Entice by Carrie Jones

The Need Series

Need, Captivate, Entice, Endure

Published: January 3rd 2011

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Website: Series website

Introduction

            Beginning right where the last book left off, Zara has become a full pixie to get to Valhalla and bring Nick back. Unfortunately, getting there is still a problem. Zara and friends have to chase down leads from unlikely sources to gather the information they need. During all this, people are still going missing in Bedford, and Zara has formed a bond with Astley, even though she loves Nick. As his queen, she also has to step-up to the responsibilities of the role.

Cover

             There are two possible covers for this book. This cover is the one I own. I think of touching between two people that creates a bond (mother/child, lovers, rulers). I think of intimacy and heightened physical sensation. It looks like she is touching her own face, and then I get a sense of loneliness, like she is longing for someone’s touch. 

This cover has a more “magical” feeling to me, and I like it the most. The blowing out of gold dust can symbolize speeches, in front of pixies, good and bad, and humans. It can also have connections to life and the concept of a soul, which comes up in this book and the last, Endure. From your mouth, lips, and breath can also bring words of love, or the opposite. In this book, I think this cover definitely relates to Zara, as she is now a pixie queen that exudes power, but not necessarily evil. She has to use her words and her strength to win her battles.

Story and Characters

            There is more plot here than in Entice. There are a lot more places that they travel to that make the story feel like an urban-fantasy, but then it switches to straight-up fantasy. The creepy factor is still gone, and I miss it.

            However, there are some touching moments in this book. Astley is developed here from many angles, and the reader gets to know him more than Nick. I was rooting for Astley to get Zara, though the way that he would risk his life to save her boyfriend is unrealistic. If you liked Astley from Captivate, read Entice.

            I really enjoyed how people are dealing with the fact that Zara has turned pixie. Not everyone is accepting of it, and Zara knows that Nick might not love her now, but she still continues on to save him. That takes guts.

            Someone’s mother is introduced. I won’t write her name or who they are a mother to, but she is amazing, because she is absolutely nuts. She is more interesting and detailed than most of the characters that were introduced in Need and onward. In Entice and Endure, she was a shining force of a character that I wanted to see more of.

Chapter Headings

            This book has social media status updates from people in Bedford/Sumner, News Reports, blog posts, and Tweets. Yes, some of these will date her book, and maybe in 30 years no one will know what a Tweet is, but unless the world goes ka-blewie, you’ll still be able to research it. People will probably always have similar forms of communication. We still know what Morse code is, or post cards, smoke signals, or floriography is because we have records of it and can research it. I enjoyed these chapter headings, though they didn’t add much to the book. I liked reading about what other people in Bedford/Sumner were thinking during this time, especially because the characters weren’t solely focused on saving everyone.

Character Deaths

            Some established characters die in this book. I’m alright with that; mildly sad about it, but ultimately ok. I was more moved by the reactions of the remaining characters. Some people (on the playground that is the internet) do not like that these characters died.

Did you know that people do, in fact, die? This is real life that I’m talking about. If a work of fiction is to emulate real life, it is reasonable that characters will die. Characters that you like are totally capable of dying, just like in real life. It isn’t only un-liked characters or people that die.

In fiction, characters die for plot, to get emotional reactions from the readers, or both.   

Gripes

            The anti-iron pills are very convenient. Too convenient. No one else had these in the last books? What about the pixies that drove and took the bus and were in the school surrounded by computers and cell phones and everything else that is metal?

            Saving Nick is too much of a focus for the group at this point. How many people have gone missing because of the evil pixies? And no one goes to look for them. Why?! In Need, it was imperative that the pixies be stopped and the kids saved, if they weren’t dead already. It’s unrealistic that they don’t focus more on saving the people of Bedford.

            There are a lot of descriptions, in Entice and Captivate, of people sucking in their lips and pressing their lips together. That is terribly repetitive. Also, people are constantly touching one another in this series. Constant hugging, hip bumping, rubbing, and elbowing abound. This isn’t a family-friendly television show from the 90s; no one touches their friends that much.

Final Verdict

            The third installment of the Need series is far better than the second installment, and this book gets plot done. They travel, solve mysteries, get into danger, overcome danger, and the plot thickens for the third book, Endure. During this, relationships build up and break down. The creepy atmosphere is still absent, becoming an urban-fantasy and fantasy book. If a reader liked the previous two books, then I advise that no one skip this book. This final book sets the stage for Entice, the finale.    

