White Cat by Holly Black

Some might know Holly Black for her modern fairy tale series or Spiderwick series. So when I saw there was a new series by Black I thought I would give it a try. I have never read any of her other work so I was going into the book with a blank slate.

The back of the book didnt really give me that much to go on but quickly I picked up on the story. Firstly it takes place in modern day but in what might be called an alternate reality. In this reality there exists people with the ability to "curse" you just my touching. There are simple curse workers that can do luck, or emotions, there are also more complicated ones that can curse you with pain, memory loss or kill you.

The main character is Cassel, the only member of his family that is not a curse worker. The book starts off with him waking up on the roof of his boarding school. We also learn that Cassel believes he murdered his best friend when he was in middle school. After the roof incident occurs he is sent home for a few weeks were he spends time cleaning out his old family house, and starts to really think about what has happened to him in the past.

It took me a lot longer than it should have to put together the fact that curse workers needed to touch some one, and thus people wore gloves all the time. Black chose to write in a style that makes the reader pick up on facts over time because the story is being told by Cassel and we don't learn anything until he thinks about it. It made me a frustrated when I was first reading. The one thing that gets me is I am unsure as to how the next book will proceed after how the book ends.

On the bright side the book is an original idea and seeing as the market is currently be flooded by nothing but vampire trash I am excited for anything new and original.

It might not be a buy book, but it is something to pick up or borrow.

Time to buckle down

Okay so I have really been ignoring this place and that needs to stop. I promised myself I would get back in the habit of writing more often. Because I am the writer, I am the one who longs to write books and spend the rest of my days surrounded by books. But two days ago my best friend put up on facebook that she wants to write as well. Its stupid and petty but I feel like that is stealing my identity, because I am the writer.
So new agenda. Post every day. And write at leas three paragraphs for one of my possible novels.

Awesome.
Lets do this

Asian Dramas.

Every now and then i get bored with reading romance novels and go back to asian dramas. why you might ask? because they are simply the greatest things ever. you cant make up these things, they are real and frankly they are normally very strange.

Kyouhei "I think i am having contractions." *rubs chest*
Takenage "I think that means you are going into labor."
The rest of the group "Its the first sign of love."

That really happens. and trust me it gets stranger the more you watch. Here are some fun little facts you learn the more you watch asian dramas.
1. Hot young men love older rude women.
2. If you have a best friend, he's in love with you (even in your a guy)
3. Girls can cross dress and no one will notice, until the awkward beach episode.
4. Brothers/cousins/best friends/step-brothers always fall in love with the same woman.
5. U turns are legal everywhere. Not really give it a try.
6. No one walks, they run at a dead sprint or meander slower than zombies, there is no in between.
7. The theme song is the only soundtrack, get used to it now!
8. Rich people wear pastels, especially the men.
9. Poor people only wear brown.
10. Everyone in Taiwan has aids (haha WILL)
11. Women got to sleep and wake up with their make up on.
12. Its normal to go to school on Sunday, Saturday too, and some times Friday night. There is a chance you may never leave...
13. Everyone can fight like Bruce Lee.
14.Bruises heal over night, so do cuts, and broken bones. In the morning all you will have is one band aid on your face.
15. Bangkok love story has more endings than LOTR
16. Its okay to layer neon on top of neon
17. That cute guy that's your best friend, there is a 95% chance that is a cross dressing girl.
18. Hugging can get you pregnant
19 There are only two ways to kiss: Press your lips against theirs, mouth shut for an uncomfortable amount of time; or devour the other person and try to suck out their soul, while moving your head alot. THERE IS NO IN BETWEEN!
20. At some point, for no reason, you have to go away, just so the person you love can miss you/run to the airport/cry/kill people/ there are other options as well
21. Everyone has a long lost family member that is going to mess up their life in one way or another.
22. Colds are serious business and to be treated like a life or death situation.
23. The correct way to save some one from being hit by a car is to push them out of the way and then stand there and wait for it to hit you.
24. If you think you are gay there is a good chance that you might just love a cross dressing girl.
25. The side characters are always more fun than the main characters. All the really fun stuff happens to them, and they complain alot less.
26. Its okay to be in love with your teacher or vice a versa.
27. Sexuality is something as easily flipped as a coin.
28. All boys have a mommy complex
29. Eating paper is a good idea.
30. Bangs are back in, ignore the fashion magazines. the more bangs the better.
31. Rain is evil and to be avoided at all costs, unless you are poor then by all means, go play.
32. Leather is naturally bright colors. dont believe otherwise
33. Fathers are evil men and not to be trusted, unless they are basically a woman, then it okay
34. Dropping a cell phone once breaks it
35. Hair is naturally spikey
36. Orange is blonde. accept this and move on
37. Getting your shoes tied is romantic
38. There is no such thing as facial hair
39. Teachers are violent and evil and they beat students
40. There is no little crying, only sobbing
41. Being in a gang is cool. Superduper cool. But not as cool as love triangles.
42. Cell phones are the size of handbags
43. Food is a big deal
44. You can close your eyes while driving and not hit anything.
45. There are 35 hours in the day, that the only way all this can be happening
46. Beating up the school bully makes him your best friend
47. Running in high heels is a national past time
48. The police are useless, abandon hope now.
49. Taxis are evil and hide from you. It is better to double up on a bike or motorbike
50. People with shaved heads are not to be trusted.
51.STALKING IS NOT CREEPY, ITS ROMANTIC. so go right ahead and follow that person!

