Review: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

Pages: 480 (Kindle Edition)
Author: Rachel Hartman
Add It: Goodreads
Series: Untitled? (#1)
Publisher: Random House

“I remember being born, in fact, I remember a time before that. There was no light, but there was music: joints creaking, blood rushing, the heart’s staccato lullaby, a rich symphony of indigestion. Sound enfolded me, and I was safe. Then my world split open, and I was thrust into a cold and silent brightness. I tried to fill the emptiness with my screams, but the space was too vast. I raged, but there was no going back.” [ARC]

Rachel Hartman has come into the fantasy genre with a beautiful debut, a book filled with lovely paragraphs such as the one above, and intricate but enjoyable world building. She takes a different approach to dragons; the dragons shift into human form but mostly remain emotionally detached and incredibly intellectual. This idea pays off and creates a very interesting dynamic between humans and dragons that I really enjoyed reading about.

One of the most heartwarming relationships between dragon and someone with human emotions in the novel is between Seraphina and Orma. I really loved watching how they navigated their bond to each other, as Orma struggled with acting more like a human companion, and Seraphina attempted to learn how to accept loving someone who didn’t know how to love her back in ways she could understand. A struggle for Seraphina was to learn to accept that she loved and was bonded to someone who could not legally show affection for her without the threat of having his memories erased.

“What if our mothers were not the fools we had taken them for? What was love really worth? A hundred thousand wars?” [ARC]

Seraphina’s own personal journey was an emotional one. I think most of us can relate to having a part of ourselves that we are afraid for people to see. She reminded me of one of my favorite literary characters, Fire, and her occasional hatred for the monster that she was. There is also a moment that touches on self-harm that I thought was nice to include, especially since this is being marketed as a YA novel, and I know it is a subject that a lot of teens deal with.
That being said, I’m not really sure why this is being marketed as YA. The only part of the novel that strikes me as YA at all is the romance, and that’s not a very large part of the book. I’m not sure how much the politics will appeal to most younger readers, or how many of them will take the time to deal with a slew of made up words, and the more advanced language used throughout the novel. I would hate to see adult readers who don’t typically read YA but are fantasy fans miss out on the story because of how it is marketed or the smaller YA elements.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my absolute favorite part of this novel: Seraphina’s garden of grotesques inside of her mind and the role they end up playing in the story. They gave the book something extra and completely original that I loved. I can’t wait to meet more of the characters from the garden. Another favorite of mine in this story was Hartman’s descriptions of Seraphina’s music. You can tell that Hartman is a lover and player of music herself because the descriptions are incredibly intimate and lovely.

Definitely a book worth checking out if you’re a lover of fantasy.

An Egalley was provided by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Pure by Julianna Baggott

Finished: December 9, 2011

Pages: 448

Author: Website/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads

Book: Goodreads

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (Hachette)

Series: Pure (#1)

Synopsis: We know you are here, our brothers and sisters…

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers…to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash…

There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it’s his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her. 

You can read an excerpt from Pure at the book’s website. Click on “The Opening Pages” to read.

Thoughts:

Pure is one of the most original post-apocalyptic stories I’ve come across. Patridge’s world inside the dome reflects a more familiar setting, the sort of dystopia story we are used to, with residents of the dome living under a strict new set of rules put in place by the new leaders, to supposedly protect them from repeating their tragic history. The citizens of the dome listen to only sanctioned songs, dine on soytex pills for their meals, and only those selected as genetically superior are allowed to breed. Life outside the dome, however, is much different. Both sides of the Dome are filled with characters who long for the littlest bits of the past, and both lives are horrifying, in their own way.

Outside the Dome, the word “good” doesn’t mean what you think it means… Pressia’s world is suffering the after effects of an unusual cocktail of atomic bombs. It hurts the heart to think that my very own country has used atomic bombs against people. These are not things that we can afford to forget. Pressia’s story is not entirely unrealistic, and I think that’s why this story hits so close to home, and felt more terrifying to me than other dystopian plots.

