ARC Review: Unthinkable (Impossible #2) by Nancy Werlin

Major Spoilers for Impossible below

This much anticipated sequel to the New York Times Bestseller Impossiblea fantasy full of suspense, mystery, and romance will appeal to fans ofBeautiful Creatures, Raven Boys, and Wicked Lovely.

Fenella was the first Scarborough girl to be cursed, hundreds of years ago, and she has been trapped in the faerie realm ever since, forced to watch generations of daughters try to break this same faerie curse that has enslaved them all. But now Fenella’s descendant, Lucy, has accomplished the impossible and broken the curse, so why is Fenella still trapped in Faerie?
 
In her desperation, Fenella makes a deal with the faerie queen: If she can accomplish three acts of destruction, she will be free, at last, to die.  What she doesn't realize is that these acts must be aimed at her own family and if she fails, the consequences will be dire, for all of the Scarborough girls.
 
How can she possibly choose to hurt her own cherished family not to mention the new man whom she’s surprised to find herself falling in love with? But if she doesn’t go through with the tasks, how will she manage to save her dear ones?

From Goodreads

Fenella Scarborough, the originator of the Scarborough curse broken by Lucy in Impossible, has wanted to die for quite a long time. Four hundred years to be exact. Ever since she was swept into faerie and the curse laid upon her family lineage she has cursed her captor. Now that the family curse is broken, she had hoped that she would be allowed, at long last, to greet death with open arms. Naturally things are not that simple.

Fenella begs the faerie queen to allow her to die. She is given a task: if she completes three acts of destruction, against her own family, she will be able to live out the rest of her days. If she fails, her familial curse is regenerated to be laid upon all new generations of Scarborough girls. Unsure of her abilities, and with the assistance of the faerie queen's brother in animal disguise, Fenella makes her way into the human realm to earn her freedom at long last. More challenges than she could have possibly anticipated arise and force her to question her resolve. Can she really inflict such cruelty on her own family?

I must say that this was a different turn than I was expecting for this sequel. Much darker than its predecessor, Unthinkable strikes a final balance between the determined optimism of the first book and the cruel negativity in this one. When taken into account all that she has suffered and the extent of her situation, it's not hard to understand and even sympathize with Fenella. She really never meant for anything bad to happen when the curse was originally laid, but 400 years of captivity and untold hardships had made her a brutally determined woman.

I can see where some might find themselves annoyed or even furious with her choices, but when taken into account with the reality she was facing, it's not nearly as awful as it could be. Having spent so long with the faeries I believe that Fenella is a master at double speak & slight of tongue when it comes to her own actions. This gives the reader a lot more leeway into understanding her choices.

Stepping back into Lucy's life after we left her so well-off was a bit saddening, but laid the perfect groundwork for this tale. Since this family already knew Fenella's background & about the faerie world in general, the story could simply pick up practically where it left off. The new interactions between the characters, as they have now settled into a mundane life, are different and allow for new scenarios to play out with Fenella mixed in. Even better, there is a new man in the picture who causes Fenella untold amounts of strain as she wrestles with herself.

This was a long book and it took a bit to get going. Once things started happening though, I really just flew through the pages. The pacing is just right so that things calm down when they need to, sped up at the right parts, & even allow for little side jaunts into romance or humor. I hope some of y'all like it as much as I did!

ARC graciously provided by Around the World ARC Tours

May Genreflecting: Review: The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin

After seventeen-year-old David is forced to stand trial for his girlfriend's death, he is sent to live with his aunt and uncle and their young daughter, Lily, to avoid the media frenzy. But all is not well at his relatives' house. His aunt and uncle are not speaking to each other, and Lily seems dead set on making David's life a torment. And then there's the issue of their older daughter, Kathy, who died under mysterious circumstances a number of years back. As things with his family grow more and more tense, David starts to wonder: Is he the only one who's hiding something?

From Goodreads

I had read another book by Nancy Werlin & really enjoyed it. The Killer's Cousin though is a whole different animal than Impossible. This suspense novel leaves you just enough in the dark about what's taken place prior to the beginning of the book that you're just a bit confused. You know that something terrible has taken place & that the main character David is escaping persecution based on a murder charge, but you don't get the whole story until the end of the book. As you watch David interacting with his estranged family & the students at his new school, you begin to understand just how isolated and different he really is from everyone else.

All is not well in his aunt & uncle's home as evidenced by their silent treatment of one another and the strained familial bonds are taxed even further when the subject turns to their surviving daughter, 11 year old Lily. She seems a bit peculiar at first, but quickly becoming menacing. Before you know it, the book seems to turn into a horror film where the parents are oblivious to the destruction going on around them. As David sorts through his emotions & experiences over the last year, he's also trying to figure out what's really going on in this family and why he gets the feeling that it has something to do with the way his older cousin Kathy died.

