13 Little Blue Envelopes, Maureen Johnson

As a rule, Ginny Blackstone tried to go unnoticed - something that was more or less impossible with thirty pounds (she'd weighed it) of purple-and-green backpack hanging from her back.

"Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1,000 and instructions to buy a plane ticket. In envelope 2 are directions to a specific London flat. The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist. Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/ bloke–about–town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous–though utterly romantic–results. But will she ever see him again Everything about Ginny will change this summer, and it's all because of the 13 little blue envelopes."

This is the first book by Maureen Johnson that I've read besides her story in Let it Snow. I wanted to read it because she's a good friend of John Green, and I love John Green's books. This was the book of her's that I picked up. I did really like it, although parts of it unsettled me. For example, Ginny's complete lack of experience with the London subway system. That was a bit jarring. I mean, she does live in New York; surely she should know how to get on and off a subway.

Something that other reviewers have commented on is that Ginny's parents let her go to Europe by herself (she's never traveled by herself before), on the cryptic directions of a notoriously irresponsible aunt who they thought was dead. It's very smart of them. Not. Also, Ginny isn't even allowed to bring a cell phone or any other electronic device. She's not allowed to communicate with her parents in any way. It's true that her parents are somewhat reluctant to let her go, but one would think (and hope) that they'd put up a bit more of a fuss. I understand that it's all about "the spirit of adventure" and all that, but a little caution never hurt. Plus, Ginny has had no experience whatsoever, and they just send her off to Europe. It didn't seem realistic at all. What also didn't seem realistic was that Ginny was so confused. One would think that she would have a bit more sense than displayed in the beginning of 13 Little Blue Envelopes. 

I did really like the writing; although somewhat disjointed, it was funny and compelling, and it kind of matched Johnson's odd, dead-serious in a funny way sort of style that I've seen on Vlogbrothers before. She acts as if what she's saying is really important and solemn, when in reality it's kind of absurd. There wasn't a whole lot of that in 13 Little Blue Envelopes, but I could definitely see that the author was Maureen Johnson. 

I really did not like the artist that Ginny chose to sponsor, who, predictably, becomes the love interest. His show seemed terrible, and not in a funny way. Just downright terrible. However, I did like the romance that developed between them; it was well-written and sweet. 

One thing I didn't understand was why Ginny wasn't more curious about whether her aunt was actually dead, or why her aunt had decided to bring her to London. I guess she's more of the mellow, it-will-work-out-eventually type. Still, I know I would have been asking a lot more questions than Ginny was in that situation. It was kind of annoying how placid she was. Still, that was a fairly minor criticism. 

I loved the descriptions of the various European cities that Ginny visited; although the construct felt somewhat false, Maureen Johnson followed through on it very well. 13 Little Blue Envelopes was overall absorbing and compelling. 

317 pages. 

Rating: ****

Fire Study, Maria V. Snyder

"That's pathetic, Yelena," Dax complained. "An all-powerful Soulfinder who isn't all-powerful. Where's the fun in that?" He threw up his long thin arms in mock frustration. 

"When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder—able to capture and release souls—spreads like wildfire, people grow uneasy. Already Yelena's unusual abilities and past have set her apart. As the Council debates Yelena's fate, she receives a disturbing message: a plot is rising against her homeland, led by a murderous sorcerer she has defeated before.... Honor sets Yelena on a path that will test the limits of her skills, and the hope of reuniting with her beloved spurs her onward. Her journey is fraught with allies, enemies, lovers and would-be assassins, each of questionable loyalty. Yelena will have but one chance to prove herself—and save the land she holds dear."

These books get progressively less good. I loved Poison Study and Magic Study to a lesser extent, but Fire Study was just okay. It didn't end up being terrible, but it wasn't good either. 

There were many things that bothered me about the second and third books of the series. I really don't like the character of Moon Man; he feels cliched and he's just annoying with his deliberate vagueness. And his name; Moon Man. Really? I feel like the author could have done better than that. The magic in general in Sitia just isn't convincing at all; it doesn't make sense, and it doesn't follow its own rules most of the time. I've never really connected with that aspect, another reason why Poison Study is my favorite of the three. There's magic, but the author doesn't really attempt to explain it. When she does, it all falls apart. 

