Wicked Lovely (YA)

Marr, Melissa. 2007. Wicked Lovely. HarperCollins. 328 pages.

"Four ball, side pocket." Aislinn pushed the cue forward with a short, quick thrust; the ball dropped into the pocket with a satisfying clack.

Aislinn is special, but she'd rather be ordinary. She's grown up seeing fairies. (As has her Grams.) She'd give anything to not be able to see these mischievous to menacing fairies. It means living life carefully. Following three important rules: don't stare at invisible fairies, don't speak to invisible fairies, don't ever attract their attention. By the end of the book, how many rules do you think Aislinn has broken?

Not that it's her fault. Aislinn seems rather destined to have this adventure. It all starts when the Summer King (a fairy), Keenan, begins dreaming about Aislinn. The game has begun, and poor Aislinn doesn't stand a chance. Keenan senses that she is the one. The mortal girl who will become his queen. (Hereby joining him in immortality.) Whether she wants him or no, she's about to become immortal. And she has three choices: becoming a mindless summer girl--a mindless, easy girl, or accepting the challenge and trying to become Keenan's queen: if she succeeds, she becomes queen; if she fails, well, you don't want to know how awful that can be. Just ask Donia. She's the last girl who tried to become queen. Now she's helplessly in love with the Summer King, but in the service of the Winter Queen, the Summer King's mother, the evil Beira. But when you're Aislinn, all of these so-called choices mean heartbreak. Because she wants to be mortal. She wants nothing to do with faeries. She wants only to have a normal life, to be with her best friend, Seth. He's the guy that she is dreaming of. He's the guy that makes her life worth living. Keenan? Don't even think about it. Seth's the one. The guy that understands and accepts her.

I enjoyed this one. It was fun. It was dark in places, but it wasn't too dark.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Road

McCarthy, Cormac. 2006. The Road.

When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. His hand rose and fell softly with each precious breath. He pushed away the plastic tarpaulin and raised himself in the stinking robes and blankets and looked toward the east for any light but there was none. In the dream from which he'd wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand. Their light playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast. Deep stone flues where the water dripped and sang. Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth and the hours and the days of it and the years without cease. Until they stood in a great stone room where lay a black and ancient lake. And on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as...

I'm mean aren't I? But I wanted to hook you. In case you aren't already familiar with the premise, The Road, is the story of a father and his son. This isn't quite your typical father-son bonding story, however, it's the story of a father and son trying to survive on earth after horrific and massive catastrophes have torn everything and everybody apart. We're not told where, when, how, or why. We just see the fragments and remnants of the world as it now is. Ash. The cities especially are covered in ash. It's implied that a few years at least--maybe longer--have passed since IT happened. It is now near impossible to find food by rummaging cities and towns--stores and homes--any and every structure. And the few people they meet are dangerous for the most part. (If you've read it you know just WHAT I mean.) But the boy and his father are on their way, scavenging as best they can. The father is trying to make it to the east coast. I presumed it was the southern east coast though I could be wrong. I don't remember now if I just assumed that or if it said it out right. So don't take my word on that little detail. The key thing is that they're on a journey, they're on "the road."

I won't say much more than this. I don't think I need to. It's an emotional journey you take along with them. It's got it all. And it's certainly one I won't be forgetting.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews