The Invasion of the Tearling

Title: The Invasion of the Tearling

Series: The Queen of the Tearling - book 2

Author: Erika Johansen

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Fantasy

Number of Pages: 511

Publication Date: 2015

Publisher: Bantam Press

Summary: Kelsea Glynn is the Queen of the Tearling. Despite her youth, she has quickly asserted herself as a fair, just and powerful ruler.

However, power is a double-edged sword, and small actions can have grave consequences. In trying to do what is right - stopping a vile trade in humankind - Kelsea has crossed the Red Queen, a ruthless monarch whose rule is bound with dark magic and the spilling of blood. The Red Queen's armies are poised to invade the Tearling, and it seems nothing can stop them.

Yet there was a time before the Crossing, and there Kelsea finds a strange and possibly dangerous ally, someone who might hold the key to the fare of the Tearling, and indeed to Kelsea's own soul. But time is running out...

The Invasion of the Tearling is not a fast paced book nor does it cover a huge amount of time in the plot line. But this does not hold the book back. Johansen's story is told from multiple perspectives which allow you to fully understand the complexity of the world she has created for her regressive-fantasy future. Johansen manages to weave the web of a world that is familiar, yet unique with characters that are so complex and well developed you can't help but love them all.

While the first book in this series deals with Kelsea's journey to taking on her rightful position as the Queen of the Tearling, this book follows Kelsea's next major hurdle...how to deal with the impending doom that is coming in the form of the Mort army. In this second book we begin to get more details on who the Red Queen is, even a name...which I won't spoil...

Through the stress that Kelsea faces we are reminded that she is human, a major highlight for me. We get to see Kelsea make a few decisions she would not have made in the first book and begin to her unravel a little at the edges.

While all of this is happening, Kelsea starts getting visions of the past before the crossing over to what is now Tear. At first I must admit I really didn't like where the book was going with these and I was tempted to skip ahead, but as the story progressed it becomes more and more obvious that these flashbacks of soughts, play an integral role in the story's present. Johansen's ability to weave the past and future together seamlessly is astounding and brings so much to the overall story.

The only thing I really wished that this book had included was more of The Fetch. I absolutely loved him in the first book and I was dying for him to play an even bigger role in this book and he didn't. I hope we get to see a considerably more of him in the next book because the short moments we do get of him, one thing is clear, he knows a lot more of what is going on than everyone else.

I would totally love it if we got a novella or even better a entire book that focuses on the story of The Fetch.

Ghost Medicine

Title: Ghost Medicine

Author: Andrew Smith

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Young Adult

Page Numbers: 357

Publication Date: 2008

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Summary: The summer before Troy Stotts turns seventeen, his mother dies, Troy and his father barely speak, mostly communicating instead by writing notes on a legal pad by the phone. Troy spends most of his time with his closest friends: Tom Buller, brash and fearless, the son of a drunk; Gabe Benavidez, smart enough to know he'll never take over the family ranch; and Gabe's sister Luz, whose family overprotects her, and who Troy has loved since they were children.

Troy and his friends don't want trouble. They want this to be the summer of what Troy calls 'Ghost Medicine', when times seems to stop, so they won't have to face the past, or the future. But before the summer is over, their paths will cross with people in dangerous and fateful ways,

Troy and his friends want to be invisible. Instead, they will become what they least expect - Brother's, Lovers, Heroes, and Ghosts.

This book is unlike any other book I have ever read. The writing style, the themes, the premise; the entire book and every aspect of it is unique. Ghost Medicine is Andrew Smith's debut novel.

The thing that I loved most about Ghost Medicine was the writing style of this book; but in particular the way the writing style portrayed the story. There is an almost simplicity about the writing of Ghost Medicine. That rather than reading a book, I was listening to a story to being told. But this added to the story rather than took anything away from it and fitted nicely in with the premise of the book.

The writing style is also in many ways responsible for the thing that I loved most about this book and that was its humbleness. Which is a little ironic given the trouble and lies that fill the pages of Ghost Medicine. Rather than being filled with characters that are complex and deep, with a story line that steers them on a course of development, this book seems to exist within itself and the story just is.

But this incredible uniqueness also made the book a little difficult to get into as it was not fast paced nor was it written in a way that I am used to. And while I seriously contemplated putting this book down a couple of times I am really glad I didn't. A book like this is one of those one's you just have to read for the experience. 

I also found that this book had nothing that stood out and grabbed my attention, yet once again I feel like this suited the story and helped to build to it. I think this book is one of those books that in order to understand what it is like you just have to read it. 

This book will not be for everyone, that I can guarantee. I am really interested in giving some of his other works ago to see if they share this same unique style as what Ghost Medicine does.