I've got to say, the beginning of Fire Study was just terrible. The writing was different from the first two books, and the action just started without much explanation. The plot was so weak and shaky; the sub-plot with Ferde just annoys me. Yelena is training, and then all of the sudden she has to go visit Moon Man and go on a dangerous mission. None of it made sense, and the book got off to a discombobulated start. There were so many threads to the story, and the author didn't weave them together well at all. Roze Featherstone, First Magician, also seemed way too evil to be realistic. 

Also, both Poison Study and Magic Study were really suspenseful. Not so with Fire Study. After about 80 pages, I really didn't care about any of it. With the first two books, I couldn't put them down. With Fire Study, that's all I wanted to do. But I stuck with it. 

The writing was just awful for much of the book; the language also sounded way too modern, with modern expressions and modern swear words. This is a fantasy world, not 21st century America. The dialogue sounded like the real world. 

The names of some of the newer characters were also just ridiculous. What happened to normal-sounding names? Instead we have names like Tauno. That was just annoying. Nothing about Fire Study's first 200 pages was convincing or compelling. I noticed that there was praise for Poison Study on the paperback edition, but none of Fire Study. That's probably because most reviewers didn't like it. I only think the book was published because Poison Study was a success, and Mira wanted the series to be finished. No publisher would ever have accepted the terrible prose that is Fire Study. 

Then Valek showed up. And things got much, much better. The writing improved a lot too; apparently the author only writes well when the best character is around. Suddenly, the plot seemed more cohesive and the characters and the world were more convincing. It almost made up for the terribleness that was the first half. Almost. 

Like The Candymakers, this is one of those books that I'm not sure what rating to give to. My thinking at about 190 pages was 1 star, but overall, it really wasn't that bad. It could have been much, much better, but the book could have continued in the same vein the whole way through and been terrible. It ultimately wasn't terrible, and if you want to see the series wrapped up, then you could consider reading Fire Study. It gets 2 stars. I'll definitely be considering reading some of the author's other fantasy series. 

441 pages. 

Rating: **

The Other Typist, Suzanne Rindell

They said the typewriter would unsex us.

"Rose Baker seals men’s fates. With a few strokes of the keys that sit before her, she can send a person away for life in prison. A typist in a New York City Police Department precinct, Rose is like a high priestess. Confessions are her job. It is 1923, and while she may hear every detail about shootings, knifings, and murders, as soon as she leaves the interrogation room she is once again the weaker sex, best suited for filing and making coffee. This is a new era for women, and New York is a confusing place for Rose. Gone are the Victorian standards of what is acceptable. All around her women bob their hair, they smoke, they go to speakeasies. Yet prudish Rose is stuck in the fading light of yesteryear, searching for the nurturing companionship that eluded her childhood. When glamorous Odalie, a new girl, joins the typing pool, despite her best intentions Rose falls under Odalie’s spell. As the two women navigate between the sparkling underworld of speakeasies by night and their work at the station by day, Rose is drawn fully into Odalie’s high-stakes world. And soon her fascination with Odalie turns into an obsession from which she may never recover."

It seems to me that The Other Typist had Gatsbyian ambitions: it's set in the 20's, and is the story of a startlingly new and different person with a troubled past who comes into the narrator's life and shakes it up dramatically. Rose will never be the same again, and she writes reflectively, like Nick Carraway. Of course, The Other Typist is not on the same league. It was a pretty good novel though. I wasn't incredibly interested in the story, but it kept me entertained pretty well throughout. 

The writing and the premise were both pretty good, and it was followed through well too. I loved the narration and the language, and the 20's is certainly a period I'm interested in. It was much, much better than The Diviners and Silhouette of a Sparrow, the other non-classic works set in that period that I've read recently. 

I enjoyed the two main characters and how the relationship between them was portrayed. Rose herself is kind of vain about her intelligence; she boasts about her typing skills and her observational skills quite frequently. But she's also a pretty compelling character. 

