Read All the Sequels
May. 3rd, 2011 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timerippleBetween frantically reading stuff, steeling myself to work on That Damn Thing, crash-teaching myself tunes for the Fiddleheads spring ceili at high speeds, flailing at various authors and poets at the cash register, and having more shelving at work than anybody else in the world, I've been kind of busy. (Seriously, ENOUGH WITH THE BOARD BOOKS ALREADY.)
It seems like this is the Spring of Sequels--I've been reading a higher number than usual.
The Agency 2: The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee.
THE AGENCY is a YA series in which a Victorian girls' academy plucks, well, plucky and/or desperate orphans off the street and gives them an education and the means to support themselves. The thing is, the academy is actually a front operation for an organization of FEMALE SECRET AGENTS. In the first book, A Spy in the House, our heroine Mary Quinn is snatched from the gallows at a young age and, several years later, becomes an operative disguised as a lady's companion. In the course of her investigation, she meets Sexy James Easton. Bickering and skulduggery ensue.
Mary is half Chinese, half English, leading to interesting racial commentary and hints of a Secret Past. I cracked up when I realized that cover illustration!Mary looks just like Kuroki Meisa. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
...Wait, that actually makes a lot of sense. XD
In the second book, Mary investigates suspected construction shenaniganry at the Tower of London.
MARY QUINN: Cross-dressin’ again. Hangin’ out at the construction site. Investigatin’ stuff. Just call me Mark. Or I’ll beat you up. I can, you know.
Undercover investigation: it’s happening. But lo! Who is that stepping out of his fancy carriage, having apparently suffered a terrible bout of malaria and now in a weak and depressed state? Why, it’s Sexy James Easton, just back from India! Hi, Sexy James Easton! Did you bring presents?
SEXY JAMES EASTON: I brought languorous drunken carriage makeouts.
Good enough. Together, Mary “Just Call Me Mark” Quinn and Sexy James Easton fight gritty Victorian crime. And make out.
A lot.
The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta.
Reading this sequel necessitated my reading Saving Francesca, wherein Francesca Spinelli's life at a boys'-school-gone-coed is hard. Nobody is more astonished than she when not only the disgusting boys but also the handful of other girls turn out to be human after all. Now if only her mother would get out of bed and stop being terribly, debilitatingly depressed...
Melina Marchetta writes YA realism that I would refuse to read if it were written by anyone else. She's THAT GOOD. I read Jellicoe Road last year and loved it. I even posted about it: You guys! It has boarding school territory wars! Secret pasts! Skirmishes! Chess! Repartee! Makeouts! Rock violin!!!!!
In short, it is MADE OF AWESOME.
I highly recommend Jellicoe Road.
I was puzzled by The Piper’s Son, though, in that it’s not so much YA as intergenerational. In fact I'm pretty sure Marchetta is published as adult in her native Australia. There are other intergenerational YA books, I’m sure, but I’ve never read one that gives equal POV time to its twentysomething protagonist (Tom: layabout, former class clown, wicked guitarist) and his forty-year-old pregnant aunt protagonist. The aunt bits bored me, to be frank. There’s complicated family politics and old-timers talking about really interesting stuff... that I feel guilty for not being more invested in. The author’s note claims that it was the aunt’s voice who spoke to Marchetta first, which explains a lot about the book. I don’t want to be a person saying “YA should be only about teens! no other voices allowed!”, but quite honestly this book puzzles me. I’m with Tom on this one: “Seriously, why doesn’t somebody just make Sam wear a condom so he doesn’t go around IMPREGNATING HALF THE PLOT?”
Has anybody else read it? Do you have opinions? PLEASE TALK TO ME, I AM SO CONFUSED ABOUT THIS BOOK.
One more sequel, about which I am not confused AT ALL:
The Fitzosbornes in Exile by Michelle Cooper.
This is a sequel so awesome I actually put Dream High on hold to finish it at 2 am, flailing madly and squeeing the whole time.
Previously on A Brief History of Montmaray, or Sophie’s Life Is So Hard:
SOPHIE: La, how wonderful to have a journal of my very own! I love Montmaray, even though we have a crumbling castle, no money, and no retainers. I also love the prospect of making my debut in Society. I... may also have a Thing for Simon. Pity his mother’s our insane housekeeper, and he may actually be our cousin, and he and my brother Toby are definitely Involved.
VERONICA: Sophie, I understand that all these things are very important to you, but I really think that a summary of the events following That Social-Climbing Snitch’s bragging to the German ambassador about our national epic poem’s mention of the Holy Grail would be more helpful.
SOPHIE: This is why Veronica is the smart one. Well, we all made it out of Montmaray when the Nazis started bombing it. Aunt Charlotte was delighted to get her hands on us at last. Though we are all understandably distraught about the loss of our home, I must say this electric lighting is fascinating and luxurious...
The FitzOsbornes in Exile
SOPHIE: All I'm saying is, try not to piss off the woman who holds ALL OUR FUTURES IN HER PURSE STRINGS, okay? Also carry a hairbrush at all times. If you need to address the League of Nations after a hair-raising chase across Europe fleeing vengeance-driven homicidal Nazis, it's best to be prepared.
SIMON: Oh my God, Sophia, you're the only one of us besides me who has ANY COMMON SENSE. I say this merely from brotherly concern.
SOPHIE: Riiiiight. Did we just accidentally make out in the train car during said hair-raising chase?
SIMON: BROTHERLY CONCERN!
