Over the last few months, I’ve been trying to find rhythm and inspiration for blogging again, and part of that has come through taking a break from YA and romance, and getting back into the books that started it all for me: the classics. Happily, The Cheap Reader and several other fantastic blogs have come up with a way to celebrate a shared love for classical literature.

The Classics Retold project was inspired by Project: Fairy Tale. Simply choose a classic work of literature, and explore all of its sequels, retellings, reinterpretations. How you do this is completely up to you–character analyses and liveblogging can mix with reviews of the texts and/or films. September 2013 is when it all goes down!

I’ve signed up to cover one of my favourite plays, Much Ado About Nothing. It’s a play that’s fascinated me since I was a kid, and with every year I’ve reread it, I find more and more to love about it. I’m especially excited to talk about two recent adaptations: Josie Rourke’s direction of David Tennant and Catherine Tate as Benedick and Beatrice, and Joss Whedon’s black-and-white film (which I was lucky enough to see at TIFF last September!). Both have only deepened my appreciation for the original text, and I’m so excited to discuss all of them with all of you.

Tentative plans include posts on:

• the original text of the play
• infidelity and double standards, as illustrated by Hero and Claudio’s relationship
• the women of Much Ado, and how they do/don’t represent the ideal female
• the men of Much Ado, and how they do/don’t represent the ideal male
• the 2005 BBC television adaptation starring Damian Lewis, Sarah Parish and Billie Piper
• theatre versus film: advantages and disadvantages of these mediums in a retelling
• the different kinds of comedy in the play
• the 2011 theatre production starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate
• the 2012 film starring Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof

Want to know more? The talented bloggers hosting this event are:

• Alyssa @ Books Take You Places is in charge of Ancient to Renaissance Lit Classics. Sign up post
• Brittany @ Book Addict’s Guide is in charge of Mythology Classics. Sign up post
• Charlene @ Bookish Whimsy is in charge of 19th Century and Gothic Classics. Sign up post
• Alison @ The Cheap Reader is in charge of Children’s Classics. Sign up post
• Wendy @ Excellent Library is in charge of American & Misc. Classics. Sign up post

Did I mention they’re setting up some great giveaways for participants? I would love to hear all about your favourite classics, so don’t forget to sign up!

It’s 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. 

She devises a plan to get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street. Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.

With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny.

Tell Me More: With one novel, Ruta Sepetys became an insta-buy author on my list. Between Shades of Gray was an astonishing story that still lives in my mind, and when I discovered that she had a new novel coming out this year, I didn’t need to know the plot to know that I’d have to read it. Happily, all my expectations were justified and more, because Out of the Easy is just as powerful a story as Gray.

Josie is one of the strongest female characters I’ve read in ages. She’s nowhere near being perfect, but there is a resilience to her spirit that captivated me from the first page. She might not have the ideal life, but she works hard and she has ambition enough to change it into whatever she wants it to be. But she’s also young enough to want to believe in an illusion, and for a few short hours, Forrest Hearne allows her that illusion. His murder doesn’t just rock the community, but the foundations of her life, and makes this more than a cliched story of a girl trying to get out of a small town.

Out of the Easy is a novel that takes every part of Josie’s life, every person she interacts with, and every decision she makes, and allows all of them to reflect the kind of person she is. Josie is surrounded by some very strong and memorable characters, but they never overwhelm her or the story. Sepetys manages both with a deft and confident hand, giving Josie and her story room to grow and fall and make mistakes.

Of particular interest is the relationship between Josie and Willie, the brothel madam. Willie is more of a mother to Josie than Josie’s biological mother ever was, and even before Willie begins to hint at the reason for that, the similarities are striking. Both of them are women who have learned to take what they find in life and shape it into something they can work with. Willie doesn’t lie to Josie or tell her that life is fair, and that honesty shapes the person that Josie becomes through the course of the novel.

I don’t see the mystery behind Forrest Hearne’s death as the core of the story. Instead, it is the changes Josie undergoes as she discovers the myriad differences between her and her mother. Where Josie faces life head-on, her mother allows herself to be led by illusions. Where Josie is stubborn and focused, her mother is easily fooled and distracted by fleeting desires. A less talented writer would fumble with characters like these, and may even allow judgement to creep into her narration. Not so for Sepetys, who lets the reader come to their own conclusion about the kind of person that Louise Moraine is, and the kind of person Josie has the potential to be.

Lastly, I feared that the possible romantic set-ups between Josie and two local boys would prove to be a distraction from the story. Happily, I found myself enjoying the careful hints of Jesse’s affection for her, and I am glad that her life choices weren’t limited to picking between Jesse and Patrick. It was never a love triangle, and more importantly, it was never something that would define Josie.

The Final Say: Nothing about Josie Moraine’s life comes easy, but Ruta Sepetys’ writing makes her story more than just another historical novel. Out of the Easy will settle into your bones and live in your mind as much as New Orleans lives in Josie.

