Victoria Hanley

It took me a long time to get over my expectations for this story. You see, I am a firm Victoria Hanley fan. I discovered Seer and the Sword when I was a teenager, caught by Trina Schart Hyman's stunning cover. I loved Hanley's rich and romantic world. I'm not talking about love-romantic, but romantic in the sense of visionary, idealistic, and to quote the dictionary, "marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious or idealized." I love the show more way she can blend relationships and a little love-romance into her stories without it dominating the whole plot, as so many YA novels seem to do. (No, I'm not talking about Twilight. I'm talking about how the majority of YA fiction is focused on romantic relationships. It irritated me when I was a teenager and it irritates me now). Anyways.

I was soooo excited when I heard she had a new story coming out! One for tweens! But it's taking me some time to sort out how I feel about it. First, the story seemed completely different than anything she'd written or what I'd expected. It's non-stop action with minimal character development. A young fairy, Zaria, is shocked to discover there is something very unique about her. Suddenly, everything completely changes and she's battling spells she doesn't understand, enemies she can't find, and even her own friends. Her unique powers help her free the world of TirFeyne from an evil villain and she learns a startling secret at the very end. I know that's not a very good plot summary, but I don't want to spoil it.

At first, I didn't like it. It's divided into very short chapters, each one prefaced by a lengthy excerpt from a history of TirFeyne. Some of the excerpts are as long as the chapters! All the fairies have names derived from jewels and every time I thought I had figured out how their world worked, another part of it showed up. Their system of magic was based on complicated mathematical calculations (well, complicated to me!) and involved an odd and seemingly cliched trope of magical-education fantasies, those with more magic despise those without. The nasty human Zaria encounters is unbelievably horrible.

But then I thought about it a little more. And you know what? It works. It really, really does. The action grabs the reader, pulling you along until suddenly you realize "I know these characters!" Every new facet of the world is a like a marvelous surprise. The drama, the confusion, the exaggeration, it all perfectly fits the characters of the twelve-year-old fairies, suddenly encountering completely new circumstances and power they have no idea how to handle. Even the jewel names, which seem to have bugged quite a few readers, fit into Hanley's strangely beautiful world, a world both barren and vibrant. I want to know what happens next!

This book is not going to please fans of YA faerie novels. It's probably not going to work for those who want only the quasi-high fantasy adventure of Hanley's previous stories. But this book is perfect, absolutely perfect, for that in-between stage. Tweens who love romantic and thrilling fantasy but aren't ready for the more edgy YA titles will fall in love with Hanley's elaborately imagined and tensely plotted story.

Verdict: This is the absolutely flawless recommendation for the vast squadrons of little girls (and boys!) who are huge fans of Rainbow Magic but want to move on to something more challenging. Victoria Hanley has a massive and ready-made audience waiting for her newest creation; all we need to do is put it in their hands!

ISBN: 978-1606840115; Published August 2009 by Egmont; ARC received from the publisher at ALA; Purchased for the library (purchased again after it was stolen); Added to my personal wishlist show less

Zaria has finally turned fourteen, the age when all young fairies learn about their magic and receive their wands. Zaria is an extremely rare violet fairy, meaning she has a massive amount of magic reserves and power. To help Zaria learn to use her vast power responsibly, she is assigned a mentor. There is something creepy about Lily Morganite and as soon as Zaria starts working with her life starts getting complicated.

This was a really fun read. I’ve finished several really well written show more fairy stories lately, but each one has had a really different take on fairy society. Having a set amount of magic to use in a lifetime was an interesting concept. All the fairy names were either gemstones or flowers, which was creative detail I loved.

I liked Zaria right away, but all the other characters felt realistic, in fact, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like Leona. I really enjoyed the message about strong friendships that came through. It would have been easy to have friendships fall apart especially with the emphasis on who has more power. Friendship gone wrong is a common theme for teen girl stories and I was happy it didn’t go that way.

The plot was a little slow to take off, but ended up being solid and somewhat unpredictable. I wasn’t sure how it would all play out. There were lots of little twists I wasn’t expecting which is always a bonus for me.

There are lots of interesting details that are left open for another story so I’m really hoping VH writes it soon. show less

I decided to read this book in between revisions of my current young adult novel as I gave myself my typical "rest" between drafts or writing projects. It ended up being a good decision -- now that I'm finished with the book, I'm energized and excited to dive into the next draft.

Victoria Hanley's voice and expertise make this an accessible, encouraging, and enlightening read. It's down-to-earth and honest about the challenges of publishing without coming across as defeatist. And unlike some show more writing books, it feels like a two-way conversation, and not just a way for the writer to gloat about her own writing process. It also includes interviews with many young adult authors, ranging from the renowned to the more "undiscovered." While I felt that the book relied too much on "other voices" at times, overall the result is affirmation that there really are as many ways to write fiction as there are writers. While filled with sound advice, this guide leaves plenty of room for individual styles.

It covers the process of writing a young adult novel from idea generation to publication, and even gives a balanced perspective on self publishing. I vowed to do every single writing exercise in this book--even the ones I REALLY didn't want to do--and I'm glad I did. They gave me a fresh perspective on my writing style, why I like to write YA stuff, and ideas for future stories. A lot of the exercises were even therapeutic, such as a long list of questions that asked things such as, "When was the first time you learned you were being lied to?" Although not all the answers fell within my adolescent/teenage experience, it still evoked many of the complicated emotions during that time of life.

Since the book covers so much, some of it is related in rather broad strokes, but Victoria consistently provides resources for deeper exploration of the included topics. Overall, it was awesome to have a up-to-date, smart how-to book about writing for teens, even if a lot of writing advice is sound across all genres. show less

I had expected more from this book, that's why I was kind of disappointed by the outcome of the novel.The romance between our two main characters is pretty much nonexistent. Is it possible for one to fall in love 200 pages later? In fact, I would think the book would be better off without the romance element since it made the whole story unnatural. Characterization, to be honest, is sorely lacking in the seer and the sword. Vesputo (what a name!) for instance, is portrayed in such an evil show more way that he almost seemed comical. I also did not like Torina at first, being the spoiled, ungrateful brat that she is; and I still didn't like her towards the end- even if she had changed into a better person. The only slightly likable person in the novel was Landen, no matter how unlikely his feelings for Torina was.I felt the book could have done better. The setting was good and the idea was there. It only lacked proper execution and three dimensional characters.Sad to say, this is one of those book that I do not plan on reading again. show less