Reckless

Reckless by Cornelia Funke and Lionel Wigram. Translated by Oliver Latsch. Read by Eliott Hill.
 Teen CD Books - Main Level - FUNKE

Once upon a time, a father disappeared, leaving his wife and two sons. One night, his oldest son went into his abandoned study and discovered that the dark mirror on his wall was really a portal to a parallel world, one where fairies and fairy tales were real. Years later, Jacob Reckless still divided his time between the fairy tale world and our world, but spent more and more time in the pretend world, where he kept looking for his father. He was at least able to ignore the problems in his life in the real world until the time when his little brother caught him leaving and insisted on coming with him. They had a chance encounter with some goyl, living gargoyle-like creatures of stone, and Will was infected with the stone plague, cursed to turn slowly to goyl. Now Jacob must use his skills and contacts as a hunter of legendary treasures from the old tales to find a cure for his brother before he is turned completely to stone. With Jacob and Will are Jacob’s friend Fox, a fox-girl; and Clara, Will’s doctor girlfriend.

It took a little while for me to get into this book – Jacob abandoning his little brother and their failing, grief-stricken mother isn’t at first a sympathetic character. It wasn’t until everyone started off on the mission in the fairy tale world that the story started to come together. Once it does, though the quest is nearly impossible and the obstacles enormous, the characters and the detailed world are just as important as the plot. It’s a dark fairy tale world, one where they find Sleeping Beauty, still looking young and beautiful but just as clearly dead, and where they make their way through a dark and dangerous wood to the abandoned home of a child-eating witch. (I appreciated that there were also healing witches, who’d recently formally separated themselves from their “child-eating sisters”.) The happy endings may be make-believe, but the magic of the world is still seductive and compelling. Meanwhile, our characters: Jacob is dealing with tons of guilt for having left his brother for so long and for letting something so bad happen to Will. Fox, born a human but more comfortable as a fox, is just moving from puppy-worship of Jacob to a more adult and decidedly more uncomfortable attraction. Will and Clara are watching his humanity and his memories of being human fade while stranded in a hostile world. It’s a little curious that this was billed as teen, because all of our main characters are in their 20s. Still, while there’s violence, it’s low on overt sexuality, and the struggles of slightly older than usual orphans trying to find their way is appealing to teens. The world edges a bit closer to horror than I usually like, but the characters were engrossing enough for me to overlook this. I enjoyed it quite a lot, and am moving on to the second book in the series, Fearless, out last month.

The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys. Book 1 of the Raven Cycle. Read by Will Patton. by Maggie Stiefvater
Teen Zone CD Books – Main Level – STIEFVATER
Teen Zone New Fiction – Main Level - STIEFVATER

I loved Steifvater’s Wolves of Mercy Fall series, and couldn’t wait to read this one, higher on the adventure and so far a bit lower on the romance than that series.

"There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve," Neeve said. "Either you're his true love . . . or you killed him."

Sixteen-year-old Blue Sargent has grown up the only non-psychic in a family of psychic women, but with the unique ability to strengthen other people’s psychic powers. The “family” includes an assortment of aunts by blood and friendship, including Blue’s newly-arrived half-aunt Neeve. Every psychic Blue has ever met has told Blue that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. So Blue has made rules for herself: stay away from boys, because boys are trouble. Even more, stay away from Aglionby Academy boys, because they are even worse. But this year, things start to change. At the Death Watch in a ruined church on St. Mark’s Eve, there just to help Neeve see the spirits of the future dead as they walk by, Blue sees the shadowy spirit of a boy, whom she can tell by the raven on his sweater is an Aglionby boy, and who says his name is Gansey. Soon, they meet in person, and Blue is integrated into the small team of his friends, despite her distrust of his family money, good looks, and charisma. (Go Blue! Way to not be instantly swept off your feet by money with a handsome face!) Instead, she’s drawn to one of Gansey’s other friends, Adam, a quiet boy whose accent in unguarded moments reveals him to be a local (poor) boy, unlike the usual wealthy Raven Boys. The other two boys in the group include the angry, shaved-head Ronan (featured on the cover of the second book) and shy and “smudgy” Noah. They are all bound together by Gansey’s passionate quest to find the ley line he believes runs through Henrietta, which he believes will lead him to the sleeping Welsh king Glendower.

There are all sorts of mystical elements in this book: ley lines, magic rituals, tarot cards, trees that speak Latin, old cars (ok, those are less mystical for me), which delighted me. But there’s also a whole lot of real truth, as well, in the power of love in Blue’s family and the sturdy bonds of friendship, forged quickly in the intensity of their quest. All of the major characters – with the notable and clearly purposeful exception of Neeve – have clearly relatable back-stories and non-magical issues. I couldn’t help loving both Adam and Gansey; the brutally honest Ronan, as my love says, we respect without liking. I loved the male friendships, the late nights helping a friend in trouble as often or more as the late nights over gelato or pizza. While this is only the beginning of the story, and Blue is still very tentative about any romance, the love triangle of Blue and Adam or Gansey is clear from the very beginning, and it’s the best love triangle I’ve read in a very long time. It’s not angsty or forced, but just a group of friends with excellent potential, either one of whom could be very good with Blue.

Will Patton, the narrator, has a gravelly Southern voice which at first struck me as odd, considering that our first-introduced character is a teen girl. However, he proved himself excellently versatile, giving convincing voices to the wide array of male and female characters spanning a range of ages in the story. I’m far from an expert in Virginia accents, but people were described as having a variety of them in the book, and they were there to hear. That is one of my favorite aspects of audio books, as I’m liable to think any character in my own accent unless I concentrate on it or it’s mentioned – hearing the individual voices makes the characters come that much more alive. This audio book also includes Maggie Stiefvater’s original theme music for the book, played at the beginning and end, and performed by herself and her friends. It is haunting and atmospheric and makes me wish I could get a whole soundtrack for the book to listen to. Altogether, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am anxiously waiting for book two, the Dream Thieves, due out in September.