Book Review: The Archived

Book Review: The Archived by Victoria Schwab 

Goodreads Description: Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

My Review: If you could stroll through a library of the dead, whose memories would you want to read? 

It's the question that came to me after I finished THE ARCHIVED. Honestly, going in I wasn't expecting this book to be as amazing as it was. The book begins with a back and forth in time that serves to not only reveal more of the world-building, the Archived, and all its components, but also establishes a strong emotional bond with the Archived. Because the information was relayed through Mac's grandfather, it allowed the reader to associate the Archive with the warm memories of Mac's childhood. I was sceptical of the back and forth at first, but not only did it beautifully open up the world without dumping info, but the tone and tension of each shortened scene actually made me ache for the next flashback, even if there was no overarching action taking place within them. 

Mackenzie's character opened up rather nicely. I was worried because in the beginning she came off as a tad bland, and I worried that would be a constant. Nothing worse than cardboard when you're looking for meat. But Mac proved me wrong. The way the character opened up, both with the flashbacks and then later with her actions and admissions, it made me almost feel as if I was getting to know her one on one, and the more I discovered about her passion for the Archive, for closure, and as the pieces of her character came together, the more I grew to like her. 

The rest of her characters shone through beautifully, including the antagonists of the story. Though throughout the book, the antagonists remain a mystery, I had my suspicions and was proved right in some cases, however I was surprised that at certain points I didn't want them to be the villains. They were well done characters with wonderful motivation, but more than that, the glimpses into their humanity really sealed the book for me. 

Besides the characters, I absolutely adored the world-building. The Archive itself is a wonderful idea, where history is at your fingertips. The vast, gleaming world of the Archived coupled with the dark and craggy Narrows made for great atmosphere and a fascinating backdrop. I found the use of keys and doors and locks fit so nicely with the secrecy and deceit that makes up the Archive. And just as the writing would have you believe you were looping through the Narrows, pursued by Histories, the plot is as thick and creamy as clam chowder. (Is that an expression? It is now.) As I writer, it was an absolute joy to read, because it was as though I could see each plotline spread out like threads across the pages. I couldn't always guess what was coming, but I was given enough information to guess and ponder, which I love when you've got a mystery on your hands. 

All in all, the Archived was pleasantly surprising. I didn't expect to fall as in love with it as I did, but it has left me pondering death and legacies and with a wonderful book hangover. This is a book that sinks into your skin and stays there, quiet but insistent.

TL;DR: 5/5 stars. This one's a Keeper. 

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Book Review: Annexed

Book Review: Annexed by Sharon Dogar

Goodreads Description: Everyone knows about Anne Frank and her life hidden in the secret annex – but what about the boy who was also trapped there with her?

In this powerful and gripping novel, Sharon Dogar explores what this might have been like from Peter’s point of view. What was it like to be forced into hiding with Anne Frank, first to hate her and then to find yourself falling in love with her? Especially with your parents and her parents all watching almost everything you do together. To know you’re being written about in Anne’s diary, day after day? What’s it like to start questioning your religion, wondering why simply being Jewish inspires such hatred and persecution? Or to just sit and wait and watch while others die, and wish you were fighting.

As Peter and Anne become closer and closer in their confined quarters, how can they make sense of what they see happening around them?

Anne’s diary ends on August 4, 1944, but Peter’s story takes us on, beyond their betrayal and into the Nazi death camps. He details with accuracy, clarity and compassion the reality of day to day survival in Auschwitz – and ultimately the horrific fates of the Annex’s occupants.

My Review: After finishing Anne Frank's diary, I was stunk in a Frank funk, so I immediately reached for ANNEXED. Right from the beginning, I was a little off-put by the relationship between Peter and his mother. After all, hadn't he said they didn't get along well in Anne's diary? I liked the relationship between Peter and his parents, for sure, but I felt like the author missed out on a golden opportunity. A famous quote that came from Otto Frank after reading Anne's diary was "Most parents don't really know their children." And since this is a YA novel, it would've been a great chance to expand on that idea and show how Peter's parents, though their relationship with their son was good, they didn't know all of him. It felt kind of one-dimensional at times because we didn't see much or any conflict between Peter and his parents. 

