<\/p>\n
I stumbled across the short story Impulse Control<\/a><\/em> (2011) and immediately wanted to know more about the world and the characters within.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the only story about kids with special powers getting locked up by a government who fears them, which I think says something about our faith in the government. We fear that which we do not understand (I\u2019m sure someone famous said that) and value our security more than we do our freedom. Which is terribly disheartening. Which make these stories a warning, but that\u2019s not why I\u2019m recommending them.<\/p>\n What this story has is intelligent teenagers who recognize the threat to themselves, yet are still teens and likely to do foolish things, but it\u2019s the stupidity of lack of knowledge and inexperience. And on top of that, these kids are dealing with a new situation\u2014they have no one to advise them, they (and perhaps their parents) simply have to work it out as they go along.<\/p>\n I think what I liked best about Joss is that her father did everything possible to make her safe\u2014training her how to fight etc\u2014but she also recognizes her limitations.<\/p>\n This series is two books and a novella, and I\u2019m sorry it never got any more than that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sam dropped out of college and is now stuck working at a fast food joint.<\/p>\n My name is Samhain Corvus LaCroix, and I am a fry cook. I tried to take some pride where I could. If I was going to be a dropout loser, then I was going to be the best dropout loser. That pride came with some complications because it always depressed me to spot anyone, short of a manager, working fast food over the age of eighteen. I didn\u2019t look in any mirrors until I got home and out of my uniform. It was better that way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If that wasn\u2019t bad enough, he\u2019s attacked after work and doesn\u2019t even have the slightest idea why.<\/p>\n First, I kinda love that she has Sam working food service because he\u2019s dropped out of college. Because that\u2019s something a lot of teens don\u2019t consider. Even better, she has fast food pretty spot on, so there\u2019s no romanticizing it.<\/p>\n Second, I love the world she has created here, and that Sam is a necromancer, which is not something you come across often in supernatural fantasy. I also think it\u2019s important that people die in the story, because Sam and his friends take risks and get into danger, so it\u2019s not surprising that someone might die. It\u2019s not that I like it when characters die, I just think that it\u2019s both ridiculous and unrealistic when everyone walks away uninjured from a big fight or dangerous situation.<\/p>\n There are two books and a short story in this series, and she has another series that I like, Firebug<\/a><\/em> (2014), but I haven\u2019t read the second story in that series yet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is a story set in a world that is almost, but not quite ours, around a time that would approximate the 1930s.<\/p>\n Sabriel is the daughter of a Charter necromancer. Her father\u2019s job is to keep dead spirits and place and to return the dead who have arisen or been forced back into a semblance of life. It is a difficult job, but an important one. Although her father sent her outside of the Old Kingdom for her education, he still made sure to educate her as a Charter necromancer, as she would be his heir when he died.<\/p>\n Yes, the main character is a necromancer. She has control over the dead and can step into the rivers of the afterlife. She\u2019s awesome. She is scared, but she does what she needs to anyway, which is probably one of the best lessons any kid can learn.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s also an adventure story: Sabriel has to find out what happened to her father, and right what is wrong.<\/p>\n Plus, she has a ridiculous cat-creature named Mogget.<\/p>\n Mogget didn’t answer, but sat at her feet, and made a movement that looked very much like he was going to be sick. Sabriel recoiled, disgusted, then halted, as a small metallic object fell from Mogget’s mouth and bounced on the floor. “Almost forgot,” said Mogget. “You’ll need this if I’m to come with you.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mogget is probably my favorite character in the series.<\/p>\n There are three books in this series, and all are good, although I think Sabriel is the best. He also has a short story collection, Across the Wall<\/a><\/em> (2005), that is very good. There are other series, but they felt slightly younger to me, and I never got into them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is another book that I picked up because of its cover, and I immediately fell in love.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a tale set in our world (although not necessarily our current world) that is full of Irish myth and folklore.<\/p>\n Pidge and his younger sister must keep the Morrigan from obtaining the serpent Olc-Glas, and travel to do this, receiving help from the creatures they come across, while they are chased by the Morrigan\u2019s hounds.<\/p>\n On of the things I especially liked is how the machinations of the Morrigan are shown.