Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano
Series: Internment Chronicles #1
Release Date: October 1st, 2013
Goodreads: Perfect Ruin

On Internment, the floating island in the clouds where 16-year-old Morgan Stockhour lives, getting too close to the edge can lead to madness. Even though Morgan's older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. She tries her best not to mind that her life is orderly and boring, and if she ever wonders about the ground, and why it is forbidden, she takes solace in best friend Pen and her betrothed, Basil.

Then a murder, the first in a generation, rocks the city. With whispers swirling and fear on the wind, Morgan can no longer stop herself from investigating, especially when she meets Judas. He is the boy being blamed for the murder — betrothed to the victim — but Morgan is convinced of his innocence. Secrets lay at the heart of Internment, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find — or who she will lose.

A couple of years ago, Wither, DeStefano's debut novel and first installment in her The Chemical Garden trilogy, found its way onto the top of my to-be-read list. I didn't exactly like it, but I'd be lying if I said that it was because of DeStefano's writing. The woman can certainly write, but her world-building had holes everywhere, there was not much of a plot going on and the characterization didn't do much for me. So I called it quits on TCG trilogy. When Perfect Ruin first came to my attention, I had decided to pass on it as well. I can't honestly say what was it that made me give it a chance, but I'm kind of glad I didn't choose to give up on everything DeStefano writes.

Perfect Ruin is a really beautiful book when it comes to its craft. Like I said, DeStefano's prose is gorgeous, with a sort of dreamy, poetic quality that I find hard to resist. It makes her narrators compelling and profound. It was like that with Rhine and it definitely worked again with Morgan. The only difference between the two is that I actually liked Morgan and felt for her. In Wither, I never connected with Rhine. I couldn't help thinking that her problems were shallow and superficial, that her plights were over-dramatizations for the sake of creating a problem and a conflict were there was none. I also though that, in spite of everything, Rhine was pretty darn pleased with herself and looked down on all the people around her. In Perfect Ruin, with Morgan, I found her inner conflict a lot more interesting and believable, her real-life problems a lot more important and compelling. I was drawn into Morgan's life and, soon enough, I was caring about her and her problems.

There were a lot of very interesting secondary characters in this novel. I really appreciated DeStefano's effort in creating characters like Lex, Morgan's brother; Pen, her best friend; and Amy, the mysterious little girl running around Interment causing trouble. They were fascinating, complex and given their fair amount of presence in the novel. Unlike my previous taste of DeStefano, I didn't feel like the secondary characters were there for show or filler.

I was pretty satisfied with Morgan and Basil's relationship, even if not completely with Basil himself. He was a really sweet and honestly good guy, but I don't think he transcended that. He didn't jump out of the page for me and he didn't feel that fleshed out. I did like their relationship, like I said. I don't think I've read about a perfectly stable, uncomplicated, sweet and strong romantic relationship in YA in quite a while and it was a great change of pace to come across one that grew and developed without the need for dramatics. It was simple and lovely, and I really enjoyed that.

When it comes to the actual world of Internment, I can't help thinking that it was a strange mix between Skyloft in Skyward Sword (my favorite game ever) - down to the floating island thing, the winds that block the sight of the ground and push people back from the edge, the academy and the strict professor Nowlan (in SS there's one that's called Owlan), and the market -, the world of the novel Matched and the world in The Giver. I'm not taking credit away from DeStefano for the creation of her world, but they did have a lot of elements from other places, and, ultimately, I did enjoy them. I would've liked a bit more detail, but I was pleased and comfortable with it. 

I was in love with the first half of this novel, which had an atmosphere of mystery and a bit of claustrophobia. But then the second half came along, with actions a bit out of character, daring escapes and crazed royalty, and it lost me a bit. I was a bit let down by the route the book took in the final half of the story, but that is not to say it wasn't good overall; it just went from fantastic to good for me on the scale. 

All in all, I enjoyed Perfect Ruin. It is a nicely-written dystopia with an engaging, thoughtful protagonist, sweet and simple romance and a pretty nice cast of secondary characters. It's not exactly a hard-pounding, action-filled dystopia, the type we are used to in YA, but it is a really good one, one of the smartest ones I've read recently, to be honest. I look forward to seeing where else DeStefano takes this new series.

