Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

From Goodreads:
In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home... forever. 

I feel like my review will be an unpopular opinion. I did not dislike this book, but it was also not the best book I have read. I liked the concept, I liked the writing style, but I didn't really like the execution. Nearing 500 pages (excluding the excerpt from the sequel at the end), I felt every single page (much like feeling every second of a boring movie). I can't really fault the author for this. She has a very interesting and unique writing style, it just didn't click for me. It was LONG when it didn't need to be. I feel like this book would be a lot better if it was 150-ish pages less.  

The concept of this novel is very intriguing. I love the idea of time travel. At first I thought it was like a YA version of the wonderful Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. But Etta is not Claire, and Nicholas is not Jamie. I'm disappointed that I didn't like this book because it is right up my alley. I love historical fiction and time travel. I think one of the major faults of this novel is the vast amounts of info-dumps we get instead of character development. I felt like I didn't know any single one of the characters. I knew their names and I knew their stories, but I didn't know them. I didn't know what made them tick. That's probably why I didn't buy the romance between Etta and Nicholas. On the whole, I HATE insta-love, but it's even less tolerable when I don't click with either of the romantic leads.

The writing style on the other hand, was incredible. I loved Bracken's writing voice. Her descriptions of locations and people are really wonderful, but it ultimately falls flat due to all the fluff and unimportant things that are added to the novel to bulk it up when there didn't need to be that much fluff.

All in all, Passenger disappointed me. It was a really intriguing concept, but it was bogged down by info-dumps, insta-love, unrelatable characters and unimportant plot details that lead nowhere. While the writing style is very well done and unique, I'm going to give Passenger 2/5, and will probably not be continuing with the sequel that came out earlier this year.

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

From Goodreads:
Aza Ray Boyle is drowning in thin air. Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn't think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.

Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who's always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia.

Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—but as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war between Magonia and Earth is coming. In Aza's hands lies fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

I, too, suffer from buying a book just because it has a pretty cover. Granted, I read this book in April-ish of 2015, so I was still 21. This review is completely by memory, but it is so memorable in all the wrong ways. I thought the premise sounded interesting, but once I finally cracked it open, I realized the error of my judgement. This book was so dumb, scattered, and generally not interesting. The gif of the Nostalgia Critic does not lie (I'm using his gifs because I'm basing this review on memory). It felt like I was losing brain cells left, right, and centre while reading this book. The characters were really dumb and suffered from Special Snowflake Syndrome. They were too quirky and zany, past the point of believability. I know the author was trying to aim for likability and relatability, but it was as if the characters were trying too hard to be quirky and off-centre. It didn't work naturally like it did in a book like The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. They were stupid, unlikable and boring. The only non-unlikable character was Jason. But he wasn't likeable either. If anything, I was indifferent to him. Everyone else was really dumb and I couldn't picture them existing in real life. 

The plot, if I can even call it that, was non-existent. There was no plot. Nothing exciting happened. Non-exciting things just happened, or rather, we heard about the non-exciting things happening by our rambling narrator. There was a lot of info-dumping simultaneous with a character saying something and not explaining it. CHOOSE ONE OR THE OTHER. The main character Aza just describes her day with the ridiculous goings-on that happen to her on the sky-boat with the bird-people (yes, that's actually a thing that exists and is a large part of the "plot"). I think what pissed me off so much is the fact that this book had so much potential and it just did not follow through on that potential. There's suspension of disbelief, and then there's just whatever the hell was going on in this book. She's dying because she's a bird lady who should be living on a floating ship in the sky. Right. OK, then. Because that's logical, No going into more detail? Oh - All right, fine. It would have worked beautifully if it was done correctly or with a tiny bit of explaining without info-dumping. Time for more Nostalgia Critic to set the record straight:

I'm not criticizing the premise of the book at all. Rather the execution of the premise. The writing style was also everywhere, which was another great cause of confusion. Most of the time, Ms. Headley's actual writing voice was good. But it would have been so much better if it stuck to one form of writing style. Sometimes it was informative, sometimes it was stream of consciousness, sometimes it was a combination. Was she trying to go for a form of poetics nouveau? JUST. CHOOSE. ONE. STYLE. 

After all was said and done, I was surprised I finished it. There were so many times I wanted to dump it in my DNF pile. I think subconsciously, I wanted the damn book to be finished and over. I'm giving Magonia 1/5, do not recommend.