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About Ruta

Ruta Sepetys was born and raised in Michigan in a family of artists, readers, and music lovers. Her award-winning debut novel, “Between Shades of Gray” was inspired by her family’s history in Lithuania and is published in 40 countries. Ruta lives with her family in Tennessee.

Add Out of the Easy on Goodreads | Follow Ruta on Twitter @rutasepetys | Visit Ruta’s website

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Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. 

1. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare – I had been pleasantly surprised by the first two books in this series, and was hoping CP2 would round out the trilogy. That was not the case, and I still feel hoodwinked a full three weeks after reading it. Check out my review here.

2. Just One Day by Gayle Forman - If I Stay and Where She Went are two of my all-time favourite contemporary novels, so my disappointment in Forman’s newest novel is doubly painful. I couldn’t relate to Allyson, and Willem was not swoon-worthy in the least.

3. Eve and Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate – My love for the Animorphs series knows no bounds, but I was nervous about this new release from the same authors that brought me my childhood heroes. I shouldn’t have worried–the story was intense enough to capture my attention, with characters that are just as memorable as Jake, Cassie and Rachel. Check out my review here.

4. Every Day by David Levithan – As much as I loved David Levithan’s past novels, I just could not get into Every Day. A was not a character I could relate to, and the way the story played out was not something I was comfortable with. Check out my review here.

5. Something Like Normal by Trish Doller – The story of a young man returning from the war in Afghanistan and his struggle to relearn and reclaim his life captivated me completely. I read this book in a few hours and immediately wanted to reread it.

6. Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield – I wanted to love this book, but the plot twists did not make sense to me, and I couldn’t invest myself in the characters. Check out my review here.

7. Hemlock by Katherine Peacock – This tale of werewolves in a small town was recommended to me by the amazing Shannon at HarperCollins, and while I had my reservations regarding paranormal YA, I found that Peacock had a writing style that was wonderfully paced and kept the story from falling into tropes. It’s one of the few paranormal novels I would recommend. Check out my review here.

8. Insurgent by Veronica Roth – I enjoyed Divergent when I first read it, but not enough to remember what had happened by the time Insurgent was released. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time getting through this second installment of the series, and I don’t think I’ll be picking up the third and final novel this fall.

9. Mister Death’s Blue-Eyed Girls by Mary Downing Hahn – Gorgeous prose and characters that are starkly drawn and so very human made this one of my top ten books in 2012. Check out my review here.

10. Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly – I avoid angel novels for the most part, but again, recommendations from trusted friends convinced me to pick up this book, and what an intense and crazy ride it was. Check out my review here.

What are the books that you thought you would love more or less than you did? 

“Bono met his wife in high school,” Park says.
“So did Jerry Lee Lewis,” Eleanor answers.
“I’m not kidding,” he says.
“You should be,” she says, “we’re sixteen.”
“What about Romeo and Juliet?”
“Shallow, confused, then dead.”
”I love you,” Park says.
“Wherefore art thou,” Eleanor answers.
“I’m not kidding,” he says.
“You should be.”

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.

Tell Me More: Eleanor & Park was a book that came highly recommended to me by the fabulous Rebecca at Indigo Yorkdale. With comparisons to The Fault in Our Stars and Gayle Forman being made by fellow readers I trusted, I knew right away that I had to find the time to check out why everyone loved this story. Unfortunately, good recommendations don’t always result in satisfying reads, and Eleanor and Park simply did not charm me as much as I hoped they would.

My reading experience can best be expressed as an inability to suspend disbelief. I couldn’t lose myself in the story because everything felt too perfectly set up to tell a certain kind of story. I felt like I could see all the reasons why Rowell chose to have her characters say and do certain things, instead of discovering those hidden layers bit by bit as I read. I spent most of my reading time nodding along, thinking “of course they love the Smiths,” “of course comic books are what they connect over,” and the like. There’s nothing wrong with those things being E&P’s interests, but I feel like every single “nerd/outcast” character in YA fiction shares the same interests. Some variety would be nice–how about a self-proclaimed nerd who loves pop music or reality shows? Park’s parents were pretty stereotypical too, and I couldn’t quite shed my discomfort with the way the relationship was illustrated. Park’ father might love his mother, but I never got the sense that he truly understood her or cared about her cultural background, and I do not agree with John Green’s review where he stated that they were well-drawn adults.

Likewise, the love story between Eleanor and Park results in some adorable moments, but it never really got off the ground for me. I couldn’t particularly relate to either of them, so I wasn’t invested in what eventually happened between them. Some thoughts Eleanor had about Asians also bothered me enough to make me step away from the book for a little bit. The relationship between Eleanor and Park wasn’t surprising either, though there were a few moments that made me go “awww.” There was little to distinguish it from other contemporary YA romances, and even as I write this review, I struggle to recall scenes that made me emotional.