The Falconer by Elizabeth May
Release Date: UK September 26th, 2013
                          US  May 6th, 2014
Goodreads: The Falconer

Heiress. Debutant. Murderer. A new generation of heroines has arrived.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1844

Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery killed her mother.

Now it’s the 1844 winter season and Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless round of parties, tea and balls. Armed with modified percussion pistols and explosives, she sheds her aristocratic facade every night to go hunting. She’s determined to track down the faery who murdered her mother, and to destroy any who prey on humans in the city’s many dark alleyways.

But the balance between high society and her private war is a delicate one, and as the fae infiltrate the ballroom and Aileana’s father returns home, she has decisions to make. How much is she willing to lose – and just how far will Aileana go for revenge?

If you've been around Goodreads for a while, you know there's been a lot of excitement about this book for quite a while now. And why not? The author sounds lovely, she left a pretty cool pre-review of the book full of funny gifs, and, oh yeah, this is a Victorian, steampunk Scotland in which murderous faeries roam and there's this one badass chick that hunts them. What is there to not be excited about? In the end, I can say in all honesty, as someone that has had a pretty bad relationship with books about faeries, that The Falconer is probably the best faerie title I've read to date.

The Falconer delivers in its promise of action, faerie murder and a journey of revenge. It was relentless in its delivery of action and fighting scenes and the theme of revenge is carried out nicely by this imperfect, conflicted girl that is unflinching in her rage and the descent that the pursuit of vengeance is taking her life on. Aileana was a pretty strong protagonist, far beyong just being kickass. She was capable in far more than fighting, with skills that include being actually intelligent and building amazing machines and weapons. I love stories that have girls being brilliant at building things, and there was plenty of that in this book, but there was something missing from there that would make it actually believable that this 18 year-old girl was engineering all by herself machines and weapons on technology that the rest of the country is limited in. Is not that it wasn't believable because of Aileana's disposition or because she somehow managed to find time to build cannons or locomotives in a few hours squeezed between social drama and fae killing, but there wasn't enough scientific and mechanical details for me to actually believe she was building all those things. Throughout many scenes there would be not a single sentence about building anything, and then a new chapter begins and Aileana is giving the final touches to this impressive contraption with very little detail about its design, construction or production. It didn't bothered me as much as that paragraph might imply because I was still really excited about Aileana's engineering, but there was something missing and that's something I couldn't quite shake up while I read.

Other than that Aileana was a competent lead and I did like the conflicting morality to her character. As a narrator, she had a tendency to tell rather than show, but her voice is pretty engaging all the way throughout the novel.

The rest of the characters weren't exactly fleshed-out, but they were charming. Derrick was the typical cute sidekick of comic relief, and it worked. Her friend, whose name I've already forgotten, didn't make much of an appearance other than when it was necessary. but I did appreciate the lack of girl-on-girl hating that predominates in this type of books. There is a rather strange love-triangle here, but one that, surprisingly, I found myself interested in. This is not a romance-heavy novel. There is an attraction going on here that is obvious all along, but that doesn't get acted on until the very end. Still, both lower parts of the triangle perfectly exemplified Aileana's dual nature, the different sides of herself. I liked that it wasn't a love triangle in the strictest sense, with passion and love for equal parts, but rather one of the responsibility to yourself and to society. As far as Kiaran goes, our sexy, mysterious fae-killer trainer, he's the pretty standard stoic, seemingly emotionless guy with a tragic past and a vendetta, but I can't say that he bothered me in the slightest and I think his flashes of humanity were written pretty nicely, even if sometimes he was a little bit of a jerk.

In spite of all the original aspects to this novel, like the setting, the steampunk elements (though I don't believe that added much to the novel, except its necessity for the weapons), the fae-killing and the different types of faerie, the plot of this novel seems familiar. A quest for revenge, an ancient seal about to break, a lost line of warriors, a guy with a lost, tragic love that hardened him to this new girl with a connection to the old, a destiny the protagonist wasn't aware of, the fate of all humanity depending just on her while they're completely unaware that this danger even exists - this is a pretty standard plot for fantasy novels and one that The Falconer followed all the way through. That is not to say that the book is unoriginal, cliched or not entertaining, because that wouldn't be true, but there is a familiar ring to the events in the novel and the overall plot in the story. Also, the novel ends in a huge cliff-hanger, right in the middle of a scene, which bothered me a bit because I believe there are less obvious and forceful ways of making sure your readers stay around for the next book.

