Lyra Selene

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Review: The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater

by | Mar 15, 2013 | ,

The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Boys, by
Maggie Stiefvater

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that if she kisses her true love, he will die.

Because Blue is the only non-seer in a family of clairvoyants, all of whom agree on this one basic fact. But true love–and kissing, for that matter–seem like far-off eventualities for Blue, until the fateful night when she accompanies her aunt to the graveyard on St. Mark’s Eve and sees her first ever ghost. Except he’s not dead, at least not yet. He has a name: Gansey. And the only reason Blue can see him is because he’s either her true love….or she killed him.

And soon after, Blue’s world collides with the living Gansey and his tight-knit group of Aglionby Prep School friends, nicknamed Raven Boys for the mascot stitched onto their blazers. Despite her usual aversion to Raven Boys, Blue is immediately drawn to the four friends; disturbed, angry Ronan, whose difficult relationship with his brother drives him to drink and violence; Adam, the smart scholarship student who fears going home at night because his father beats him; quiet Noah, who watches everything but never says much; and rich, handsome Gansey, whose mysterious quest for a sleeping king and a prophecy binds his friends together like glue despite their differences.

Is one of these boys Blue’s true love, destined to die if she kisses him? And what is her role in the resurrection of Glendower, the sleeping Welsh king of legend? And most importantly, can she keep Gansey from dying, possibly by her own hand?

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Hybrid Vigor

by | Mar 13, 2013 | ,

Can't...stop...laughing...

Can’t…stop…laughing…

As I was wasting time on the internet last night, one thing led to another (as so often happens when the interwebz is involved) and I found myself google image searching ‘weird animals.’ And let me tell you, I highly recommend it. Go ahead, I know you want to. I’ll wait.

What entertained me so much about this motley collection of weird animal pictures, you ask? I’ll tell you. Interspersed among the usual plethora of star-nosed moles and abyssal sea cucumbers are all these photoshopped pictures of hybrid animals not actually seen in nature. Squeagles. Duckodiles. Labrangutans. I have no idea who created these images, but they are amazing.

And after I was done laughing my head off over these absurd creations, I started thinking about hybrids in mythology, folklore and literature. Representations of both human and non-human hybrids have existed since the Late Stone Age, and deities and beasts in Assyrian, Egyptian and Greek mythologies were often portrayed as having both human and zoomorphic traits. The Sphinx, with a face of a woman and the body of a lion. The gods Anubis and Horus had the heads of a jackal and a falcon, respectively. Pagan religions also often depicted their gods and goddesses as either being part animal or having animalistic affiliations. And in our modern genre culture, werewolves, other were-creatures, and shape-shifters are nearly as popular as the omnipresent vampire.

Cernunnos, the Horned God. Relief from the Gundestrup Cauldron

Cernunnos, the Horned God.
Relief from the Gundestrup Cauldron

The list of human and non-human hybrids in mythology, folklore and pop culture is nearly endless. But what does it say about the human experience that these hybrid creatures are so ubiquitous in our lore? What universal theme in the collective imaginary is represented by these creatures that are part human and part beast?

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Review: Carnival of Souls, by Melissa Marr

by | Mar 5, 2013 | ,

Carnival of Souls, by Melissa Marr

Carnival of Souls, by
Melissa Marr

What would you sacrifice to change your destiny? And how many people would you kill?

Parallel to our own human world lies a City inhabited by daimons, powerful beings who can shape-shift into vicious canine forms. The City is highly stratified into castes, and at its center lies the Carnival of Souls, where both assassins and courtesans offer their servies. Once in a generation, the leader of the City, Marchosias, hosts a deadly competition where daimons fight tooth and nail in order to secure a place amongst the ruling caste. But only one daimon can win.

Kaleb, a street urchin with zero social standing, longs to win the competition so he can gain power and prestige in order to protect his packmate, Zevi. Aya fights because as a ruling caste female she is required to breed in order to live, and she has a dark secret she must hide at all costs. The competition offers both of them a way to change their destinies, but who is the better fighter?

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Wherefore Vampires?

by | Mar 5, 2013 | ,

Who’s ready to sink their teeth into a little vampire discussion? (Pun totally intended.)

"Why yes, I do use my cheekbones to cut glass."

“Why yes, I do use my cheekbones
to cut glass.”

I recently read an interview with James Marsters, who played Spike in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ in which he discussed what it meant to him to play a vampire and how the representation of vampires in the media has changed since ‘Buffy’ aired.

“In the world of ‘Buffy’, vampires were supposed to be ugly and very quickly dead,” Marsters commented. “Joss [Whedon]…didn’t want vampires to be romantic. That’s why in Buffy when we bite people we become hideously ugly. Because in ‘Buffy’ vampires are a metaphor for all the problems you face in adolescence. So, the vampires of today are very different.”

I thought this was a really interesting take on vampires, especially coming from someone who played one on TV for years. And it’s true: although vampires have been around since at least Victorian times, in the past few years, the plethora of books, movies, and TV shows about vampires tend to present vampires in a much sexier, romantic way than they used to. So why the change? And why, at the end of the day, are vampires so damn fascinating?

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White on Rice: Race in Literature

by | Mar 4, 2013 | ,

I recently read a blog post by a fellow avid reader who complained that the young adult genre is overwhelmed by white female heterosexual heroes, to the exclusion of all other races, genders and sexual orientations. The post was well written and thoughtful, and it inspired me to discuss some of my own thoughts on the question of race in the young adult genre as well as race in literature as a whole.

