Tag Archives: ya

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Posted by melydia on January 29, 2013 None comments

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (unabridged audiobook read by Jesse Bernstein; 10 hrs on 8 discs): 12-year-old Percy Jackson is a troubled child. He has dyslexia and ADHD, and he’s been kicked out of six schools in six years. To make matters worse, one day during a field trip his math teacher turns into a horrible beast. It turns out Percy is a half-blood, that is, his mother is mortal and his father is a Greek god. I had a great time picking up on all the various mythological references. Though it’s a modern update – Olympus is no longer in Greece, for example – it’s still a pretty good introduction to these old stories. It is, however, definitely a children’s book. Percy meets a monster every single chapter, and much of the plot is moved forward by people withholding extremely important information for no particular reason. I don’t know if I’ll read the rest of the series, but I imagine I would have devoured these books had they been around when I was 12. I was obsessed with mythology at that age.

A note on the audio: Bernstein was fine for all the children, but for some reason all the adults – especially the gods – spoke extra slowly. It was kind of annoying, but not a huge deal. Not enough to keep me from listening on.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Posted by melydia on January 18, 2013 None comments

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (unabridged audiobook read by Natalie Moore; 15 hrs on 13 discs): Most of this tale takes place in Idris, which is a nice change of scenery. Otherwise it’s more or less more of the same: Valentine is evil, Jace and Clary are conflicted, Simon is awesome. I did have a couple of “noooo don’t die” moments, even during those times when I knew that particular character could never in a million years get killed off, so that was refreshing. All in all, I really enjoyed this world and these characters. I know there are more books in this series, but this ended in a satisfying place.

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Posted by melydia on January 15, 2013 None comments

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (unabridged audiobook read by Natalie Moore; 13 hrs on 11 discs): It’s difficult to give a synopsis of this second book of the Mortal Instruments series without completely giving away the first one, but suffice it to say that Clary remains conflicted about Simon and Jace, Magnus remains fabulous, adults still are generally not to be trusted (gah the Inquisitor made me so angry), and Valentine continues to be awful. The plot is once again very easy to follow and predict, but like the first book, I enjoyed the world and its characters enough that I had a marvelous time all the same. Looking forward to the third installment. I understand the series began as a trilogy, so it should have a good solid ending.

A note on the audio: I have no idea why they changed narrators, but it’s not too jarring, as Moore’s voice and inflection are actually pretty similar to Graynor’s. I imagine they switched because Graynor is a Hollywood actress and had other commitments. That’s fine. Moore is quite good, and in fact I prefer her version of Magnus.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Posted by melydia on December 21, 2012 1 comments

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (unabridged audiobook read by Ari Graynor; 14 hrs on 12 discs): Clary is an ordinary teenager living an ordinary life until the night she meets a trio of demon hunters. They are just as surprised to see her as she is, since they are usually invisible to mundanes. She barely has time to get used to the idea of demons being real before her mother is attacked by one. With the help of shadow hunter Jace, Clary begins the search for her mother and answers to questions about her past. The writing is nothing special – things land “with a dull thud” and people let out breaths they didn’t know they were holding – and I saw every single plot twist coming a mile away. But the characters are fun and the world building clearly extensive. I admit, I was a little put off at first by the main character sharing a name (and hair color) with the author. Luckily, Clary didn’t come across as too glaring of an author insertion. I’ve heard the series goes downhill after a few books, but I think I’ll at least give it one more volume. This world is way too much fun to give up just yet.

So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld

Posted by melydia on November 20, 2012 None comments

So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld (unabridged audiobook read by Scott Brick; 6 hrs 33 min 6 on discs): Hunter is sort of a Cool Detector – that is, he looks for things that are novel and shoots them off to a certain major brand to see about incorporating it into future designs. The story opens with him meeting Jen, who has tied her shoelaces in a particularly unusual way. When Hunter’s boss disappears, he and Jen find themselves chasing a group of sort-of anarchists. It’s a somewhat interesting take on what makes something “cool” or popular, and why trends fade so quickly, but being someone so totally not fashion-conscious in any form, I couldn’t always relate. I’ve never seen a pair of shoes, for example, that I just had to have. That’s an utterly foreign idea to me. All the same, the story itself was kind of fun and Westerfeld always spins a decent yarn. I just wasn’t the right audience.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Posted by melydia on November 16, 2012 None comments

