book review

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

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thenightcircus

Some books, once you read them, you turn back to them again and again like an old friend. Their pages give you comfort during some of your darkest hours. Only three books I can think of give me that feeling of comfort and peace. The Hobbit, Bitterblue, and The Night Circus.

To be fair, this book has a pretty hefty mix of reviews across the board. It’s another one of those love-it-or-hate-it works. In case you can’t tell, I love it.

I’ve read it several times now and fall more in love with Morgenstern’s world each time. I find myself thinking, “If I had to be stuck in time somewhere, I’d be okay with being there.” I could see the circus beautifully painted inside my head. This circus gives me a feeling of magic and wonder unlike real circuses which are creepy pits of despair thrust upon this world. 

Morgenstern crafted a wonderland of the venue full of magic and dreams. The black and white tents, fascinating performances and performers, and the tantalizing smells wafting between the tents. The descriptions are so well written, if I close my eyes I can walk the venue in my mind. Exploring among the tents with a glossy caramel apple in my hand, gazing at the carefully hung signs that give only hints of what is to be found inside each tent. The world in which the author takes you is beautiful and wondrous, my bowler off to you Ms. Morgenstern. 

I will admit though, and I hate to say it, the story is a bit slow moving. For being nearly four-hundred pages you can easily fit the summary into a hand full of paragraphs. The first time I read the book through I put it down often because I’d tire of some scene or another and wonder when that section would end. The description and content of each scene is glorious, there is just too much of it at times. 

My other complaint of the book is jumping around through story lines. You read one chapter and get a good sense of the characters and what their purposes are and what is going on with the backstory. Then in the next chapter, it is a year later or ten years earlier and you are given no ruler to measure this time jump by. Only dropped hints such as “I was sad when he died last year” are there to give you a marker as to when it is during the story. At those points you have to pull yourself away from the story for a minute to remember when said character died and place when this part of the book is supposed to be. If it continued to be foreword moving, I would not have a problem with it. It distracted from the story in general.

Mind you, despite these little complaints and annoyances, the story is truly wonderful. If you are the kind of person that enjoys a fast paced, get things done and move on kind of read this book probably would not be for you. But if you want to wander through a magical world filled with interesting characters and a strange if sometimes confusing plot, this is the book for you. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox

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themeaningofnight

 

This book. This book. I am, in all honesty, not even sure where to begin. Do you ever finish a story a feel completely at a loss about it?  But I won’t let that stop me. 


The Library Journal wrote, “The perpetrator, Edward Glyver, is an erudite bibliophile and resourceful detective who assumes different names and personas with disquieting ease.” Sounds fascinating, does it not? The first thing you need to understand about Mr. Glyver is, however, that he is not entirely sane. Does the book ever tell you this specifically? No. But the context clues on this one form a mighty high pile. 

Mr. Glyver feels that the mother who brought him up and his birth mother (who he discovers are not the same people) did him wrong and denied him his birth right. His birth right being the true son and heir of a very wealthy man who holds both power and land. He wants these things for himself and he dwells on them past the point of obsession and into the realm of concealed insanity. 

This fellow starts off, very innocently, just trying to find clues that will prove him clearly and conclusively to being this wealthy man’s son. In the meantime he is thwarted by a childhood acquaintance who has ingratiated himself into the Tansor family (the family to which Edward feels he belongs). This acquaintance, Mr. Daunt, is named successor to the Tansor family when Lord Tansor feels that there is no way that a true blood heir will ever come. 

What follows is Edward’s downward spiral to betrayal, murder, and finally him ostracizing himself to flee from the horrors he has committed. 

I truly am not sure if I liked this book. I’m completely on a fence about it. The story itself was rich and colorful and very well written but the characters themselves were not likable in the least. I found myself in complete distaste of every single character I came across, including Edward. Perhaps I can look past that as it truly is a well written and well thought out story that is very rich in detail, almost to the point of being tedious with it. What I can’t disregard is the empty feeling it has left me with. Some people describe this book as a “tour de force” and one review I perused claimed that it was transcendent. While I can at least vaguely see where they are coming from, I can’t say that I agree. It is at least worth a read. 

The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

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theperfumecollector

 

This is another one of those books that I bought months ago, probably over a year ago to be honest, during a Nook sale and never bothered to read. But lately I have been driving Uber and take my Nook with me. During a lull I opened up this book hoping for a few minutes of amusement and found myself completely engrossed in it. It’s another one of those book I didn’t really expect to enjoy but couldn’t stop myself. That seems to happen to me a lot. I wonder if it says something ill about my personality?

