Hush (Hush, #1) by Dylan Farrow

In the world of Hush, ink, the suspected origin of a deadly plague, has been declared the enemy of humankind and outlawed. The keepers of the law, High House and its magical soldiers called bards, roam the world, rooting out those who break the law and rewarding those who bend to their will.

“Our history shows that vigilance and caution are tantamount to survival. Burn the ink from the page. Turn away from forbidden words, toxic tales, and deadly symbols. Cleanse the country of this malignant blight. Join us.”

Shae lost her brother to the mysterious plague early in her life and her family has been outcast from her small village since. When tragedy once again darkens her family’s doorstep, what will Shae do not only to seek justice for her brother but, potentially, the whole world?

The premise of Hush had some interesting ideas, but this debut, young adult novel suffers from wooden characters and predictable plot twists.

“The Bards arrive today.” The Bards. Suddenly I feel as though the house has been encased in ice. The town elders say there’s power in words- that certain phrases can change the world around you.”

Weakness in the character development aside, Shae is a strong protagonist who struggles to create her own reality which differs quite markedly from the reality that her small town has imagined for her. Teens might connect with her more strongly than I did, which is to say, not at all.

I’m not sure what it was. Maybe I’m suffering from YA dystopian reading burnout?

Instead of appreciating Shae for her flaws which include falling in love too quickly, trusting everybody and pushing all her friends away the moment she could really use their help, I found myself annoyed with her.

“I spent countless nights lying awake, staring at the austere wooden beams of the ceiling, trying to figure out if I was mad or cursed- or both.”

Be smarter, I thought. The odds are stacked against you, and you need to pay attention, not fall for the first stranger you meet who has a dreamy pair of eyes.

But as I said, I’m definitely not the intended audience for the book.

Here’s the author, Dylan Farrow, talking about Hush:

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy. And thank you for reading!

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry

In a world where magic is real and controlled by government authorities, H.G. Parry re-imagines true historical events and people, inviting readers to add an additional layer of conspiracy to movements that changed the course of history like the French Revolution or the slave rebellion in the Caribbean.

The premise didn’t work for me for a couple reasons.

I felt like this book minimized the atrocities that were committed during the era. The slave trade and the French Revolution’s cost in both human lives and suffering is immeasurable, and it felt somewhat flippant to take those events and say, “Well, magic,” as the main driving force behind the conflicts.

I felt the same could be said for the subtle twisting of the lives of historic figures.

“His quiet voice spoke of a country built on Enlightenment principles, whose people were virtuous, where magic was a free resource to be used for the betterment of all, where food was well distributed and plentiful, where courts were in the hands of the people and not the talons of the Aristocracy, where the poorest Commoner was free to vote and grow and be educated.” pg 155

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That is not to say that history or historic personages couldn’t or shouldn’t be in fantasy novels. It is a hallmark of the genre to take a reality, change the rules of that reality, and then tell the story with the new rules. Though if that was what the author was going for, perhaps she should have staged her story in another world or made the focus of the story characters she invented with the real people living their lives in the backgrounds.

Taking real events, real people and real world locations to drive the story didn’t coalesce into the fantasy novel I believe she was reaching for.

I think fantasy, alternative-historical fiction is something that can be done successfully, but I have yet to see its promise fulfilled. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I had the same issues with this story that I had with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

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Students of history may find themselves frustrated by A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians because of the way the true events are spun. I didn’t have any specialized knowledge of the era, but a friend who is somewhat of an expert told me the complexity of the time period is so dumbed down that he was distracted by it.

“It had seemed so simple after the fall of the Bastille. The National Assembly of Magicians had risen up, exactly as Robespierre had hoped. They had issued a proclamation declaring it the right of all citizens to be free to practice their own magic: a Declaration of the Rights of Magicians.” pg 179

Setting my concerns with fantasy clumsily applied to horrific real life events aside, my biggest issue with this book was the glacial pacing. Readers sit through meeting after meeting, and it’s incredibly dull. But with the time period we were in, it should have been gripping. I told myself that a big payoff for all of this story building was coming, as the book clocks in at over 500 pages, but I felt like it never materialized.

I don’t mind a long book. But please, tell the story.

Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It by Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield shares the applicable lessons he’s learned from a lifetime of different writing jobs. The most important one is the title of this non-fiction, self help book.

