Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Our society is in a total vampire hype thanks to Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. It’s ridiculous how much teen literature is out there about the living dead (however, the latest word on the street is that mermaids are going to be the next big thing. So we’re just going to have literature about creatures who don’t wear enough clothing to make socks for a flea). And I absolutely refuse to read another vampire series, because I really can’t stand Twilight. Anyway’s sometimes I just like to read brainless literature, and I thought to myself “Self, why not try this book that your kindle keeps recommending to you?” and then I found it for four dollars at a book store. Steal! And then I read it, and I face palmed myself. 

So, instead of vampires this book is about angels – fallen angels. So the plot… well there’s not much of one. Nora our heroine (?) gets forced to be lab partners with a drop dead dreamy hunk (twilightish????  I think so!) named Patch. Except this hunk of a guy seems to  know everything about her, and he won’t tell her anything about himself. Nora and her best friend Vee go to great lengths to find out anything about this mysterious dream guy. Nora attempts to not fall for this hunk of a guy, but she falls flat on her face. Her little heart can’t stop fluttering whenever Patch is around.

About the same time that Patch comes on the scene, two suave and debonair guys also appear. Elliot pretends to be interested in Nora, and quiet Jules shows an interest in Vee. Of course, Patch doesn’t like that and flirts incessantly with Nora. Then Nora realizes that a man in a ski mask is stalking her and her first thought is mysterious Patch. She tries to confront him, but it’s hard to confront someone with a ridiculous amount of self-confidence. Nora’s life is put in danger repeatedly and then she finally finds out the truth. Patch is a fallen angel who wants to be human. According to the book of Enoch the only way for him to do that is to sacrifice a female who is the desecendant of his vassal nephilim (which is a half human half angel being), and guess who that is? Nora. Oh yeah so he wants to kill her (sound faintly twilightish again???).  Will Patch’s desire to kill Nora outweigh his lust – excuse me - love? Guess you’ll have to read and find out… or just go pick up a copy of a chick flick worth reading. 

This book was relatively clean there weren’t any sexual scenes (except for a couple steamy kisses) and I didn’t catch any bad language except for one use of word h---. Patch does make a few innuendo’s toward Nora which are totally inappropriate (I would smack a guy across the face if he flirted with me the way Patch flirts with Nora). And Nora’s best friend Vee is very immoral. She basically thinks of guys like pieces of meat. 

I really wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. It’s just not worth the few hours that it will take you to read it, unless you’re in the mood for an extremely sappy romance with no plot.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

              I tutor in the library at school, and every time I come across a student who enjoys reading I pick their brains for good books to read. One of my clients suggested that I read the children’s novel The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. I’m so glad I did.

              This book took me back to my childhood, because it was exactly like the stories that I enjoyed reading as a little girl. It was simply a fairytale. Shannon Hale is apparently known for taking fairy tales that are not well known and embellishing them into good, clean stories for children. The Goose Girl was actually a story written by the Brothers Grimm, but I must say I like Shannon Hale’s version much better. 

                I think that one of the reasons that I enjoyed Shannon Hale’s story so much was her ability to produce beautiful narration. Let me just give you a couple of examples of passages that caught my breath (and believe me there were many): 

                Ani looked toward the stream and held a branch of her beech tree as she might hold a hand. The river birches were leafing brilliant – hundreds of thin, gold coins dangling from their arms. It was perfect as though their green leaves had been a falsehood all those months and just now the trees showed their realness, their pure autumnal yellows. Ani felt a stirring, a hope, a winged thing waking up in her chest and brushing her heart with its feathers. 

and

                It was not a game of young warrior testing their strength or a match of pride, but a bout of death, each warrior watching his opponent’s eyes, fighting to end that life, their swords desperate vessels of their will. With each blow the other hoped to meet flesh, and each blow brought sword on sword, and the clanging was a wicked rhythm. 

                I’m such a nerd, but I just couldn’t help but love how beautifully this book was written; it kind of made me want to cry when it was over. But guess what? There’s a sequel! And I’ve got it sitting on my shelf!

 There are three languages: the language of people-speaking, the language of animal-speaking, and the language of nature-speaking (but nobody knows how to talk to nature anymore). Ani is the princess of Kildenree, but she thinks she is an awful ruler, because she does not have the language of people-speaking like her commanding queen mother or her controlling lady-in-waiting Selia. Ani is very different from others because she has the gift of animal-speaking which is nearly non-existent. Ani is particularly fond of talking to birds and horses. However, horses are quite difficult as you must hear them whisper their true names after they are born to be able to talk to them. Since, most people are resilient to different; Ani’s mother tries to smother Ani’s abilities by keeping her locked away inside the palace and away from the animals that Ani dearly loves to talk to. After Ani’s father dies, she is forced by her mother to go to their rival country Bayern to marry the Prince to make peace between the two countries. 

                On the way to Bayern, Ani is betrayed and overthrown by Selia, her lady in waiting. Ani escapes to the capitol city in Bayern and watches as Selia struts in and claims to be the princess. Ani is unsure of what to do since she does not have the gift of people-speaking and is not manipulative like Selia is. Therefore, Ani begins to work for the king and tend to his geese; waiting for the right moment to make her case known. Along the way Ani learns to stand up for hers, how to connect with people, and how to love another person. 

                I can’t emphasize enough how clean and good this book was. I would recommend this book for girls (and boys if they’ll read a book about a princess) 10 and up.