Review: Shadowspell by Jenna Black & Blog Watch Wednesday

Title: Shadowspell

Author: Jenna Black

Genre: mythic/supernatural fiction, young-adult

Series: Faeriewalker #2

Pages: 320

Published: January 2011
Source: bought

Rating: 3.75/5

Glimmerglass, the first in this series, has been so far one of my favorite reads of the year. It was inventive, clever and engrossing with characters I actually cared for. It set a high standard for the rest of the novels in the Faeriewalker world, and I hesitate to say Shadowspell was on par with Glimmerglass. The tone and the pacing have a lot to do with my dismay; there is a lack of real urgency or tension throughout the novel. Several disastrous and worrisome things happen, but they're either so abrupt or unexplained that I felt almost left-out of crucial details, though I'd just read the paragraph. 

Certainly, the problems I had with this novel were not with Dana. Just as wry and dry as before, she is a breath of fresh air in a genre that is populated with vapid, unquestioning female protagonists. Her chemistry with Ethan sparks, though I did weary of the I'm-not-your-girlfriend/boyfriend-but- storyline between them. Either date or don't, just stop with all the jealously meanwhile, PLEASE. I also appreciated the fact that once Dana was aware of Keane's interest in her, she deflected it because of Kimber's interest instead of causing a love triangle. I appreciate reading YA novels where teenage girls have an actual caring, loving relationship instead of the "frenemies" standard. 

The one "human" problem Dana seems to have in her danger and Fae-filled life is still her mother, Cathy. Still in denial, and combative about the fact, Cathy grounds her daughter in a way none of the other characters can.  Dana's memories of life with her drunk, oblivious mother cripple many of her attempts at closeness still. This human problem in the midst all of the other Fae concerns is what draws me to Dana the most. She loves her mother, and she hates her mother for her complete inability to simply face up to the pain she has put Dana through. There is (finally) a real confrontation between the two in Shadowspell, and in that sad scene were all the explanations for Dana's withdrawn character. Her enforced house-arrest at the hands of her father is a sad symbol for Dana's lifelong feelings of isolation.

Sadly enough, Kimber's role in this was much reduced. To my sorrow, she remained off-stage or distant from Dana for much of the story. As Kimber is my personal favorite character  I was hoping for more than cameos and drive-bys; her sarcastic and acerbic wit is always fun to read. I am very much behind the match-up with her Keane: her stubbornness and his tempestuousness could make for a volatile and entertaining couple. Another character mostly missing from the action: Seamus. Dana's dad is hardly involved in this as well, I have to assume he is mostly operating offsides and has nowhere near the ambiguous and mysterious aura he possessed in the fist novel.

What I did enjoy was the Erlking. Deceptive and deceptively smooth, he was a master manipulator that I couldn't help but ruefully admire. Deftly maneuvering Dana into an morally impossible (but believable) situation, he is cut out to be the Big Bad of the novel. One of the novel's best surprises (and there were quite a few[Dana has a brother?! Seamus was Titania's Consort for 200 years?!]) was that Aunt Grace reappears as the meance in the finale, with the Erlking saving Dana. These kind of really unexpected revelations and surprises keep the novel lively and interesting from start to finish. I also thought it was amazingly appropriate that his modern-day Wild Ride would be astride motorcycles. 

Shadowspell was very much an intermediary novel, with not much resolution of big or small plotlines (status with Ethan/Dana's decision with Arawn/Cathy's house arrest), there was an excellent amount of anticipation built up for the finale, Sirensong. I was a tad underwhelmed by the ending compared to the fanastic ending of Glimmerglass, but it was fitting seque to the next novel. Overall, I liked this novel and I am looking forward to concluding volume.

Not much on the Blog Watch this week - I've been unreasonably busy. Why? Who knows. LIFE. Anyway. 

What I did stumble upon:

An open survey pitting Severus Snape from Harry Potter against Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files in a wizard-off. I voted Snape (HARRY POTTER FOREVER!) but sadly he's tailing after the Chicago paranormal investigator. Right this wrong? (I first typed 'write this wrong'. Nerd.)

