The Spindlers Review

Image from Goodreads

The Spindlers
by Lauren Oliver
Expected Publication: 10.01.12
From Goodreads:

Looking across the breakfast table one morning, twelve-year-old Liza feels dread wash over her. Although her younger brother, Patrick, appears the same, Liza knows that he is actually quite different. She is certain that the spindlers-evil, spiderlike beings-came during the night and stole his soul. And Liza is also certain that she is the only one who can rescue him.

Armed with little more than her wits and a huge talking rat for a guide, Liza descends into the dark and ominous underground to save Patrick's soul. Her quest is far from easy, and the road to the spindlers' nests is riddled with danger. She must brave tree snakes, the Court of Stones, and shape-shifting serpents before facing her greatest challenge in the spindlers' lair, where more than just Patrick's soul is at stake.

My Midnight Musings:  As much as I love Oliver's YA novels, The Spindlers, along with her previous middle grade book Liesl & Po, have cemented my love for her writing.  The Spindlers is a wonderful mix of Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, and Oliver's wonderful imagination and originality. 

Liza, as a main character, is relateable to all readers, no matter their age. Her parents aren't the normal cardboard cut outs, although Liza's adventures underground are done without their knowledge it isn't because her parents are bumbling idiots.  Like many parents today they are struggling to pay bills, and so it's a bit easier to understand that they don't see that their son's soul has been stolen by evil spider like creatures.

A word about the spindlers, and that word is shudder.  The idea of spiders that grow in all kinds of sizes, have human hands at the end of their legs and can steal our souls, planting their little spindler babies in our soulless husks until they hatch out and destroy us is disturbing and nightmarish to say the least.  Honestly, Ron Weasley would be crapping himself is he had to deal with Liza's foes.  Prepare to be freaked out by insects for quite awhile after reading this book!

Despite the fear of the spindlers, Liza is determined to save her brother's soul.  She teams up with Mirabella the rat, who dresses and paints herself up like a cross between a very special Project Runway losing outfit, constructed out of items salvaged from a dumpster, and a drag queen caught in a torrential downpour. Mirabella is Liza's guide and companion as they encounter cute,but sensitive glow worm like creatures, a bizarre market where you can buy all manner of things with pretty colored paper, and through a court case that's both terrifying and ridiculous, until finally Liza must confront the evil Spindlers.

My favorite parts of the books was Liza herself.  She is already a strong character at the beginning, but she really grows up and embraces the strangeness she encounters.  And as a fan of the weird, I appreciate that.    Plus I absolutely love the way Oliver has explained where dreams come from, but I'll let you discover that for yourselves.

There isn't anything groundbreaking in this book, the plot is a tad predictible but I was still anxious for Liza and enchanted (and terrified) of the world.  I think it would make a wonderful addition to any library, and perfect for the next 24 Hour Readathon in October (see, the publication date coincides nicely, take it as a sign!). 

The Spindlers gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

Like so many other of us book bloggers, my head is easily turned by a pretty book cover, and this one is perfect.  My only complaint is that the spiders on the cover are clearly not spindlers, since they do not have human hands, but that it probably for the best as the image is truly disturbing.

**I received a copy of this ARC at BEA.  All thoughts, opinion and snark are my own.**

Pandemonium (Delirium #2)

Pandemonium (Delirium #2)
By Lauren Oliver
Expected Publication: 02.28.12
From Goodreads:

I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.
Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

My Thoughts: Pandemonium swings between the past (Lena escaping over the wall without Alex and finding sanctuary with over "invalids") and the present (Lena being all tough and working for the Resistance).  Both in the past and present she is haunted by the memory of Alex, and the realization that Hana has had the cure.  In Delirium, Lena had to wake up to the truth that the government hid, but in Pandemonium her struggle is physical as she strives to regain her strength.  Without Alex, Lena is lost.  She finds a new family of sorts in the wilds, and ends up working with the resistance.

Through this she meets Julian, poster child for the cure.  Lena and Julian end up thrown together.  He is as naive as she once was, and Lena finds herself in the role that Alex once took with her.  Julian is hot and sweet, but Alex is never far from Lena's mind. With Alex dead, is Lena going to be able to move on?

Lots of new characters are introduced in Delirium, and they all add to Lena's story.  There are so many wonderful moments and back stories, especially Blue's history.  I challenge you not to tear up when you get to that part.  The only part I had trouble with was how Lena ended up working in the resistance, the jump seemed skipped over.  One minute she's living in the woods and struggling to survive, and the next she has a new idenity, a fake cure scar, and she's living in a new town.

I'm not sure I loved Pandemonium as much as I did Delirium, although the fault may lie more in the numerous dystopian novels I've read this past year than in Oliver's writing. Pandemonium was a great, compelling read.  It would be an  extreme understatement to say that I'm eager to get my hands on the third book.  The ending of Pandemonium, while not completely unexpected (I gots skills), still leaves you suckerpunched.  In a good way.  Maybe. Still, it's a great dystopian series, and if you only make room on your shelves for one or two dystopian novels, than this series definitely rates a place. 

