Author: Shililoquy

Bodies

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by Si Spencer 

Review by KM

It isn’t often that I’m able to review comics or graphic novels and it’s always a nice change when I am. The cover of this miniseries, all compacted into one book, is so eye-catching that I couldn’t pass it up. I will say, though, if you have an option to get either the physical form or the digital, go with the physical book. There is just something entrancing about reading a graphic novel or comic in book form that you don’t get when you have to scroll down a single page.

Summary

VERTIGO brings you a graphic novel with four detectives, four time periods, and four dead bodies – all set in London. Edmond Hillinghead is an 1890s overachiever who’s trying to solve a murder no one cares about while hiding his own secret. Karl Whiteman is our dashing 1940s adventurer with a shocking past. Shahara Hasan is 2014’s kickass female Detective Sergeant, who walks the line between religion and power. And Maplewood, an amnesiac from post-apocalyptic 2050, brings a haunting perspective to it all.

Si Spencer (HELLBLAZER: CITY OF DEMONS, THE VINYL UNDERGROUND) executes a centuries-spanning murder mystery like nothing you’ve ever seen before, with four sensational artists illustrating a six-page chapter in each issue: Dean Ormston, Phil Winslade, Meghan Hetrick and Tula Lotay.

Musings

I have to warn you: This isn’t a book about housewives from the 50’s committing murders. I kind of wish it was, because that’d be awesome and it’s totally what I thought of when I saw the cover, but this plotline is just as good.

While compelling, this story is definitely a part of the what-the-hell-am-I-reading genre. I really didn’t know how the four stories through time were linked even half way through the novel, which made the resonating lines, “This is brutality,” and “Know you are loved,” even more creepy. Seriously, this isn’t a book I’m pulling out before bedtime — you could be preparing yourself for nightmares.

My favorite detective had to be Shahara Hasan. She’s brilliant and not going to put up with anyone’s BS. I loved reading her pages, watching how she handles the ideas of patriotism and racism while trying to solve this ancient murder. Her artwork, in my opinion, was the best, too. I think Maplewood’s story pulled everything together for me, even though her’s started out the most confusing.

The story ties together in a way you wouldn’t expect, focusing on the cyclical patterns of life, death, and prejudice. It’s a great read, overall, and I can’t wait to get a physical copy.

Hold Me Closer: A Kniterary Afghan Block

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I know we’ve been kind of silent the last two weeks. SA is finishing up finals for her first year of university; KM just started a wonderful job at a library. We’re not going anywhere! We’ll be posting a review tomorrow and should be back on schedule next week.

In the meantime, we do have something to share with you: our next Kniterary Afghan block!

The Kniterary Afghan is a project we introduced a few weeks ago; it’s a knit blanket made entirely out of knit book covers.

Today’s block comes from a book we reviewed a few weeks ago. It’s been our most popular review and it has a lovely cover, so we couldn’t wait to add it to our blanket. It’s Hold Me Closer by David Levithan!

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The pattern that we’ve created can be done in either stranded colorwork, double knitting (with a bit of duplicate stitch for certain parts), or cross-stitching. I’ll be doing my entire blanket in double knitting with duplicate stitch, but mine will not be reversible.

You can download the pattern for this block here: HMCDoc.

I Spell a Giveaway!

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A few weeks ago, I got the great opportunity to review Spelled by Betsy Schow. Now, the publisher wants to give you all an opportunity to get a better sneak peek of this book that’s releasing next month on June 2nd!

Excerpt from Spelled:

Most of the crowd had dispersed. The final few stragglers looked at me with the all­too-common look of fear mixed with trepidation. Pix ’em. They were just servants. It wasn’t like their opinion mattered.

Only one remained, watching me with open curiosity. He looked to be in his late teens or was magically enhanced to appear so. He could have been a hundred for all I knew. I’d never seen him before in my life. He was handsome enough, for a commoner, even in his worn leather pants and cracked work boots. A foreigner, his hair was unruly and dark auburn, which complemented his tanned but dirt-smudged complexion, though the tall, dark stranger vibe was ruined by his piercing pale blue eyes.