The narrative is told in retrospective as I mentioned. Rose keeps dropping hints about what her current situation is. I won't give anything away, but it is kind of infuriating. The reader picks up these little things about how her life has been changed by Odalie, and possibly ruined forever. 

The typist is one of those fairly obsolete jobs which tend to get forgotten. But Rose and the other typists must hear first-hand about all sorts of gruesome crimes, which would normally not reach the "delicate" ears of ladies. The 1920's is also a very popular time to set female fiction because there were two modes of existence clashing head-to-head; the Victorian, prudish standard, and the new flapper era, in which women were allowed to be much more loose. Odalie belongs to the latter class, Rose more to the former (although she's not as bad as other characters). 

The Other Typist proceeds at a slow pace, but once I got into it, I found it fairly compelling. Rose's narration was interesting and infuriating with all of her references to the present, and Odalie was certainly a fascinating character full of contradictions. I didn't trust her at all, and as the book progressed, I disliked her more and more, but I did want to find out more about her. Odalie was basically a manipulator. I also kept wanting Rose to be a little less trusting. She is uneasy, to be sure, but she goes along with practically everything Odalie suggests. Odalie is just that charismatic. I do think the author could have chosen a better name than Odalie. It's hardly what one would expect for someone as glamorous as the character is. 

There wasn't too much description, but just enough to bring to life the lush world of the 1920's, full of speakeasies and daring women. The Other Typist is a novel edged with unease, and I would definitely recommend it. 

Disclosure: I received a review copy from Putnam. 

354 pages. 

Rating: ****

The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle, Christopher Healy

Frederic wasn't always helpless. Sure, he'd spent most of his life having his servants cut the crusts off his toast, and he once fainted after merely thinking he had a splinter in his finger (it was really a biscotti crumb). But then he joined the League of Princes and managed to hold his own against bandits, giants, trolls, and witches. 

"Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You remember them, don't you? They're the Princes Charming who finally got some credit after they stepped out of the shadows of their princesses - Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Briar Rose - to defeat an evil witch bent on destroying all their kingdoms.  But alas, such fame and recognition only last so long. And when the princes discover that an object of great power might fall into any number of wrong hands, they are going to have to once again band together to stop it from happening - even if no one will ever know it was they who did it.  Christopher Healy, author of the acclaimed The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, takes us back to the hilariously fractured fairy-tale world he created for another tale of medieval mischief. Magical gemstones, bladejaw eels, a mysterious Gray Phantom, and two maniacal warlords bent on world domination - it's all in a day's work for the League of Princes."

The sequel to The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kindom isn't quite as good, but it's still entertaining. It's been a year since the events of the first book, and the adventures start happening very quickly when Liam is kidnapped on the orders of Briar Rose, who wants to force him to marry her. The League of Princes has been separated for a while, but now they come back together to try and rescue Liam and foil Briar Rose's other plots

MG books no longer have the same charm that they had for me a year or even half a year ago. They feel simplistic and forced sometimes. I still managed to enjoy this fantasy novel, but that was probably the main reason why I liked it less. 

My two favorite characters in this book are definitely Liam and Ella; they're the most amazing. However, Duncan and Frederic are the most funny. Liam and Ella are the most normal of the characters; they have their insecurities also, but they for the most part don't do any strange things. Duncan likes to name animals randomly, Frederic can't stand to get dirty, and Gustav has anger management issues. And Briar Rose is just evil. However, in The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle, Briar's character is developed a bit more. She's still not a nice princess, but one sees different sides of her. She's not as bad as some of the other characters, that's for sure. 

This book wasn't quite as funny as the first one, but it definitely was amusing. I loved how throughout the book, Gustav would accidentally make puns and not realize it. Also, at one point there were clams in the book, which got me laughing. <inside joke alert> The League of Princes make for an eccentric team, and it's really funny to read about them. 

The criticism I had of this one was that the middle section was somewhat slow, where they were all planning how to storm the castle. Nothing much happened, and the book did really drag. Part II: Uncovering the Plot was just way too long. I did think the mystery was interesting.

