Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (HP #7, re-read)

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Do not read this if you haven't read
or have forgotten a lot of what
happened in Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows.

When the rest of my family reached the end of this book after its release in 2007, they all immediately read it again. I didn't, so I've only read The Deathly Hallows once prior to the Harry Potter Reading Challenge, and I'd forgotten a lot. What I did remember: leaving the Durselys'; the loss of Hedwig; some scandal around Dumbledore; breaking into Gringott's; Neville and the Sword of Gryffindor; the result of the final battle between Harry and Voldemort and why it happened like that.

But I forgot so many of the details that it was almost like reading The Deathly Hallows again for the first time. Almost. I forgot the role Kreacher played. I forgot what happened to Dobby. I forgot that Delores Umbridge reappears; what's waiting for them at Godric's Hollow; how they get the sword of Gryffindor; and The Tale of the Three Brothers. How I forgot that last one, I don't know. I forgot that Harry is a kind of horcrux himself, even though when I finished reading #6 all those years ago (before the release of #7), I had a theory that he was.

And I kinda want to read it again. Right now. (But I promised my husband I wouldn't. Apparently, I get really wrapped up in Harry Potter world.) Maybe next time I undertake re-reading the whole series (probably reading it aloud with kids), I'll have forgotten most of this again. I'm hoping so, anyway.


This reading challenge was a most satisfying experience. Thanks, Galleysmith!

This is just to say...

I pre-ordered my copy of Mockingjay today. Now, I just need to make sure I get my copy of The Hunger Games back so I can re-read the first two before August 24.

Hamlet & Ophelia by John Marsden

After reading Hamlet and Ophelia (which is titled just Hamlet in the US), I'm still not certain whether Hamlet loved Ophelia or whether he actually went mad or just pretended to. And I still don't have a really clear idea of Ophelia as a character. Since these matters have been the subject of academic debates since forever, I'm of two minds whether it means that Marsden did a really good job, and whether this modern narrative version's ambiguities are more frustrating than the play's.

Aside from some anachronisms, mostly character habits and language (example: one of the characters mentions hormones, which is a 20th century word), very little of this book doesn't come directly from the play. The former teacher in me was finding ways to incorporate it into a Hamlet unit, which would probably work well for a lower-level lit classes. The re-adaption lacks quite a bit of the wit of the original play (though some scenes incorporate it well--like the cemetery scene. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well."). Mostly, I really like the idea of the debates that could stem from the interpretations Marsden makes in contrast to how others read the play. Like Ophelia.

Ophelia's presence is a mystery. Supposedly she's a possible love interest for Hamlet, so Marsden takes a few liberties in trying to flesh out her character, but I found that to be even more confusing. He paints her as a little unbalanced from the beginning, which I don't recall any hint of in the play (but it has been a few years since I read it), and she lusts wildly after Hamlet, though she is mostly discreet about it. I've personally tended to infer from the play that Ophelia and Hamlet had a sexual relationship before his father's death, but in Marsden's interpretation, it's all lust. Descriptive lust.

I wonder how anyone who's never experienced the play before would feel about this book. Loving the play, I'm not totally crazy about it, but I certainly think it has its merits.
One perk is that I'm totally in the mood to go re-read the play.

I would without hesitation recommend it to high school lit teachers and it definitely belongs in high school libraries everywhere (assuming your local school library is still operational), though you can expect a few challenges from parents who take exception to Ophelia's allowing her fingers in close proximity to her thighs while she thinks about Hamlet.

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

"You are pure-hearted, Branza, and lovely, and you have never done a moment's wrong. But you are a living creature, born to make a real life, however it cracks your heart."

Tender Morsels is one of those books that makes you breathe, "Wow. . ." every now and then while you flip a page.

