Immortal Beloved

Title: Immortal Beloved
Author: Cate Tiernan
Location: YA Tiernan
Reading Level: Young Adult

Nastaysa (Nasty for short), an immortal human, has been content with drowning her past and memories in parties, drugs and alcohol for hundreds of years. She has never cared about those she hurts by her actions, even when her choices lead to the death of innocent people. Until one night, she watches as her best friend Incy, another immortal, mercilessly breaks the spine of a London cabbie, causing Nasty to reevaluate her own actions. Nasty flees London and her current friends for America and a rehab house for disillusioned immortals. At first Nasty has a tough time adjusting to their organic farm, green way of living, and endless chores. It doesn't help that the gorgeous "viking god," Reyn, inexplicably treats her with barely veiled contempt every time he interacts with her. But as she begins to adapt to her situation, memories that were seemingly crushed forever start coming to the surface forcing her to deal with her painful past. Will Nasty be able to confront her issues and become a functioning member of the house? Can she discover the cause of Reyn's disdain for her?

I think this was a great first book with an engaging main character to start out a new trilogy. Nasty's authentic voice with its sarcastic wit and jaded sensibility is perfect for an indifferent immortal who has lived through too many lifetimes of pain and disappointment. The multiple flashbacks to her past kept the story from dragging and added interest to Nasty as a character. She is certainly not perfect but is still a very sympathetic, relatable female character so I was cheering for her the whole time. My only complaint with this novel was the romance aspect. Reyn is quite mean to her and treats her pretty badly throughout much of the book. The only thing that made her attraction to him bearable, in my mind, is that she acknowledges the inexplicable nature of her feelings for him. However, I do feel that the author will explore their relationship in future installments so I think the romance will really improve. Other than his actions toward Nasty, Reyn has potential to be an intriguing character so I'm hoping the author will do a little more with him in the next book. I also thought the magick aspect of the immortals was imaginative and well done. Even though we did not get to see much of it in this first book, I feel like it will take center stage in the next two books.

The Bottom Line: Immortal Beloved was a great first book in the Cloth trilogy. Nastaysa is an awesome character. Even though some aspects of this book, like the romance, and magick could have been fleshed out more, it was still an interesting story. Bonus... it doesn't end on a cliffhanger! If you enjoy fantasy, fantasy/romance or historical fantasy, you should like this book.

Pretty Dead

Title: Pretty Dead
Author: Francesca Lia Block

Reading Level: Young Adult

Location: YA Block

Fans of Twilight will most likely pick up Pretty Dead as a read-alike. Sadly, many of those fans will be very disappointed. Francesca Lia Block is a talented writer who revolutionized both the fantasy and LGBT genre for teens in the 90s and 00s. When I heard she wrote a vampire story, I had high hopes. I read the book in one day but didn't realize until after finishing it that the reason I was flying through it was because I wanted to finish and read something good.

Quite different from the heroines of other vampire books, the beautiful 100+ year old Charlotte Emerson is constantly in a state of sorrow, despite being immortal, beautiful, well loved and extremely wealthy. It’s as if Block read Poe and Plath and transferred that melancholy into a vampire story, minus the good execution. Charlotte has seen everything from the bombing of Hiroshima, to Woodstock, to September 11th- all at the age of seventeen. She is immortal and perfect in every way. However, she is overcome by her constant wallowing of her immortality. She has a very close relationship with her brother (some scenes suggested a little too close, which was creepy). When he dies in the early 1900s, she tries to continue her life, despite being devastated.In present day when her best friend Emily dies suddenly, she starts to turn back into a human. Things get even weirder when her maker (and decades long lover) William comes back into her life after separating years before! The ending is extremely anti-climatic.

The reader will most likely not connect to the characters. The flowery, pseudo-intellectual prose will not be appreciated by teens looking for a fun vampire story or characters they can identitfy with. Although there are a few interesting moments, it’s obvious that this contrived story was simply Block trying to market off the vampire craze. Instead, it reads like terrible fan fiction you would find on the Hot Topic message board.

Bottom Line: Judging from this letdown, Pretty Dead sounds less like a book title and more like Block's (once present) storytelling ability.