Tag Archives: Little Brown

An Explosion of Young Adult Short Reviews

Posted on November 5 2012 by Justin | 6 Comments

I’m traveling again. This means two things, lots of reading time and very little time to write. During my trip I’ve been reading a lot of YA. I’m not sure why, other than I’ve been putting them off for another day. It’s been fortuitous though as I find YA to be perfectly suited to the traveling reader — short, easily consumable, and often obvious in its subtext.

Below are three novels I read this week and my thoughts:

London Eye by Tim Lebbon

london-eye-tim-lebbonThe most glaring observation almost anyone will make about London Eye is how short it is. Just over two hundred pages hardbound, it looks like a book cut in half. It reads that way too.

Cut off from the rest of the world, London is two years into the fallout of a devastating incident that’s left the city toxic. Jack and his friends all lost family on what has become known as Doomsday.… Read the rest

The Rook – Daniel O’Malley

Posted on March 15 2012 by Justin | 5 Comments
Daniel O’Malley’s debut novel features the tagline, On Her Majesty’s Supernatural Secret Service. It’s an apt description of The Rook which to describe it more verbosely is James Bond meets Harry Potter if Money Penny was the main character. Cool, right? I thought so too. Unfortunately what begins as an entertaining and clever urban fantasy novel descends into a poorly structured, infodumptastic (made up word!) narrative that can’t get out of its own way.

Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany) Thomas is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy. It’s their job to battle the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Myfanwy is more Urkel than Stefan. Despite her incredible power to control living matter she’s become a desk bound budget hawk with the social skills of a dim witted honey badger. One night she ‘wakes up’ in a London park surrounded by bodies with no recollection of who she is or how she got there, a letter in her coat pocket the only clue.… Read the rest