Anyway…

We begin with a woman named Eva D’Orsey who lets you know in no uncertain terms that she is on death’s door and really doesn’t give a damn. I can respect a woman like that. She gives you every impression that she knows her own mind and will make her own choices and knows the consequences of those choices. We spend very little time with her and pretty much immediately jump to the character Grace’s point of view on a different continent.

Right there is the main complaint I have about the book. Nearly every chapter we change who the narrator is, what year it is, and where they are. I found that frustrating to follow. Part of the time you are in the 1950’s with one character then you jump to the 1920’s with another and more than half the time it takes you several paragraphs to figure out who you are supposed to be with. It severely interrupted the flow trying to figure out which narrator you were with.

Moving on, Grace is living in England in an unhappy marriage. I suppose it would be more surprising if I said she was in a happy marriage because aren’t most unhappy? But, after learning her husband is a great big cheater, Grace discovers she had been given an inheritance from someone she has never met, Eva D’Orsey. Grace travels alone to Paris where Eva lived to meet with her lawyer. She hopes to figure out why she was given this inheritance as she believes it to be a mistake.

While in Paris and away from her husband and all things familiar, Grace comes to know herself. She discovers her own wants and needs away from her deceitful spouse. Eventually, she comes to learn who Eva was and why Grace was her only benefactor. I won’t spoil that here but I will say that I was disappointed. Even before the reason was revealed it had become painfully obvious. I like a good surprise but the GASP factor wasn’t there which was a real let down.

Despite the fact that the overall plot was pretty good the author left a lot of plot holes. I don’t mind some mystery but gaping holes are another thing altogether. Maybe I’m being overly picky, it is certainly a possibility. Either way, I think this book is worth at least a once over. I won’t be picking it up again, that’s for sure, but it was worth one time through. Those damn plot holes though…

 

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

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Bitterblue

 

To many people this book is a bit controversial. My own sister is disgusted by it and refuses to re-read it and she re-reads everything. Even Lord of the Rings. While I love the story Tolkein crafted I can’t even get through those books once. I have been trying for over a decade. Maybe I’ll finish them before I’m dead. Somehow I doubt it.  Anyway, Bitterblue…

This is a book I turn to in times of need. When I’m depressed, sad, or desperately just need to escape wherever I am in life at that moment I pick up this book. I find it funny that my sister and I have such different reactions to it. While she abhors and avoids it, I turn to it in times of personal distress because it lifts me up. Funny how different two people can be.

There is something I can agree with her on, though. I’m not entirely sure this book should be listed for young adults (which it is).

Bitterblue is the story of a young queen trying to do her best for her people during troubling times. Her predecessor, her father, had left the kingdom in a state of upheaval.  He had murdered, raped, robbed, and tortured those he was sworn to protect. Bitterblue now has the unfortunate task of trying to right his wrongs and to restore peace and prosperity to her people whom she truly loves.

She isn’t alone in her task. A group of citizen vigilantes have taken it into their own hands to restore property that was stolen under the former king’s reign to it’s rightful owner. These vigilantes have a list of items that were taken and who they belonged to. Unfortunately this list also includes the names of men, women, and child who disappeared during the tyrannical reign.

This is the part that makes it not so suitable for young adults, in my opinion. The king had stolen people, including many children. He had them tortured, mutilated, and murdered. The women he took were raped and experimented on. While Bitterblue is on her path to better her people she also has to face her father’s demons. Her steadfastness and determination in the face of adversity are admirable traits. Those traits are why I keep coming back to this book again and again. It gives me hope.

Since this book does have a lot of little hidden meanings and twists and turns I will stop here as to not spoil them. I never want to ruin a good turn of plot for someone. Do keep in mind that this book is not for the overly sensitive at heart. There are a lot of topics in it that I feel shouldn’t be in the mind of the young adult but, never the less, it is still a good read. If you have the stomach for it I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

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As an afterword, there are also two other books in this series. They are Graceling and Fire. While I have read Graceling and found it slightly above mediocre I have not read Fire but am told by friends and family that it is quite good.

The Daughters of Palatine Hill by Phyllis T. Smith

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TheDaughtersOfPalatineHill

 

I am unsure of where to even begin. Do you ever finish reading a book and are left feeling just completely empty? When I started reading this book on Monday it drew me in in a way that no other story has done in a long time. It is actually the first paper book I have purchased in a long time as I have been using my Nook for the most part. I was desperate to have it and it wasn’t available as a digital copy. I finished reading it just a few minutes ago, as I write this, and I’m still not entirely sure where I stand with it. I neither love nor hate it. But Phyllis Smith did something wonderful with this novel. She made me feel.