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (unabridged audiobook read by Jeff Woodman; 7 hours on 6 discs): I came into this expecting to love it, as I have loved every other John Green book I’ve read. And I did, though there were parts that hit uncomfortably close to home. Colin is a prodigy – that is, he learns and retains information extremely well and quickly. He is not necessarily, he maintains, a genius (someone who comes up with truly original ideas). When the 19th Katherine in a row dumps him right after high school graduation, his hilarious friend Hassan takes him on a road trip that ultimately lands them in Gutshot, Tennessee. I picked out the love interest in about three nanoseconds, which was kind of annoying, but the characters themselves were so much fun it didn’t really matter. I fell a little bit in love with Hassan, but that seems par for the course with me and Green’s secondary characters. This book says a lot about self-centeredness and being special, lessons I took a long time to learn. In short, I wish I’d read this, like, fifteen years ago. Too bad Green is almost my same age, and probably hadn’t learned these lessons yet fifteen years ago either. Oh well. I’ll get a TARDIS and remedy this at some point, I’m sure.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Posted by melydia on October 30, 2012 None comments

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: Thank goodness there’s going to be a sequel. I devoured this book quite quickly, desperate to know what happens next, and the story felt like it ended kind of in the middle. I mean, I suppose it could technically be thought of as “open-ended” but I cannot wait to hear the rest of the story. I love the characters. Basically, this is a tale written around olde-timey photographs. Jacob grew up hearing his grandfather’s fantastic tales of the children he knew when staying in a Welsh orphanage during World War II. After his grandfather’s death and mysterious last words, Jacob journeys to Wales to see if he can find any of these people still living. The photographs were a great addition, though all of them were (somewhat needlessly) intricately described in the text as well. This book, full of abandoned houses and time travel and unlikely companions really captured my imagination. I’ll definitely be reading it again someday.

Marly’s Ghost by David Levithan and Brian Selznick

Posted by melydia on October 12, 2012 None comments

Marly’s Ghost by David Levithan, illustrated by Brian Selznick: In this “remix” of Dickens’s classic Christmas Carol, teenaged Ben must cope with his girlfriend’s death by being visited by the spirits of love past, present, and future. The idea was clever, and it was fun picking out which characters were which from the original story, but the re-used dialogue was out of place, coming across as stilted and meaningless. If Levithan had either always had the characters speaking like Dickens or paraphrased the original lines, it would have been smoother. All the same, I enjoyed this short book, and the illustrations were nice.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle

Posted by melydia on October 9, 2012 None comments

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle (unabridged audiobook read by the author; 7 hrs 19 min on 6 discs): Years have passed since the last books; now Charles Wallace is in high school and Meg is married and pregnant. When the President calls with concerns about nuclear war with the (fictional) South American country of Vespugia, Meg’s mother-in-law gives Charles Wallace an ancient rune that seems to control weather, and charges him to stop the war. Charles ends up traveling through time, following the lineage of ancient Welsh settlers. This was probably my favorite of the series so far. I got a little sick of hearing the rune over and over, but all in all I enjoyed the unweaving of the legend. Recommended for fans of time travel fiction, and I don’t think one needs to have read the previous books to appreciate this one.

A note on the audio: L’Engle has a strange way of pronouncing “nothing.” She separates the syllables: nuth-thing. It’s just a little odd.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle

Posted by melydia on October 2, 2012 None comments

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle (unabridged audiobook read by the author; 5 hrs on 4 discs): Charles Wallace has fallen deathly ill, and so Meg and Calvin must journey inside his mitochondria to combat the evil that is making him ill. It’s terribly strange, and honestly not all that interesting. I mean, the cherubim was kind of neat-sounding, but the farandolae was obnoxious and the Eckthroi were too nebulous to be truly menacing. Too much of the book was taken up with “what do I do” and “what’s going on” and not enough actual plot. And, of course, the solution was visible from a mile off. But maybe I’d have appreciated this more as a child.

A note on the audio: I am always wary of books read by the author, but L’Engle was fine. My only real complaint was that the recording was poor quality (or maybe just old), making all the S sounds loud and lispy. Then again, perhaps L’Engle really has a lisp, in which case never mind. :)

(I have a lisp too.)

Also posted on BookCrossing.

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