Book Review: The Hollow Sun by D.L. Wainright

I recently finished The Hollow Sun by D.L. Wainright.  It is the first installment in the Hollow Sun series, and Wainright's first novel.


TheHollowSun.com
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Disclaimer: The author is a friend of mine, and I have known about some aspects of the book over the years as they were writing it. However, my love and loyalty to my friends does not over-power my sheer book nerdiness, and therefore this revue is my honest opinion. Friends come and go, but stories are forever!!


Description from the back cover:
Lucy Kincade is used to darkness, having lost her father in an accident when she was a child. Nothing, however, has prepared her for just how dark her reality will become. The truth should be an illuminating thing; but for Lucy, the more she discovers the more the light is leeched from her world. There's the monster who smiles at her from behind a human face, the friends who had lied about what they truly are, and the allies who promise protection while hiding bloody knives behind their backs. Just when she thinks she knows what's real, she's only found another layer of secrets waiting to be unraveled.

A supernatural fantasy book that drags you in, gets you hooked, and may have you running to your library's research section.

The story is about Lucy, a goth teenager just trying to get through school and enjoy life with her friends. But things start to change and she learns that the world around her is not what is seems.  Not only do things like vampire and werewolves exist, but they are a lot closer to home than she could have imagined. As she is learning about all the supernaturals in the world, she is also learning about herself and the father she'd lost so many years ago.  And this lesson is taking her on one hell of an adventure.

Wainright's story about teen Lucy and her discovering the secrets of the people and the world around her is laced with mythology and folklore from around the world.  And unlike most popular supernatural YA fiction, this folklore isn't pulled from film, tv, or the author's own creations.  More than once I found myself looking up some of the creatures and stories referenced because I wanted to learn more about it.  And more than once I was wishing that there was a nerdy community out there to discuss ideas and theories floating in my head about Lucy and her world! Told from her perspective, the reader is taken on the same journey that Lucy is on, discovering the truth about who her friends are, her family, and who she can and cannot trust.  The characters thwart the usual teen novel character tropes, while at the same remain familiar. You may see your own friends and enemies within them. If your friends and enemies are werewolves and vampires, that is.

The book is a fairly quick read, though sometimes I found myself stopping and finding passages to re-read to clarify the details in my head.  But mostly in the same way I would in an Agatha Christie story.  It combines the usual supernatural teen fantasy elements with folklore and has the feel of a mystery novel at the same time.  Almost like the Harry Potter series, even the most banal tidbit may end up being important later on.

So, I guess it's clear that I really liked this book. Ok, more like LOVED it.  The one complaint is that the sequel isn't ready yet, and I'm pretty sure D.L. is never going to let me read any bits before it's done, knowing how I want MOAR.

I would recommend this book to: teens and young adults; anyone who likes supernatural fiction; anyone who watches Supernatural; lovers of YA novels;  parents who don't want their kids reading Twilight; people who read Twilight and want less sparkle with their vampires; people who generally want supernatural fiction YA stories with a strong female lead and fewer Hollywood tropes; anyone who has ever argued about the historical folklore behind the Dracula stories; mythology and folklore nerds (I know my people are out there!), historically accurate goths; the curious folks.

Please go read this book so that I can talk about it with people!!!! It's no fun when the only person you knows whose read it is the author!!

Also, my friend totally finished that book he's been researching and writing for a long time, and I am so excited! Mostly because it's good. It would suck if I didn't like it. But how great is it to get to fangirl your friend?

Chick Lit

What is it about chick lit? THere isn't a specific genre of writing pertaining to men, but we definitely distinguish those books by and about women. Chick lit. After reading Palahnuik's Choke I decided to let the brain mush a bit with some YA chick lit, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. I liked it. It was feel-goody teenager lit, and I could close my eyes and imagine the cute boys from the movie. I then picked up an adult chick lit book recommended by a co-worker. THere is a great difference between the YA and the adult kind. The latter is often akin to Sex and the City. My current reading is a memoir by a New York City gal who is recently divorced, Stephanie Klein's Straight Up and Dirty. It really is like Sex and the City, only FAR less annoying and no having to look at Kim Cattrall's old lady tits. Plus Klein is hysterical, especially when describing the men she dates. Carey Bradshaw's running commentary was too nice. She never would have described a man's too-small penis as a button mushroom, and then giggled at the thought later while in bed with him. I like Klein's neuroses, because I have some of them, too. I like her bluntness, her honesty, the fact that admits to most of what's wrong with her. More human than those fembots on HBO.
Every once in a while she groans on about something really stupid and fem-culture and I want to hurl. There is only so much I have in common with my gender, and only so much I can take of them. That's why I don't read too much chick lit. It would get to me. Sci-fi and fantasy I can usually take in large doses and often. But chick lit is usually the same - man troubles, shopping, dieting, how do you take your martini?, sex, shoes, men, bitching about other women. You need to space them out so you can forget what happened in the last one.
Why do we like these books, though? Whether fiction or memoir, most are the same or similar. And all are based heavily on mainstrean media and cultural stereotypes about what our culture really is like. I read these words and am amazed that this is a real woman and not fiction. I think that I learn more about the modern woman through these books. Yeah, I am a modern woman, but I've spent a lot of time estranged from my gender culturally. Not in a trans kind of way. They just tend to annoy me. Books and TV help me remember what people are usually expecting when they look at me and see the breasts.

Thus far Stright up and Dirty is good when she's being funny, and drags when she gets too philosophical. I want to sit with a pencil and annotate it (ie "This is like ex-boyfriend so-and-so") and then give it to my cousin to read and do the same. There are sections, I swear, she could have written.