Pressia was definitely my favorite character in the novel. Her personality was endearing. In another environment, Pressia would probably be a quieter character. You see a lot of that in her inner voice. Pressia’s world forces her to be more pragmatic, a survivor, much more than the normal sixteen year old girl that she so desperately wants to be. Pressia was seven when the detonations hit. She does not know what handshakes are and she doesn’t remember eggs or lemonade. Pressia’s journey isn’t one of rebellion. Like all of the kids in this novel, she is just trying to survive in a world gone horribly wrong.

I found the parts of the plot that focused on who got into the Dome to be very interesting. Without giving too much away, those who got into the Dome were very rich, very religious, and very powerful. Before the end, church attendance was a matter of public record, and a group called the “feminine feminists” gave off a very Handmaid’s Tale vibe. The leaders in the Dome choose to describe the people left behind as sick in the head and criminally insane. This is frightening given the state of politics in our world.

Many comparisons are drawn in the novel between Pressia and Partridge’s worlds. What is the definition of beauty? Can it exist inside the Dome walls when most of life inside is fabricated? Can it exist outside where the atomic bombs have caused such destruction and created such deformities? Lyda, a resident of the Dome, spends time looking out a window that has been created to represent the scenery outside, but is not actually real. The window makes Lyda feel manipulated. Outside, Pressia makes beauty out of recycled parts and turns them into birds and other little creatures, despite being ashamed of her own mutation. I think the conclusion is, life outside the Dome will always be more beautiful, because despite everything else it’s real. The survivor’s scars and mutations are beautiful because it means they have survived.

As a side note, I am even more afraid of motherhood after reading this novel. If you’ve read, you will see why! Also, I may never wear gaudy jewelry again.

Recommendation: I do think that Pure will appeal to only a certain reader. Others will find it too dark or too grotesque. The people in Pure tend to have mutations that will make you rather uncomfortable. There also isn’t a whole lot of rebellion here, for those of you who prefer the more action packed “fist pump” dystopias. There is action here, but it’s of a different kind, and much time is spent unraveling how this world came to be and the character’s roles in that. To sum it up: you should read this if you are looking for something different from the genre, you can appreciate a slower story, and you aren’t easily unnerved. It’s worth it.

Rating:

Four out of Five Coffees

Pure will be released February 28, 2012. You can Pre-Order it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, and other retailers.

I received an egalley of this title from the Publisher (Grand Central Publishing) via Netgalley. This has in no way affected or influenced my review. I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to provide an early review of this release.

Extras: Want to check out some other perspectives on Pure? Find other early reviews at Ravishing Reads and Reading in the Corner.

Looking for other books similar to this one? You might also like The Hunger Games, Unwind, and Oryx and Crake.

Since there is a bit of a wait until this title is available, this review will be posted again on the release date.

Review: Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Finished: November 24, 2011

Series: Healer (#1)

Synopsis: Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos. Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life…

Read Chapter 1 of Touch of Power at Maria’s website here.

Thoughts: Touch of Power is a magical new fantasy novel sure to delight readers of Snyder’s previous books… so long as they don’t expect it to be Snyder’s previous books. Like many others, I fell in love with Snyder’s writing during the first pages of Poison Study, the first book in her Study series. I loved the mystery, the grittiness of the story, the mix of medieval and magic. While all of that can also be found in this story, it’s true that the story of Yelena Zaltana is hard to top, and I see many reviews that say that this book can’t hope to match up to the books Snyder has previously written. Personally, I don’t think that it needs to. I think this book can stand on it’s own and be appreciated for its own weaknesses and strengths. Maybe we are too quick to compare books to their predecessors – in this way it feels as though people treat Poison Study as Touch of Power’s big sister – instead of viewing them individually. I think that is a mistake, because it prevents people from seeing the parts of this story that do shine, even if they don’t shine quite as bright as moments from the older series.