Well, I’d had enough of being a sideshow for the day. “If you’re the new gardener, the hedges are overgrown and in need of a trim.” I pointed in the direction of my father. “While you’re there, you can help the king with the wisps.”

The young man’s expression clouded over, but he didn’t move.

I stamped my foot and pointed more forcefully. “Off with you. Courtyard’s that way. Be sure to clean those awful boots before coming back in.”

“Someone told me I’d find a princess of great worth here. One with the strength to be the hero this realm needs.” He stared at me with those unsettling blue eyes. They were cold, like ice water—made me shiver from head to toe. Then his gaze seemed to search even deeper. Finally, he looked through me, like I was nothing.

In brisk steps, he strode across the marble to the courtyard. But before crossing the threshold, he turned back to glare at me with his lip curled ever so slightly. “It seems she was mistaken.”

Just like that, I had been sifted, weighed, and found wanting.

I felt my own lip curl in response. How rude! Who the Grimm was this peasant to judge me? I was wearing a Glenda original. Original! Not some fairy-godmother knockoff worn by those servant girls turned royal. I was a crown princess, for the love of fairy, and no one dismissed me.

Before I could put the boy in his place—down in the dirt, where he belonged—a clatter came from behind, making me nearly jump out of my shoes. I checked and was relieved that Sterling had simply dropped his sword. By the time I looked back, the gardener was gone.

After stowing his blade, Sterling held up his shield, not in defense of the entrance but so he could look at his reflection. “Clearly he’s blind and doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

I didn’t ask for Sterling’s opinion, but it made me feel better.

Until he opened his mouth again.

“Worth, pffft. I mean, look around at all the jewels. Your palace has everything you could ever want. Honestly, I don’t know what you’re fussing about. Why would anyone want to leave?”

Because a cage is still a cage, no matter how big or glittering the bars are.

And I would find a way free, no matter the cost.

Hooked yet? I know I was!

Keep your eyes open for this; it’ll be out on the shelves soon!

Now for the best part!
Sourcebooks is giving away a Spelled Gift Basket on Rafflecopter. 

 A Rafflecopter giveaway

Quicksilver

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by RJ Anderson

Review by KM

I tend to start book series without realizing it. I’ll grab a book with an awesome summary, compelling characters, and great dialogue. None of them will warn me of the cliffhangers or the anguish of waiting for the next book. It happens to me so often that I should really start a file to keep track of all of the sequels I’m waiting for. Maybe if I had one, I wouldn’t miss amazing sequels like this.

I read and reviewed Ultraviolet eons ago, back in 2011. I loved it; I have never found a book similar to it since. By chance, I found Quicksilver while strolling through my local library. I snatched it up in an instant and haven’t been able to put it down since.

Summary

Back home Tori was the girl who had everything a sixteen-year-old could want–popularity, money, beauty. Everything. Including a secret. That secret made her very valuable.

Now she’s left everything from her old life behind, including her real name and Alison, the only person who truly understood her. She can’t lose the secret. But if she wants to have anything resembling a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unique…talents.

Plans change when the enigmatic Sebastian Faraday reappears in Tori’s life and delivers bad news: she hasn’t escaped. In fact, she’s attracted new interest in the form of an obsessed ex-detective now in the employ of a genetics lab.

She has only one shot at ditching her past for good and living like the normal human she wishes she could be. Tori must use every ounce of her considerable hacking and engineering skills–and even then, she might need to sacrifice more than she could possibly imagine if she wants to be free.

Musings

Okay, first off, this is just as good — if not extremely better — than Ultraviolet. I miss the descriptions of synesthesia; those were just awesome. the plot is just as action-packed, but the stakes are higher. I adore Niki — or Tori, rather — as a narrator. She’s a strong female with a passion for engineering and a quick reaction speed. If the zombie apocalypse was coming, I’d want to be on Tori’s team.

