Review: The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

Today I will be reviewing THE LOST GIRL.  This is a book that I got in a fit of excitement on a day when like 10 other YA books I wanted to read also came out, so it got shuffled to the side.  Then I packed it for reading over Christmas vacation, and started it Christmas Eve, but only got one chapter in before Christmas came, and I got a ton of new books.  Looking at all those shiny new books, I didn’t want to read this one anymore, so I started one of the new ones.  Well, despite that, this is the one that grabbed me.

Eva’s life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination—an echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her “other”, if she ever died. Eva studies what Amarra does, what she eats, what it’s like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything she’s ever known—the guardians who raised her, the boy she’s forbidden to love—to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva.

From debut novelist Sangu Mandanna comes the dazzling story of a girl who was always told what she had to be—until she found the strength to decide for herself.

Rare is a book that I read and have no complaints about. Even books I love, I tend to find fault with, but, despite the reluctant beginning, I fell hard for The Lost Girl.

The plot is fascinating. Back-ups, or echoes, of people are created to replace those who have died. These Echoes have to pretend to be the person they’ve replaced. They receive journals and sometimes letters from the person they’re replacing, and sometimes they can even see what the “others” see. There are those that control the echoes–the Weavers–and hunters who would see them destroyed.

This is the story of Amarra, who chooses to rename herself Eva to distinguish herself from her other. She wants to live her own life. In fact, she’s not much like Amarra at all, but when Amarra dies, Eva has to assume her life and pretend to be her.

The book deals with deep subjects, how far people will go to bring back those they loved and have lost, and how far they should respect the deceased’s wishes if it hurts another. While Amarra is called the “other,” it is Eva who is treated as “other” by some who find out she’s not Amarra. Others treat her as just another person. And still others are torn between seeing her as an abomination or as a person. Eva is torn between wanting her own life and fulfilling the one she was created for. At first she does so only because she could be killed if people don’t believe the soul in her body is Amarra’s, but she’s also hope to Amarra’s mom and friends, so proving that she’s not Amarra would mean killing that hope.

The writing is of great quality, and the characters are well-drawn. Even when people were making bad choices, I didn’t question their logic or motives–rare for me. I never got bored with the pacing, and was pleasantly surprised by several routes the plot took.

Occasionally the book dipped close to a love triangle, and, don’t get me wrong, I love well-done love triangles, but this book didn’t need one, so I was happy to see that most of the time there was no question about who Eva loved, only the occasional question about who she was supposed to love.

Most amazingly in this world of YA fantasy, the book had a clear ending. There are strings left loose for a sequel if there is one, and the romance isn’t definitively tied up, but I like that openness, actually.

Overall, I was highly impressed with this book. One of the most satisfying YA reads I’ve had lately.

Recommended for fans of: well-written YA contemp fantasy, stories of loss and hope, stories about identity, India, England, standalones, strong characters, strong world-building.

Rated: 5 blue hearts

Lots of love,
Sage

100 Books 2012

Just today I finished my 100 book challenge for 2012.  And over a week to spare.  For those just tuning in, the 100 book challenge is to read 100 books in the year, which includes MG, YA, or adult, audiobooks, and graphic novels.  I also include completed, but unpublished, books that I beta read, but not books of mine that I read for fun, unless they are published.  A book is counted only once if I reread it in this year, but I can count it if I read it again next year.  For this reason, I’ve been waiting on a few books that I’m really looking forward to rereading.

Here’s my list of my 100 books for this year:

1. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
3. Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
4. The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
5. Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
6. Zombie Tag by Hannah Moskowitz
7. Wither by Lauren DeStefano
8. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
9. Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
10. Geek Fantasy Novel by E. Archer
11. There is no Dog by Meg Rosoff
12. The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers by Lynn Weingarten
13. Absolute Visions by various, including some sage girl
14. Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon
15. Saving June by Hannah Harrington
16. When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen
17. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 1
18. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 2
19. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 3
20. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 4
21. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 5
22. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 6
23. beta read
24. Love Sucks by Sage Collins
25. Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
26. Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz
27. Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin
28. Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
29. The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
30. beta
31. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
32. Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
33. The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
34. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
35. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
36. Holes by Louis Sachar
37. Kiss the Morning Star by Elissa Janine Hoole
38. Demon Diary, vol. 1
39. Demon Diary, vol. 2
40. Demon Diary, vol. 3
41. The False Prince by Jennifer a. Nielsen
42. Demon Diary, vol. 4
43. Demon Diary, vol. 5
44. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
45. Demon Diary, vol. 6
46. Demon Diary, vol. 7
47. Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John
48. The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
49. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
50. Loveless, vol. 1
51. Loveless, vol. 2
52. Handcuffs by Bethany Griffin
53. Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
54. The Selection by Kiera Cass
55. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
56. A Want so Wicked by Suzanne Young
57. beta
58. Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
59. Eona by Alison Goodman
60. White Knight by Jim Butcher
61. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer’s Comrade by Mark Twain
62. Loveless, vol. 3
63. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
64. Loveless, vol. 4
65. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
66. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling
67. Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
68. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
69. Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
70. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
71. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
72. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okirafor
73. Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey by Isabel Fonseca
74. Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott
75. What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang
76. The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson
77. Spookygirl: Paranormal Investigator by Jill Baguchinsky
78. Small Favor by Jim Butcher
79. Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
80. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
81. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
82. The Diviners by Libba Bray
83. The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade
84. Fox’s Mask by Anna Frost
85. The Turning by Francine Prose
86. Ten by Gretchen McNeil
87. The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
88. Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
89. Firelight by Sophie Jordan
90. Loveless, vol. 5
91. Loveless, vol. 6
92. Cloaked by Alex Flinn
93. Loveless, vol. 7
94. Columbus: Past, Present, and Future by various
95. Speechless by Hannah Harrington
96. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
97. Phoenix by Jennifer Mason-Black
98. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
99. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
100. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Of books that I counted, 3 were beta reads, and 2 were either by me or included a story of mine.  4 were classics, 53 were YA, 13 were MG (counting all Harry Potters), 7 were adult, 2 were anthologies, 1 was non-fiction, and 20 were manga.