Katniss, Hunger Games competitor and white girl.

Katniss, Hunger Games competitor
and white girl.

When you look at the big name young adult bestsellers in the past ten years, it is almost shocking to see how many of the heroines physically resemble each other. Bella Swan, Katniss Everdeen, Lena Duchannes–all pretty, caucasian brunettes. Even heroines like Clary Fray and Tris Prior differ only in hair color or eye color. While these teenaged heroines may have friends–and in rare cases love interests– who inhabit a different racial profile, the diversity is entirely limited to characters other than the protagonist. You hear a lot of talk about diversity in the young adult publishing industry, yet in most of the high profile bestsellers, there is exactly zero racial variation. Why is this happening?

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Review: The Cat’s Table, by Michael Ondaatje

by | Mar 1, 2013 | ,

The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje

The Cat’s Table, by
Michael Ondaatje

In the early 1950’s, a young boy raised in Sri Lanka boards a massive ocean liner bound for London–a ‘castle that was to cross the sea.’ At mealtimes, Michael is placed at the dining table farthest from the captain’s, nicknamed ‘the Cat’s Table’ by the eccentric group of adults he dines with. Michael soon builds friendships on the Oronsay with two other young boys; weak, philosophical Ramadhin, and tough, betel-chewing Cassius. Although initially wary of each other, the boys soon band into a gang, roaming unsupervised around the liner, slipping in and out of strange and dangerous situations, ‘bursting all over the place like freed mercury.’ As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, and onwards towards Europe, the boys find themselves entangled in the eclectic lives of the grownups they observe from their vantage points of youthful invisibility.

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Review: Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

by | Feb 15, 2013 | ,

In Katsa’s world, some people are born with extreme skills, called Graces. But instead of being admired for these gifts, they are feared and exploited. Gracelings are recognized by having two differently colored eyes.

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Since the age of eight, Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands: she is Graced with killing. She is forced to work as her uncle King Randa’s thug, bullying, punishing and occasionally assassinating his enemies. Everyone believes her to be a vicious assassin, as bloodthirsty as she is cruel. Throughout the Seven Kingdoms they call her “Randa’s Dog.” Katsa hates being under Randa’s command, but knows that if she disobeys or tries to escape he will hunt her down and kill her. The only thing that brings her comfort is the secret Council she and a few trusted advisors have formed to bring aid to anyone being wronged by corrupt kings across the Seven Kingdoms.

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Top 5 Fictional Boyfriends (You’d Never Want to Actually Date)

by | Feb 13, 2013 | ,

In honor of Valentine’s Day tomorrow, I thought I’d write a fun listy-post about fictional leading men. Now, I’m a sucker for romance. There’s nothing I love more than a good love story, where a swoon-worthy gentleman does everything he can to win the hand of his special lady. But sometimes, right in the middle of all the warm fuzzies, a little voice whispers, Wow, that guy would be a terrible boyfriend in real life.

So, this is my paean to all the handsome fictional boyfriends out there who also happen to be obsessed, emotionally manipulative, or just plain damaged. I love you, but I wouldn’t want to date you.

Damon Salvatore, from The Vampire Diaries

9 am? Time for a scotch and a blood bag.

9 am? Time for a scotch and a blood bag.

Oh Damon. From the moment you swaggered onto our screens looking like a slightly sinister young Rob Lowe we couldn’t resist you. Your smoldering baby blues pierce us to our souls and your abs are splendid. Your undying (pun intended) devotion to Elena Gilbert makes us feel all fluttery and warm inside. Your day-drinking is as endearing as your penchant for breaking peoples’ necks.

Oh, wait. Maybe not that last one. On top of being an alcoholic and a blood-oholic, Damon also seems to really enjoy killing people, especially if, God forbid, they annoy him. He tends to show zero remorse, even when the new corpse in question is a friend or relative. Damon also spends a solid three seasons trying to steal his brother’s girlfriend, after spending one hundred and fifty years holding a torch for the evil vampire who lied to him, betrayed him, and turned him into a vampire against his will. So yeah, he’s beautiful, but that hardly makes up for being an obsessive sociopath with a rage problem.

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Review: Wither, by Lauren DeStefano

by | Feb 8, 2013 | ,

Wither, by Lauren DeStefano

Wither, by Lauren DeStefano

At the age of sixteen, Rhine only has four more years left to live. Two generations ago, scientists found a way to create genetically perfect humans, impervious to all known diseases or mutations. But something went wrong, and the children of this first generation of perfect humans die inexplicably at a very young age: girls at the age of twenty, boys at the age of twenty-five. Geneticists are racing against time to find an antidote, but as the first generation dies out, the world is full of poverty, starvation, and orphans hoping to find some meaning before they die before their time.

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Stereotypes: or, the Trope That Got Away

by | Feb 6, 2013 | ,

Good day, everyone! The weather in London today is bleak with a chance of scattered dreary. Wait…was that a scrap of blue I saw just then? No, it must have been my imagination.

I dithered around for a while today wondering what to post about, but eventually decided I’d discuss something that’s been annoying me about the book I’m currently reading (that shan’t be named). And that is…stereotypes in fiction!

This has nothing to do with the post, it's just funny.

This has nothing to do with the post, it’s just funny.

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