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell

From Goodreads:For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home. Her mother believes they are being hunted by brutal monsters, and those delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. Gwen’s only saving grace is that her best friend, Olivia, is with her for the summer.

But shortly after their arrival, the girls are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and dragged into a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey. And Gwen begins to realize that maybe her mother isn’t so crazy after all…

Gwen discovers that this new world she inhabits is called Neverland, but it’s nothing like the Neverland you’ve heard about in stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through your fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and tries to find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the captivating pirate who promises to keep her safe.

Caught in the ultimate battle between good and evil, with time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to finally face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But can she save Neverland without losing herself? 

(Note: Daylight Savings Time came into effect the night before I wrote this review, rendering me exhausted, so forgive my zany format for this review)

It could be that I watch Once Upon a Time religiously, but this novel reminded me so much of the arc where Emma & co. go to Neverland to save Henry, and it's during this time that she and Hook begin to really fall for each other. But really. Dark Ones? A morally ambiguous pirate captain that the main character falls for, and ends up being a hero? A villainous Pan? I made all the connections very quickly. It even got to the point where I pictured Rowan, this version of Hook, complete with an Irish accent, to look like a young Colin O'Donoghue. 

All televisual allusions aside, I found myself to be pleasantly surprised by Unhooked. The writing hooks you right in (pun fully intended), and it's a very gripping and entertaining read. I really liked the fact that there wasn't really a love triangle between Gwen, Rowan, and Pan, as most fairy tale retellings do. I haven't really read many fairy tale retellings, though, so that could be a misconception that I have. I've sort of moved away from Y/A fiction as a whole in the last couple of years, so it was strange to read one after being away from the genre for a while. I've found more recent young adult novels to follow the same formula, which this one does follow to an extent (the main character is a Saviour Unknown Hero Special  Part of a Prophecy you choose, that she didn't know about previously. There's conflict that could have been avoided, stuff like that that for whatever reason almost always shows up in Y/A fiction). Gratefully there was very little of the formulaic parts aforementioned. 

There were a few things that I wish they had expanded upon, such as Rowan's backstory (we do get some, but we never see what happens between his main past *cough cough Killian Jones identifies and sympathizes with your backstory, Rowan *ahem*  and when he gets to Neverland), more on Gwen and Olivia's friendship (considering the fact that Gwen's main motivation is to save her friend and get them out of Neverland) and more on Gwen's parentage. While we don't see these things, the characters for the most part are good. Gwen was naive in parts, but I think that's just her character. Fiona, the Tinker Bell character, was my favourite. Four for you Fiona, you go Fiona.

I loved the writing style of this book, as I already mentioned. It was really easy to fall into rhythm, and made it so it only took a couple of hours to finish. I wasn't bored by anything, and overall found it to be a really interesting concept; I really loved how Maxwell preceded each chapter with quotes from (I'm assuming?) the original J.M. Barrie Peter Pan. Another thing I liked about this book? It was funny, which is a rarity in Y/A novels. It wasn't a laugh a minute, but it had lighter, funnier moments sprinkled throughout. 

All in all, Unhooked was a good read. While there were many (likely unintentional) references to Once Upon a Time, it was a unique and original novel, with compelling world-building and a fast-paced plot, with easy-to-follow writing and a sense of humour. This book gave me a pleasant surprise and for that I give it 4/5 and recommend it to people who like fairy tale retellings or Y/A fiction. 

Indelible by Adelia Saunders

From Goodreads:
Magdalena has an unsettling gift. She sees writing on the body of everyone she meets - names, dates, details both banal and profound - and her only relief from the onslaught of information is to take off her glasses and let the world recede. Mercifully, her own skin is blank.

When she meets Neil, she is intrigued to see her name on his cheek. He's in Paris for the summer, studying a medieval pilgrimage to the rocky coast of Spain, where the body of Saint Jacques was said to have washed ashore, covered in scallop shells. Desperate to make things right after her best friend dies - a loss she might have prevented - Magdalena embarks on her own pilgrimage, but not before Neil falls for her, captivated by her pale eyes, charming Eastern European accent, and aura of heartbreak.

Neil's father, Richard, is also in Paris, searching for the truth about his late mother, a famous expatriate American novelist who abandoned him at birth. All his life Richard has clung to a single striking memory - his mother's red shoes, which her biographers agree he never could have seen.

Indelible can be defined in two ways: "(of ink or a pen) making marks that cannot be removed", and "not able to be forgotten or removed." 

