The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

What You Need to Know:  The steampunk superhero conceit will draw in readers, but the excessive length, meandering plot and predictability of this book will turn off all but the most determined.

Summary:  Finley, a servant girl in "reduced circumstances" fears the angry thing inside of her.  When, upon being attacked, the thing causes her to harm the young lord of her household, she runs into the night.  As fate would have it, she runs directly into Griffin King, a young nobleman with exceptional abilities of his own.  Griffin is the head of a group of gifted young people who serve the English crown.  The energy that feeds the automatons was discovered by Griffin's parents, but now, the automatons are beginning to turn on their masters.  However, the criminal known only as the Machinist has other plans, for Griffin and his group...

What Worked:  The idea of a team of teenage, steampunk superheroes is a good one.  The Jekyll and Hyde nature of Finely's abilities is not the most original idea ever, but a Victorian girl learning to harness her darker nature is intriguing.

Emily, the genius inventor of Griffin's crew, is a great character.  Spunky, bright, brave and loyal, she is by far the most interesting thing about this book.

What Didn't:  Dear goddess, this book is long.   So very long, particularly for a book that could be described as The League of Extraordinary X-Men the First Class.

Cross switches between viewpoint characters frequently, which would be interesting if her characters had more depth.  Each of the members of the team came right out of central casting -- angry young man, confused girl, handsome rogue.  I admit to being charmed by Emily -- Spunky Girl Inventor -- but even she has been done a thousand times before.  Stock characters could be forgiven, if the plot of the book was less predictable.  Any reader with a basic understanding of superhero comics or Victorian mysteries will see where this book is headed, even as it takes its own sweet time about getting there.

Who Would I Give This Book To:   Fans of the steampunk genre will probably want to give this one a look, and it would be an interesting diversion for superhero fans.

Subject Seven by James A. Moore

What You Need to Know: Despite some compelling action sequences, this overlong, confusing Jekyll and Hyde retread will frustrate the reluctant readers it seems designed for. 


Summary:  Years ago, a top secret project aimed to create the ultimate solider.  Genetic experiments resulted in a group of "failures" who nonetheless have unbelievable strength, speed and a taste for violence.   These failures, blind to their unusual abilities, live their lives as normal teenagers.  One of these experiments escaped and is now looking for the other teens who are like him.  Subject Seven has the ability to awaken the killers inside these five normal teens, but his agenda is not clear.  


What Worked:  Moore knows how to put together a fight scene.  When this book moves, it really moves, and the descriptions of carnage are vivid and brutal.   The physicality of the transformations of the teen sleeper agents is arresting, calling to mind Gothic horror stories.    


What Didn't:  Moore takes forever, or at least half of the 336 pages, to get to the point.  Each of the 5 characters has a protracted, and ultimately meaningless, introduction.   Moore changes the viewpoint character frequently,  not just among the teens and their alter-egos, but to the scientist in charge of the experiment.  Instead of building suspense, these shifts merely drag the narrative down, confuse reader and slow the pace to a crawl.  The characters themselves are little more than clichés , with the "Jersey Mafia daughter" being the worst of the lot.  


Who would I give this book to: Honestly, I can't see recommending this book anybody.  The readers who would gravitate to this book's violent action would not wade through the lengthy and confusing first half of the book.  Teens who would be willing to stick with the protracted introduction would be put off by the stock characters.   

Books I Couldn't Finish: Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Total Pages: 94 out of 299

So, Why Didn't You Finish It?  Gemma is kidnapped out of an airport by Ty, and taken to BFE Australia to live in the hot, red land.

It's hot, and red.  Ty's a monster.  But he's not.  But he is.  And it's hot.  And red.  Gemma tries to escape.  It doesn't work.  Its too hot.  And maybe too red.   And Ty's a creep.  But he's not.  But he is.  Gemma wants to get away.  But she can't.  Because it's hot, and red.   Did I mention it was hot?  And red?

Nothing happens!  Except it's hot.  And red.

Theres no plot, no character development, no nothing.  Just heat.  And redness.



Dissenting Opinions?  But of course.

Kids Lit 
Bookalicio.us
2011 Printz Honor Books

The Bottom Line:  This book is unique for being written in the second person, and Christopher's descriptions of the hot, red land are beautiful, but ultimately, this book is just plain boring.

Books I Didn't Finish: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Total Page Count:  ~200 of 441 pages

Why Didn't You Finish It?:  This book has a killer concept -- in the future, love is a disease.  At 18 everybody gets a "procedure" that will cure them of Amor Deliria Nervosa.  Of course the procedure robs them of most other emotions and the ability to question the government.

Pretties, The Giver, The Cure, Bar Code Tattoo -- all of these books have covered similar ground.  And done it in less than 441 pages! 

Dissenting opinions? Sure.
The Compulsive Reader
Dreaming in Books
Reading Rants


The Bottom Line: While Oliver writes beautifully, it just takes her too long to get where she's going for me. A skillful world building and a clever concept doesn't make up for pages and pages of a wishy-washy heroine being wishy-washy.

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus

Let me state, straight up, that this is not the type of movie that I would normally seek out.

I ran across it the other day while I was helping out the circulation workroom.  It caught my eye (Hello, RDJ!) and since working in circ makes me think of college, I decided to check it out.

Back in my undergraduate days, I majored in Women’s Studies.  Diane Arbus, the subject of Fur, was a name that often came up in discussions.   Arbus was a photographer who is best known for her portraits of “deviant” groups – transvestites, circus performers, nudists.    She’s credited for pioneering a new spirit in documentary photography, empathizing with her subjects rather than displaying them.

She’s also an artist I have never really understood.   Although people who know a hell of a lot more about art photography than I do have said her photos are astounding, they never really struck me as anything more than voyeuristic .  

So – Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus.  I went into it with a little knowledge about the subject and not a whole lot of expectations.    I accept that this film is not a “biography” and that plenty of artistic liberty has been taken with Arbus’s life.    Since I only have the barest sense of Arbus’s history anyway, I was willing to separate this fantasy from the historical person.     Even with that caveat, I don’t think this film works very well.