Musing Mondays 6/17/13

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week… Hosted by Should Be Reading.

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I am about to commit a cardinal library sin. I am about to knowingly keep a book over its due date. Why? Because it is The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett, it’s due today, and I’m not done with it. Worse, I can’t renew it because the book is brand spanking new and other people have it on reserve. No renewals possible on a book other people are requesting. (whimper) Don’t hate me! I’ll return it tomorrow and give you the ten cents. But, I waited to read The Nightmare Affair until last and now I’m racing to finish it. I don’t think I can do it before tonight. There is a little thing called work in my way. (Dang it!) (hides face in shame)

Has anyone else had to do this before? Have you ever just needed one more night on a book you couldn’t renew and just pretended to forget so you could keep it? I’m going to book hell, I just know it! The only book there will be War and Peace in the original Russian…

I spent a lazy Saturday catching up on some writing projects and doing a bit of cleaning. I’m having a party next weekend and I’m trying to space out the things I need to do to get ready so I’m not rushing around like a chicken with my head cut off come Saturday morning. Then I spent all of Sunday over at the parents’ house for Father’s Day, praising the crotchety old bastard. My brother and I got a bit more done on cleaning out the basement and then he grilled some pork steaks while I made a mountain of mashed potatoes. (Then I got to listen to my Dad’s disapproval over my washing machine acting up. He seems to think that something completely out of my control is a reflection of how well I can manage my life. He did the same thing when the brakes on my car were squeaking. I love my family, really I do.)

So, how was everyone else’s weekend?

Musing Mondays 6/10/13

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week… Hosted by Should Be Reading.

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I got up early enough this morning that I had time to grab a coffee from Starbucks. (sips) An okay start to a Monday morning, all things considered. Pagan Picnic was this past weekend in Tower Grove Park in Saint Louis. I did manage to do some shopping at Dunaway Books off of South Grand and have lunch at MoKaBe’s Coffeeshop. You can expect some pics and a bookstore feature post for Dunaway Books later this week. Then I spent several hours at the picnic, ate a bunch of festival food, listened to some bands, attended some talks, saw a lot of people I only see once or twice a year, and went home exhausted. Then I took my friend Krystal and her two kids on Sunday. We lasted about three hours before the kids started complaining and rain threatened. It was a good weekend. I talked myself out of buying a rather expensive altar table piece and now I’m bummed. I would have been broke until I next get paid but it would have been worth it.

But, spending the whole weekend out and about means that I got zero reading done. This means I need to cram three books into this week to keep up my pace. I’ve gotten lazy again. I need to write my review of Summerkin by Sarah Prineas and then finish reading Demon Eyes by Scott Tracey. I haven’t even broken the 100 page mark in Demon Eyes. Then I have The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett and Aunt Dimity and the Lost Prince by Nancy Atherton waiting for me. (There is apparently a whole series of Aunt Dimity mystery books. The one I have checked out from the library is # 18. Have you ever came into a long established series near the middle or end? Were you confused? Did you feel as if you were missing something by not reading the earlier books? Does it just bother you for some unknown reason or do you not care where you start a series?) I need to get reading. There are so few hours in the day!

Also, I’m still looking for guest posters for my blog’s second anniversary celebration on the week of July 14th through July 20th. If you are a book blogger and want to write a guest post to be featured on Lady with Books, then email me at ladywithbooks@yahoo.com and we’ll discuss it. During the week I will be having several books reviews, small giveaways, book related games, and then a large mystery box prize at the end of the week. If anyone has a suggestion for popular books coming out around that time, then please mention them in the comments.

Now, to finish my coffee and get working.

Musing Mondays 5/13/13

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week. Hosted by Should Be Reading.

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I feel like I should get a prize or something. Maybe a gold star next to my name? I have finished the biggest, nastiest book I can remember ever reading (that wasn’t a school text book).Last week I was lamenting the size of Game by Barry Lyga, sequel to I Hunt Killers. At over 500 pages, I despaired of finishing it. I thought Game would lag and fail to hold my attention. I was wrong. Wow, was I wrong. I couldn’t put it down. I finished in three days and that’s just because I had to stop and do actual work while at work. (shakes fist) I’m pretty sure Game is the largest fiction book I’ve ever read. It still had some problems but, overall, it was really good. I’ll have a full review up on…oh… let’s say Wednesday.