This book is a mixed bag: the concept is really neat, the writing style is really unique, but it's also kind of stale in certain parts and areas, and some creative decisions are kind of odd in places. An example: It follows three characters, Magdalena, Neil, and Richard. While it evenly splits up focuses, Richard's chapters are written in first person, and the other chapters are written in third person. Because of this, my favourite chapters were Richard's chapters. I like how the book itself was written. It invoked a sort of empty, sad feeling sometimes, especially with Richard's story. Parts of Magdalena's journey were also relatable. 

Besides Richard, I found it very difficult to connect to any of the characters (and even Richard had his moments of not being relatable). While Magdalena did have motivations, we don't learn anything about her all too much. Same goes for Neil. The simple truth is that they are not the most likable characters? Like, it's cool that Magdalena doesn't let her "gift" define her, but we don't really see her response to it all that often besides a "this is what it said on so-and-so's forehead." What I'm about to say is every English student's worst nemesis: "So what?" How does it connect? There are also very many loose threads that are meant to be important to the plot, or claim to be important to the plot, but they end up being ignored or brushed over. 

A thing that this book does well is relay the difficulty of grief, sorrow, and the inability to accept when to let go. When I mentioned there was a sort of empty feeling of sadness, I was associating it with the sections in which Magdalena is grieving for the loss of her best friend and Richard comes to learn the truth about his mother. Those parts were probably the best parts of the novel, because of the painful accuracy that Saunders delivers with. Grief is something that we carry with us, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly. With the characters of Richard and Magdalena it's definitely the former, but in a very subtle way. We don't really get that with Neil. He's just sort of along for the ride. 

One thing that I thought was going to happen, and did, but not to the extent I hoped: not enough overlap in the stories of each character. There's an obvious connection between Neil and Richard and Neil and Magdalena, but they never really interact all that much. As I said it was kind of stale, and it says something that, according to my progress with Goodreads, it took me six days to finish a relatively short novel that clocks in at 271 pages. It wasn't a hard book by any measure. On the contrary, the writing style made it very easy to read. It wasn't form, it was content: I found it very hard to connect to the characters on a whole and there was very minimal plot development. I'm going to give Indelible a 2.5/5; it succeeded in writing style, concept, and the message of grief (which was moving), but ended up being very dry and stale, did not really move forward, and failed the "So What?" test. Indelible is not that indelible. The cover is pretty though. 

Room by Emma Donoghue

From Goodreads:
To 5-year-old Jack, Room is the world... 

It is where he was born. It's where he and Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. There are endless wonders that let loose Jack's imagination-the snake under Bed that he constructs out of seashells; the imaginary world projected through the TV; the coziness of Wardrobe beneath Ma's clothes, where she tucks him in safely at night, in case Old Nick comes.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it's the prison where she's been held since she was nineteen- for seven long years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in that eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But Jack's curiosity is building alongside Ma's own desperation, and she knows that Room cannot contain either indefinitely...

Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience-and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

OK.Where to start? Emma Donoghue's Room has been on my radar since about the time it came out, but did not pick it up until quite recently. I read it in the course of a day (today) and I have conflicted feelings about it. Talking to my mom after reading it, I said, "It was both good and just OK." (I know it's very contradictory) I think it's great that Emma Donoghue decided to shed light on a very real problem in a fictional way, but it also falls flat in other aspects. I found the first half, when they were in the Room to be much more compelling and exciting. The escape and rescue bits were probably the best parts of the novel. 


At its core, Room is a novel about survival and endurance during and after a hardship, and coming to terms with a horrible experience. Room tells the story about how to move on after a bad experience and not letting it define you, especially for young people such as Jack, who has only known the Room. Emma Donoghue does a really good job at telling this story and letting both Ma and Jack, as well as their loved ones coming to terms with what has happened to them.

There are many good elements about this novel. Ms. Donoghue does not shy away from the more horrifying parts about being someone's captive, and she handles the scenes during the aftermath where Ma is being interviewed and questions well. The characters are realistically portrayed and I think it's great that she decided to have Jack, the five-year-old son to be the narrator instead of Ma, or in the third person as it opens up things to be left to interpretation more, and allows the reader to read between the lines a bit more. Emma Donoghue has a wonderful writing voice and both halves are well-written. I loved how she portrayed Ma and Jack's relationship, and the way she portrayed a mother's unconditional love for her child.