Liga is a young woman who finds herself in horrible situations which lead to her getting pregnant. The book opens with a miscarriage, which she doesn't identify as such because her father keeps her in sight and uneducated. (Yes, you probably just figured out horrible situation #1.) After the second horrible incident, she is desperate to escape the totally cruel world she has become subject to the whims of, and her escape turns out to be another world. She enters her own dreamscape, her heart's desire, which is as simple as a safe place to raise her daughters and to feel unthreatened by anyone or anything.

Liga and her daughters Branza and Urdda would have spent their whole lives in that haven, untouched by the true world, if a mud-wife (a witch) in Liga's hometown hadn't decided to fiddle with things and try to send a cruel little man to his own dream-space. Her meddling interferes with the boundaries (and internal clocks) of the two places and strange Bears find themselves in Liga's world, as well as the little man, both possibly posing threats to Liga's family. Eventually, Liga finds herself compelled to return to the cruel world of her youth with her girls.

Lanagan employs a folksy dialect for her characters--some of them say "babby" for "baby" and "leddy" for "lady," for example--which manages to add to the richness of both the characters and setting instead of being distracting to the reader. (In fact, it took me a while to catch on to what "leddy" meant--I was reading it as something like "goody" or "goodwife" for the first half of the book. It worked.)

Lanagan also plays, mostly successfully, with point of view. When the story is following any of the males, they are allowed to tell their own story in first person point of view, which is a little confusing at first when the reader realizes that the "I" isn't necessarily the same person the last "I" was, but once that becomes obvious, the narrators are easy enough to keep track of. When the story is following Liga, Branza or Urdda, however, the narrator is omniscient, which mostly serves to provide a little bit of distance between Liga and the reader; the narrator gets to choose how detailed Liga's story is. (Readers will be just fine with certain parts of Liga's story being glossed over or summarily mentioned after the fact.)

Highly recommended for anyone (grade 8 & older) who has ever appreciated the darker side of fairy tales. If you liked Deerskin by Robin McKinley, you'll want to read this.


I purchased Tender Morsels at Powells in Portland, Oregon. It's going to become part of my mostly-permanent collection.

Fire by Kristen Cashore

I know everyone said they liked Fire as much as Graceling, but I was a little skeptical. I adored Graceling's characters and I wanted to read more about them, not other characters (well, one character overlaps the two stories) set in the same world (though a few decades earlier).

Fire, a monster human who can control people's minds--as can most monster creatures--is a young woman whose main goal in life is to not become like her monster father (monster in the traditional sense as well), and when she's called upon to help the king protect his kingdom from traitors, she consents--with many, many reservations.

Kristen Cashore, I eagerly await all of your forthcoming books; just let me know when to expect them. I'll make sure my bookstore gets them in for me on their release dates.

Hunger Games #3 news

I read in Shelf Awareness that the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy is scheduled for release August 24, 2010!

It doesn't have a title yet, but I'm just happy finally being able to put HG #3 on my calendar.

Seeing Redd (The Looking Glass Wars #2) by Frank Beddor

I was excited to get my hands on Seeing Redd so soon after finishing The Looking Glass Wars, but it left me a little disappointed. I had expected a book that had its own stories to tell, but its sole purpose seemed to be creating a path from book #1 to book #3.

Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it. Alyss's relationship with Dodge develops--at an almost painfully slow pace--and all the plot and subplot complications get beefed up; the last book in the trilogy might be an edge-of-my-seat read. Poor Alyss is learning painful lessons about putting her queendom ahead of personal affections. (I love this flaw of Alyss's, because she really resists this.) Hatter Madigan is perhaps the most developed character; he has a lot to do, and it's not all for Wonderland.

But I missed being delighted by surprises. Redd returns (although her return is kind of entertaining) and Arch wants to take over Wonderland--overall, it's pretty predictable. Dodge is still obsessed with The Cat (who has only one life left). Redd still wants to kill her niece and re-take control of Wonderland, which begs the question: Will Redd and Arch gang up against Alyss or will any cooperative relationship between Redd and Arch form fall apart before it can be useful to either of them?

