Merry Wanderer of the Night:
19 going on 20

I have finished my 19 Going on 20 Challenge. My goal was to read four YA books because I didn't read very many when I was a teenager, so I thought I'd read a lot during my last month of a teenager. Not so surprisingly, I really, really enjoyed this. A lot. Mostly because I found The Luxe, but still.

At the same time though, I don't think I would have enjoyed these books in high school. It's weird how that happens, isn't it. When I was in high school I would have been too caught up in my image to be caught with a copy of Sorcery and Cecelia or whatever. Now I welcome the release. It's nice to be able to read something that isn't super serious. And I enjoyed how catty the girls were in the books I read, but I didn't enjoy cattiness in high school.

If you couldn't tell already, my favorite book out of the pile was The Luxe, and now that my challenge is over I plan on finishing the whole series. I'm reading Rumors now. I wanted to read a variety of books for the challenge, but it was hard because all I really wanted to read was The Luxe.

If you want to go back and see my reviews I'll give you a list. The first book I read was The Red Necklace, which I enjoyed but in retrospect might have been the worst book. Then I read The Luxe which I could not put down. After that I read A Great and Terrible Beauty, which I didn't enjoy as much as The Luxe but I'm still planning on finishing the series. And finally I read Sorcery and Cecelia, which was probably the most creative book but I didn't like it all that much.

This book all started as a game between Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. They each took one character and wrote letters back and forth to each other with no intention on publishing, but here it is, published. Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot is the story of two cousins spending their coming out apart. They live in a different world during 1817 London; a world where magic works. Kate is away in London and Cecy (or Cecelia) is in Essex. They each come out into society with a bigger bang than anyone expected, and solve a magical mystery along the way.

I really liked the idea of this book. Magic, London, history, and letters. I tend to really enjoy books where the narration changes, but I could tell that this started as a game and not as an attempt to write a novel. Since each author obviously had a certain plot in mind that they had to intertwine in the end there wasn't a lot of direction with the plot. I enjoy a lot of novels that aren't wrapped up in plot, but this was quite anti-climactic. I kind of got the feeling that they had to remove a few things that weren't part of the story, but I think a few things should have been added to keep the book moving. It was a short book, and sometimes I felt like I was dragging myself through it.

There really wasn't enough character description either. I had a hard time figuring out what the differences between Kate and Cecy were. Cecy is much more magical and Kate is a bit more practical, but other than that I had a hard time differentiating between the two. This was especially annoying in the beginning since there was now exposition and I was thrown directly into the exchange of these letters. One reason for the lack of character description could be that the letters were written between two women who already knew each other. The authors might have assumed their traits were coming through, but I didn't feel there was enough.

I've been kind of hard on this book so far, but compared to the other YA books I've read this past month this one wasn't as intriguing. As I've said the idea of the book is excellent, and there were some things I did enjoy. I particularly liked how well developed the magic in this book was. Cecy makes charm bags that protect others from bad magic. The books does a great job of describing these bags and how they are used. I also really enjoyed the male characters in this book. Kate and Cecy each have a love interest (James and Thomas respectively). If the female characters were more well developed, I might have enjoyed their relationships even more.

This novel earned a C.

Pub. Date: September 2004/1988
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Format: Paperback, 336 pp

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

I really did not like Gemma Doyle at the beginning of A Great and Terrible Beauty. She bitched about everything, but in all honesty I bitched about everything when I was a teenager too. I kept that in mind when I was reading it, considering that I read this for my 19 Going on 20 Challenge. And she did grow, quite a bit really. So I was glad when I reached the end.

This is the first novel in the Gemma Doyle trilogy. Gemma is living in India with her mother and opium addicted father. She is sixteen and dying to go to school in London like a normal girl. What Gemma doesn't know is that she is not a normal girl, and her mother is not a normal woman. Her mother is keeping her in India for a very good reason. Of course, since she is a teenager none of this occurs to her and she just thinks her mother is out to get her. This is why she runs away from her in the market at the beginning of novel. She quickly becomes lost and when she looks to find her mother she has a painful vision. There is a man and her mother, and they are are both dying. This is when Gemma meets Kartik, a boy who cautions Emma against these visions she is having.

After her mother's death Gemma does go to school in London. It is 1895 and the school is Spence. The popular girls have their place, and Emma does not belong there. That is until she shows that she can play the game as well as any of them. She becomes friends with the rich and fashionable Felicity and Pippa, but only spends time with them if they will include Ann, Gemma's orphan roommate. I thought the friendship between the girls happened a little too quickly and a little too easily, but I did like how Felicity's character grew as the novel went on. It keeps you wondering if Felicity is really good or evil as she is obsessed with the idea of power.

My favorite aspect of this novel was how trapped the girls felt by the confines of marriage and society. I liked the idea of magic as an escape to this, even if I don't read a lot of fantasy novels (besides Harry Potter). I thought it was interesting to think that women or girls might dream of other realms or magic to save them from their doomed lives. I could definitely see Marianne from Sense and Sensibility coming up with something like this.

This novel earned a B.

