aviva bel'harold

Quista is a very strange star system. It has three suns, a dozen planets and over fifty moons. The Emperor holds it all together with magic.

Danay is an outcast on the mostly water planet of Uma'Three. It is literally a piece of a larger planet, along with Uma'One, Two and Four. She is too tall, too thin and she doesn't have a second set of lungs, like everyone else.

Danay wears a Coming of Age bracelet, which, in the local language, says "Precious One". In another language, it says something totally different. Phillip, a boy that Danay secretly likes, suddenly returns after being away for a long time. He now won't leave her side.

The Emperor's troops arrive to perform loyalty tests. Phillip tells Danay that she has to leave now, but can't answer her questions. Eventually, Danay learns the other translation of her bracelet, and she learns the real identity of her mother, who she never knew. Danay finds herself in the middle of a growing rebellion.

The author does and excellent with this Young Adult novel, from the characters to the story to the society-building. Young people will love this story; adults will, too.… (meer)

The main character, Danay, is a teenage girl who has always felt like an outsider and discovers there is a very specific, classically YA reason for this, after she meets a handsome stranger named Phillip. She is the inheritor of a mighty gift, and a perilous destiny.

I think this book is best enjoyed as a middle-school reading level fantasy style story. The world-building is decent, but the characters are a bit flat, the dialogue feels a stilted, and the main character's life is straight out of a fairy tale. None of these things are a problem for younger readers, and all are more than appropriate for a fairy tale. That being said this book was not something I enjoyed, so I can't rate it very highly.

However the world building fell flat for me at one specific plot point. Natives to Uma'Three, the world on which some of the action is set, have four lungs and tend to be fatter than earth-standard. Danay supposed to be unattractive and unpopular on this world because she's "too skinny". I initially appreciated overturning of traditional weight-based beauty standards, but it doesn't escape my notice that Danay is earth-standard attractive. It's especially irritating since most of the people in town work in a mill and everyone swims or rows everywhere, but everyone aside from the thin main character is portrayed as being unhealthy or ashamed of gaining muscle. I'm not saying societal standards can't be counter-intuitive, but it bothers me how much this one aligns with negative stereotypes about fat people.… (meer)

Not your average vampire story.

Brittany is your average teenager... until she finds her best friend Emily dead in her tree house. Then her world turns upside down. At first she thought it was shock and depression that sapped her appetite for food. Then she starts "seeing" Emily and thinking that she's completely lost her mind. Soon she discovers her new found appetite for blood. Something has taken over Brittany... a parasite. This parasite requires the consumption of blood. Now, Brittany is a vampire. She decides to be valiant and tries to only take her "donations" from the scum of the Earth. Her parasite, whom Brittany has named E.V. (Emily the Vampire), doesn't quite understand what the difference is between who Brittany deems acceptable to become a snack.

Unfortunately, for Brittany and E.V., the authorities have started to notice a "health issue" where patients are coming in with fatigue and low blood counts and start looking for the source. Then they come across the mass burial of all Brittany and E.V.'s victims... mostly convicted felons, but all drained completely of blood.

I really did enjoy this book, though it did have a bit of a sad ending

*I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.… (meer)