Stories & Myths

Stories & Myths

Mar 26, 2014

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Release Date: March 25, 2014
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pages: 320 pages
Source & Format: NetGalley; e-ARC
Amazon | Goodreads

Summary (from Goodreads)

Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava - in all other ways a normal girl - is born with the wings of a bird. In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year-old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naive to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pips Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration. That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava's quest and her family's saga build to a devastating crescendo. First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human.

Thoughts on The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

I haven't had a lot of experience with magical realism aside from my love for Sarah Addison Allen and the movie Amélie. I've fallen head over heels for that movie and those books, but that's about the extent of my background with this concept. However, I was intrigued when I read the summary for The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender because it seemed reminiscent of those two things.

I'm not sure if my expectations influenced how I felt for this book, but I suspect that they did. I went into this book looking for whimsical magical elements and lyrical prose. The writing was definitely gorgeous at times, but the magical parts of this story were very different from what I was anticipating. The magical infusions weren't whimsical or delightful. Instead, they often felt dark and ominous.

Here's the main problem I have with this book - the writing is absolutely gorgeous, but it also seems to go nowhere. There were so many lines and phrases I wanted to turn over in my mind, and I found myself highlighting or noting little things I really enjoyed. It's the same way I feel watching to Amélie or reading Addison Allen's books. There's a poetry to the story that comes from the magic that infuses it, and I really love that aspect. But I also really struggled with The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender because much of it felt really pointless.

The first half of the book, at least, aren't even about Ava Lavender. It's actually her family history, which is somewhat interesting but didn't flow very well. I felt like some minor characters or back stories were too fleshed out and had no real relevance on the heroine or her story. It seemed like it was meandering aimlessly at times... no real forward momentum propelling me forward in the story.

It read very much like an adult novel, and I can actually say I was really shocked by the violence in this book. There is a brutal, devastating scene towards the end of the novel that felt very unresolved for the amount of havoc it wreaked on the characters' lives. It's such a tragic, sad story, which I guess I should have known from the "sorrows" in the title. But I honestly thought it would be more hopeful and not quite so devastating!

The other thing that bothered me is that I really didn't feel the story was realistic at all. It's also a "historical" novel if take the time period into account. I understand that magical elements will never be realistic, but (in my experience) magical realism tends to have very realistic story lines with added layers of magic that makes you ponder the little things in life that could be more than meets the eye. With Addison Allen, for example, it's wallpaper that changes to reflect someone's mood or food that can affect anyone who eats it. It's small, simple things that add texture and color to an otherwise realistic world. In The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, I felt the magic overwhelmed the story to the point that it read more like fantasy than anything else. That's just me, and it could be because I don't have a lot of experience with this genre.

As much as I wanted to like The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, I couldn't get past how bizarre the story and characters were for most of the book. I felt the story lacked direction, and I was never entirely sure where it was headed or, more importantly, why it was headed that way. I think it's likely to appeal to a very small group of readers who will absolutely love it, but I sadly wasn't one of them. I enjoyed Walton's poetic writing, but I struggled with the rest of it.

So Quotable

"She would feel her heart unclench and stretch its tightly coiled legs, preparing to leap into the path of yet another love. She'd think, This time could be different. This time it could last. Maybe it would be a longer, deeper love: a real and solid entity that lived in the house, used the bathroom, ate their food, mussed up the linens in sleep. A love that pulled her close when she cried, that slept with its chest pressed against her back."

*I received a copy of this book from Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way for my review.

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Before I Kick the Bucket...

Before I Kick the Bucket...

Mar 25, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Every week they post a new topic/top ten list and invite everyone to share their own answers. I'm so obsessed with lists - so it makes perfect sense that I'd love this feature!

Top Ten Things On My Bookish Bucket List

{SEE}

Source

L.M. Montgomery. Do I really need to say more?

Source

I've been to London and studied abroad in Oxford.

Now, I just need to make it to the countryside.

Source

I live in Georgia for crying out loud.

Why haven't I been here already?

{MEET}

Source

I was late to this party, but I still managed to show up. 

Can you blame me for wanting to get my books signed?

Source

This wasn't on my wishlist until I discovered the joy of blog friends.

Now, I just want to meet them in real life. Free books are just a bonus!

I've never emailed an author before. But I want to do it!

If I'm so obsessed with their book, why not pass along some love?

{READ}

Source

I've only read Harry Potter once, so I'm itching for a re-read.

The audiobooks seem like a lovely way to revisit these favorites! 