I just started reading Orleans by Sherri L. Smith. I was tootling around the library and recognized the cover from a few other reviews. (Pretty cover. Sparkly.) I took a chance. I like the beginning, where the timeline and news articles give us a brief idea of what’s going on. I thought that was clever. Then we got into the meat of the story and I ran into the wall of the protagonist’s speech pattern. (whimper) It’s first person POV, which isn’t my favorite, and then Fen has the stereotypical (and in my opinion, cartoonish) deep bayou speech pattern that threw me so far that I landed on a different world.

I can understand the reasoning behind using it but I can’t understand why the author thought it would be a good idea. It’s like Smith wrote Orleans correctly the first time and then went back and just threw around a bunch of ‘be’ and ‘they’ and whatever it took to kill proper grammar. It does not help that I can’t get the picture of Fen as a little old black lady, smacking her toothless gums, out of my head because of it. Nothing drives me crazier than improper grammar. Smith must have driven her editor nuts. It makes reading the book jerky because my mind stumbles over it, thinking “that’s not right”. Very hard to read a book like that. It would have been just fine if just the dialogue was like that but the whole book it just too much.

I have to gush for a moment. I saw Iron Man 3 on Saturday! (Lights the candles on her Robert Downey Jr. shrine.) [Not really. I’m not that nuts.] {Well, not quite.} (Yet.) I’m obsessed with the Marvel movies and with Iron Man in particular, so I loved it. At the same time, (sobs) what the HELL did you people do!? The Mandarin!? (cries) Extremis!? (moans) That bloody ending! (dying whale sound) [SPOILER] If Tony could just have the shrapnel and arc reactor surgically removed, then why didn’t he do that back in Iron Man 2 when he was freaking dying!? Or are we supposed to take that to mean Tony injected himself with Extremis and would now survive the surgery when he wouldn’t have before? Why would you leave us so confused!? I mean, I know Mr. Downey isn’t signed up for Iron Man 4 (if there is one at all) and you have to work around that and that Marvel is having problems locking him down for Avengers 2 (You go, Robert!) but did you have to leave it so open ended? I think I’m having a nervous breakdown…

I need a bloody drink. I cannot deal with this.

Musing Mondays 4/29/13

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga was one of my favorite books last year. So I was super excited when Barry announced the sequel, Game, was to be released April 16th,2013. I had my reserve in at my library since the beginning of April. I went to pick my copy up at my library on Friday night. At first I thought the book I was given was not the right one. It was the Game cover wrapped around, oh I don’t know, some brick. This thing is 528 pages long. It is both book and murder weapon. Just hurl at your opponent’s head and their skulls will be crushed!

Barry, Barry, Barry! My man, what are you thinking? This is young adult, not the Odyssey.  Books should be 300 to 400 pages long. Even just 400 pages seem to drag in most books. The quality of books that long is rarely equal to the effort needed to read it. But I’ll try, Barry. I really will. I Hunt Killers was just that great that I’ll make the effort to read Game. But, Barry, it better be the best book I’ve read this year or I’ll be very disappointed.

Has anyone else seen this? Where the second book in a series is so much bigger than the first? I know the Harry Potter series ballooned once it started getting so popular and Rowling went pretty nuts by the end, length wise. Any other series that just keep getting longer and longer? Let’s see how long it takes me to read a 500 page book!

 

Musing Mondays 4/22/13

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

Happy Earth Day, everybody!  I hope everyone has their little seedlings to plant. I get to run out to the store and get more potting soil this evening since I ran out yesterday right in the middle of my planting spree. Five marigolds, two parsley, two basil, and one rosemary plant survived to planting age and have been transferred into proper pots. I didn’t have enough soil left to get my morning glory seeds planted. Next I need to get some flowers for my hanging baskets. I need to be careful because I’m on a budget and going over means big trouble in May. Ouchie!

