Book Review: "Redwood and Wildfire" by Andrea Hairston

I usually don't like trying to define a story in just a few words. In most cases I feel like it detracts or minimizes the subtleties and subplots of a novel, oversimplifying the intricacy of the writing. But in the case of "Redwood and Wildfire" by Andrea Hairston, I found that I need to reduce the book down to a few words just to start organizing my thoughts. And what those came to were family, love, self, and magic.

Redwood Phipps is a hoodoo woman like her mother Garnet, who was lynched one night in order to save her family and the rest of colored Peach Grove from night riders. Georgia in 1898 isn't an easy place to be any kind of person of color, whether they're black, native American, or any combination thereof. Still Redwood and her older brother George, their younger sister Iris, and their extended family soldier on. George has an angry spirit, always fighting against his situation in life, and Iris shows signs of one day growing into a powerful hoodoo woman. But Redwood's real friend and confidant is Aidan Cooper, "Crazy Coop," the drunk Irish-Seminole farmer whose penchant for moonshine is in constant danger of ruining his farm and possibly killing him as well. Aside from Redwood's company Aidan's only solace lies in the music he plays on his banjo, an instrument with which Redwood insists he has his own kind of magic.

Healing one another while the ghost of Redwood's mother looms large over them both, something more might have arisen between Redwood and Aidan. But violent tragedy strikes before either one of them can sort out their feelings. Redwood is forced to flee Peach Grove, heading north toward Chicago where her brother George set off for years ago. Aidan is left behind to cover her trail and try to take care of Redwood's aunt, uncle, many cousins, and sister Iris. But the ghost of Garnet Phipps still tugs on them both, pulling them back together by their heartstrings across time and distance. When there's nothing left for them in Peach Grove save memories and scars, Aidan and Iris make their way north to Chicago, hoping to somehow find Redwood and reunite with her.

But the life that Aidan and Redwood once imagined with one another is no longer a possibility; time has changed them both, molded them into new people in a new world far from the swamps of Georgia. Marked by tragedy, Redwood no longer trusts her hoodoo heritage or the power that she wields with it. Aidan struggles to embrace the Seminole heritage of which he was always taught to be ashamed, while reconciling that identity with the "Red Man" image that most of the country has of that culture. Their inner struggles will determine not only who they are in the end, but whether or not those people are still capable of loving each other in any way but at a distance.

Andrea Hairston has a rare talent for writing both plays and novels, and her affinity for both formats really shines through in the way she's able to make the reader truly see the story in "Redwood and Wildfire." Her visceral descriptions of everything from the bright, hot swamps of Georgia to the smell of Chicago at the turn of the century make the story come alive. I didn't just hear the characters speak; I watched their lips move. But concrete images and sensations weren't the only things that Hairston's writing really brought off the page; the raw emotions experienced especially by Redwood and Aidan are meticulously brought forth in all their beautiful agony. How do you love and accept yourself when the rest of the world sees that part of you as just another stereotype? How do you reclaim your confidence when there's no way to fill the hole that something left in your heart? Sometimes the world keeps going forward, dragging you along with it, even when you're lost and stumbling. And the only way to regain your footing is to try and catch up with it.

Hairston doesn't just use her affinity for screen writing to shape a touching novel; she includes her love of film and script in the story itself. Her depictions of the early years of the film industry, who was involved in it and in what context, and how entertainment for different ethnic groups changed as a result of film. It's a mini history, culture, and film studies lesson in the middle of a great novel. There was a short time between Redwood's arrival in Chicago and her undertaking to make a film that felt a little bit directionless to me, but then again that sentiment mirrors Redwood's lack of direction and Aidan's sense of being lost. Other than that brief portion, I was hooked on this story from beginning to end.

If you're interested in historical novels that deal with cultural identity, hoodoo, and the journey to rediscover one's self after the unthinkable happens, this is a novel that you can't afford to miss. It's a story about race, yes, but it's more about what that means for family and for self-perception, for either accepting who you are and become or choosing to embrace something else. Its wonderfully rich characters and ever-changing scenery will keep you intrigued, and even after the last page you'll be sighing and smiling in hope for what the future will hold for Redwood and Aidan. "Redwood and Wildfire" by Andrea Hairston is available now from your local independent bookstore.

Dedications

Most of the book dedications I come across are of a personal nature. Authors thank their friends, families, their children, their inspirations for helping them to achieve the completion of their work. Some authors, on the other hand, use their book dedications to fully embrace their full vitriolic potential. Mental Floss has put together a list of not-so-gracious book dedications, designed to shock and sometimes ridicule. One of my personal favorites though did not make the list. It's from "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski: "This is not for you."

Book Review: "Rose Under Fire" by Elizabeth Wein

Elizabeth Wein became a household name around the bookstore where I work in 2012 when her first book, Code Name Verity, hit shelves. Our staff loved it, and it went on to win a Printz award. So with the author's accolades piling up I sat down to read her second book, Rose Under Fire.

