Sapphique

Finn has escaped from the terrible living Prison of Incarceron, but its memory torments him, because his brother Keiro is still inside. Outside, Claudia insists he must be king, but Finn doubts even his own identity. Is he the lost prince Giles? Or are his memories no more than another construct of his imprisonment? And can you be free if your friends are still captive? Can you be free if your world is frozen in time? Can you be free if you don't even know who you are?

Inside Incarceron, has the crazy sorcerer Rix really found the Glove of Sapphique, the only man the Prison ever loved. Sapphique, whose image fires Incarceron with the desire to escape its own nature. If Keiro steals the glove, will he bring destruction to the world? Inside. Outside. All seeking freedom. Like Sapphique.

Catherine's Fisher Incarceron was very satisfying, and I think Sapphique followed the league better than most sequels do. The world of Incarcon is an amazing one; Fisher really knows how to create a world and how to trap the reader in it. Her writing is fluid and rich, and it all got better in Sapphique. I just think that a lot of the book's potential was ruined buy the odd ending.

Sapphique was Incarceron but more pumped. There was more action, more drama, more suspense and Fisher started to admiringly toy with cliffhangers. Already the first chapters have you standing on edge, and its hard to put the book down for the first parts of the book. Sapphique was also alternating between many point of views, giving us a good tour of each and every character and how they were struggling with the inner and outer problems.

I must say I loved the universe Fisher created. It was truly original and fresh, not something I see often in YA litterature. She crafted two wonderful books and I'm glad she didn't extend them into a trilogy, because when authors do that they often slip away from their original goal, and the story becomes a mess.

In Sapphique, I started caring for Jared and Keiro more, and also Incarceron itself. They are my two (three if you count the Prison as a being) favorite characters, simply because I like Jared's soft caring and Keiro's sharp attitude. Claudia, Finn and Attia, development-wise, stayed pretty much the same. I did not get to poke my head into the depths of their persona, and sadly didn't care that much for them. I did not learn much more about the Warden, either, and the unraveling of his true feelings for Claudia was nonexistent. We all knew that their father-daughter relationship was bittersweet, but it was nothing new. Some people were added to the cast, but they did not rise above their roll of supporting characters that are eventually forgotten.

The only drawback in the book is the ending; it felt rushed and was extremely odd. Many elements were left unexplained. The reader is not told the true nature of Incarceron, and why it has a voice, a mind and dreams. The whole concept of 'magicke' that Rix uses and that is the essence of the Glove is left for us to wander about. The dove and the eagle appear many times throughout the book, at various places, but no clear light is made on them either. It's easy to assume and guess the eagle represents the royal family, and the dove, Sapphique, but what was their connection? Another example is when Claudia enters Incarceron while having it in her pocket, it being the little cube on her father's pocket watch. How is this possible? There were many plotholes of this kind.

I an still unsure, and out-mostly confused on Sapphique's case. I liked the fact he was a legend, the hero of a myth whose real existence cannot be proven, and I would have been content on having him stay that. Yet, Fisher incorporated him back into the story in the most bizarre way imaginable, and without concrete explanations. The ending leaves the reader confused and asking for questions, and truthfully, it was just all so odd.

I cannot say the ending satisfied me, even if the rest of the book was amazing. It seems Fisher rushed the last hundred pages into a senseless mess, and its a bit of a shame, I dare say, for so many pages of good stuff to be ruined. The series still stands as a wonderful duo of books that will enchant many Young Adults. It has a brilliantly crafted plot, characters that are perhaps not memorable but fun to follow, but a rushed ending. Go read it still, and I rest my case.

-Beryl

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher
Rating: 9/10

Thirteen Reasons Why

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.

Thirteen Reasons Why is told by the recorded voice of Hannah Baker who, through the faces of seven cassettes, tells the story of how she came to be suicidal and eventually took her own life. Alternating with her tale is Clay Jensen, one of the thirteen people featured on her list. He spends an entire night listening to what she has to say and briefing the reader on his own vision of Hannah when she was still alive and on the few moments they spent together.