Anyway, made a library trip last week and came home with another stack of books. Finished The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielson and The False Princess by Eilis O’Neal and started Small Medium at Large by Joanne Levy. So, expect a review for Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter tomorrow and a review for The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielson on Wednesday. (I’ll continue to post two reviews a week for as long as I can keep up the pace. So, fingers crossed.)

My bookish plans for this week are to do a cleanup of my Goodreads to be read shelf. There are books on there I added over two years ago and I really have no interest in reading them anymore. (I wonder if I can keep them on a secondary list without having them in the three primary lists? Like, I could keep a book listed under LBGT without it also being listed under read, to be read, or currently reading? Can I do that?) [Answer: BIG FAT NO!]

I’m still waiting for my tax refunds to be dropped into my checking account. At that point, I need to renew my car insurance. Whatever is left will be split between the savings account and maybe a couple of bucks for a night on the town. Sorry, no plans for a book buying spree. I might head down to the garden district in the city and hit a few of the bookstores I wanted to feature down there. A spiritual group meets once a month at MoKoBe’s Coffeehouse on the corner of Tower Grove Park. Dunn Books is right next to there. I might kill two birds with one stone.

Did anybody do anything for Earth Day this past weekend?

Musing Mondays 4/15/13

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

It’s Monday. It’s raining. And it is tax day. I can’t think of a more yucky combination to ruin a day. I should have stayed in bed.

My reading habits…

I can read, on average, 150 to 200 pages a day provided I use all my spare time to read. That’s on weekdays when I’m at work and can spend my lunch hour and the two hours I spend answering phones reading. Even then, I don’t get much reading done when I’m answering phones because, well, I have to stop and answer the phone when it rings. Very annoying. Very irritating. And probably the reason I might one day quit this job. I hate phones. But enough about that. On weekends I can read up to 300 pages. So, I can read a 300 to 350 page book in two days. Books closer to 400 pages take three days. And books with 400 pages are pretty much my limit. My attention span doesn’t last any longer than that and if the book is longer than 400 pages it’s usually because the plot wanders or the events are just too slow. Most Young Adult and Middle Grade books land in the mid to high 300’s and that plenty long in my opinion.

I’m a fidgety reader. I have to get up and walk around. I pause and put down the book to do something else a lot. I have the attention span of a gnat and I get restless. I bore easily. I probably wouldn’t finish a book if I also weren’t so stubborn. It takes focus to read a book in two days. If I don’t force myself to read as much as I can then it can take me weeks to finish a book. It’s happened. I just lose the drive and then I hardly read at all. I must have like ADD or something. I like to read. I love to read. But sometimes reading takes work and I just don’t have the drive. I snub the book in favor of cleaning or fiddling with a project or just wandering around the neighborhood because I can’t stay still. It’s like I’m trying to crawl out of my skin!

Anybody else like that? Is anybody else a fidgety reader or have times when you just lose the drive to read even though the book you’re reading is fine. I feel like such a scatter brain! Tell me I’m not alone!

Musing Mondays 4/1/13

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
 
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I finished in the last few days Merry Lee and the Cursed Grandfather Clock by Amanda L. Kidd (Middle Grade) and The Secret Tunnel by James Lear (Gay Erotica). You can expect reviews up on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. Merry Lee and the Cursed Grandfather Clock was a book I got as a Kindle freebie and it’s a bit of a mess but was an otherwise fun read. The Secret Tunnel was not a good as its predecessor, The Back Passage, but it was still hot and hilarious. I plan to read all of James Lear’s books, so expect to be seeing A Sticky End, the third and so far last Mitch Mitchell Mystery, up on here soon. I’m just a couple pages into The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah Wilson (Middle Grade). So far it’s okay.

My Reading Habits

Honestly, I do most of my reading at work. I know, I know. Why am I not working at working? Well, I spend two hours answering the stupid phone and this is so mind numbingly boring that if I didn’t read I think I might slip into a coma. Mostly I spend the first hour surfing the internet. (Mostly because this is in the middle of the day and I don’t want customers or any of my co-workers/bosses walking past and thinking I’m not doing anything. At least if I’m on the computer it looks like I’m doing something even if I’m not.) For the last hour of the day I read because it’s obvious I’m doing jack shit besides minding the phone. Then I get an hour for lunch. I usually spend the first half an hour walking around in circles in the storage area reading and then the second half an hour actually getting something to eat. Even then I’m reading while sitting in the kitchen.

