Book #42: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

I think I read a review of this book two years ago and it's been hanging out on my "to read" list on Goodreads ever since. I only left it on there because the original review was such a positive one, and I really trusted the reviewer and her taste, and because the cover looked so awesome, but the story itself sounded a little too fantasy-whacko for my general taste. It's a magical/sci-fi retelling of Beauty and the Beast, where Beauty has been trained her whole life to marry and then kill the Beast, who is a demon who's in control of their whole land, and once she does that, they will be free of his reign. But of course once Nyx (the Beauty's name) does marry him, he turns out to be charming and demonic all at once, and she fights against falling in love with him as she spends her time trying to defeat him and his magical, ever-changing castle.

I was really into this book for the first 9/10ths of it. I couldn't put it down and was really sold on Nyx's character and her motivations. She was bitter and angry about her family's betrayal towards her in selling her to the Beast, and she was tough and fierce in all of the situations she got put into in the castle. I liked her personality and all of her conversations with Ignifex (the Beast's pseudo-name), and the romance between the two of them was really compelling and believable. Ignifex's character was kind of snotty and charming and even vulnerable at the right times, and Nyx was smart and tough but not over-the-top like in some YA novels. And I like all of the Greek/Roman mythological characters/references that got worked into the story--it felt so interesting. But I really got lost at the end. I just didn't understand how all of the drama got resolved and why it worked out. Spoiler alert: Nyx and Ignifex basically rewrite history so that he never becomes the demon in the first place, but then she forgets all about being married to him and has a completely different life. But somehow she remembers everything and goes and finds him and gives up her soul to be with him in torment forever, and that helps to defeat the evil ones in charge? I don't know, it just didn't make sense to me and I didn't love how she amazingly remembered everything about her past life and didn't think it was weird that she had a past life and immediately knew what she had to do to get back to her demon husband. But the rest of the book was still worth the read, even if the ending was a little too abrupt and confusing.

Book #41: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

This was definitely one of my favorite books when I was young. I have read it so many times there's no point in trying to count it. But it's been a long time since I've revisited it, and after re-reading all the Harry Potter books a few weeks ago I wanted to read something equally relaxing to my mind. It was fun to read this book this time because I have read more fantasy books in the last year (thank you, Brandon Sanderson), and thought more about the genre of fantasy, so it was interesting to see how this one added up. I think Levine does a great job of creating the expectations of the world that Ella lives in. There are all sorts of magical creatures, and magical rules, and she doesn't overdo it in trying to tell you what those rules are. It falls together very naturally. The beginning of the book, when Ella's mother dies of a preventable fever, has always been heart-wrenching to me, but the romance is very sweet. It still holds up for me, even though this is a middle-grade novel and not obviously as sophisticated of a plot as even a YA novel really would be. I still like Prince Char and Ella together, and I never feel like the language or conversation is stilted (like bugs me in so many other YA romances). But maybe that's just because of my over-familiarity with this story, so I can't be a totally unbiased reader!

Anyways, this was a perfect book to read this week. It took longer to get through (seriously should only take a few hours) because I was so, so busy this week, with planning/teaching my class, planning/teaching Joy School, and getting ready for Dane's birthday. I have some other books checked out from the library that I am excited to read soon too though. I want to get back into reading more now that I think I'm about to start feeling better!

Books #34-40: The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Okay, I know this is kind of cheating to include these books AGAIN in my book list. I have read them maybe three or four times just in the four or five years I've been writing on this blog. (But of course, this blog is purely for my own benefit and I do love looking back to see what I've read and when.) I don't know how many times it's been before that--but I do know that I read the first one MAYBE 100 times in my pre-teen and teenage years. I got the urge to read through the series again after reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (surprise, surprise), which was fun to read and all but not quite the same investment and satisfaction as the full novels. And since it wasn't written by J.K. it really isn't the same thing at all. I haven't had the energy to do much serious thinking lately--I'm deep into the first trimester of pregnancy and throwing up regularly and all I've wanted to do is lie down and not move--so these books were the perfect escape for this month. And for that same reason I'm not going to go to all the work of writing a separate review for each book.

I am always blown away by how Rowling successfully builds her world. My favorite chapter in all the series is, I think, when Harry goes to Diagon Alley for the first time and sees what being a wizard is all about. The details that Rowling includes--like the ingredients in the Potions shop and the name of the ice cream shop and Harry's ride to his vault in Gringotts bank--completely suck you in and make you feel like you are walking along with Harry seeing all these mind-blowing things with him. And the great thing is that Rowling does this again and again throughout the series whenever Harry encounters a new element of the wizarding world: going to Hogwarts for the first time, visiting the Burrow, at the Quidditch World Cup, at the Ministry of Magic and the wizarding hospital. Every one of those chapters isn't essential to the plot of the story--she could suffice with some basic description and skate along to some more action. But it's so important that we can wander along with Harry, wide-eyed and amazed, and feel like we're experiencing it with him. I think that is some of the real magic of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling.

It's amazing to read these again and again and to notice new things about the series and how it develops. The first three books, for instance, are clearly of a different caliber than the last four. You can tell that Rowling is a younger, different writer, and that the overall plot hasn't been developed as fully at that point. It's really in the fourth book where the full story of the series comes to fruition, where you can see where things are going, where Rowling clearly has developed a backstory to Harry's young life and Voldemort's goals. I can see why some people (like my brothers) never made it past the first two books and didn't care to finish--the last four are much more interconnected (although I do LOVE LOVE the ending of the third book with the Time-Turner--it's AMAZING every time). I am going to try and convince my brothers to read them again and to get past the first few books--although now that the semester has started for them, it's probably futile until next summer. I truly think that you are missing out if you haven't read these. It's such a good action story, but it's so, so much bigger than that as well. Like a true fantasy story, it's about good versus evil and how one person can make choices to do good. It's emotional and it's moral and it has an satisfying climax to the series, and somehow Rowling managed to answer every question she raised in the series before she finished it. I love many, many, many books, but these are some of the ones that I can always come back to and never be disappointed by (like Pride and Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables). Thank you for helping tide me over the throes of morning sickness this time around, Harry. I'm sure I'll be back soon enough!