ARC Review: Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan

Tell the Wind and Fire
By Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Clarion Books
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Publication Date: April 5, 2016

To Sum It Up: New York is divided into two cities: the Light, which the wealthy and privileged call home, and the Dark, whose citizens live in stark contrast to their Light counterparts. Lucie Manette has known both halves of New York, having been born in the Dark but now a famous political symbol residing in the Light and connected to the Light’s powerful Stryker family. No one would dare associate them with Dark magic, but when a figure emerges from the Dark city with an obvious tie to the Strykers, Lucie finds herself caught between trying to protect the boy she loves and showing compassion for someone who, like her, comes from the Dark.

Review: Sarah Rees Brennan’s Gothic-tinged The Lynburn Legacy managed to both make me cackle like a madwoman with its sparkling wit and harpoon my heart with its more agonizing moments. Sometimes these emotions came over me within mere pages of each other. So when I found out that SRB had a new book coming out, of course I said, yes, please sign me up for more hilarity and heartache!

Tell the Wind and Fire is a retelling of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, which, alas, I have not read and know but a handful of details about. I didn’t feel that reading Dickens’s original was necessary in order to follow Tell the Wind and Fire, though; the latter read like a self-contained story.

Instead of Paris and New York, the two cities here are Light and Dark New York. Light magicians live very comfortably, and even luxuriously, in their part of the city while Dark magicians are kept downtrodden under the thumb of the ruling Light Council. Unrest is spiking among the buried, as the Dark city’s denizens are called, and the novel’s protagonist, Lucie Manette, is a key figure to both sides.

It’s the social divide between the two New Yorks that lies at the heart of Tell the Wind and Fire, with the magic woven subtly throughout the story. Readers expecting epic magical showdowns may be a tad let down because this isn’t that type of book. Although I didn’t mind too much that magic wasn’t the book’s primary focus, I still wished for a bit more world-building. This world of a split New York with two types of magic just didn’t feel entirely fleshed out and immersive.

I sometimes became frustrated with the main character, Lucie. She makes a really, really big mistake early on in the novel, one that keeps the consequences rolling throughout. While she owns up to what she’s done—repeatedly—she’s also occasionally critical of other characters’ actions when she herself has demonstrated a pretty serious lapse in judgment. Lucie’s narrative voice also fell kind of flat for me, with quite a lot of self-reflection that looped around in circles after a while. Sometimes you just can’t seem to form a connection with a protagonist, and that’s what happened here.

The character who really livens up this book is Carwyn, a doppelganger from the Dark city with an ultra secret connection to the family of Lucie’s boyfriend, Ethan. Doppelgangers are created from illegal Dark magic and believed to be soulless. Judging from the number of sarcastic comments Carwyn cracks, doppelgangers are also snarky! One of the things I loved most about The Lynburn Legacy was its riotous humor, and I’d hoped for similar laugh-out-loud moments in Tell the Wind and Fire. The tone here is more serious, though, and the wittiest lines of dialogue belong to Carwyn. What also makes him the novel’s most intriguing character to me is his unpredictability. He doesn’t always act like the evil twin everyone expects him to be (although there are plenty of occasions when he does). I’m endlessly fascinated by morally ambiguous characters, and it’s the fact that Carwyn isn’t without faults, unlike Lucie’s almost too perfect boyfriend Ethan, that I found compelling. Yes, I have a thing for the bad boys and the sorta bad boys, and Carwyn defies fitting neatly into one category, which in turn keeps you the reader wondering what he’ll do next.

It’s taken me a few days to write this review and hash out my overall feelings about this book. Lucie wasn’t an especially engaging narrator, but Carwyn kept me invested in the story, even though he’s off page at times, building suspense around what he’s up to. I also have to praise Sarah Rees Brennan’s prose, which is as pretty as ever. There are some very beautiful yet heartbreaking quotes that got an additional half star all on their own. Tell the Wind and Fire may not be the book you’re looking for if you seek a read heavily focused on magic, but you may want to hang around for the smart-alecky doppelganger.

All in All: Obviously, the doppelganger story line was the highlight for me. I wasn’t as crazy about Lucie’s character, but the caliber of the writing kept me reading. And this book has definitely made me curious about its inspiration, A Tale of Two Cities.