Despite its age, this is a pretty good suspense novel. There are definitely some things that cause it to be dated (VHS tapes, the novelty of "the Net", the X-Files as a popular tv show) if you skip past that background noise and focus on the main story, it's really quite timeless. We spend a great deal of time with David and his thoughts which gives us a very specific vantage point to view the series of events he sees unfolding. I really enjoyed watching him piece things together while still struggling with his identity and self-esteem.

This book definitely followed the pattern of a suspense novel in that we spend the entire novel dreading the discovery of the truth of some past event. While normally we're dreading/anticipating a future event, I think this reversed system worked well considering that there were two mysterious events to be reconciled. The anticipation of David's discoveries is palpable throughout the novel giving you the sense of foreboding and edginess.

Next week I'll be reviewing All Unquiet Things and hosting a giveaway so be sure to check back in next Friday!

May Genreflecting: Mystery & Suspense: The Basics

I wanted to do a reading challenge for the subject of Genreflecting, but I didn't get much feedback (maybe because it asked you to read 2 books for each genre and discuss them or because it's not really a "reading challenge" per se, but more an educational experiment), so I've turned it into a monthly feature! For each month of 2013, there will be a specific genre that will be analyzed. I'm planning to have author input and at least 2 reviews of books in the genre as well.

April's genre is Mystery & Suspense! These two books often go hand-in-hand simply because they are so closely linked. While mystery books are usually trying to find out the who & why of an event and suspense books usually know something terrible has happened, but are experiencing the book with a sense of impending disaster. These book tend to be read by those teens seeking a more intriguing read as puzzles are often-times a main component. That's not to say that these are all "thinking" books though, I personally love some of the paranormal mysteries that seem to abound. But as that is a subgenre, you'll just have to wait until next week to learn more! (paraphrased from Teen Genreflecting, 2003)

A few of my favorite authors you may recognize in this genre are:
Carol Plum-Ucci- The Body of Christopher Creed
Lois Duncan- Daughters of Eve, I Know What You Did Last Summer
Christopher Pike- Chain Letter

I'm excited to say that I've chosen my two books, one older and one newer, to read for this challenge. The older book is The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin (originally published in 1998) and I'll have a review and analysis up on Friday, May 24th. The newer book is All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab (originally published in 2010) and I'll have a review and analysis up on Friday, May 31st. I'll also be hosting a giveaway, so stay tuned!

March Genreflecting: Issues: The Details

Based on the Collins English Dictionary, a subgenre is "a category that is a subdivision of a larger genre." (Source) Issues is quite a broad topic for analysis because of the myriad types of issues that can be faced in any given book. What these books all agree on is the difficulty of the subject matter. That doesn't mean that the subject matter is inappropriate, on the contrary it is usually quite relevant, it's just that the books can take an emotional toll on the reader. Three broad subgenres can be defined as physical/mental/emotional concerns, social concerns, & hard life. 

As listed in Teen Genreflecting (2003), here are some of the most popular topics under these subgenres:

1. Physical/mental/emotional concerns:

• sexual identity
• (terminal) illness
• mental and behavioral problems
• pregnancy

2. Social concerns

• racism
• gangs
• crime & criminals

3. Hard life

• abuse (physical, emotional, sexual)
• "in the system"
• homelessness
• missing & exploited

One of my favorite authors that exemplifies a few of these subgenres is Laurie Halse Anderson. Her books Speak and Wintergirls are shining examples of just how powerfully these books can speak for themselves and the situations they represent. Each character in these novels had to face the reality of their situation and make a choice. Here, Laurie talks about how that happens:

HOW DO YOU THINK THROUGH MAKING A CHARACTER CHANGE OVER THE COURSE OF A NOVEL?

To be honest, I don’t think about it much. I focus on creating situations that force the character out of her comfort zone, raising the emotional stakes as I go along. If I’ve developed conflicts that are organic and in keeping with the character’s world, her response to the conflicts will naturally lead to internal growth.

From Laurie Halse Anderson's FAQs

Nancy Werlin puts her writing choice into a different light in her downloadable guide to The Rules of Survival. She has chosen to give a voice to those who otherwise might be overlooked.

While I was lucky enough to grow up with loving, responsible parents, as an adult I encountered someone like Matt’s mother, Nikki Walsh. I ended up doing a good deal of thinking about what it might be like for a child to be in the power of someone like that. 

The Rules of Survival is "told" by Matthew to his little sister Emmy. This approach was deliberate artistic choice to try to involve the reader more intensely into the story. If "you," hearing the story, are not only yourself but are also a five year old girl...a child in danger...that does things to your emotions as reader that cannot be done when you are reading as an outside observer.

