Michele Lee

My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent

ISBN: 9780373210046

I borrowed this book.

Soul Screamers #2

For a book all about death, demons and soul selling, My Soul to Save isn’t that dark of a book. The second book in the Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent, it again follows Kaylee, a bean sidhe (banshee) by birth who is quite new to her powers. Still sensitive to her habits of screaming uncontrollably when someone is about to die, and how that leads to time in mental wards despite that it’s completely normal for her, Kaylee is now in bean sidhe lessons with her boyfriend’s mom (and 80 plus year old bean sidhe) Harmony. She’s also finally living with her dad, who has sacrificed a higher paying job in Ireland for an attempt to raise his daughter.

But no one approves when Kaylee discovers and decides to help a pop star (and ex-girlfriend of her boyfriend’s brother) who has sold her soul to hellions and only has four days before she dies (and her soul is sentenced to eternal torture for the hellions’ pleasure). While bean sidhe do have powers, and can walk into the demonic Netherworld, they aren’t exactly big guns there, their powers put them directly in opposition with most of the Netherworld creatures and Kaylee herself is so new at being a bean sidhe she still smells like the packaging.

My Soul to Save is off beat compared to the larger slice of urban fantasy YA books out there. No vampires, no teen family angst, no torn between multiple boys, popularity issues, etc. Kaylee has a pretty good head on her shoulders. She’s clever, sweet and smart. Her biggest failing is not using the knowledge of the adults around her and instead trying to do everything herself. While Vincent does imply that asking for help might not have gotten the plot resolved, one can’t help seeing how Kaylee does put herself in incredible danger, out of not just naivety, but at times a refusal to believe things are as dangerous as they are. To Kaylee this adventure is dangerous, but something she has to do. To the adults, and even the more knowledgeable teens, Kaylee’s actions are DANGEROUS. The difference leads to readers wondering if Kaylee just doesn’t understand, or isn’t listening about the danger she’s putting herself in.

In a way this is the opposite of many UF tales, where the tension and danger are part of the story drama. Kaylee ends up with a very white knight feel, noble, but mere steps away from being high -horsed (if she developed a chip on her shoulder, or had the thought of her actions making her better than the people around her) or naive to the point of stupidity (if she doesn’t learn anything from her very close brushes with death in this book). Overall there’s a feel of idealism to Kaylee and this series that will appeal to readers who might be tired of dark, nihilistic paranormal adventures, but there’s also real danger which will appeal to readers tired of convenient plots or fluffy paranormal worlds.

The Soul Screamers series is different from the popular styles today, so readers really should take advantage of Vincent’s free prequel novella on her website before deciding whether to continue the series or not. The books are good, but are poised to shift the focus of what’s popular in the YA genre rather than following or expanding current trends. As such readers stuck in the popularity mindset might not find the Soul Screamers as appealing at this point, but the writing and story are there and quite enjoyable.

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May 5

I cannot believe I forgot to post this

Ahem.

“Hold onto your head! Editor Jason Sizemore loads a shotgun with futuristic stories, puts the barrel against your brain and pulls the trigger… Standouts in this sf anthology include James Reilly’s Terra Tango 3, Jennifer Pelland’s Personal Jesus, and Michele Lee’s Meat World. These stories are cutthroat, sinister, sometimes lonely and always disturbing.”

—Jeff Carlson, international bestselling author of Plague Zone

I’ve been called a standout beside Jennifer Pelland. There really is no higher flattery than having your work put on the same level as someone you greatly admire. Thank you so much Jeff!

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May 4

Shift by Rachel Vincent

ISBN: 9780778327608

I bought this book.

Since this is the fifth book in the series readers really should be familiar with Faythe, Marc, Jace and the shifter world before picking this volume up. If you start here you should be able to pick things up, but the true levity of the situation is more complicated than this one book can explain. In fact, when compared to the rest of the series Shift is clearly a focusing book, eliminating some plot lines and focusing as the series comes to an end.

Faythe Sanders is a werecat, the prized female of her family, but abhorred by much of the rest of werecat society, which holds females to be used and manipulated for power (and to pop out babies to get more of the rare “tabbies”.) But in her family Faythe is an enforcer, bodyguard and extension of the alpha (her father)’s rule, and an unheard of position for the valuable females of the species. But living in a society that has fallen to such extremes such as women being kidnapped and bred over and over like in puppy mills, children being snatched to be raise to be broodmares instead of real people and women’s voices being overridden by any male in the area, has made Faythe unwilling to let herself of her cousins and extended family to continue being treated unequally. Her father has risked much to train her to be his own replacement, rather than forcing her to marry off. And for his own choices he’s now facing a full on werecat civil war against the clans that want things to remain as they are (with the power where it is as well).