I don’t want to define anyone by their sexuality, because it’s only a trait and isn’t the be-all end-all of a person. But holy cow, can I get a hallelujah for an asexual main character in a science fiction novel? I’m not even talking about implied asexuality, folks; I’m talking about her self-identifying herself as asexual, and possibly or possibly not aromantic, in a conversation and it being totally accepted by the other person.  Representation is awesome.

Quicksilver is definitely going to be one of my recommended books for a long time. It’s definitely a female protagonist that I’d love to see girls look up to as a role model, with her passion for science and take-no-crap attitude.

Becoming Darkness

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by Lindsay Francis Brambles

Review by KM

Alternate Universes has to be one of my favorite tropes and I so rarely see it in published fiction. The idea behind this book, mixing fantasy, alternative universes, and I guess a bit of historical fiction together presents a great new story. The only comparison I can even use to describe it would be the better parts of Twilight mashed with the BioShock video games.
Summary

Like everyone else living in Haven, seventeen-year-old Sophie Harkness is an Immune–a carrier of the genetic mutation that protects her from the virus Hitler unleashed upon the world more than half a century ago. A virus that wiped out most of humanity and turned two-hundred million people into vamps. But after her best friend is brutally murdered and several attempts are made on her own life, Sophie becomes determined to find answers to what seems to be a conspiracy running generations deep. And when she questions the peace treaty that keeps her small community protected, Sophie begins to discover terrible truths about herself and what it means to be human in a world ruled by darkness.

Musings

I’m being completely honest here; the first twenty pages are tough to get through. I kept having to put the book down and text SM about my worries: was this going to be another version of Twilight? I didn’t want to repeat that experience. I swore to her that if it ended up being a double, I was going to post this review under “Not Another Vampire Love Story.” It’s not posted under that, so relax. Becoming Darkness is so much better.

The plot was so meaty and full of turns that I could really choose to ignore the romance if it bothered me. In some parts it did; in some parts it didn’t. I will say, I do have a problem with the whole vampires-dating-teens trope. It presents a power struggle of age and that was more than present in this. I want to clarify that I’m not saying there isn’t a problematic relationship in the text, but that I enjoyed the book despite it.

The other characters more than made up for it, though. I think motives of side characters is something that often gets left out of a plot, but Becoming Darkness felt like all of the characters had their own moralities and motivations. It definitely makes for more rounded people.

There were more than a few loose ends left in this novel. I can only hope that it means there is an intended sequel. With this first installment being nearly five hundred pages of packed action, I hope the story continues to hold up to that standard.

A Darker Shade of Magic: a Kniterary Afghan Block

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Recently we introduced a new aspect of Readcommendations: Bookcrafting.

The Kniterary Afghan is going to be the biggest project that we’re crafting; it’s a full blanket constructed of thirty five squares made to look like our favorite book covers.

We’ve chosen V. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic, which we reviewed a few weeks ago, for our first cover. I couldn’t be more excited for how it’s come out.

The pattern that we’ve created can be done in either stranded colorwork, double knitting (with a bit of duplicate stitch for certain parts), or cross-stitching. I’ll be doing my entire blanket in double knitting with duplicate stitch, but mine will not be reversible.

You can download the pattern for this block here: ADSOMPattern.

Freaks of Nature

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by Wendy Brotherlin

Review by KM

I’m a lover of supernatural “freak” main characters. When reading the summary, I was instantly reminded of Misfits, the amazing television show. Having a dud ability typically leads to hilarious mishaps and I couldn’t wait to read more.

Summary

The global Ebola-X pandemic of 2022 lasted five months, two weeks, and six days before a cure could be found. In its wake, it left a generation of psionic freaks, who can turn a single thought into a weapon…or worse. Fifteen-year-old Devon McWilliams is one of those freaks, but Devon rates a big fat zero on the scale of cool psychic abilities. Days after escaping from his psionic detainment facility, the military intercepts him. Regaining consciousness, Devon finds himself restrained aboard a military airship headed toward certain death. Aboard this one-way flight to doom are six other psions. One of them, a telepath named Bai Lee Chen, claims to have the means to escape. All the others have to do is convince her that they’re worthy of freedom by allowing her to telepathically replay their memories. The last thing Devon wants to do is reveal his useless plant-talking prowess to this destroy-you-with-a-thought crew. To complicate matters further, he’s crushing hard on Alya, the group’s lovely healer. Devon knows he must keep his wits about him if he’s going to survive this wild ride. And that’s going to be a tricky thing to do around a telepath who seems to have a diabolical agenda all her own.