This work follows the lives of three women. Julia (daughter of Caesar Augustus), Livia (wife of Caesar Augustus), and Cleopatra Selene (orphaned daughter of Antony and Cleopatra) are our daughters of Palatine hill.  Each chapter has one of these three women narrating it. It takes a moment of personal mental adjustment at the beginning of each chapter to alter your view so that you can understand where each of the women are coming from. I don’t usually enjoy that style of book but in this case I found it interesting. Each of these women view the world in very different lights and seeing those vastly different views through their eyes was fascinating.

Now, I went into this book with general knowledge of the time period it is set in; during the reign of Caesar Augustus once his only daughter comes of age. The Caesar marries his daughter Julia off to a man he plans to groom to take his place as ruler of the mighty Roman empire. She is her father’s political toy, a pawn in the game. If you have any knowledge of the historical figure that is Julia then know that her life in the book follows many of the major events of her actual life. Turmoil, love, lust, duty, with a dash of selfishness is how she lives her life. Honestly, it is an overabundance of selfishness and it causes me to hate her fairly passionately. I muttered “self serving whore” more than once while reading her sections. I understood her point of view but at the same time wanted to punch her in the teeth. Frequently. I doubt that the cesar would have appreciated that from me.

Selene is a more interesting and vastly more likable character but she gets sadly few chapters focused on her. It’s really a shame, but I understand the story revolves more around Julia and Selene is, sadly, left in the dust. She does have one or two major roles to play but they are short lived so for now I will move on.

Livia is step mother to our frustratingly selfish Julia. I have to say that she at least tries to be a good one. It’s certainly not her fault that her step daughter is a miserable putz. She knows the political game and tries to play it with grace and intelligence. I can respect her for that. She holds the ear of her husband and knows how to play the game to influence his decisions. She is a strong, solid woman. Hard to have anything but a positive opinion about someone like that.

In the end, I’ve spent considerable time pondering what I really thought about the book and, in a nut shell, I’m still not entirely sure. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good parts. Drama, intrigue, lust, war games, and enough of a touch of insanity to make it spicy but I’m just not sure it is enough. I will say, I re-read most of the books I own and won’t be re-reading this one so I guess, at least for me, that says enough. If the book doesn’t rank a re-read then it just isn’t good enough and that’s that.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

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Welcome to Scion: No Safer Place

TheBoneSeason

This book comes from a newer author. Honestly, I bought it on a whim when there was an online sale because it sounded marginally entertaining. I’m still surprised that I bought it. This is not my usual choice of book when I have other options. Even the description on the Barnes and Noble website sounded off color to me. I re-read it just now and it still takes me by surprise that I chose to read this book. That being said, some of the best things in life come as a surprise.

However, when I started on chapter one I very nearly put it down and left it there. We all have books like that on our shelves. Ones we have started that didn’t pull us in and we never picked them up again. For some reason I kept going on this story. In case you haven’t caught the clue, the first couple chapters are tough to get through. The author has stated that this book is the first in what is going to be a seven book series. As with setting up the premise of any book, especially what is going to be such a long series, a lot of information is thrown at you quickly at the beginning.

That is my only real criticism. Those first few chapters made practically no sense to me on the first read and it took some dedication to get through them. Words are being thrown about that you don’t understand the significance of and you can’t quite figure out what the main character is. But, on the second read through of the book, once the “set up” information waterfall made more sense, the rest of the book seemed richer and more enthralling. That’s saying quite a bit since I pretty thoroughly enjoyed it the first time.

After you get through that beginning gush you are in for a treat. The world Samantha Shannon paints is so very alive. Some people in that world have special gifts. Gifts that make them different. Gifts that make them targets for the government. They are the voyants. These voyants are hated, persecuted, and murdered for being what they are.It isn’t their choice to have been born that way. Our main character, Paige Mahoney, is one of these voyants.

This is a story of a thoroughly and completely corrupt government. A government controlled by a group from the outside. They are the face of the government and act merely as puppets to the otherworldly creatures behind the curtain. You follow the underbelly society of voyants and their struggle for survival against this cast of villians. Paige meets these creatures, these monsters that control the government, and is thrown into the pocket society that they have created. You quickly begin to understand how far down the rabbit hole she has gone. Shannon’s world is rich in detail, full of intrigue, and really makes you feel. That’s something I always want from a book. I want it to make me feel and so many that I pick up don’t.