Quote of the day

"Demon? Did you just say demon?” -Gwen

Oh, uh…did I say that? No, no. I think I said seaman."-Strider

Gena Showalter, The Darkest Whisper

Thought of the day. A problem with clothes

I want to address the clothes issues right now. If you have ever picked up a fantasy or romantic novel you will know that the men tend to wear stuff that most guys wouldn't dream of putting on.

Its not that the clothes are bad, its just that very few non goths put black on black if they are not wearing a tux. so when the hero shows up in black jeans and a black shirt i raise my eyebrows. Or the leather. Most guys own maybe a leather jacket. They do not own leather pants. I really don't think leather pants on a man works in reality. They are a nice idea but in testing i get the feeling they would be horrible.

Lets make a deal and put the heroes in clothes that normal guys would wear. that means something they pulled off the floor in a hurry or yanked the nearest thing off a hanger or out of the drawer.

The Vampire and the Virgin by Kerrelyn Sparks

There is this moments that happens in a lot of fantasy romance novels, where a heroine is suddenly told that they handsome man she just met is a vampire/werewolf/zombie/mummy/goat/a car/the spawn of Satan/etc. At this point he will say that she has to trust him, even though they just met three days ago, she needs to trust him because they are meant for each other. I normally gag or roll my eyes for a few minutes before i go on reading.

In the past Sparks has been one of the authors that has been notorious for these moments. Not this time ladies. This time the characters have a long distance skype relationship for several months. Also the leading female has this creepy stalker serial killer.

But really other than that this is a formulaic book. Sparks has a formula and she sticks to it. Girl is doing somethings, girl bumps into guy. Guy is vampire. (only two books of the entire series have not done this) They have passionate encounters. Girl notices she can only meet guy at night/he has no reflection/drinking of the fake blood. She has minor freak out. He explains to a point. She is weary. Evil vampires attempt to kill her/him/them/others. They bound deeper. In the next book they have a wedding.

I was not expecting anything new and i didn't really get it. The only difference is because there is a few months that are skimmed over when the girl finds out that her beau is a vampire she doesn't completely flip and takes the whole "trust me" better because she knows him. Besides this one change i am pretty much underwhelmed.

Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

In the last few years i have become more and more wary of the young adult section in my local book store. At one time i would make a bee line there and then not leave for hours until i had turned over every book to make sure there was not something that i had missed.