However, Shift tones down the gender play and focuses on the family and pride dynamics. This book almost side steps from the direct plot arc to the werecat civil war and instead pits Faythe’s pride against a rookery of thunderbirds, avian shifters not seen in decades, who suddenly descend on the pride’s ranch out for blood.

Shift is partly side quest, part calm before the storm, which is saying something since most of the book is spent with the werecats fighting the onslaught of werebirds. But the focus is on untangling the depth of the situations Faythe finds herself in and in her learning how to work autonomously, making her own decisions. In essence, Faythe by this book is no longer working on defending her own right to be a valuable member of her pride rather than a valued possession of it, she’s learning the complications of being an alpha, no doubt preparing her to face the man out for her father’s blood.

Readers might find this the weakest book in the series, since most of the tension comes from an entirely new adversary and most of the drama comes from Faythe being torn between two men. It is still a fast, enjoyable read, pushing the series to a (hopefully) powerful conclusion. The growing up is hugely evident in this book, as is the focusing and accumulation feel to the overall plot line. Readers should savor every word and be ready for the final scene, Alpha, the sixth and last book due out this October (2010).

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April 29

Apex Magazine, April 2010

Apex Magazine is a free online SF/horror magazine. You can read the April issue here.

This issue of Apex starts with “Dying with Her Cheer Pants On” by Seanan McGuire (also available in audio form in this issue). The tale should be whimsical, but it’s not, pitting a team of cheerleaders, narrow escapees from a vicious alien invasion, against the creatures that killed most of the people at the homecoming game. But this is no Buffy the Alien Slayer, instead it’s a tale of a fantasy and horror showdown against science fiction. Humorous as pitting an urban legend against alien invaders might be, McGuire pulls it off without a tongue-in-cheek or sarcastic style, instead making her cheerleaders the ultimate superheroes.

Another urban fantasy staple, Mark Henry, follows with “Seafoam”. Henry picks up the tongue-in-cheek where McGuire kept things serious, but there’s still a mismatch with “Seafoam”, which uses a humorous tone to tell a serious story of stalking, mermaids/aliens and a shoe fetish. Skewing another urban legend, this one being The Licker, who slips in through the dog door and licks the babysitter’s feet while she’s half asleep, Henry makes the villain less of a bad guy and more of a hapless, and by the end, helpless, guy with a kink that leads into all kinds of troubles. Light as the tone may be, the level of the obsession and actions taken concerning it are genuinely spooky.

“Snipe Hunting” by Jennifer Brozek rounds out this issue (the Close Encounters of the Urban Kind promo issue). This short, punchy tale capitalizes on the city folk vs country folk legends, specifically of “snipe hunting”, the practice of sending ignorant city folk out hunting mythical creatures in the woods. The scary bits involve what the city slicker actually finds in the shadows of the woods.

Overall it’s a fun issue, like a twisted fairy tales theme, only with urban legends instead. A little cheesy (like the legends themselves) but well done and definitely entertaining.

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April 26

Twenty Boy Summer by Sara Ockler

ISBN: 9780316051590

I was given this book to review.

Twenty Boy Summer, a YA novel about two girls struggling to come to terms with the death of their best friend, hits like a most beautifully wrapped ton of bricks. Frankie and Anna are best friends, journeying on a spectacular trip to California. Last year Frankie’s older brother Matt spend a dazzling month secretly dating their best friend Anna before Matt died of an undiagnosed heart problem.

The book starts out describing how lucky the girls were to have survived the accident (Matt was driving when his heart gave), then proceeds to reveal what a misnomer “survival” is. Even a year later Frankie’s family is torn apart by their loss, and Anna, having sworn to keep her relationship with Matt a secret, is devastated at not being allowed to properly morn her own loss (or even understand what exactly she’s lost).

So the girls make a plan to meet twenty boys in their quest to lose their virginity and leave their heartache behind. But their search only triggers all the fears and emotions left behind, particularly as Anna is terrified that moving on will make what she had with Matt less special.

Twenty Boy Summer is beautiful, heartbreaking and a raw read through and through. While there are very few surprises here, and the plot is all character and angst driven, it speaks, very strongly, to anyone who has lost someone they love and has gone through the mourning process. This is not a fluffy, light-hearted fictional read, or even a fiction tale with serious, dark undertones. Twenty Boy Summer bears a resemblance the nineties film My Girl and the Katherine Paterson book The Bridge to Terabithia, set after the landmark character deaths and in a teen setting. Soulful and beautiful it’s a must, but difficult, read.

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