Minus the flaws I will speak of later on, this book can be considered as relatively good. I had spotted it long time ago on the shelves of Indigo and heard it was very appreciated throughout the main stream. It was indeed plastered with genuinely good critiques almost everywhere. I nevertheless differ from the main stream opinion, and think that whilst this book can be appreciated for many reasons, it lacks too many things to be considered as strong and true.

With Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher illustrates how the often cruel behaviour of teens leads to unconscious repercussions on others. In this book, it is Hannah who is the punching bag of the many nasty girls and boys that dwell in her school (the classical morons that you as well as I have probably already met once in our life) and who unable her from making friends that she can trust. With his debut novel, Asher tries to portrait how little cruelties piled up can do much harm.

While I agree that high school can be hell for a lot of people I somehow thought it forgot to show and describe how Hannah suffered, and instead we learned it through her narrative, which didn't give the same effect, but I'll get to it later. First of all, the characters.

My opinion on this book can be summarized with this simple statement: I loved what Hannah had to say. I wish I could have said the same about Clay.

Clay was a total gary stu. It is unbelievable how amazingly annoying he was, to the point I started skipping his narrative towards the end of the book. Long story short, he is the adorable, kind and shy but understanding guy that would have been Hanna's 'the one' if he hadn't stepped forward so late. When he receives the cassettes and listens to the first one, he panics, terrorized like a little rabbit and shedding tears every few minutes. Asher gave him a quite important role in the book: he offers the reader a view of Hannah seen by the eyes of an outsider who has no clue why he's on Hannah's list. It is needless to say that Clay fails delivering such a view. All he does is nourish dialogs with Hannah in his head, even though she is dead. Every once in a while the reader has something going around the line of "Why did you do this Hannah?" "Why did you go there? You knew it was dangerous!" "Oh Hannah, what did I do, tell me what I did to you!"

This pitiful whining is not needed to explain Clay's distraught mood, especially since he spends more time saying these lines over and over again instead of really focusing on how he remembers Hannah. Most of the time he simply repeats what she tells in her recordings, but by altering the information with his own words. It is incredibly frustrating and this is why I didn't appreciate the book as much as I could have.

Hannah's character and personality are pretty clear from the beginning: she's an outgoing, smart and mature girl who easily falls in love with poetry. She's slightly rebellious and imaginative, but eventually looses herself as the nagging from the kids all around her becomes constant, and as those she considers friends slowly backstab her. Hannah’s narrative is interesting, since she’s a dead girl getting her revenge. The idea of getting her due back by recording people’s actions on tape and making them listen to them is ingenious and quite chilling. It is truly a good way of shoving the truth into the faces of those who don’t realize how much they hurt people. That is why I was intrigued by what Hannah had to say, and why I could have easily skipped Clay’s narrative.

One of the only issues with this book is that it lacked emotions. Clay failed in giving us the picture of the gradually evolving Hannah, and Hannah's narrative concentrated on describing the events that led her to change, but not how she changed. Asher concentrated too much on making Clay feel sorry for himself and on Hannah describing everything. He forgot about the emotions that needed to come along, and as a reader, I didn’t see Hannah change. Never once in the book did I relate to her. Clay was also so over emotional it seems the author forgot who the suffering victim in his book was.

Lastly, during the reader, I felt disconnected to Hannah’s motives, and constantly felt like they were surrealistic. I know and do understand how few years of bad high school life can destroy and be painful, especially since teenagers are in their full growth and development. The list of misfortunes that Hannah has to endure is clear, and I do agree that most of it is nasty and all, but somehow I am not persuaded. To me Hannah seems like a very strong character, mentality speaking. She has the smarts to rise above the level of teen stupidity and ignore it, but somehow she always gets caught up with it, and chooses to be affected by it, too. Even when she meets Clay and discovers he can be her life-saving boat she chooses to kill herself. High school can be bad, but it doesn't last.

Thirteen Reasons Why will touch some readers. It is a reminder that even when we think we are alone, there is always someone out there that truly cares for us and who is just waiting to help out. I nevertheless met with too many flaws to appreciate this book. It's a good read for Young Adults, and entertaining enough when you ignore Clay's inner monologue. It brings its point across and is highly original, but somehow slipps when it comes to the feelings of the characters. I still encourage teenagers to read this, since it's good for the consciousness of some.