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, one of my all-time favorite novels, has a new edition being printed this year.  There's a short little blurb over here at the Secret Writer, if you've never taken the time to read this gem. And you really, really should.

Nice little article about learning in the indie publishing world here, by Belinda Frisch.

Great review of the one of the most talked about this year, Room, by Audra. This is coming up in my TBR pile, and this was a nice review to put me in the mindset. Now I probably won't review it because I will not want to invite the comparison. So read, go buy if you've not got it already, and then read.

Review: Glimmerglass Faeriewalker Series #1

Title: Glimmerglass
Author: Jenna Black
Genre: mythic/supernatural fiction, young-adult
Series: Faeriewalker #1
Published: May 2010
Pages: 304
Rating: 4/5


Jenna Black is a prolific author and though many of her books have been listed in my t-b-r pile for a while, this was my first chance to read one. Big picture take on it: I thought Glimmerglass was a fun, involving and an overall fresh take on the Fae. A good interesting beginning to a new young-adult paranormal series. 

Our heroine of half-human, half-Sidhe Fae proportions is Dana Hathaway, a very self-sufficient and capable sixteen year old living in the United States with her burden of a mother, Cathy. Cathy's alcoholism, and the effects on Dana's life are major issues between the two and have been for the majority of Dana's life. Dana's continuing struggles to cope with her mother's serious problem and hiding that problem from the outside world was one of the best parts of the novel; Dana seems to have real problems in a life she's legitimately not happy in, thus making her sudden escape to live with her never-before-met-Fae-father in the half-Fae town Avalon plausible, rather than just a plot device to get her on her own. 

Dana herself was a pleasure. She actually manages to keep her wits about her most of the time. She certainly doesn't ask enough questions when confronted with a clearly sketchy situations and nefarious-seeming people, but overall, she's a pretty genuinely self-aware gal. Another thing I liked was that Dana didn't meet a Fae boy and immediately "fall in love", as unfortunately happens so often in YA novels instead of, you know, actually building a relationship between two characters. When she does meet her gorgeous Fae interest, she is suspicious and keeps her distance, not buying into his "I'm mysterious and here to help you" routine. When he turns out to be kind of a major jerk, she calls him on it and rejects him vehemently, instead of making excuses or ascribing to good intentions at his heart. Or, my least favorite stupid-YA-girl cliche of all, assuming she'll figure out all this later on.
However, it was another female character, not even the genuine Dana, that was my favorite. Kimber, the brilliant younger sister of the above-mentioned Fae love interest Ethan, was just what Dana needed. She's sharp, both her brain and her tongue, but is clearly a lost soul looking for a friend, much like the loner Dana. The friendship between the Fae and the half-fae American is unforced and a high point for both the girls. Kimber has felt ostracized her whole life because of her limited magical abilities and her brothers extreme proficiencies, and Dana has never had a chance to get close enough to people to make strong, lasting friendships. Despite problems, the girls gravitate to one another and strike up a solid relationship. 

Dana's tone through the book is more wry than filled with pity-me melodrama. She accepts that she's got limited choices and makes the best deals she can in all the dangerous situations she continually falls into during her escapades. For a YA novel, it was refreshingly free of a love-triangle, though the possibility is set up for later novels. I'm not too worried over it, however, because Black seems to actually work on causing genuine tension in the mood of her novels rather than relying on romantic angst and betrayal to do it for her. 

Another thing going for this book is originality. The idea of incorporating the Fae into the story of Richard III, the Princes in the Tower, and the War of the Roses was an inspired idea. Pitting the Seelie and Unseelie courts as York and Lancaster respectively gave more depth and compelling history to the series in just one novel. The entwinment of both Avalon and England seems plausible and clever. Additionally, the monsters of the book were creative and new. Spriggans were weird and creepily malevolent, as were the pretty-disgustingly-described Water Witches haunting the Moat of Avalon. 

I found this to be a very well done faerie novel. I read the free novella set in this series a fer years before this book, Remedial Magic, and while very short it had the same light, easy feel as the first book. I have high hopes for the rest of this series.