DESCENDANTS: Isle of the Lost

(ETA: I didn't do a full review on this, but this was my comment about the book. It's not especially detailed, but I'd like it here, because I'll definitely properly review the sequel.)

The book was way better than I expected. The movie trailers make it look campy fun, like Sky High which I LOVE, but the book is pretty serious. There are some light-hearted moments, but you can tell it's taking itself seriously.

The Isle people live a pretty depressing life. I mean, they live off garbage, basically. Yeah, they're villains, but their kids aren't. So why are the Auradon people okay with letting these kids eat garbage? I guess that's the point of the movie, that Ben realizes it's not fair.

The book focuses on the 4 Isle kids, plus Ben. Ben is more likeable than I expected, but I still prefer the villain kids. Carlos was my surprise favorite by, like, A LOT. I like Mal, Evie and Jay about equally, but none of them even comes close to Carlos. Mal's probably my second fave, followed by Evie (who's a bit naive) and Jay last. But they're so close, second, third and fourth really don't matter.

There are a lot of other villain kids on the Isle. I'm not going to make a list, because I'm lazy right now, but Lady Tremaine has a male child, the stepsisters have produced a bunch of "step-granddaughters," Gaston has twins named amusingly Gaston Jr. and Gaston the Third, Hook has a daughter, Clayton from Tarzan has a kid. Nngh, can't recall any others off the top of my head. A lot of them have pets from the villain animals, like Flotsam and Jetsam, Lucifer and the hyenas from the Lion King.

I really enjoyed the book. It's a super fun read and much darker and bleaker than I imagined. I'm impressed!

GODDESS GIRLS 18

Welcome to real time! All thirty-something of the December entries I just posted were copied and pasted from one of my Livejournal communities. It's kind of slow there and I also have book reviews scattered throughout my regular journal, so I decided to reopen this old blog and use it to have one place for all my reviews.

Anyway, I picked up Hestia the Invisible on Monday night, because Booksamillion had one copy out early. I just started The Enemy series (which will be part of my December set of reviews), so I ended up reading that first book instead of Hestia's, but today I zipped through hers.

Hestia is now my favorite Goddess Girls character. If you have ever been shy or are still shy, you will love her. She's very relatable and endearing. Her art is just adorable. I love the "tomato red" (mentioned in the book) of her chiton, her big eyes, her hair, her freckles and that sweet expression. She's just darling.

Anyway, Hestia is very shy. She sewed hoods on all her chitons and uses them to hide from teachers wanting to call on people or from any sort of attention really. She's called to MOA in 3rd grade because she got the idea to make public hearths in every city, so there was always a fire burning for families to come relight theirs. But ever since she's joined the school, she's blended into the background, not wanting any attention. She works in the kitchen during her third period class to help make lunch. She's an amazing cook and she's actually the mind behind a lot of MOA's favorite recipes. Not that they know it, of course.

So the basic plot of the book is that there's a contest for a Service to Humankind award. Each contestant has to come up with a symbol and sign up to take part. Hestia hems and haws for awhile, before finally realizing a flame is her symbol. She's surprised when she makes the Top 11 and is in a mural, alongside some of the bigger MOA names.

While this is going on, Hestia has made a list of things she wants to do to be less invisible. Pheme joins her at lunch and ends up wanting to interview her, which in true Pheme style, ends up with some inaccuracies. Some work in Hestia's favor, but others she's upset by, because she thinks they hurt her two favorite kitchen workers, Ms. Okto (the eight-handed one) and Ms. Xena (short for Xenarthra, the one with the anteater snout).

Hestia does a good job being more visible though. She takes the hoods off her chitons. She gets to know several people, including Asca (Ascalabus), the godboy of lizardry, who will likely end up her crush in future books. (Ascalabus is a very minor character in myth who was changed into a lizard by Demeter.)

Hestia is also tasked with creating the dessert for the banquet where the winner of the contest will be announced. So she's struggling with figuring out ways to apologize to the kitchen ladies (who aren't actually mad), trying to deal with her newfound visibility, trying to come up with a new recipe, and just plain trying to figure herself out.

