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Stranger Than Fiction

| cgkinnett

I don’t know if it is because I would much rather get lost in a world that is not our own or if I’ve not found the right story but non-fiction has never interested me. Now, change that genre description to historical fiction and you’ve found yourself a fan. The history of historical fiction stretches back centuries and the most famous example is that of the epic poem The Iliad which tells of the Trojan War. Perhaps you’ve heard of it…One aspect of the genre that I find to be really interesting is the scope of reality that exists within these stories.

On one hand, you have fantastical tales like Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter written by Seth Grahame-Smith in which our beloved president undertakes the role of savior of the human race. This novel incorporates real figures from history while putting a bit of a spin on the past. Or, maybe it is a true account and we were none the wiser for over a hundred years. Either way, Grahame-Smith told a tale that wound together the biography of Lincoln (his youth and his accomplishments in politics) and the fictional shadow world of vampires (creatures that have fascinated and terrified us for countless years). The book itself is quite silly and very fun and the reader gets the sense that it is not to be taken too seriously. It is a story that is very obviously not true but the fact that it is set in a land that we are so familiar with is part of what draws us in. These are people with whom we are familiar and the great thing about the tale is that it is sprinkled with just enough “what if” to truly capture the imagination.

On the other hand, you have scary and morbid tales like Devil in the White City by Erik Larson which is the chilling tale of America’s first documented serial killer. The events transpired over the course of the years leading up to and even during the World’s Fair in Chicago, IL in the late 1890’s. What makes this tale so eerie is the maniacal man at the heart of the story, Dr. H.H. Holmes. However, this is not the sole thread of the book’s plot. We also follow the crafting of the Fair from its inception to its grand opening through the eyes of the lead architect Mr. Daniel H. Burnham. This novel is interesting because it combines actual correspondence found through letters and telegrams with bits of exaggerated reality making it almost impossible to tell what is fact and what was Larson’s design. While these two men are as different as night and day, they are both real figures in recent history. Both live on in infamy for very different reasons, even more so now that they have been committed to the page.

The amount of text dedicated to historical fiction could fill your whole library. Where in history do you want to go? Victorian England? Ancient Egypt? Chances are, there’s a story waiting for you. What are some of your favorite pieces from the historical fiction genre? Leave your titles in the comments section below!

 

(Post script: a series that I highly recommend is the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness. The first one doesn’t have tooo much history in it but the second one is chalk full of it! Harkness herself is an historian and to view history, and this story, through her eyes was really interesting…despite the fact that I have several issues with the confidence and independence displayed by the heroine. Oh, and this one has vampires too.)

 

 

Menagerie- Rachel Vincent

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Former English teacher and YA goddess Rachel Vincent is back with a new story and man is it compelling. Menagerie takes place in a world in which cryptids are out in the open and known to humans. They do not however coexist. Seen as less than human, shifters, succubi,minotaurs and others have less than no rights and are either captured and exploited or captured and hunted on game reservations. They are treated as animals. The vein of capture and exploitation is the one which we explore alongside Delilah Marlow who has grown up her whole life believing she was human. On the night of her birthday, Marlow and friends visit the famous Metzger’s Menagerie and things go horribly, devastatingly wrong. What follows is an expose of sorts on the mistreatment of these “creatures” and the lives afforded to them as subhumans.

Vincent has a real knack for combining detail and emotion, causing the reader to become incredibly invested in Marlow’s plight. We root for her and mourn with her and applaud her bravery. The way Vincent writes is so compelling. Her characters have a true depth to them that will tug on even the hardest of heartstrings. Menagerie puts a spotlight on creature cruelty in a very upfront way as these creatures are capable of shifting into their human forms, putting a face to the cryptid and a soul to the character.

While the storyline occurs in the near present with all the trappings of reality (cell phones, the Internet and YouTube), the feel of the world is very old timey and the story progresses the menagerie itself becomes a character. Like traveling ciruses and freak shows of the past, Metzger’s is all glitz and glam on the outside with loud music churning through speakers and brightly lit bulbs strung from tent to tent. We as readers though, know the whole story. And man is it twisted.

Upon looking Menagerie up on Amazon, it has a parenthetical detailing The Menagerie Series Book 1 and that made me so excited to know that we will get to continue to journey alongside Delilah Marlow who is such a strong and independent female lead. Alas, as I am not an oracle, I will have to wait alongside my fellow mortals to see what the future holds for the Menagerie. 

Four out of five books to Mrs. Vincent. You can get a copy of Menagerie for yourself here.

Disclaimer- Renee Knight

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Wrapped in mystery and veiled in intrigue, Disclaimer  by Renee Knight wastes no time in hooking the reader into a nonlinear scandal.

