Reading Roundup: December 2010

By the Numbers
Teen: 17
Tween: 0
Children: 1

Sources
Review Copies: 9
Library: 8

Standouts
Teen: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
I was really poking along, dissatisfied with everything I was reading, but this puppy brought me out of my reading slump, and hard. I spent one whole morning on the couch wrapped in a blanket and Elisa's world. From the sweet, smart main character to the colonial-Mexico-influenced world to the descriptions of the food to the natural, organic inclusion of faith and struggles with same . . . my god, did I love this book.

Because I Want To Awards
That . . . Just Ain't Right: Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan (Spoiler ahoy! Skip down if you don't like that sort of thing)
Talk about a disturbing scenario. When girls are kidnapped from one colony ship to another and get their mother-flippin' eggs harvested against their will . . . well, I got a little green. Also, Ryan gets points for the moral complexity of her characters, particularly the two guys. I wasn't overfond of the Religion Ebil! theme that she seemed to have, but the next one is going right on my list, because I want to see if anybody is salvageable.
Lushest Setting: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Even the scenes in the "mundane" world took place in Prague, and the way it was described made it as fantastical in its otherness as the world of seraphim and chimaera.
Psychic? or Crazypants?: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
I do love me an unreliable narrator. The titular Mara spends most of the book haunted by hallucinations--or are they?--of the three kids who didn't escape death when she did. Or did they?? Even by the end, you're not entirely sure just how much of her choo-choo has jumped the tracks. Also, I kept looking at that cover. Is he pulling her down under the water, or holding her up? Guarantee your answer will change as you read.