It's a good book that's almost entirely enjoyable. One of my only issues was that Aphrodite said something pretty mean and it's never resolved. She just becomes one of Hestia's friends and loans her a gold chiton for the banquet. And Hestia never confronts Pheme about the exaggerations in her story. It's just kind of accepted that Pheme exaggerates and no one does anything about it. Sigh.

But yes, Hestia just toppled Persephone out of my #1 spot.

Calliope, star of book 19, is mentioned a couple times, so she's already in school, but hasn't been for long. Echo is not mentioned. I love all these newbies, but I'm also hoping we get new books for Persephone and Artemis soon. They've only had 2 to Aphrodite and Athena's 3.

Okay, I'm wrapping up reviews for the night. I will likely add some more tomorrow from the November book reviews I did for my LJ, but I want this Hestia review to be the first thing people see for the moment.

GODDESS GIRLS 17

This is a two PoV-style book, switching between Poseidon and Amphitrite. I'm glad they got into Poseidon's head a bit, because he's one of the least likeable boys and at least we can understand where he's coming from more now. Amphitrite is a sweetheart, although she suddenly learns to transform a little too quickly for me. I don't get why they made her unable to do it at the beginning. Just make her less skilled on legs than Thetis. That would have served the same purpose and been more believable than her suddenly being able to do it when she really needs to.

The merworld is interesting and I liked Amphitrite's reveal for Poseidon at the end.

Some of the characters from The Girl Games reappear. I was pleased to see Isis and the Chinese girls again, although I still really want my questions from Aphrodite the Diva answered. I want to know what was up with "Hathor!"

The majority of the book is an action-packed contest and I don't want to give away too many spoilers. I quite enjoyed this one, because you get to see so many characters. So definitely pick it up if you like the series.

(ETA: I realize now looking at this that I never address what I brought up way back in Medusa's first book with the first appearance of Amphitrite where she was a lot younger. That was one of her little sisters. It's explained in this book that when you have 50 kids, you just repeat names. It's not the best save ever, but in the context of this silly series, it works.) 

GODDESS GIRLS 16

I just finished Medusa the Rich. It was good and Medusa is definitely one of my favorite characters, but I had a couple issues with it.

Quick summary: After King Midas finds Dionysus's pet goat, Dionysus grants him a wish: the golden touch. Midas isn't being greedy though. He just needs money to restore his broken kingdom, destroyed by Typhon in book #14. Midas makes his prize rose gardens gold on accident and laments so much that Medusa offers to take the golden touch from him. (Dionysus had to leave, but he left behind instructions on how to do this.) Medusa has some fun with the golden touch, but quickly realizes she can't swim or take a shower anymore. Then after some terrible bullying from those assholes Makhai and Kydoimos, she accidentally turns her snakes to gold! She's broken-hearted and then receives a letter from some pirates who have kidnapped Dionysus! She, Athena, Artemis and Aphrodite go to the rescue, but the letter instructed her to come alone, so it's all in Medusa's hands. She tries her stone stare, but it's connected to her snakes and with them frozen in gold, she's powerless. Dionysus himself is powerless, because he can only do the tiniest spells for 3 days after granting a wish. But he's able to cure her golden touch, which restores her snakes and her skills. Most of the pirates flee and the other goddessgirls come in for the rescue. They take the pirates' stolen treasure and give it to Zeus and Hera, who will make sure it's returned to the temples and such it was taken from. Zeus rewards Medusa with a fancy necklace, which she mails to Midas for "disaster relief." She also wins a comic contest, but the prize doesn't turn out to be what she thinks.

So my first problem with this book is it's the second one in a row with an abusive family. Medusa's parents treat her like crap because she's mortal, and her sisters, having been raised in this mindset, are horrible to her. It's really uncomfortable to read. I hate it. It's like an Ann Rinaldi book. I hate that Medusa gives in so easily and gives all of them gold. Tell them to fuck off! Then she's even nice to her sisters in the end after she's lost her touch. Just for once, I'd really like to see the bad characters get some sort of comeuppance. They've been getting away with acting like assholes for far too long and in far too many books. They're barely ever punished! It's ridiculous. Maybe her sisters will be briefly nice to her after she helped them in the end, but I think it will be very brief.