So, the trilogy loses some steam in the second book, but it definitely builds up complexities that will need to be ironed out in the third book. Final verdict of Seeing Redd: Good, but not fantastic.

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodan

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn is the story of a girl (Eona) who has to pretend to be a boy (Eon) in order to reach her potential as a Dragoneye--one of the wielders of the dragon power. To allow females into the arena of the dragons would be unthinkable.

As Lord Eon, Eona will form a symbiotic relationship (of not a friendship) with the realm's prince. The politics run hot--the emperor's brother makes no secret of his intent to overtake his brother's role (or nephew's, as the case may be) and the Ascendant Dragon (leader of the Dragoneyes) has his own vicious ambitions, which he puts above all else.

And poor Eon/Eona is just a girl pretending to be a boy, trying to become as much like a boy as she can, to quash everything feminine about herself. But pretending to be a boy only intensifies all the insecurities Eona would have felt as a young woman if she'd been allowed to be one. On top of all her doubt of her skills and her true nature, and how much she's actually faking everything, if she's found out, she (and everyone who may or may not have known about this secret) will be killed. And yet she still manages to be a strong female character. Yes, it's very Mulan-esque--the real story, not the Disnification of it.

And Eona's isn't quite the only gender delineation being smudged. Though most of the gender roles in this book are very 18th-century traditional, there is Lady Dela, a transgendered member of the emperor's court (a Contraire, a twin soul) who not only encourages a broadening of readers' minds (you can't help but like her) but provides Eon with a new perspective of gender.

I really liked this book. In spite of how predictable most of it was, I held my breath, I trembled in anticipation and anxiety, and I stopped reading for almost a whole day because I wasn't ready to be done.

Just to clear up any potential confusion if you go in search of this book, it's actually been published under three titles, depending on who published it: Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, The Two Pearls of Wisdom, and Eon: Rise of the Dragoneye. It's also been published in French. And they all have fabulous book covers.

These are all the same book--just so you don't accidentally buy your niece or daughter (or self) two or three different titles because you think they're different books.

I'm waiting to hear about a release date for the sequel.

Monster Blood Tattoo (Book One: Foundling) by D.M. Cornish

I kinda wish I hadn't read Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling as part of the reading marathon, because I think switching from Wintergirls to a steampunk(ish) Australian novel was a little demanding and I don't think I was able to throw myself into the story as much as I would have under normal circumstances.

Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling was one of the books that my friend Jo the Librarian added to my read-a-thon pile. The story is pretty familiar: peer-ridiculed orphan (with a girl's name) finds himself in unexpected situations and eventually discovers that he has a destiny (which may or may not involve a prophecy).

The book looks extremely hefty when it's sitting on a shelf or table, but a third of the book is an Explicarium (appendices, including a very handy glossary). And each chapter is headed with a relevant glossary term, which I greatly appreciated, especially before I discovered that the book was not, in fact, 434 pages.

Though the book got off to a rather slow start, by the time the foundling boards what readers will recognize as the wrong ship, you know everyone's in for one heck of a ride.

I really hope the library gets the second one (Lamplighter) in soon.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

A breath of steam trickles out, filled with the sobs of a grown woman breaking into girl-sized pieces.

Laurie Halse Anderson has for years been a favorite YA author amongst both adults and teens alike, and with excellent reason. Her characters are those who teens--especially girls--can understand, girls who are survivors of others' crimes or their own malicious webs, girls who develop their strength through the pages, through their own words.

Wintergirls is narrated by Lia, an anorexic girl whose former best friend died as the result of her bulimia. They were a team, Lia and Cassie, who motivated each other's unhealthy obsession with thinness, who had a pact to be the skinniest girls in school, even when they seemed close to realizing how dangerous/stupid it was:

I totally supported her. I looked up the names of docs and clinics. I e-mailed her recovery Web sites.

And I sabotaged her every step.

We danced with witches and kissed monsters. We turned us into wintergirls, and when she tried to leave, I pulled her back into the snow because I was afraid to be alone.

I love the care Anderson takes with her character's voice. The unconventional ways she clarifies Lia's obsession: "I eat ten raisins (16) and five almonds (35) and a green-bellied pear (121)(=172)." Or: "I can't see her see me now strong/empty/strong." And her obsession doesn't stop at counting calories, because now she's being haunted by Cassie, who called Lia before she died. 33 times.

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.13.14.15.16.17.18.19.
20.21.22.23.24.25.26.27.28.29.30.31.32.33.

Of course the main conflict in the book is internal, Lia vs. herself, but there's plenty of other drama in her life, too--her father and mother, long separated, don't get along. She doesn't get along with her mother (although she mostly gets along with her stepmother and loves her half-sister). And then there's Cassie's ghost to contend with (because even if she's just a figment of Lia's demented, starved head or not, she serves as a character in the book all the same).

If I were still teaching, I would have multiple copies of this on my classroom shelves, and I'd expect at least one copy to go missing every year for the first few years.

I'm very excited that my library finally got this on their shelves. (It was in the new arrivals section when I walked by. I think I happy-danced it all the way to the checkout counter.)

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

I decided to read Graceling when Angie at Angieville told me that she decided to read her ARC of the Graceling companion book Fire before her ARC of the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire. Now, you know I couldn't wait to read Catching Fire, so if anyone decided to read Fire before Catching Fire, well--how could I not check out the book behind that decision?

Graceling is a wonderful teen fantasy about a young woman named Katsa with a fighting Grace (Graces are comparable to mutations in X-Men) which allows her to move quickly and aim almost flawlessly--and which her king/uncle uses to his advantage. For a while, anyhow.

When Katsa encounters another Graceling, a prince, who can fight nearly as well as she, her life is turned upside down and she finds herself doing things she never dreamed she'd be able or have to do--starting with defying her uncle outright.

I don't think I would have chosen to read Fire before Catching Fire, if the decision had been mine, but Fire is a companion book and can supposedly stand on its own without reading Graceling first (and I am not a patient person when it comes to books with cliffhangers). But now I must get my hands on a copy of Fire; I want to go back to Katsa's world.

Book source: library

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

I have always been a sucker for the bad boys in teen books. And Patch, the bad boy in Hush, Hush is fabulously bad. I didn't want to put this book down. He made my inner sixteen-year-old very happy.

Until the end. Then it all fell apart for me. And even though Fitzpatrick says that the last page has been changed from what we read in ARC's, any changes in that last page wouldn't be enough to make me over-the-moon with the whole book. I don't like saying that, because it has been a long, long time since I've been this enchanted with a bad boy. (Patch is a fallen angel, and throughout, you're not sure whether he's come into our heroine Nora's life as a good bad boy or a bad bad boy.)

Still, Patch was totally worth the reading. And I am a little curious about the sequel that's in the works, in spite of my feelings about the ending.

Banned Books Week

I know everyone's posting lists of banned/challenged books and finding horrible stories about schools banning books and bookish things like To Kill a Mockingbird quote tee shirts. But I think I'm going to take a moment to appreciate one of my favorite YA authors (and one of the more fascinating men I've had the pleasure of meeting): Chris Crutcher.

I don't think there's a book of Crutcher's that hasn't been challenged. And because I seldom come across his books on other book blogs, I'd like to draw some more attention to them.

I was introduced to Chris Crutcher's books through my adolescent lit class when I was in college. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, the book we read, remains one of my favorite YA books. It was certainly the best book the class read. I sought out other books of his afterwards--Whale Talk. Chinese Handcuffs. The Sledding Hill.



And then, joy of joys, I learned that he was going to be talking and reading at Claire's Day 2006. And he was going to be at a local library two night before that. (I, of course, attended both.)