“Sometimes young writers acquire the idea from their years in school that the world is waiting to read what they’ve written. They get this idea because their teachers had to read their essays or term papers or dissertations. In the real world, no one is waiting to read what you’ve written. pg 16, ebook

Along the way, Pressfield discovered the importance of writing for yourself rather than as a ghost writer, the necessity of structuring each piece whether it is a screen play or a novel, the enduring popularity of the hero’s journey and more.

He also addresses the inner demons that may prevent fledging writers from finishing what they begin, a topic that Pressfield also discusses at length in his other book, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“I did not know that there existed inside my head an invisible, insidious, intractable, indefatigable force whose sole object was to keep me from doing my work, i.e., finishing the book I had been trying to write for seven years- and ultimately to destroy me, physically, psychologically, and spiritually. All I knew was that I couldn’t finish anything.” pg 49

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I found all of his advice helpful, and the manner in which Pressfield delivers it as both approachable and entertaining.

“The writer must know what genre he is working in and the conventions of that genre, just as the bridge builder must understand the science of foundational integrity and the means of mitigating stress on strung steel.” pg 66, ebook

He closes the book with a humorous anecdote about writing for a pornographic film. Even in that tale, Pressfield managed to teach me something about story construction and storytelling. I only mention it in case any potential reader finds such things offensive. Here’s your warning.

Highly recommended for writers at any level. Pressfield knows his stuff.

Mystical Places by Sarah Baxter, Amy Grimes

Throughout history, humankind has told each other stories. Sometimes these stories center on places that become sacred through their association to the legends that are told.

Sarah Baxter highlights 25 such locations from all over the world. Each brief chapter includes a short description of the site and the stories associated with it.

“In these pages we meet mythical kings, sacred summits, and enchanted architecture, plus a cast of elves, giants, ghosts, golems and sea creatures without which our planet might be a more logical and well-reasoned place but also less colourful and compelling.” pg 6, ebook.

I thoroughly enjoyed armchair traveling from Africa to Canada, China to Portugal, and more. This book gave me so many ideas for places I want to see when I feel comfortable boarding a plane again.

And, in the meantime, there’s always the possibility of travel-filled day dreams.

In the chapter about Cadair Idris in Wales, Baxter writes: “It’s said that on the very crown of the peak there is a long, wide platform of stone slabs that is the Bed of Idris and that whoever sleeps on that bed will suffer one of two fates: they will wake up either as the most profound poet or completely mad.” pg 18, ebook.

Worth the risk, right?

I was also taken with the descriptions of the Stone Circles of Senegambia, thousands of ancient stone monuments found in Senegal and The Gambia.

“Stories passed down the generations claim that the stones were put in place by the gods at the very dawn of time. Other legends suggest they are the gravestones of an ancient race of giants or chiefs and that a curse will fall on anyone who dares disturb them…” pg 76, ebook.

I had never heard anything about these circles, despite taking a class in ritual and religion in prehistory from Oxford. I am also fairly well-read in world mythologies yet there were surprises on almost every page.

Highly recommended for travelers, armchair or otherwise, who are seeking destinations of mystical significance or anyone who wants to learn about legends from around the world. The only trouble that may be encountered for the mystical tourist is the remoteness of some of the locations.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance reader copy of this book. The brief quotations I cited may change or be omitted entirely from the final version, which I believe is slated to be published tomorrow.

The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson

“It was so surprisingly calm that it took a few minutes before anyone in the room even noticed the way that Chris Carmichael was twitching at his desk.”

The first hint that something has gone wrong in Lucy Henderson’s town is a horrific event in her high school classroom. The violent-nature of the event triggers trauma from Lucy’s past, an emotional wound that goes so deeply into her psyche that she hasn’t begun to process it- let alone the damage it has left behind.

It doesn’t help that Lucy feels like an outcast and an outsider in her small hometown. Part of this is baggage from Lucy’s past, but the majority of it is the racism and tribalism she faces from the small-minded young adults in the community. They won’t let her forget she looks different from them and torment her with their racial hatred on a near-daily basis.

The only semblance of friendship in her life is with a young man who goes by the name of “Bucket,” for reasons that are explained in the story. (No spoilers.)

When all hell breaks loose in town, Lucy and Bucket only have each other and a few acquaintances to help in a race to save their families. The nightmare that they had been living solely in their minds becomes all too real.

“What the hell is going on in this town? Sometimes it feels like things are f*cked up in every direction, you know?”

The character and world-building of The Loop is well done in that I connected deeply with Lucy and Bucket before the story took off.

