Rules For Hearts by Sara Ryan

I have to admit that I wished the sequel is about Nic instead of Battle, but Sara Ryan's writing in Rules For Hearts is much stronger, and I liked the story enough that it didn't matter in the end.

In Empress I learned that Battle's older brother, Nick, ran away from home. A year later, he contacted Battle and she planned to stay with him for awhile at the Forest House, a co-op inhabited by mostly theatre folk. Battle soon becomes involved with their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and develops a crush on Meryl, one of her roommates at Forest House. While Empress focuses on the romance, Rules for Hearts has Battle in a different situation, trying to make a new connection with the brother she was once close to, and finding out that he wasn't the person she thought he was.

Like in Empress, even the minor characters are very interesting, and are people I'd like to meet in real life. (Yes. Even Nick.) This story really is about family - both the family related by blood (like Battle and Nick), and the family you make yourself (like the Forest House members). It makes me think that the Weetzie Bat reference in Empress quite appropiate - this is something that I'd definitely recommend to fans of the Weetzie Bat books.

Empress of the World by Sara Ryan

Nic decided to join a summer program for gifted students because she thought it would help her explore her interest in archeology, but instead she found herself an interesting group of friends, including Battle Hall Davies, a dancer with beautiful blonde hair. Nic and Battle became fast friends, and develop a relationship, but Nic refuses to be labeled as a "lesbian" because she is also attracted to boys. However, as Nic fell more in love with Battle, she also over-analyses everything she and others think or feel, which makes Battle uncomfortable.

I found this novel enjoyable, but not amazing. Nic is a likable character, and I liked that even in the narration she is always analysing and rationalising things - in an awkward moment she was looking at the carpet, and she thought about how it was probably chosen because it hid dirt better. I liked most of the other characters - even Kevin. But somehow I didn't get completely into the story, and it was probably because of Battle. She failed to keep my interest - I saw that Nic loved her, but I couldn't see why. She didn't have that quality, I suppose, like when I was reading Julie Anne Peter's Far From Xanadu and I became as obsessed with Xanadu as the protagonist was, but all the time Nic was talking about Battle I didn't see her as anything other than a girl with beautiful hair. I did warm up to her as the story unfolds, and enjoyed it a lot, but I just didn't immediately jump into the story, I guess.

Oh, but one thing makes this book the best ever - Katrina, one of Nic & Battle's friends, dressed up as Weetzie Bat at their costume dance!

Urbanscapes 09

KL URBANSCAPES - 27th June, 2009

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

Aza's voice is the "fairest in the land", but in Ayortha beauty is as prized and as necessary as a good singing voice. With her dark black hair, chalky white complexion, and blood red lips, as well as her tall, wide stature, Aza was used to being stared at and knew that everyone thought her ugly. She worked in the shadows of her father's inn, until her special ability (not only does she sing beautifully, she could also mimic and throw voices) landed her the position of lady-in-waiting for the new queen. In court, she could no longer hide in the shadows and found a friend in the King's nephew, Prince Ijori. However, even as her relationship with the prince deepens, the queen's jealousy would have Aza running for her life.

Fairest, set in the same world as Levine's Ella Enchanted, is a retelling of Snow White. As with Ella's story, I really liked how Gail Carson Levine reworked the fairy tale. Aza's coloring (the white-as-snow skin, ruby red lips, etc) does not make her beautiful. This story shows that appearance has nothing to do with a person being good or bad, just like in Ella Enchanted, Ella's tiny feet was explained in a way that had nothing to do with her being a "good" person. At first I was uncomfortable with the way Aza hated herself, and how she wanted so much to be beautiful. I was disappointed when she chose to drink the potion. But as the story moves along, Aza learns that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, and accepted that while she would never be beautiful in the conventional sense, she still had qualities that she was proud of.

I liked the songs. Ayortha is a singing country, and I really liked how it was shown in the book - the description of the entire kitchen singing as they cook, Aza's cleaning song, the composing game she played with the prince, and the Sings. I liked the contrast between Ayortha and Kyrria, where Ella Enchanted was set. The thing that bothered me, though, was that in Ella Enchanted, Prince Charmont wrote to Ella about how the people in Ayortha are silent unless they have something very important to say, and I really do not see this in Fairest. I was also expected Prince Charmont to appear at some point in the story, as he stayed in Ayortha for a year in Ella Enchanted, but I suppose the events didn't happen around the same time. It would have been nice if it did.

Aza was shy and hated herself for most of the book, but I still found myself liking her, even if it wasn't as much as I liked Ella. The romance between her and Prince Ijori is less believable than that of Ella & Charmont; they didn't seem to have a lot of time to really get to know each other, and I think that Aza forgave Ijori a little too quickly. They do fall for each other for reasons other than looks, though, which I guess is better than a lot of romance books I read lately. Other than that, I enjoyed this book a lot. This is probably my favourite retelling of Snow White so far. I'd recommend it to everyone who enjoyed Ella Enchanted, of course, as well as those who enjoyed Shannon Hale's The Goose Girl.

BECK (34) by Harold Sakuishi

When I started this, I didn't realise that it was the last volume of BECK. I did notice that the story was winding down, but I had hoped that there would be one or two more volumes before the end.

Volume 34 continues with BECK's performance at the Greatful Sound festival. It might be the last Greatful Sound fest, as Satou, the person in charge of it, was in huge debt. This volume really is just about that performance, and includes a lot of flashbacks of the characters. In volume 33, there was Saku's flashback to when he first met Koyuki. He stated that the reason he practises his drums so hard was because he wanted to be able to keep up with Koyuki always. In Taira's flashbacks, he admitted that when he was jumping from band to band he was always unsatisfied. He was always looking for a sound he couldn't describe, until he found Koyuki. He also said that he never thought he'd find friendship in his band members, until he became a member of BECK. Chiba said that he was always running from something or towards something, but it was Koyuki who made him stop. Ryusuke, without whom Koyuki wouldn't have been Koyuki, said that Koyuki reminded him of himself when he was young, with one difference - Koyuki wasn't trying to be someone else. He wasn't chasing after someone's back. Right before their encore performance (in the middle of a typhoon), Koyuki had flashbacks of the times he spent with his band members, and how each of them changed his life.

Very sappy stuff. But after 33 volumes with these characters, and knowing just how close they are to each other, and remembering how each of them started out, the flashbacks really had a lot of impact. I liked the ending, after the Greatful Sound performance, when all of them were getting ready for their national tour, and Koyuki observed that he didn't know what would happen to the band in the future, but he wasn't worried because at the moment he was happy.

Vol 34 also included a standalone chapter, "The Last Day of Eddie Lee." Which is pretty much self-explanatory. I liked that it showed the other side of Eddie's last song that Koyuki finished, Devil's Way, and the other people it meant a lot to.

I'll miss being able to look forward to new volumes of BECK.