The Raven Boys Review

The thing about Maggie Stiefvater is that her writing has a weird way of drawing you in and making you connect with events and characters you normally wouldn't. That was what happened to me with The Raven Boys, only it didn't draw me in quite enough to make me forget about it's problems.

Blue doesn't have an psychic abilities, which is weird because she comes from a long line of psychics. Still, she's definitely gotten used to dealing with the unusual. So has Gansey, but only because he's thrown himself into it for years to try and find Glendower, a dead Welsh king. In Virginia. He drags his friends, Adam, Ronan, and Noah, along with him to follow all kinds of clues that only lead to dead ends.

When their paths cross, they stop hitting dead ends and start getting answers. Answers they may not actually like. And as Blue gets closer to Adam, it gets harder to not kiss him, which is a problem, because all of her family have told her for years that the if she kisses her true love, he'll die.

As you can tell, there's a lot going on in The Raven Boys, and sometimes it got to be a little too much for me. The characters blended together and the plot seemed to be going nowhere. That's when I put it down to read a different book. When I came back to it, I found it to be a lot more enjoyable and a lot less confusing.

But plot-wise The Raven Boys still didn't do anything for me, even after I set it down. It seemed like very little actually happened and what did happen only somewhat mattered to the plot of the overall series, in my mind. It made this a very easy novel to set down, unfortunately.

And yet I connected with the characters in the end. I found Adam to be a wonderfully dreamy/angsty love interest. I found Gansey to be a fascinating and unique character. I found Blue to be a quirky and easy-to-relate-to protagonist.

In the end The Raven Boys was a mixed bag for me, and I'm not sure if I'll be reading the sequel or not.

Plot: Interesting but didn't really move.

Characters: I liked them.

Writing: Really good.

Ending: Meh.

Mature content: Maybe some swearing but I think that was about it.

Overall:

Somewhere in the middle.

I wasn't blown away by this book but it definitely wasn't the worst book I've ever read either.

The Curiosities Review

Authors: Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, Brenna Yovanoff
Release date: October 1, 2012
Pages: 304
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books
How I got it: For review from Netgalley 

From acclaimed YA authors Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff comes The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories. 

- A vampire locked in a cage in the basement, for good luck.- Bad guys, clever girls, and the various reasons why the guys have to stop breathing.- A world where fires never go out (with references to vanilla ice cream).  

These are but a few of the curiosities collected in this volume of short stories by three acclaimed practitioners of paranormal fiction. 

But The Curiosities is more than the stories. Since 2008, Maggie, Tessa, and Brenna have posted more than 250 works of short fiction to their website merryfates.com. Their goal was simple: create a space for experimentation and improvisation in their writing—all in public and without a backspace key. In that spirit, The Curiosities includes the stories and each author's comments, critiques, and kudos in the margins. Think of it as a guided tour of the creative processes of three acclaimed authors. 

So, are you curious now?

Let me start off this review by saying that there are little notes the authors made in the pages, but I was unable to read them on my e-reader, so I might have missed some stuff.

Stories I Liked

Vampire Box by Tessa Gratton

A Murder of Gods by Maggie Stiefvater

The Madness of Lancelot by Brenna Yovanoff

The Wind Takes Our Cries by Maggie Stiefvater

Auburn by Brenna Yovanoff

Puddles by Tessa Gratton

The Bone-Tender by Brenna Yovanoff

Death-Ship by Tessa Gratton

Cut by Brenna Yovanoff

Philosopher's Flight by Maggie Stiefvater

Dumb Supper by Tessa Gratton

Neighbors by Brenna Yovanoff

The Summer Ends In Slaughter by Tessa Gratton

Berserk by Tessa Gratton

Lazarus Girl by Brenna Yovanoff

Stories I was "Eh" About (Most os these ended up confusing me)

Blue As God by Brenna Yovanoff

Thomas All by Tessa Gratton

The Power of Intent by Brenna Yovanoff

A History of Love by Maggie Stiefvater

Girl Raised by Wolves by Brenna Yovanoff

Council of Youth by Maggie Stiefvater

Rain Maker by Maggie Stiefvater

Stories I LOVED

Another Sun by Maggie Stiefvater

Date with a Dragon Slayer by Tessa Gratton

Scheherazade by Brenna Yovanoff

The Deadlier of Species by Maggie Stiefvater

The Last Day of Spring by Maggie Stiefvater

Ash-Tree Spell to Break Your Heart by Tessa Gratton

Overall, this was a really cool look into three awesome author's creative process, especially as the stories were mostly uneditied. I'll definitely need to be buying this one for my shelves so a) I can read the notes and b) I need to re-read the ones I loved. Because I really did LOVE those. I would definitely recommend this one.

