Book 57: Dorothy Must Die

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

 

I feel like in some ways I missed out or just didn't care for some of the defining childhood movies that seem to capture people's imaginations.  Alice in Wonderland scared me, and while I assume I must have seen The Wizard of Oz as a kid, it didn't leave much of an impression on me.  Four years ago, a friend of mine had a bunch of us over to watch it the night before we were all planning on seeing Wicked in Richmond, and I was surprised by just how corny it seemed.  Even for a kid's movie, it didn't seem scary or dark at all.  Despite this, I have been drawn to re-imaginings of these worlds - maybe hoping that someone else's fascination with the topics would help me appreciate them more.  While my recent venture into a Alice in Wonderland spin off was a bit of a mixed bag (great world building, lack luster heroine, horrible love interest), Dorothy Must Die was mostly a success.  Yes, there is the automatic romance that seems to come with YA, but it wasn't a triangle, and never completely took center stage.  For the most part, this story remains centered on the protagonist, and while she occasionally makes mistakes and asks dumb questions, she mostly tries her best and attempts to do the right thing.

Amy Gumm lives in a trailer park with her mom in Kansas.  After her father left them and her mom was in an accident, her mom became a drug addict, and a rather neglectful parent.  As a result, Amy finds herself alone in their trailer except for her mom's pet rat Star in the midst of tornado that rips up the trailer and takes Amy straight to Oz.  Once there, there is nothing for Amy to do but follow the Yellow Brick Road but she quickly realizes that this is nothing like the beloved movie.  The landscape seems darker, deserted and the one person she does see barely wants to interact with her.  It turns out that Dorothy came back because Kansas just wasn't that exciting anymore after being a hero in Oz.  She has become obsessed with magic, and taken over the government.

While I haven't read the Oz novels, Dorothy Must Die draws from both the film and the novels since Ozma is mentioned several times as the rightful ruler (I'd never even heard of Ozma until I saw a review of the James Franco Oz film critiquing the fact that while these novels were rather feminist novels, the movies were suddenly making the guy the main focus).  Amy becomes drawn into a plot with the Wicked, a coalition of witches dedicated to fighting Dorothy, though Amy wisely doesn't trust anyone.  She realizes there is much that she does not know, both about Oz's past and what Dorothy is doing.  Still, she can't exactly argue with the fact that Dorothy is evil, even if she has the feeling that there is much more going than she realizes.

I was quickly drawn into the story, and had a lot of fun reading it, though I have two complaints.  One is not actually about the novel but the book jacket.  The back has a list of tasks except that these things aren't even mentioned as necessary until the last two or three pages of the novel.  As a result, I kept waiting for someone to bring up those things rather than focusing purely on Dorothy's assassination.  It's just a minor complaint, and it's not even really a spoiler but it is a distraction.  My other issue was with the portrayal of Dorothy.  I thought the idea of Dorothy coming back as evil was fascinating, especially since her evil is disguised behind this guise of fake sweetness.  However, the one thing that did bug me about Dorothy's portrayal is the fact that she is portrayed as a bit of vamp.  I just would have enjoyed the portrayal of evil Dorothy more if it hadn't been so focused on her being a spoiled brat who dressed in way too revealing clothes.  Basically, why does slutty/trashy have to be evil?  Because in this case, there is definitely negative judgment involved in Dorothy's choice of style.  It's not that revealing or sexy clothes bother me but the fact that they are described in negative ways, making Dorothy appear vain and petty rather than a powerful and evil woman who managed to take over a whole kingdom.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how this series progresses.   However, I wonder if I might need to read the original kids books because I'm not sure how many of the witches and other characters were created by Paige, and how many are adaptations of characters already familiar to those that know Oz.  Considering that I've been thinking I might need to read them since I saw all the discussions of the feminism in the original series and the character of Ozma, it really might be time to do that regardless.

Book 56: Girl in Translation

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

 

Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate to New York at some not quite determined time prior to 1997, before China would regain control of Hong Kong.  Even though her mother's older sister has already lived in the US for several years and helped them with all the paperwork, they do not face an easy road.  In fact, Aunt Paula takes advantage of their family relationship, putting her younger sister to work in her sweat shop, barely paying her because she has to pay off her debt.  She finds them an apartment in a condemned building with no heat, and broken windows.  Despite the presence of family, the two Changs are basically on their own, Kim's father having died years before.