Review: Team Human by Justine Larbalestier & Sarah Rees Brennan

Team Human
By Justine Larbalestier & Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Harper Teen
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library

To Sum It Up: Vampires are just part of the population of New Whitby, Maine, but Mel Duan has never been fond of them. Her best friend Cathy, however, finds them fascinating and is smitten with Francis Duvarney, the new vampire student at school. Mel does not approve in the least, and she’s determined to prove to Cathy that there is nothing at all desirable about a vampire’s way of life.

Review: This month marks six years since I first read a little novel about vampires called Twilight, so I chose a pretty apt time to pick up and read Team Human, which takes a very tongue-in-cheek approach to our fanged friends. If you’ve read any vampire book at all, not necessarily Twilight, you’ll still appreciate the plentiful humor in Team Human that mostly targets all things vampiric.

I’d seen multiple reviews that mentioned how hee-larious this book is, and I’d like to add to the chorus. Francis, the new vampire arrival at school, is old (if you count back to when he was transformed), old-fashioned, and has a penchant for speaking in an old-timey manner. I couldn’t help but think of another fictional teenage vampire whenever Francis appeared on the page, and I also couldn’t help cracking up at the spoof here. Francis isn’t the main character, however; that would be Mel, best friend to the human girl who falls for Francis and vice versa.

To say that Mel does not like Francis or vampires in general is an understatement. She vehemently opposes the budding relationship between him and her best friend Cathy and makes her disdain for Francis very obvious. Although some of Mel’s wisecracks are a riot (she refers to Francis as an “undead love weasel”) and her protectiveness of her friends, especially Cathy, is undeniable, Mel’s methods for helping her friends can be heavy-handed at times. I thought that some of her actions in the name of keeping Cathy from getting hurt were more meddlesome than beneficial to Cathy. Mel does get called out when she goes too far, but that wouldn’t be necessary if she didn’t overstep boundaries in the first place. I still have mixed feelings towards Mel; I really liked her wicked sense of humor but was far less keen on her overbearing side.

With Team Human being very much a plot-driven novel, most of the characters aren’t overly complex. Kit, a character whom I found endearing straightaway, was a notable exception. His backstory is quite interesting, and he’s also quite witty, especially when the subject is Francis (poor Francis). Even six years after Twilight, I still haven’t grown weary of reading about vampires, and Team Human was an enjoyable vampire parody.

All in All: Recommended for anyone looking for a vampire book that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Review: Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan

* This review may contain spoilers for the previous books in The Lynburn Legacy series.

Unmade (The Lynburn Legacy #3)
By Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Despite Sorry-in-the-Vale appearing to be firmly in the grasp of Rob Lynburn, Kami isn’t ready to give up on saving her town—or Jared—just yet. A hidden piece of Lynburn family history may provide the hope Kami has been searching for, but she may not be the only one who has to pay a steep price to free the town from Rob. Without this sliver of a chance to defeat him, though, Sorry-in-the-Vale is certainly lost, and Kami can’t bear to watch that happen, either.

Review: I’ve finished reading The Lynburn Legacy series and survived to discuss it! As anyone else who’s also read the trilogy will probably agree, that’s no small feat. There’s been heartbreak galore throughout the series, and Unmade carries on that fine tradition. I hadn’t gotten very far into Unmade before I was already fearing for one of my favorite characters. All I could think was, for the love of God Sarah Rees Brennan, please don’t kill this character!

On top of worrying about the fates of certain characters, I was a tad anxious about what to expect from the book in general. Untold was a little lighter on plot advancement than I’d thought it would be, so I wasn’t sure if Unmade was going to be a rush to wrap up the series. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case; the action in Unmade was for the most part better paced than it was in Untold, although once in a while the quest to stop Rob Lynburn would take an extended backseat to a subplot.

From the beginning, this series’ greatest appeal to me has been how freaking hilarious it is amidst all of the evil sorcery enveloping Sorry-in-the-Vale. The series’ sense of humor is an exact match for mine, and that has contributed heavily to my enjoyment of all three books. Judge me as you will, but I’ve loved every minute of laughing out loud even as a town and its citizens stood on the brink of a takeover by a diabolical megalomaniac. If you’ve guffawed your way through the first two books like I have, you shan’t be let down by all of the witty dialogue in book three.

