Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning. Unabridged e-audiobook, 550 minutes. Read by Billie Fulford-Brown. Katherine Tegan Books/ HarperAudio/ HarperCollins Publishers, July, 2018. 978

Teen Tuesday features Sea Witch by Sarah Henning. While I love a good fairy tale retelling, I especially love a good villain origin story. The very first one I remember is The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli, which explores the origin of the witch in Hansel and Gretel. More recently, I was captivated by Heartless by Marissa Meyer, which tells the story of the Queen of Hearts from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I cannot wait to read Gilded by Ms. Meyer as well.

Evie lives in Havnestad, a kingdom by the sea in Denmark with her fisherman father and elderly aunt. Magic and witchcraft are forbidden. Evie's aunt is a healer, rumored to be a witch, but left alone because she once saved the king's life. Evie is best friends with the king's son, Prince Nik and Anna. Evie has been an outcast ever since Anna's death by drowning three or four years earlier. Nik managed to save Evie but not Anna and Evie feels tremendous guilt over that. The townspeople whisper about the unseemly friendship between Nik and Evie, especially as Nik is about to come of age. Nik doesn't care and invites Evie to attend his birthday party on his father's new ship. Evie sees a face looking in a port hole that looks like Anna, but it's gone before Evie can take a closer look. A sudden storm blows in and Nik is swept overboard. Evie and Nik's cousin, Iker search frantically for Nik and Evie finds him washed ashore and alive, but not alone. It seems a girl has saved Evie's best friend, but then she disappears into the ocean.

The pace is quite leisurely in the beginning, which might deter readers who like action earlier. Evie is a conflicted narrator prone to dismissing herself as just a poor fisherman's daughter so much so that it became annoying. Still, the dynamics between Evie and the two princely cousins was cute and the mystery of Annamette was intriguing. Once all the pieces begin to click into place, the pace quickens to dizzying and the reader is left breathless at its conclusion.

The new-to-me narrator had a wide array of voices and was well-suited to the material. I'm interested in reading the companion, Rise of the Sea Witch soon. 

Teen Tuesday: Long Way Down: a graphic novel by Jason Reynolds

Image: Simon & Schuster

Long Way Down: a graphic novel by Jason Reynolds. Illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff. 208 pl Atheneum/ Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/ Simon & Schuster, October, 2020. 9781534444959. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Teen Tuesday features Long Way Down: a graphic novel by Jason Reynolds. Illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff. I didn't think that Mr. Reynolds' stunning novel in verse needed adaptation. The imagery painted by the poet's words is vivid. I was wrong. 

Ms. Novgoroff's watercolors are simply stunning. The palette veers toward blues and greys with judicious pops of color. I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Will's older brother, Shawn has been shot and killed. Will knows the rules though - no crying, no snitching and get revenge. So, even though he has never held a gun, he retrieves his brother's gun from its hiding place and takes the elevator down to the lobby of his building intent on finding the dude he "knows" killed his brother and killing him. Only the elevator stops at each floor and the impossible happens. 

The entire novel takes place in the time an elevator travels from the seventh floor to the first. This is a graphic novel that is not to be missed, even if you've already read the original. The panels and illustrations beg to be lingered over. Long Way Down: a graphic novel is an absolute first-purchase.

Teen Tuesday: The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie

Image: Penguin Random House

The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~9 hours. Read by Sophie Amoss. Listening Library, March, 2019. 9781984837929. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library. Arc courtesy of publisher.)

Poe Blythe is bent on revenge. The eighteen-year-old is about to captain a ship that she designed. Two years earlier, her best friend, Call was murdered while they were crew on a ship that was dredging gold. The ship was stolen by the Raiders. Poe vowed to take revenge on the Raiders by designing an impregnable ship. That was the only thing that kept her alive these past two years and now she gets to take the ship on its last dredging mission. She has been assigned a crew by the Admiral. But can she trust them? Can she trust the Admiral? And, what of the Council, who are divided in their loyalty to Poe.

This dystopian unfolds slowly. Poe is aloof and difficult to know and so her first-person narration is guarded. Is she an unreliable narrator?  The world seems dangerous and forbidding and hopeless. People are desperate and vicious. This steampunk/ sci-fi/ dystopian is dark and unsettling. The narrator's terse, succinct delivery underscores Poe's detached demeanor effectively. 

If you're a fan of the dystopian genre, this book is for you. The patience needed in the beginning pays off as pieces start falling into place. Recommended!

