Bones of faerie

Title: Bones of faerie
Author: Janni Lee Simner

Bones of faerie is book one of "the bones of faerie trilogy".

There is a book that ive been wanting to read for years called "the spiders' bride" that every time i type that in to the library databanks, the next closest is this book. Well. I'm finally reading this one.
I wasn't disappointed.

Its younger young adult fiction. The book itself follows the story of a girl named Liza who lives in a town where magic is shunned. To the point that children found to be carrying faerie traits have been killed or left to die in the elements.
She knows this because her father did this to her baby sister after she displayed the typical glass clear silver hair of the faeries.
There was a war. In the war it seems the faeries used magic. We used what was handy to us: nuclear weapons. Faeries seemed to be dead and gone but their magic lingered and twisted nature against the human world. Angry trees, wraiths of shadow, stones that explode at slightest touch.

Liza runs away to find that shes special in unexpected ways and that she was running towards something. Not just away.

You really end up liking the kids in this book. The author does a good job of making the situations and responses things that kids actually would do as opposed to the stereotypical -hes 9 but makes decisions like a 47-year-old trope-.

I liked it and look forward to reading the next books in the series.

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Bones-Faerie-Book-Trilogy/dp/0375845658

ISBN: 978-0-375-84565-9

Fig

TRIGGER WARNING: Self harm and mental illness

((also, I did not know that I can post "in the past" so I will be filling up the few gaps in time with other book reviews.))


Title: Fig
Author: Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

So. For some reason I thought this book was going to have some supernatural or folkloric element to it. (I don't know why.) I was very very wrong. 

I rarely put trigger warnings on books but this is one that had I known exactly what it was going to be, I would have not read it.

This cover is a lie btw, nothing in here about birds or sewing or leaving the nest.

This is the story of a young girl and her mother's plunge into schizophrenia. This is the story of what harm can happen when illness is not properly explained to children, and the abuses that can happen as a result of living with someone unstable.

Young Fiona lives with her parents out in the middle of Kansas. She is HIGHLY intelligent. One day, when she is six, her mother has a paranoid mental break. Her world comes crashing down around her.

Her mother is an artist with a high strung personality. She is used to her being very particular about the environment, about societies' views on things, and about being a little bit paranoid.

Now this is all worse. It's all going wrong and her mom attempts suicide, and is sent back from the hospital on all sorts of downers. She doesn't seem like the same mother and because none of it is explained and none of it is taken care of properly the young girl internalizes all of her feelings toward the situation.

She soon becomes woefully neglected, and attempts to act as her mother's caretaker as much as possible. Learning that when she picks at scabs and previous injuries, that it feels calming for her. That seeing the blood helps her forget the mental pain she is experiencing. Soon that too goes increasingly wrong. 

There is a lot of self harm that goes on in this book. There is a lot of unstable mental illness. There is a lot of rampant child neglect. 

It was a hard read for me (having experienced a lot of the protagonists feelings if not situations.) and a good window into how this sort of thing spirals out of control.

It was very reminiscent to me of the book "Push" (which was turned into the movie "Precious") but featuring a different kind of mental and physical abuse.

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Fig-Sarah-Elizabeth-Schantz/dp/1481423592

ISBN: 978-1-4814-2358-8 

Will Sparrow's Road

Title: Will Sparrow's Road

Author: Karen Cushman

Will Sparrow's Road takes place in Elizabethan England. It follows twelve year old Will through the trials and hardships that he faces and the decisions that he has to make all by himself to survive.

After being sold to an innkeeper by his father (who blamed him for the depart of his mother) to settle a drinking debt, he decides to run away instead of becoming a "climbing boy".

-A climbing boy is the term for a small person or child who was send up to work as a chimney sweep. This was a very dangerous position as there were no safety regulations.-

On his way he meets many disreputable people and learns that the only one he should truly trust is himself. He also learns to judge people not by what they look like or appear to be, but by their actions towards oneself and others.

I was surprised at this book, as Cushman generally writes with female main characters. This was a very welcome addition to her writings. I really enjoyed the bits and pieces added in about buskers and sideshows. 

Great work as always.

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Will-Sparrows-Road-Karen-Cushman/dp/0544336321

ISBN: 978-0-547-73962-5

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

I must admit this book was a bit of a challenging read for me this week. I ran into a few days where my migraines got bad enough that I passed out and in turn lost days worth of short term memory. ITS JUST GONE. I finally am back to remembering and my flatmates and boyfriend caught me up on all the things I didn't remember.
To show how quickly the memory was leaving, I received a late birthday present and not only didn't recall receiving it... I didn't recall receiving it four separate times. At least I seem to be consistent though, as I apparently had the same reaction to it each time. haha.
I shall be trying to do more reading and watching of movies this week while I am out dogsitting.



Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs

This book is quite well done. The first thing I have to say about it is that it is worth checking out if for no other reason than the photos within it.

I am a complete and utter sucker for these kind of vintage and manipulated photos, as well as pitch cards from sideshows and circuses around the world. This book has at least 30 such images. I love them all.

The story follows a boy named Jacob who is sixteen. He gets sent on an adventure to uncover the truth about his grandfathers past and discovers many strange and compelling things. Both about his grandfather and himself. I am quite happy to say that this story focuses less on the hocus pocus sort of magic but more on the unknown, and in doing so makes the magical elements seem not commonplace but instead misunderstood and still within the boundaries of our world.

I will definitely be reading more of this series, and I hope to watch the movie to compare very soon. It is a quite wonderful work of young adult fiction.

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Miss-Peregrines-Home-Peculiar-Children/dp/1594746036/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1404317948&sr=8-3&keywords=ransom+riggs

ISBN: 978-1-59474-603-1