The Bad Queen by Carolyn Meyer

Who: Carolyn Meyer
What: The Bad Queen
When: April 12th, 2010.
Why: History Geek!
How: Library

History paints her as a shallow party girl, a spoiled
fashionista, a callous ruler. Perhaps no other royal has been so maligned--and
so misunderstood--as Marie-Antoinette.
From the moment she was betrothed to
the dauphin of France at age fourteen, perfection was demanded of
Marie-Antoinette. She tried to please everyone--courtiers, her young husband,
the king, the French people--but often fell short of their expectations.
Desperate for affection and subjected to constant scrutiny, this spirited young
woman can't help but want to let loose with elaborate parties, scandalous
fashions, and unimaginable luxuries. But as Marie-Antoinette's lifestyle gets
ever more recklessly extravagant, the peasants of France are suffering from
increasing poverty--and becoming outraged. They want to make the queen pay.
In this latest installment of her acclaimed Young Royals series, Carolyn
Meyer reveals the dizzying rise and horrific downfall of the last Queen of
France.

I'm gonna tell you right now, this story doesn't have a happy ending. After I finished, I spent hours going over what I had read in my mind, especially that ending. Because in Marie Antoinette's family? No one ends up happy. That's the thing about writing about historical figures, you can't change the ending. Marie Antoinette lived a complicated, misunderstood life all the way until her brutal demise. And I absolutely loved this book for that reason and more. (I'd like to point out i'm not reviewing the actual history, but the story.)

Besides seeing the Petit Trianon and the Versailles on my trip to France, I hadn't known much about Marie Antoinette before reading this. I knew the basics, she was considered one of the worst queens in history. But in The Bad Queen, you read her story from the beginning, her journey through her marriage, the lack of real passion and how desperately she wanted a baby, and how much she really cared for the country of France. Though we are vastly different in time periods, I related to Marie. She did what she had to do to fit in, but also tried to make it comfortable for herself despite her mother's harsh and sometimes cruel criticisms on her character. She was frivolous, fun-loving, and didn't like the stiff etiquette of the French Court, which caused vicious and nasty rumors to spread on her behalf. She handled them as well as she could, until they lead to her death.

King Louis XVI was a loveable character, though very naive when it came to what his purpose was in marriage (you know, producing heirs and such), and didn't know the first thing about being king when his father died suddenly. I found it unbearable adorable when he give her the key to La Petit Triaton (which is supposed to be the mini castle of the king's favorite. Louis XV had his mistress live in this place, Madame Du Barry, who everyone extremely disliked.)

Then there's her secret romance with a Swede, Fersen, which was completely fueled by passion and desire, the thing lacking in Marie's life. She maintained her loyalty to her husband, never thinking once to abandon him even when she could've escaped with her children but without him. She loved her four children, two dying of sickness before she died, one dying later, and the last, her daughter lived to be the queen of France but then died lonely and unhappy. As I said, there is no happy ending to her story. This novel was 100% accurate, and every single character was a real and actual person in history! Which is just, awesome

My rating? AWESOMESAUCE.

Happy Reading!
-Harmony

Freefall author Anne Levine stops by!

Anne Levine is the author of Freefall which I reviewed on the blog a while back right....here!

And here she is!

~~~

What do you write YA? Favorite part of it, hardest?

My favorite part of writing YAs is writing about
characters who fall in love. There’s nothing like trying to get that feeling
down. The hardest part is getting the voices of the characters to sound unique,
capturing the difference in their personalities. I write YA because I love
writing about first experiences discovering characters who are not afraid to
take chances and are on the brink of discovery learning about their environment
and about themselves.

~~~

Thanks for coming over Anne!
Happy Reading!
-Harmony

In My Mailbox (17)

Woot! In My Mailbox time! Hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren and inspired by Alea over at Pop Culture Junkie!

For review:

The Bull Rider by Suzanne Morgan Williams

Gifted/Borrowed:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Torment by Lauren Kate (If you're watching this Sabrina, I was totally kidding! Giving it back to you this week!)

Bought:

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Library:

The Bad Queen: Rules and Instructions for Marie Antoinette by Carolyn Meyer

What did YOU get in your mailbox?
Happy Reading!
-Harmony

Incareron by Catherine Fisher

I want to apologize for not being on this week! My computer was being wacky and I had SO many AP stuff to do! Never again, promise!

Who: Catherine Fisher
What: Incareron
When: July 15th, 2010
Why: Hype
How: Library

Incarceron -- a futuristic prison, sealed from view,
where the descendants of the original prisoners live in a dark world torn by
rivalry and savagery. It is a terrifying mix of high technology -- a living
building which pervades the novel as an ever-watchful, ever-vengeful character,
and a typical medieval torture chamber -- chains, great halls, dungeons.

