Book Review: Supernaturally by Kiersten White

Release Date: July 26, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 352

Source: My local library.

Summary:
A lot has changed in the six months since Evie escaped from the International Paranormal Containment Agency with her shape-shifter boyfriend, Lend. She finally has the blissfully normal life she’s always dreamed of, including
1) A real live high school
2) A perfectly ordinary after-school job
3) Her very own locker (and by the way, rusted metal is every bit as awesome as she imagined)

But Evie’s not-so-normal past keeps creeping up on her...and things get pretty complicated when you factor in:
1) A centuries-old, seriously decaying vampire stalker
2) A crazy faerie ex-boyfriend who is the perpetual bearer of really bad news
3) A major battle brewing between the faerie courts where e prize in question happens to be...Evie herself.

So much for normal. (From Kiersten White's website.)
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Paranormalcy--the first book in this series--was pink, sparkly fun, and I am pleased to announce that the laughs--and the pink--are still present in the second book of the trilogy, Supernaturally. Evie, the main character, has come a long way from page one of Paranormalcy, in which she takes down paranormals such as vampires with Buffy-esque wit and Tasey, her pink taser, while longing for a normal high school life.

The beginning of Supernaturally finds our spunky heroine living a fairly normal life. Her roommate is a vampire, and her boyfriend is an immortal shapeshifter, but her high school is normal. (Read: boring.) And, since she no longer works for IPCA, the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she is free to focus on the terrors of real life, like girls' gym, a boyfriend who's in college and can only visit on the weekends, and the fact that her favorite teen drama is in reruns.

Normalcy is overrated.

So when Raquel shows up with an offer for side jobs with IPCA, and an impish, annoying new assistant named Jack, Evie says yes, even though Lend--her boyfriend--and her other new friends disapprove. Author Kiersten White combines this disagreement with mysterious faerie attacks, the reappearance of Evie's ex-faerie-boyfriend Reth, and some startling revelations about Evie's origins to create an intricate, interesting tale.*

While I recommend reading this series in order (readers who do not will likely be confused), Supernaturally stands enough apart from Paranormalcy to be a good story in itself. White avoids a potential snoozer or simple bridge to the last book in the novel by adding characters like Jack and building more complexity into the characters readers already know.

Supernaturally is a breezy read, but, as with Paranormalcy, I didn't find it impossible to put down. I like Evie and Lend and the other characters, but I wasn't emotionally attached to them. White's writing, on the other hand, is fantastic. She turns on a dime from funny to profound, and in the end her plot threads all come together beautifully. I recommend Supernaturally to readers of paranormal romance, contemporary and realistic fiction (despite the paranormal twists, Supernaturally deals with surprisingly common teen drama, like the horrors of college applications), and readers who like sweet, clean romance. And laughing. Because anyone who reads one of Kiersten White's books will be doing a lot of that.
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*Evie isn't completely normal; she has some special abilities. But you can read all about those in Paranormalcy.

Musical Monday (83): "Called Out In The Dark" by Snow Patrol

This week's song is "Called Out In The Dark" by Snow Patrol.

Enjoy!



Happy Monday,

Revising a painting

I'm trying to start and finish a couple paintings before the school year begins, but I feel like I can't move on until I fix this one that I did for a class in June:

It was my last painting for the class, and I finished it just an hour before final critique. Consequently, I didn't get a lot of time to look at it and let it talk to me. I knew it didn't want the top of the figure the way it was, but I didn't have time to figure out what it wanted instead. This painting stumped me all through July and into August, until I remembered a painting I'd seen and photographed at the Art Institute of Chicago in July:

Portrait of Constance Pipelet by Jean-Baptiste-Francois Desoria, 1797, oil on canvas.

I like the figure's pose and attitude, so I decided to appropriate bits of it. I don't know if my figure will hold a book, and I know she won't have the same hair, clothing, etc. (The high heels stay!) But seeing this painting again got me out of my rut. Artists borrow from art history all the time.

In any case, here's a picture (it's a little awkward-looking because I took it with the camera on my laptop, which was not easy) of my progress so far. I accidentally made this great pink color that I added in a few places, started some apples on the right, and sketched some of the figure in with charcoal. (The lines you see now will probably all be rubbed off; they're just placeholders.)