While Rose's story is not at all related to the characters or events that take place in Code Name Verity, it's the second of what's being called the "Young Pilots Series." Rose is a pilot for the Air Transport Auxiliary during WWII, a teenage girl from Pennsylvania who loves the excitement of transporting planes in Europe but is eager for the war to end. One afternoon while flying back from a mission, she is captured by German pilots and taken to Ravensbrück, the infamous women's concentration camp in Germany. There, in order to survive she forms incredible bonds with women from all over Europe to survive under unthinkable circumstances, and eventually to escape as the war draws to a close. It's a harrowing tale of desperation and the evil but also the resilience of the human spirit. 

The book is written in the form of a journal that begins well before Rose is near any danger. She describes her life as an ATA pilot and the people she knows, from her wealthy family to her friends and the soldier she dates when he's not abroad. Then she disappears suddenly on her way back to camp from her last mission, accidentally leaving her journal behind her. It's returned to a friend of hers, along with the rest of her personal effects, under the assumption that Rose is dead. The friend writes a few entries, which is what tells the reader that Rose is missing but that all hope is not lost. The war ends, soldiers come home, and tales of the horrors at places like Auschwitz and Dachau begin to surface. Finally we hear once again from Rose. From a hotel room in Paris she tells us, haltingly, the story of what happened to her after her capture. 

Characters were mainly what drove this book, pushed together and pulled apart by the ebb and flow of war as it drew to a close and the Nazis began to succumb to desperation. Wein's vivid descriptions of the Polish women who underwent medical experimentation, of the wild Russian fighter pilot, of serene French matrons and the German criminals who were put in charge of other prisoners paint a brilliant tapestry of humanity, then white-wash it all with the hopeless colorlessness of war. 

While interesting and emotional, I didn't feel that Rose Under Fire was nearly as cohesive a story as Code Name Verity was. It felt as though bits and pieces had just been stuck onto the beginning and the end of the main story (Roses's survival at Ravensbrück) in order to include more volume. While it's true that the "before" and "after" portions helped to provide perspective on Rose's ordeal, and the "after" portion provided some important closure, they made the story's main focus unclear as it shifted. Personally, I think that the story would have been more effective if the beginning up until Rose's last mission were omitted entirely. Removing the multiple instances of meandering that were nonessential to the story and to Rose's post-war relationships would have streamlined the story after her return from Ravensbrück as well. 

My overall feeling about Rose Under Fire is that while it certainly has its merits, the story went in too many directions and tried to include too many interesting asides to be completely effective. The third installment of the Young Pilots Series, entitled Black Dove, White Raven will be released in March. Both Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire are available now through your favorite local independent bookstore. 

Beautiful Lines in Literature

Every so often while reading, I come across a line that halts me in my literary tracks. Even if the writing style in a book as a whole isn't enough to really captivate me, sometimes a single line or phrase contains something special, something that makes me stop and savor it for a moment. Check out this list of some fantastic, poignant, pause-worthy lines from literature, and happy holidays!

Book Review: "Firefight" by Brandon Sanderson (The Reckoners Book Two)

I've been waiting a long time to get my hands on this book. Author Brandon Sanderson is a fairly well-known SpecFic author, having written the Mistborn books and finished Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, among others. Right now his Stormlight Archive is experiencing immense popularity, with readers eagerly awaiting the third installment. But while we're waiting for that to appear, I entertained myself with the second book in his dystopian superhero series, Firefight.

When I read Steelheart last year, the first book in the Reckoners Series, I was drawn in by Sanderson's creative depiction of a world where humanity had been divided: most of the population remained the same but some were transformed into "Epics," people who were mysteriously gifted with superpowers by the sudden appearance of a brilliant red star called Calamity. But instead of becoming society's heroes, Epics became tyrants who ruled major cities and terrorized everyone living there. But with the rest of the country a wasteland, the risk posed by living under the thumb of an Epic was preferable to a life of scrounging. David Charleston, growing up in Newcago, watched Steelheart take over the city. For years he dreamed of taking down the Epic who killed his only family and destroyed his home. But he never had the chance to do anything about it until he found the Reckoners, a group of normal humans with the technology, determination, and sheer audacity to take on Epics and fight back for the rest of the population.

In Firefight, the second book in the series, some of the Reckoners' secrets have been revealed: Prof is an Epic, and Steelheart's minion Firefight has been lurking among them the whole time. But David isn't convinced that she's as evil as they thought. After all, if Prof can use his powers for good, why not other Epics? To find answers David and the Reckoners travel to Babylar, the mostly submerged city that used to be Manhattan. It's ruled by Regalia, an old associate of Prof's, and she may hold the answers to how Epics are created and influenced. But despite the many dangers of being in a new city, with a new Epic in charge and everyone looking for the Reckoners, David's main goal is to find Firefight and test his theory about Epic weaknesses. When his goals diverge from those of the rest of the team though, his friends become some of his most challenging adversaries.