Chris Crutcher & me, Claire's Day 2006

Plenty of adults have a ton of problems with Crutcher's books. They are turned off by the language and frankness of his characters, but his characters are amongst the most real teen protagonists I've encountered. Crutcher's ability to write these kinds of characters stem from his work as a therapist for teens, who inspire his books. Others find his characters to be disrespectful of adult authority, but the adults in his books who earn respect get it. Many find his portrayal of religion to be appalling. Others (and some of the same) are disturbed by the discussions in his books of race, abortion, masturbation, body image, sex, abuse, etc. You know the rigmarole of challenging books. Crutcher doesn't shy away from writing about anything.

Chris Crutcher's website is uniquely concerned with censorship. I love the page on which he answers challenges, be they book challenges in school districts across the US or messages from parents sent to his e-mail address. And in The Sledding Hill, one of his fictitious titles is being challenged by parents in the school system. (He even throws in a cameo appearance at the board meeting scene.)

If you haven't read one of his books, I'd suggest that this would be an especially good week to do so.

Crutcher signs my sister Katie's book at the Elmore Public Library, Elmore, Ohio.

Catching Fire discussion--Literary League: Read 'til YA Drop

Hi, all. Just a reminder that the Literary League: Read 'til YA Drop online book group is discussing Catching Fire in its discussion boards on Facebook. So, if you're on Facebook and have read the book, come join in! If not, read the book and then join in!

(Don't join in if you haven't read it; participants are assumed to have read the book, so spoilers abound.)

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins

I think I convinced three people in the store to read The Hunger Games when I went in to pick up my copy of Catching Fire, which had been sitting behind the counter with my name on it for a week, waiting for September 1. (I declared I would read Catching Fire twice before my family arrives for a week-long visit this weekend--because that's how much this story gets into your head.)

Like Amy at My Friend Amy, I'm not sure how to review this without spoilers, so I'm just going give my opinion, saying as little as possible about the plot.

Better than The Hunger Games? Maybe not--but it's every bit as good. My inner teen self thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I totally let her take over during this reading, just like I did with my first reading of The Hunger Games. (My adult self hasn't really read Catching Fire yet.)

I love Katniss's feistiness--at the end of one chapter, I laughed and laughed and declared her--out loud--"cheeky" for the stunt she'd just pulled, though "cheeky" was a really mild word for the occasion. You'll know which part when you get to it.

I wish Peeta had been a little more rounded out. Yes, we know he loves Katniss and that his life would be miserable for the remainder if she died or something, but I want to know about his home, his parents--how what he said about his father in The Hunger Games affected his parents' lives at home.

Likewise, I'd like to chime in on the whole Team Gale/Team Peeta thing, but I don't feel like I can form an opinion without knowing Gale better--which I really hope happens in the third book. I totally expected it in this one, and it doesn't happen. (That's not much of a spoiler, really. I promise.)

Also, I was surprised by a lot more of the plot twists in this book. Yes, a lot of it is still predictable, but there were things I really was not expecting. Argh. I want to talk about this with someone, but no one I know here is reading it. I guess I'll have to wait for The Literary League's online book club discussion.

So, how long do we have to wait for the third (and final?) installment?*


*It should be noted that I do feel that the third book may be treading some dangerous ground; I'm not sure whether I'm going to like the end of this trilogy--though my not liking it would not necessarily indicate a bad ending.

Nothing But Ghosts by Beth Kephart

Beth Kephart's writing has an elegance I envy. Graceful, lyrical and defiantly simple, her command of language is evident in her blog as well as her books. Well, I'm assuming it's evident in her other books; I'm a little embarrassed to admit that though I've been meaning to read Kephart's books since I found her blog, it took My Friend Amy's drive to get me to the bookstore to order it.

In Nothing But Ghosts, narrator Katie has lost her mom to cancer and is trying to cope by taking a summer job for the reclusive old lady down the street, whose life becomes a mystery for Katie to figure out. Why did Miss Martine disappear? And when? How is it possible that no one has seen her in all those years?

