Teen Tuesday

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic hardcover, 18 September 2012).

Blue Sargent lives in a household of women:  her mother Maura, and Maura's two closest friends Persephone and Calla.  When Blue is sixteen, her mother's half-sister Neeve comes to visit for an unspecified length of time.  The women are psychics and make their living telling fortunes with the use of tarot cards, runes and tea leaves.

Blue has no psychic ability, but is apparently an amplifier for the gifts of others.  As a result, the women like to have her nearby when they're working.  But the only thing that Blue knows of her own future is that if she kisses her true love, he will die.  No indication of who or when it might be, but as a result, Blue decided never to fall in love. 

Every year on St. Mark's Eve, Blue accompanies her mother to a lonely churchyard, where the soon-to-die walk past. Blue usually doesn't see anything, but this year, she does.  The spirit of a teenage boy approaches and speaks to her.  Blue is shocked and confused, even more so when Neeve tells her that the only reason this would happen is "Either you're his true love . . . or you killed him."

The next day, the boy and his friends come into the pizza place where Blue works.  They are students at Anglionby, the exclusive private school in town.  Ordinarily, she'd have ignore the Raven Boys (as they are called, because of the school's raven insignia), but she's intrigued when she recognizes him from her vision.

The young man, known as Gansey, is obsessed with finding the mythical resting place of Welsh king Owain Glendower, which he believes is somewhere nearby in Virginia.  Blue encounters Gansey and his group again when they come to her home to have their cards read.  

This is an amazing tale; one of those books you want to race through while at the same time feeling the need to read slowly enough to appreciate Stiefvater's exquisite prose.  The story is mysterious, magical and compelling.  Lovers of mythological fantasy will be entranced.

Maggie Stiefvater has created a virtual world.  On her website can be found music she's written inspired by The Raven Boys, as well as biographies and sketches.  Oh, and also this trailer she created:

   

She recently announced on her blog that the sequel, The Dream Thieves, will be released on 17 September 2013. Not nearly soon enough.




FTC Full Disclosure:  I borrowed this book from my local library.

Teen Tuesday

The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan (Knopf hardcover, 11 September 2012).

Rollrock Island was bleak and isolated with but a  handful of families who'd lived there forever. Few left and even fewer came to visit.

Misskaela Prout was the youngest in her family.  She didn't look like her brother or sisters, and she didn't seem to be able to make any friends.  She didn't seem to mind her isolation, and often walked alone on the strand.

But one day, when she was nine years old, the seals seemed to recognize her as she walked on the beach, and when she woke up the next day, scores of seals surrounded her house.  They followed her to school, and everyone was alarmed.

An elderly neighbor sent her grandson to tell the Prouts that Misskaela should wear straps of cloth across her chest in the shape of an X.  Once she did this, the seals seemed to lose interest and went back to the sea.  But she knew that she had seen the human that existed inside a seal.

When she was a young woman, an awkward young man from the village came to her.  He told Misskaela that none of the local girls would show any interest in him, and asked her to call forth a woman from one of the seals to be his bride.

And so, Misskaela became the island's seal-witch, charging great sums of money to produce sea-wives for the young men of the island, helping to end the in-breeding that had gone on for so very long.

Margo Lanagan's unique approach to the ancient legend of the selkies, is at once amazing, wonderful and frightening.  Her prose is that of a venerable storyteller, whisking the reader to the windy, rocky island away in the northern waters.  The story is absorbing, affecting and alive, and will be enjoyed by all who enjoy well-written fantasy.



FTC full disclosure:  I picked up an advance reading copy of this book at ALA last June.