My second problem is that Medusa is one of the smarter characters. She's got a closet full of old ratty chitons. TURN THEM INTO GOLD. Turn a bunch of useless crap into gold and keep it stashed away so you've got something to fall back on if you have to ditch your golden touch. And don't give it to your unworthy family either. She's smart enough and crafty enough that this should have occurred to her.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but yeah, those two issues really stood out.

GODDESS GIRLS 15

Goddess Girls #15 is titled Aphrodite the Fair. She shares PoV chapters with Ares and it's the story of Eris and the For the Fairest contest. Eris is Ares' older sister and apparently she was never invited to MOA. He told her it was because Zeus didn't allow siblings to attend together. She's the goddess of discord and strife, so she tends to get kicked out of her schools. It's happened again and this time, she hears about Ares' birthday party from Hera in the Immortal Marketplace, so she decides to crash, bringing along with her the enchanted For the Fairest trophy. Predictably, Eris causes huge problems at MOA. She gets Zeus to hold an academic contest, pitting Team Athena against Team Aphrodite and that leads to all sorts of fights between friends. Finally, our valiant students, who have realized what she's up to, are able to "convince" her to end the contest. She decides to return home of her own accord though, because there's a boy there she likes and he's told her that the principal will let her come back, because she's helped with repairs to the school. (The roof caved in because of a contest idea she had to build snowmen on it.)

Eris is an interesting character. I really wish she had PoV chapters of her own, because I would like to see her motivations and how she really feels. She's a bully sometimes and I hate how she treats her brother and Aphrodite, but she improves by the end. You can tell she's genuinely sad that animals dislike her. And I find it fascinating that when she feels powerful, she literally grows. She gets taller and less scrawny. Hades is probably the closest we have to a regular goth character, but I'd really like to see another goth added to the mix. A female one that can get in style conflicts with Aphrodite, but still remain friendly. Eris has the right look, but she's too negative to want around all the time. Unlike Medusa, you can't really redeem Eris. She's the goddess of two negative things. I wish they'd add in Nyx or Hecate. Either would work as goth and they'd work fine as dark "good girls." Or maybe morally ambiguous, in Hecate's case.

No complaints about the cover this time around, although an envious Hera and Athena in the background would have been pretty cool.

GODDESS GIRLS 14

I was going to do 14 and 15 together, but when I cracked open 15, I realized it's in the different PoV for different chapters style. I'd forgotten! So I'll write it up separately when I finish it tomorrow.

Iris the Colorful is #14. Iris is the goddess of...nothing. She's not been named the official goddess of anything yet! But she practices with her rainbows in hopes of getting Zeus's attention so he can name her goddess of rainbows.

I like Iris quite a lot, except for a couple things. The first is her wings. She's got these cute pink wings, but they're "too delicate" to allow her to fly. Then what the fuck is their point? It's not like humans, which the immortals are obviously based on, have wings. There's literally no reason to give Iris wings she can't use. She's trying to make her rainbows solid enough that she can ride them and she could have easily had this plotline without useless wings on her back. She is often depicted with wings, but I think the authors could have figured out a way for her to have functional wings and still earn her goddess of rainbows title using the rainbow slides. The wings, by the way, should be gold, not pink. One of her epithets is "golden-winged."

The second issue I have with Iris is how much of a pushover she is when it comes to her best friend. Antheia is the goddess of wreaths. Apparently, they made a pact to not pursue the same boy ever, but Antheia always likes the same boys as Iris and declares it first, so Iris feels she has to back off. Yeah, no. That's not how you live your life. They finally discuss it and Antheia actually admits she waits to see who Iris is going to like next and then says she likes him first. Because she apparently trusts Iris to pick out good boys and she thinks she's incapable of that herself. What the fuck? Thankfully, they get this sorted and Iris is free to crush on Zephyr, who likes her back. Aphrodite hooks Antheia up with Boreas, though I think Iris would have helped with that eventually. She knew Boreas liked Antheia before Aphrodite did.

