Review: Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang

Tags: YA, historical fiction, Mongolian Empire, war

Summary

Emmajin is the granddaughter of Kubilai Khan, the fearsome and accomplished leader of the widespread Mongolian Empire. All she has ever dreamed of is to be able to join the Mongolian army, but her destiny as a princess is to be trapped in a political marriage. Emmajin is determined to do all she can to convince the Khan that she will serve him well in battle.

With the arrival of foreign merchants to their lands, however, Emmajin is told to gather information from one Marco Polo. This is the last thing Emmajin wants to do, but as she gets to know Marco, so unlike the Mongolian men she knows, she finds that there is something special about his talented storytelling, his peace-loving beliefs. But how can she juggle her growing feelings towards this foreigner and her determination to become a legend in the Mongolian army?

Review

If you’ve never read anything about the Mongolian empire, then pick DAUGHTER OF XANADU up. Writing in a style easily accessible to modern readers, Dori Jones Yang tells the surprisingly deep story of a girl caught between warring desires, who learns that dreams may change and that things are hardly ever what they seem.

Emmajin undergoes an incredible journey of self-growth, from a girl with a single-minded determination to be a soldier to a young woman with far more complicated feelings and desires. To tell the story of Emmajin’s self-discovery, Dori Jones Yang gives us a world full of marvelously fascinating details, first among the artificial glamour of court life, and then among the gruesome reality of mortality on the battlefield. This transition of her soldier aspirations from dream to reality truly affects Emmajin in ways that we who live many centuries after her time can still empathize with. I was in tears for the last few chapters of the book, so wrapped up in Emmajin’s development I was.

DAUGHTER OF XANADU is a great book if you’re looking for a story featuring a strong female character set in a fascinating “other world.” Expand the range of POC books you read with this one, and be swept away.

Similar Authors
Donna Jo Napoli

Writing: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5


Cover discussion: 3.5 out of 5 - There is a beautiful, strong Mongolian girl on the cover!

Delacorte / Jan. 11, 2011 / Hardcover / 352pp. / $17.99

ARC received from Around the World Tours.

Review: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Tags: YA, French Revolution, grief, music, guitar, time travel, magical realism, historical fiction

Summary

Andi’s life is in tatters. Her younger brother’s dead, her father’s a jerk, her mother’s going insane, and she might flunk out of her private high school if she doesn’t do an absolutely incredible job with her senior research project. All she wants to do is play her guitar. But on a winter break trip to Paris with her father, she discovers the diary of Alexandrine, a girl who lived during the terrifying years of the French Revolution. Andi gets sucked—literally—into Alex’s plight, reading about the girl’s futile determination to save the young last king-child of France.

Review

I savored this book. I purposely read only a bit of it each day so that I could make it last. Jennifer Donnelly had already captured my heart with her previous YA book, A Northern Light. REVOLUTION is in many ways very different, but it is still a powerful, engrossing, and incredibly well-researched read.

At first, Andi comes off as a self-absorbed, apathetic, and emo teenager. But the book quickly becomes so much more than a typically angsty YA novel. While Andi’s attitude may get tiring at times, it is very obvious that she has been through a lot, that she has deep emotional pain that has been building for years and years. Her pain, in fact, makes her beautiful, the way she pours her soul into her music. It is an incredible honor that we get to see Andi on her healing journey.

The research that Jennifer Donnelly pours into REVOLUTION is lovingly evident. From Andi’s classical guitar knowledge to the contents of Alex’s diary, everything is incredibly well-researched and inserted into the story so naturally it almost feels like Andi’s story exists outside of the novel format.

REVOLUTION is an absorbing, interesting, and heartbreaking accomplishment of a novel. It defies categorization and should appeal to a wide range of readers. I don’t care that it took Jennifer Donnelly many many years to come out with her second YA novel: it was well worth the wait, as her future books will no doubt also be.

Writing: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 4 out of 5 - Sighhh. What a simple concept, one that I might even say has been done before--and yet how exquisite. If you hold the finished copy, the ribbon is raised and the pages have a lovely texture.

Delacorte / Oct. 12, 2010 / Hardcover / 496pp. / $18.99

ARC picked up at BEA.