I truly don’t think anything I can say can do this book the justice it deserves so I will leave you with this quote from The Bone Season:

“Knowledge is dangerous. Once you know something, you can’t get rid of it. You have to carry it. Always.”

Now go read the damn thing.

The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose

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TheWitchOfPaintedSorrows

 

Mere minutes ago I finished reading this book and I’m still immersed in the story. Isn’t that part of the goal of every writer? For the reader to finish the words on the page and not want to close the book because then it will truly be over. To have their audience be so caught up in the story that they don’t want to say goodbye. Just to live in the story forever.

I did not want to say farewell to this book.

The Witch of Painted Sorrows is the third book I have read by M.J. Rose and she has never disappointed me. Her stories are so rich and vivid. They live in the real world with a touch of something “other”. The otherworldly aspects are never pushed beyond the believable and into science fiction which is an aspect I enjoy immensely.

In this story we follow Sandrine Verlaine through a period of upheaval and change in her life in Paris, 1894. Rose draws you in with excitement and curiosity in the very first paragraph of the book:

“I did not cause the madness, the deaths, or the rest of the tragedies any more than I painted the paintings. I had help, her help. Or perhaps I should say that she forced her help on me. And so this story- which began with me fleeing my home in order to escape my husband and might very well end tomorrow, in a duel, in the Bois de Boulogne at dawn- is as much hers as mine. Or in fact more hers than mine. For she is the fountainhead. The fascination. She is La Lune. Woman of moon dreams, of legends and of nightmares. Who took me from the light and into the darkness. Who imprisoned me and set me free.”

Sandrine, when she flees her terrible husband in New York, travels secretly to Paris to stay with her grandmother, a courtesan of considerable wealth. She goes initially to escape the man, her husband, that had directly caused her father’s death and whom she feared. While in Paris, she discovers dark secrets hidden within her grandmother’s home that have been there for many generations.

As the darkness she finds creeps over her, possesses her, and tries to consume her Sandrine falls in love with a man that the darkness within her hungers for. While this creature, this consciousness, is inside her Sandrine accomplishes things in her life she had once only dreamed of while at the same time being touched by murder and madness. The spirit, who you learn has haunted Sandrine’s family for generations, seeks to entirely possess her host and force Sandrine out.

Will Sandrine win or will this consciousness from the past push her out? I won’t spoil it here. I will, however, say that the end surprised even me. It wasn’t entirely what I was expecting. I re-read the last chapter to make sure I had read it right. The story did have some slow parts, as most stories do, but push through them. I promise that you won’t be disappointed.

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C Wrede

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DealingWithDragons

 

I don’t often go for sci-fi. A little bit of fantasy, sure, because what is life without a little imagination. But straight out sci-fi? That happens a little next to never. However, Dealing with Dragons is the first in the series of four in the Enchanted Forest chronicles by Patricia C Wrede and they take you into a world of dragons, fiery princesses, evil plots, and magic that is so carefully written into the story that it seems almost commonplace and normal. My earliest memory of reading is of my mom reading this series to me at bedtime when I was a child. They hold a special place in my heart. 

Cimorene is a princess of the Kingdom of Linderwall and she is not exactly what the king and queen would consider a normal princess. She conjugates Latin verbs, makes cherries jubilee, and can cast a mean invisibility spell. Her sisters learn when to scream as a dragon or orge is carrying them off and different embroidery stitches. But not Cimorene. When her parents arrange a marriage for her to an annoyingly proper prince in a neighboring kingdom, Cimorene goes off on her own and volunteers to become the captive princess of the dragon Kazul. 

Sounds like fun to me. 

While sorting Kazul’s library, organizing her treasure vaults, and making chocolate mousse Cimorene discovers a plot against the life of the king of the dragons. From here she works with a prince that was turned into stone (quite unfortunate), a ginger witch with perfect posture (and a lot of cats), and an only slightly silly princess to try to thwart the over-confident wizards from taking control of the dragon’s throne. 

This series is absolutely wonderful. Wrede keeps to her themes, stays true to her characters, and the series itself winds together beautifully. If you have even a passing fancy of sci-fi or even just a good and fanciful story I cannot recommend the Enchanted Forest chronicles enough. If you aren’t into science fiction I know it sounds a bit silly. However, I truly believe if you give the books a try you will not regret it. Wrede pulls you into her stories with such wonderful writing that you can’t help but keep your eyes glued to the page. They are part of the magic of my childhood. I hope they become a part of your life, too. 

