Archive for the ‘fantasy’ Category

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

I was a little concerned and uncomfortable throughout most of this book.  The story itself was engaging, but the magical aspect of the story raised some red flags for me. If you’ve read my blog at all, you know that I am not against magic in fiction.  In fact, some of my favorite books are [...]

March 6, 2012  Tags:   Posted in: fantasy, historical fiction, Young Adult  No Comments

Entwined by Heather Dixon

This one was fun!  I guess I would classify it as historical fantasy…definitely has magic, but the setting has a vaguely Victorian feel.  It definitely gets a bit dark (and bloody) at the end, so I would lean towards reserving this for a slightly older crowd.  (I wouldn’t put it on the shelf for my [...]

March 1, 2012   Posted in: fantasy, historical fiction, Young Adult  No Comments

A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Brilliant! Gidwitz retells the Hansel and Gretel story while incorporating many of the lesser known, un-Disney-fied stories.  I love that he has truly held onto the grim aspects of the Grimm versions of these tales; they were not sweet, cute stories with happy endings.  Many of them were grusome and ended with morals and warnings [...]

February 13, 2012  Tags:   Posted in: fantasy  No Comments

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

So, I loved this book to start out with.  Strong female character.  A little violent, but not graphically so.  There was a passage in the first half of the book that I absolutely loved.  The main character, Katsa, has been used by her uncle as a thug to keep his kingdom in line.  She is [...]

January 13, 2012  Tags:   Posted in: fantasy, Young Adult  No Comments

Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

These books have sort of been my guilty pleasure…not at all the type I usually go for.  They are marketed as mysteries, though very few of them have struck me as truly dealing with solving an actual mystery.  The early books seemed to fit more properly in the Romance genre.  The latter books have leaned more [...]

July 26, 2011   Posted in: fantasy, mystery  No Comments

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

This one is probably a good mystery book for the middle school set, but doesn’t have a lot to interest older readers.  My interest wasn’t really piqued until the end, but let me explain that beneath a cut, since that will include some spoilers.

December 15, 2010   Posted in: fantasy, mystery  No Comments

The Hunger Games

It’s been awhile since this has happened…I’ve read a book that drew me in enough to make me want to post about it right away. The Hunger Games is so powerful, filled with significance while still subtle.  The story is set in a post apocolyptic North America that has been divided into thirteen districts that [...]

October 3, 2010   Posted in: fantasy, science fiction, Young Adult  No Comments

The Looking Glass Wars

Alice in Wonderland is one of those books, at least for me, that was fun to read as a child, but then when I reread it as an adult, it had me wondering if  Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) wasn’t a but touched.  In The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor takes this classic children’s tale [...]

June 24, 2010   Posted in: fantasy, fiction, retold fairy tale, Young Adult  No Comments

The Heir Series

My brother recommended these books to me, so I suppose that he should really be the one to write the review.  He doesn’t feel all that confident in his writing (yet), so you’ll have to put up with my version, yet again. As far as fantasy for young adults goes, these books are some of [...]

June 3, 2010   Posted in: fantasy, fiction, Young Adult  One Comment

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

This is the second book I’ve read by Funke, and I must say this is the better of the two.  I find her unorthodox in her approach towards children’s fantasy in that very little of the story is based on anything fantastical.  Her characters are very much grounded in the real world and must deal [...]

January 22, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: fantasy, fiction  No Comments