Districts and the Capitol?) There is enough drama, brutality and anxiety to make even a slightly interested reader curious as to the outcome, but our heroes kept getting off easy, not having to make the compelling life and death decisions that the other contestants were making; things just worked out around them. Then comes the end and it's a cliffhanger of sorts, a "buy my next book" ending, if you will, instead of just wrapping it up. I didn't appreciate that obvious ploy.

I have never been a fan of stories told in the "simple present" verb tense, and the author shifts subtly here and there, unable to keep it up herself, creating a distracting method of storytelling that takes away from the actual story. Granted, this is a YA book, and the intended audience might not be so grammatically picky, but it was a problem for this reader.

Katniss herself was not, to me, a sympathetic character. Her moods and personalities were too extreme; she felt like a larger than life character, rather than a believable hero. Peeta was easier for me to sympathize with, even though he is only seen through the eyes of Katniss. He came across less of a stock character and more real. Many other characters (just for instance: Prim, beloved by everyone; Gale, the boy that is good at everything; Rue, the ethereal fairy child) seemed very much like stock characters, seen in most fantasies, fairy tales and moral stories.

Overall, the story Ms. Collins is telling is certainly an interesting one, but there were just enough snags in it to keep me from finding it a good read.

Side Note: My husband disagreed.

Note: This is my opinion; on Amazon, 72% of the reviews are 5 stars.

King Solomon's Mines

King Solomon's Mines
H. Rider Haggard
originally published 1885
5/5 stars

H. Rider Haggard lived in (what is now) South Africa from 1875 until he returned to London in 1882. He published his first novel, King Solomon's Mines in 1885, a fantastic adventure beginning in Durbin, South Africa and reaching to unexplored territories. It became an immediate best seller, and rightfully so.

The story is told in first person by Allan Quatermain, written as a manuscript for his son, though occasionally (a first novel mistake, it would seem), Quatermain addresses "Reader", instead of his son as he does throughout most of the novel. In the manuscript, Quatermain tells of meeting with Sir Henry Curtis and Sir Henry's friend Good, who had come to Africa in search of Sir Henry's missing brother. The last heard of him had been that he was going to Durbin in search of treasure. Quatermain was able to tell Sir Henry of a man that fit the description, a man Quatermain had given directions that might have helped him find King Solomon's mines. Sir Henry persuades Quatermain to join them as guide, and what follows is an adventure tale of fast friendship, narrow escapes, devoted love, true evil and, of course, treasure.

While it is dated in some ways, King Solomon's Mines remains an magnificent yarn, drawing in the reader with an exciting plot and lovely descriptions and interesting characters. It remains a fun read, even some 125 years later.

Haggard shows a surprising sympathy for the African native, in relation to his era, and explains some tribal practices with a very tolerant touch. While it is still obvious to a modern reader that Haggard considers the white European to be superior, the African characters are not stereotyped or portrayed as ignorant or evil, though superstition is a characteristic. Haggard makes no denial of the beauty of the African women, but does make his point "can the sun mate with the darkness or the white with the black?" on a few occasions.  Let me stress, though, that this is a Victorian novel and will therefore contain Victorian opinions.  The sensible thing to do is to pass over these views and focus instead on the excellence of the rest.

While the three main characters are white Europeans, there are three less major heroes who are African: Ignosi, Infadoos and the lovely Foulata, and these characters have equally important parts to play as Quatermain, Sir Henry and Good. Overall, Haggard kept his African characters in the area between the prejudiced portrayal and the equally insulting "noble savage", seemingly ahead of his time.

While King Solomon's Mines is not a quick fluff read, it is still a somewhat light swashbuckling tale, full of humor and excitement and solid writing.

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Read for the Victorian Reading Challenge, as well as for pleasure.

Victorian Literature Challenge Update

Here are the five I've chosen to read for this challenge. There may be different ones added as I go, but these five or ones I've been planning to read this year any way. :) (FYI: Queen Victoria reigned from 1837-1901, though the era didn't begin exactly with her ascent or end with her death.)

1. King Solomon's Mines, published 1885 (This is a cheat, in a way, as I started it before I joined this challenge.)

2. The Leavenworth Case, published 1878. Mrs. Green was one of the first writers of detective fiction in the U.S. and is given credit for shaping the genre into it's classic form, including the recurring series detective.

3. The Evil Genius, published 1886. Collins has long been a favorite of mine, I've not yet read this one and it will cross over to my What's in a Name Challenge for "a book with evil in the title".

4. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, published c.1889 (I get differing reports of anywhere from 1886-1889). It was the most popular mystery of that century and prompted Doyle to try his hand at the genre.

5. Lilth, published 1895. I have long been planning to make time to reread this favorite.