I love Donia in DARKEST MERCY by Melissa Marr

So, it's like really hard to talk about the last book in a series without spoiling the preceding books.  So, if you haven't read them yet, go read the first four Wicked Lovely books by Melissa Marr, like now.  Of course I won't spoil Darkest Mercy, because that would be sick and wrong.

Now, Donia was one of my favorite characters from Wicked Lovely, so I was super excited to see her on the cover of Darkest Mercy.  I have to admit, though, I was a little nervous to read the last book in this awesome series, because I knew war was brewing and I feared a blood-bath.

Also, when I read Radiant Shadows many moons ago, I screamed at the last line of the epilogue.  Devlin tells Seth, "Try not to die, brother." Ahh!

I love Seth!  And really, he is near and dear to so many faeries that he's the perfect target for Bananach to start some trouble.  So yes, I was worried, but once I started reading, of course I couldn't stop.

Melissa Marr blew me away once again with her brilliant prose.  What I loved about this final book, was its sense of humor.  We know these characters so well now and Marr slipped in all these inside jokes and great one-liners.  And Niall--oh how I love Niall--even when he's on the brink of madness and overwhelmed with grief, is pretty darn funny.

Marr uses so many point of views, I lost count.  But because we know almost all the characters so well, it was never dizzying.  We are introduced to two new faeries, Far Dorcha and Ankou.  And in the way only Marr knows how to craft characters, they are both dark and frightening, yet likable.

Darkest Mercy focuses a lot on forgiveness.  And as a reader I felt like I had to forgive some characters, for their actions in the previous books and for their trespasses in the course of this final installment.

I loved this book.  Donia was as strong as ever and Seth continued to serve as the moral compass for the faerie courts.  But there were some devastating parts.  The senseless death of war was deeply felt.  There were bloody battles and grief.

But Marr also has a marvelous knack for bringing her characters to the brink of doom and then getting them out of it in a way that feels natural.  Darkest Mercy is dark and bloody, but it's also the most hopeful of all five books.  I love the emotional ride of Darkest Mercy.  Read it!

Gateway Drugs

So as part of my day-job, I teach a remedial reading class to 11th graders.  Many English teachers would be disgusted with such a task, but I like it for a lot of reasons.  I get to play matchmaker with teens and books.  The class I teach is all about pairing students with high-interest books at their level.  The program comes with loads of great books, but students also find themselves attracted to all those other books on my shelves.

I thought I'd share with you some of the books I've recommended and that have been successful with my reluctant readers.  Now, this is by no means a comprehensive list and I'm not a librarian.   The ALA has a complete list of YA for reluctant readers which is much better than my silly anecdotes.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I pitched the book to my class and then started a sign-up sheet for who wanted to read it first.  A few tried but it was too hard for them.  But one student was determined.  He was hooked by the concept and every day he'd check in with me to make sure he was understanding it.  "So, she goes in her sister's place?"  "So, Peeta is the boy with the bread?"  "So, Haymitch is drunk?"  I would nod, and smile and my heart would swell with pride that he's understanding a book above his level and at the same time I'd get to relive the amazing story with him.

anything by Sharon Draper
I had three girls who read Romiette and Julio, Tears of a Tiger, and Forged by Fire.  Whoever read a book first would then ask the other one "so, where are you?" and the other girl would yell at her not to spoil it.  One of these girls hated reading, hated me, hated the class.  she'd never even read a picture book (or so she said) but she loved sharon Draper's books.  She wanted to write her a letter.  So we wrote Sharon an email and she wrote back!  This student smiled for the first time all year when I handed her the printed out email from Sharon.

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Draper got those three girls hooked and they wanted more.  I figured out they liked the edginess and readability of Draper's books, so I told them about 13 Reasons Why.  Of course I prefaced it with a worried face and said, "hmm, I don't know, it has some language, and some sex, maybe I should ask your parents first..." that really got them clamoring.  To girls fought over who would read it first, so they alternated days and each had a post-it note to save their place.  They'd get mad when the other one had read farther than them.  The book is short, the chapters are short, and the emotions are raw.  Perfect for reluctant readers.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
I had a student who read at grade-level but said she just didn't like to read.  Twilight was the only book she'd ever finished.  I handed her City of Bones and she gobbled up the series.  She wanted more.  She said she wanted darker.  I handed her Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.  She made a face when I told her it was about faeries.  "Trust me," I said.  She came back the next day and handed me the book.  "What you don't like it?"  I asked.  "No.  I finished it.  Is there another one?"  Yes, yes there is.  I knew then that she was hooked (insert evil laugh here).  She's read half the books on my shelves.

Wake by Lisa McMann
The lyrical style and time-jumps can be tricky for some readers, but the short sections are much less an intimidating than a 30 page chapter.

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkes
The Draper girls are seniors this year and no longer my students.  But sometimes they stop by and ask "got anything good?"  (I really do feel like a drug dealer)  They devoured Perfect Chemistry.

When I first started trying to push books on teens, I'd just try to get them to read my favorite books.  but that's not how it works.  I have to figure out what THEY like and find something easy enough.  Not all YA is accessible for emerging readers.  Many of the books I LOVE are too subtle, require the reader to make too many inferences, and are just plain too long to keep the attention of a reluctant reader.  But that's ok, I love the challenge of finding something for them.