Pandemonium gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

Pandemonium gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

I loved the subtleness of Delirium's cover, and this one doesn't really do much for me.

Liesl & Po Review

Liesl & Po
by Lauren Oliver
From Goodreads:

Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice—until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone.
That same night, an alchemist's apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable
Will's mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey.
From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver comes a luminous and magnificent novel that glows with rare magic, ghostly wonders, and a true friendship that lights even the darkest of places.

My Thoughts: I posted on Twitter that I wanted to hug this book, and that pretty much sums up my feelings.  You know that tingle you get when you pick up a book, read the first few lines, and know immediately that you're going to love it?  Liesl & Po was that book for me. Liesl is a cute, sad little girl.  Her father has just died after a lingering illness, and she's been kept in her attic room for months and months by her selfish Stepmother.  The one solace left to her is her drawings, and she draws late at night.  Because of this talent, she attracts the attention of Po the ghost and Will, the alchemist's battered assistant.  When Will accidentally switches a box of magic with the ashes of Liesl's father, the adventure begins.

Liesl, Po and Po's ghostly animal companion, Bundles, set off to return what she thinks is her father's ashes to the place where her mother is buried, Will is on the run from Merv the alchemist and the Lady Premiere, to whom the magic was promised.  Joining in the chase is Mo, who just wants to give Will a hat, Augusta Hortense Varice Morbower, Liesl's scheming stepmother, a nosy old woman on a train, and a black-haired thief. 

It's a wonderful fairy tale, with a touch of Dickens, but more like A Christmas Carol than Oliver Twist.  The characters, especially the secondary ones, are wonderfully odd.  Merv the alchemist reminds me a bit of Vizzini the Sicilian from The Princess Bride, only instead of mumbling "Inconceivable!" all the time, Merv's favorite word, in regards to Will, is "useless".  I mentioned to someone on Goodreads that Liesl & Po was the type of book that I could almost hear Jim Dale, narrator of the Harry Potter books and The Night Circus, reading aloud.  Turns out, he does do the narration for Liesl & Po on Audible.  I plan on downloading it later since my copy of Liesl & Po is part of an ARC tour.  The same goodreads friend asked me how it compared to Lauren Oliver's other books, Before I Fall and Delirium, but I can't compare them, all are well written, all are good, and all three books have a completely different feel to them.  You might love one and not the other two, or love two (in my case Delirium and Liesl & Po) and just like one (Before I Fall).  I'm pretty impressed that Lauren Oliver has the ability to be such a writing chameleon but still keeps her awesomeness.

Here's some quotes I loved, but keep in mind that I read the ARC so I don't know if these made it into the final version that's on sale now:

"All children were the same to him: strange and sticky and best avoided, like an upright variety of jellyfish."

"It was a waste of time.  It was as the alchemist would have said, useless.  (Useless was one of the alchemist's favorite words, and he used it interchangeably to describe Will's plans, thoughts, work, appearance, and general self hood.).

"Coincidences; mix-ups; harmless mistakes and switches. And so a story is born."

"There was something very disturbing about hearing the Lady Premiere's voice so soft and slippery sounding.  It was off, somehow, like seeing a bunch of roses laid over a rotting corpse."

"They were fragile, too easily broken and dismantled: They had bones that broke and skin that tore and hearts that gave up with a sigh and rolled over."

"It did not help when Liesl began mummering to herself (or so it seemed to them; for when they saw a flicker or flash or shimmer of light, they thought Tick of the eyes instead of Ghost or Magic."

As much as I really loved Liesl, Po, Bundles and Will, my favorite character was Mo.  Mo is a guard for the Lady Premiere, and Mo (as in slow as Molasses), is a simple, sweet man who loves hot chocolate.  Because he's been teased by the other guards for drinking it, he hides his preference by sipping out of a thermos labeled Coffee.  I once ordered a Peppermint Hot Chocolate from coffee shop inside of a grocery store in Oklahoma.  I love Peppermint Hot Chocolate, I long for it all year round until it's fall/winter and it's readily available.  But on this occasion, the coffee shop worker asked if it was for my kid.  Now, I don't have any children and there weren't any standing around me, so I was confused why she was asking, so I just said no.  And she seemed surprised and told me that Peppermint Hot Chocolate was usually ordered by kids.  I felt vaguely offended, but forgave her as the drink was delicious.  Hot chocolate should not just be for kids!  So Mo won my heart, and it only took a few sentences.

Liesl and Po gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

*I received a copy of this ARC through Around the World ARC Tours, but all thoughts, opinions and snark are my own.