-Beryl

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Rating: 8/10

Pepper Ink's New Year's Resolutions

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Favorite Books of 2010

2010 is coming to an end, and so is our first year of existence. We've read and reviewed 66 books over the course of the year, some amazing, some awful, some just average. I believe now is a good time to say which were the best reads of this year. Some were published this year, most were not. We just lay our hands on them during 2010. Without further ado, our top-5 reads of the year :

Aithen's favorite books of 2010

5.

The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray

Wych-kin, similar to what we call demons, run all over London. It is up to Thaniel Fox to rid the city of them. On one of his hunting trips, he encounters a young woman, Alaizabel Cray. I especially loved the world created.

4.


The Alienist
Laszlo Kreisler investigates a series of gruesome murders, all committed on young prostitute boys. He explores the psychology of the murderer in search of clues. What I preferred in this one is the complexity of the plot - every page was more complicated than the last.

3.


Incarceron
Stuck in an alive prison, Finn tries to escape its grasp. Meanwhile, outside the prison, Claudia, the daughter of Incarceron's, the alive prison's, warden, is trying to escape a marriage to a boy she despises. Though at the time, I hadn't given it a very high rating, Incarceron marked me. I can't wait to read the sequel, I've already ordered it!

2.


Feed
People have a chip inside their head that constantly gives them the latest updates on everything - fashion, games, vacation locations. Titus, a normal teenager, meets Violet, a young girl who rather dislikes her feed and the capitalist society that comes with it. There was so much emotion in this book, it overflowed. The world was frightening, yet amazing.

1.

Unwind
In a world where troublesome children, orphans and tithes can be unwound (have all their organs removed and donated), three Unwinds, Connor, Lev and Risa are running from their fate. The horrifying scenes and terrifying world in this book were what made Unwind memorable for me - I still think of them sometimes and cringe.

Beryl's favorite books of 2010

5.

The Hunger Games

In Panem, every year, two children from twelve districts are chosen to compete against each other in an arena. The last person alive wins. The Hunger Games has a message, and this message is very clear. It is the perfect presentation of humans' cruelty and of how some people see many things as simple games that they watch from high above. It is the start of a good trilogy, but it's the best of all three books.

4.

Noughts and Crosses

In a world where the white are persecuted and the black rule the world, and where both races are not supposed to mingle, Callum and Sephy struggle to love each other. This book really brings in a fresh point of view and slaps discrimination in our faces. It is true and tragic, and I recommend it to all young adults.

3.

The Lovely Bones

Susie Salmon was murdered on December 6, 1973, after being raped. It's from her gazebo in heavens that she tells the story of how her family survives her loss and how life goes on. I had trouble putting this book down. It was filled with so many emotions it brought me to tears. It is a beautiful story that proves that after the greatest tragedy, not all is lost and that life keeps on going...

2.

The Book Thief

In Nazi Germany, Liesel Meminger, a little girl adopted by a foster family, starts an amazing love affair with books and words. I will always remember this book for its wonderful characters and truthfulness, and how Zusak succeeded in showing a side of Nazi Germany that I didn't know. Told by the point of view of Death and written in a very original way, this is a must read.

1.

The Garden of Everlasting Spring

One of the most beautiful and inspiring stories I ever read. It is the tale of the Laguna women who struggle against their curse of unhappy love throughout many generations. The characters are memorable and deep, and the writing is elegant and extremely rich. This book is for all who crave true love.

Happy New Year! And our best wishes for the upcoming year. May you read as much as you want!

The Graveyard Book

After his family was murdered, a little boy wanders into a graveyard, where the ghosts decide to let him live with them and protect him from the murderer still searching for hi. Raised by spirits, the boy, named Nobody, will stay with his adoptive parents and guardians until he reaches manhood.

I got a lot of money for Christmas (people never know what to get me, so they opt for gift cards for book shops), and The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, is the first book I bought with my new (and temporary) riches. Wonderful, wonderful book, in all aspects, and even if it's sometimes labelled as a children's book, it's much more than that.

First of all, I had never personally seen a story about a child being raised by ghosts, in a graveyard. Sure, there are lots of ghost stories out there, but this one struck me as truly unique, and was well enough executed to excuse any resemblances to other novels.

