A semi-representative historical selection of Maryelizabeth's reviews in alphabetical-by-author order.
Young Adult
Grisha Alina and her soldier lover Mal fled Ravka and the machinations of the Darkling, pretender to the throne, at the end of Shadow and Bone. And Alina doesn’t miss the Darkling’s lies or the temptations of abusing her power one little bit. Really. Being captured by a privateer and returned to Ravka is just the beginning of the new trials she will face, both internal and external, on her quest to define herself and possibly be the salvation for her world. This gorgeous Tsarpunk fantasy is recommended to teen and adult readers.
– Maryelizabeth
Young Adult
Tsarpunk and conflict and power reach an epic and satisfying and costly conclusion in Ruin & Rising, the final installment in Leigh’s Grisha Trilogy, as Alina – Sun Summoner, Saint, orphan, and fulcrum for the fate of her world – and her allies marshal their limited forces in a final confrontation with the Darkling. My friend Molly helped me coin the term “Darklinghosen” to describe Ruin & Rising – meaning “so good and with just the right amount of tragedy and sacrifice.”
– Maryelizabeth
Young Adult
Eternity is winding down at an accelerating pace for the gods and demi-gods of ancient Greece – each suffering in a horrible fashion tied to their spheres of influence. Perpetually dedicated virgin goddess Athena is manifesting owl feathers inside her body – so far non-lethally, but it’s only a matter of time and location. Similar fates are befalling her fellow deities; and once again, a young woman named Cassandra will find herself at the heart of a war, as the gods take sides again, this time with far more than pride and a fruit of precious metal at stake. Kendare blends legend, contemporary life, horror and a dark streak of karma in the first of this intriguing series. Recommended to readers with all levels of familiarity with the Trojan War.
– Maryelizabeth
Interested in sword play? Explosions? Tea? Then there grand graphic novel adventure, packaged in First Second's great paper and French flaps, are for you!
One of the great joys of my ereading has been rediscovering the pleasures of shorter works -- short stories, novellas, etc. Delilah's Blud novellas top my list!
Poetry that tells truths that the reader responds to while still being fiction.
Young Adult
Kennedy Waters’ awareness of the paranormal goes from zero to full immersion in the span of a few weeks in Kami’s first novel of The Legion, a secret society devoted to ghostbusting and demon-exorcising. A month after her single mother’s untimely death, Kennedy experiences two ghost encounters, and meets the members of the Legion, who believe she has the special abilities to become one of them, especially as her mother was a member. Kennedy has totry to learn more about the Legion ( including attractive male twins) and her role in it, and her mother’s secrets, as she and her team race to confront a particularly dangerous demon.
–Maryelizabeth
Speculative Fiction
Welcome to Midnight Pawn, one of the few businesses in a small West Texas community marked by the stoplight at the corner of Witch Light Road and the Davy Highway. Few pass through, and fewer stay – and most of the latter share two traits: a craving for privacy and secrets to hide. Newcomer (familiar to readers of the Harper Connelly series) Manfred Bernardo, who has just relocated to the rental house next to the pawnshop, empathizes with his neighbor’s concerns even as he endeavors to transition from outsider to resident. Readers and Manfred learn much more when the discovery of a murdered corpse and resultant official and unofficial investigations bring a number of hidden stories to light. Recommended for fans of Charlaine’s supernatural and suspense stories.
—Maryelizabeth
Speculative Fiction
Mira Grant’s work is not for the faint-hearted. It’s not just her devotion to conveying how near future science and nature can work together in both wonderful and terrifying ways; it’s also her willingness to have a high emotional cost to her characters and readers. Sally Mitchell should not have recovered from her car accident; having done so with the assistance of her bio-engineered tapeworm makes her a medical anomaly, one who is closely studied by the SymbioGen staff, who created the “beneficial parasites.” Mira takes Sally and the reader on a journey of discovery, as she tries to adjust to being the “new Sally,” with no memories of her previous self. Another great work of the consequences of (mostly) well-intentioned science.
