Adam Stemple

This review is also available on my blog, Read Till Dawn.

Honestly, just look at that cover. Does this look like a good book to you? Snail's leggings are truly hideous, and Aspen . . . well, he kind of looks like a girl. Which is kind of ironic, thinking after having read the second book.

Yeah, I've already read the second book as well. Because while The Hostage Prince looks very mediocre from the cover, it's actually really, really good. My mother, who also read it, was willing to make a show more special library run the day the second book (The Last Changeling) came in, even though she'd been running around all day doing errands, just because she wanted to read it so badly. She finished it that same night.

The thing about the Seelie Wars books is that they don't pull any punches - sometimes literally. As middle grade fiction goes, this series is surprisingly dark and full of violence (a lot of it implied, but some deaths actually shown). This makes the tale that much more gripping for the main characters, and makes me love them that much more for not being like the people (er, creatures) around them. Because they live in a world of ruthlessness, where any sign of mercy or sympathy is treated like a deadly crime, their own behavior becomes that much more endearing. I love the way that they begin the book behaving the way most people of their respective classes would to each other (the prince completely in charge, Snail completely submissive), but then the wall between them breaks farther and farther down as the story progresses. There just reaches a point when you're in danger and it's more important to grab someone's hand and drag them away than it is to ask their permission for touching them, you know?

Snail makes for a great main character, because she's not a huge rebel. Honestly, I'm sick of stories about girls raised in servitude who spend all of their time revolting. Snail is the low of the low, and she knows it. She understands her own position of weakness, and while she may get a little bitter from time to time (when the nobility get especially capricious), and she never loses her own self-respect, most of the time she just goes along with however things are going. She begins to gradually lose this mindset of needing to "keep her place" as the story goes on and she develops a friendship with Aspen.

Speaking of the prince, he's not always the brightest bulb. But then again, I think that goes along with his upbringing. He's basically just meant to be a placeholder to keep war from breaking out between two kingdoms; there's really nothing he can be expected to actually do with his life besides that, so he hasn't exactly gotten a lot of stimulating training or anything. I love him a lot, though, especially as the book goes on and he begins to discover things about himself and how the world works that he had never even considered before (for example: just because someone isn't born into royalty, doesn't mean he or she is good for nothing more than cleaning up after you - she might actually make a great friend, too).

So yeah, I'm a huge new fan of the Seelie Wars series (and of Jane Yolen's!), and I can't wait to read the third book. Keep an eye out for my review of book two, The Last Changeling, in the next couple of weeks! show less

I got both of Yolen/Stemple's "Rock and Roll Fairy Tale" books (the other is Pay the Piper) for $1 each, and was super excited because the concept and titles hooked me.  Though I have yet to read Pay the Piper, Troll Bridge was a little disappointing.  I mean, it was cute enough, and a quick read for sure, but it was just...shallow in the telling. It never really grabbed me enough to make me need to keep reading.

I'm not entirely sure where the fault lies.  Part of it, I think, is that show more it's definitely more middle grade, and I wasn't expecting that, and I don't know that my brain ever fully shifted over and altered expectations.  I kept thinking that it would have been nice to have more development and depth, but that's partly because I was coming at it thinking it was aimed for an older audience.  I think, too, that the musical elements, and the sort of poprock poetry/songs ala what I assume the Jonas Brothers write (and lord help me if my little sister ever reads this), felt forced at times, and where on occasion they were cute and bolstered the story, at other times, they just seemed unnecessary and a little silly.  It's hard, because it's a part of the story, and it's really a crucial part at that, but it just didn't always feel natural.  Part of me wonders if this was due to the attempted blending of Yolen's writing and Stemple's (her son).  Books with multiple authors are writing a book and trying to make their combined writing seamless seem to struggle to me.  (At least where each author isn't writing their own segments from a set POV.  The blending just never seems to work for me.)

But I did like Moira, who was a fun, plucky heroine, and I liked the brothers, and the predicaments they found themselves in.  The fairy tale elements - both the tales that were woven in and the typical tropes found in fairy tales - were used in a fun way, and I don't consider the book a waste of my time.  I was more ambivalent in the beginning, which was slightly rocky for me (but again, as I said, this could be due to the fact that I was expecting a YA read, not a MG); but as it went along and they found themselves deeper in the world of Trollholm, it became more readable and fun, and the ending, though a bit abrupt, was enjoyable.
All in all, it was a quick, fun and silly read, though flawed and not entirely memorable. show less

This one started really well, and turned into a disappointing mess at the end. It blends scottish culture with a knowledge of music and manipulated fairy folk. The problem is the ending - what the heck was the author thinking? The ending was either a very rushed mess or very subtle foreshadowing for the sequal.

Fun take on a Jewish legend that honestly appraises the both upsides and downsides of having a strong but unsophisticated golem as your bodyguard. The kids in this are recognizable and mostly appealing (well, except for the bullies). The adults I have more issues with, especially the principal, who claims to know everything that's going on at school but does little to stop it from happening until he himself almost gets slugged. The end seems a bit pat but does provide a life-affirming show more message and some hope that the school will be a better place in future. show less