Holy crap, I’m behind on these. Well, 2023 was a busy year for me. Anyway, this round isn’t as big as the last one, but we hit a number of points. We have the reliable series that I already know I like, the previously unread sequel (though there are several other series and sequels that I would have gotten if the library had had them), the realistic fiction, the adult nonfiction about language, the book that I saw at a store years ago but wasn’t interested enough in to buy, and the impulsive new release checkout. Also, as mentioned, I let life get away from me and it’s been a year and a half since I read most of these, so pardon me if I don’t cover all the details.
The Dark Prophecy (The Trials of Apollo #2)
The second book in Apollo’s personal series features some good returning characters and new ones. Calypso and Leo make another appearance, and notably, Calypso actually gets to do stuff. They’re rescued from a group of blemmyae, humanoid monsters that have extremely tough bodies and have their faces in their chests but are unfailingly polite, by Emmie and Josephine, who took little time to become my favorite gay couple in fiction thus far. (Emmie is short for Hemithea, a character from an obscure ancient Greek story.) Admittedly, I don’t have a lot to compare them to, but you can’t not like a couple of cool old lesbians who manage a space-bending safehouse. They meet Britomartis, goddess of nets and traps, and go on a quest to rescue some griffins stolen by Commodus, the villain of the episode, and figure out what’s up with a prophecy that they were given. Of course, they must fight Commodus in his theatrical show of violence, and of course, he also escapes to fight another day.
The book was good. It sure seemed like it had higher stakes than the previous second books, but I could already start seeing Apollo’s character development. On to the third one.
Rating: B
Anatopsis
Here is a book that I’ve actually had my eye on for a while. I first saw it at Barnes & Noble back when the year had two 0s in the middle, and the title intrigued me, but I never got to read it until summer 2022. So how was it? Well, let’s break things down.
The cast:
– Anatopsis, the titular character, known by friends as Ana, princess of a society of immortal mages, and daughter of the most powerful witch in the land;
– Clarissa, her best friend and technically servant, who is pointedly not an immortal mage;
– Barnaby, the prince of a neighboring kingdom and designated clumsy and unmanly guy with a strict father;
– Uno, Barnaby’s pet St. Bernard and apparently the only dog left in the universe;
– Abigail, the queen and overbearing mother of Ana who at least somewhat means well but spends far more time power-tripping than actually cultivating healthy relationships;
– Archibald, the neighboring king and Barnaby’s father, who has all of Abigail’s bad qualities turned up to 11 with none of her good ones and basically exists to be an abusive father who can get shown up in the end (heck, he’s a straight-up card-carrying villain, given that he seems to enjoy being evil);
– Mr. Pound, the villain who didn’t even try to pretend otherwise, in or out of the narration. Even if the synopsis hadn’t made his role in the story clear, it took maybe three paragraphs after his introduction for me to think “Yeah, this dude is shifty as all heck”.
You said it, Estelle.
The setting: A dystopian world where the aforementioned immortal mages basically have free rein to do whatever they want to the magic-less mortals, including murder and nasty transformations, and the planet is dying, so there are very few places left to inhabit. It’s one of those insidious kinds of dystopias, too, where it seems like it could just be standard science fiction or fantasy, but the world’s true nature reveals itself soon enough.
The plot: Anatopsis wants to be a knight, but her mother wants her to take over the family business as chairwoman of a corporation of witches, so she hires Mr. Pound as a tutor because she’s a horrible judge of character. Meanwhile, Barnaby’s father is treating him like dirt, so he ends up living and learning with Ana, which she does not approve of. They all eventually realize that Mr. Pound does not have anyone’s best interests at heart except his own and is searching for an artifact that will essentially upgrade him from a demigod to a full god and from Mr. Pound to Mr. Ton, and Ana and her friends must stop him before he does exactly that, as well as find Ana’s missing father.
Now, this is a story that could be the foundation for any number of imaginative adventures, but mostly, it seems to revel in its cruelty and how big of a jerk everyone is, even the protagonists on occasion. By the middle of chapter 5, we were down to two likable characters of the seven introduced so far, as Ana and Clarissa decided to torment Barnaby for absolutely no reason, and by the middle of chapter 6, I was just thinking “Okay, screw this entire society; everyone except Barnaby and Uno deserves to be locked in a basement with no food except Spam, no clothing except wet underwear, and no entertainment except a VSA choir and E.T. for the Atari, and if they die, that sounds like the opposite of a problem to me”. I guess the main takeaway here is that upper-class people suck, in every story that they’re in, including nonfiction. Actually, especially nonfiction. Ana did get some character development by the end of chapter 10, though; she just needed to warm up to Barnaby a bit. Incidentally, “Anatopsis” is presumably a play on “thanatopsis”, or “contemplation of death”, which fits with one of the themes of the story. The ideas that the writer had were interesting, but it felt like he might have tried to fit too many of them in one book. The plot thread about the Greek gods being murdered never came up again, and a number of mythical creatures were mentioned but barely even showed up in the story. Overall, the setting felt highly underexplored. It also didn’t help that the second half felt like it was trying to cram in way more than the first half; there was plenty of time setting up the main plotline, and then once The Big Quest got underway, the author rushed through it like he’d just realized that the deadline was 3 months earlier than he’d thought. He said once that his original version had been 600 pages long and unpublishable, but honestly, it might have worked better at 600 pages; at least then he’d be able to spend more time on things. (Is this what the person who designed Mega Man 3’s fortress stages ended up doing later in life?) I also noticed some editing mistakes; at the very least, there was one sentence that was definitely missing a comma.