Expanding on that, I think part one in the Annex was really lacking. This is historical fiction. You get to dip your fingers into the past and expand. Where was the development between the others in the attic? What about all the fights Anne talks about, the discussions, the grievances with each other? These people were trapped together for two years! There was tension between them! Anne mentions things briefly (like the arguments), and I'm really disappointed that the author didn't expand on them, show what got on each other's nerves! The entire first part of the book consisted of Peter moping around (and do you really think that wouldn't get old after two years, trapped inside or not? The people in the Annex kept busy!) and even when Anne enters his life, there was no real spark or excitement. Yes, Anne and Peter's romance wasn't of the ages, but the feelings could've been touched on, explore more of why they are clinging to each other, and it could've been much more poignant. 

A scene near the beginning of the book, when they are in the attic and Peter shouts, I found absolutely ridiculous. I could handle it when he whistled. I could deal with him shouting. But when his father shouted back, and then they all go after Peter and he's "screaming"? I know it was meant to be a representation of his emotions and the feelings of entrapment, but come on, these people were in hiding. Like I said, I could understand the shout, but when his father shouted back? You really think the adults would be so stupid as to add to any noise? 

The end was very nicely done. I enjoyed the camps and the way it was presented. I felt like the "light touch" writing style that the author had really worked well here. The ending really brought it up for me, but ultimately I was disappointed. ANNEXED could have pushed the boundaries a bit more, got into the details a bit more, and explored the Annex enough to bring it alive.

TL;DR: 2/5. A pretty bland retelling. 

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Book Review: Diary of a Young Girl

Book Review: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 

Goodreads Description: Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.

In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annexe" of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death.

In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.

My Review: There's so much I could say about this book, but I can't seem to scramble the words together. To say that this is an amazing study of the human condition would be true, but I feel like it would take away from the people who lived out the days recorded in the diary. We are all products of the human condition, we are all tested and tried, but often we don't realize the magnitude of the trials we face or the successes we've achieved. 

While I read, a strong and steady thought stayed with me: What was the point of all of it? The Frank family did what they could to survive, and yet I continued to ask myself if it was worth it. If they were to die, why waste time locking themselves away, to suffer and wait for death? Will this simply be two years of bitterness and suffering until their misery is ended? It's horribly heartless, I think, because it is a very removed question. It's akin to asking: What's the point of living? And yet I couldn't stop myself from comparing the merits, asking if this little bit of happiness makes all this worth it. 

And yet, another thing I wondered to myself. Every time Anne discussed her dreams to be a journalist, her desire to write a book and even publish a book based on her diary, I asked myself: Have you really accomplished your goal if you aren't even alive to witness it? Or is it simply another coincidence in life, something that would have happened whether or not you desired and worked for it? 

As the diary came to a head in 1944, I found some solace in the joy that she managed to find, the self-discoveries she'd made, and the endless hope and optimism that had me flabbergasted by this point. How could someone who has suffered like that, had to endure such hardship, continually hold out hope and optimism? The way she would casually talk about her future-- leaving the Annexe, going back to school, whether she wanted to be a housewife or a writer-- as if there wasn't the possibility of dying, is heart-breakingly beautiful. It made me wonder why people so readily give up when faced with simple problems, but grow firm and unshakeable when they have nothing left to lose. 

"It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on…” - Death, The Book Thief

Figured that summed it up best.

TL;DR: 5/5. A classic, of course. 

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Book Review: The School of Good and Evil

Book Review: The School of Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

Goodreads Description: “The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.”

This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.

But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?

My Review: I was first attracted to the SCHOOL OF GOOD AND EVIL by its beautiful cover. I try to avoid judging based on cover, but I loved the artist's rendition of the characters and the schools. I'm a sucker for good artwork. From the first page I was swept off my feet by the lively and loveable characters. Right away I could see that Sophie was not the bleeding heart she said she was, and Agatha was more than a dreary, cemetery-bound spook. I loved that from the moment I met the characters, their truer nature shone through in their actions. Agatha and Sophie are so well constructed-- their motives are clear and fuel their every action. 

The thing that made me really love this book was Sophie. It's so rare that we get to see the evolution of a villain like we would a hero. Though I know I would hate Sophie in real life, her every action is justified in her own mind and she truly believes in what she is doing, which makes her an amazing villain. She is not evil for evil's sake, in her own mind, she isn't even a villain, which makes her one of my favourite characters. 