The characters are amazing. Bod, short for Nobody, is growing up in a graveyard. Obviously, he's different from the other children, and Gaiman really has the trick to make his characters believable. Bod really grows throughout the novel, and has an amazing depth I can only admire. The crew of ghosts and spirits that raises Bod is also very diversified, and though none of them are as well developed as Bod himself, they are all unique.

The way this story was written was in a series of short stories, memorable moments of Bod's childhood. Most of them don't have much of a link between them, but that doesn't really matter. The tales of Bod's life are all equally adorable and they all draw you into the story. What I really liked, though, was how even though each story could stand alone, there was an actual plot : Jack wants, needs, to kill Bod. It was introduced in the first chapter, and concluded in the last, each story bringing its own contribution to the evolution of the story.

The only thing this book lacked was explanation. The book raised many, many questions, and hardly any of them were actually answered. Who is the Honour Guard, what do they do, how did they come to be? Where do the Jacks of All Trades come from, what is their purpose, who prophesied their death? I wish the book had provided answers to all these questions and more.

Overall, even though many side stories and plots in the book were left hanging, I thought it was a wonderful book. I didn't stop reading for an instant once I opened it. I read on the ride home, on the sofa, on the other sofa when my brother pushed me out of the TV room. I read it in a single sitting, and I couldn't have put it down if I had wanted to. I recommend it to everyone, young and old. It has the power to charm any reader, even if the years during which they were Bod's age are far, far away. After all, this childhood tale is, as Neil Gaiman said himself, also one about parenting.

-Aithen

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Rating : 9/10

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years, from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding, that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives, the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness, are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

The very first issue I had with this book was that I didn't like reading about a woman that is married against her will and that is afterward beaten for various reasons and trapped in an unhappy marriage. Because this is also the story of many real women, I felt bad and didn't enjoy reading the first few chapters. I nevertheless pushed myself and made it to the end rather satisfied.

I picked up A Thousand Splendid Suns mainly because I wanted to learn something new. This book is rich in history and culture of Afghanistan, and I'm glad it enlightened me.

This is the story of Mariam and Laila who survive the many conflicts in Afghanistan and also the hardships of their marriage to the same man, Rasheed, your typical cruel husband who beats and reduces the freedom of his wives. It's the story of how, despite those hardships, they create a family and find happiness after many years of death and war.

The book is written in the point of view of Mariam and Laila, and alternates between the two. The plot itself is quite good, but to me most of the characters seemed flat, at the beginning especially. There isn't much I could say about any of them. They aren't memorable characters, either, and got better only towards the ending of the book. Look how short my review is! I really don't have much to say about it. It is a book that will be appreciated for the mass of information it contains, for its message and meaning, but not for the characters.

I think this story should be read for the context and history it presents. It definitively has something to teach, but I consider A Thousand Splendid Suns as the kind of book that is only good to read if you want to get a good portrait of some chunk of history: The characters are flat, the writing style is simple and uninspiring, and so all you pay attention to or remember after the read is the drama and the moral.

-Beryl

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Rating: 7,7/10

Books that will become movies : Incarceron

Incarceron's review is here

No. I can't believe it.

And that was supposed to sound really, really depressed and annoyed.

So Fox 2000 is going to make a movie out of Incarceron. Super! I loved that book. I hope it'll follow the book's plot enough for me to appreciate it. I'm also anxious for Sapphique to come out in Canada, so I can buy it. I'm literally counting down days, and there are 5 left.


But guess who's been casted as Finn.


Taylor Launtner.

THIS GUY. -->

TAYLOR LAUNTNER. THE WEREWOLF DUDE THAT JUST SHOWED OFF HIS BODY FOR THE TWILIGHT SAGA.


That just ruined it for me. He hasn't proven he can act, and he doesn't even fit the role! Finn isn't supposed to be over-the-top gorgeous (I don't think Taylor Launtner is gorgeous, but the fangirls do), he's an awkward misfit that looks ugly compared to his buddy.



Whatever. I'll go see it anyways, and review it anyways, but right now, I am so.pissed.off. I had high expectations for this book, the book itself fulfilled them, but THIS? I guess I'll have to wait to see the movie to really judge it, but I can hardly believe they actually casted Taylor Launtner as Finn. Ugh.