Forever Review

Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: July 12, 2011
Pages: 388 (Hardcover)
Publisher: Scholastic
Most Appropriate For Ages: 12+
Where I Got It: Bought
Other titles in series: Shiver, Linger

The thrilling conclusion to #1 bestselling Shiver trilogy from Maggie Stievater.

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. In Linger, they fought to be together. Now, in Forever, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

There is no feeling in the world like the one you get when you read the last book in one of your favorite series. You're excited because you know it'll be amazing, but also depressed because your character's story are coming to an end and you're just not quite ready to say goodbye. This creates a whole new, indescribable emotion in you that you can't really get any other way. The last time I felt this was about one year ago, when I read Mockingjay, and it's what I felt when I started Forever.

Much like Mockingjay, a lot of people seem to be disappointed by the way this series finished. And--just like when I read Mockingjay--I have to disagree with those people.

The Wolves of Mercy Falls series has some of my favorite characters ever. Ever. Sam, Grace, Cole, Isabel...I would've read a million more books about them. (And still will. HINT HINT.) But I'm happy. Stiefvater did justice to these character's end with her always poetic and suspenseful writing that I want to memorize. She's one of my very favorite authors, and I will read anything she ever decides to write.

Much like it's predecessors, Forever was romantic, impossible-to-put-down, and absolutely heartbreaking for so many reasons. I fell hard for Forever, just as I expected. This is one of my top favorite series ever and now I guess I'll just be rereading it as soon as I possibly can.

Plot: As usual, those who crave action won't love it. But I thought it was incredibly suspenseful and amazing.

Characters: The only thing I dislike about them? They're not--technically--real. :(

Writing: So. Fricking. Amazing.

Ending: I liked it. It wasn't perfectly wrapped up, but I feel like that's kinda appropriate for this story.

Kid friendly? There's some swearing, drinking, and sex.
Should I read it? READ THIS SERIES.

Overall:

Do you even have to ask?

(I realize this review is not really a, well, review. Sorry.) 

Forever Trailer!

The Wolves of Mercy Falls series is a huge favorite of mine, so I'm getting really excited about the release of Forever, and this trailer only helps.



So cool!

Linger Review

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Release Date: July 13, 2010

Pages: 368 (ARC)

Publisher: Scholastic

Most Appropriate For Ages: 14+
Where I Got It: Won
Other titles in series: Shiver

The Longing.

Once Grace and Sam have found each other, they know that they must fight to stay together.
For Sam, this means a reckoning with his werewolf past. For Grace, it means facing a future that is less and less certain.

The Loss.

Into their world comes a new wolf named Cole, whose past is full of hurt and danger. He is
wrestling with his own demons embracing the life of a wolf, while denying the ties of being human.

The Linger.

For Grace, Sam, and Cole, life is a constant struggle between two forces --
wolf and human -- with love baring its two sides as well. It is harrowing and
euphoric, freeing and entrapping, enticing and alarming. As their world falls apart,
love is what lingers. But will it be enough?
---------------------------------
You know a book is good when you only remember that it's only a book when someone practically pries it out of your hands.

The plot definitely had more going on than in Shiver. There's not as much explaining the wolves, or relationship development, so we get to see deeper into the characters.

We are introduced to two new points of view, Cole and Isabelle. Both are refreshing and dark and easy to love, despite how completely screwed up they are. If possible, I think I love Sam even more (I have deemed him my literary boyfriend). Grace too. And them together.