I read a lot. Not all of it published books. Most of it is fanfiction. At home I might read for a little while after showering and I’m lounging in bed. I don’t read published books a lot at home. I mostly watch TV and movies or surf the internet for fanfiction. If I posted about every piece of fanfiction I read I could get a post up every few hours. You don’t care about my fanfiction obsession. I do have a reading chair in my apartment. That I don’t use. The chair used to be my grandmother’s and we stored it in the basement before I moved with it and even though our basement is clean and dry, the chair still smells. I’ve been meaning to get rid of it but I’m too lazy to figure out how to get it out of my second floor apartment. It takes up a lot of room too. I could have another shelf if I got rid of the chair. (glares at stupid chair)

No! No! No! No!

The news is out; retail giant Amazon is slated to buy book haven Goodreads. Frankly, I’m surprised Goodreads lasted this long. Amazon even has its claws in Library Thing and they had to be salivating over the paradise of information that is Goodreads. I don’t blame either entity for the move but I am disappointed. All I can do is sit here and wait for the Buy buttons to appear and links for other purchases options to disappear. If we’re very lucky Amazon will restrain itself and very little will change with how Goodreads functions. Already more than a few people have deleted their Goodreads account. The buy is reported to go through in July of this year.

Exciting News About Goodreads: We’re Joining the Amazon Family!

Musing Mondays (3\18\13)

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

A character’s name is very important. By giving a character a certain name, you can make them seem mysterious, brave, cruel, or any number of things. You can also make them seem silly. I know authors try to make their characters stand out in a crowd but if I giggle every time I read that character’s name then you’ve lost any chance I’ll take the book seriously. Also, if two characters’ names are very similar looking then that has a habit of tripping up a reader. It’s very annoying to be flying along and get confused when you have to backtrack to make sure you read a character’s name right when something doesn’t add up. (This happened to me a lot in a book where two main characters that had a great deal of scene time with each other were called Thomas and Tony. My brain just blew past the T names and then I ended up confused when I mixed them up. I skim read, ok! It’s what happened when you’re in the zone.)

I finished my first gay erotica book this weekend. Now, I’m used to reading erotica on the internet but this was the first time I’d read a book instead of a piece of fanfiction. (It was very good and I’ve already bought the second book in the series.) But I just have to pause and say – erotica is silly. There, I said it. The cat is out of the bag. It’s silly. The sex is silly and giggle worthy. The reproductive process of humans is ridiculous.  It’s messy and awkward and if what I was reading were happening in real life, then probably painful. I laughed a lot. I probably looked like a loon. I giggled when character A’s dick was being stroked by character B’s hand. It’s stupid but we read it anyway. I don’t know why either. Humans are odd.

Speaking of erotica, I need to announce that my reviews will now be labeled with appropriate age levels and warnings. Meaning erotica (having graphic sex), adult, young adult, and middle grade books. The first, will be posted late at night. (What should I call it? After Dark? Red Light Books?) I’m doing this so readers will be able to avoid posts they don’t wish to read or are too young for. (Not that I expect that to stop any curious teen but I promise to keep any erotica book talk fairly clean for public consumption.)

It’s Monday, the Irish lady who usually answers phones took the day off to recover from Saint Patrick’s Day, so I’m stuck doing phones all day long. I hate phones. But this also means I get to prop my Kindle up against the computer screen and read. But still, phones. Ugh. (I hate phones because people are rude and the help desk set up is asinine. I must content myself with copious amounts of coffee to get through the day instead of hard liquor.)

Musing Mondays (March 4,2013)

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then.