The other signature of this series has been its ability to seize the reader’s heart in its fist and pulverize it without mercy. I’m still looking for a few pieces of my heart, and not just because of some, er, stuff that happens that I don’t like to think about. My heart also forgot to beat a few times because it was too busy melting over the prose. There are some very prettily written lines (some of which may belong to Jared) that I needed to reread and reread again before I was ready to turn the page.

Despite having a few of the proverbial bad apples in their family tree, I’m really sad to bid adieu to the Lynburns: sweet Ash, brooding Jared (whom I loved because of said brooding), and even frosty Lillian. I actually grew quite fond of Lillian and was impressed by how protective she was of her two Lynburn boys. I’ll also miss Sorry-in-the-Vale, the quaint little English town with an epic tale to tell.

All in All: Unspoken is still my favorite installment because it’s simply spot-on in every way, but Unmade is a strong conclusion to the series.

Review: Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan

* This review contains spoilers for the previous book in the series, Unspoken.

Untold (The Lynburn Legacy #2)
By Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: With the magical link between them cut, Kami and Jared no longer know each other’s thoughts. However much Kami believed she might welcome being alone inside her head for the first time in her life is almost entirely dampened by Jared’s anger over her decision to sever the bond. Meanwhile, Rob Lynburn and his followers are ready to revert Sorry-in-the-Vale to its past, in which the Lynburns ruled over it absolutely with their magic. Kami is determined to stop him, even without Rob’s numbers and the combined magical might behind him.

Review: I survived another Lynburn Legacy book! Let me tell you, things were looking pretty dicey following that soul-crushing ending of Unspoken. Never have I simultaneously loved a book and wanted to fling it across the room in such equal proportion. So it was with immense, and I believe totally justified, trepidation that I finally cracked open my copy of Untold.

I’ll get straight to what I wasn’t so keen about in Untold so I can spend the rest of the review gushing about what I loved. Surprisingly, the ending didn’t leave me too wrecked. Oh, it was upsetting for sure, but I’d anticipated much, much, worse. The thing about Untold is, it feels a bit too much like a middle book. It gets off to an awesome start with some homicidal scarecrows (!), but then there’s no real action until towards the end. In between, the novel focuses on the terrible awkwardness , and that’s probably phrasing it lightly, between Kami and Jared now that they’re no longer connected to each other. Jared is very angry at Kami, which sometimes gets to be too much for her and then she gets angry at Jared, and so forth. While I still love both characters and realize that theirs is an extremely unique and complicated relationship because of their now broken bond, I would have been okay with a little less Kami/Jared post-link fallout.

With that out of the way, it’s time for the gushing. This book—the hilarity! I chuckled my way through Unspoken, and I chuckled my way through Untold (Jared Lynburn: tavern wench. HAHAHA!). The characters just have this knack for saying the quirkiest things at the most unexpected times, and I simply LOVE IT. It’s as though this series knows exactly what I find humorous, nay, hysterical. During one exchange between Kami’s father, Jon, and Jared’s aunt, Lillian Lynburn, I couldn’t stop laughing. Out loud. I hardly ever do that while reading, but here’s a series that has made laughing out loud a rule rather than the exception.

I’ve grown very fond of Kami’s little group, and I was happy to reunite with all of them. Her best friend, Angela, is an absolute riot, and she’s in top-notch, nap-loving form in Untold. I also love Angela’s brother, Rusty; he’s so mellow (i.e. the polar opposite of his sister), yet quite observant. We also get a deeper sense of how far from easy life is for the other Lynburn lad, Ash. His father Rob is an evil sorcerer, mother Lillian perceives him as weak, and even cousin Jared isn’t very nice to him. I found myself feeling sympathetic toward Ash, especially given how his ice-queen mother treats him.

Although Untold didn’t quite match the spark of Unspoken for me, nonetheless it was a highly entertaining read. The wit that utterly charmed me in the first book continues to be a delight in the sequel. And in a series that seems to revel in maddening heartbreak, you have to cherish every instance of humor you can get.