Captivate by Carrie Jones

The Need Series

Need, Captivate, Entice, Endure

Published: January 5th 2010
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Website: Series website

Introduction

            Zara and her friends have successfully kept the pixies of Bedford in their house in the woods, keeping them from killing more boys. Zara knows that a better solution is needed, but her problem solving is cut short when a new group of pixies move in to seize the territory. She meets a new pixie who could possibly be the shining example of a good pixie, unless it is all an act. When she loses Nick and has to get him back, she will have to trust the new pixie and change herself.

Plot

Plot spoilers – read at your own risk!

            The plot here is rather small – Nick dies in the beginning of the novel, and Zara needs to get him back from Valhalla to protect Bedford from a new group of evil pixies. They have to do some internet research to figure out how to do this. To accomplish all this, Zara has to make a choice and that leads to big changes, and that’s it. The end of the book is the big change, so you have to read the next installment to get the consequences and benefits.

Cover

            The gold on the eyes and the gold tear can be interpreted as deceit and trust. There is always the threat of deceit from many sides in this book. Trust in this book and the rest of the series plays a significant role. Closing your eyes and trusting/relying on others to not deceive you is a recurrent theme in this series.

Chapter Headings

            While the first book has phobia info, Captivate has Pixie Tips, and I quite like them. Two of my favourites are:

            “Pixies can be annoyingly cryptic. Don’t talk to them. They’ll confuse you and laugh about it later like movie villains and physics teachers.”

            “Hero: you might want to be a hero if and when you and your friends are attacked by pixies. Remember, though, that heroes often die.”

Norse Mythology

More plot spoilers -- read at your own risk!

            A huge problem I have with this is the mythology. Valkyries collect souls, not bodies. Nick should not have been physically picked up and taken to Valhalla. His body should have remained, and if Zara acted quickly enough, she would have to theoretically return his soul to his body before it decomposes. Granted, when mythology is used in fiction, it has to be bent to suit the author’s needs, but it doesn’t mean that I have to like it. 

I didn’t particularly like where the new book went with the Norse mythology theme, and that says a lot from me because I adore Norse mythology.

With this series, I also think about what I consider the downfall of True Blood: too many “beings” were introduced into the world (demons, fae, vampires, weres, shifters, etc). I think the story would have been much stronger if it left out the Norse themes and just kept with the weres and pixies and another being that you meet in Captivate. Why does it need Valkyries and Ragnarok? Plus, Zara acts confused most of the time. If you know you are dealing with Norse gods, and you and your team have done the research, why would you refer to Odin, the All Father, as the “head god guy”? You’d have the vocabulary to have a discussion about this.

Zara

            I’ve seen that people dislike how she reacts to Nick’s death – that it consumed her. I wonder where the empathy is in this situation. Everyone grieves differently. I know that I would be torn apart if my partner died, and if I found out that I might be able to get him back, I too would be totally consumed in the effort. However, I have to point out that they have only been dating a few weeks, not months or years. Then again, first love.

Nick Vs. Astley

Astley.

I’ll elaborate.

Do you know what Nick is? A young man with muscles who  knows how to use them. He’s not all about protection; he’s about killing too, when he has to. But he has no qualms about being merciless (and I will further rant about this in the later two books). 

According to Zara, his lack of likable personality traits doesn’t matter because he is the best guy EVAAAAR.

            Seriously though, Nick is a bit bossy for me to stay emotionally invested in. Zara and Nick constantly go back and forth about not going anywhere alone, and they both do it anyway, they both fight about it, and it gets old. Nick calls Zara “baby” all the time and that irks me to no end (and that’s not just the feminist in me either; it even sounds stupid, so get a better term of endearment).

   

Final Verdict

            I greatly prefer the first one over this one, but Astley is a great character that carries the series forward and makes me want to read the next two books. This book lost the creepy atmosphere that the first one had, and it is sorely missed. The story of this book feels like filler for why the next two happen, and it isn’t that thrilling. The next two books have much more in terms of plot, so if a teen enjoys Norse mythology, I recommend reading this book to get to the next two.  