The other criticism I have of this series is that it just doesn't seem realistic. The setting is a realm of fantasy kingdoms, yet many of them use modern language and modern expressions. Everyone still rides on horses though. I think the world-building could be a lot better; there are a whole bunch of kingdoms that aren't even talked about, which presumably have their own stories. Maybe later books will explore that; not sure how many there are projected to be. 

I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much, but it was still funny. 

477 pages. 

Rating: 3.5 stars. 

This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Amory Blaine inherited from his mother every trait, except the stray inexpressible few, that made him worth while. 

"This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald's romantic and witty first novel, was written when the author was only twenty-three years old. This semi-autobiographical story of the handsome, indulged, and idealistic Princeton student Amory Blaine received critical raves and catapulted Fitzgerald to instant fame. Now, readers can enjoy the newly edited, authorized version of this early classic of the Jazz Age, based on Fitzgerald's original manuscript. In this definitive text, This Side of Paradise captures the rhythms and romance of Fitzgerald's youth and offers a poignant portrait of the 'Lost Generation.'"

I was planning of Fitzgerald's novels to read The Beautiful and the Damned next, but I found This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald's first novel, in a book store, and read that instead. There was a lot of criticism of This Side of Paradise when it first came out, and it's definitely a strange book, very different from The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night. But I think I liked it more than Tender is the Night. The writing was funny, and the book was divided into quirky little sections, little snapshots of important incidents in Amory's life. I really liked that style. 

This Side of Paradise is not quite as brilliant as The Great Gatsby, but it is really entertaining, and as I said, odd. It's shorter than Tender is the Night but longer than The Great Gatsby (most books are, really). And I can definitely see where the criticism came from. It's really a strange book, but I enjoyed it a lot. There are lots of interesting sections and good character sketches. 

This Side of Paradise drew me in immediately. The character sketches were brilliant; of Amory and his college friends, and of course of the various women that he encounters. The writing was different than that of The Great Gatsby, but still very lyrical (though not as much) and poetic. In This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald can clearly be seen experimenting with different styles of writing novels, plays, and poetry. Much of it is written in a prose format, but there are some lists, lots of poems that the characters write, a few scenes in the format of a play, and letters. This makes for a lot of inconsistency, and I confess to skimming over some of the poems, but Fitzgerald's writing is brilliant whatever format he uses. There were really long chapters, short chapters, different parts, and interludes. Inconsistency gives rise to criticism, but it was his very first novel, and he was stretching his wings, you might say.  

If Gatsby is a short book to read slowly and savor, then This Side of Paradise is a slightly longer book that one races through, pausing to think about a few instances. I read the book really quickly once I got into it, especially the twenty or so pages in play format. It was just so compelling, interesting, and well written. Some of the characters are likable, some are not, and they're all so interesting; more interesting is their relationships with one another. 

I haven't read The Beautiful and the Damned, but of the three novels I have read of Fitzgerald's and his short stories, this was most definitely my second favorite (after The Great Gatsby). It was absorbing, arresting, powerful, and painted a very convincing portrait of the time period before the 1920's. Gatsby is set in the tired, cheap decadence of the 20's, and this semi-autobiographical novel is set before that really set in. I thought it was interesting how Fitzgerald really just skipped the war period; he writes about Amory's experiences before the war and after the war, describing the war not at all. There's only a few letters right before Amory goes to fight, and right after he gets back. It was interesting. 

This is definitely an under-appreciated novel, which I would highly recommend. 

261 pages. 

Rating: *****

New Blog!

I've started a Wordpress blog at www.theliteraryflaneur.wordpress.com. I'll blog over there about my life, about books, and other things. Don't worry; I shall not neglect this blog; it'll be just the same over here at Cleo's Literary Reviews (although maybe I'll get some more followers and comments). I was considering importing it to Wordpress, as there are many features of Wordpress I really like, but I decided not to.

Studio Saint-Ex, Ania Szado

I haven't even brought a book. I rarely do for the flight to Montreal, so short there's hardly time to finish a page without a pert stewardess interrupting with a buckle-unbuckle update or to stuff you with another canape. 