Musings

There were some good things and some bad things about this book.

The action scenes were written terrifically. I was immediately absorbed into the fights; I was connecting with her characters and wanted them all to win. It was great. My favorite had to been Vahn. He was by far the most compelling. I suspect this is going to be written into a series, so I’m hoping there is a book centered around him completely.

The writing style flowed well, too. The entire book took me around two hours, sitting in the car waiting for my husband to get out of work. It was the perfect book to read on the go; it fast enough for a one-day read, but intriguing enough to keep you involved in the story.

Now for the not so good:

As my friend phrased it so well, this story suffers from exposition-itis. Seventy percent of those brilliant fight scenes and characterizations are all the character’s memories. If I had to boil down the entire plot, which I will not do because it’d be full of spoilers, I’d be left with four sentences. I understand why it was done this way. It’s an easy method to get out a lot of back-story, making future books in the series able to summarize, rather than spell it all out once again.

All of these main characters are described as “hot” or “gorgeous”. These are fifteen to eighteen year olds. Now, I’m not saying we didn’t have some beautiful people in high school, but five out of five is really pushing the limit. Where are teenagers with braces, acne-ridden faces, and slumped shoulders? Teenagers are gawky, self-conscious creatures; I saw very little of that here.

While teenagers are quick to form crushes, I did think this took it a bit far. I googled the average flight from Mexico to Washington: it’s four and a half hours long. Within two hours of being on this flight, where they’re worried about surviving, quite a few characters were exhibiting signs of gooey-eyed infatuation. I’m sorry; please prioritize your life before your love life.

I don’t want to come off sounding like it’s a bad book. I know I’ll be first in line to buy Vahn’s book, if he ends up getting one. It was certainly a quick read and a fun one.

Introducing BookCrafting

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Here at Readcommendations, we don’t just love books. We love crafting. Whether it be knitting, painting, or cross-stitching, we’re into it and probably making a mess. It only makes sense to mix our love of books with our crafts (as long as we keep the paint away from the lovely pages).

Occasionally, we’re going to be making posts that fuse this love of crafts with this love of reading. Whether it be knitting, crocheting, or even embroidery, or other cool crafts we haven’t yet thought about, we’ll be sharing these fun quirky patterns right here on readcommendations. They’ll be here when you least expect them, so get ready!

You may already know that we’re very geeky crafters. Kenzie has just recently made this awesome Harry Potter vase, and Sarah has made an (albeit small) name for herself with her Night Vale Bookmarks . We both love to design things, and we’re so excited to share this love with our readers!

One of the BookCrafts we’re going to be posting is an ongoing project: The Kniterary Afghan. It’s inspired by the brilliant Geek-A-Long blanket from Lattes and Llamas. All of the blocks for this blanket will be covers of books we’ve loved and likely reviewed here on Readcommendations. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to post a new one each week, but we will provide the patterns for each cover we knit.

This will be our Master Project here on Readcommendations, for now, so many of our crafty posts will include charted versions of your favorite book covers. Please feel free to add your own! We’ll happily share your designs on our tumblr, and we’ll post the finished pieces here, with your credit, of course.

The Mermaid’s Sister

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by Carrie Anne Noble 

Review by KM

Look at this gorgeous cover; it was immediately attention-grabbing and rendered it inevitable that I’d be picking the book up. I know that we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but gosh, that one certainly makes the idea appealing.