Need by Carrie Jones

The Need Series

Need, Captivate, Entice, Endure

Published: December 23rd 2008
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Website: Series website

This book is one of the books that I have re-read many times since I first read it; I have read Need so many times it is only second to my re-readings of Pullman’s The Golden Compass. It was my first distinctly YA book that I had ever read, and from that moment on, I knew that I wanted to work with teens in a library. Although my aims have changed slightly since then, Need is a book that propelled me in a direction that I greatly enjoyed.

Like The Replacement, this is another book that I adore and I happened to see the pile of negative reviews on Goodreads. Instead of minding my own business and getting the cover image and leaving, I read some of the overwhelmingly negative reviews. One day I’ll learn, but in this review, I’ll address some of the issues that readers have that I disagree with. But what I see a lot of is people comparing her to Meyer and claiming Meyer is better (lol cute), or compare her to Stephen King (that's not even fair), or they say she was riding the coat tails of the Twilight epidemic and ripped Twilight off (and they write this as though Twilight is the most original and worship-worthy literature ever written).

Introduction

            After misfortune befalls Zara White, her mother sends her to Maine to live with her grandmother Betty. Zara has to deal with the usual problems of being the new kid in town, and she realizes the guy that was stalking her in her old city is now stalking her in Maine. This isn’t just any stalker; he leaves gold dust behind in the snow, and he calls her into the woods to get her lost. During all this, boys are going missing from the town. Zara is pulled into the world of the paranormal, and she has to uncover what she has to do with the pixies to stop the threat.

Atmosphere

            Need is set in a familiar high school setting and in the creepy, snow covered woods that has dangerous predators lurking behind the trees. It is snowing unusually early, giving the reader the impression that even nature is working against them. The aspect of the “boys” (young men, actually) going missing, and the revelation of their fates is particularly chilling, and I always enjoy a darker tale.

Writing

While I did find the dialogue and the writing a bit forced, I find Need to carry a more believable voice than other YA books (like Green's The Fault in Our Stars). Sure, Zara complains about the cold weather so much that Canada would like a word with her, and she says “freaking” a-freaking-lot. But she’s believable to me. You might not like her, and that’s completely different than being poorly written.

Zara

The protagonist is a nonaggressive pacifist. She is involved with Amnesty International and writes letters urging government leaders to release political prisoners and bring justice to all. YA lit is littered with protagonists that have no personality. Some say she's too perfect. Some say too flawed. Overwritten, underwritten. While she might not be everyone’s cup of tea, she has a personality that actually stands out above the Bella Swans of YA literature.

There are some beautiful descriptive moments of Zara with the man she calls her father. He definitely shaped her to be a progressive and protective young lady, but not in a way that was forceful. They shared interests like running and Amnesty International. Though he has passed away before the novel begins, his presence is recurrent in the rest of the series.

Cover

            I’ll talk about the covers because a common gripe is about the covers to this series. Need’s cover has the trees running up the girl’s neck and she has gold lips. Without trying to spoil too much, the act of kissing is more than “sucking face”. It is a change and something to be feared. The man who stalks Zara leaves behind gold dust. The danger in the novel is in the woods. The cover is what originally interested me enough to pick up the hardcover book and read the blurb. Not sure why people like to exclaim that the cover is meaningless.                     

Gripes

I'm not sure how they managed to "research" the pixies using Google, and I had that problem with Lost in Starlight, too. In this instance, I know they have to get their info from somewhere.

Beginning

There are lots of books/films/animes/videogames that start with the protagonist moving to a new area, being out of place, and hating it. If you can only throw out Twilight as a comparison, saying that Jones is ripping off Meyer, I'm going to say that you are not as well read as you like to think. It was done before Meyer. It is a trope that will always be used. It's ingrained in our storytelling because it is a situation that nearly everyone has, or will have, been through.   

Incest

            I’ve read some people have an issue with the “issue” of incest in this book, most from people who admit that they did not finish the book (DNFers). There actually isn’t any incest in this book, and the book even points it out. If you are going to write a scathing review of a book and include this kind of issue, you should at least flip ahead to see if it actually happens.

Ending and How Characters Change

Mild spoilers ahead!

I appreciate the ending because it does go against her beliefs. She knows there wasn't another option at the time. She had to make a decision and she did. Did you know that people change in real life? In fact, in books we call this a character arc. Zara changes even more in the next books.

For the people who say that they will not read the rest of the books because they don’t think Zara would have allowed the ending to happen, I say to stick with Twilight and characters that don’t grow.