Though she had always been a top student at home, Kim struggles with English, and has a hard time in school.  It doesn't help that her teacher seems to be burnt out on the whole process and has no interest in putting in any extra work with his students.  However, Kim makes one friend at the school, which helps her develop her English.  When she isn't at school, she is at the factory with her mom because without Kim's help, there is no way she could keep up with her quota.  The Changs are not the only family that have to work together at the sweat shop to make ends meet, and Kim becomes friendly with one of the boys, Matt.

Fortunately, Kim's skills in math translate even in English, and she quickly uses this to get better opportunities and attend a better school.  The novel documents her struggle to fit in at a school with privileged children and keep up with the course load while also basically working a full time job.  While I think the novel did a good job of describing the difficult life Kim and her mother faced, and the conditions they lived and worked in, in some ways, it seemed like Kim overcame all her obstacles more easily than seemed reasonable.  Despite the fact that she barely has time to sleep between all her obligations, at no point does Kim crash or seem to have any struggles staying awake.  She worked hard, so it's not as if she didn't earn it, and yet, it seemed impossible for her to actually balance everything.  Still, once everything in her life seems on track, she has a few more problems thrown her way.

While it's not a perfect novel, I quite enjoyed it, and thought the comparisons between Kim's situation and the lives of her classmates were well drawn.  I think maybe I'm just being a bit nit picky with my complaints as well because the novel does really attempt to show their struggles, and points out instances when Kim gets lucky opportunities.  Overall, I'd definitely recommend it, and I wished I'd actually picked it up earlier.  I think one reason I kept holding off is because I felt like I would easily be able to predict the entire storyline and ending.  While in some ways this was the case, Kwok drew such a detailed picture of poverty and the sweat shops that this more than made up for any reoccurring themes from other immigrant stories. 

Book 55: Son of a Gun

Son of a Gun by Justin St. Germain

 

Winner of the Barnes and Noble First Time Authors award, this book is also responsible for MsWas taking a small break from running the CBR long enough to write a review.  With those two marks in its favor, it was only a matter of time until I read this, and since it also helps me fulfill a requirement for one of my many reading challenges, this seemed like the perfect time.

 

Unfortunately, while I thought book was strongly written, it didn't move me nearly as much.  Justin St. Germain wrote this book over a decade after his mother's murder.  While he was in college in Tucson, AZ, his stepfather Ray shot and killed his mother in their trailer near Tombstone before disappearing.  A few months later, Ray's body was found, having committed suicide.  The book chronicles Germain's attempts at coming to terms with his mother's death, and her life.  Debbie had a history of failed relationships, though not all of them were abusive.  In fact, most people thought of Ray, her fifth husband, as a good guy, and were surprised by his actions.  Since Ray and Debbie are both dead, there are no answers as to what specifically happened that day in 2001.  Instead, one gets the idea that this is an opportunity for Germain to learn more about his mother's life and the woman he remembers.

While he discusses meeting with two different men that his mother had dated in her past, one of whom had been abusive, none of these really give him clearer understanding of the past.  Debbie comes off as as a strong, capable woman who also picked the wrong men.  After her failed first marriage left her with two sons, she chose to try her luck out west, feeling drawn to Arizona ever since an earlier trip there.  At various points, Germain describes his mother as a successful business woman, while also referring to their life style as white trash.  I thought it was fascinating how both could be true.  She had several successful business ventures, but one gets the idea she would move on out of boredom or due to the next relationship, and by the time she was married to Ray, she occasionally mentions financial issues to her sons.

I think this book is probably a very honest look into the grief process and how humans reconcile the past, but it was not really the type of thing I'm usually drawn to.  Since the author was already in his late teens when his mother died, he already knew his mother.  I'm sure a lot of the things he mentions in the book were things he discovered during his research, but it didn't seem like that with few exceptions.  I think I would have preferred if he'd really talked about the things he learned as he went back and the way people saw his mother, but it felt more like a regular biography of her life intermixed with the history of Tombstone and Wyatt Earp.  Basically, I feel bad because I feel like not liking this more is a judgment of Debbie or Justin St. Germain, but I just didn't find myself that involved with this book.