If you're not swayed by compelling, dynamic characters that evolve through their journey, then you will love this book's fairy tale world. The world is incredible, and each little detail brought the schools to life and made them just as much characters as Agatha or Sophie. Right down to the fairy tale punishments, I couldn't get enough of the world building. 

The book is definitely a stand alone, but at the same time the end leaves you aching for more. I could not recommend this book enough. It's perfect for your little princess or the fairy tale lover who never stopped slaying dragons and saving the world. The writing is complex enough for children and simple enough for adults. A win all across the board.

TL;DR: 5/5 Stars. A must read! 

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Why I Gave Up (And Why You Shouldn't)

I’ve put off writing this post for a while, not because I didn’t think there wasn’t value to it, but because I was afraid to come out and admit weakness. I wanted to explore why after so many years of working to get published, and after finding some success, my writing came to a dead halt.

When Shell came out of the woodwork, I had nothing but rave reviews from beta readers. Agents raved the same, and within 24 hours of being out in the querying world, I had offers. Publishers complimented my writing, world-building, and the book itself. So why didn’t anything happen? I made two vital mistakes that many others warned me about.

1)      This is a subjective business. I knew this going in, I knew it every step on the way, but for some reason I let it slip my mind that even the best written books cannot stand on their own. If you have a really amazing book, then you have to find the right agents and editors, who really love, love your book, you have to hit them at the right time, and they have to have the right market to sell it in. If all the cards don’t line up, then it doesn’t matter how amazing your book is, if you’re an unpublished author, the odds aren’t exactly in your favour.

The kind of rejection that I faced wasn’t usual for me. Up until this point in my career, each time I had been rejected, it had been a direct result of something in my writing, even if that had just been someone’s opinion. But here it felt as though I had done nothing wrong, got no real criticism at any point, and at the end, Shell was left to rot with everything else I had ever written. It is kind of shameful to say that I hit the wall after this point. I was just supposed to do it again, create another book, but the child in me was saying, “But I did it right. Why don’t I get my sticker?”

If there’s anything to learn from this, if my experience can help anyone else, it’s this: writing isn’t about filling in all the right holes, and sometimes it won’t work for no goddamn good reason. But you have to keep writing anyway. Because the alternative is to stop, and I can tell you that is a sucky feeling. When I realized not writing wasn’t what I wanted and returned to it all, I realize all quitting got me was a lot of wasted time.

2)      Don’t stop working because someone’s working for you. I knew that an agent didn’t mean easy street. That an editor didn’t mean easy street. And yet I still grew lazy after I got my agent, thinking I could focus all on writing now that I had someone else taking care of my professional career. And that is where I made a big mistake. This is my career. When I get published, it will be through my hard work and effort. When I gave up this power in my head, I really believe I failed my own book. I kept my ideas for pitching to myself, I kept a lot of my requests for certain publishers to myself, and it caused my book to suffer. If I had been more on top of things, realized my agent wasn’t putting in the enthusiasm I wanted, I would have pulled back, found a new agent, and might have actually made the sale. But I surrendered that power, and I will regret that. Shell may live one day in print, but it doesn’t today because I didn’t try hard enough.

I think many people realize that an agent doesn’t mean the end of work. An agent is just a person, and sometimes they don’t make the right decisions, or it isn’t the right match. Don’t rely on other people to pull your weight. And if you can take anything from this, it’s this: Work on your career as well as your writing. Know who you are querying. Understand what your agent is doing. Always, always, always put yourself in the driver’s seat.

I have returned to writing, obviously, and don’t regret my hiatus, as I accomplished a lot in other areas of my life. But what I do regret is all that missed time. I hope there is something useful here in my shame. Don’t let the professional side of writing overwhelm your passion. Write for writing’s sake. And for the love of all things literary, don’t forget that in this business, “no” just means “keep trying.” 

Cheers, 

-Katie

Cover Reveal: GATES

For a special treat, I have for you the cover for Laurie Lyons' next book, GATES! out May 24! Get your hands on this baby for sure! My review of her first book, Feather, will be coming soon, so keep an eye out for that.

A thin strand of ivy stretched on its own and reached down for his hand, entwining itself around his finger. Nathaniel twisted it in his fingers thoughtfully. 

