Princeless: The Pirate Princess by Jeremy Whitley

Plot Summary:

Princess Adrienne is taking a detour from rescuing her sisters and helps out "Princess" Raven, aka The Black Arrow, out of her tower and back onto her ship.

Review:

The latest book in the Princeless series, The Pirate Princess does a wonderful job of continuing the sense of fun and adventure. I absolutely love Raven's character and her interactions with Adrienne and Bedelia. All three are kick-butt ladies. The expansion of world this story takes place in is very well written and fits with with the series. I loved reading the history of the Xingtao bloodline. Everything about this book made me smile, especially the representation of the greatness of steak!

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Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

Synopsis:

Onyesonwu is an Ewu child. Ewu are almost always the result of an Okeke woman being raped by a Nuru man. Onyesonwu is also a girl. Girls are considered lesser and are not expected to be able to control magic. And yet, Onyesonwu grows up tall, strong in body, spirit and magic. And it is her destiny to free the the Okeke from slavery and genocide at the hands of the Nuru.

Review:

If I had things my way, I never would have put this book down. Throughout the reading, I knew the book would be at least a four. When I read the ending, I had to push it to a five.

Onyesonwu is an incredibly strong female lead. She has so many prejudicial obstacles thrown at her, but rather than let them drag her down, she makes her own voice stronger. She does not follow the narrative norms of her world's Great Book. She is the lead while her male companion, Mwita, has the lesser magic. She is the loud warrior, he is the quiet healer.

Okorafor touches on so many topics in this book: war, racism, rape, and the ignorance of the people removed from these things. It was ignorance that led to so much of the hate in this book. An unwillingness to see another's perspective, or an acceptance of things, "because they are tradition." Even when the people of her home village are confronted with images of the war, the Elders say not to worry, it'll never reach the village. And the ignorance continues.

But Onyesonwu does not care for ignorance. As Okorafor states, "Onyesonwu's very essence was change and defiance." The ending of this book left me shaky and feeling as though I'd shed a hundred tears, though my eyes were dry. This book is not for everyone and can get quite graphic, but I give it a full 5 hoots and will be looking for more books by Okorafor.

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The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this book. It's so very different from my usual reads, but it was certainly difficult to put down. I almost missed a bus stop because I was so focused on the story.

The story is certainly the reason I picked up this book. It is, technically, two stories, both about a young woman on a journey. It was interesting to see the parallels, find the connections and experience their convergence. The final chapters, the meeting of the two stories, did not contain many surprises. Rather, when they were revealed, they made me feel "that makes sense."

This book is certainly not for everyone. There is violence, sex, rape, suicidal thoughts, etc. Though the characters seemed to treat these things casually, I feel Byrne wrote them well and gave them the proper context to keep them from feeling flippant. Nothing that is written in this book is done so without purpose. There is no meaningless exposition.

So, while this book is not for the faint of heart, I still appreciate it's ability to keep my interest by making me think. 4.5 hoots!

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*I received a free copy of this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.

The Before Now and After Then by Peter Monn

I have a tendency to avoid coming-of-age stories and love stories. The vast majority of them, for me, have ranged from bad to meh. That being said, I really enjoyed this book!

Within the first 20-25 pages, the narrator/main character speaks of grief and loss in one of the most realistic, honest ways I have read from a contemporary author. Peter Monn has the greatly appreciated ability of describing emotions in a real way, nothing flowery or over dramatic. This theme of "real" continues throughout the entire book. No matter how strange any of the characters may seem, I know people like that. This is especially true of Danny (narrator) and his high school peers, still trying to find out who they are. Granted I didn't meet my real-life version of Cher until college, but the fact remains, these people are realistic. 

The love story that is central to this book may come off as nothing more than a whirlwind romance, nothing but the product of two teens who think they're in love, but they moved at about the same pace that me and husband did as adults. I appreciated the Monn's portrayal of love as something that isn't based on romance. Rather it is what it is and romance is just one manifestation of it.There is familial love, love for your friends, etc.

Overall, The Before Now and After Then, by Peter Monn, is a moving book that I couldn't put down. There was nothing in this book that felt out of place, fanciful, or overly emotional. It is a very real story of young man who goes through the trials and tribulations of being a homosexual teenager starting a new school after the loss of his twin brother. I happily give this book 5 hoots and recommend it to all!

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***This book was provided in electronic format by the publisher, Pen Name Publishing. This does not have an effect on my review.

Princeless by Jeremy Whitley and M. Goodwin

I know it's about a decade since I was a teenager but OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG! I LOVE THIS BOOK!

Ahem. Sorry about that.

The fact of the matter is, this story is amazing. The first few pages set up the entire thing perfectly. A queen, reading a stereotypical fairy tale to her daughter, and the daughter arguing with every little thing. To quote the Queen, " You are determined to take everything from this story except what you are supposed to." When the daughter, Princess Adrienne, finally gets old enough to have a tower and dragon of her own, she is so completely against the idea that her parents have to drug her food!* After some time, and many dead princes, Adrienne finds a sword hidden underneath her bed and decides to take action. She has the dragon burn the tower, making it look like the "wild beast" killed her, and then sets off to free her sisters.

Unfortunately the armor she has was designed for guys that weren't quite her size, so she has to get something new. She goes into town and finds a Dwarf Blacksmith. Turns out, the dwarf just drinks at the tavern. It's his daughter, Bedelia, who does all the smithing, but if anyone found out, they'd be run out of business. No one wants armor from a female blacksmith. After getting her armor and accidentally getting the shop burned down, Bedelia joins Adrienne on her quest. Thus ends the first book.

I am so glad that this series is garnering a lot of attention. There are a lot of people, kids and adults, that I think would benefit from reading this. The fact that the book is so popular is a positive sign that the comics industry and girl geeks are ready for a change. We can start replacing all the stereotypical princess stuff with actual, cool, relatable princess stuff. Adrienne and Bedelia are the type of heroes I'd still love to aspire to be. Confident, strong (physically, emotionally, etc.), talented. These are traits that we're told are associated with Disney Princesses, but they all still needed a prince to come and rescue them.

Though I will say this, those kids who go through Prince Charming's Charm School for Future Kings do NOT have it easy! Everyday having to make sure your hair is perfect, fighting in a style that could easily get you killed "How will anyone even know you're sword fighting without our arm up?". And then your only choices are to either go slay a dragon, or go fight in wars for king and country. I'd have rather stayed playing in the mud, too. Clearly royalty ain't easy.

So I will be eagerly searching my comic book store's shelves for this book and any other issues Whitley and Goodwin may have put out in the time it for this one to get published and get in my hands. This read was over with far too quickly and I'd LOVE to find out what happens next! This book gets a top rating of 5 Hoots!

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*Sidenote: As a fellow carnivore, I'd have fallen for the drugged steak as well.