This is a realistic novel. There are children and indeed, adults, who are prey to people like Nikki Walsh. Many readers have written to tell me that they grew up in circumstances like those in the book. It's not always the mother, of course. More often, frankly, it is the father. Sometimes, it is a boyfriend, a husband, or a wife. It might be a sister or brother who terrorizes the family.

Those are just a couple of the hundreds of authors that you can chose to read if you like these types of books. I personally find them arduous, but more rewarding than most of the other things I read. I have to be in a mood to be taken down and brought back up otherwise it just doesn't have the same impact.

How about you? Do you have any favorite authors in these subgenres? Which one do you prefer to read and why? Stick around for my review of Annie on my Mind next Friday!

March Genreflecting: Issues: The Basics

I wanted to do a reading challenge for the subject of Genreflecting, but I didn't get much feedback (maybe because it asked you to read 2 books for each genre and discuss them or because it's not really a "reading challenge" per se, but more an educational experiment), so I've turned it into a monthly feature! For each month of 2013, there will be a specific genre that will be analyzed. I'm planning to have author input and at least 2 reviews of books in the genre as well.

March's genre is Issues! Usually dubbed "problem novels" books about issues are just that, issue-driven books. A lot of times these can be considered the "harder" book and often find themselves being challenged for content. At the same time, they are likely to win awards for their handling of some very touchy subjects ranging from homosexuality to abuse to disabilities. Teens usually read these books to feel like they're not alone in their plight or to find solace in the fact that there are worse things to face in life. The issues faced in these books change over time based of what issues real-life teens are currently facing. (paraphrased from Teen Genreflecting 3, 2010)

A few of my favorite authors you may recognize in this genre are:
Ellen Hopkins Identical
Emily Murdoch If You Find Me
Nancy Werlin The Rules of Survival
Gayle Forman If I Stay
Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

I'm excited to say that I've chosen my two books, one older and one newer, to read for this challenge. The older book is Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden (originally published in 1982) and I'll have a review and analysis up on Friday, March 22nd. The newer book is Thirteen Reason Why by Jay Asher (originally published in 2007) and I'll have a review and analysis up on Friday, March 29th. I'll be giving away my copy of Thirteen Reasons Why during the week following it's review post so stay tuned!

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

If you remember, a few weeks ago I made a post with the book trailer for this book and the music video for the song that the book based around. Should you need a refresher, click here.

Lucy Scarborough has a normal teenage life. She gets decent grades in school, participates on the track team, and even gets along great with her adoptive parents, Soledad and Leo. There's only one, small blemish on her otherwise impeccable life. That blemish is her crazy mother Miranda; and in this sense, she really is nuts.

Miranda Scarborough came to live with Soledad and Leo while she was scared and pregnant at 17. After having Lucy, Miranda lost her mind and left her child in their care. Most of the time Miranda stays gone, but sometimes she shows up out of nowhere screaming and causing scenes, and always singing her version of "Scarborough Fair." She made Leo, a musician and folk enthusiast, promise to teach Lucy the song and he made good on his word.

So Lucy goes about her normal teenage life until her prom night. Her former next door neighbor, and long time hunky friend Zach has recently moved in with her and her parents while on summer break from college. He enjoys watching her prepare for her prom, while feeling overly protective of her when it turns out that Soledad has invited an impromptu guest home for dinner. Padraig is alluring and mesmerizing and yet he feels off somehow. It isn't until after the unspeakable events of prom night that Lucy and Zach realizes just how off Padraig is.

Now Lucy is in a race against time. It turns out that the song was more important than she could ever have imagined. Now she must complete the 3 impossible tasks listed in the song in order to save her daughter and herself.

A wonderful novel with interesting and vibrant characters, Impossible is a fast read. Growing up with the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel made this storyline very appealing to me and once I got into the plot, it just got better. Lucy is a very likable character who really does epitomize a normal teen. Her parents are the kind that most kids drool over, very cool and accepting. Zach plays the typical "hunky guy next door that has been ignored as a potential boyfriend" but he wears it well. And Padraig is down right despicable. He is written exactly how I would expect his kind to behave. All-in-all, this was a delightful read.

Book Trailer and Song

So I'm sure you are all anticipating my thought on Nancy Werlin's Impossible. Sadly you will have to wait a little bit longer as I have a few other things on my TBR pile. I am hoping to get to it in the next week or two. Hopefully.

So in the mean time I found the book trailer for it. Enjoy!




For those of you whose parents didn't play Simon and Garfunkel for you (and I am truly sorry if they didn't) or if you've just never heard it, here is the song that is referred to in the book. Enjoy and check back soon for my thoughts on the book!