“What am I going to do?” he whispered at the moon.  He looked at Lucy’s sleeping face again and then at the moon. “Save her,” he almost begged, “let it kill me but save her, if you can.” He gazed back at her, a pained smile twisted on his mouth. He leaned his head back against the pillow and let go of the ivy, watching it wind its way back up to the rafters. 

He didn’t sleep. This was not going to end well. 

In the second book of The Feather Trilogy, Lucy and Nathaniel have started their sophomore year at Mulbridge University. Everything seems perfect but a series of strange accidents leave them both wondering if something sinister is lurking. Is it just fate or is something evil after Lucy’s soul? Does Roman, recently returned from the depths of Hell, have anything to do with it? Nathaniel and Lucy struggle to find answers until all is terrifyingly revealed on the Winter Solstice in an ending that will leave you breathless. 

Gates is an exhilarating, exciting read that will keep you guessing until the very last page. 

The Feather Trilogy 

How far are you willing to go to save your true love’s soul? 

GATES will be released May 24 on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and at Chapters in South Calgary Alberta Canada 

 

About the Author 

Laurie Lyons is the author of “Feather”, the first book in The Feather Trilogy with Ring of Fire Publishing and “The Heart Tree” short story with Little Bird Publishing House. 

Laurie wrote her first story at the age of 8 and hasn’t really stopped since. She lives in Calgary Alberta, Canada with her husband Trevor and their two clever children. She loves writing, reading and sharing her love of both with students during author presentations. “Gates” is the second of thousands of novels from her. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/FeatherbyLaurieLyons 

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17796440-gates 

Website: www.featherthenovel.com 

Publisher Website: www.ringoffirebooks.com  

Publisher E-mail: contact@ringoffirebooks.com

Book Review: Lucid

Lucid 

Written By: Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass

Review By: Katie C

2/5 Stars

What if you could dream your way into a different life? What if you could choose to live that life forever?

Sloane and Maggie have never met. Sloane is a straight-A student with a big and loving family. Maggie lives a glamorously independent life as an up-and-coming actress in New York. The two girls couldn't be more different--except for one thing. They share a secret that they can't tell a soul. At night, they dream that they're each other.

The deeper they're pulled into the promise of their own lives, the more their worlds begin to blur dangerously together. Before long, Sloane and Maggie can no longer tell which life is real and which is just a dream. They realize that eventually they will have to choose one life to wake up to, or risk spiraling into insanity. But that means giving up one world, one love, and one self, forever.



Lucid angered me for a variety of reasons. Though the premise was interesting and the writing was smooth enough that I didn't end up putting it down, it never really grabbed my attention enough. The two stories were completely separate for most of the book, and only when the girls' worlds began to overlap did I finally get excited about the story. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.

The characters themselves weren't terrible, but I got the impression that not enough of them  made it onto the page. Sloane was a typical, high school-esque girl with very little defining qualities besides being meek and fawning over the hottest guy in school. Maggie, on the other hand, seemed like a bit of an easier character to sympathize with, although sometimes it felt as if I'd gone from reading a book about a 17-year-old to one about a 30-year-old. This was purposeful and handled pretty well, but it still threw me off in the beginning, when I wondered if Maggie would ever start showing her age.

As for the writing-- simple and easy to read, but unfortunately the writers relied too heavily on telling, rather than showing. Most of the scenes were filtered through the narration. Instead of showing the reader how a character reacts, often the MC will gloss over it and tell the gist of what was said. Due to this, the tension was lacking until the climax, but even then I felt the tension could have been drawn out throughout the entire story, instead of just throwing it all on you at the very end.

As for the overall story, it had its moments. It definitely focused more on the girls' love lives instead of the issue of their dreams. They're definitely passive about their situation, although they both fret over it constantly, neither really takes active steps to try and understand or solve the problem. Also, there was no force that drove the plot. The girls were simply expanding their lives to include boys, and all of a sudden that sends their delicate balance into chaos. It appeared like the writers were purposefully trying to be vague to let the readers draw their own conclusion, but it came across as weak and underdeveloped. The end also reminded me very much of Going Bovine by Libba Bray, only it wasn't handled as well.

All in all, I'd say this book is best for readers looking for a romance story with only a hint of paranormal. Those that enjoyed Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler or The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard might enjoy this. If you want a book that's more on the paranormal side, this one might not be for you.

Cheers,

-Katie