What I did find intriguing were Eleanor’s life at home and her family. I wish more time had been spent on scenes between Eleanor and her siblings, instead of the hints of discontent and distrust that are scattered throughout the book. Her abusive step-father was the only character to garner a real reaction from me, and remembering some of the things he said and did still makes me shudder. I also would have liked to know more about her mother and the relationship they had before her mother married Richie.

The Final Say: Eleanor & Park read like a sketch of a painting: not quite whole, not quite full and not quite real enough to capture my imagination and make me love it.

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About Rainbow

Rainbow Rowell is the author of Attachments, Eleanor & Park, and Fangirl. When she’s not writing, she’s obsessing over other people’s made-up characters, planning Disney World trips, and arguing about things that don’t really matter in the big scheme of things.

Add Eleanor & Park on Goodreads | Follow Rainbow on Twitter @rainbowrowell | Visit Rainbow’s website

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tick
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it’s almost
time for war.

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She’s finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam’s life.

Tell Me More: There are some books that make you wonder if you’ve hyped them up too much in your head, if time will show that they weren’t really as good as you thought they were, if maybe you just saw what you wanted to see and not what was really there. For a while after reading Shatter Me, I felt this way about Juliette’s story, and I was nervous that my distaste for dystopians would colour my opinion of the sequel. Happily, Tahereh Mafi doesn’t just manage to meet expectations in this second installment, but blasts past them to bring another heart-pounding story into the world.

Where Shatter Me was isolated and centered solely on Juliette, Unravel Me is wide and open. The reader is introduced to supporting characters who don’t exist just to fill gaps and help move the story along. They all feel like real people, with different motivations and goals. They are all memorable, from Sonya and Sara, the twins that help heal the injured at Omega Point, to Brendan, a soldier who makes Juliette smile, to Castle, the enigmatic leader of the Point. Mafi’s decision to spend time with all of these characters is one that pays off handsomely before the end of the novel.

Kenji and Warner are the returning characters that shine the brightest in Unravel Me, while Adam seems more like a shadow of his Shatter Me self. Kenji is as witty and funny as ever, but he doesn’t give Juliette any room to pity or isolate herself further. Sometimes I felt like he cared more for her welfare and growth than Adam did, and I can only conclude that Adam’s desire to keep her safe blinds him to the fact that she still has agency.

But Warner? He’s the real stand-out character in this installment. He permeates Juliette’s thoughts, and while she can’t quite figure out why at first, she soon realizes that she sees something in him that he might not even see in himself: hope. His characterization is reminiscent of Draco Malfoy in many ways, though I think Mafi is setting Warner up for a redemption arc. It’ll be interesting to see how she stays true to his characterization thus far, while opening the story up to allow for a romance between him and Juliette. His ruthlessness and cruelty is given reason in Unravel Me, though it’s still up to the reader to decide whether or not it’s a good reason. He and Juliette both represent the potential for people to change and grow, and I do think that they complete each other in important ways.

The story itself reflects that completion: when Warner first appears, it feels as though the missing part of the story has clicked smoothly into place, and now the real action can begin. The chapters preceding that are comfortable and help the reader settle back in, but the novel shifts into a faster pace and more intense scenes once Warner is thrown into the mix. Mafi is talented at building suspense–my heart was literally pounding during certain scenes, and by the time I closed the book, I felt just as exhausted as Juliette. But oh, I am just as ready as she is for the next step in the journey.

The Final Say: Unravel Me probably isn’t a book you should pick up if you want to relax, but should you rise to the challenge, you’ll find a story that is even more astonishing than its predecessor, and an author who has only grown more confident in the story she’s telling and in her characters.

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About Tahereh

Tahereh Mafi is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Shatter Me series. She was born and raised in a small city somewhere in Connecticut and currently resides in Orange County, California, where the weather is just a little too perfect for her taste. When unable to find a book, she can be found reading candy wrappers, coupons, and old receipts.

Add Unravel Me on Goodreads | Follow Tahereh on Twitter @taherehmafi | Visit Tahereh’s website and follow her on Tumblr  

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Katarina Bishop and W.W. Hale the fifth were born to lead completely different lives: Kat comes from a long, proud line of loveable criminal masterminds, while Hale is the scion of one of the most seemingly perfect dynasties in the world. If their families have one thing in common, it’s that they both know how to stay under the radar while getting–or stealing–whatever they want. No matter the risk, the Bishops can always be counted on, but in Hale’s family, all bets are off when money is on the line.

When Hale unexpectedly inherits his grandmother’s billion dollar corporation, he quickly learns that there’s no place for Kat and their old heists in his new role. But Kat won’t let him go that easily, especially after she gets tipped off that his grandmother’s will might have been altered in an elaborate con to steal the company’s fortune. So instead of being the heir–this time, Hale might be the mark.