So now I'll keep looking at it, adding lines and pushing and pulling them back. It's like editing a paper. Almost.

Musical Monday (82): "Sixteen" by Deas Vail.

This week's song is "Sixteen" by Deas Vail. I posted one of their songs just two weeks ago, but I'm on a bit of a Deas Vail kick right now while I wait for their new album. It doesn't come out until sometime in September or October, but that's just one more reason I'm looking forward to fall :)



Happy Monday,

Book Review: The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard

Release Date: January 7, 2010
Publisher: Viking (Penguin)
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 208

Source: My local library.

Summary:
Seventeen-year-old Colt has been sneaking out at night to meet Julia, a girl from an upper-class neighborhood unlike his own. They’ve never told anyone else about their relationship: not their family or friends, and especially not Julia’s boyfriend. When Julia dies suddenly, Colt tries to cope with her death while pretending that he never even knew her. He discovers a journal Julia left behind. But Colt is not prepared for the truths he discovers about their intense relationship, nor to pay the price for the secrets he’s kept. (From the author's website.)
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I read most of The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard* in one sitting, and--I don't care how cliched this next clause sounds--I enjoyed every page of it.

The Secret Year in a nut shell: take Romeo and Juliet, subtract the double-suicide, add class conflict and a heaping cup of secrecy, and add an extra dash of suspense. Mix thoroughly.

Colt Morrissey is a boy from the flats--think wrong side of the tracks--and Julia Vernon is a privileged girl from Black Mountain Road, a fancy neighborhood not too far from the flats. They attend the same school, but hang out with different people: Colt with his friends from the flats, and Julia with the Black Mountain elite. Julia already has a Black Mountain boyfriend, but after she and Colt meet by chance at the Willis River bridge and share an illicit kiss, she begins leaving Colt secret notes and asking him to meet her at the bridge. Julia tells Colt that she wants to have a secret, no-strings-attached relationship with him; she tells him that he wouldn't enjoy the social obligations of being her public boyfriend. And Colt agrees. The two meet at the bridge in secret for a year, until Julia dies in a car accident. Colt is left to grieve for his secret sort-of girlfriend in private.

No one can know about the Secret Year because Julia wouldn't like it if their relationship became public, and besides--who would believe him? Julia already has one grieving, real, Vernon-family-approved-Black Mountain-boyfriend.

Julia was beautiful, cunning, and spirited. She was also a poet who kept a lot of journals. And, not long after the funeral, Julia's younger brother approaches Colt with one of Julia's journals. It's full of letters written to a C.M.: Colt Morrissey. Colt reads the journals over the school year following Julia's death, and Julia becomes a forceful, if deceased, character through her journal. Julia is constantly in Colt's head, and his secret relationship with her begins to affect his relationships with his friends, potential girlfriends, and family.

The Secret Year is a beautifully written novel about love, friendship, and the power people can have over others even after they are dead. I recommend The Secret Year to readers of contemporary and realistic fiction as well as readers who appreciate stories filled with social intrigue, class conflict, and stories dealing with family dynamics.
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*Not to be confused with Jenny Hubbard, author of Paper Covers Rock. Although, funny story, the only reason I picked up The Secret Year was because I did get them confused. I liked Paper Covers Rock so much that, if Jenny Hubbard wrote any other books, I wanted to read them, pronto. Did I think the different first names and the middle initial were odd? Yes. But the two novels contain so many similarities that it's spooky: both feature first-person narration from male protagonists, guilt, unrequited and/or secret love, poetry, settings centering around rivers, untimely deaths, and tell either all or part of the story through journal entries. These elements could easily be the favorite motifs of one writer.

Except that they are not. The J. Hubbards are talented--and distinct--authors. And I'm so glad I mistook one for the other and ended up reading The Secret Year.

Musical Monday (81): "King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles

This week's song is "King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles. I heard it on the radio in the grocery store on Sunday evening, and now it's stuck in my head--but I'm not complaining. I really like the oh-ohs, and I espeically appreciate the men trying to hit the high notes in the live performance below.



Happy Monday,

"I go here now."

Playing hide-and-go-seek with my oldest cousin's daughter while camping last weekend. She just turned four, and in her version of hide-and-seek it's impolite not to say where one is hiding. She makes me smile :)

Happy Tuesday,