The Tale of Hawthorn House by Susan Wittig Albert

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TheTaleofHawthornHouse

 

 

A book based around the most popular children’s author of all time? Don’t mind if I do!


That is exactly what The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter are. Who is Beatrix Potter, you ask? Why, every child has heard of Peter Rabbit! That is exactly who Beatrix Potter is, the author of some of the most famous children’s stories ever written. Some of her works include The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Tom Kitten, and The Tale of Pigling Bland.

Albert bases her stories (loosely) around events that actually occurred in Ms. Potter’s life. From the history I have personally read of Beatrix it seems to me she made the personality of the character fit very well with the real woman. 

Shy, determined, intelligent, creative. Wonderful. 

In this story Beatrix is visits the lovely little town of Near Sawrey where she owns a farm that she, due to her over bearing parents, doesn’t get to visit very often. Ms. Potter loves her little farm and does her very best to take care of it and make it prosperous. However, every time she comes to the village, she seems to get tied up in some kind of mystery and mild mayhem. In this case it is the mystery of a baby that was left on her doorstep and no one knows where the child came from or why the infant was left on that particular doorstep,


By a series of fortunate coincidences she does in the find the child’s parents and the child gets the best of all worlds in the end. In the meantime Beatrix is mistakenly marked a bride, assists a friend with some much needed courage, and misplaces a duck. I do believe the part about the duck is my favorite. Anyone who has read Beatrix Potter’s stories knows the tale of Jemima Puddleduck and in this book we get to explore a little further into her story as well as her furry friend’s. 


In all of the books Albert has done about Beatrix in her Cottage Tales series, she delves a little further into the children’s stories that Potter actually wrote. It is really wonderful to add to those little details to the stories already in your head, even if it just seems like some insignificant detail. 


Now, if you’re looking for a fast paced, action packed book then this series would not be quite right under those pre-requisites. If you want an interesting, well written, quiet yet detail orientated mystery then look no further. 

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

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MissPPeculiarChildren

 

I read the reviews and comments on this book at least a dozen times over the last year before I finally decided to buy it. And I will admit the only reason I did was because it happened to be on an amazing sale that day. I will be the first to admit that the premise of the story is a little bit odd, and I do usually like odd, but I was afraid it was going to delve into the land of cheesy. Honestly, when the cover of the book is a creepy little girl levitating and managing to look menacing all at the same time it certainly sends a message.


That message is this book is either epic or chintzy. 

We start with a pre-teen or early teen boy. I’m going to call him Bob because I simply don’t care to remember what his name actually was. So Bob is a weak, whiny little brat of a boy that offends his grandfather and doesn’t appreciate what is given to him. 

And yes, I very much doubt that was how he was supposed to be perceived. 

Bob instead of helping his grandfather, who calls and specifically asks him for help, assumes he is delusional and his grandfather ends up dead. Bob now sees an evil shadow in the forest with his dead grandfather, who loved his grandson very much, and our main character spends the next several chapters in therapy. At this point, lets just say I was more than ready to put the book down. But, I never start a book that I don’t finish, so onward we plod. 


Wimpy Bob and his father go through the grandfather’s things and Bob finds a box of old photos of children doing things like you would find in a side show act. Levitating, strong man, invisible boy etc etc etc. His grandfather had shown him the photos years before so Bob decides to go to an island. There is a heartfelt and touching story behind all of that but, just like his name, I really don’t care to remember. 


In a nutshell, Bob finds the kids, gets the hots for his grandfather’s ex who never grew up, and nearly gets the invisible boy killed. The evil shadows show back up and now Wimpy Bob is expected to save the world. My impression was that this was supposed to be a coming of age story juxtaposed with children that never age. I also got the impression that this story is supposed to give hope to physically weak or odd children, but mostly the whole story is a bit creepy. And not creepy in a good way. We have all read stories that are an entertaining type of creepy. This story isn’t one of those.


Nor worth my time or yours. 

 

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As an afterward, since I initially wrote this review some time ago a lot of positive press has shown up regarding this story. Out of curiosity I pulled it up on Amazon and it has a 4.3 out of 5 as of this date. I just wanted to mention that I have seen that positive press and for the life of me can’t figure out what they are talking about. However, as the old saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. A day will never come when all of mankind agrees on all things.