All in All: Unspoken is still my favorite in the series thus far, but Untold is not without its moments. I do, however, think that it could have benefitted from some more action through the middle, instead of saving it all for the last few chapters.

Review: The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

The Demon’s Lexicon (The Demon’s Lexicon #1)
By Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

To Sum It Up:

Killing demons and running from the magicians who summon them are just part of the daily routine for Nick Ryves and his older brother, Alan. Their mother once loved a powerful magician from whom she later fled, but not before stealing a charm that he’ll do anything to get back. The family’s lives are already chaotic when a pair of siblings comes to the brothers seeking help to remove a demon’s mark that will eventually result in death. Alan ends up getting marked, too, and as the Ryves brothers work to now remove two marks, Nick begins to realize that Alan, the lone person Nick has always relied on for the truth, is keeping secrets. Nick sets out on his own mission to find out what Alan is hiding, never thinking that his brother might have a very good reason for withholding information from him.

Review:

Despite its title, The Demon’s Lexicon is as much about magic as it is about demons. Sarah Rees Brennan vividly paints a world in which demons strike bargains with magicians who summon them into the mortal realm so that the demons can experience human senses by possessing human bodies. In exchange, the magicians are able to use the demons' powers. I thought this was an inventive take on both paranormal beings, and I really liked the imagery used to bring this world to life. There’s a Goblin Market where vendors hawk everything from charms to talismans, and there’s also dancing. It’s not your average type of dancing, though; this kind, if successful, summons a demon. Lines are drawn on the ground, and the dancer has to follow their intricate pattern. The descriptions of the dancing had a hypnotic feel to them, and I found myself mesmerized.

My favorite aspect of the novel was its study of Nick and Alan’s fraternal relationship. These two couldn’t be more different in temperament. Alan is kind and compassionate; if he discovered a litter of abandoned puppies on every street, he would rescue all of them. Nick is all snark, snarl, and sneer; he wounds not only with the sword that he’s extremely deft at handling, but with his words as well. When Nick wants to hurt someone, whether it’s physically or emotionally, he aims straight for the jugular. Even Alan is not safe from Nick’s wrath. And yet the brothers would do anything for each other. Their bond provides an interesting contrast to that of Jamie and Mae Crawford, the brother and sister who turn to Alan and Nick for aid after a demon marks Jamie. The Crawford siblings’ concern for each other is filled with more warmth and probably closer to what you would expect from siblings. With Alan and Nick, Alan is the one who is open with his affection; Nick’s way of showing you he might care is by saving your life or something like that. Although Nick is determined to find a way to save Alan after a demon marks him, too, he can’t grasp why Mae is sticking her neck out for Jamie, whom Nick doesn’t exactly deem save-worthy because he looks at just about everyone he meets with contempt.

I think the majority of your reaction to this book hinges on your opinion of Nick. He possesses a very, very smart mouth, which I didn’t mind because I love sarcastic fictional boys who don’t know when to keep their traps shut. The snarkier, the better! (Yeah, I’m weird like that.) What I didn’t like about Nick was his treatment of Alan, who basically raised him after their father was killed and who clearly loves Nick. When the Crawfords enter their lives, Nick is jealous of Alan’s sympathy for their situation, of Alan’s willingness to help them, and of how being around Mae seems to make Alan happy. I thought some of Nick’s actions were quite cruel, and my tolerance of him fluctuated with how odious his behavior was. The thing is, however, I can’t completely condemn Nick because there’s more to his callousness than simply being unable to muster empathy for anyone.

My main quibble with the book was that most of its secrets spilled out in one info cluster during the big showdown with the villain. I did appreciate Brennan poking a little fun at villain monologues with Nick’s quip to the bad guy about making sure that he revealed his weakness to Nick as he delivered his grand speech. I thought the twist that the story took at this point was clever, but I couldn’t help feeling that what was supposed to be a dramatic reveal came out in a bit of a rush. Still, this was a fascinating story, and by the end, I even wanted to read more about Nick. I’ll definitely be seeing this series through to the end of the trilogy.

All in All:

I loved Sarah Rees Brennan’s Unspoken, and while The Demon’s Lexicon didn’t quite measure up to that novel, this was a solid read. I will say that Nick isn’t the most lovable character, and there were times when I wanted to run him through with his sword. I will also say that I did derive some amusement from a fictional character irking me so much, so even as I was shaking my head over Nick’s latest offense, I was smiling a little, too.

Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy #1)
By Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library

To Sum It Up: Sorry-in-the-Vale may seem like a sleepy little English town, but in fact it hides some very dark secrets. Its fortunes appear to rise and fall with those of its founding family, the Lynburns, the last of whom left for America seventeen years ago. Now they’ve returned, and Sorry-in-the-Vale resident Kami Glass wants to find out why. Kami has a story of her own that she keeps to herself—her best friend is Jared, the voice in her head that has been with her all of her life. The last thing Kami expects is for Jared to be a real person who shows up in Sorry-in-the-Vale, but that is precisely what happens.

Review: If I could personify my sense of humor in the form of a book, it would be this one. I’ve never encountered a book that so perfectly matched my notion of what’s funny. I had to put Unspoken down several times because I was laughing too hard to continue reading, and out loud at that. And believe me, books don’t make me laugh out loud too often.

So what, exactly, did I find so amusing about this book? The characters, particularly our protagonist, Kami, are just unbelievably witty. The dialogue in the novel crackles with an easy levity that doesn’t feel labored. Of course, what constitutes comedy varies from person to person, and not everyone may think Unspoken is as riotous as I did. But for me, reading this was like meeting a kindred spirit.

Although it was the humor in Unspoken that bowled me over the most, not every aspect of the novel is about laughs and giggles. Something sinister is going on in Sorry-in-the-Vale, and it appears to be connected to the Lynburns, the town’s founding family. The tone of the book effortlessly shifts from light to chilling; it could be very creepy at times, yet without feeling like too much of a departure from the story’s droller moments. I am just in awe of how Sarah Rees Brennan weaved a dark, paranormal tale with hilarity.

I absolutely adored Kami as a protagonist. She possesses a contagious vivacity; I’d love to have her as my best friend in real life. I also loved her journalistic aspirations, though her list of potential stories for the school newspaper that she started up, The Nosy Parker (love that name, too), would be more at home in a supermarket tabloid. Kami was such a delight to read about; she’s smart, funny, determined, and a ton of other adjectives that there isn’t enough room in this review to include.

If Kami is my new fictional best friend, then Jared Lynburn is my new fictional boyfriend. He had me swooning even when he was only the voice in Kami’s head. Like Kami and just about every other character in this book, Jared has a knack for spouting witticisms. He’s also known a lot of pain in his life, and his source of comfort, through their mental connection, has been Kami. It is so, so awkward when Jared and Kami discover that the other is a real person. In a sense, they’ve known each other their entire lives, but at the same time, they don’t know each other at all. This is such an inventive concept, and the novel fully delivers on exploring both sides of sharing a bond like this. You have two young people who have been a part of one another’s lives for as long as they can remember. They’ve weathered tough times together, and yet they’ve never been able to experience being completely alone with their thoughts individually. This is quite different from your average conflict in a YA novel.

And now I must speak of something that still pains me when I think about it: the ending. It is cruel. So very, very, very cruel. I believe my mouth was open in a silent scream afterwards; I was too stunned to make any sound. There should be a support group for readers who’ve finished this book; I know I needed one to help me cope with what happened. Needless to say, I am desperate for the sequel; the story just CANNOT stay like this!

All in All: Despite how it ended, Unspoken was fantastic. I loved the original premise and how quirky the characters were. An ace read in every respect.

Favorite Quotes:

"'Let me reference the mansion again,' Kami said. 'Put the jerk in the south wing, you won't see him for weeks at a time. Or lock him in the attic. The law will not be on your side, but literary precedent will.'" — "Chapter 3: The Secret in the Woods"

"'I knew we should not have brought you,' Mom said. 'The Lynburns built this town on their blood and bones.'
'That was their first mistake,' Jared said. 'They should've built a city on rock and roll.'" — "Chapter 7: You Are Not Safe"

"'Is this true Kami? Are you going out on a date?' Dad asked tragically. 'Wearing that? Wouldn't you fancy a shapeless cardigan instead? You rock a shapeless cardigan, honey.'" — "Chapter 15: Burning or Drowning"