Disclaimer takes us on a he-said-she-said to rival all others and with several narrators over the course of the book, it is up to the reader to take everything that is said, and all the events that unfold, with a grain of salt. Who is recounting these events at their truest? This is an interesting way to allow the story to unfold; it fills you in as is seen fit. However, it took me a few pages to get in the groove of the narrative style and realize that I wasn’t as confused as I thought I was. I just didn’t have all the facts. Which is precisely how Knight draws you in.

Catherine Ravenscroft had gone on holiday with her husband and young son to Spain. It is 1993. When her husband is called home for business, Catherine is left to her own devices. Devices that 20 years later are portrayed in a scandalous tell all that starts with the disclaimer, “All events and people portrayed herein…”

The contents of this book within the book tell of a woman and her young lover and the tragic fate he meets. But was it so tragic? The aforementioned unreliable narrators (who shift between Mrs. Ravenscroft and the father of the deceased “lover”) tear the reader back and forth between belief of this poor man and his lost son and the woman to whom these events actually transpired. At times, you despise Cath. At times, you despise the old man (for he truly is cray cray). I really love the doubt that Knight develops in all her characters; their actions are at times capricious, their voice becomes tangled in hearsay.

Through it all however, Catherine Ravenscroft proves herself to be a wonderful leading lady. She is foiled and tarnished from every conceivable direction. And just when you think she has been beaten down to the point of no return she stands up and surprises everyone (characters and readers alike).

I give this book four out of four books. The pacing was good and the mystery had me intrigued through the end. It was so good that even now, two days after finishing it, I’m still thinking about the secret Cath held for over 20 years.

 

Disclaimer can be found on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Disclaimer-Novel-Ren%C3%A9e-Knight/dp/0062362259/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442156964&sr=1-1&keywords=disclaimer

The Unwanteds: Island of Silence- Lisa McMann

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Where many an author goes wrong in a series is not being able to find the perfect balance of recap and new details, Island of Silence by Lisa McMann however does this seamlessly. The second book in The Unwanteds series welcomes back readers without heavily burdening them with synopsis while at the same time clues in readers that maybe didn’t read book one (though shame on you for skipping around).

Book two picks up very soon after the events of of book one and we are shown almost immediately how those from Quill are reacting to the information that all the Unwanteds are alive and well; some take to this new world easily while others wish that everyone had in fact been thrown in to the lake of burning oil. It is really interesting to see how these new revelations have defined with even greater detail the class system that has been in effect for all 50 years of Quills existence. Those who had been Necessary had been relegated to doing tasks such as farming all the food and picking up everyone’s trash for years and once Mr. Today extended an open invitation for anyone and everyone to come to Artimè, who could blame them for shirking their duties. However if one were a part of the Wanteds, the upper class and highest echelon, one is at a loss as to why these people would desert Quill. This, coupled with the death of his idol and leader Justine, is what drives Aaron Stowe to begin plotting and scheming and soon a war begins.

As if his evil twins’ dastardly plans weren’t enough to worry about, Alex has been chosen by Mr. Today to begin learning how to take over for the mage should he want to go on something called a “vacation”  or “retire.” There is so much to keeping Artimè ticking that Alex is unsure of his ability to lead. Additionally, two children appear one day on the beach having floated up on a dilapidated raft. As if this weren’t strange enough, the two have wire collars with thorns embeded around their necks, rendering them silent.

The story begins to be more complex in Island of Silence in regards to exposition and new plot points, weird feelings emerge (like how Samheed keeps looking strangely at Meg) and alliances are tested. McMann’s second tale in The Unwanteds saga is rich in scenery as we explore new places like the Island of Silence and takes us deep into the emotions of our main characters. It is especially interesting to see how Alex and Aaron mirror each other in their opposition. One is so entirely good and the other [seems to be so] entirely evil. I think there is more than meets the eye to these two and I can’t wait to see how they continue to shape the courses of Artimè and Quill. As their powers grow and their leadership roles increase, is one island big enough for the two?

I give this tale five out of five books for rarely is a sequel even more compelling than the first.

The Unwanteds- Lisa McMann

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At my internship there is a whole wall made up of a bookshelf with a sign that says, “the perks of being an intern.” We are encouraged to take books home for our reading pleasure and of course I immediately went to the YAL section of said shelf whereupon my eye was instantly drawn to book one in the self titled series The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann.