– Maryelizabeth
Paranormal Romance
Part of Siren Emma Monroe’s dedication to her work with missing-persons cases for the FBI’s San Diego unit is driven by penance – she has spent centuries trying to accumulate enough good acts for the goddess Demeter, who holds Emma and her fellow Sirens significantly responsible for the whole Persephone / Hades relationship disaster, to forgive her. In the meantime, she has a strict no romantic commitments policy, as nothing triggers Demeter’s sense of vengeance like a potential love. When sexy lycanthrope Special Agent Zack Armstrong is transferred to America’s Finest City, can he and Emma reignite their brief affair without distracting from their casework or drawing Demeter’s wrath? A great sexy series starter for Urban Fantasy fans!
– Maryelizabeth
Speculative Fiction
This debut novel begins with an epigram from Russian poet Osip Mandelstam that beautifully encapsulates the trials Investigator VissarionLom faces in his alternate Russia. The reader experiences the strange new world, in which reality slips and shifts, through the points of view of the investigator; a terrorist bent on sowing chaos; and an inhuman otherworld presence, among others. One shorthand way to describe this might be Mievielle meets Martin Cruz Smith meets K.W. Jeter – it’s more than all those, but evocative of the extraordinarily weird setting, the frustrating police procedural, and the noir and steampunk elements.
A noteworthy first endeavor.
– Maryelizabeth
Mystery & Suspense
Ryan already had a string of awards attached to her writing before winning the Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Other Woman, which is a superlative example of suspense in the MHC tradition. Reporter Jane Ryland committed the unforgivable sin of being wrong on record already – now she’s trying to redeem herself in a new media. But her assignment to do a puff piece on a candidate’s wife will lead her into overlapping conspiracies with fatal consequences. Compulsively readable.
– Maryelizabeth
2013 Pick
An extraordinary exceptional book -- the best book I read all year.
Curated Fiction
Kent Krueger’s novel belongs on the shelves of readers’ hearts and minds somewhere between Stephen King’s “The Body” and Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine. At the turn of the 21st Century, Frank Drum reminisces about the summer of his 13th year, growing up the son of a Methodist minister in a small Minnesota River Valley community. A series of events, including accidental deaths, murder, and the revelations of deeply-held secrets, test the characters’ faith and family bonds. Kent creates prose that resonates with readers who will care passionately about this story, even if they have no personal connection to the mid-Century middle America of the setting.
– Maryelizabeth
Seanan offers her own take on urban legends and ghost stories with the tale of Rose Marshall, the Dead Prom Date, who’s haunted the highways and byways of America since she was killed in the early 1950s. Rose has found a pastime in her afterlife, guiding others as needed, sometimes onto the ghostroads and sometimes onto a detour until a later date. And she’s been evading Bobby Cross, a man who fuels his immortality through the sacrifice of others – including Rose on that fateful night – for decades. But she can’t outrun him forever… Pull up a stool, sip on a milkshake, and enjoy the mythology of midnight America.
Young Adult
This heartrending look at an all too possible future where increasingly severe weather has led to a Gulf Coast ravaged by storms. The survivors of the 2019 Category Six hurricane are nearly uniformly infected with a deadly virus. Eventually the area is walled off from the rest of the United States, leaving a struggling populace divided into tribes by blood type, since blood type seems to correspond to resistance to the Delta Fever. Fen is devoted to the leader of her O-Positive tribe, and inherits her leader’s newborn baby after a vicious attack by a rival tribe. U.S. resident Daniel may have developed a cure for Delta Fever – or a new superweapon – and can only know for sure once he crosses the wall into the Quarantined area. Smith’s language, especially Fen’s regional accent, and convincing worldbuilding of a New Orleans with minimal population and none of the cultural joys we associate with it, shine in this Fantastic Firsts pick.
– Maryelizabeth
Young Adult
National Book Award Finalist Laini has written my favorite book of the fall of 2011. Artist Karou goes to school in Prague, and in addition to drawing the models provided by her school, also draws fantastic pictures of wildly imaginative monsters. Little do her fellow students know that the latter are drawn from Karou’s adopted family, for whom she goes on errands, collecting teeth from all species from all over the world, for a purpose she doesn’t understand. Karou’s world and its inhabitants are fascinating, original, and richly drawn, and the emotional component of her friendships, familial love, and romantic love are deftly drawn, compelling the reader to devour the novel even as they are tempted to linger. For teen and adult fantasy love.
– Maryelizabeth