Book Review: Winter

Winter (Lunar Chronicles #4) 
By Marissa Meyer
**** 1/2

“She was prettier than a bouquet of roses and crazier than a headless chicken. Fitting in was not an option.” 
― Marissa Meyer, Winter

I finished it! Man that was a long book! And STRESSFUL. Even knowing that HEAs were assured, this book kept me in a constant state of worry. 

While the cover and title are given to our fourth heroine, Winter, I didn't feel like this was necessarily her book - all the stories entwined perfectly and felt very balanced as the changes in viewpoints progressed the plot. It didn't feel like Winter was the major focus; that being said, I still felt like I really got to know her and Jacin. Like I said, everything was really well balanced. 

This series was fantastic - I connected to all the characters and loved them all, Iko in particular. I sort of find myself shipping Iko and Kinney...

Now can we get an epilogue? I'd like to hear more about those Happily Ever Afters...

Book Review: Indexing

Indexing (Indexing #1) 
By Seanan McGuire
****

“When you’re late in a fairy tale, people wind up dead. And not true-love’s-kiss, glass-coffin-nap-time dead. Really dead, the kind of dead you don’t recover from.” 
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

Police procedural meets Grimm Brothers. In the fairy tale justice system, memetic incursions are considered especially dangerous. In the Real World, the dedicated detectives who defend Happily Ever After are members of an elite squad called the ATI Management Bureau. Beware of their stories. Chung Chung.

Indexing is the story of a team of agents who investigate memetic incursions - where fairy tales invade the real world. Seems it happens more often that you'd think. Nice girl with a dead mom, stepmother and two stepsisters? She's ripe to turn into a 510A "Cinderella." Despite Disney's best efforts to subvert the grimmer aspects of the original tales (pun intended), fairy tale incursions rarely have an HEA. 

It took me a while to get into the story, but it wasn't long before I became *involved*. This story was written as a serial - new chapters added on a regular basis, rather than a full book offered all at once. I didn't read it in installments, thank heavens, as I'm not sure I could have handled that. But the story definitely would have worked in that format. I just have no patience. 

This was a cool story and a new twist on old fairy tales. Recommended.

Book Review: Cinder

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1) (*****)
by Marissa Meyer

What if...Cinderella was a Cyborg. I can honestly say I've ever asked myself that question. But Marissa Meyer did, and I'm so glad! Meyer takes the classic fairy tale and puts it in a futuristic, sort-of post apocalyptic world, and manages to keep it fresh and new and familiar at the same time. I read more fantasy than sci-fi, and this was my first venture into a Cyborg story, but I really enjoyed the journey.

The new and fresh: Cinder lives in New Beijing, over one hundred years after the 4th World War, and while the world is unrecognizable, people haven't really changed. Here, a person will become a cyborg when they've been badly injured and surgeons will add robotic parts and advanced computer technology to take the place of body parts too damaged to work. Cinder has a robotic leg and arm, can access the net with a thought, and see news and data literally out of the corner of her eye. While these operations save lives, the newly created cyborgs are considered less-than-human and are reviled in society.

Another new aspect to the story is that some time in the book's past, people from Earth colonized the moon, but the moon changed them. They (the Lunars) are able to influence the bioelectrical something-or-others and basically control the thoughts and actions of others, including making themselves appear beautiful and making someone else kill themself. And now they're trying to take over Earth.

The other major plot point is a plague that has been decimating Earth, one that is highly contagious and kills quickly. Through a series of events, Cinder becomes a test subject in the search to find a cure (becoming a test subject is certain death in this world) and discovers that she is somehow immune.

The familiar: despite the fact that we're dealing with cyborgs and Lunars and plagues, there's still a ball, an evil step-mother, and two step-sisters (though only one is evil).

Will Cinder make it to the ball? Will she escape her step-mother? Will the prince return her foot???

Book List: Fairy Tales, Retellings, and Reimaginings

Fairy Tales, Retellings and, Reimaginings

We all know that vampires and werewolves were (and still are) majorly popular. Then there were fairies and angels and distopian futures (Hunger Games anyone?). What appears to be a new big trend, at least according to the TV networks and movie makers, is reimagining and retelling the stories of fairy tales. I love this: fairy tales have meat to them, moral codes in a let-me-put-the-fear-of-God-into-you-so-you-don't-do-this-stuff style, and they can be tailored to be light and happy (see Tangled) or dark and moody (see Beastly). You know it's a growing area when they have not one, but two Snow White movies coming out in the next year, both with all-star casts (Julia Roberts plays the evil queen in one of them! Gasp!).
Below is a list of movies, TV shows, and books for anyone intrigued by this sub-genre (oh, and I tossed in some Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland retellings, too). If you have any thoughts or additional items to add, please do so in the comments section!

Movies and TV Shows
Beastly (2011)
Red Riding Hood (2011)
Tangled (2010)
The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Hoodwinked! (2005)

The 10^th Kingdom (2000)

Ever After (1998)
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (coming 3/2/2012)

Snow White and the Huntsman (coming 6/1/2012)

The Brothers Grimm: Snow White (coming 2012)
Grimm (coming this fall to NBC)
Once Upon a Time (coming this fall to ABC)

Tween/Young Adult
Beastly, Alex Flinn
Cloaked, Alex Flinn
Briar Rose, Jane Ylen
Impossible, Nancy Werlin
Sisters Red, Jackson Pearce
Red Riding Hood, Sarah Blakley-Cartwright and Catherine Hardwicke (movie tie-in)
Crazy Beautiful, Lauren Baratz-Logsted
A Tale Dark and Grimm, Adam Gidwitz
The Grimm Legacy, Polly Shulman
The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor

Classics
The Complete Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Anderson
Aesop’s Fables, Aesop
The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights, Anonymous

Fiction
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, Angela Carter (short stories, horror)
The Fairy Godmother, Mercedes Lackey (fantasy/romance)
Mirror Mirror, Gregory Maguire (historical fiction)
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman (fantasy)
The Child Thief, Brom (fantasy/horror)
King Rat, China Mieville (fantasy/horror)
The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye, A.S. Byatt (short stories, fantasy)
The Robber Bride, Margaret Atwood (literary fiction)
The Stolen Child, Keith Donohue (fantasy)
Stardust, Neil Gaiman (fantasy)

Anime/Graphic Novels/Comics

Fables: Legends in Exile, Bill Willingham, et al
Peter and Max: A Fables Novel, Bill Willingham, et al