So the main plot of the book is that Iris almost hits Zeus with a rainbow, which leads to her being in his office right after the Four Winds tell him that Typhon escaped Tartarus. Zeus tells her to go get this pitcher from the Immortal Marketplace, but it turns out it was stolen goods and the proprietors of the store it was in returned it to the Goddess Styx. Yeah, that pitcher? It was stolen from Styx by Iris's sisters...the harpies. The harpy scene is both amusing and ultimately kind of useless. The whole plotline with the harpies and Iris being related to them could be removed and the book would still be good. I guess they were trying to flesh out her character more. I dunno.

Anyway, Iris ends up in the Underworld and manages to get the pitcher away from Styx and Gaia. Turns out Gaia is the one who set Typhon free. She's got a grudge against the Olympians, just like in the Rick Riordan books. (Random note: The next Rick Riordan books are about the Norse gods!)

Iris gets the pitcher back to Zeus and eventually there's a battle against Typhon. Iris saves the day by tricking the rather stupid Typhon into drinking the water from the pitcher. You can't lie after drinking it without being punished and he ends up being sucked into the pitcher after telling a lie. Zeus takes it to some secret volcano where Typhon will hopefully be trapped forever.

This one is really neat, aside from the little things I was annoyed by. It's nice to see a random character doing such a big world save. There are also some nice nods to actual myth, because Iris is married to Zephyr, and she does tote that pitcher around. I wish they'd done something with Arke, who in some myth versions was Iris's sister. She acted as the messenger for the Titans during the Titan War and Zeus took off her wings as punishment then tossed her into Tartarus. She could totally have been worked into the story.

The cover is cute, but I do have two complaints. First, Iris doesn't always have pink hair. Her hair changes to any color of the rainbow, sometimes all at once. How could the artist pass up an opportunity for rainbow hair? COME ON. Second, Antheia should be on there. She's as important as Zephyr. That rainbow should be connected to the ground and Antheia should be standing off to the side. Zephyr can still be hovering and it would work, too. I'm tired of not seeing these important characters. Homer. Ariadne. Daedalus. Now Antheia. ARGH.

Next up is Aphrodite the Fair, which is Eris and the "fairest" contest. Amusingly taking place WELL AFTER the Trojan War. Aphrodite and Ares trade off chapters, making him the second male character to get PoV chapters. Medusa's book 16 doesn't have different PoV chapters so I wonder if we'll ever get them again.

GODDESS GIRLS 13

Okay, GG #13 is Athena the Proud, in which we tackle their version of the labyrinth myth. Basically, Minos has built an amusement park with the help of Daedalus, who's 16 in this, and he invites 7 girls and 7 boys from Professor Ladon's classes to come visit the park for a special preview night before it opens. The students who go are mostly paired off as couples: Aphrodite and Ares, Persephone and Hades, Artemis and Actaeon, Medusa and Dionysus, Apollo and Cassandra (Pheme can't go due to a journalism conference, so she gives her place to Cassandra). Then we've got what should be Athena and Heracles, but is actually Heracles and his bratty cousin Theseus, with Athena and Pandora as the leftovers. Yeah, the main plot of the book is that Athena is upset Heracles is paying more attention to his cousin than to her. It's BORING. Then she thinks Daedalus's labyrinth is too easy, so she changes it and fucks up a lot of things. Ariadne is there and she's another disappointment because she's written as a total airhead, except for one shining moment of cleverness. Ariadne was the name I used in my Greek classes, so she's kind of a favorite of mine and that irked me. She's far from stupid.

The cover is also a disappointment. We've got Athena holding Ariadne's yarn, when he should have drawn Ariadne herself. Heracles has his club, which he didn't even bring with him, and these three were never in the labyrinth together in the entire book. He should make more of an effort to put new characters on the covers. It should be Athena in the foreground with Heracles and Theseus to one side and Ariadne and Daedalus on the other side. Then even though that scene never happened, at least we've got all the major characters included.