It could be the future, it could be an alternate world where we’ve never existed, but the people of Quill would never know the difference because there is a wall around Quill and no one has been on the other side of it, unless they were condemned as Unwanted. And really, who would want to leave Quill? There is order and structure and everyone knows their place. Every year all thirteen year old children are Purged and sorted (sound familiar?) into Wanteds, Necessaries and Unwanteds. The Wanteds go to University to study and better the future of Quill, the Necessaries do manual labor that consists of anything and everything the Wanteds won’t do. The Unwanteds, the creative type who show possibilities of thinking outside of the proverbial box, are taken to the  Lake of Burning Oil and disposed of. It is shameful to have an Unwanted child and to have two means you can never have another child.

Alex and Aaron Stowe are twins and it is their year to be purged. Aaron is called forth and deemed Wanted. Alex on the other hand has been caught drawing more than once and there is no question that he is Unwanted. After the Purge the Unwanteds are bused to their death without a word to their loved ones because they have no loved ones. What they find on the other side of the wall is not a burning lake but an oasis that is full of amazing creatures like beavops and squirrelicorns and platyprots; there is a jungle and an ocean and people smiling. Artimè is a magical place that literally thrives on creativity. There is so much to learn in this new world and we journey with Alex as he and his friends discover that there is much more to life than being Unwanted and that their creativity is something that should be explored and expanded upon.

For fifty years Artimè has existed peacefully without the knowledge of those in Quill; but Utopias cannot exist and the inevitable begins.

McMann creates such a vivid world with characters whose outlooks on life are vastly contrasted and it is interesting to see these contrasts illustrated through identical twins. Despite being YAL and despite the growing trend of children being sorted, there are twists and turns in this story that are not template young adult lit. This is something that made me even more intrigued to pick up book two. There is much more to Quill and Artimè than one might expect as Alex and Aaron find out for themselves as they take their own seperate and individual paths. After all, you can’t make an individual; they are created.

This is a story to which I give four and a half books.

Thirteen Reasons Why- Jay Asher

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“No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of others,” Hannah Baker tells us as we listen along with Clay Jenkins to the cassette tapes he found on his front porch upon his arrival home from school. The reader, along with Clay, is intrigued at first. What do these mystery tapes contain? The answer to this question is immediately revealed once the first tape is popped in.

What follows is Hannah’s side to stories and rumors and how they all culminate in her decision to end her life. They are a snowball effect as she calls them.

I was hooked to this book from the start of Cassette One- Side A and after that first side I thought, word for word, the above quote. It was chilling when I read Hannah’s same thought. This book took me back to high school; to reputations and rumors and how those effect not just the person they are about but those who hear it, their perception of you.

Hearing Hannah’s reasons and Clay’s reactions makes for quite an emotional rollercoaster which caused me to tear up more than once. It was amazing to see things unravel into a perfectly tangled web and learn person by person the reasons why she had made this decision which won’t be able to be undone.

The way the book is written allows the reader to hear the tapes along with Clay, while simultaneously hearing his stream of consciousness. We piece together events as he does, silently realizing the degree of separation at their high school is a lot smaller than he ever imagined.

This is a book that shows how easy it is to shatter someone without meaning to or knowing that you’ve done it and how it is even easier to do so intentionally. 13 Reasons Why addresses this issue head on. Without ever straying from the subject. Jay Asher paints such a vivid picture of suffering for us that it is quite easy to feel for Hannah as she connects events that take place both at school and outside of it. The pain is evident.

This is a story that will make you think twice before you speak and act. This is a story that will make you aware of those around you. This is a story that will stay with you for quite some time.

This is a story to which I give five out of five books.

Chaos of Stars- Kiersten White

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Isadora (not Izzy and not Dora) is a normal Egyptian teenager…who happens to be the daughter of gods Isis and Osiris. Tired of her deity filled life in which everyone worships her parents and overlooks her, Isadora convinces her mother to let her live with one of her brothers, Sirius, in San Francisco. It is an absolute pleasure experiencing American customs for the first time with Isadora. White captures Isadora’s teen spirit so perfectly that I found myself wanting to join her and her new friends on their trips to the beach (too much water, not enough sand) and star gazing evenings (too many clouds, not enough stars).

While in the land of the free, Isadora enjoys her distance from her parents, particularly from her mother. However, something is not right and Isadora can feel it even if she can’t put her finger on it. First there is the break in at Sirius’ house, then one at the museum at which Isadora is working, this coupled with the dreams that are getting harder and harder to ignore. Isadora wonders if her new found freedom is not all she imagined it would be.

White creates a spitfire in Isadora and as such Chaos of Stars  is filled with great one liners and spunky energy. Stay the summer in San Fran with Isadora and her new friends Tyler, Ry and Scott. The only thing that was disappointing about this book was when I realized there was no sequel.

I give Chaos of Stars five out of five books.