This book, in general, was hard to read. It wasn’t because of the writing style like The Starless Sea was, but rather because of the story itself. Chris Abouzeid heaps misfortune after misery after agony after adversity on his protagonists until you feel like the payoff can’t possibly make up for it, and then when the heroes finally get their own back, the book just ends. And they barely even managed to do that; the ending is, in my opinion, pretty bittersweet, and definitely leaning more toward the bitter side. Sure, the nobles don’t get to use their powers to murder and transform people anymore, but ALL the magic is gone, including the fun kind that can be used for things like flying; Clarissa is dead, after having been turned into a hideous mutant and going through days of torment; and the villain technically isn’t even permanently defeated. One other reviewer described the ending as “gratifying”, and boy, I’d hate to see what an ending that they consider disappointing would be like. Anatopsis had potential, but it had too many irons in the fire, left way too many questions unanswered and plot points dropped, and, frankly, kind of annoyed me. It didn’t grind my nerves quite as much as the second Sisters Grimm book, but about the only thing that saved it from getting the same rating is that it was at least something new and creative, with an interesting (though underused) setting. Well, 15-year-old me, now you finally know what that book was about. Are you happy now? Because 31-year-old me definitely didn’t think the wait was worth it.
Rating: C-
Ramona the Pest
Well, at least this time, we are cleansing the bad taste with a Beverly Cleary book. This one features Ramona in kindergarten, where she gets into conflicts with another girl in her class (her curls are just too temptingly bouncy), a boy in her class (he’s just too temptingly kissable), her teacher (Ramona likes her, until she sends her home for not being able to behave herself), and society in general (Ramona can’t always get the hang of all the social rules that one is supposed to follow in school). And…that’s basically it. She doesn’t try to make trouble, but life is hard when you’re 5 and people don’t understand you. It was good as usual.
Rating: B-
A Kind of Spark
This is another realistic fiction novel, and, if I’m not mistaken, the first one that I’ve reviewed on here that wasn’t by Beverly Cleary or Carl Hiaasen, as well as the first one featuring an autistic main character. The latter will end up being a much more common trend later on, but for now, we’re still pretending that it’s 2022 and these are the most recent books that I’ve read. This is narrated by Addie, who besides being autistic is 11 years old and struggling a bit with social interactions in school (as one does), including getting picked on by students and mocked by her teacher. She finds out that her town was a place where women were burned for being witches in past centuries, and she decides that she wants to create a memorial for them, since she feels like she can relate to being different and misunderstood. With the help of her older sister and a new friend, she finds her place.
One thing that I noticed about this story was that there seemed to be a lot of character foiling to contrast different characters. My copy also didn’t state right away that Addie was 11, but I managed to figure it out based on other given information (her older sister is at college, and when the older sister was the Addie’s current age, Addie was 4). Beyond that, it’s worth noting that the author herself is autistic, so she can draw on her own experiences for Addie’s narration, and it shows. This book had some humor, some drama, and a lot of heart, not to mention a satisfying ending. I thought it was really good, and I look forward to what else Elle McNicoll writes.
Rating: A-
Howl’s Moving Castle
I actually saw the anime version of this first and hadn’t realized at the time that it was based on a book. The protagonist Sophie is resigned to working at her mother’s hat shop but would rather do something more exciting, and she unfortunately gets her wish when she inadvertently gets on the bad side of a wicked witch, who turns her into an old lady. As a result, she is obliged to leave the shop and seek work as a cleaning lady for the notorious wizard Howl, who lives in a strange house with his apprentice and a fire demon and turns out not to be actually evil, just vain and lazy. He ends up being another foe of the witch, and eventually, Sophie and Howl must defeat her in order to rescue the prince of the kingdom, as well as sort out their feelings about each other. Honestly, I liked the movie better, but the book wasn’t bad either.
Rating: B-
The Lost Frost Girl
In this book, Owl, the protagonist whose name is probably the weirdest part of the whole story, has always wanted to meet her mysterious father. As it turns out, her father is Jack Frost, who is a fairy-like elemental in this story, making Owl half-human and half a mythical creature, which she only realizes after she starts to develop strange wintry powers. She ends up going off into the unknown with her friends to find her father and ends up meeting quite a variety of seasonal beings and other fey, some of whom are displeased with Jack and find him overstepping his boundaries, expanding his season past its intended three months. Once she finally meets her father for the first time in forever, she starts to try to be more like him, performing his own winter duties to lighten the load. When it inevitably goes wrong and she nearly gives her friend Avery a frozen heart, she realizes even though the cold never bothers her anyway, she is still basically a human girl and not an immortal fairy, so she doesn’t have the stamina for it. So she decides to let it go and leave most of the frost-painting to her father. She does eventually find how how her mother and Jack Frost got together, and with all the ruckus between the seasonal sprites, she does the next right thing and helps bring nature back in balance.