Source

I love classics, but I do find some of them intimidating!

War and Peace and Middlemarch are two are the top of my list.

I keep buying Harvard's Jane Austen Annotated Editions.

I just need to actually read them, particularly the annotations.

Source

Did this make you laugh? Am I living in a dream world?

I hope to one day get control of my TBR and read everything I own!

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Something Wicked This Way Comes

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Mar 24, 2014

While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell

Release Date: February 20 2014
Publisher: Penguin | Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Pages: 432 pages
Source & Format: NetGalley; e-ARC
Amazon | Goodreads

Summary (from Goodreads)

A beautiful princess lies in a sleep so deep it is close to death. Was Sleeping Beauty revived by a prince's kiss? What really happened in that tower so long ago?

While Beauty Slept re-imagines the legend through the lens of historical fiction, telling the story as if it really happened. A Gothic tale of suspense and ambition, love and loss, it interweaves the story of a royal family and the servants who see behind the glamorous facade, following the journey of a young woman as she lives out a destiny that leads her to the brink of death.

Thoughts on While Beauty Slept

I'm not exactly sure where I first heard about While Beauty Slept, but I remember being drawn to the cover when I saw it on NetGalley. Yes, I'm that reader. I was trying to be good about not requesting too many books, so I told myself that I'd hold off. When I was still thinking about it days later, I decided to just cave and request it. I was never a huge fan of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale, and it was probably my least-watched Disney movie growing up. But I was still really curious! I loved the sound of this book, especially since it was categorized as historical fiction and written as if the story had really happened.

There were a few things I enjoyed about While Beauty Slept, but it mostly ended up being a somewhat forgettable read for me. The book opens with an elderly woman, Elise, overhearing her great-granddaughter telling the story of Sleeping Beauty to her siblings. It's a fanciful version of the tale - the one you likely heard growing up. But Elise knows what really happened all those years ago, and she decides it's finally time to tell her story.

Unfortunately, this method of storytelling doesn't really work for me. I have a hard time with books that involve a person reflecting on the past and telling an entire story with the benefit of hindsight. There's usually a lot of distance between the "present" and the past, and I often find it unbelievable that anyone would remember this many details about every little moment in their life, particularly when the narrator is elderly. Listen, I can't even remember when I've told my husband the same thing within a week's span of time... forget trying to remember enough to recount my entire history. So, stories structured this way always throw me off a little bit right from the start.

A narrator telling a story from the past can be particular challenging in a story that hinges on a feeling of mystery, foreboding or suspense (as this one does). It can create an emotional distance in the story - a disconnect - because the events don't have an immediacy or urgency. Unfortunately, that's what happened for me in this one. The narrator frequently interjected these little "if only I had known then that..." type comments, and it felt very heavy-handed. I'm all for a little foreshadowing, but it's not enjoyable when there's no opportunity for curiosity because the narrator is basically giving everything away.

The pace is also really slow, and I suspect the things I mentioned above contributed to that feeling. Sometimes a slower book really works for me, but I just found myself mostly bored with this story. I cared enough to keep reading to find out what happened, but there wasn't that feeling of "oh, I can't put this down!" that I'd usually find in something billed as "a Gothic tale of suspense." With all of this slow build up, I actually found the ending anti-climactic.

I liked that the author made this story something that could have really happened in history, but I also couldn't help feeling that it wandered a bit too much in the telling. And as a huge historical fiction reader, I will say that this still felt like an imaginary world. There weren't any historical details to connect it to an real period in time, which isn't a big deal but was slightly disappointing.

Honestly, very little of this story actually concerns Princess Rose (Sleeping Beauty). It is Elise's story, and she was the real protagonist. All of that would be fine if Elise was really engaging, but she was a very flat narrator. I didn't get a good sense of the emotional connection to the events and people she was describing, which is why I ended up disconnected from the story overall. It's just a bit of a misleading title and description to imply this is Sleeping Beauty's story or that it really spends much time at all on the events in the tower. That was such a minor part of the book!

Things felt a bit too convenient at times and made no sense at all in others. It wasn't a bad book by any means, but I didn't find a lot that I really enjoyed. Overall, it was just okay. It wouldn't be the first book I'd recommend if you asked about fairy tale retellings, but I think it could work better for other readers. I wish I'd liked While Beauty Slept more, but I found the story only somewhat interesting and not very engaging.

*I received a copy of this book from Putnam in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way for my review.

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Have We Met Before?

Have We Met Before?

