Eon

Eon by Alison Goodman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eon wants more than anything to be accepted by a spirit dragon and become a Dragoneye - but to do so he must hide his true identity: Eon is Eona, a girl.

Eon's life is dangerous and difficult enough: she suffers from a maimed hip and is seen as unlucky. It may hide her from the danger of discovery, but it makes her question her ability to complete the trials necessary to prove she is strong enough to commune with the spirit dragons. But getting what she wants plunges her into more danger than she could have imagined, and her inability to tell the truth may destroy everyone around her.

Goodman is doing some interesting things with gender identity in this book: Eon is befriended by Lady Dela, a transgendered woman who is at home in her identity in ways that Eon cannot afford to be. This fantasy world, heavily modeled after ancient Chinese and Japanese Imperial cultures, is also full of eunuchs (Eon pretends to be one to explain her girlish looks) and slaves. Maleness and femininity are key to to story, and are forces that change the balance of power in Eon's deeply sexist world.

It's a longish book, full of angst and political intrigue. (It's great to see an intricate fantasy world modeled on Asian culture, but the names feel like random fantasy names: there is Kyto, Ryko and Dillon. It's a bit jarring. Dillon? Goodman could have thought about that one a little longer.) Eon can be frustratingly thick-headed sometimes, but I definitely want to find out what happens in the conclusion to the duology.

We Return to Fairyland

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

September stumbles back into Fairyland again only to find that her own lost shadow, who is now Queen of the Underworld, is draining Fairyland of its magic.

September is a year older and wiser, but even her familiarity with the laws of Fairyland can't quite protect her in the Underworld full of runaway shadows. Her traveling companions this time around are at once familiar and untrustworthy, and the Queen's new servant the Alleyman has the Underworld's denizens shivering with fear. (Though personally I found the Onion Man more sinister.)

Valente plays with the traditional rules of magic (my favorite was her EKT field: Everyone Knows That), though some of the speeches when September visits a Questing Physickist might be above the heads of younger readers.

The Physickist tells September and her new friend the Night-Dodo: "A book is a door into another place and another heart and another world." All the intricate charm of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is back, making our second trip through this particular door as vivid and weird as the first.

Enter the Underworld

Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sophie is powerless, the people she loves most are missing - and at Hex Hall someone is raising a demon army that will destroy the world. To stop them, Sophie may have to enter Hell itself.

The thrilling finale to the Hex Hall series! I enjoyed this trilogy, which got darker and darker with each book. Sophie is a smart and capable heroine, quippy and loyal. The return of a character I wanted more of from Hex Hall was satisfying, and the ending is bittersweet but most of the plot threads are neatly resolved.

My only wish is that the island of Hex Hall was more appealing (though it is an unfair comparison, the gold standards of fantasy settings are Gormenghast and Hogwarts Castle). I wanted to see more of the world of the Prodigium, but the breakneck plot only allows for occasional glimpses into the concealed world of witches, shapeshifters, faeries, and vampires.

As an aside, while I love seeing Lord Byron resurrected as a vampire, I think that any vampire in his or her right mind would really have turned Oscar Wilde. We've seen vampire Elvis, natch (Bubba from Dead Until Dark). Why no Wilde? The man was known for wearing green velvet capes! "Creature of the night" would have been a perfect fit on him. (Also, why is there a black cat in every U.S. cover of this book? There isn't a single familiar - unless you count slobbery werewolves - in any of the three books. I suppose a black cat symbolizes witches, but still. It's a stretch.)

There is a spin-off series that starts with School Spirits and follows one of the Brannick monster-hunters (I suspect that the unresolved plot points from Spell Bound show up there). Other series with some of the boarding-school spirit and strong female characters are Mind Games by Kiersten White and Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger.

Raising Demons

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To convince Sophie against her decision to have her powers Removed, her absentee demon father shows up and whisks her off to the Council's headquarters in England. There are unnerving developments there - deadly encounters, an unexpected fiance, and the reappearance of her old crush, Archer, who is still working for the very people who want Sophie dead.

Sophie is still reeling from the events of Hex Hall, which have upset her deeply enough to throw off her ability to control her magic. This sequel takes us out of Hecate Hall and into a gigantic mansion in England. I appreciated the portrayal of the difficult relationship between Sophie and her father - though it is obvious that they love each other, they both must learn to trust each other's judgment and talents. The third vertex of the love triangle finally shows up, too! The triangle remains lopsided, possibly because of its late introduction: even though the warlock Archer has now been revealed to work for The Eye, the new potential flame felt like a weak third (and not a real threat to the main love story).

There is more action than ever, and Sophie gets a chance to stretch her powers and exercise her habitual snark, which is fun and lightens this much-darker book. The cliffhanger ending will have you reaching for the third in the series, Spell Bound, right away.

Boarding School Witches

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sophie was blending in with the human world until a disastrous spell gets her exiled to Hecate Hall, a detention center/boarding school for wayward Prodigium (witches, vampires, werewolves, and faeries). Among her own kind, Sophie finds that she needs to learn the rules of her birthright fast - or die young.

Sophie is a likable protagonist who struggles to fit into a world she was only vaguely aware of before she was sentenced to Hecate. The story is fast-paced and light in tone in spite of the dark happenings around Sophie (a girl was murdered at Hecate before Sophie's arrival), and the hints that the worst is yet to come.

Sure, there's a superficial cliched love story with the requisite unavailable hot guy, but did I enjoyed her friendship with her monster roommate. She also almost-befriends her sworn enemy, a beautiful coven leader named Elodie, in an unusual twist that I wish had more time to develop.

For anyone who loves boarding school books and stories about the paranormal (particularly witches).

There are hints of a dangerous and interesting world beyond the walls of Hecate, with three distinct groups of monster-hunters dedicated to murdering Prodigium - especially, as it so happens, Sophie. With two other books in the series (Demonglass and Spell Bound), I look forward to reading the rest!

The Good, The Bad, and the Duffy

The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When womanizing jerk Wesley Rush dubs Bianca Piper the "DUFF" of her friends (the Designated Ugly Fat Friend), it only cements her hatred for him. But then life at home falls apart, and in need of an easy distraction, she turns to the one guy she should hate forever....

This book drew me in, and I finished it quickly, but it has some major flaws that I can't overlook. I liked Bianca's voice, and I loved the way she relies on her girl friends (mostly). But I can't get over some of the messages in the book!

(SPOILER)