Forced to keep a level head as she and her crew fight for one of their own, Kat comes up with an ambitious and far-reaching plan that only the Bishop family would dare attempt. To pull it off, Kat is prepared to do the impossible, but first, she has to decide if she’s willing to save her boyfriend’s company if it means losing the boy.

Tell Me More: It is a truth universally acknowledged that the Heist Society series is one of my favourite things to come out of YA fiction. Kat Bishop is a heroine that goes unnoticed in her own story, and she relies on exactly that to pull off feats that no one assumes a sixteen-year-old girl could, to their detriment. It’s precisely that trait that I admire most about Kat, and it’s what keeps me reading this fantastic series.

In Perfect Scoundrels, Kat finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between her loyalty towards Hale and her instincts. Kat’s experience leads her to suspect that something might be wrong with the will presented to the Hale family, but she must tread carefully to expose it, or risk alienating Hale completely. While the heist part of the story might be formulaic to readers who have followed the series faithfully, Carter still manages to pull off enough surprises to keep that plotline from being boring.

What I found most interesting was Kat’s exploration of who she was in relation to the people around her. Hale was her partner before he ever became her boyfriend, and it was fascinating to see how she deals with seeing him in his “true” environment, as a heir to a wealthy and influential family. Hale’s avoidance of the subject added to the mystery of his family, so seeing them as real, flawed people only made the story more compelling. Readers will have spent two books siding with Hale, understanding and liking him, so naturally, no one wants to be told that Hale was wrong. But Carter is a better writer than that. She illustrates the nuances of Hale’s family and the world they occupy without sinking into stereotypes. They become people that we recognize not only around us, but in ourselves. We are all selfish sometimes, we are all oblivious sometimes, we all find ourselves at a loss sometimes, and Carter doesn’t impose judgment on her characters or their choices.

Kat’s “family” of choice has always been a highlight of this series, and they serve as a foil to Hale’s family of blood. In my interview with Carter, we talked briefly about how for many people, their family are their friends, and while they might not be related genetically, the bonds forged are often stronger because each person made the choice to stay and support each other. Carter presents that idea in Perfect Scoundrels by showing how Kat’s friends trust her to know what she’s doing even when they don’t understand it or her motivations. Certainly, no family is ideal, and there are arguments and fights and sometimes you have to give up on a battle. But if there’s one thing Perfect Scoundrels is, it’s true to the idea that your family are the people you take the biggest risks for, including maybe even losing their love to help them.

The Final Say: The third installment of the Heist Society series is as intriguing and surprising as the previous novels, bringing heart and honesty to Kat’s story. Perfect Scoundrels proves that this is a series teenagers and adults alike should be picking up.

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About Ally

Ally Carter is a writer living and working in the Midwest. She loved school so much she kept going…and going…and going…until finally she had to graduate. Now she has degrees from Oklahoma State University and Cornell University and a house and a job and other very grown-up things.

Add Perfect Scoundrels on Goodreads | Follow Ally on Twitter @OfficiallyAlly | Visit Ally’s website

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Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

Tell Me More: A is someone for whom distance is key–life itself depends on remaining an observer, never getting too close and staying under the radar. But while the concept behind A’s life might be fascinating, I never once felt emotionally compelled by it or invested in the story. In some ways, the distance necessary to understand the changes A experiences also made it difficult for me to love the story. In fact, it was precisely this distance that gave me reasons to dislike it.

Objectively speaking, Every Day is a well-written novel. The writing is as impeccable as I’ve come to expect from David Levithan, and the themes he choose to highlight are thought-provoking as always. His use of language was particularly intense in a chapter where A wakes up as a drug addict. It was stark and raw, bleedingly so, and it reflects the experience of losing oneself as eloquently as anyone could probably put it.

Where the story failed to hook me was the romance between A & Rhiannon, which was really the only thing that ever motivated A during the entire novel. I felt like I was being told that A loved her more than I could actually feel it. Rhiannon’s ordinariness may have drawn A to her, but it didn’t draw me in. And as the book went on, I grew more and more uncomfortable with how A pursued her, recklessly endangering every host he entered after Justin (Rhiannon’s boyfriend). I could probably understand A finding an opportunity to talk to her if the host that day attended the same school, or if A saw her on the street, but driving hours away to a party? Lying unnecessarily and messing with the lives of the people A enters? Certainly, A did not mean any harm. But that line comes very close to what most stalkers say, and I was disturbed by how it felt like I should be cheering A on.

If what Levithan meant to do was illustrate the tangled threads of obsession and infatuation and how they can chip away at a person’s soul, then he succeeded. But as much as I can appreciate the technical beauty of the prose, A is not a protagonist that I felt comfortable getting to know, and the story left me feeling as though I’d been taken for a ride and left out in the desert to fend for myself, without any sort of real closure.