The characters are so delightful I couldn't get enough of any of them--I wish the book had been longer so that I could have spent more time with them. Actually, come to think of it, the characters were almost too perfect. Katie's father, an art restorer, has infinite trust and patience with his daughter; his only flaw seems to be that he loses track of time and gets lost in his work and stays up all hours. And who doesn't love the fashion plate librarian, who's another mystery in Katie's life?

Seriously, I want more. (In the best sense of wanting more.)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I asked my library to bring The Hunger Games in, so they put it on the purchase request list (which doesn't guarantee they'll get it in) and said if they got it, I'd be the first on the waiting list. But I couldn't wait. I bought this book last weekend because so many book bloggers were so excited about the sequel being released in September.

I read The Hunger Games immediately, in a matter of hours (split up by grown-up things I had to do). And then I reread the end.

I tried to move onto another book a couple days later, but I just couldn't. My head was still stuck in The Hunger Games. So I read it again. (My husband thought this was very odd bevahior.)

On the second reading, I noticed a few errors (copy editing) that I didn't notice the first time through. For those who don't know, I almost always spot these mistakes the first time through. That I didn't notice a single one should tell you how engrossed I was in this story.

This book is Survivor meets the Roman Colloseum, and it has the feel of The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (Stephen King) with a teenage love triangle. Seriously, how can you go wrong?

Now I'm one of the people eagerly awaiting Catching Fire, which you can pre-order at your favorite bookstore.

If you are also eagerly awaiting the sequel, you should bounce over to BookWorming in the 21st Century and enter her Catching Fire giveaway.

Did I mention this is the best book I've read this year?

Damosel by Stephanie Spinner

Damosel is a retelling of Arthurian legend for teens from the point of view of the Lady of the Lake and Twixt, a dwarf in Camelot.

I think I tend to think of myself as more of a fan of Arthurian legend than I really am. I liked The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley a lot, which I read at the recommendation of one of my English teachers. I've read I Am Morgan Le Fay by Nancy Springer, The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and at least a little bit of Le Morte d'Arthur.

I liked, in this telling of the legend, that Damosel was really a distant observer to all the happenings. She learns most of her news from others--her cousin Nimue, Merlin, and a few other characters she connects with along the way--and prefers to stay away from mortal goings on when possible, which is true to classic portrayals of the Lady of the Lake.

I think I could have done without Twixt, but he did provide a certain kind of balance, a view of life in Camelot. He, too, is mostly an observer, so he doesn't do much; things just happen around him and sometimes draw him in. And without Twixt's complementing stories, Damosel's might have become deadly dull.

Damosel is definitely a book I would have had on my classroom shelf for those students interested in Arthurian tales, and those interested few (the girls especially) probably would have liked it. To an adult, the story will likely lack depth of character and a satsfying level of complexity. (Mostly, this book reminds me that I have yet to read The Once & Future King.)

Surrey International Writers Conference Young Writer Scholarship

This is for all teen writers--

The Surrey International Writing Conference is an international phenomenon that draws all levels and ages of writers to Vancouver, BC. Editor Lisa Rector has graciously sponsored a full scholarship for a teen writer to attend. Here are the details Lisa sent me; eventually, this will be posted on the SIWC site, too.

The 2^nd Annual Lisa Rector Young Writers Scholarship

Postmark Deadline: July 30, 2009.

1st place, SIWC Full Scholarship,2009.
2nd place, critique by a Literary Agent
3rd place, critique by an Editor or Writer

The winner will be invited to attend the Surrey International Writers’ Conference October 23-25, 2009 in Surrey, Canada. 3-day conference pass includes entry to an awards banquet announcing the winner and a consult with a participating a

gent or editor attending this year’s conference. Scholarship does not includemeals, travel or accommodation.

Students between the ages of 12-18, currently enrolled in a junior high, senior high or college program, are eligible to enter. Contest is open to Canadian, US and Worldwide residents.