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: The Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

The Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor. Unabridged e-audiobook. ~14 hours. Read by Steve West. Ashland/ Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2018. 9781549147319. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library. Own hardcover.)

Teen Tuesday features Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor. This is book two of the duology that began with Strange the Dreamer. Teen readers absolutely must have read Strange the Dreamer to understand and appreciate Muse of Nightmares. Taylor's books are not for the faint of heart. They are long, layered and complex, feature intriguing otherworldly and human characters, gods and monsters, intricate worldbuilding, some humor, romance and a good deal of violence.

Muse of Nightmares picked up immediately after Stranger the Dreamer's breathtaking conclusion. Spoiler alert: Sarai is a ghost. Lazlo is a god. Minya is the only thing tethering Sarai to this world. She wants Lazlo to destroy Weep and do her bidding. If Lazlo does not, he loses Sarai. If he does, he loses everything. It is truly a no-win situation for all. 

Steve West's growly performance transported me right back to the citadel and all its mysteries. Some were unfolded near the end of Strange the Dreamer, others unfolded in book two and confused until it all came together in a rather stunning climax. I'm becoming a fan of duologies. I like getting to know characters and don't mind a cliffhanger if I know it'll all be resolved in the next book. Series that go on and on with cliffhanger after cliffhanger tend to lose steam and the cliffhanger no longer has the intensity it once had. Instead, it induces eye rolls and a grudging acceptance.*

West's pace was almost leisurely and he handles the many distinct voices seamlessly making the fourteen-plus hours of listening fly. 

I highly recommend both books for your mature readers of fantasy. I'm in a middle school and have them on my eighth grade only shelf. It's a rare younger teen with the stamina and maturity to tackle such books, but I do happily have a few and am happy to have Laini Taylor's books to hand to them. 

*Last summer I read a book with my ears that I thought was the end of the series. As I approached the final disc, I realized that a lot of action was still happening and there was very little time for resolution. I sighed and sort of switched to auto-pilot listening through the last disc in resignation as I prepared to cliff hang for the next and hopefully final installment. 

Teen Tuesday: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. 304 p. Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/ Atheneum Books for Young Readers, October 17, 2017. 9781481438254.

Teen Tuesday wishes Jason Reynolds' Long Way Down a happy book birthday! Reynolds burst on the scene a few years ago with When I was the Greatest and seven of his eight books have won multiple awards. Long Way Down was named on the National Book Award Longlist before it was even published. 

This powerful blank verse novel takes place in the time it takes to ride an elevator from the seventh to first floors of Will's apartment building. His brother, Shawn has been murdered and Will is following the rules of his neighborhood - don't cry, don't snitch, get revenge. As the elevator stops at each floor, time and reality bend as Will is joined by family and friends who were victims of gun violence and "the rules."

Click here for my full review of the arc. I can't wait to get a finished copy to add to my library collection!

Arc review: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. 304 p. Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/ Atheneum Books for Young Readers, October 17, 2017. 9781481438254. (Review from arc courtesy of publisher.)

Will lives on the seventh floor of an apartment building where he shares a bedroom with his brother, Shawn. Make that shared a bedroom. Shawn has been murdered. Gunned down in the street while he was running an errand for his mother. Shawn has been killed as revenge for his killing of another and now it's Will's turn to step up. His turn to avenge Shawn's killing. Because there are just three rules in Will's world: 1. No crying. 2. No Snitching and 3. Take revenge.

Will knows where Shawn's gun is. He knows what he has to do. It should be a short elevator ride down from the seventh floor, but it stops at every floor. This would be annoying except that Will simply cannot believe who gets on at each floor. 

First, let me rave about that cover. THAT COVER! It's brilliant! I love it. Next, the design! The spattered pages, the elevator gates bookending the book, the chapter breaks. All ingenious! 

Now, the story. Intense. Gripping. Gritty. The language? The imagery? Gorgeous. 
     
   How do you small-talk your father
     when "dad" is a language so foreign
     that whenever yo try to say it,
     it feels like you got a third lip
     and a second tongue? (p. 205)

Reynolds' many fans will be tripping over each other to grab this title. Give it to your readers who want an intense, emotional read, readers who enjoy verse novels and readers who want to think. It is small wonder that Long Way Down was chosen for the NBA longlist. Expect to see it on all the year-end "Best" lists. Long Way Down is not to be missed.