The Final Say: Every Day is a novel that will make you reconsider the people you pass every day on the street, the friends you know and the relationships you have in a new light, though it doesn’t quite manage to say anything concrete about those new perspectives other than that you should have them.

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About David

David Levithan (born 1972) is an American children’s book editor and award-winning author. He published his first YA book, Boy Meets Boy, in 2003. Levithan is also the founding editor of PUSH, a Young Adult imprint of Scholastic Press.

Add Every Day on Goodreads | Follow David on Twitter @loversdiction | Visit David’s website

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Tessa Gray should be happy – aren’t all brides happy? Yet as she prepares for her wedding, a net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. A new demon appears, one linked by blood and secrecy to Mortmain, the man who plans to use his army of pitiless automatons, the Infernal Devices, to destroy the Shadowhunters. Mortmain needs only one last item to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. And Jem and Will, the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa’s heart, will do anything to save her.

Tell Me More: 2013 brings another trilogy to its long-awaited conclusion in Clockwork Princess, and like many YA readers, I was eager to know exactly how Cassandra Clare would tie up all the loose ends in The Infernal Devices. Unfortunately for me, only disappointment lay down that path.

It’s been about 15 months since I last read Clockwork Prince, but I do still think of it with fondness, mostly because so much of that story was centered on Jem Carstairs. He has consistently been the most developed character, more than anyone else in the series, and I enjoyed getting to know him better. But in Clockwork Princess, Clare tries to bring the story back to focus on Will, Tessa and Jem, and it doesn’t quite work so well. I have never really felt like this was Tessa’s story, despite the fact that both main male characters and the main antagonist both want her. Clare’s female characters, with the exception of Charlotte Branwell, have always felt one-dimensional to me, and there is very little mystery to them. Three books are devoted to the truth of Tessa’s parentage, but the actual revelation falls flat, and I’d guessed it back when I read Clockwork Angel. But really, even after the massive build up and all the suspense poured into finding out what Tessa is, I don’t think anyone could have been surprised by it.

(Lots of spoilers ahead!)

Tessa is half-demon, half-Nephilim, an impossible child made possible. Okay, now what? Mortmain wants to use her to breed a new race that will eliminate the Nephilim. It wasn’t a shocking plan, or one that required a whole lot of creativity on Mortmain’s part. He is a villain that relies on the strength of others to put his plans into motion, and while that’s the usual case, it just didn’t interest me as a reader.

The bigger disappointment, however, is the love triangle between Will, Tessa and Jem, and the fact that Will and Jem’s bond of friendship is built up so much only makes it worse. I have read Clare’s posts about both pairings, and I must confess I find myself stunned by most of it. I wrote a little bit about my thoughts on what was going to happen in my review of Clockwork Prince:

It’s no secret that I dislike Will. But I do think that Tessa is going to pick him in the end. Clockwork Prince may be Jem’s book, but all signs point to Tessa choosing to throw caution and reason to the wind for Will. They deserve each other. I’m not saying that in any negative way, but simply as a statement of fact. There is something in Will and Tessa that calls out to each other and I don’t think that either of them can resist it. Many of the events in Prince reference that draw, and set up a final installment which cannot have a perfectly happy ending.

Admittedly, I am not a lover of the bad boy, so Will has always been a harder character for me to get to know. But I do love him with Jem, and I love their friendship so very very much. It bespoke of a comfort and an understanding that so few people find in their own friends, it was nice to see friendship so highly praised and respected in YA. But it also made me wonder how in the world Clare was going to resolve the love triangle. Short answer? She doesn’t. She writes herself out of the tiniest corner, and as a reader, I honestly feel like I’ve been tricked. And after rereading my review of CP, I feel like I should have seen it coming, but it doesn’t make the truth any less unsavoury.

The Infernal Devices seems to have an a very deep attachment to happy endings and punishing those who don’t conform to that ideal. Every single character ends up with somebody–Cecily and Gabriel Lightwood in particular don’t make sense to me, and they feel like they were just put together because it would tie everything up nicely. Likewise, Gideon and Sophie were characters I enjoyed, but I didn’t see why they needed to be together. I realize that for many readers, happy endings and ships coming together are exactly what they wanted out of this series, but I was not satisfied with that.

But a forced happy ending is exactly what Will, Tessa and Jem receive. Jem’s death hit me hard, but not as hard as the sex scene that followed Will and Tessa finding out about it. I have read Clare’s post about this, and I personally disagree with her. I do not think it was justified, nor do I think it was right in any sense of the word. It was very possible for them to comfort one another without sleeping with each other. You can’t excuse it by saying Jem would have been okay with it–he’s a sixteen-year-old boy, not a saint, and even saints felt jealousy and anger. It felt as wrong as how Jem and Will were constantly described as loving only Tessa and Tessa alone, while Tessa was “a heart divided.”