A to Z Survey

I saw this fun bookish survey over at Roof Beam Reader the other day, and he originally got it from The Perpetual Page Turner.

Author you’ve read the most books from:

Stephen King.  I've been reading him for around twenty years now, and he may not be my favorite author ever, but the man is prolific.

Best Sequel Ever:

Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher is my favorite book in The Codex Alera and one of the best second books in a series.  I also enjoyed Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende which was loosely related to her novel The House of Spirits.

Currently Reading:

I actually just finished a book and can't decide what to read next.  The smart choice would be to do my homework ...

Drink of Choice While Reading:

Water, usually.  Sometimes tea or hot chocolate if it's cold.

E-reader or Physical Book?

Physical book, no question.  I have a Kindle, and only use it on long vacations.

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School:

Jon Snow.  I have no idea.  Maybe someone like Lucas from Women of the Otherworld.

Glad You Gave This Book A Chance:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  I wanted to read it, then I was turned off by the hype, and then I finally read and loved it a year later.

Hidden Gem Book:

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell.  I'm not sure if this is really a hidden gem because she isn't exactly an unknown author, but I think this is the novel of hers that gets the least mentions.

Important Moment in your Reading Life:

This one is hard because I don't feel like there is one defining moment.  I've always been a reader.  However, when Pajiba started the Cannonball Read, it was definitely influential in connecting me with other readers.

Just Finished:

Kinds of Books You Won’t Read:

Christian fiction, except for that time I bought what I thought was chick lit only to discover it wasn't.  Really, anything too religious.  Generally, avoid self-help type things, or anything along the lines of "Habits of Successful People."

Longest Book You’ve Read:

War and Peace.

Major book hangover because of:

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Number of Bookcases You Own:

5, 2 of which are short.  The stacks of books I have on the floor would probably fill one or two more (I only put books on the shelf once they are read; TBR books remain in a stack on the floor.)

One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Preferred Place To Read:

At home, or coffee shop.  Unfortunately, only one Starbucks in the area still has the nice cushy chairs.  The others have a small area with table and chairs because they have the drive thru.

Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you’ve read:

There are two from The Book Thief that just get me.

"I am haunted by humans."

"I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."

Reading Regret:

I feel like I should read more classics, but I don't think it's quite a regret.

Series You Started And Need To Finish(all books are out in series):

Harry Hole novels.  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series.

Three of your All-Time Favorite Books:

East of Eden by John Steinbeck, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Unapologetic Fangirl For:

Dennis Lehane, George R.R. Martin, Jim Butcher, Isabel Allende, Laini Taylor

Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others:

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Worst Bookish Habit:

Buying hardcovers and not getting around to them until they've been released as paperbacks; binging on new authors instead of pacing them out; falling way behind on reviews.

X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book:

I can't do this right now, because my bookshelves and books have been packed up and are currently in storage.  :(

Your latest book purchase:

The last books I bought for myself included Snow, Boy, Bird and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.  My most recent actual purchase were some kids books for a friend's niece and nephew, including If I Had a Raptor.  I also preordered three upcoming releases a few months back, and the first of those shipped this week - Skin Game, the newest Harry Dresden, but since I'm moving I don't physically have it, it's at my parents' address.  So whichever one of those you want to count.

ZZZ-snatcher book (last book that kept you up WAY late):

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor.  The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black would have if I hadn't started it early in the day.  However, I did keep pushing off starting my paper because of that novel.

If anyone else decides to do this, please leave me a comment so I can check out your answers!