SOPHIE: Uh-huh.
What sequels have you been reading lately? Who else is ridiculously excited for the Diversity in YA tour? Not least because it means I have at least two more highly anticipated sequels to get through this week...
It seems like this is the Spring of Sequels--I've been reading a higher number than usual.
The Agency 2: The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee.
THE AGENCY is a YA series in which a Victorian girls' academy plucks, well, plucky and/or desperate orphans off the street and gives them an education and the means to support themselves. The thing is, the academy is actually a front operation for an organization of FEMALE SECRET AGENTS. In the first book, A Spy in the House, our heroine Mary Quinn is snatched from the gallows at a young age and, several years later, becomes an operative disguised as a lady's companion. In the course of her investigation, she meets Sexy James Easton. Bickering and skulduggery ensue.
Mary is half Chinese, half English, leading to interesting racial commentary and hints of a Secret Past. I cracked up when I realized that cover illustration!Mary looks just like Kuroki Meisa. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
...Wait, that actually makes a lot of sense. XD
In the second book, Mary investigates suspected construction shenaniganry at the Tower of London.
MARY QUINN: Cross-dressin’ again. Hangin’ out at the construction site. Investigatin’ stuff. Just call me Mark. Or I’ll beat you up. I can, you know.
Undercover investigation: it’s happening. But lo! Who is that stepping out of his fancy carriage, having apparently suffered a terrible bout of malaria and now in a weak and depressed state? Why, it’s Sexy James Easton, just back from India! Hi, Sexy James Easton! Did you bring presents?
SEXY JAMES EASTON: I brought languorous drunken carriage makeouts.
Good enough. Together, Mary “Just Call Me Mark” Quinn and Sexy James Easton fight gritty Victorian crime. And make out.
A lot.
The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta.
Reading this sequel necessitated my reading Saving Francesca, wherein Francesca Spinelli's life at a boys'-school-gone-coed is hard. Nobody is more astonished than she when not only the disgusting boys but also the handful of other girls turn out to be human after all. Now if only her mother would get out of bed and stop being terribly, debilitatingly depressed...
Melina Marchetta writes YA realism that I would refuse to read if it were written by anyone else. She's THAT GOOD. I read Jellicoe Road last year and loved it. I even posted about it: You guys! It has boarding school territory wars! Secret pasts! Skirmishes! Chess! Repartee! Makeouts! Rock violin!!!!!
In short, it is MADE OF AWESOME.
I highly recommend Jellicoe Road.
I was puzzled by The Piper’s Son, though, in that it’s not so much YA as intergenerational. In fact I'm pretty sure Marchetta is published as adult in her native Australia. There are other intergenerational YA books, I’m sure, but I’ve never read one that gives equal POV time to its twentysomething protagonist (Tom: layabout, former class clown, wicked guitarist) and his forty-year-old pregnant aunt protagonist. The aunt bits bored me, to be frank. There’s complicated family politics and old-timers talking about really interesting stuff... that I feel guilty for not being more invested in. The author’s note claims that it was the aunt’s voice who spoke to Marchetta first, which explains a lot about the book. I don’t want to be a person saying “YA should be only about teens! no other voices allowed!”, but quite honestly this book puzzles me. I’m with Tom on this one: “Seriously, why doesn’t somebody just make Sam wear a condom so he doesn’t go around IMPREGNATING HALF THE PLOT?”
Has anybody else read it? Do you have opinions? PLEASE TALK TO ME, I AM SO CONFUSED ABOUT THIS BOOK.
One more sequel, about which I am not confused AT ALL:
The Fitzosbornes in Exile by Michelle Cooper.
This is a sequel so awesome I actually put Dream High on hold to finish it at 2 am, flailing madly and squeeing the whole time.
Previously on A Brief History of Montmaray, or Sophie’s Life Is So Hard:
SOPHIE: La, how wonderful to have a journal of my very own! I love Montmaray, even though we have a crumbling castle, no money, and no retainers. I also love the prospect of making my debut in Society. I... may also have a Thing for Simon. Pity his mother’s our insane housekeeper, and he may actually be our cousin, and he and my brother Toby are definitely Involved.
VERONICA: Sophie, I understand that all these things are very important to you, but I really think that a summary of the events following That Social-Climbing Snitch’s bragging to the German ambassador about our national epic poem’s mention of the Holy Grail would be more helpful.
SOPHIE: This is why Veronica is the smart one. Well, we all made it out of Montmaray when the Nazis started bombing it. Aunt Charlotte was delighted to get her hands on us at last. Though we are all understandably distraught about the loss of our home, I must say this electric lighting is fascinating and luxurious...
The FitzOsbornes in Exile
SOPHIE: All I'm saying is, try not to piss off the woman who holds ALL OUR FUTURES IN HER PURSE STRINGS, okay? Also carry a hairbrush at all times. If you need to address the League of Nations after a hair-raising chase across Europe fleeing vengeance-driven homicidal Nazis, it's best to be prepared.
SIMON: Oh my God, Sophia, you're the only one of us besides me who has ANY COMMON SENSE. I say this merely from brotherly concern.
SOPHIE: Riiiiight. Did we just accidentally make out in the train car during said hair-raising chase?
SIMON: BROTHERLY CONCERN!
SOPHIE: Uh-huh.
What sequels have you been reading lately? Who else is ridiculously excited for the Diversity in YA tour? Not least because it means I have at least two more highly anticipated sequels to get through this week...