Will and Jem were so bound up in each other that Will finding Tessa, being with Tessa, comforting Tessa, was the closest that Jem could get to doing those things himself.

It still doesn’t make them the same person. And it felt even worse knowing that they were friends of the deepest sort. I can see how Clare was trying to make this an equal love triangle, but it did not work for me. They might think they can feel this deeply for each other now, but time will pass, and it won’t always be this easy or clear-cut. I don’t want perfect characters–I never have–and I cannot suspend my disbelief to accept Clare’s insistence that Tessa, Jem and Will are perfect enough to carry this out at sixteen years old.

And yes, the ending did bother me immensely. It felt contrived for that aforementioned “happy ending,” and was not satisfying in the least because I don’t think any of the characters got the fair treatment they deserved, especially Jem. The literal deus ex machina that saved Tessa didn’t surprise me, and I think I even groaned a little bit when I realized where it was going. By the end of the penultimate chapter, the story just hadn’t risen to the expectations I’d had at the start, and it was almost a relief to close it and be done.

The Final Say: Lush historical detail and humourous lines scattered through out this novel do not make up for frustrating plotlines and romances. Clockwork Princess was disappointing, despite my best efforts to enjoy it, and I would not recommend it as a satisfying conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.

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About Cassandra

Cassandra Clare was born overseas and spent her early years traveling around the world with her family and several trunks of fantasy books. Cassandra worked for several years as an entertainment journalist for the Hollywood Reporter before turning her attention to fiction. She is the author of City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy and a New York Times bestseller. Cassandra lives with her fiance and their two cats in Massachusetts.

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The Delirium Series Read-a-long celebrates all three books that we’ve grown to love over the last three years. I also like to think of it as a mini-celebration of how so many of my blogger friends and I became friends–an astounding series like Delirium can bring together readers of all ages.

Note: I would like to apologize for the delay in this read-a-long. My grandmother died two weeks ago, and I spent much of the last week in Philadelphia with my family for the services. I haven’t had much time for reading or reviewing, but I do plan to have the entire read-a-long finished on time. Your patience is much appreciated.

Day 1: Pages 1-33

Recap: Lena and her group, including a silent Alex, escape from New York City and make their way north. The distance between Lena and Alex seems almost insurmountable, and he declares that he never loved her. Hana is better off now after her procedure, or so she believes.

Thoughts: It’s been a long time since I last reread Pandemonium, but the emotional upheaval of the first thirty pages of Requiem is not at all strange or unfamiliar. Oliver brings us back into Lena’s world without overwhelming us with details. It is emotion that is important here–Lena feels too much, while Hana feels nothing. If the parallel between the two girls wasn’t obvious in the first two books, it is the central theme in this final novel, where both of them face choices that neither can be sure they are truly ready for.

Alex’s reappearance is still gut-wrenching after a full year away from the books. I have always been an Alex fan, and Julian faded into the background for me pretty quickly. That said, I wasn’t a huge fan of the dialogue in that first conversation between Alex and Lena. It was interesting that for two people who value honesty, they couldn’t muster it up when it was most important.

If you haven’t read the story story “Hana,” you probably should do that before picking up Requiem. It sheds light on the choice (or perhaps, the lack thereof?) that Hana makes and which she has to live with in this novel, and while I wouldn’t say it makes her completely sympathetic, it makes her human, and the chapter is all the more painful to read knowing what she could have chosen.

Day 2: Pages 34-57

Recap: Hana’s discomfort with her role in life is becoming more and more clear, even to her fiance. Lena’s group decides to head to Waterbury, just as two injured arrivals throw the camp into chaos.

Thoughts: Interestingly enough, as Lena begins to settle into her role in the camp, Hana becomes more and more restless. Despite having had the procedure, it’s clear that there are parts of her mind that still resist the cure. She still looks for Lena and the friendship they once had.

Over in the camp, Lena makes a rather poignant observation about relationships in her world: “With the cure, relationships are all the same, and rules and expectations are defined. Without the cure, relationships must be reinvented every day, languages constantly decoded and deciphered.” I think it’s something we take for granted, and the constant uncertainty must be confusing and difficult for someone who didn’t grow up the way we did. And that observation is an excellent point for those who would espouse the cure, because who wouldn’t want to be sure about the people they are with?

Day 3: 58-87

Recap: Lena and the rest of the camp get to know Coral, the sole survivor of another group of rebels, and discover from her that the Scavengers are now working with the DFA to pick off anyone who tries to fight back. Hana bikes to Lena’s old house in search of something she can’t quite name, and finds Grace, Lena’s cousin, as well as Willow, an old classmate.

Thoughts: I actually find myself quite restless reading Lena’s parts again, and am far more intrigued by Hana’s side of the story. Much of Lena’s sections are focused on the inevitable fight that will happen between the DFA and the rebellion, and while the set-up is necessary and understandable, they can’t do much until that happens. Hana, however, is going after the things she wants to know, and she is taking her fate into her own hands in more tangible ways. She doesn’t wait to be told what to do or what to believe anymore, and I can see the groundwork for who she can become by the end of the story.