8 Years

Since I went the traditional high school/college route, the end of May always marks the date of my college graduation, my commissioning into the Army, my active duty date, or the day I actually started my Army career, and the beginning of my blog (since I neglected to check, I've missed the actual blog-iversary by a week).  I've been on the summer PCS cycle for my last few change of duty stations, so it's also usually a time when I'm starting to get ready to leave and say goodbye to places and friends. It's even more so this year.  My last few report dates have been early August, which means that once leave is accounted for, I generally find myself leaving around the beginning of July.  This year, my report date is a bit earlier, so everything has been pushed up about a month.  Even though I have known I would be moving in the summer since last fall, in many ways this seems like one of my quickest moves.  I think this is mostly due to the fact that things don't really seem real to me until I have my orders so even though I've known since early April that I would be arriving at my next location in July, I've had my orders for only two weeks.

 

I originally started my blog as a way to keep up with friends and family as embarked on my Army career.  At that point, I was still very uncertain and hesitant about the whole Army thing, and thought of it as a temporary situation.  Once I arrived at my first duty station, I realized the need to more closely monitor what I said, especially given the fact that Soldiers I was responsible for could have stumbled upon some of my comments.  I totally was thinking that even before I realized that my blog wasn't quite as anonymous as I thought, and I was called into the battalion commander's office ... Oops.  As a result, the blog slowly shifted from a very narrow personal blog about my first few months in the Army to a place where I would occasionally discuss travel and books.  I was already on the way to becoming a book blogger when Pajiba started up the Cannonball Read program, thus giving me a community to participate in.  I am not sure if I would still be blogging if it hadn't been for CBR (not even my parents read my book reviews - my dad gets bored), and in recent years, I've also tried to get more involved with other book sites.  However, I'm still a somewhat inconsistent blogger, even after eight years.  Maybe one of these days I'll actually get around to having some type of blogging schedule or weekly scheduled programming.

 

Rereading some of my older posts, it is so surprising how clueless I was on occasion about the military and life in general.  I mean, I really thought it would be easy get a PhD and get an actual well paying position as an English professor if I got out of the Army ...  In the last eight years, I've been to three duty stations, various Army schools, two deployments to Iraq and am about to go to my next assignment, and deploy to Afghanistan.  I'm a third of the way done with an online masters program, have a Siamese cat, have traveled to various countries (mostly in Europe, but also Thailand!), and have made various friends, even meeting a few people I'd only known through Pajiba or, more specifically, Cannonball Read (hey Dene and Malin!).  I definitely am not where I would have pictured myself eight years ago, but I've also done many things I never would have imagined, and think so far things are working in my favor.  Hopefully, everything works out for me even as the Army downsizes its forces!

Fortunately, my household goods have all been picked up, so the biggest part of the move is done!  Now I just have a few small, but important things to take care of, but can enjoy my last few days in town before heading out.

Book 54: Every Which Way But Dead

Every Which Way But Dead (The Hollows, Book 3) by Kim Harrison

 

While the previous two novels have been rather similar to most series, focusing on one major case each, the third novel in the series is less concerned with a case of the week, and instead takes a look at the fall out from the last novel.

 

At the end of the last novel, Rachel knew had taken down Piscary, the vampire lord of the crimeworld, made a deal with a demon to serve as his familiar in exchange for his testimony, and accidentally made Nick her familiar, leading to a rift in their relationship.  Ivy had been forced to give in to her bloodlust with Piscary, and Rachel had found out there was a connection between her father and Trent Kalamack's father.  Every Which Way But Dead kicks off three months later after Piscary has been sentenced to 500 years in jail.  It is time for the demon, "Big Al," to collect his debt, and Rachel manages to find a way to both follow the terms of the contract but escape being dragged to the underworld.  Al shows up throughout the rest of the novel as Rachel must find a way to permanently escape him or find an arrangement that will work for both of them.  It helps that he left his last familiar behind, an elf that was bound to him for a millenium, and Ceri is more than happy to help Rachel.  Ivy is continuing to drink blood though she refuses to step in and serve as Piscary's scion.  Even though Kisten, to whom Rachel has a bit of an attraction, tries to step in, there is an obvious power void in Cincinnati and a mysterious Saladan is starting to take over some turf.  Not only is he going after the vampire's powerholds, he is also intefering with Trent's business.  Meanwhile, Nick decides he needs some time away, still not dealing with Rachel's pull of power through him very well and skips town.

