The Missing - Chris Mooney The Secret Friend - Chris Mooney
Even though I had, indeed, read these out of order, it was still nice to get back to where it all started for our heroine, Darby McCormack, and actually see the events alluded to in the later novels in the series. There were still plenty of surprises.
Bones of Faerie - Janni Lee Simner Faerie Winter - Janni Lee Simner
I just loved this young adult fantasy and its sequel, set 20 years after a war between the world of faeries and our own. The faeries have been defeated, but the legacy of war is a dark and deadly world, where nothing is truly safe. Trees hunt human flesh, crocuses full of acid burn unwary fingers, butterflies burst into flame ("as butterflies often did".) And birds remember the sound of car alarms in their songs, even though the cars are long since rusted and gone.
Our heroine, Liza, sets out into this world on a journey to find her missing mother, after discovering she has magic talents and fleeing her abusive father and a community fearful and suspicious of magic, who would surely kill her for them.
Engaging characters and a intriguingly imagined world make this one a real gem. The second has obvious parallels with The Snow Queen - Liza's soul mate ensorcelled by The Lady and so on - but that didn't detract too much from it being a beautifully wrought adventure.
I also loved the causal, random inclusions the author made of little snippets from our world - mugs in Liza's house carrying messages from Before that hold no meaning now - Disneyworld, St. Louis Cardinals, Missouri. And a few rusted Pepsi cans.
Also, it made me cry happy tears at the end. I swear, either I'm getting more easy to get to in my old age, or authors are getting way better at that than they used to.
LabRat
Athos: If you'd told us what you were doing, we might have been able to plan this properly. Aramis: Yes, sorry. Athos: No, no, by all means, let's keep things suicidal.