Pub. Date: March 2005
Publisher: Random House Childrens Books
Format: Paperback, 432 pp

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

This is a post I have been looking forward to for a long time. Anna Godbersen's The Luxe

is the second book I have read for my 19 Going On 20 Self Challenge. The novel starts with the supposed death of 19th Century Manhattan socialite Elizabeth Holland. Then it goes back in time to a party at Elizabeth's friend Penelope's home. Penelope's family is new money, but they have moved their way up the social ladder and are now being accepted by the elite. At least kind of. Penelope is having a very saucy romance with everyone's favorite rich boy, Henry Schoonmaker. What Penelope doesn't know is that Henry's father has other plans for him. He wants Henry to marry the nice, from a good family Elizabeth, which is perfect for Elizabeth's family since they have lost money after her father's death. It does not make Elizabeth happy though, because she is in love with her carriage driver, Will Keller.

This novel is full of dark secrets, backstabbers, and saucy love sessions. I could not put it down. This isn't the kind of thing I normally read. I don't read a lot of YA in general, but the novel's jacket caught my attention. I loved the idea of Gossip Girl in the 19th Century. I mean, how much better can it get? After the first chapter I was totally hooked. I'm dying to read the rest in the series and will probably do so very soon.

My favorite character in the novel is Diana, Elizabeth's younger sister. She is obsessed with romance and fantasy, and loves reading. By the end of the novel she has a bit of a reality check, but overall lets romance and fantasy win. She can be a total bitch but usually has others best intentions at heart. This novel has marvelous characters. It is one of the few books I've ever read where I didn't feel like anyone was the "good guy" or the "bad guy." Honestly when you finish the novel you see everyone has good and bad in them. The only exception to this is Elizabeth, who is mostly good. Although she does steal her best friend's lover even if she is doing it to save her family.

In short, if you haven't read this book stop wasting your time and READ IT!

Pub. Date: September 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins
Format: Paperback, 464 pp

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Sally Gardner's The Red Necklace

takes place during the French Revolution. Yann Margoza is a Gypsy who has no knowledge of his background or family but is able to throw his voice. He is working for a magician. Yann and the other magicians are taken to the home of Marquis de Villeduval upon the order of Count Kalliovski. Here the young men put on a magic show for the French aristocrats, including the Marquis' daughter Sido. Sido has been away at school for some time, but is also brought to the house upon the order of Count Kalliovski. She has a limp and her father hates her, but she has a good heart and great spirit.

Yann is also gifted with the ability to read minds. As soon as he meets Sido he falls in love with her. He hears her desperation and he wants to help her. The Marquis is convinced by Kalliovski that Sido should be married to him. Kalliovski is very evil, not to mention a little old for Sido. Sido feels like she has no choice. Kalliovski is a very influential man but there are many questions in the air about him. Not to mention the many murders that have happened on his watch, which always end with the victim's neck donning a red necklace. Sido is creeped out by Kalliovski but she feels there is nothing she can do.

When Yann returns from London a few years after first meeting Sido he discovers the Count's desire to marry her. He immediately comes to her rescue, risking everything to help her even though he knows they are of very different classes and could never hope to marry.

This was the first novel I read for my Young Adult Self Challenge. I love the French Revolution so this was a great book for me to start with, although there wasn't quite enough history for me. The mania of the time is definitely portrayed but there is not a great amount of information or historical context. Still, I enjoyed the book for a YA novel. Yann is a fantastic character and a great hero. I loved the parts where he learns about who his real parents are and what happened to them. His ability to read minds was interesting, but it didn't feel too hokey to me. There wasn't quite enough about Sido in the book for me to really like her. She just seemed kind of sad and bleh. Also, the novel says she has brown hair but the woman on the cover has blonde hair? Perhaps I was missing something with that but it always frustrates me when covers don't line up with books.

Pub. Date: September 2009

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Format: Paperback, 416 pp

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

So Thursday marked my last month as a teenager. Yes, I am turning twenty. Most people aren't that excited about their 20th birthday, and I guess I'm not really either. To make things a little more exciting I've decided to do a self challenge. I've never read a lot of YA books, even when I was a teenager. I mentioned during National Novel Writing Month that this was the reason I decided to write a YA novel. When I was in high school it was the cool thing to not read YA books, but to read literature books. Sometimes I regret not reading more YA, but the truth is that I really had trouble finding YA books that interested me.

So yesterday I did some shopping, virtually and physically, and found four YA books that I would like to give a shot. The first I've already started. It's The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner. I also ordered the first three books in the Luxe series by Anna Godbersen, Sorcery and Cecelia, or the Enchanted Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, and A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. Most of these are historical fiction, which to be honest I wasn't very interested in when I was in my early to mid teens. I was really interested in Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Kerouac at the time. The turning point in my reading habits was actually when I read Jane Eyre, although it wasn't an immediate change. It's taken me awhile to really become a historical fiction reader, although I've always enjoyed books set in the past.

So basically this is just a way for me to relax, read some books that I probably wouldn't read otherwise, and enjoy my last few days as a teenager. I'll be posting the reviews to these books as well as something adolescent every Saturday until January 9, which is the day before my birthday.