Day 4: 88-118

Recap: Lena’s group discovers an old house, but the former residents were murdered by regulators, alerting them that the Wilds are not safe for them anymore. Julian confesses that he loves Lena. Hana encounters Steven, a boy she’d believed she’d loved and who loved her back. Fred reveals his plans for controlling the country to Hana.

Thoughts: Secrets abound in these thirty pages, from Julian’s declaration of love for Lena to Fred’s hushed plans to bend the country to the DFA will by removing the right to electricity. More than the right to love, it is freedom that the rebellion is fighting for now, and the chance to make mistakes. Fred and his kind are driven by the need for perfection, for keeping things just so and just right. Julian–and the rest of the rebellion–make themselves vulnerable and they open themselves up to the possibility of being hurt. Is it more important to be the epitome of a perfect human being or to constantly grow and change because of one’s mistakes?

Day 5: 119-143

Recap: Julian volunteers to serve as a scout for the group, and he leaves with Tack. A regulator nears the camp, and Lena shoots him to protect Coral, but all hell breaks loose when a group of regulators sets fire to the woods, and the camp suffers a casualty.

Thoughts: One of the issues I had with Requiem at the start was how the physical danger they were all in never really felt real. I couldn’t lose myself in Lena’s chapters as well as I could Hana’s because it felt like I was just watching a movie. Hana seemed to constantly teeter over the edge of falling into something she didn’t quite understand, and it was reminiscent of how Lena had grown through the course of Delirium. In a way, my perception still illustrates Lena’s growth, because the girl she was in the first book is so far from the girl she is in this final installment, and this chapter shows that change very well. She finds herself tempted to commit murder out of jealousy, and while she had always danced around the negative side of love, she doesn’t really understand the intensity or the consequences of those emotions until she places Coral in her crosshairs. I thought this was a particularly brave choice for Oliver to make, because rarely will you find young adult characters realizing that they can end a life and actually coming close to doing so.

On a related note, Alex and Julian both make some tough choices in this chapter, and both of them affect Lena. I don’t take issue with her confusion regarding Alex, but it did bother me that she is so angry with Alex for not talking to her, but she doesn’t seem to understand that her behaviour towards Julian could also play a part in that distance. I don’t think I’m alone at this point in wishing she would make a choice and stick with it.

Day 6: 144-172

Recap: Hana steals food from the Roths to give to Grace. Pike and Henley are missing from the group, and they have no choice but to leave them behind (if they are even still alive) for Waterbury. They arrive at a camp, and the chaos stuns them. Fred hurts Hana for the first time after she asks about Cassie, Fred’s first wife. Hana also confronts herself about the choices she made regarding Lena and Alex.

Thoughts:  I loved these three chapters because they addressed things I’ve been wanting to see for a while. I think that Lena’s group, despite everything they’ve already seen, still had a sort of idealistic view of what rebel camps would be like outside of theirs, and they were understandably shocked and disappointed in what they found. But it’s realistic and it’s shown them just how much work is still needed to build the kind of society they believe in, and how hard things can be.

Hana quickly became my favourite character in this book, because she was willing to look at her actions and call herself out for what she’d done. Instead of destroying her capability to feel emotions, the cure seems to have given her clearer vision regarding them. She is aware now, more than Lena ever was, of the impact one rash decision can have, and she pursues them anyway, because now she has a purpose.

Day 7: 173-223

Recap: Lena’s first trip to the river ends in disappointment: the water is running out because the river has been dammed. The group decides to try to break the dam, and Lena chooses Julian openly for the first time since finding Alex again. Hana discovers that Cassie, Fred’s first wife, is no longer in the government system. Lu is discovered to be a traitor, and Pippa volunteers to stay behind while the group moves on.

Thoughts: This section was the most action-packed set of pages yet, bringing not only violence but betrayal into Lena’s group. Lu, a girl even Raven trusted with her own life, has been Cured and the realization that she has been working to undermine their efforts is a tough blow for the rebels to take. Realistically, it would have been too much to hope that they’d stay untouched, and I liked that Oliver wasn’t afraid to stay true to that. I also liked that Lena acknowledged her doubts, including the temptation to just go back and live a simpler, easier life. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that these are teenagers, and that they have been thrust into something that they can’t fully understand.

Hana also dabbles with betrayal, her own natural curiousity leading her to seek out the truth about Cassie. Looking back at this section now, it was very obvious where this was going, but I was invested enough in Hana’s journey to not mind the slowness of it.

Day 8: 224-248

Recap: Hana sneaks into Fred’s study and steals a letter about Cassie’s state–the girl is said to be delusional and fixated on the tale of Bluebeard. Alex and Julian get into a fight, though neither will admit to why, and Alex runs away.