What about you junkies?  Which books have you seen start an addiction?

RADIANT SHADOWS by Melissa Marr: The Ultimate Fairytale

OK Junkies, so I was fortunate enough to receive an Advanced Reader's Copy of Melissa Marr's 4th book in the Wicked Lovely series, Radiant Shadows, and can I just say: OMG!!!

I'll try to tread carefully here, because as much as I want to tell you how wonderful the book is, I really don't want to spoil anything, especially when you'll have to wait three months to read it (haha, suckers!).  I'm hesitant to even tell you about the existence of one of the characters, because, after all, if the High Queen doesn't know about her, should you?

Part of Melissa Marr's genius is the way she's structured her series.  She takes tiny pieces of information and marginal characters from one book and turns them into the central focus of the next book.

Now, when I met Ani in Ink Exchange, and I met Devlin in Fragile Eternity, I highly disliked both of them.  I just remember picturing Ani licking Irial's blood with a guilty look on her face and thinking, "Who is this chick?"  And how could I not be turned off by the cold calculating assassin in FE?

I still didn't immediately fall in love with them as I started reading Radiant Shadows.  Ani is consumed by need.  She needs touch, she needs emotion, and she's denied both, so what she really needs is a place to belong.  At first, it was hard to stomach a character who acts purely in response to her hungers, with little thought of anything else.

Devlin is calculating as he balances both the order and the chaos he's made of.  He simply shrugs as Bananach stabs a mortal next to him.  He's killed plenty of faeries and mortals and accepts that death is sometimes necessary to keep order.

Ani and Devlin are probably the least human of Marr's characters.  But as Ani discovers her strength and Devlin lets himself be weak, it's really hard not to root for them.  

At times, Radiant Shadows is bloody and violent, but it's by far Marr's most romantic book yet.  And by the end, Ani is definitely Marr's strongest heroine.  In a lot of ways, this read like a classic fairytale.  There's a prince, a horse, a fairy-godmother, a prophecy, an orphan, a wicked witch, revenge, and a to-die-for love.

But of course, Melissa Marr takes the classic fairytale and turns it on its head.  She's great at creating a world with impenetrable boundaries, impossible obstacles, and nonnegotiable rules.  Then Marr creates characters strong enough to knock them all down.

It's a story about finding one's place in the world, about fate, about destiny.  In a world where loyalty is everything, this story is about the characters with split identities. Ani is half-mortal and half-fey, which makes her dangerous to both worlds.  Devlin was created by Order and Chaos, but has nowhere to call home.  Rae is neither mortal nor fey and has secrets she cannot tell.  Seth is sometimes mortal, sometimes fey, and has allegiances everywhere.  The stakes are high as these characters struggle to find where they fit in and decide what they're willing to sacrifice for love.

Seth's small presence in the book is exhilarating.  I gasped out loud while reading when I remembered something from the end of Fragile Eternity that seemed trivial then, but proved pivotal in Radiant Shadows.  Marr has woven threads throughout all four books that have left me hankering for the final installment.

I've been repeating the last line of Radiant Shadows's Epilogue in my head over and over again since I finished reading.  And Ms. Marr, if you're out there, please, PLEASE let him take his advice.

Mibs shows us you don't have to kick ass to be a heroine, in SAVVY by Ingrid Law

I love middle grade novels.  I love 'em so much I wrote one.  I especially love them when I don't feel like I have to turn off a part of my brain to enjoy them.

Savvy is a great middle grade novel.  Those writers out there trying to figure out what the heck agents and editors mean when they say they want "voice" definitely need to pick up a copy of Savvy, by Ingrid Law.  Mibs narrates her story in her charming midwestern-small-town-magical-thirteen-year-old voice.  Her quirky turns-of-phrase and unique sayings are easy to fall in love with.

Mibs explains her and her family's special abilities using a bizarre vernacular that somehow sounds natural.  I didn't skip a beat when she explained that Rocket hadn't learned to "scumble his savvy."

You see, Junkies, everyone in Mibs's family has a savvy, or a special gift.  Her oldest brother, Rocket, has a way with electricity, her brother Fish manipulates the weather, and her grandpa causes land to shift and grow.  Their savvies are revealed to them on their thirteenth birthday.  Fish caused a hurricane the day he turned 13, so the family had to move to Nebransas-Kansaka, to get away from the water.

Tragedy strikes Mibs's family two days before her thirteenth birthday.  She's convinced her savvy will be able to save her family and she sets off on an adventure where she discovers not only her savvy, but even more important things about herself.

Savvy is really a kind of coming of age story. It tackles the tough moments of transitioning from a child to a teenager in a way that adults can relate to.  There's a little romance, a little comedy, a little tragedy, and a whole lot of adventure.

Even though there were no real bad guys to fight, no monsters to kill, and no evil to thwart, this was still an exciting story that kept me turning pages.  Mibs never had to risk her life to show us she's incredibly brave.  She never had to hurt someone to show us she's strong.

