To Read & To Write

Have you heard this story before? A woman, torn between her feelings for two different men, ends up making the wrong decision and lives a life of pain, suffering, and longing. Does that sound familiar? Though that storyline comprises the basic plot of Samuel Park’s “This Burns My Heart” (2011), I promise that there is something especially distinctive about this story, which I would even go so far as to call an epic saga. The novel is made up of four parts, each one named for a plant organism special to Korean culture; Part 1: Chrysanthemum, Part 2: Orchid, Part 3: Plum Blossom, and Part 4: Bamboo.   Each of these plants represents something specific, which is beautifully explained by Park within the context of the story, but can be said simply to symbolize resilience, strength, and persistence in the face of harsh circumstances. These characteristics align with how Korean society became after the war, during the 1960s. Everyone in “This Burns My Heart” is an embodiment ...

Natalie C. Andersen’s debut novel, “City Of Saints & Thieves”, chronicles the life of a young orphan girl, Christina, who must become a Goonda – a member of a thieving and violent gang in Africa's Congo – in order to survive. She knows next to nothing about her past, and her present is full of vengeance and hatred for a man she believes killed her mother, Mr. Greyhill, one of the richest men in town. “City Of Saints & Thieves” is written like a diary. Christina struggles to come to terms with her past, but how can she when it’s a big huge blur of events both terrible and good? The honesty in this book is wonderful, but there wasn’t as much internal dialogue as there should’ve been for someone going through a childhood full of brutality. Christina, or “Tiny”, as the Goondas call her, has one thing on her mind – seeking revenge, by means of murder, for her mother’s death. It would’ve been a more riveting read if there was more reflection on the mental and emotional instab...

After reading and loving Hack/Slash Omnibus Volume 1, I decided I might as well purchase Hack/Slash Omnibus Volume 2. It was definitely worth my money. I’ve heard that many comics struggle to keep audience attention after their first release. One theory is that perhaps since the second release is, many times, no longer an “origin story”, writers begin to lose the sense of plot, and thus character development suffers as well. This is not the case for Hack/Slash.  Cassie Hack returns with a vengeance, still side-by-side with Vlad, the monstrous but gentle man (if not engaged in a fight) that she calls her friend. There are eleven stories presented in this volume, and they run together seamlessly. Cassie and Vlad continue to fight the slashers (a.k.a. Revenants) as this is their raison d’etre; they would like to save as many people as possible from the hands of these reanimated, angry, corpses. Cassie and Vlad encounter a psychotic psychologist, a rock and roll band that has sold ...

Charlotte Brontë’s well-known novel, Jane Eyre, was published in the year 1847, which is a time that took place during England’s Victorian Era. Brontë’s book is considered by most conventional standards as a work of Gothic Fiction, defined as a mix of fiction and horror, death and romance. Along with elements of the macabre, which make up a part of Gothic literature, there is also Gothic architecture, which defined it also as an aesthetic. Time and place are two very essential parts of understanding literature, and very literally make up the background of a well-written story. The foreground of the story is the characters and their relationships, both to one another and the larger social world they live in. Both background and foreground as presented here will be discussed and will answer two simple questions: 1) Why was Jane Eyre so important when it was published? & 2) Why is Jane Eyre still relevant today? Every era has its societal standards, its status quo. The Victorian E...

"The Revenant: A Novel Of Revenge" tells the story of frontiersman Hugh Glass, a Western legend, who survived the wilderness on his own after he was brutally attacked by a grizzly bear and left for dead by The Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The year is 1823 and the frontier is abounding with Native American tribes, which, for the most part, doesn’t make Glass’s plight any easier, until one kind Sioux tends to his wounds and takes him in.  The author of this book, Michael Punke, writes with clarity and a knack for solid historical fiction, and spins a tale of survivalism driven by the need for retribution. Glass is not upset that his partners have left him – he was severely wounded and a burden; they had tried to carry him on a handmade stretcher over the treacherously cold and snowy landscape (not to mention covered with trees, shallow quarries, fords, mountainous terrain, and the like) for three days. Punke’s interpretation of Glass’s story describes a man driven by rage at...

Sometimes a good object lesson made in story form can be better than something overly dramatic and dripping with sentimentality. The Light Between Oceans is a perfect object lesson about the blurred lines between the usually stark contrast of right and wrong. Morality, no matter how much some might like to convince themselves of it, is never easy. London based, Australian author M.L. Stedman writes her powerful first story, The Light Between Oceans, conveying this complexity in all its perfect dimensions. Tom Sherbourne, well-respected World War I veteran, is emotionally and spiritually wounded after his return from action, especially by the fact that he survived while many of his comrades were brutally killed. The question of why *he* was the one that was allowed to live nags at him daily. Damaged also from a broken home, Sherbourne puts the entirety of his mind and soul into his work. He is detailed and exhaustive in the work he does, and soon he is known as one of the best light...

I loved Eilis, I hated Eilis, I felt sympathy towards the story, I felt frustrated with the story, I didn’t necessarily want to finish the book, but I did, indeed, in two days. This was the course of emotions that ran through me while reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin.  The book is entertaining to say the least, and is deeply moving, especially in the beginning and middle parts of the story, and then very shocking towards the end. Things happen to Eilis, the protagonist, that a reader may not (and probably won’t) suspect, and the contradictions of emotion and action within this very particular young woman are told in such a way by Toibin that is economical perhaps of because of how straightforward his writing is. In otherwords, it’s a quick read. However, there is an aura of mystery as well, which makes this story potent for discussion. Toibin will not tell you why things happen in the story, he tells you the events and hints at certain things, while the reader hypothesizes as s/...