<\/p>\n Whenever the Sergeant and the Manager met after that day, hostility lay like a force field between them. This was very sad, as they both loved growing roses more than anything else in the world and they could have been friends for many long and happy years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That is a terribly simple, but also a terribly sad passage.<\/p>\n This book is long out of print, and unavailable as an ebook, so if you come across it, snatch it up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is an unseen world just below our own, a world of ghosts and spirits that some families have the ability to see and even control.<\/p>\n Sierra Santiago is prepared to spend her summer break painting murals, but strange things keep happening, and she soon discovers the world of spirits her family knows, but never told her.<\/p>\n This is also a story about being a teenage girl.<\/p>\n Further down Gates Ave, a couple of guys were throwing dice in front of the Coltrane Projects. \u201cWhy you frownin\u2019, girl?\u201d one of them called out as Sierra walked past. \u201cSmile for us!\u201d<\/p>\n Sierra knew the guy. It was Little Ricky; they\u2019d played together when they were small. He\u2019d been one of those boys that all the girls were crazy about, with big dreamy eyes and a gentle way about him. A few years ago, Sierra would have been giddy with excitement to have his attention. Now he was just another stoopgoon harassing every passing skirt.<\/p>\n \u201cI ain\u2019t in the mood, jackass,\u201d Sierra muttered, hugging herself. She was still shaky from the horrible night and she knew any sign of weakness would encourage them.<\/p>\n The guys let out a chorus of ohs and pounded one another. \u201cI\u2019m just saying, Sarcastula,\u201d Ricky called after her. \u201cC\u2019mon back when you in the mood \u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I am constantly impressed by how well Daniel Jos\u00e9 Older gets women and teenage girls. There are probably a handful of male writers that do this extremely well, and he is one. It means (to me) that he actually has listened to the women around him, to be able to write scenes like the one above, about what girls and women experience all the time (although the threat is downplayed there, which I\u2019m fine with. I know it\u2019s there, as does he).<\/p>\n But more importantly, the story is fun and often funny, because despite everything, teens do know joy, perhaps better than their elders.<\/p>\n \u201cImma write a book,\u201d Tee announced. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be about white people.\u201d<\/p>\n Izzy scowled. \u201cSeriously, Tee: Shut up. Everyone can hear you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m being serious,\u201d Tee said. \u201cIf this Wick cat do all this research about Sierra\u2019s grandpa and all his Puerto Rican spirits, I don\u2019t see why I can\u2019t write a book about his people. Imma call it Hipster vs. Yuppie: A Culturalpological Study.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are currently two books and two short stories in this series. (And I already mentioned the Bone Street Rumba series, which I adore.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is a fantasy set in a somewhat medieval world. Gen is a thief who is spending time in the king\u2019s dungeon for stealing the king\u2019s seal. But the king finally decides he has use for such a thief and sets Gen, the king\u2019s magus, and the mage\u2019s apprentice out to capture\u2026 something.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something I want you to steal. Do this for me, and I\u2019ll see that you don\u2019t go back to prison. Fail to do this for me, and I will still make sure that you don\u2019t go back to prison.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is a fabulous book. I have always had a soft-spot for rogues (in literature\u2014in real life, far less so) so I found Gen vastly entertaining. He\u2019s snarky and comments upon everything\u2014sometimes he even keeps his comments to himself.<\/p>\n He is also far smarter than the magus give him credit for, so it is a delight to finally learn what Gen\u2019s actual goal had been.<\/p>\n The other character I loved was Sophos, the mage\u2019s apprentice.<\/p>\n Sophos turned red, and I wondered about the circulation of his blood; maybe his body kept an extra supply of it in his head, ready for blushing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sophos is sweet and innocent and lovely.<\/p>\n There are currently five books in this series, and I recommend reading them in order. None is a cliffhanger, but to be honest, once you read this first, you\u2019ll want to read the second. She also writes short stories, and her collection Instead of Three Wishes<\/a><\/em> (2006), is quite good, and I\u2019d actually read at least one of the stories in a different anthology.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Steampunk or Gaslamp, however you name it, is Regency or Victorian England, but with magic. Of course, it\u2019s not always England, but it\u2019s our past where magic or steam have taken the place of technology.<\/p>\n Kate and Cecelia are cousins, and when Kate goes to London for her first season, she and Cecelia write letters back and forth of their various adventures.