A young prisoner, Finn, has haunting visions of an earlier life, and
cannot believe he was born here and has always been here. In the outer world,
Claudia, daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, is trapped in her own form of
prison -- a futuristic world constructed beautifully to look like a past era, an
imminent marriage she dreads. She knows nothing of Incarceron, except that it
exists.

But there comes a moment when Finn, inside Incarceron, and
Claudia, outside, simultaneously find a device -- a crystal key, through which
they can talk to each other. And so the plan for Finn's escape is born ...

Ohh, Catherine Fisher, what a twisted web you weave. Incareron was a wonderful dystopian about a prison that can talk, and create, and kill. Claudia, a girl who is being married to the prince of 'Outside' so she can become queen, finds a key that makes her able to communicate with a boy inside Incareron named Finn, who is a starseer and believes he came from 'Outside' and decides to help him escape and put an end to her arranged marriage.

The world-building in this book had stuff I loved and stuff I hated. I absolutely loved Incareron, how it worked, the way it was alive and created half-human people out of recycled skin! That was just so creepy yet....amazing! What I didn't like, was the Outside. I didn't understand why everything had to be 'Of Era', like they'd say, and what exactly protocol was. I knew they couldn't use modern devices or something, but she never really explained why? And the Wars of Rage? Never got explained much either, just that they happened. Didn't like that.

I wasn't too fond of Claudia either, I found her a bit selfish. While she did try to get Finn out, she was mostly doing it because she believed that he was her key out of her marriage and never really did anything for just the sole purpose of doing it. She didn't understand Finn's devotion to his oathbrother (more on Keiro and Attia in a minute) and just brushed it off during the ending. Which ticked me off. Finn was super sweet and shy and didn't speak his mind until he snapped. I loved how caring he was for all things, and even when everyone told him Attia was just a stupid girl and too leave her behind, he didn't. So bonus points for him.

Keiro and Attia were the side characters on Finn's side of the story. Keiro was arrogant, cocky, and just an all-around funny sidekick. You didn't hear a lot from Attia, but I loved how devoted she was to helping Finn get out of Incareron. Jared was the main side character from Claudia's side, and I loved him. He was sweet and gentle and knew when to pull Claudia back from her wild ideas (though it says didn't work). I saw the subtle hints of a one-sided romance between the two, but as Claudia's father said, I see him more like a father to her.

Finally, the ending. Umm...I need Sapphique like NOW. Just as a sidenote, the book doesn't have romance, like whatsoever. And I kept reading. This may not sound like a big deal...but it's a BIG DEAL.

My rating? AMAZINGNESS

Happy Reading!
-Harmony

Crash into Me by Albert Borris + Contest!

Who: Albert Borris
What: Crash Into Me
When: July 21st, 2009
Why: For review
How: From Author

Owen, Frank, Audrey, and Jin-Ae have one thing in
common: they all want to die. When they meet online after each attempts suicide
and fails, the four teens make a deadly pact: they will escape together on a
summer road trip to visit the sites of celebrity suicides...and at their final
destination, they will all end their lives. As they drive cross-country, bonding
over their dark impulses, sharing their deepest secrets and desires, living it
up, hooking up, and becoming true friends, each must decide whether life is
worth living--or if there's no turning back.
Crash Into Me was a beautfiully meaningful and
thought out story about 4 kids who take a road trip to visit suicidal
celebrities graves before offing themselves in Death Valley. This is gonna be
one of those reviews where I don't know what to say because I really liked the
book, but I don't know exactly why.

Owen, the MC, was quiet, quirky, and lonely. I really enjoyed reading from his point of view, mostly because he was simple. He thought things and didn't know why he thought them, same with the things he did. He knew why he wanted to kill himself, but he never knew why he himself thought it was worth it. And a lot of people do things without really knowing why, so it was real. Also, he's like, the master of suicide information.

Audrey, Jin-Ae, and Frank were perfectly formed secondary characters. Even though it's in Owens point of view, they all had their own stories and lives and I felt connected to them as well which is a hard thing to do in 1st person. My favorite would have to be Audrey for how she always spoke her mind. She reminded me of Alaska from 'Looking for Alaska' by John Green, or is that just me? Both had that sort of silent sadness to them, the anger, the jokes and outspokenness overshadowing the bad.

Albert did his research, because a lot of the people he named I hadn't even known had killed themselves! I loved how he interwove all the lives and deaths of these famous celebrities into the plot without drowning you in information.

My rating? AMAZINGNESS.

Finally, the CONTEST! I have a copy of Crash Into Me up for grabs! Fill out THIS FORM to enter! Deadline is November 20th.


Happy Reading!
-Harmony