33 of these books were ones I had read at least once before 2012.  17 were ebooks.  7 were audiobooks. 13 were library books.

Oh, and I finished the 2012 YA/MG Debut author challenge, which you wouldn’t think would be too hard, since 4 people within my writing group, including myself, debuted this year and I only needed 12, but I finished the last two in mid-December

1. When the Sea is Rising Red
2. Love Sucks
3. Incarnate
4. Cinder
5. Kiss the Morning Star
6. Scarlet
7. What’s Left of Me
8. Spookygirl: Paranormal Investigator
9. Fox’s Mask
10. Stormdancer
11. Shadow and Bone
12. Phoenix

It will be interesting to see if I make the challenge in 2013 (will it be 13 debut authors?) since so many of this year’s debuts have sequels coming out, and I know nothing about the debuts for next year.  Then again, that’s how I found out about so many of the ones that I read this year and loved.

So there’s my stats for 2012.

Did you take on a challenge to read a certain number of books this year?  How did you do?

Lots of love,
Sage

Gone, Gone, Gone/Austin Song Contest Winner

All right, after a minor dilemma about the winning song, I’ve decided on a winner, yay!

The winner is Megan for Kid Rock – Warrior.

There were a lot of close runner ups, which was part of my dilemma today.  It turns out that I can’t actually buy “Warrior” and put it on my soundtrack.  Kid Rock does not let iTunes sell his music (or Amazon as single mp3s, either).

But the contest was for the song that fit Austin best, and “Warrior” was the truest to his character and situation, so Megan will still be getting a copy of Gone, Gone, Gone (as soon as I find one, sigh).

There were several other songs that were close, so I will be throwing them all on my playlist temporarily to “audition” them for the part.  The song that makes it might be the one that suddenly strikes me as perfect (one line can sometimes do that) or the one I decide  I just like to listen to best.  Or it’s still entirely possible that some other song will fall out of the sky and hit me and be Austin’s song.

Anyway, thanks for all your entries, everyone.

Lots of love,

Sage

A Sniper, a Soldier, and all of Craig’s Animals Walk into a Bar

And it’s a karaoke bar, because it’s time for another find-Sage-a-song contest, yay!

The Prize:

The winner of this contest will be receiving a copy of Hannah Moskowitz’s Gone, Gone, Gone, which, btw, is my favorite Hannah book.  Here’s the Goodreads description.

It’s a year after 9/11. Sniper shootings throughout the D.C. area have everyone on edge and trying to make sense of these random acts of violence. Meanwhile, Craig and Lio are just trying to make sense of their lives. Craig’s crushing on quiet, distant Lio, and preoccupied with what it meant when Lio kissed him…and if he’ll do it again…and if kissing Lio will help him finally get over his ex-boyfriend, Cody.Lio feels most alive when he’s with Craig. He forgets about his broken family, his dead brother, and the messed up world. But being with Craig means being vulnerable…and Lio will have to decide whether love is worth the risk.

This intense, romantic novel from the author of Break and Invincible Summer is a poignant look at what it is to feel needed, connected, and alive

The Character:

And what do you need to do to win this excellent novel?  Well, I need a song for the Taylor-Made soundtrack.  Austin, my soldier Simulant and a pseudo-POV-character has no clear song, and I want him to have one.  Justin has two and Taylor has a soundtrack-worth, but Austin is merely alluded to until the climax.

So here’s some info about Austin and his POV.  He’s an android built to fight in this war for America so that human soldiers don’t have to die anymore.  He’s aware he’s an android and he knows that he’s not going to get a parade when he gets home.  They sent him and all the other Simulants because he’s expendable.  Despite this, his loyalty to the U.S. is unwavering except for one brief moment where he questions it before his programming takes over.  When the human commander in his unit is killed, he’s put in charge, so he does have authority, but we never really see him use it, so I might kill that bit.  Halfway through the novel he meets a spy from the other side of the war, and she promises to help him get to the weapon they’re trying to get to and disable.  He falls for her.  He’s hard, he’ll shoot to kill without hesitation, he swears every fifth word, and until he meets this girl, he is entirely focused on the war.  After he meets her, he dares to dream about life after the war, with her.  A tease from his POV can be found here.

The Rules:

To enter, all you need to do is suggest a song that could be Austin’s character song.  It might be about soldiers or war in general or freedom or anything you think matches the above description of him.  Every song you mention is an entry, with no limit.  The winner is the one who chooses the song that most fits Austin, which hopefully will fit him so well that I’ll fill that hole in my soundtrack.  Even if no suggestion is perfect, I will still choose a winner.  If you could link or embed a YouTube video or lyrics, that would be lovely, but it is not necessary.  Just make sure the title and the artist are correct so I can find them.

Songs I do not need suggested to me are: “Citizen/Soldier” by 3 Doors Down or anything by Green Day.  I have already considered these and rejected them.

The contest will go on until 11:59 p.m. April 16.  On April 17, I will announce the winner and go out and buy two copies of Gone, Gone, Gone (one is for me).

Good luck!

Lots of love,
Sage