That being said, I found the second half to drag a little bit once they were settled in where they were. It would have been interesting to see a trial of Old Nick and Jack's perspective of that, or a flash-forward to a year or so later once they were re-integrated in society. While the first half was great, the second half was OK. I also found Jack's struggles to become repetitive after a while (as in, we didn't need to keep seeing them happening over and over. There is a happy balance). It worked better in the first half, but kind of added to the dragging on quality that the second half sometimes adopted. All in all, the second half wasn't as great as the first half, but it also wasn't bad by any stretch. The highlight of the second half of the novel is seeing how Ma and Jack interact and react differently to the real world. It really shows their relationship. I also really liked seeing how Jack responded to everything, and Donoghue portrays someone seeing the real world for the first time in a really unique and interesting way. 

All in all, this was a very interesting read. The first half of this novel was great, while the second half was just good, but was also a bit shaky in parts. I loved the portrayal of Ma and Jack's relationship, and found the writing style to be really unique. The novel doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable parts, but tells it in an almost innocent way. I am going to give Room a 3.5/5. It was overall a good but not fantastic read, and I look forward to reading Ms. Donoghue's other works.  

Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis

From Goodreads:
"I wonder", said Hermes, "what it would be like if animals had human intelligence."
"I'll wager a year's servitude," answered Apollo, "that animals – any animal you like – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence."
And so it begins: a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto vet­erinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks.

Two Greek gods sit at a bar in the Distillery District near downtown Toronto and make a wager about dogs. No, really. That's how this book starts. Fifteen Dogs has been on my radar for a while. It's consistently recommended to me on Amazon and Goodreads, and it's on the longlist for CBC's 2017 "Canada Reads". It's won the Scotiabank Geller Prize, and it was met with critical acclaim when it was released. This book is a prime example of good Canadian writing, and proof that, yes, good writers do exist in Canada besides Alice Munroe (whose work is amazing) and Margaret Atwood. 

The premise of this novel is kind of nonsensical on the onset: Greek gods making bets about dogs and how they would behave with human intelligence? But it works. Really well, too. It not only shows why limitations between humans and dogs are in place, but also shows how different dogs react and process this new intelligence. It speaks a lot to human nature and how the world can literally be a "dog-eat-dog" world. For others, they think this is the greatest thing that's ever happened. Of the fifteen dogs that this book follows, they each have completely different, personal, journeys, which works well. Alexis is a talented writer that really understands not only human interactions, but also human-dog interactions, and portrays excellent dog-dog interactions. I wonder if Mr. Alexis himself has had dogs in his life. 

This is also one of the most unique books I think I have ever read. It's told mostly from the point of view from the dogs, changing perspectives with each chapter. While it does focus mostly on Majnoun, Benjy, and my personal favourite of the dogs Prince, it goes through the processes that each of the dogs has in regards to this new intelligence. This is a rare book. There are not many other books like this out there that are both original like this, and also well-written. It's completely whimsical, but it also packs an emotional punch, especially to dog-owners or dog-lovers. While I do not have a dog myself, I have loved dogs my entire life, so this book really affected me, especially towards the end of the book. As I mentioned, Mr. Alexis really got into his characters in this book, and eloquently portrays the different parts of humanity, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and what it means to be human (or dog, living in a human world). 

This book is doggone great, heartbreaking and original. For that I am giving this book 5/5 and wish it and André Alexis luck at Canada Reads.

Hex by Thomas Olde Huevelt

From Goodreads:
Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay 'til death. Whoever settles, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a 17th century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters your homes at will. She stands next to your bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened.

The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting, but in so doing send the town spiraling into the dark, medieval practices of the past. 

Content warning: This book contains scenes of sexual assault/violence and violence towards children and animals.

I actually read this in July, but I forgot to post a review for it here. Oops. 

I stayed up until 4am finishing this book, knowing full well I had to be at work for 10 in the morning, but I needed to know how it ended.

At first this book wasn't that scary, with Heuvelt giving the readers a false sense of security. "This isn't scary at all!" I thought to myself, during the first 150 or so pages. Oh, how quickly I was proven wrong. An event happens about a quarter-to-a-third of the way through the book that changes the playing ground, and Hex goes from being a lighthearted book with something not right in the atmosphere, to a full-on stay-up-until-4am-with-all-the-lights-on scary.