Mar 20, 2014

I recently decided to revamp my "Hey Y'all" page. It's probably only been edited once since I started this blog, and I thought it needed a little love and attention! To be honest, I'd never given much thought to the "About Me" details. It's pretty standard to have that information on a blog, but I realized recently it's one of the first places I go when I'm blog browsing.

With that in mind, I thought it was time to make a few changes on my own page. I wanted it to really reflect who I am and what I enjoy! Rather than just update it, I decided to post it because duhhhhh I don't want you to miss out on all this excitement. So, allow me to re-introduce myself:

Hey y'all! Thanks for stopping by So Obsessed With. Grab a sweet tea, pull up a chair and come sit a spell with me. I'm Hannah - a Southern sass with some book nerd thrown in for good measure.

To tell you the truth, I've been a book lover ever since I was born. My mama tells me that I couldn't fall asleep unless I had at least one book in my crib, and I had Madeline memorized at a very early age. The stories that follow me around in my family? Oh, you know, the time I ate a word off the spine of a book and one of my parents later found it in my diaper. Or when I stayed up late reading in the bathroom and tried telling my parents "I had a stomachache" when they finally discovered me. Both of my grandmothers love to read, so I think I come by it honestly. I grew up loving words, and it's an obsession that's never waned.

I attended the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) and majored in Public Relations. I graduated a few years ago, and I still can't believe I'm a real, live grown up. Although, for the most part, I've always been a little old lady inside. There's nothing I love more than being at home, in my pajamas, hanging out with my husband and our dog. I've got a dash of wanderlust inside, but there's still no place like home for me.

My mister and I met while on a trip to South Africa through UGA, but we grew up only fifteen minutes away from each other. I went halfway around the world and fell for someone right down the road! South Africa has had a special place in my heart since then, but I'm still a Georgia girl through and through. I love all things Southern: the people, the weather, the food, the places and the traditions.

Back in November 2011, I figured there was no better way to chronicle the books that grabbed my heart than in this little corner of the world. It's my hope you'll be so obsessed with books right alongside me! So, hello wide world, it's nice to meet you. Drop me a line at soobsessedwith [at] gmail [dot] com.

When I decided to start blogging, I knew how important it was to come up with a name that I loved and meant something to me. Something bookish seemed best, but many of the ones I thought of were already taken... And what if I didn't always want to talk about books? Then, it hit me!

So Obsessed With

For years, the mister has teasingly told me that I suffer from a serious case of obsession. When something strikes my fancy, it hits me hard. This sparks a furious need for me to read/find/make/buy whatever it is that's crossed my mind. But when the wind blows something else my way, I'm off on another adventure. My obsessions can last anywhere from a few days (DIY bracelets before I remembered that I hate the actual DIY part) to a few months (stalking eBay for copies of Domino magazine). 

Since my lifelong obsession has always been reading, I figured writing about it was the best bet I had of sticking with this whole blogging thing. That's turned out to be true, and I've got a lot of words here to prove it! My obsessions can sometimes influence what I read, too. Whether it's books set in specific places or particular topics, I'm often reading books based on what's currently captured my mind. Now that I've told you the story of my blog name, it's time to finally answer...

Rather than continue talking your ear off, here's an "About the Blogger" bingo board that I created to highlight a few of my favorite things. Hope you spot some things we've got in common!

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

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You Can Always Change the End

You Can Always Change the End

Mar 19, 2014

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

Release Date: January 21, 2014
Publisher: Macmillan | St. Martin's Press
Pages: 296 pages
Source & Format: Bought; Hardcover
Amazon | Goodreads

Summary (from Goodreads)

The first time Eby Pim saw Lost Lake, it was on a picture postcard. Just an old photo and a few words on a small square of heavy stock, but when she saw it, she knew she was seeing her future.

That was half a life ago. Now Lost Lake is about to slip into Eby's past. Her husband George is long passed. Most of her demanding extended family are gone. All that's left is a once-charming collection of lakeside cabins succumbing to the Southern Georgia heat and damp, and an assortment of faithful misfits drawn back to Lost Lake year after year by their own unspoken dreams and desires.

It's a lot, but not enough to keep Eby from relinquishing Lost Lake to a developer with cash in hand, and calling this her final summer at the lake. Until one last chance at family knocks on her door.

