CHILE: The House of the Spirits Review

Title: The House of the Spirits
Author: Isabel Allende
Genre: Classics, Magical Realism

Blurb: Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future.

The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate. 

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender Review

Title: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Author: Leslye Walton
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Genre: Magical Realism, Fantasy

Blurb: Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird.

First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human. 

Me: Incredible. I've been meaning to read this for a very long time now, and I'm so so glad I got around to doing it. 

26 CLASSICS: The Metamorphosis Review #6

Title: The Metamorphosis
Author: Franz Kafka
Genre: Classics, Magic Realism 

Blurb:  Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing -- though absurdly comic -- meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction.

Glory O'Brien's History of the Future Review

Title: Glory O'Brien's History of the Future
Author: A.S. King
Publisher: Little Brown
Genre: Contemporary, Magic Realism

Blurb: (from goodreads) Would you try to change the world if you thought it had no future?

Graduating from high school is a time of limitless possibilities — but not for Glory, who has no plan for what's next. Her mother committed suicide when Glory was only four years old, and she’s never stopped wondering if she will eventually go the same way... until a transformative night when she begins to experience an astonishing new power to see a person’s infinite past and future. From ancient ancestors to many generations forward, Glory is bombarded with visions—and what she sees ahead of her is terrifying.

A tyrannical new leader raises an army. Women’s rights disappear. A violent second civil war breaks out. And young girls vanish daily, sold off or interned in camps. Glory makes it her mission to record everything she sees, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference. She may not see a future for herself, but she’ll do everything in her power to make sure this one doesn't come to pass.

In this masterpiece about freedom, feminism, and destiny, Printz Honor author A.S. King tells the epic story of a girl coping with devastating loss at long last—a girl who has no idea that the future needs her, and that the present needs her even more.

Me: This book was one of a kind. It struck me in a very beautiful and personal way.

The Ups: First, the feminism. It was stated bluntly and very straight-forwardly. King didn't swerve around the topic, and instead that was one of the biggest concepts in the book. I actually got an opportunity to talk to A.S. King briefly about feminism and it was awesome.  The little things, like the girl asking the guy out or the hero being a girl in the war (the Sniper) were not accentuated in any way but you could tell the feminist ideas were imbedded into the story. 

Another thing that really struck me about this book was the character arc. Glory really became a different person throughout the story. She starts off as not being able to see a future for herself, but during the book ends up making one without even realizing it. It's not often that a character can make such an obvious journey, but I think the thing that made it so powerful was that Glory herself didn't realize she was changing, because she was putting all her thought into the changes that were to come.
I don't think anyone can incorporate magic realism into a story and make it as mature and strong as A.S. King can. Her books with magic realism in them are never immature and always make you question and think.
Another thing that I really liked was the entire concept of destiny and the future. I hadn't really thought about it that much before, but along with Glory I began to think about the world and how everyday decisions change our future.

The Downs: That being said, it wasn't as good as A.S. King's other books. All of her other ones, besides Reality Boy, which I DNF, were amazing and I was actually expecting a lot out of this book, but it didn't meet all those expectations. The general concepts of the book were very admirable and in some terms, very brave but the actual book wasn't that interesting.
The character arc was awesome and wonderfully imbedded, but I didn't connect to the character. It wasn't like I didn't like Glory, she just didn't make me feel for her. I didn't really fully know what she was feeling and often times felt a bit annoyed with her.
The plot was also a bit...slow. It dragged on and on, and the only interesting parts were in the visions Glory saw. There was no action happening. The actual life of Glory happening then didn't have much action or interest, and like I said, since I didn't really connect with Glory, things that happened to her didn't really make me feel the way she did.

Overall: A very brave book with great concepts, but lacking in action. 

Rating: 4 kisses!