Summer of the Mariposas

Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
4/5 stars
Tu Books, 2012
352 pages
YA Magical Contemporary

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

While browsing Netgalley, I saw this book and thought the cover was pretty. I didn't look too closely at it but was happy to discover that it featured butterflies (hence the title Mariposa) as well as a group of sisters, five to be exact. My weakness for sister relationships in book is well-documented so I sat back to enjoy the ride.

However all was not smooth sailing as I found the eldest sister Odilia pleasant enough but her four younger sisters were brats. Really all five were annoying with their disregard for the pressure their mother was under after their father ran off and the tough situation they were in. But the five must band together when the middle three decide to deliver the dead body they find in a river back to his family in Mexico. This dead body reminded me very strongly of "Stand By Me" which I watched not too long ago. Then things took a turn for the weird with the spirit of Llorana, a woman who haunts the riverbanks seeking her dead children. She bestows a special blessing on Odilia.

The situation gets weirder as they encounter malevolent spirits throughout their journey. As I picked up the story expecting a contemporary, I was very confused. About halfway through, I started looking through goodreads reviews to discover that this was an Odyssey retelling. This caused a lightbulb to go on in my head and helped the story make a lot more sense to me. A cool addition is the Aztec mythology-something I knew nothing about but was cool to learn about.

I did feel like the book was a little uneven in terms of how engaged I was with the plot and some of the turns felt very simplistic. This might be a better read for younger readers who might be better able to sympathize with the sisters while I was very much on the mother's team. For me, the best part was the concluding chapters when they have to confront their father for his failures. I found it absolutely gripping.

Overall: Really cool story with the addition of Aztec tradition but I had trouble connecting with the characters.

 

Diverse Energies

Diverse Energies edited by Tobias S. Buckell and Joe Monti
4/5 stars
Tu Books, 2012
309 pages
YA Dystopia/Science-Fiction Short Stories

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was grabbed by the mention of three of these authors who have either written books I enjoyed or have written books I hope to read soon (those three being Ellen Oh, Malinda Lo, and Cindy Pon). Its stated intention is to provide more diversity in our YA fiction, whether race, gender, culture, sexual-orientation, etc. These stories mix dystopia, science-fiction, and fantasy. Like many short story collections, it's a definite mixed bag with some stories working well for me and some not clicking with me.

The Last Day by Ellen Oh-what a powerful story and a great way to start the collection! Atomic non-stop war between the President of the West and the Emperor of the West with nowhere safe for the people.

Freshee's Frogurt by Daniel H. Wilson-Interesting story about robots going berserk and attacking humans; warning about language. Not one of my favorites as it's very short and just focusing on this one battle.

Uncertainty Principle by K. Tempest Bradford-was really interesting and played with time, one of my favorite concepts. A young girl keeps having time shifted around her with no one else noticing until the day she uploads all the times it has happened and she is contacted by others to do something about it.

Pattern Recognition by Ken Liu-I really loved this story although there was an awkward shift at the end, hopefully due to the fact that this is an ebook. I wasn't really sure where it was going but I loved the main characters. It made me think of Ender's Game a little bit, which is a good thing as that's one of my favorite books.

Gods of Dimming Light by Greg van Eekhout-I didn't really like this one; it felt a bit more on the violent side featuring a young Indonesian boy discovering a Norse connection.

Next Door by Rahul Kanakia-This was very weird to me: there are haves and have-nots, the former don't even notice the latter being so plugged into their technology and I didn't quite understand that even as I know people are always talking about how technology is isolating us but I could not imagine not noticing other people in the way that the haves do here.

Good Girl by Malinda Lo-did I mention that all of these stories are pretty uniformly depressing? This was definitely one of those with our main character searching the underworld for her brother, meeting a love interest, and confronting the grim reality of her world.

A Pocket Full of Dharma by Paolo Bacigalupi-I didn't really know what to make of this story, about a boy on the streets and trying to survive among conniving adults in a bleak world. What's in his pocket? It's not a ring of power for one.

Blue Skies by Cindy Pon-I thought this was another really good story, especially because it seemed a little lighter and it had a hint of romance. Although such romance is impossible in the world, I liked the little hit within.

What Arms to Hold by Rajan Khanna-Indian children labor in a mine, searching for a big prize that will ensure their promotion to a better job...guess what? That's not exactly the case as is so heartbreakingly shown here.

Solitude by Ursula K. Le Guin-I'm not really sure I got this story, which was one of the longest included. It's about a woman who uses her son and daughter to explore and study a foreign culture on another planet.
 

Tankborn #Review @Netgalley

Tankborn by Karen Sandler
Tu Books, 2011
372 pages
YA; Science Fiction
3.5/5 stars

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't know much about this book but the summary looked interesting so I requested it through Netgalley. What I did know was that it was YA science-fiction, which I don't read a lot so I was excited to be immersed in a brand-new world.

Unfortunately as is sometimes the case when a new world is built, it can be hard for the reader to enter it. The new words and slang for most everyday objects had me struggling to envision what was happening. The world here is tightly structured with highborns, lowborns, and GENs aka tankborns, who are essentially slaves for the highborns. They are genetically created with specific attributes such as nurturing and strength to make them ideal helpers for the rich leaders of the society. Additionally there was an abrupt change of perspective that was not well delineated so I spent a couple of pages very confused and wondering who certain characters were. Those shifts continue throughout the book but they make more sense as the book progresses and various plot threads come together.

The first main character is Kayla, who is about to start her service to an elderly highborn. Once there she discovers that his great-grandson is the highborn she had met earlier in the book and shared an awkward encounter. At this place, she begins to feel valued and unravels dark secrets about her world. The other perspective is Kayla's friend Mishalla, a nurturer who is unwittingly caught up in some seriously evil doings.  I really liked trying to piece everything together and the characters were well drawn-sympathetic with believable emotions and actions despite the unfamiliarity of the world.

I also appreciated the themes about constructions of society and about what it means to be human, although sometimes they seemed overdone.  One other great aspect is that the book is a wholly contained book; there is still a lot of potential for future stories, such as Kayla (or others) leading a revolution to overthrow the present government but the the main threads are completed and there is no cliff-hanger.

Overall: A good story, one that just took too long to pull me in.