I’ve always been a sucker for the epistolary, whether fiction or not (as here).

These are really quite lovely, however, in their own right. Poets with great command of language, imagery, sensory. Their friendship grows across the page and their words become quite magical as they get to the nitty gritty of their lives.

Lovely, and sometimes, sad to read. I can’t remember where I saw this book recommended now, but I’m so glad I did.

Really makes you want to do nothing else but curl up with collections of their poems and get to know them even better.

Totally fascinating multiple universe / devices that enable travel between them / doppelgangers appearing / exploiting technology that wasn’t developed in the “then” that you’ve gone to…sometimes being caught powerless, and choosing which life is the one you want to stay in.

Liked the characters and the twists and the physics connections. Really intriguing!

A superhero novel. Reads like a comic book except, you know, there are no drawings and there’s lots of text. Two young girls, schooled at the same superhero “academy”, now diametrically opposed. Flashes back and forth between their current conflict and their school days.

Lots of fun. Go Jet! Go Iri! I want to be their #3.

Powerful book. Told in a long reveal, it takes a while to know what’s truly going on, although as an adult I had a pretty good idea (would kids jump to the right conclusion? I don’t know).

A lot of nice metaphorical work throughout the story, mirroring the evolution of the main character (particularly in the conception of the tree, and in the naming/recognition of a certain character).

I’m interested to check out her other books, looks like she’s written a ton of stuff.

[Apparently there was a movie (Lifetime?) of this, but when I used this book for my media mini-study in my middle school curriculum class, the people in my small group who had seen it said it wasn’t anywhere near as good as the book. Why had they seen it? Oh that class is chockfull of undergrads. Bunch of 22 year olds who apparently watch Lifetime teen movies! Heh.]

This book is fantastic. The characters are hilarious and deep and interesting and quirky and the plot is both silly and serious and there’s love stories and friendships and fights and just so much to love.

There were two small things that I felt were a bit surprisingly … dropped off at the end (lacking sufficient explanation as to their closure). But that did not stop me at all from loving the ending the rest of the characters get.

Kalix is a fantastic character. I would be sorely tempted to use that name for my firstborn, were there going to be one (there isn’t).

Highly recommended from me to you. (Recommended to me by someone on Flickr after they saw I had read and enjoyed The Good Fairies of New York.)

Read in October. Since I’ve been doing reviews in any old order…I’m almost caught up!! Yipee!!

Also known as Book 3 of the Millennium trilogy. I am SUCH a huge fan of this trilogy. I picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on a whim. Blew through it like a crazy person. LOVE. Then I was so excited in Dublin last February to find The Girl Who Played with Fire already out there. Loved that one just as much. As SOON as book 3 was released in the UK, I ordered it from amazon.uk because HELLO I could NOT wait.

And it was completely worth it.

These are dark, nasty, sadistic books. They are also exquisitely plotted with seriously intelligent, persistent, strong and attractive (in more than one way) characters. They are entertaining and deep and completely fascinating and honestly it is so hard to get anything else done when you are reading them because you just do NOT want to put them down.

So bummed that there will be no more books by this dude (he died shortly after turning in all three manuscripts to his publisher) because they are some of the best books I’ve read in years.

Stieg Larsson and Tana French: revolutionizing the SMART mystery category. These are so far above genre books. Truly literature. Truly fantastic.