"With Paris under occupation by Hitler’s troops, New York’s Mayor La Guardia has vowed to turn his city into the new fashion capital of the world. A handful of American designers are set to become the industry’s first names, and Mignonne Lachapelle is determined to be among them. Her ambition and ethics are clear and uncomplicated, until she falls for the celebrated and tormented adventurer Captain Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who, six months after the surrender of France, has fled Europe’s ashen skies after flying near-suicidal reconnaissance missions for the French Air Force. In New York, he writes a new book on the fall of France, Flight to Arras (it becomes a number-one best seller) and collects (a year late) his 1939 National Book Award for his Wind, Sand and Stars,a poetic account of his flying escapades over North Africa and South America (by the time of his arrival in New York, in early 1941, the book has sold 250,000 copies). To distract himself from his malaise about France and at being in exile, and at his publisher’s offhand suggestion, he begins work on a children’s story about a “petit bonhomme” in the Sahara Desert . . .Nothing about Mig’s relationship with Saint-Ex is simple, not his turmoil and unhappiness about being in New York and grounded from wartime skies, nor Mig’s tempestuous sexual encounter with Antoine and the blurring boundaries of their artistic pursuits, ­or Saint-Exupéry’s wife who insidiously entangles Mig in her schemes to reclaim her husband. The greatest complication of Mig’s bond with Saint-Exupéry comes in the form of a deceptively simple manuscript: Antoine’s work in progress about a little boy, a prince, who’s fallen to earth on a journey across the planets . . ."

The only novel of Saint-Exupery's that I've read is in fact The Little Prince, although I do also own a copy of Night Flight. Much like The Paris Wife, I was very excited for a novel focusing on the women in a famous author's life (even though Mignonne is in this case fictional), and much like The Paris Wife, I was kind of disappointed. It seems to be in vogue now; there are these two books, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, and probably more. It's an interesting and certainly worthwhile endeavor, but somehow, these authors never seem to able to write a really good, solid novel. The Paris Wife was good but not great; same with Studio Saint-Ex. It had its points, but the writing was strange. 

Unlike The Paris Wife, the historical world of New York in the 1940's didn't really come to life for me. There wasn't enough description, there weren't enough little everyday incidents to make the book seem realistic. If The Paris Wife's flaws were not enough description of character, Studio Saint-Ex's were not enough historical description. 

Enough talk of Paula McLain's novel. Studio Saint-Ex is of a different type; the writing is really different. It tends to flowery phrases and sweeping descriptions of clothing, which was nice, but I wanted more description of the city itself. That said, the descriptions of clothing were lovely. Overall though, the writing was weak. There some sentences that when strung together, made for jerky, discombulated writing. Yet in some parts it wasn't terrible. 

What made me very uneasy was the fact that nowhere is it said that Mignonne is a fictional character; the novel implies that she actually was a woman in Saint-Exupery's life. I thought so too until I looked it up. It was very misleading.

The characters were also kind of poorly portrayed, although the author did succeed in making me hate Consuelo. Yes, she's been wronged, and very badly, but she doesn't have to be so petty. In one scene, she takes her new lover to a club that her husband frequents. The fact that she was ditched also made me dislike Saint-Exupery too, although he was certainly interesting. 

There was something charming about Studio Saint-Ex; even if the world wasn't as well portrayed as I would have liked, I still caught glimpses of its many facets and of the frustration during World War II. There was a very interesting part at the beginning of the novel; Mignonne's mentor and rival disparages those who would dress in simple, shapeless attire merely because there's a war on. In fact, she argues, during war one should wear more fancy clothing. Dressing up in fine clothes is a sign of resistance. I don't agree with that entirely, and it's not very practical either; after all, luxury costs money which is in short supply during war. But it is a kind of beautiful image, flaunting wealth against the enemy. 

Overall Studio Saint-Ex was a good but not great historical novel. The story was compelling, the way it was told decidedly less so. I would recommend it if you're interested in Saint-Exupery. I certainly learned a lot about his life. 

Disclosure: I received a review copy from Knopf. 

350 pages. 

Rating: ***