Review: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Tags: YA, paranormal, urban fantasy, historical paranormal, Victorian London

Summary

Tessa Gray arrives in Victorian London with the expectation of meeting her brother. Instead, she is kidnapped by members of the Pandemonium Club, where she discovers that she is not human, but a Downworlder, a magical being with the rare ability of being able to transform into another person. The leader of the Pandemonium Club, the Magister, wants Tessa’s power for himself, and it is only with the aid of the Shadowhunters that Tessa manages to escape.

At the Shadowhunters’ London Institute, Tessa learns about the existence of Shadowhunters and Downworlders, and befriends Will, cheeky and close-lipped about his past, and Jem, calm and sensitive but with a shocking secret. Will they manage to find Tessa’s brother? What is Tessa, exactly? And which boy will she choose?

Review

CLOCKWORK ANGEL is the first book in Cassandra Clare’s highly anticipated new series, The Infernal Devices, sort of a prequel to the Mortal Instruments series. It delivers Clare’s now-signature mix of gritty urban fantasy, fights, witty banter, and love triangles, and, while there’s nothing really new about the setup, it will still satisfy TMI fans, and is one of those rare books that I know will get better with subsequent guilty-pleasure rereadings.

There’s a decent amount of good to be said about all of Cassandra Clare’s books. Technically, not that much happens in the 400 or so pages her books span, but you don’t realize it because you’re so caught up in the drama and the smirk-inducing dialogue that makes you wish you had thought of that quip yourself. Her books don’t have the depth that the setup has the potential for—there is a LOT of political discussion that could surround the Shadowhunter/Downworlder dynamic—but—at least for me—the love triangle and the dialogue are typically so well done that I don’t even care that the potential for deeper issues isn’t explored.

CLOCKWORK ANGEL follows in this mold. The first 100 or so pages were frustrating for me because, I’ll be honest here, I read Clare’s books for the love triangle and the snark, and it was mostly just Tessa being damsel-in-distress-y at the clutches of the nefarious Dark Sisters. Then suddenly it was Page 200 and I’m wondering, “Did anything actually happen, or was I once again seduced by Will’s quips into not noticing that little has happened by way of plot so far?”

The actual plot of CLOCKWORK ANGEL unfolds almost painfully slowly, if we were to actually examine it. Like in the Mortal Instruments series, the villain of the book, the Magister, retains a status of “villainy” that never fully manifests into true villainy. Like Valentine, the Magister is the villain mostly because all of the other characters insist that he is and whisper fearfully about him. I suppose, though, that this is part of my emotional disconnect from the book, in that reading it felt, for me, like watching a silly-good TV show in which everyone says funny things, and drama happens, but then I shut off the TV and their voices go quiet in my head.

This is not at all saying that this is a bad book, not at all! CLOCKWORK ANGEL is good at what it is: a sinfully entertaining paranormal series with lots of flashy fights and swoony romances. Will is too similar to Jace in his humor and mannerisms for me to actually crush on him (Jace is number one in my heart, after all), but Jem’s genuine (at least, let’s hope it’s genuine) sensitivity towards Tessa’s endears him to me. The main female character is once again a breathless ninny inclined to shrieks and rescues, but hey, whatever, okay, if it floats your boat.

CLOCKWORK ANGEL once again displays Cassandra Clare’s writing strengths: snarky humor and swoon-worthy (albeit a bit predictably so) guys. Comparison to the Mortal Instruments series is inevitable, and there are a troubling number of similarities between the two books so far. I’m hoping there will begin to be differences in the next installment, but meanwhile, I’m keeping this on my shelf to reread whenever I need some smile-inducing, flutters-in-my-stomach pick-me-up reads.

Similar Authors
Charlaine Harris

Writing: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5


Cover discussion: 4.5 out of 5 - I absolutely love all of her covers. Love the metallic sheen of this one, even if that doesn't really look like the Will in my mind.

Margaret K. McElderry Books / Aug. 31, 2010 / Hardcover / 479pp. / $19.99

ARC from BEA.


P.S. Have you entered my giveaway to win one of two finished copies of Clockwork Angel plus some swag yet??