Mundie Moms

Monday, August 8, 2011

Vote for Jace in the YA Crush Tournament

I voted for Jace! Have you?

YA-Sisterhood is at it again! It's the final rounds in the YA Crush Tournament & this time Jace is teamed up with another favorite literally character, Ash from Julie Kagawa's The Iron Fey series. If you guys are like me, you might find yourself a little torn on who you vote for. I do love Ash, but Jace will always have my vote. :D

PLUS, if (when) Jace wins Cassie will release an outtake from City of Lost Souls and the Manor House scene from City of Glass (Jace and Clary outside the Wayland Manor in Chapter Nine) from Jace's perspective.

Head on over to HERE & vote! Don't forget to add #teamJace to your tweets!


Book Review- Where Things Come Back

By John Corey Whaley
Published by Atheneum
Released on May 3, 2011
Source: Publisher

Synopsis (From Simon & Schuster): Just when seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter thinks he understands everything about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town, it all disappears. . . .

In the summer before Cullen's senior year, a nominally-depressed birdwatcher named John Barling thinks he spots a species of woodpecker thought to be extinct since the 1940s in Lily, Arkansas. His rediscovery of the so-called Lazarus Woodpecker sparks a flurry of press and woodpecker-mania. Soon all the kids are getting woodpecker haircuts and everyone's eating "Lazarus burgers." But as absurd as the town's carnival atmosphere has become, nothing is more startling than the realization that Cullen’s sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother Gabriel has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared.
While Cullen navigates his way through a summer of finding and losing love, holding his fragile family together, and muddling his way into adulthood, a young missionary in Africa, who has lost his faith, is searching for any semblance of meaning wherever he can find it. As distant as the two stories seem at the start, they are thoughtfully woven ever closer together and through masterful plotting, brought face to face in a surprising and harrowing climax.
Complex but truly extraordinary, tinged with melancholy and regret, comedy and absurdity, this novel finds wonder in the ordinary and emerges as ultimately hopeful.

This is one of those books that I unfortunately judged by its cover, now I know that the cover might appeal to some people but it didn't appeal to me. To me it was a little bit plain and it really didn't attract me to the book or made me want to read it, but I had heard from a couple of people that the book was actually really good and they were definitely right, it was such a great unputdownable read that this review will not do it justice.

From the very beginning Where Things Come Back surprises you with Cullen's voice, it was smart, snarky and very much like a teenage boy sounds, very realistic in my opinion and I loved his mind, it was a weird but a fascinating journey being inside it. Pretty soon into the book you find out that Cullen has a wild imagination. He would all of a sudden just start wondering and thinking random scenarios, and you're not really sure at the beginning if it's really happening or he's imagining this things but since they are pretty crazy you begin to tell apart what's real and what's not. It might sound confusing but it's not, you get used to Cullen's wild and crazy thoughts and you end up liking them, because you get to know him and understand him a lot better. Now Cullen is not the only narrator in the story we also get a few snippets of different stories and lives from a couple of other characters who are in totally different places, they don't seem to be related in any way but you somehow know that there's a reason their stories are being told in the book. The book focuses on Cullen and his life mostly, but you can sense that there's going to be a connection between him and the rest of these characters that are also very intriguing and will keep you curious to find out more about them.


I ended up loving Where Things Come Back, the writing was great, the characters were interesting and different, the plot was fascinating and I was able to very easily connect with Cullen, feel his pain and frustration about the town overlooking his brother's disappearance. Even though I did get frustrated with the town about its obsession with this bird, it was also at times funny and sad on how serious they took it, how they saw it as a chance for them to shine with all of these tourists that kept coming. Where Things Come Back has quite a few unexpected and shocking twists thrown at you throughout the novel that you don't even really care that there's not much romance in the story, you just wan to know how it's all going to end. It was a novel about family love and bonds, friendships that may last forever, hope and getting second chances. I highly recommend it and I'm hoping that a lot of people won't overlook this one.

Mundane Monday #96

JacexClary by kazlet
   "What?" he said. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
   She wanted to throw herself into his arms and sob at the exact same time that she wanted to pound on him with her fists. Instead, she said, "If it weren't for what happened in the faerie court, Simon would still be alive."
   He reached down and savagely yanked a hunk of grass out of the ground. Dirt still clung to the roots. He tossed it aside. "We were forced to do what we did. It's not as if we did it for fun, or to hurt him. Besides," he said, with the ghost of a smile, "You're my sister."
   "Don't say it like that--"
   "What 'sister'?" He shook his head. "When I was a little kid, I realized that if you say any word over and over fast enough, it loses all its meaning. I'd like awake sahying the words over and over to myself--'sugar,' 'mirror,' 'whisper,' 'dark.' 'Sister,'" he said, softly. "You're my sister."
   "It doesn't mater how may tumes you say it. It'll still be true."
   "And it doesn't matter what you won't let me say, that'll still be true too."
-- page 200, chapter 10: A Fine and Private Place, City of Ashes

What a special Mundane Monday because if Jace wins this round of the YA Crush Tourney over at The YA Sisterhood, Cassie's promised us the Manor Collapse scene from City of Glass but from Jace's point-of-view and Cassie promises it is "spicy". Also, she'll post an outtake from City of Lost Souls.

With that at stake, MMs, you know what to do...go VOTE FOR JACE. If you're on twitter and are tweeting reminders, please use the hashtag #teamjace.

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