Touch of Power is the story of Avry of Kazan. Avry’s world is one touched by a plague so severe, that even she and her fellow Healers could not stop the spread. Avry is on the run, because she is living in a world where Healers are blamed for the plague, and hunted. Avry’s kindness toward others is her weakness, and she is soon captured and awaits her execution, but healers are hard to find, and her story isn’t quite over yet. Avry sets out on a brand new adventure – not quite one of her own choosing – with the character Kerrick and his group of loveable misfits.

The characters in this novel are well developed. Avry’s voice was sarcastic but kind, which is something I love and relate to in a heroine, and this made it easy to see the world through her eyes. Her friendships with Flea, Belen, Vinn and Quian were sweet, playful and believable. I enjoyed Flea and Belen’s stories in particular. I also found the “bad guy” in this novel to be an interesting character – though I wish we could delve a little deeper into why he is the way he is. Perhaps that is to come.

I really enjoyed the world building, even if I felt it was a little slowly done. Initially I was confused, the history was given too slowly, and I felt that it would have suited the novel better to have more explanations come toward the beginning. Despite that, I was very interested in this plague riddled world that Snyder created, and turned the pages quickly. There are many mysteries surrounding the plague that I am very eager to see unravel as the series continues.

Another wonderful thing about this novel was the multiple types of magic. The magicians can be of eleven different types– forest, earth, water, fire, air, life, rock, death, moon, sun and healing. I enjoyed Kerrick’s forest magic the most. I also thought the contrast of Life/Death magics was very interesting. They are so very similar – and yet so completely different at the same time – that it is fascinating.

Now that I’ve talked about what I enjoyed, I think it’s time to discuss the one part of this novel I found problematic. This is the part that kept me from loving the book as I might have otherwise; it’s the romance. While I’ll be the first to tell you that InstaLove is not my cup of tea, it’s certainly preferable to InstaAbuse. I don’t think that a man hitting a woman is acceptable under any conditions – no matter how stressful. It made me uncomfortable that Avry seemed to be making excuses for his temper throughout the story…

“He had such good control, no wonder when he lost his temper, he exploded.”

I don’t like the “hero” being the guy who starts the story by tying the girl to a tree because she refuses to do what he wants. That’s not a leading man that I can root for. It makes little sense that she would choose to so easily love and trust someone who has hit her and tied her to a tree night after night, without at least reflecting upon the circumstances or consequences of these specific acts, and not just casting them aside as part of his personality.

Another disturbing turn of events involves another magician in the story, who is able to use his magic to affect Avry’s emotions, so that when he is touching her she is helpless to stop him from doing anything he desires, and while under the influence of the magic she even wants him in return. What’s worse is that as Avry comes out of these magical stupors where she loses control of her emotions and body, she doesn’t seem to even feel violated, or have any emotional pain connected to the acts. As a woman, this does not feel realistic to me at all. Women are still fighting for full control of their bodies to this day, and it makes no sense that the character would not feel at least slightly traumatized after these incidents, where the magician’s hands and lips have been all over her.

Recommendation: I would recommend this book with a few warnings attached regarding the sexual and physical violence that occurs. I will say that the violence/romance is such a small part of the story that, for me, it didn’t keep me from enjoying the rest of the book. If you are looking for for a book that includes a medieval magical setting, deeply flawed but still loveable characters, and an intriguing magical system, and you’re willing to overlook smaller parts of the story that may be hard to stomach, then Avry’s world may be for you.

Rating:

Touch of Power will be released December 20, 2011. You can purchase it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository and other retailers.

I received an egalley of this title from the Publisher (Harlequin) via Netgalley. This has in no way affected or influenced my review. I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to provide an early review of this release.

Extras: Want to check out some other perspectives on Touch of Power? Find other early reviews at Girl about Books and All of Everything. 

Looking for other books similar to this one? You might also like Poison Study, Graceling or Fire.