<\/p>\n Aunt Elizabeth and I called at the vicarage yesterday and spent a stimulating afternoon listening to the Reverend Fitzwilliam discoursing on the Vanities of Society and the Emptiness of Worldly Pleasures. Aunt Elizabeth hung on every word, and we are to return and take tea on Thursday. I am determined to have the headache Thursday, if I have to hit myself with a rock to do it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Aunt Charlotte was enthralled by the chance to survey the boxes in our circle. From the overture to the finale, for the benefit of Georgy\u2019s education, she pointed out all the people of whom she could not approve. She tried several times to get my attention so that I, too, could profit from this instruction, but I kept my eyes stubbornly on the stage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019ve read several different books where the story is told by letters written back and forth by the main characters. It seems like a lovely way to write a story, and the epistolary books I\u2019ve read have all been good.<\/p>\n There are three books in the series, the second of which I find the weakest of the trilogy. It\u2019s not bad, I just didn\u2019t like it as well as the first, possibly because of the different format.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Effie is the thirteenth child, while her twin brother Lan is a seventh son of a seventh son, making him a natural magician, while Effie is assumed by her extended family to be, at best, bad luck, if not downright evil.<\/p>\n Luckily, her parents are having none of that, and so move the family to the Frontier, just inside the Great Barrier, where their father will teach.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard there are great beasts, the size of a house, that can stamp you flat as paper!\u201d Cousin Bernie said.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are mammoths,\u201d Robbie told him. He\u2019d been doing extra reading on the North Plains ever since he found out we\u2019d be living there, and he enjoyed showing off his new knowledge to the rest of us. \u201cThey used to be all over North Columbia, but when the first settlers came from the Old Continent, they killed all the ones in the East.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What do I love about this story? Let me count the ways. First, there is the world building, which is fabulous. It is recognizably North America, and even some of the founding fathers are the same, but the world is also something entirely foreign, and that familiarity seems to emphasize that strangeness.<\/p>\n Second, are the characters. Each character is unique and easy to keep apart with, perhaps, the exception of some of Effie\u2019s siblings, but that\u2019s because we almost never see then (some were almost grown when Effie and Lan were born). There are some characters, like Miss Ochiba and Wash, that I absolutely adore. Additionally, there are no bad guys in this tale, just people who see things differently from each other.<\/p>\n And then of course there is the story, which is unlike anything else I\u2019ve ever read.<\/p>\n There are three books in this series. The first can be read alone, and there aren\u2019t really cliff hangers, but once I read the first I immediately needed to read the rest of the story.<\/p>\n Another quick note about this story\u2014I especially like the cover of this book, because it doesn\u2019t give you any idea the story is about a girl. If you want boys to read a story about a girl, not putting a girl on the cover is probably the best way to do it. Considering the next two covers, I have to think that was deliberate on someone\u2019s part, and I appreciate it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This category is obviously a little bit of everything, since I wanted to put all the YA into a single group. I love YA because I can pick up a YA book and know it\u2019s not going to have boinking. Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with boinking, I just prefer to skip it, but sometimes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pefxA-3xY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Hush-Money.jpg?resize=194%2C300\")
<\/a>Hush Money<\/a><\/em> (2010) Susan Bischoff<\/a>\u00a0 (Talent Chronicles)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Hold-Me-Closer-Necromancer.jpg?resize=200%2C300\")
<\/a>Hold Me Closer, Necromancer<\/a><\/em> (2010) Lish McBride<\/a> (Necromancer)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sabriel.jpg?resize=182%2C300\")
<\/a>Sabriel<\/a><\/em> (1995) Garth Nix<\/a> (Sabriel)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/Books\/images\/Hounds-of-the-Morrigan.jpg?resize=158%2C269\")
<\/a>The Hounds of the M\u00f3rrigan<\/a><\/em> (1985) Pat O’Shea<\/p>\n![\"Shadowshaper\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Shadowshaper.jpg?resize=208%2C300\")
<\/a>Shadowshaper<\/a><\/em> (2015) Daniel Jos\u00e9 Older<\/a> (Shadowshaper Cypher)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Thief.jpg?resize=206%2C300\")
<\/a>The Thief<\/a><\/em> (1996) Megan Whalen Turner<\/a> (The Queen\u2019s Thief)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Sorcery-and-Cecelia.jpg?resize=192%2C300\")
<\/a>Sorcery & Cecelia -OR- The Enchanted Chocolate Pot<\/a><\/em> (1988) Patricia C. Wrede<\/a> & Caroline Stevermer<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Thirteenth-Child.jpg?resize=197%2C300\")
<\/a>Thirteenth Child<\/a><\/em> (2009) Patricia C. Wrede<\/a> (Frontier Magic)<\/p>\n