Final Verdict

            If a library would like to infuse more paranormal adventures into their YA collection, give Need the space. It sports a character with a personality and who changes during the course of the book, a spooky atmosphere, and imaginative baddies. There are four books in the series, but this book acts like a stand-alone novel. I highly recommend it to readers who like the paranormal (with a stock that includes pixies and weres) and teen romance.

If I Stay By Gayle Forman

If I Stay Series
If I Stay, Where She Went

Published: April 6th 2010
Publisher: Turtleback Books
Website: Author’s Website

Introduction

Mia and her family are driving into town on a snow day when they are involved in a collision. Disembodied, Mia watches paramedics and nurses try to keep her alive. The remains of her life gather—her grandparents, best friend, and boyfriend—to see if she will awaken from her coma. The choice is hers to make, and she remembers her life, thinks about her future, and the ones who have already left.

Cover Blurb

“Will appeal to fans of Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT.” – USA Today. Whoa there, USA Today. Not that I ever took you seriously, but you just lumped together a paranormal romance about vampires with a tragedy novel about a girl in a coma. Unless you’re making the connection that this book is a fad that will come and go (which I agree with), you are totally wrong.

Story

I’ve read that some people expected this book to have more paranormal aspects. Admittedly, I thought it was going to be a little bit more about her as a ghost, and the book is far from that. It’s not a paranormal story about the afterlife; it’s a character driven drama told mostly in flashbacks. I did like how the afterlife isn’t explained, because the book isn’t about it. It’s about her choice. There are no answers about the afterlife given to the reader, and to me, that was great because it would have been too much. The book has more than one concept of “staying”, and I enjoyed thinking about what her decision should be, knowing that it would be a tough one.

This book is not plot driven—it’s character driven, so it is more on the literary side. Some people find it slow, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just different from books like Divergent, where the pacing is faster and has large plot points.

Characters

The protagonist has a nearly perfect life that revolves around music. She has a boyfriend, Adam, who I didn’t like or dislike, and he is a rising star in the music scene too. Her parents are old rockers, and even her little brother plays drums.

The story is music-centric, and it mostly plays like a 90s after-school show (this burns away with the reality of the collision). Her free-thinking parents are basically fantasies from every teen. They aren’t perfect, but I’m saying this as an adult. As a teen, I would have been taken aback and wishing that my parents were that cool. As an adult, I know that her parents are actually far from perfect and therefore they are actually realistic.

Gripe

My only gripe is a commonly mentioned mar on this book: Mia slides a bow across her boyfriend’s body as foreplay. This wouldn’t occur in any serious fashion, ever. It brings the love of music into a weird fetish territory, as the reader is told that Mia sees the cello as a person. I’m certain that Hannibal Lector could walk in and take it from there (and the book would be a million times better, no hyperbole). Whatever floats your boat, but I can’t take that scene seriously.

As an aside, I’m going to discuss the following:

Obligatory One Star Reviews       

1.       Sex in YA gets one star.

It’s fine if you have your own views on morality. It’s fine if you, a reader, want to wait for marriage. But don’t force your opinions on someone else, or on a book. Don’t expect books to follow your moral code because it isn’t your personal codex. The book doesn’t follow your moral code so you have to give it one star in reviews? Grow up.

2.       Only God can make the choice.

A review also can’t tell me, regardless of my own religious views, that only God can make the decision about whether she lives or dies. Giving a one star review because a book doesn’t follow your religious code is also ridiculous. You can see from the back of the book, or the introduction, that this book is about her making the choice. Read the ingredient list before you eat a box of chocolate chip cookies and complain that it has chocolate chips.       

Film

The film is in theaters now. It's one of those movies that I'll wait to see at home. The trailers that I have seen on T.V. didn't showcase the music aspect of the film, which is both a shame to the book and misleading to potential movie-goers. Chloë Grace Moretz will always be Hit-Girl to me, though it's fantastic that she is getting more roles on big projects. If you haven't seen the trailers, here's one that I liked: 

  

Final Verdict 

I’m not sure why, but I want to read Where She Went because I want to close the loop, so the book was successful—I care enough that I want to know what happened after. I recommend this to people who are comfortable with a non-linear story. It is a quick read that made me sad without making me cry. It is another over-hyped tragedy novel, but I can’t complain or find much fault in the book itself. This book can generate a discussion at a teen book club about what the readers think she should do, if she should stay and on what levels.