Thoughts: Bluebeard is one of my favourite fairy tales, and I’m not surprised that Oliver would use it as a parallel for Hana’s story. She is as curious and stubborn as the main character of Bluebeard, and Fred is just as monstrous. What remains to be seen is how closely this follows the original tale, and whether its commentary will add anything to the use of fairy tales as propaganda in their society.

The Alex/Julian fight did not come as a surprise either, and all I can say is, it’s about time. I was honestly getting tired of the three of them just dancing around one another and not confronting their emotions, and I think this fight was inevitable.

Day 9: 249-276

Recap: Fred confronts Hana with photographs of her visits to Deering Highlands, and he literally tries to choke her into submission. Lena’s group impatiently waits for contacts from the Resistance, and when they arrive, Lena is shocked to find that one of them is her long-lost mother. Waterbury has been destroyed.

Thoughts: I don’t know what I imagined the meeting of Lena and her mother, Annabel, would be like, but I definitely thought it was going to be awkward, and oh, it was. Awkward might be the least expressive word for it. Annabel is not the person Lena thought she would be, a running theme found in both Pandemonium and Requiem, and I was pleased with how Oliver didn’t shy away from the rawness of their first encounter. I do think it complicates the plots that Oliver will have to tie up in the next 100 pages, and I’m interested to see how she wraps it all up, especially since so much of Lena’s personality and sense of loss is attached to her mother. Can she truly get some closure?

Like the Alex/Julian fight, I wasn’t surprised by Fred’s violent behaviour towards Hana, but it did make me hope even more for her to succeed in finding out exactly what happened to Cassie.

Day 10:  277-298

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Day 11: 298-324

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Day 12: 325-346

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Day 13: 347-370

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Day 14: 371-391

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Yesterday, I got to meet Marissa Meyer, author of the fantastic Lunar Chronicles series, for the first time. It was an exciting prospect in itself–meeting authors will never get old because there’s just so much to learn from them. But Marissa and I have also been friends for seven years now, and up until the announcement of her Indigo event, I didn’t think a meetup would be likely for at least a few more years. So huge thank yous to Macmillan, Raincoast Books and Indigo for putting this event together!

You might be wondering why I call this a U_M Girls meetup. Marissa and I met and became friends because of a shared love of the anime series Sailormoon. I discovered a small writing community called Usako_Mamoru back in 2006, which Marissa ran with our mutual friend Jojo. Writing fanfiction about Sailormoon and Tuxedo Mask introduced me to a group of girls who are still my closest friends today, including fabulous bloggers Meghan, Aimee, Sammy, Sam and Jen. Happily, I not only spent my Saturday hanging out with Marissa, but Meghan was able to make a special trip up as well.

One of my favourite things about the U_M girls–as we’ve stylized ourselves–is that it never feels like we’ve only talked online before we actually meet in real life. It’s never awkward, never uncomfortable, and we laugh so much that our faces hurt. Writing and literature come to life for me because of the friendships I’ve made through them, and yesterday was a great example of that.

The event itself was even more amazing than I’d expected, and I’ve been to quite a few epic book signings in the Toronto area. Meghan and I were stunned by the number of people who turned out to see Marissa, and I can’t lie–the words “SO MANY FRIENDSHIP FEELINGS” were uttered a good number of times in two hours. Special shoutout to Andrea, who hung out with us in line and made the wait go by so quickly, we were laughing so much! It was so great getting to see everyone so excited about Cinder and Scarlet and the worlds that Marissa created during a non-stop NaNoWriMo session.

Among my favourite talking points of the afternoon:

- how Marissa got into the fanfiction community through Sailormoon, and the friends she made there. “I think I just heard Angel laugh!” almost made me and Meghan curl up in the corner of the YA section from laughing.
- dreaming about a cyborg Cinderella, which was the seed for the Lunar Chronicles series;
- her appreciation for NaNoWriMo, and how writing 150,011 words while going to grad school and working a full-time job changed her life;
- the fairy tales that she shared with the entire audience, after which everyone concluded that “fairy tale characters aren’t meant to have eyes” (Tweeted by @averysbooknook)
- her admiration for the original Little Red Riding Hood, “who saves herself in the end!”
- her love of writing female characters who want to do more than just get a boyfriend;
- why her favourite Sailor senshi is Sailor Jupiter: she’s strong and kicks butt, but has a gooey center!

 I can honestly say I have never had so much fun at a book signing before. Great friends (and Mom Tina!), an amazing series and a truly fabulous author–what more could a reader ask for? I know I’m looking forward to Cress and Winter, and who knows? Maybe another great day like yesterday will pop up in the next year. I’m glad to have had the chance to experience it with the friends I have.

In the name of the moon–go read Cinder and Scarlet!