Maggie Stiefvater might just be my favorite author ever. If not then she's really close. I am so emotionally involved with her characters, her plot line, and her brilliant, lyrical writing that it's insane.

 I had seen the ending coming since the very beginning of Linger, but I still had tears in my eyes. (For me this is saying quite a bit.) I'm having a really hard time writing this review, in case you can't tell. I just loved it so much. I liked Linger more than I liked Shiver, which was a LOT. Linger just brought the series to a whole new level for me. I don't know if I can literally wait for the final book in the trilogy, Forever.

How kid friendly is it? There are mentions of sex, and one of the characters did drugs heavily. There's a little bit of language, but not enough to worry about.

Linger Launch Party And Contest!

(Sorry for the lame pictures. Our camera got left at home so we had to settle for our phones.)

So, after a few hours of driving and me rushing everyone (my mom, Friend, and Friend's mom) out of the hotel early because I knew from other recaps that you don't get seats unless you come early, we made it to the Linger Launch Party with time to spare. (And we found seats, because I am an excellent rusher.)

We waited about 15 minutes for everyone to show up, then Maggie came out and started talking about Shiver, Linger, her blog tour, Plant People, her childhood, and more. If you've ever wondered if Maggie is as entertaining in person as she is on her blog and twitter and such, I'm happy to tell you that she is.

Afterward, they handed out raffle tickets and Shiver Trivia cards, which was how you won the awesome guitar that Maggie doodled. It's been about a year since I've Shiver, so of course I didn't do very good at all. Even though it was an open-book test.

Maggie then came back and read a chapter from Linger.

I couldn't fully appreciate it because I was still working on my Shiver Trivia questions, knowing for sure that I hadn't won. But I did win a Shiver shirt that I'll never wear (because it'd be way too tight on me, and I don't want to wash the autograph off). Then she did a Q and A, which was a lot of fun and pretty informative too.

Then we had CAKE.Isn't it pretty? It was also really good. But of course, on my way back to my seat, shimmying through the isles, my cake fell on the floor. Because that is the type of thing that happens to me in public. It landed in between some woman's legs and you could tell that she was kind of horrified. I then went on a little search for a trash can, then got another piece of cake.

Then we all got in line to get our books signed and picture taken with Maggie. When I walked up to Maggie, it was pretty nerve-wracking. Meeting Maggie, one of my favorite authors, was probably as exciting to me as any other normal 14 year old girl meeting their favorite pop star or whatever. I'm pretty sure I sounded like an idiot:

Maggie: You gonna run?
Me:...To where?
Maggie: Downstairs. They're making me sign downstairs after everything up here's done, so you'll probably have to run.
Me: Really? (You see, I was very nervous, and Maggie had been joking around all night.)
Maggie: Yeah...

She was really nice, but we didn't talk for very long since I'm pretty shy and tend to only have good conversations with people I know really well. But we did get a few pictures, like this one:

We had two cameras pointed at us, so Maggie and I were a little overwhelmed since we weren't really sure which camera to look at.

Then they announced the trivia winners, which I wasn't, obviously. Then we ran downstairs. We waited a little while in line, then finally she signed all of our stuff. When I walked up she said, "You're back!" Then signed all five of my things (4 books, 1 shirt) as we talked for a minute longer.
They have all already become some of my prized possessions, along with my MP3 player and chili pepper cup.

Then, we went across the street to the candy store that was the one from Shiver (or at least it was based off of it.) When we asked Maggie for directions, she told us to, "Walk in, close your eyes, and take a deep breath." So we did.

I don't know about the rest of you who have read Shiver, but that was exactly how I'd imagined it looking, and smelled just as Maggie had described it too.

Here is me and Friend outside of the store. (And yes, we did buy things, like white chocolate snow caps, and chocolate covered marshmallows on sticks and such. And I only ate the white chocolate snow caps, but I can tell you that they were delicious.)

There's what you missed at the Linger Launch Party. It was my first ever book event for an author that I've already read, and it was tons of fun! Hopefully I'll be able to go to some more.