My lack of enjoyment of the book stems from the graphic nature of the violence against people and animals, both physical and mental. There are also brief instances of sexual abuse between underage teens as well as the discussions of porn with descriptions vague enough that young adults reading this book will immediately turn to Google to answer any questions they may have. There is bullying, unaddressed by the adults in the young peoples’ lives, as well as the trauma Lucy suffered at the hands of a system that should have protected her.

Which brings me to another discussion point, this is not a book for young adults. If it was television, it would carry a mature rating. The horror genre has a huge following and graphic violence is definitely a part of that. That being said, it is strange to me how cavalierly some treat depictions of absolutely horrific things.

I feel like society has become desensitized to violence in the media we mindlessly consume. Descriptions of fingers popping through eyeballs and knives cutting through flesh is delivered as a matter-of-course, part of what makes the story so scary.

I picked this title out of the myriad being published in the next months because it was compared to Stranger Things, a horror show, true, but one that leans on the psychological and paranormal scares far more than the physically violent ones. I watched that show with my young daughter. I would not let her read this book, at least until she’s 18.

I say that as a former librarian but also a mother.

All that being said, there are beautiful lines in the book that perfectly capture the agony of mental pain.

For example: “She imagined herself tilting her head back and opening her mouth to scream again, only this time her mouth kept opening and her jaw detached like a snake’s and she kept splitting until she was cleaved in two and all that came out of her was white flame.”

But I didn’t feel that the beauty of those fleeting moments made the time I spent reading the title worth it.

Recommended only for adult horror readers who can handle the triggers of violence and everything else described above.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital advance readers copy of this book. The brief quotations I cited may be changed or omitted in the final, printed version.

Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer

Creatures of Will and Temper is a historical fiction and fantasy novel that takes some of the magic contained in The Portrait of Dorian Gray and mixes it with some demons, and a pair of extraordinary sisters.

“Death is an illusion, just like anything else – like distance, for example, or time, or the separateness of one thing from another. The whole universe is only matter forming and reforming itself, endlessly, beautifully.” pg 6

The author, Molly Tanzer, builds layered characters with distinctive personalities who are a pleasure to read about. However, she takes so long doing this, that I nearly put the book down before I hit page 200 and the main story arc took off.

“Never let anyone tell you demons are unnatural things – they are perpetual, like fragile flowers that blossom anew each year, like the majestic pine that never goes brown.” pg 53

Prior to around page 200, Creatures of Will and Temper reads like a historical fiction with magical realism rather than the fantasy it actually is. The pace was incredibly slow.

But once I was over that two-thirds slump, the rest of the story (another 150 or so pages) was fantastic. I couldn’t put the book down at that point.

“We must give in to beauty, surrender ourselves to pleasure and enjoyment. We must return to hedonism, but we must also make it our own – for we are not sentimentalists, seeking to recreate an emotion time and again. It is our holy duty to create a new hedonism, a philosophy of passionate experience.” pg 170

The strength of this book is in the complex demonic world Tanzer hints at throughout. I wish she had focused on that world instead of this one! What a unique story it would have been.

As it stands, only recommended for readers who can tolerate a glacial pace on the way to a breath-taking ending.

Geek Ink: The World’s Smartest Tattoos for Rebels, Nerds, Scientists, and Intellectuals by Emanuele Pagani

Geek Ink is a fairly representative book of “geek” culture tattoos with brief biographies of some of the tattoo artists.

I have to say though, there were far more Star Wars ideas in here than Star Trek. In that particular showdown, the Trekkies were not representing. I know there are major fans of the Star Trek franchise out there… where are you guys?! Not getting tattoos, I guess.

I was also disappointed in their collection of literary tattoos. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and The Little Prince were there, of course. There were a few science fiction themes. But nothing from other beloved classics like Where the Wild Things Are, or poetry, or various mythologies beyond a few generic-looking fairy tale castles.

Are book readers not into tattoos? This one is. 🙂 I was particularly drawn to the hyper-realistic tats of plants and animals.

Recommended for people looking for tattoo ideas or who appreciate gorgeous body art. Despite my quibbles, this is a beautiful book created by incredibly talented artists, and which would look great on your coffee table.

Thanks for reading!

The Help Desk

Sharing reviews and deep thoughts about life.

Month: September 2020

Hush (Hush, #1) by Dylan Farrow

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry

Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It by Steven Pressfield

Mystical Places by Sarah Baxter, Amy Grimes

The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson

Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer

Geek Ink: The World’s Smartest Tattoos for Rebels, Nerds, Scientists, and Intellectuals by Emanuele Pagani

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