This story seemed quite dense, so to speak; a lot happened in a short amount of time and not all that many pages. The writing style was noticeably “pretty”, and it was a good deal more successful with it than The Starless Sea was. I read most of it about a week into November during three of the wintriest days that we’d had that year since about February, so it was actually very thematically appropriate, especially the part about winter coming early and stepping on the toes of autumn and spring…is that an apt metaphor for the weather in Montana or what?! Jack Frost not only brought in winter a month early and considerably overstayed his welcome but even froze my family’s pipes a few times. Quite rude of him, that. Anyway, the book was pretty creative and interesting.
Rating: B+
Magicalamity
Another book about a half-fairy kid, huh. Well, despite initially having a similar-sounding premise to The Lost Frost Girl on the surface, this book has a very different feeling to it; where The Lost Frost Girl was poetic, atmospheric, and contemplative, Magicalamity was prosaic, boisterous, and comical, sort of like if Eva Ibbotson and Bruce Coville collaborated. The main character of this one finds out that his dad is not only a fairy but is being accused of murder, and he needs to go on the run, with some help from his fairy godmothers, who are far from the elegant and graceful ones typically seen. So he has to visit the land of the fairies, meet a cousin that he didn’t know he had along the way, deal with the failings of the fairy political system, and figure out the mystery of who clearly framed his father. Also, there are talking bats and a dragon. Though the dragon doesn’t show up until page 280 of this 305-page book and doesn’t even figure into the story that much, so why is it on the cover?
Anyway, it was a fun enough story. If I had a nickel for every book I read in this batch that was written by an English woman, had a nice cover, was a bit over 300 pages long, and was about an 11-year-old kid finding out that their father is a fairy, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?
Rating: B+
Ramona Forever
I had read this previously, but the only thing I remembered about it was the accordion-breaking scene, which made me so angry as a kid that I kicked the book down the stairs. Even now, I cringe at that part. Even if it’s for comedy, you don’t abuse musical instruments like that, nor give them to a little kid who will abuse them. Anyway, Ramona is still in third grade here, and she’s definitely matured compared to her earlier books (YMMV on whether she’s less fun this way). The big plot points here are Mrs. Quimby having a baby and Howie’s rich uncle Hobart marrying Ramona’s aunt Beatrice, though Ramona and Beezus get some sisterly conflict and resolution. Also, people finally realize how much of a jerk Mrs. Kemp is to Ramona and let her avoid her from now on, so that’s good (gosh, I hated that woman). This was originally the last book in the series, but there ended up being one more, which will be discussed next time.
Rating: B-
That’s Not English
This is another nonfiction book about words, again comparing and contrasting language and culture in the US with that in the UK. In this case, it is presented as a series of vignettes each based around a particular word, often regional slang (“brolly”, for instance, meaning “umbrella”, discusses Britain’s infamously rainy weather). It was an atypical take on its concept but interesting enough.
Rating: B-
The Castle of Tangled Magic
This book centers on Olia, a 13-year-old girl who lives with her family in a 500-year-old castle. One day, a supernatural storm comes that only affects the castle and non the surrounding town and is powerful enough to destroy the castle if left unchecked, the result of the castle actually being magical and no longer able to contain all of that magic. With the help of Feliks, a fox spirit (domovoi, specifically) who guards the castle, Olia must journey into a magical land full of of spirits and creatures of Slavic mythology to restore balance to the magic and bring things back to normal.
This was something interesting and different. I definitely haven’t consumed a lot of media that involves Slavic mythical creatures, certainly not as major characters. (Now I wonder what a Rick Riordan series with those would be like…that is one of the mythologies that he hasn’t tapped yet to my knowledge, along with, among other things, Polynesian, Native American including Mayan and Aztec, Japanese, and Mesopotamian.) Notably, there was a rusalka who was actually nice, which seems to be a rarity (not that I actually have many other rusalkas from personal experience to compare her to, pretty much just the second chapter boss of Bravely Default and a cycle of cards from Magic: The Gathering). I find the whole idea of an entire race/species having the same—usually evil—morality to be dreadfully banal, a fantasy trope that needs to die even more than the damsel in distress or the “destined hero”. The plot twist about the evil wizard actually not being evil was unexpected, though you could tell from a mile off that the beard thing was clearly not the correct solution, considering that there was still a third of the book left. This ended up being another book without a real villain, but it wasn’t any worse for it. I also noticed that it was never said where and when the story takes place; the former is presumably Russia, but it could be another former U.S.S.R. country or other one in that region. This was a fun adventure, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for some good fantasy.
Rating: A-
Well, there were actually quite a few winners this time. Maybe I got lucky, or maybe I’m just getting more lenient with my scores. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before I can churn out the next batch (fate tempted).