This is a continuation of last week’s Musing Monday rant. Sort of. You see, that rant was brought to you by Splintered by A.G. Howard and its eye roll worthy clichéd teenage romance. This rant is also brought to you by Splintered by A.G. Howard but because of its annoying lack of character development that is exacerbated by the eye roll worthy clichéd teenage romance. What do I mean? I mean that Jeb needs to die. Why does Jeb need to die? Because he is in the way of Alyssa’s journey to being a BAMF. (BAMF = Bad Ass Motherfucker. Meaning; what all characters should aspire to be.)

Jeb is a controlling, overprotective, alpha male butthead that is stemming Alyssa and she needs to get rid of him. Even if they weren’t running around a fictional land of madness, she still needs to get rid of him because any boy that acted like he’s acting right now should throw up so many red flags they should be seen from space. Example: When Alyssa cried that tear that would grant her a single wish, Jeb immediately wanted her to use it to wish them home. I about climbed the wall, I was so annoyed. That is not something you do to a person you just professed to love. I don’t have a very high opinion of Jeb right now. I do think he’s only with Alyssa out of some sense of guilt and duty and that he is manipulating her feelings because he thinks it will get him home sooner and some misguided impression that Alyssa can be nothing but some broken doll.

The fact of the matter is, that when Alyssa is alone or just with Morpheus, she is an independent and interesting character. When she is with Jeb, she becomes a whinny child. The whole purpose of this journey is so Alyssa can take control of her life, find out who she is, and generally come out of her cocoon. (Pun intended.) She’s not doing that while Jeb is breathing down her neck. If Alyssa does not evolve as a character and separate herself from Jeb’s control, she’ll remain this indecisive little kid and pretty much just fail as a character. I’m going to be really annoyed if she ends up dragging Jeb around Wonderland like some sort of dead weight. Ugh! Come on, Alyssa! Your BAMFness is at stake here! I feel like I should be taking up pompoms and cheering her on because Alyssa needs to get going under her own steam really quick.

Musing Monday – Feb. 25, 2013

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I has a peeve. A big, giant peeve of the book and plot related nature. I’ve had this peeve for some time and every time a book triggers it I want to throw that book across the room and scream. That peeve is stupid teenage romances. (Although this can extended to romances of any nature but we’ll focus on teenage/young adult romances for the moment.) It’s not the fact that they are teenage romances that bothers me so much; it’s how cliché, annoying, and completely not productive those teenage romances are portrayed. Where every look or touch from the boy sends the girl into hot shivers and her brain just sort of shuts down when the boy is there. That’s not romance; that’s a head injury.

Alyssa about Jeb – “His cologne – a mix of chocolate and lavender – blends with his sweat into a scent as familiar and appealing as cotton candy to a kid at the fair.”

See, to me anything that does not move the story along is an obstacle and thus needs to be overcome and removed so the protagonist can just get on with it already. Romances with ridiculously hot boys that make the girl’s insides go mooshy and make their “nerves spark with fire” are both not realistic but are also unproductive. If the protagonist has to stop to moon over him, then that boy is in the way of forward plot movement and needs to just go away.

What triggers this particular rush of rage, you ask? I finally got 100 pages into Splintered by A.G. Howard and I already want to chop Jeb’s head off. Alyssa is just about to climb into the rabbit hole on her way to Wonderland, the plot is flying along and it looks like the good part is just gearing up, when all of a sudden who should appear to bring everything to a screeching halt? That’s right; Jeb! Dear Jeb who is having a silent freak out over having fallen down the rabbit hole and wants to climb back up to escape. Handsome Jeb who Alyssa then has to dodge in order to crawl through the shrinking tunnel to get to Wonderland. Why she bothers to leave the shrinking potion behind for him I have no idea. He doesn’t know what’s going on, has a bad case of alpha male syndrome, and is now nothing more than baggage. In other words, Jeb is useless and obstructing the forward motion of the plot. Off with his head!

Now Alyssa and Jeb are in a Wonderland that is not only mad but also dark and I can’t help but think our protagonist might be better off without him tagging along. It doesn’t help that I can see a love triangle coming with Jeb and the mysterious winged man in the distance. (Another point lost for mysterious man cliché.) We’ll see how this turns out. Maybe the pair will surprise me. I’m not holding my breath.

One needs a certain levels of madness to deal with Wonderland.