Something that Heuvelt does is he combines Old World superstition with New World ideals and technologies. An app to track what the witch is doing? Sounds a lot like town logs and registers that would have been used in the 17th century, not to mention the remaining belief in the existence of this witch. The small-town factor plays a lot into the superstitions as well. The novel portrays small-town life fairly well, at least for Europe, anyhow. I don't think many of the things that happen in this translation as far as town events (outside town meetings perhaps) would happen in a small American town. That's the one teeny-tiny minor thing about this novel is that it's a translation from the original Dutch. It's a great translation, but there are always things that can't be translated or are missed or lost in translation that add an extra factor. 

I enjoyed how quickly the town turned on each other in this book, With tensions running high once regulations about the witch had been thrown out the window, fingers were pointed, people were blaming neighbours, former friends, and family members, all so that the blame would not be set on them. What Heuvelt does so well is make the reader suspect everyone, which, if done correctly, is very effective in creating even more tension. It's interesting to see how quickly old practices of interrogation and suspicion return. While this is fictional, it shows a window into how people interact in situations like this in real life.  


Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. It started out giving the audience a false sense of security before going in for full creep factor. I loved the location and the atmosphere of the novel, and enjoyed all the twists and turns that this book takes along the way. Initially. I was going to give this a 3.5, but thinking about it after I finished it, I'm bumping it up to 4/5. 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

It's National Book Day, so why not talk about a book that celebrates books, with one of my all-time favourite books ever, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

From Goodreads:
It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

I was 20 when I read this book. And it has stayed with me for four years. With this book, Markus Zusak weaves a wonderful, readerly, touching tale filled with magical realism and sorrow. This book is amazing. I know I say that a lot. But, guys. This book. Maybe one other book has stayed with me like this book, and even then, it did not have as a profound effect on me as this one did. 

Zusak does so many things with The Book Thief. The most important thing is that he humanizes everyone. EVERYONE. This book is not a Holocaust book. The Holocaust happens in the book, there are Jewish characters in the book, but the prime focus of the book is not on the Holocaust, but rather the everyday people living in Germany between 1939 and 1945 during Hitler's rule. It acknowledges the horrors of World War II and the Nazis. A clever thing that Zusak does is have the story be narrated by Death. But he does it in such a way that you forget that Death is narrating it, until it is brought up. It makes sense that Death would be ever-present in this story, because Death was ever-present during World War II. 

Another thing that Zusak does is show the power of words. The basic premise of the novel is the protagonist and the father figure teaching each other how to read during what are the hardest parts of their lives. For Liesel and Hans, books are a way of bonding and coming closer together, while also avoiding the terrors of the real world. They do not ignore the real world, but rather put the pause button on, because sometimes, reading is more important than knowing what is happening in reality, something that rang true during World War II, and still rings true today. Books and words are powerful, as Zusak shows, and he eloquently displays how books are literally life-changing. One thing I liked about this book, is that while Liesel did have to grow up faster than she probably should have due to the war, she was still able to be a kid for most of the time, which is a nice difference to other novels that have their child characters be miniature adults all the time. It is more realistic to allow Liesel to still be a child and have fun, while still being responsible. 

While this book is heartwarming and uplifting, it is also completely and utterly tragic and moving at the same time. I know it was four years ago that I read this book, but I could not tell you how many times I was choked up while reading this book. I think I started crying around page 30 or so, it is that powerful. 

An accurate portrayal of reading Markus Zusak's The Book Thief 

As it says in the description, this is a simple story. Something else I really enjoyed about this book is how simplistic it is. Usually war novels make everything be Big and Important, but The Book Thief chooses to focus on the smaller things, the everyday life. It's a unique way of telling this type of story, but I think it is more effective than making everything be Big and Important; The Book Thief only dramatizes what needs to be, and even then, it's minimalized if it needs to be.

If you couldn't tell, I absolutely love this book. It's one of my all time favourite books ever, even though I have only ever read it once. I can't wait to read it again (whenever that may be). I truly recommend this book. It is touching and overwhelming and wonderful. It is a book that will stay with you for a long time after finishing it. I give The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 5/5

Stranded by Bracken MacLeod

From Goodreads:
Badly battered by an apocalyptic storm, the crew of the Arctic Promise find themselves in increasingly dire circumstances as they sail blindly into unfamiliar waters and an ominously thickening fog. Without functioning navigation or communication equipment, they are lost and completely alone. One by one, the men fall prey to a mysterious illness. Deckhand Noah Cabot is the only person unaffected by the strange force plaguing the ship and her crew, which does little to ease their growing distrust of him. 