And of course I didn't forget about you guys and your love of free books. I've got one signed ARC of Linger up for grabs, along with a super-snazzy bookmark! Wanna win? Fill out this form to enter. The contest will end on August 5, and is only open to those in the US and Canada. (Sorry, I'm broke from my last contest.) Good luck, I can't wait to give someone else their own new prized possession!

And be sure to look at for my (rave) review of Linger that will be up soon.

Guess Where I'm Going?

To the Linger launch party! It's July 20th in Williamsburg, VA. Maggie's one of my favorite authors and I can't wait to meet her in person, so naturally when I squeezed the "Yes" out of my mom, I was ecstatic. You can find more info about it then go here. I'll be sure to document every second through pictures and share them with you guys (*cough* and a contest *cough*)!

Interview With Maggie Stiefvater + Shiver Winner!

So, I've just counted up the entries for the Shiver contest. But, first, the author of Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater took time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions!


Where did you get the inspiration for your series?

Well, both of my series have far different genesis stories. Here’s the one for SHIVER: http://fantasticbookreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/author-interview-maggie-stiefvater.html

Do you listen to music while you write?

Always. I am easily distracted and always think about the cookie dough I could be making and eating or the laundry that needs to be done or the emails that need to be answered if I don’t have music on. I construct very tight playlists for each novel; they all adhere closely to a very specific mood so that every time I put that playlist on, I’m instantly transported into that novel again.

What's your most effective way to get through writers block?

Writer’s block is your subconscious telling you that you’re headed a wrong way. For me, I delete every word since I started feeling stuck -- sometimes 10,000 words at a time. If it’s a lot, I’ll paste it into a file called “outtakes” so that I can feel like it’s still there if I want it. But I never go back for those lost words . . . probably because they are crap.

For me, writer’s block always happens when a) I try to make characters do something to forward the plot that’s not in their personality, b) I haven’t been reading much fiction in my spare time and c) if I haven’t gotten enough sleep.

Which one of your characters would you say is most like you?

There is a character that IS me, but I’m not telling who it is. I will say it is not Grace or Deirdre. :D

Anything else to add?

God bless librarians.


Thank you again Maggie! And now, for the winner of my ARC of Shiver. There were 68 people entered, and 180 entries total. But the only winner is.....

Parajunkee

Congratulations Parajunkee! I'm off to email you now. Thank you so much to everyone that entered! Don't forget to enter my giveaway for Explorer X-Alpha.

Shiver Review

Release Date: August 1, 2009
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Age Group: 14+
Pages: 390 (Hardcover)

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again. Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

---------------------------------------------------------------

This book was great. Yes, all those raving reviews you've read about it are valid. That's really all there is to it. I think I could end this review right now, but I want to continue raving about it, so I'll go on.

The plot in itself is really original-well, not the werewolf part, but how they "shift", and the entire take on werewolves. Although it's low on action until the last 90 pages or so, it keeps you reading religiously; fueled by romance, a little mystery, and an excellent storyline.

The characters are wonderful. Grace isn't the "normal girl" in most teen fiction, she's more logical, level-headed, and relatable than lots of protagonists. And Sam was more creative, afraid, and sensitive then most guy characters. The only character that annoyed me was Jack-obviously, and Olivia a little bit too. I was only annoyed with Beck until he explained himself.

Grace and Sam's romance is amazing. They're so sweet. At first I thought that they were moving too fast for only knowing each other for a short amount of time, but then I realized that they had shared a connection, an unbreakable bond for six years. And that definitely shows.

I think the writing was one of the things that made this book so great. OK, here is what I meant when I said it was taking me a long time to read it in a good way: The writing is so beautiful and poetic that I'd have to re-read sentenses to make sure I understood it correctly, or sometimes just to savor it's beauty. It was that good.

Overall, a great book! I can't think about anything negative to say about it except that the next book doesn't come out unitl 2010! I was very satisfied with the ending-but I want Linger, the next book, in what is supposed to be a series. And I want it now. I want to be sucked back into Maggie Stiefvater's wondeful world of werewolves now. Trust me, go read it this very moment.

Was it better than Blood and Chocolate? Oh yeah. This is, without a doubt in my mind, the best completely werewolf dedicated book I've ever read.