Lost Lake is where Kate Pheris spent her best summer at the age of twelve, before she learned of loneliness, and heartbreak, and loss. Now she's all too familiar with those things, but she knows about hope too, thanks to resilient daughter Devin, and her own willingness to start moving forward. Perhaps at Lost Lake her little girl can cling to her own childhood for just a little longer... and maybe Kate herself can rediscover something that slipped through her fingers so long ago.

One after another, people find their way to Lost Lake, looking for something that they weren't sure they needed in the first place: love, closure, a second chance, peace, a mystery solved, a heart mended. Can they find what they need before it's too late?

Thoughts on Lost Lake

Sarah Addison Allen's books are like the definition of comfort read for me. Her books are always different - it's not the same story over and over again - but they always feel familiar. I feel like I know what to expect when I dive into one of her stories.

Here are four things that are very characteristic of Allen's books:

1. Enchanting Story

There's something about her stories that always leaves me feeling so comforted, so happy, when I close that final page. Even when they deal with sadness or grief, there's this overwhelming undercurrent of hopefulness. What I really appreciate about Allen is that the plots of her books always seem very her, but that doesn't mean they are predictable.

Lost Lake deals with Kate, a widowed mother who has spent the last year in a fog of grief. She's barely able to stay afloat - let alone take care of her seven-year-old daughter, Devin. Going through the motions, Kate has let her mother-in-law take charge. And it takes just a moment for Kate to see that handing over the reins of her life to someone else isn't going to do her daughter any good. Finding a long-lost postcard from an old family member leads her to the lake cottage community in Suley, Georgia. It's a place she hasn't been for years, but the memory of the happy summer she spent there just beckons her back.

What happens next is enchanting! I won't spoil the plot, but I will say I really loved this story and its themes. Although the ending was a bit predictable, I didn't mind at all. I don't read these books to be shocked or surprised. These are the books I turn to when I want a bit of whimsy sprinkled in with the painful realities of life. For me, being able to guess where this book was headed didn't take away an ounce of my enjoyment of it. This book was more melancholy and a bit slower than her previous work, but I still adored it.

2. Lovely Writing

These books are technically magical realism, and I'm obsessed with the little hints of fantasy and magic sprinkled on her pages. The stories feel so whimsical because of it, and I always tell people that there is something about Allen's books that seems so lovely. I love the Dictionary.com definition of lovely: "having a beauty that appeals to the heart or mind as well as to the eye." It works for perfectly for these stories!

The writing itself is something to be admired. I don't know how to describe it, but it's my favorite thing about reading Allen's books. I think it partly has to do with the infusion of magic into her stories because it adds this dash of the unexpected. As odd as it may sound, there is something about Allen's writing that fills me with what I can only describe as childlike wonder. In her pages, I start to believe the impossible.

Also, I love books that are really quotable (the reason I almost always include a quote in my reviews), and Lost Lake definitely qualifies. There were so many phrases and lines that I wanted to remember!

3. Charming Setting

One of my favorite things about Allen's books are the Southern elements. Although there are magical parts to all of her stories, the settings still feel so realistic and real. I've noted before in books set in the South that I hate when its culture is portrayed as stereotypical or cliche. The South certainly has aspects that make it unique, but I hate when it seems obvious that an author isn't writing from personal knowledge or experience.

Thankfully, it's evident that Allen knows the world she's depicting in her books. It's recognizable! She captures certain things about Southern charm that leave me just delighted while I'm reading her books. Lost Lake is set in Suley, Georgia, which is a fictional city in my home state. And while I know this place doesn't exist, it definitely feels like it could!

4. Colorful Characters

Finally, the characters! Lost Lake had a large cast of characters who were important to the story. Compared to her previous books, there may not have been as much depth to the characters because of the sheer number of them… but it really didn't bother me. Even though you only briefly get to know some of the characters, I thought they were all distinguishable from one another. They had distinct personalities, and I was never confused about who they were while I was reading.

One thing I love about Allen's characters is that you may only barely get to know them, and yet they feel as though they could star in their own book if Allen ever chose to flesh them out more. They all have their own history that you may not learn in the book, but you are still able to see hints of it throughout. They are so quirky and colorful, but it's not the kind of quirky where a character is just defined by one random trait.

In short, I think it's pretty easy to see that I highly recommend Lost Lake - as well as all of Sarah Addison Allen's previous books. I found this one completely charming, and it was the perfect pick-me-up in the middle of a winter that feels like it's never going to end.

So Quotable

"After you finish a book, the story still goes on in your mind. You can never change the beginning. But you can always change the end."

"If we measured life in the things that almost happened, we wouldn't get anywhere."

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