After finishing the book, it took me a while to realize what was so different about it.  I'm so used to associating magic powers and fantasy with good v.s. evil battles.  This book showed me that there doesn't need to be a bad guy, that life itself is a big enough obstacle to require a heroine with super powers.

I'm looking forward to Law's sequel, Scumble.

Don't worry Junkies, I'm not going soft on you.  My next post will hopefully be about Melissa Marr's Radiant Shadows which is sure to have plenty of ass-kicking heroines and bloody battles.

Melissa Marr’s WICKED LOVELY is Pumped Full of Heroines

In searching for my next high, I kept hearing great things about this book, Wicked Lovely. The title is hecka tight and the cover grabbed me, so I snatched it off the library shelves without even reading the flap copy. When I got home, I settled into my recliner and prepared to lose myself in the sweet stuff.

I cracked open the book and at about page 2, I stopped and thought, “Wait! Fairies? This book is about faeries?”

See, normally, I don’t do fairies.

The fey are similar to werewolves, vampires, and zombies in that they are well known mythical creatures. But the similarities end there, because unlike vampires who have a set of simple well known rules (except when a certain writer earns millions by making them sparkle, don’t even get me started), faeries are freakin’ complicated.

I didn’t read fairy stories as a little girl, so the difference between a brownie, a pixie, a sprite, and a nymph were not part of my prior knowledge. I didn’t grow up knowing that iron can kill faeries and that one should never, ever, ever, ever, ever eat or drink fairy food. If you haven’t noticed, I’m still having trouble spelling the word (I can’t decide if I’m British or not).

But luckily, I didn’t let this deter me from reading Wicked Lovely, because then I would have missed out on a fabulous book. Marr beautifully weaves fairy folklore with her modern, edgy story. I love that the teenagers in this story act like real teens, they’re into piercings and tattoos, they drink and smoke, they talk about sex, they have sex, and they are all imperfect.

Oh Junkies, don’t worry, this is all artfully alluded to, it’s not like Wicked Lovely is pages of debauchery, it’s just refreshingly realistic.

By my estimation there are 2.73 heroines in Marr’s first three books, Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, and Fragile Eternity.

In Wicked Lovely, we are introduced to Aislinn, a mortal teenage girl who has The Sight, she can see faeries. Growing up witnessing the horrible things they do to each other and to humans, Aislinn is terrified of the fey. She freaks out when Keenan, the fairy Summer King, and Donia, his Winter Girl, start following her.

Now this is where I started to love faeries. You see, they can’t lie, which makes every fairy essentially a lawyer. They’re thousands of years old and their world is split into these kingdoms with ever-changing alliances. The fey are constantly watching what they say and twisting each other’s words.

What’s great about Wicked Lovely is that Marr elaborately sets up a very tough situation for her heroine. Aislinn is left with two bad choices, and must choose the lesser evil. Lots of books do this, we spend a hundred pages watching the protagonist choose between a rock and a hard place.

Wicked Lovely breaks the mold when Aislinn chooses neither. She becomes a kick-ass heroine when she sets her own terms, and makes her own rules.

Now, Ink Exchange ranks lower on the bad-ass-heroine scale for me. Leslie, the protagonist, is a broken girl who spends the book learning her self-worth and gaining her strength to become a heroine. This book did, however, make me fall in love with Niall, the so-bad-he’s-good fairy. And I hope Leslie returns (stronger and ready to bust some heads) in Marr’s fourth or fifth book.

Fragile Eternity is a sequel to Wicked Lovely (but read Ink Exchange first. Pay attention, Junkies).

SPOILER ALERT: the ending of Wicked Lovely is implied by my comments about its sequel. Go read Wicked Lovely!

Aislinn loses some bad-ass points in Fragile Eternity. Yes, she is actually way more powerful than she was in the first book, but she doesn’t seem to realize this. She’s pushed around throughout the whole book. I get it, there will be 5 books in the series, and she’s just getting her footing in her new world, but it was disappointing to see her torn apart by the two men in her life.

Ok Melissa Marr (if by some miracle you’re reading this) I’m warning you. By book five, Aislinn better open-up-a-can-of-whoop-ass on the kingling and set all those boys straight as to who has the power, or else…I’ll be disappointed.

Don’t get me wrong, Junkies, Fragile Eternity has no shortage of heroines. Donia comes into her own and leaves behind her sulky self from the first book and asserts her dominance. She is a tough chick not to be messed with. The third book also gives us more of brooding Niall, very sexy. And we’re introduced to another fairy queen. I haven’t decided if she’s a heroine or a villain yet. (Note to self: someday write a blog about bad-ass female villains. These books have at least 2 great ones).

Ok this post is looong, so let’s sum up:

Read Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, and Fragile Eternity (in that order)

Melissa Marr, here are my requests:

1) Leslie should come back, bigger and badder
2) Aislinn needs to open-up-a-can-of-whoop-ass
3) I love Donia (don’t kill her off, please!)
4) Introduce me to Niall.

I can't wait for Radiant Shadows!

OK Junkies, what do you think? Should I do separate posts for books in a series? Or can you suffer through these mega-posts about 3 books at a time?