Dismissing Noah's warnings of worsening conditions, the captain of the ship presses on until the sea freezes into ice and they can go no farther. When the men are ordered overboard in an attempt to break the ship free by hand, the fog clears, revealing a faint shape in the distance that may or may not be their destination. Noah leads the last of the able-bodied crew on a journey across the ice and into an uncertain future where they must fight for their lives against the elements, the ghosts of the past and, ultimately, themselves

I read this book immediately following The Terror, so maybe I would have enjoyed it a bit more had there been a book in between The Terror and this one, because they are both survival stories that take place in the Arctic on ships frozen in the ice. Regardless of that, this is a well-written book. It was in the horror section of the bookstore, but I wouldn't really classify it as horror so much as I would classify it along the lines of "adventure thriller mystery with a dash of horror". There are definitely horror elements to be found within the book, and there are tense scenes, but it is more a metaphysical mystery that questions reality, that just so happens to have horror elements within it.

This book is fine. The concept is great; I'm very intrigued by the testing of characters that are stranded in an isolated area with no access to communication. I enjoyed the set-up and the setting, but I found the big plot twist to be a bit out of left field and didn't really get tied up at the end. It had a kind of slapped-on, "Oh, OK!" sort of ending. The characters were OK, everything was just OK. It really got to be good in the middle section when tensions were high and fingers were being pointed. It had a very WTF twist somewhere in the middle as I mentioned, that didn't really get explained in a concrete way. I found the tension and contempt between the crew members and the main character Noah to be a bit forced. Even the tension and dislike between the captain (commander? I'm not too sure what Brewster's title is), who just so happens to be Noah's father-in-law and Noah himself was almost cliched, especially in the basis of the rivalry. While there was cliche to this aspect of the novel, it is also where most of the overall suspense stems from, and it does get better as the novel progresses. 

What I do like about this novel is how it addresses guilt and facing ghosts of the past, both of which have a large part to play here, especially after the surprise twist halfway through the novel. While the ghosts of the characters pasts are a bit more literal than figurative in this novel, it works for what MacLeod is aiming for with the overall theme of man-vs-self and man-vs-man. While it's not as effective as what Dan Simmons did in The Terror, it's still effective in this book, and it works for what the author is going for. Overall, this book is good. It had a great concept, and I really enjoyed the final, tense moments that we see on the ship when everything is coming to a (really violent) head, and I enjoyed the more philisophical and almost meta-physical approach that it takes. I enjoyed reading it, and it didn't take long to finish it. I'm giving Stranded a 3.5/5

The Terror by Dan Simmons

From back cover: 
The men on board the HMS Terror - part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage - are entering a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, stranded in a nightmarish lansdscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, they struggle to survive with poisonous rations, a dwindling coal supply, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is even more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror clawing to get in. 

The word I would use to describe this book is chilling (aren't I witty?)

This was another whim book I bought at the same time I bought The Ballroom a few weeks back.

The title of this novel could refer to a number of different things. Is it referring to the name of the ship? Is it referring to the unseen predator? Is it referring to the nightmarish conditions the crew has to endure such as scurvy, harsh conditions, and the promise of not moving forward with their expedition? I personally think it's the latter, because the Arctic Circle is pretty dang terrifying.

It was odd reading this book, knowing more about the failed Franklin expedition now, than what was known when the book was written and published. For reasons beyond my knowledge, this type of history speaks to me, so I was really intrigued by the description. It is also one of the oddest hybrids I think I've ever come across - historical fiction and horror/supernatural. But it works. Mostly it's historical, but man is there tension even when the supernatural elements are absent. It's very clear that the author did his homework because the research done for this novel is intensive and it shows. It pays off really well.

While I did enjoy the supernatural elements of this book, the most suspenseful parts were the survival bits. As I mentioned, the Arctic Circle is not a place I'd like to be. Simmons' writing style is unique and works for this type of novel; it changes with perspectives. The more tense scenes had me looking over my shoulder and wondering if I was being watched, which is proof that a horror author is doing their job correctly. As one of the reviews that the book boasts, this book is unusual which is a good way to describe it. I've never read a book quite like this. Of course there have been other survival stories, enduring harsh conditions and the like, but none quite like this. I'm giving Dan Simmons' The Terror a 4.25/5