Fantastic Finds

Two sheltered princesses, one wounded warrior; who will live happily ever after?
Princess Margrethe has been hidden away while her kingdom is at war. One gloomy, windswept morning as she stands in a convent garden overlooking the icy sea, she witnesses a miracle: a glittering mermaid emerging from the waves, a nearly drowned man in her arms. By the time Margrethe reaches the shore, the mermaid has disappeared into the sea. As Margrethe nurses the handsome stranger back to health, she learns that not only is he a prince, he is also the son of her father's greatest rival. Sure that the mermaid brought this man to her for a reason, Margrethe devises a plan to bring peace to her kingdom.

Meanwhile, the mermaid princess Lenia longs to return to the human man she carried to safety. She is willing to trade her home, her voice, and even her health for legs and the chance to win his heart….  
A surprising take on the classic tale, Mermaid is the story of two women with everything to lose. Beautifully written and compulsively readable, it will make you think twice about the fairytale you heard as a child, keeping you in suspense until the very last page. -Plot summary borrowed from Barnes & Noble

Ok, this really is not a teen book. But I am a young adult and I enjoyed it, so let's go with it. ^_^

I was really taken with Carolyn Turgeon's prose. Her writing is detailed and yet poetic enough to conjure up a very strong visual picture of her settings. You really feel as if you are standing on a rocky, windswept beach with Margrethe, or gazing up at the ceiling of Lenia's amber palace.

Not only that, but the author managed to re-tell a well-known story with originality, grace and heart. I've always hated the Andersen original, but, while still keeping the basic framework, Turgeon has reworked the story beautifully. Actually, some other reviewers called this a much darker take on the original. Have they read the original?? It's a far cry from the Disney version. This novel didn't strike me as all that dark, unless you are comparing it to the Walt Disney movie, or some of the lighter teen mermaid fare like Forgive My Fins. To my mind it's far less twisted than Andersen's story.

The strongest praise I have for this novel is that the author has created not one but two likable female protagonists. Both were strong, interesting individuals with believable motivations for their actions (while both were in love with the prince despite only brief superficial meetings with him, their additional reasons for seeking a life with him carried the story beyond romantic drivel). I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out which, if either of them, would make it to happily ever after.

Ever since Twilight, YA lit has been flooded with vampires. Then werewolves. Then an assortment of angels, demons, ghosts, fairies and dragons. Not that I'm complaining, mind. But I was wondering what was left. As far as I can see, mermaids are the next big (brace yourself and I apologize in advance) splash.

I figured summer would be a perfect time to catch up on some of these new additions, so keep an eye out for some mermaid book reviews over the next few weeks!

The picture to the left is the cover of Donna Jo Napoli's Sirena from 2000. I won't be reviewing it here, but it is one I'd recommend!

Unwind, by Neal Schusterman

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive. -Plot summary borrowed from Good Reads

This book was chilling. Sure, the premise is completely unrealistic (hacking teenagers to bits in a creepy lab setting is a "compromise" that would horrify pro-choicers and pro-lifers equally), but once (/if) you can get past that, this is a suspenseful ride through a truly scary setting. You can't not root for these kids, especially as they mature and attempt to overcome their situation. Lev's character is especially interesting as he goes from an eerily willing sacrificial lamb to a jaded runaway and ultimately to something completely new.

I think it was a smart move on the author's part to not just show kids due for "unwinding," but to show the many different reasons parents or other authorities would opt for this horrendous procedure. Kids acting up? Why not cut your losses?  State can't afford a ward who underperforms musically? Let's break them down for their useful component parts! Want to show your support for your society? Offer up one of your kids, you can always have more! All areas of abortion politics are explored here, including the idea of unwanted newborns. In this setting, parents unwilling or unable to raise their child are able to "stork" them, leaving the infant on someone else's doorstep. Whoever opens that door becomes the child's official legal guardian.

Schusterman covers as much ground as possible, and answers through various happenings pretty much every question a reader can think of. What happens to the consciousnesses of the unwound? Can a parent change their mind after ordering their child to be unwound? What happens if someone did not want to be "storked"? Does anyone in this society realize how crazy this all is??

He does give one chapter detailing the unwinding process, which is not for the faint of heart. Never mind that you may have found the idea of unwinding silly, this will Freak You Out. If you are a fan of dystopias, or biopunk, or suspenseful stories with engaging protagonists and a philosophical bent, I would definitely recommend Unwind.

Wither, by Lauren DeStefano

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb — males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape — to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left. -Plot summary borrowed from Good Reads.

Like Matched, this is another internalized dystopia from a female perspective (which, honestly, is an interesting and worthwhile take on the slightly tired genre). While I enjoyed Wither, I thought it was slightly lackluster and not quite my cup of tea. Rhine doesn't take enough initiative for my liking, secondary characters are not as well developed as they really could be (with the possible exception of Rhine's sister wife Jenna, who is haunting in her deeper understanding of their situation and attempts to help Rhine), and the reader is not given much information about the society. Many of those quibbles could be addressed in the sequel, Fever, due out in February 2012, but many readers may not want to wait.