Then came Twilight. Twilight effectively killed the young adult section as i knew it. what was once a place to find stories that invovled teens as the main characters suddenly became the head quaters for romances involving emo teenagers. I started to shun what was once my safe heaven.

Twilight also did another horrible thing. It took what had once been a dark and entertain subgenre of vampires, werewolves, wizards, fairies, angles, demons, and all things occult and suddenly turned all previously stated creatures into brooding emo teens who have way too much hair gel. My once hard to find favorite creatures have suddenly become the only thing that is being published. I now must keep a critical eye on books with these creatures for fear they might be Twilight spawn.

So when i saw Hush Hush in the book store for several months in a row i became curious. The vampire books had been polluted, possibly the angles and demon books were still free of the evil taint.

These days it is really really hard for authors to surprise or confuse me when it comes to plot twists. I have read so many books that i can sense mood and pick up on foreshadowing before others even know it is happening. So when i say that half way through i was perplexed and asking Chris if he thought i was on track or guessing to what happens next that means something. (Chris told me i should be happy that for once i didnt know the ending half way through.)

Hush Hush is the story of Nora Grey, a curly haired smart girl who lives in Maine. Her father was recently murdered and her mother is never home due to work. (For any of these books to work the parents have to be missing, this is a fact.) When the biology teacher (why is it biology? i mean really. Nothing interesting ever happened in biology class, these teen writers need a new class for the interesting things to happen in) changes the seating chart she is suddenly sitting next to the transfer student Patch, who is the ever familiar tall, dark, handsome and cocky (not emo!)

Nora has a few near death and freaky shit things happen to her and suspects Patch, who is constantly making large sexual overtures at her. Then she meets two nice clean cut guys that seem to be really into her for no reason she can see. Oh and a new guidance counselor that is very anti-Patch, even though Nora never mentions him to the lady.

The book does creep well. And besides the fact that Nora doen't really get that she is pretty she is a pretty decent main character and she doesnt completely ditch her best friend for the hot guy which i totally approve. My issue is with the ending. It sorta comes out of nowhere. All sorts of strange things are happening left and right and i am going for a head spin when all of a sudden in a moment of cliche Nora learns about who Patch really is. But this is at three fours of the way in. Then all of a sudden she knows the truth, people try to kill her several times (not including the earlier failed attempts by none other than Patch, talk about issues) and there is a dark school building, and then its over.

When did this whole, put all the really interesting things in the last fifty pages become a thing? I know what a climax is, but it not supposed to be the majority of the plot condensed. The book was long and a hardcover, but i would have much preferred that the author maybe spread out the knowledge and the assassination attempts.

Over all the book was good. It suffers as all young adult novels suffer from the issue that being a teen for a main character means you always seem to miss the sensible options and do something stupid. The real test will be when the sequel comes out. Seeing as the book left some strings dangling it will be important to see how Fitzpatrick ties them up and either keeps the creep, or now that less people are trying to kill Nora, creates and equally puzzling chain of events for me to read.

Pleasure by Jacquelyn Frank

I am a big fan of side characters. They always are quirky, or silent and they add another layer. But lots of authors ignore their side characters and make me dream up stories myself. Frank was nice enough to delve in to a side character as well as a main character in this latest installment of her series.

I have read most of Franks novels about the Nightwalkers and Shadowdwellers. I am pleased to say that Frank has a rare ability to give me a different plot each time. Of course the majority of the books are about two people in love but the same gimick is not pulled twice with Frank.

The first story of Sagan, gives depth were the story really needed some. I hate how there is always the character that is silent and strong and then suddenly in their story they are hella chatty. This is not the case. Sagan does not play the yo-yo card when it comes to his character.

Guin and Malaya's story is the one Frank has been taunting us with from the first shadowdweller book. It was such a great moment to finally give us the relationship we had all be waiting for.

All in all, anything Frank writes is worth a look.