Young Writers Society

Mea wrote:The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente

It is wonderful. It's so fantastic and creative with so many cool magical ideas and images. It's like a fairytale, of course - think written in the style of Chronicles of Narnia or Alice in Wonderland, but more whimsical. But at the same time, it's a really deep book, touching on so many important themes of friendship and loss and fate and destiny. I have actually cried several times reading the first book and the second two. (It's a trilogy, and the second two are just as good as the first.)

I know @BlueAfrica was raving about it before, and it made me pick it up and read it, so I'll just say: you all should read it too.

StellaThomas wrote:I have a new one.

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Choksi.

I really wanted to like this book. It's a Persephone & Hades retelling but in an Indian setting. Reviews said that the writing was good.

Sounds good, right? Fairytale retelling, rich setting, right up my alley.

Oh, how I could not be more wrong.

This was by far the worst book I read this year. We are meant to like Maya because she hates all the wives and daughters in the harem, never plans on getting married and will just be a "scholarly spinster", whom we're told loves books in the first few chapters, and proceeds to never read again. She's completely insufferable. And then she runs away with a strange man, and instantly falls in love with him. He inexplicably hides his face for several chapters and nothing happens when he reveals it. They don't tell her anything for really stupid convoluted plot reasons.

She sees a girl in visions who's beautiful and claims that they used to be best friends in another life and I think - at last! The woman-hating has ended! Wrong! Of course this beautiful woman is only there to steal her position and her husband.

And the prose wasn't beautiful, it was drastically over-written. Nothing made sense.

Not to mention that there was literally no plot whatsoever. I honestly felt like this book was a fanfic written chapter by chapter with a new random thing happening each time.

Basically. Don't read this book. Maybe you're intrigued by the premise. Maybe you think, at last, a YA book that isn't set in dystopian Northern America, with a PoC cast. You would be gravely mistaken to pick up this book. Try Rebel of the Sands instead (which I think is the reason this book kept popping up in my recommendations. The two could not be further from each other).

StellaThomas wrote: ...and The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton which is a fantasy novel about a world where everyone is born grey, and The Belles are the only ones with the ability to control beauty. It was a good story that touches on important social issues without being preachy. Overall it's clever and the description is amazing.