 

While I am enjoying the series, I go back and forth on Rachel.  She is impulsive, can clearly look out for herself but is somewhat lacking in judgment.  She appears to sometimes veer too strictly to the idea of "illegal means it's bad" (kind of reminds me of psych class and Kohlberg's stages of moral development; I see Rachel as still being that adolescent mind set) as can be seen with how she reacts to Trent and his genetic research (yes, alternate universe and history so genetic/bio research led to some bad things but how else are you going to treat diseases?).  She also seems to have issues dressing herself - though this has been jokingly mentioned in the previous novels, in this one, her date actually picks out her clothes for her because her idea of nice wouldn't work for the local at all (she even admits later that she would have looked like an escort).  I also am not a huge fan of her taste in men.  I mean, I prefer her re-bound guy to Nick, but I still don't get why she was even into Nick, especially since she keeps referring to him as a nice guy.  To everyone else reading the series, Nick is obviously shady so while he may be a nice person to her, he still isn't a safe bet.  I was so happy when he skipped town.

 

Overall, it was a fun novel, and this is one of the few times I will say that the lack of a central plot worked for a series.  I know some of the Stackhouse novels got to the point where they just felt like cameos from characters mixed with Sookie doing random things, but I think in this case, it does a good job of tying up questions from previous novels, and setting the stage for things to come.  In fact, it even explains why the werewolves were so protective of the fish Rachel stole in the previous novel.  Basically, a well done transition with just enough action to be interesting while also developing characters and their changing roles in the greater picture.

Book 53: The Good, the Bad and the Undead

The Good, the Bad and the Undead by Kim Harrison

 

The second book in The Hollows series continues to follow the adventures of Rachel Morgan.  At this point, Rachel reminds me a quite a bit of Harry Dresden as she is continuously just barely getting herself out of scrapes, and very good at making enemies.  Also, as this novel shows, there is clearly something about her own history and family background that she doesn't know.  It was already established in the previous novel that her dad died mysteriously, and this one throws out a few more small clues about things he may have been involved with.

 

Given the title, it probably isn't a surprise that vampires play a large role.  Ivy's struggles to maintain her humanity and not give into her vampire side continue in this novel, and actually get worse as living with Rachel takes its toll.  Rachel also finally meets Piscary, famous old vampire, restaurant owner and relative of Ivy.  Nick and Rachel have been dating since the last novel, but Rachel is surprised to discover three months in that Nick has continued to summon the demon that attacked them in Dead Witch Walking.  He basically thinks he has it figured out, and never gives the demon any important information.  Rachel sees the world in a very black and white way, so she is less than happy about this arrangement, though she continues to happily date Nick.  I think it is only the reader (and all of Rachel's friends) that have any issues or doubts about the character.

 

The case of the week in this novel surrounds the deaths of various ley line witches.  The only link between them that the police (or what counts as police in this world) have found is that they all had the same professor, a woman that once kicked Rachel out of her class, telling her she was inept.  Rachel has spent the last two novels explaining that she is an earth witch, believing that ley lines make the lines too blurry, but her connection in FIB, Edden, enrolls her in the class to get closer to the professor.

 

For the most part, I had fun while reading this but Rachel's ability to jump to conclusions and not follow directions was irritating.  Her first suspect in the murders is Trent Kalamack, and she remains completely fixed on this notion despite lack of evidence.  While in a lot of these types of novels, the characters sometimes have hunches that go against the evidence, usually there is some type of real justification to them.  I have a hard time following Rachel in her hunches because I think she's obsessed and jumps easily jumps to the wrong conclusions.  In fact, it is sometimes surprising why her partners are all so supportive of her.  However, the series is immensly readable and I can't help but want to know what happens next.  At least Rachel does tend to at least start to redeem herself or pull back just when I find myself becoming incredibly annoyed with her actions.  I've also heard from Malin that is mainly in the first few books that Rachel has a tendency to be a bit stupid.  I'm starting to realize that I thought the character was older than she actually is - though she worked for the IS for seven years and has mentioned taking college classes, she is only 25 rather than the late twenties I had originally assumed, and four years can still make quite a difference in maturity and personality at that point.