The classic dystopian story of good versus evil gets spruced up by creative settings and unique characters in this continuation of the adventure started in Steelheart. Sanderson reimagines Manhattan as a tropical Venice, with dense jungles growing inside of half-drowned buildings and glowing fruit to feed the people who live there in tents and shacks on rooftops. There's a vibrant, carnival-type feel to it that throws David convincingly off his game when compared with the forbidding Newcago that he left behind. The place both intrigues and worries David as he sees people accepting their place under the power of an Epic and enjoying what life they can, knowing that they may be blown sky-high the next moment if Regalia's mood should change. This attitude contrasts nicely with the Reckoners' outlook, creating a shift in perspective for David that helps him to see the problem of Epics in a new light.

David continues to pursue Firefight, but the book isn't solely focused on that: bringing Regalia down and stopping her from destroying her own city occupy the Reckoners, and a new epic called Dawnslight brings up interesting questions for the team and the people of Babylar. Through the new twists, David retains his memorable problem with metaphors. It felt more forced this time than it did in the previous book though, with his comparisons coming more and more outlandish and the ridiculousness making them more annoying than amusing. Firefight's character remained wonderfully written though, Dawnslight is creative indeed, and the ways in which Prof changes set up the third book in the series to be potentially explosive.

I'm still confused by the naming system (or lack thereof) that Sanderson uses for Epics. Prof was a science teacher before Calamity, and Dawnslight represents hope as well as somehow producing glowing fruit; but Regaila's water-based powers have nothing to do with her name, and Firefight's powers have nothing to do with fire (although there are correlations). I think that some of the Epic names would sound a little less cheesy to me if they were more representative of the Epics themselves, instead of sounding like nicknames that they made up for themselves.

While the secret to Epics' weaknesses is less than imaginative, overall this follow-up to Steelheart delivered an excellent continuation of the story, blending new surroundings with the same story lines and characters that intrigued me in the first book. It's creative, and Sanderson has left us set up for a very intense third installment. Firefight by Brandon Sanderson will be released on January 6th, 2015, and is available for pre-order now through your favorite local, independent bookstore.

Book Review: "The Doubt Factory" by Paolo Bacigalupi

If the name Paolo Bacigalupi sounds familiar to you, it's probably because he's also written award winners The Windup Girl and Ship Breaker. His latest book, The Doubt Factory, continues his foray into the world of Young Adult writing with, in my opinion, mixed results.

Alix Banks leads a charmed life: she has a rich family, attends a prestigious prep school, achieves the perfect balance between school and partying, and the biggest worry she has is studying for the upcoming SATs. Girls in Alix's position, with corporate fathers and out-of-touch, stay-at-home mothers, don't worry about where they'll end up in life; their family connections keep them in the world of the wealthy where they marry other rich members of the 1% and start the cycle all over again with children of their own. Complacent, Alix questions none of this until one day when someone new arrives at her exclusive academy.

Moses is the leader of a group called 2.0. They might be terrorists, hackers, animal rights activists or just vengeful teens, depending on who you ask. But both the FBI and the corporations that Alix's father helps to defend and shield are determined to bring him down, and the only way he can see to expose Mr. Banks and his business dealings is through Alix. But can he turn her? Can he make her see that her life of luxury is because of faked medical trials, harmful products on grocery store shelves, and class action lawsuits that fail because of Mr. Banks and his damage control for corporations?

I had mixed feelings about this book from the start. The first red flag went up for me when the author seemed to romanticize stalking behavior. It's integral to the plot that Moses and 2.0 be able to infiltrate Alix's life and convince her to listen to their stories, and naturally, that means getting close to her to earn her trust. But when Alix sees her headmaster violently attacked, is warned by multiple authorities that she could be in danger, and still finds herself having fantasies about the tall, dark and handsome stranger who wants to kidnap her, I was admittedly upset. Stalking is potentially a very dangerous situation for everyone, not just teenage girls. Alix did eventually realize just how dangerous of a situation she put herself in, but an awfully roundabout route was taken to get her to that conclusion.

The story does point out valuable lessons about thinking critically about what goes on around you, looking closely at things not out of paranoia, but out of a desire to understand them. The social commentary against corporations and the control that they have over us as consumers was not subtle, but it was a great real-life opportunity to tell a story of suspense, espionage, and modern subterfuge. It brings to light the reality of corporate manipulation of consumers and the marketplace, and shows how being conscious of how these concerns are spun by different parties can open a person's eyes.

It's not the most artistically spun of tails, but The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi makes an important point about the world around us and how being more aware of it can improve some things. It'd be a great read for critically thinking teens, or those interested in activism and social justice. You can find a copy of it now at your favorite local, independently owned bookstore.

Historically Banned Books: An Overview

If you've read some other posts on this blog, you know how strongly I feel about banned books. I make no apologies or excuses for the fact that I believe a person should be able to read what they want to read, regardless of what others think of it. After all, somebody will be offended by just about anything that's out there, and along those same lines, there is a perfect book out there for everyone.

Shortlist.com has put together a partial list of historically banned books, in the form of some interesting charts and graphics. Take a look, and remember that not everyone has a choice in what they can or cannot read. In my opinion, we are very, very lucky to be able to make those choices for ourselves.