Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Kraken by China Miéville

Kraken
China Miéville is such a different author he has been given his own genre called New Weird. This book is a combination of fantasy, horror, police mystery, religion, and even humor. 

Kraken opens in the natural history museum in London where the curator is giving a tour of the collection of preserved specimens to a group including a class of students. After proudly showing them the collection preserved by Darwin himself, he proceeds to take them to see the real star of the collection, a giant squid, only to discover that the animal and the tank it was in had vanished. 

The book proceeds to follow Billy as he joins with Dane (the museum guard he had seen killed) and members of the FSRC (Fundamentalist and Sect-Related Crime Unit) to chase down members of the squid-worshiping sect and find out how it had been removed from the museum. The reader is treated to amazing new characters and creatures as they chase around London.

I highly recommend this book to readers who appreciate a real challenge.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl
It's been a while since I've read read a romantic story but here I am finally. 

Cather (Cath) is the twin sister of Wren. Their mother had abandoned the family when they were eight and they were raised by their bipolar father. Heading off to college Cath was concerned about him, disturbed that her sister didn't want to room with her, and pressured to finish writing her fan fiction story before the last episode of the original series is released.

She  has found great satisfaction and recognition for her stories about Simon Snow (think Harry Potter) on the website FanFixx. Having been allowed into the class Fiction Writing, she is shocked to find her teacher thinks fanfic is little more than plagiarism and she is finding it hard to create her own characters and situations.

Cath has more things to worry about as she starts college. From the location of the cafeteria to meeting new people she finds comfort in her writing.

I highly recommend this book to anyone going off to college.