The Falconer was surprisingly entertaining and thrilling. It was not exactly what I expected, but I am glad with the final result and impressed of this debut novel. The folklore and the setting were done fantastically, the writing was solid and the action never lets up. I will stick around to finish this series, because, frankly, this is probably one of the best faerie books I've read, in spite of everything else.

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Release Date: August 27th, 2013
Goodreads: Two Boys Kissing

New York Times  bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS.

While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other.

Hundreds of Young Adult titles are released yearly, but how many of them are actually important? You have the ones that give you adrenaline rushes, the ones that make your insides churn with horror, the ones that make you feel all fuzzy inside, the ones that make you want to pour bleach all over your brain, and that's all great and fantastic and endlessly entertaining, but how many of them are actually important to the world, to humanity and society? How many of them carry a message that needed to be written, that is urgent that the world reads? I have absolutely no problem saying that Two Boys Kissing is one of those few books that the world really needed. So here's to you Mr Levithan.
 This novel is beautifully written, brutally honest, and incredibly insightful. What I loved most about this novel is that Levithan didn't feel the need to beautify these relationships and these characters. He didn't think it was necessary to have them all taking part in great lives with fulfilling relationships to get the point across that being gay is awesome and perfectly great. No, Levithan decided to not show that gay = great, he went for gay = human. He presented all these kids in all their confusing, painful, insecure, imperfect glory. Even in today's more tolerant culture, being gay is not easy. And aside from that, gay guys and gay couples go through the same difficulties that we do as they navigate through their feelings and relationships and self-awareness. I loved that Levithan also chose to present that within the greater problem that is our society's intolerant views towards homosexual relationships.

I was impressed by how insightful Levithan was in all of his discussions of relationships, self-discovery, and falling in and out of love. I've been in a relationship for six and a half years, and though it's been wonderful, uncertainties, doubts, the threat of monotony and the fear of what will come next always loom over long-term relationships, and Levithan captured all of those magnificently. It felt like Levithan had this really amazing understanding of the many different versions of love and the power it has on people, how it shapes and changes them and helps them grow. There is a lot of power in the relationships we form with each other, whether they are between friends, family members or lovers, each of this relationships mold us into different persons. This power is undeniable and it doesn't go ignored in this novel.
The narration in this book is perfection. The book is told by a collective consciousness of what I want to call "The Ghosts of Gays Past", all those amazing people that paved the row for the gay community of today. Their narration is painfully beautiful and brutally honest. The way these stories came together through the focal point of Craig and Harry's kiss and the voice of that consciousness was breathtakingly beautiful. Each of of these boys is different and must face different situations as they grow into their identities as gay boys and men, but the narration captures their essence and universalizes the experience of being a gay person at this point in time, when the oppression is lifting, but still very present. Every couple of pages, I had to take a break and wipe tears away because the painful reality behind this book is heartbreaking and touching. But the really weird thing about all this is that, while I cried,  I also couldn't help smiling. 
The writing might be a bit complex and ambitious, but it's appropriate for the feel of the novel. This is a novel with a message that transcends the story and the characters. This book is incredibly important precisely because of that message. It encompasses everything from self-discovery, self-awareness, and gay lifestyle, to society and love in all of its forms. This book, although admittedly sad because it does not shy away from presenting the hardships of being gay, especially those we wish to put behind us, is full of desperate hope and it injects the reader with that hope, with this vision of what the world could be. There is a slightly preachy quality about the novel, but that is because the core of the book is not the story itself but the message, one I fully support.    

In short, Two Boys Kissing is a powerful, beautiful and emotional take on what it means to be a gay person today, versus what it was before and what it still could be. This is a very short novel, and at first it might be hard to get into it, but it all quickly comes together and becomes absolutely riveting. This book needs to be read and I encourage everyone with a stake in this cause or even the slightest interest to pick it up.