Submission guidelines

Please include:

1. An original, unpublished work of less than 1000 words, typed and double-spaced in 12-point Courier or Times New Roman font. Each page of the work should be titled but should not contain any information about the author. Work that previously appeared in school publications is eligible.

2. A cover letter with the author’s contact information, the title of their submission and a paragraph outlining the student's goals as a writer.

3. A letter of recommendation from an instructor in the current or previous academic year.

Submit entries to the following address:

Lisa Rector

c/o Young Writers Scholarship
95 Horatio Street., Suite 9M
New York, NY 10014 USA.

MS Word attachments are also accepted via email to: lisa@thirddraftnyc.com. Emailed submissions must adhere to the above rules and must be received by midnight on the postmarked deadline of July 30, 2009 in order to qualify. A confirmation email will be sent to the applicant once their submission has been received.

Entries may be made in any of the following genres: fiction, poetry, personal essay or memoir. One entry per applicant.

Important dates

Application Deadline: July 30, 2009
Finalists Announced September 5, 2009
Scholarship Awarded October 23-25, 2009

Finalists are responsible for their own meals, accommodation and travel to and from the conference.

For further information, please contact Lisa Rector at lisa@thirddraftnyc.com

____________________________________________________________________

Adults intereseted in similar contests can find last year's guidelines on the SIWC contest page; this year's should be posted relatively soon (I think.)

Unforgettable: The Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce

As you can see, these books have been re-released with new covers (above), which are very different from the covers of the books I bought ten years ago (below).

These books are definitely intended for at least a junior high audience. Still, that didn't stop me from checking The Darkangel out of the school library when I was in third grade. I loved the summary on the back and was determined to read it. Unfortunately, my reading skills weren't quite up to the challenge of reading this fantasy book written for kids much older than me. So I reluctantly returned it to the library, having only read maybe twenty pages; I returned it early in the morning when the librarian wasn't in the library yet so that I wouldn't have to admit to her that she had been right, that it was a little too old for me.

But I certainly didn't forget about. When I got to sixth grade, I went back to the library in search of it. It wasn't there. I figured it must've been one of the books the school library borrowed from the public library, but they didn't have a listing for it either. A few years later, our town library networked their catalog with those of the other libraries in northwest Ohio, and I went back to check the other libraries. I searched both Darkangel and Dark Angel. I got a few hits for the latter, but none of them were the book I sought (but I did get a hit on a VC Andrews book that I did read).

I checked library catalogs intermittently throughout high school, but never with any luck.

And then, in my junior year of college, I took an adolescent literature course. One of our last assignments was to read a book--any book--from the YA/teen section of the university library, a section I hadn't paid much attention to prior to that class. We had to talk to the class about the book, why we'd chosen it, and whether we'd use it as a class book (why/why not). A week before the book had to be read, I went browsing. I'd fallen out of touch with the world of YA books, so I wasn't sure what I'd find. I had three books in my hand--a biography, a science fiction book, and a general fiction book--when I decided to make my decision without going through the last few shelves. And that's when I glanced at the shelf, and there it was: The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce.

I took Pierce's book home, and read it all that night in front of the fireplace. And the next day, I went to work (at the university bookstore) and ordered the other two books in the trilogy, feeling at once excited and silly for not realizing that it was a trilogy. (I'm drawn to trilogies, so I should just assume that every book I pick up is the beginning of a trilogy.)

I'm inclined to think that fans of Robin McKinley's YA books will also like Pierce's, even though this is a strange kind of fairy tale, in which the darkangel of the title is a kind of vampire that sucks souls instead of blood, and he has to collect thirteen souls--his brides--to take to his witch-mother in order to complete his transformation. Aerial, our heroine, is a slave to the woman he takes as his twelfth bride, and she volunteers to be his thirteenth, knowing of nothing else she could possibly be suited for.

It becomes Aeriel's mission, both in the first book and through the rest of the trilogy, to save both herself and the vampire; she knows he's not beyond redemption yet.

This is one of the trilogies on my shelf that I don't ever plan to part with.