Summary 

There is no cure for being who you truly are…

In a cottage high atop Llanfair Mountain, sixteen-year-old Clara lives with her sister, Maren, and guardian Auntie. By day, they gather herbs for Auntie’s healing potions. By night, Auntie spins tales of faraway lands and wicked fairies. Clara’s favorite story tells of three orphan infants—Clara, who was brought to Auntie by a stork; Maren, who arrived in a seashell; and their best friend, O’Neill, who was found beneath an apple tree.

One day, Clara discovers shimmering scales just beneath her sister’s skin. She realizes that Maren is becoming a mermaid—and knows that no mermaid can survive on land. Desperate to save her, Clara and O’Neill place the mermaid-girl in their gypsy wagon and set out for the sea. But no road is straight, and the trio encounters trouble around every bend. Ensnared by an evil troupe of traveling performers, Clara and O’Neill must find a way to save themselves and the ever-weakening mermaid.

And always, in the back of her mind, Clara wonders, if my sister is a mermaid, then what am I?

Musings 

One of the aspects I loved, but had a hard time getting around, was the style and diction. The Mermaid’s Sister is written like an old-time fairy tale, the kind you’d find in a Grimm’s book, though not as gory. The antiquated way of speech is a delightful novelty, but definitely threw me off when I was expecting more of a modern-fantasy (though, I admit that expectation was my own assumption and my fault).

Clara, our main character, is a humble and quiet girl, always thinking of her gorgeous sister. Maren, on the other hand, is the dazzling personality that Clara seems to admire. Through the first half of the book, I wanted to smack Clara upside the head and demand she give herself more respect — you are always braver, smarter, and better than you think.

The first half of the book was slow-winded, revealing secretly and allowing the plot to advance at an enjoyable, if somewhat too-patient pace. As soon as the orphans were on their own, it quickened and became so much better.

Between wyverns, ravens, mermaids and storks, this was a truly original story that I can’t even place a match near. Well, nothing recent. A true treasured anachronism in this time, I suppose.

Spelled

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by Betsy Schow (June 2, 2015; Sourcebooks Fire)

Review by KM

I remember waiting weeks for book fairs in elementary school. The flyer would come out; I’d bubble with excitement as I went over each summary, clearly cataloging which books I could afford. I’d skip lunch for two weeks and save the $2.50 each day, finally showing up to the book fair with twenty dollars in quarters.

Spelled would have been one of my top picks at the book fair and I won’t be surprised if it sells out of every one it’s featured in this fall. It’s listed to be for ages 12-17, but I’d definitely put it at the lower end of that spectrum, great for preteens.

Summary

Yeah, no thanks. Dorthea is completely princed out. Sure being the crown princess of Emerald has its perks—like Glenda Original ball gowns and Hans Christian Louboutin heels. But a forced marriage to the brooding prince Kato is so not what Dorthea had in mind for her enchanted future.

Talk about unhappily ever after.

Trying to fix her prince problem by wishing on a (cursed) star royally backfires, leaving the kingdom in chaos and her parents stuck in some place called “Kansas.” Now it’s up to Dorthea and her pixed off prince to find the mysterious Wizard of Oz and undo the curse…before it releases the wickedest witch of all and spells The End for the world of Story.*

Musings
I love, love, love the slang in this. Son of a Basilisk? Pixing, Pox-ridden Prat? I can totally see myself using this all the time. Definitely my favorite part of the book. The other part I loved was how the “story-makers” were treated to be Gods, while the author of this story remaining unmentioned. Breaking the fourth wall, but only partially.

Despite Dorthea being overly shallow, I found myself rooting for her. More than any other character though, I loved Kato. He was practical and no-nonsense, unwilling to tolerate Dorthea’s appalling behavior. Plus, nothing beats a chimera.

My biggest complaint about the book had to be how it dated itself. With mentions of Flitter (Twitter) and Wrong Direction (One Direction), it’s going to be hard to read without giggling at the outdated references within a few years.

Overall, I loved the spin on the Wizard of Oz. It felt original, but Princess Dorthea is nothing like Dorthy. She’s shallow, but loyal and driven.

*Thank you for the Summary, Goodreads.