In Marissa Meyer’s “Cinder”, older literary versions of the “Cinderella” story are thrown into a future science fiction world, where Cinder is about half-human and half-cyborg (machine), and is also something else… something mysterious that only one person on Earth knows. Other than being a mechanic fixing pretty much any technological object in New Beijing, she thinks she is nobody but a dirt covered, grease stained abomination. But looks can be deceiving. What is really underneath the metal and flesh? As New Beijing collapses under a plague called letumosis, Cinder discovers the truth about her history, and perhaps the fate of the Earth. “Cinder” is a real page-turner. Much of Meyer’s writing reminds me of William Gibson (author of “Neuromancer”), but unlike his heavily stylized and conceptual writing (which is amazing), Meyer manages to tell a sharp, straightforward sci-fi tale that doesn’t have the reader reaching for meaning but rather, (hopefully) has the reader desperately ...

I laughed out loud, hard, a few times while reading this amazing book of poetry. I read the poems out loud too, in disbelief of the striking truth of the words, and the sadness within them as well. Everyone who has ever had to grow up will most probably be very moved by this book, especially those who have some knowledge of fairy tales. In them are words that reveal the ridiculousness of the image of "beauty" imposed on us in modern times, the tragedy of awful, selfish people that come off as being our friends, or worse, our best friends or our boyfriends, and the trauma that comes with being a teenager in a society that values outsides rather than insides and lust over love. There are more mysterious poems included as well that ask... who am I... *really*? After reading "Poisoned Apples: Poems For You My Pretty", you just might want to take the advice the author, Christine Heppermann, gives at the end: "Retell your own stories. Keep pushing your way throug...

Francesca Lia Block’s “The Rose And The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold” is composed of nine tales that shimmer and sparkle with hope. Each story is very loosely based off of classic fairy tales such as “Snow White”, “Thumbelina”, and “Beauty & The Beast”. The book is melancholic in nature. While there are beautiful objects (“tall glasses of mineral water with slices of lime like green moons rising above clear bubbling pools”), beautiful people (“a singing stranger with golden hair tousled in his face and deep-set blue eyes and a big Adam’s apple), and beautiful backdrops (“the night was blue, like drowning in a cocktail”) – there is much suffering. Jealousy, rape, drugs, obsession, sickness… all these afflict the characters, and really, the common theme that ties the stories together is the idea that life can still be treasured in the face of tragedy. Snow, Rose Red, Rose White, Tiny, Beast – and all the rest of the characters – move from the traditional archetype to heart-wrenching...

Malinda Lo's "Ash" is a moving story, which creatively draws up a retelling of older versions of "Cinderella". Young Aisling, nicknamed Ash, once had a powerful, beautiful, and kind mother who believed in magic, but after she dies, Ash has to live under the same roof as her awful, selfish, and worldly stepmother, whose biggest goal is to find an advantageous husband for her eldest daughter Ana. Once Ash's father dies as well, her problems are only made worse by the sting of degradation and strain of oppression. However, Ash has not fallen into the the new fad of logic and reason, touted by philosophers and business men. She still believes in the old fairy tales and folktales of the land from centuries past, and she reads these stories to escape her predicament... and they eventually lead her to the fairy land and Sidhean, the most gorgeous creature she has ever laid eyes on. Sidhean keeps a special secret from her, waiting for the right moment to disclos...

"Bound" is a book that includes descriptions of Chinese history during the Ming times. The book is also a captivating story of a young woman living under the social conditions of that era, where most traditions deemed women as items to be used, sold, bought... and bound. During that time, many Chinese women were forced by their mothers to bind their feet tightly in cloth, as it was said that men were more attracted to tiny feet. The main character's half-sister, Wei Ping, has to undergo this "procedure", and Xing-Xing must witness this brutality happen while serving her step-mother (Wei Ping's mother) day and night.  Xing-Xing is a student of the three perfections of China, which include poetry, calligraphy, and painting. During Ming times, however, a woman was more useful if she wasn't artistic. This cultural belief does not stop Xing-Xing from embracing her talents. She takes pleasure in dreaming up poetic lines and practicing calligraphy durin...

Is it true that nowadays we sometimes become numb (by forgetting – usually not deliberately) of our bodily sensations… and all kinds of feeling? I’m not sure why this happens, but I know that reading reminds us of the world around us with words that bring our thoughts back to what being alive feels like. Then, consciousness is gained and seemingly ordinary sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds that envelop us every day and every night become prominent once more. Robin McKinley’s “Rose Daughter”, published in 1997, nineteen years after her debut novel was written, titled “Beauty”, does all the things mentioned. In McKinley’s second retelling of the classic story “Beauty & the Beast” or, “La Belle Et La Bete”, I’ve learned to cherish those moments of profound presence that McKinley’s story offered me. In McKinley’s Beast’s palace there are trowels, gossamers, hydras, phoenixes, briars, numen, torcheres, virgins bowers, pietra duras, beech trees, sphinxes, and balustrades ...

I picked up a library copy of Hack Slash Omnibus Volume 1. Someone had recently returned it, and I couldn’t help but notice the striking cover: a girl, possibly in her late teens to mid-twenties, staring fiercely with her intense blue eyes at something, her shoulder length straight dark brown hair covering her right eye. And yes, she is wearing revealing clothing, but there’s nothing uncomfortably sexual about it (from my subjective perspective) – the girl, whose name is Cassandra Hack, is sitting in a position that isn’t very ladylike. Her legs are spread, knees up, and her right arm rests on her right leg, this hand holding baseball bat that hangs downward with the words Kiss It etched on it. She’s wearing plaid knee-high socks, a black pleated skirt with a belt of steel with the emblem FaQ at the buckle. Her midriff shows, and she’s wearing a short, netted halter-top. Her arms are covered up to the elbows with long striped tube socks, which she has made into fingerless gloves. He...