The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Every November, on the little island of Thisby, the Scorpio Races are held. On the backs of wild water horses, riders compete in a deadly race. The legendary capaill uisce are bloodthirsty and can never be fully tamed. Each year there are casualties of the race. Kate "Puck" Connolly races to save her home and keep her family together. Sean Kendrick, 4 time race winner, races to win the money to keep his best friend--his horse, a capaill uisce. Together they help each other train for the race, knowing that only one can win. Assuming, of course, that they even survive.

I really enjoyed this book. It was dark and compelling. The story moved a little slowly in the first half, but after awhile I was hooked and couldn't put it down. The legend of the water horses is one I've never heard before. They are violent and dangerous, fast and wild and free. I was simultaneously intrigued and revolted by them. I loved the two main characters, Puck and Sean, and enjoyed both of their stories, particularly when they joined. Definitely would recommend this one!!

4.5 out of 5 stars

Jane Slayre by Charlotte Bronte and Sherri Browning Erwin

Ok so I've been a little excited to blog about this book since I checked it out from the library last week. I remember hearing about the book "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and feeling slightly horrified at the thought of someone taking such a classic and adding zombies. Distasteful, right? So while browsing the Henrico County public library catalog I ran into Jane Slayre. A rewrite of Jane Eyre??? GASP! For any of you who don't know, I am a HUGE Jane Eyre fan, so when I discovered Jane Slayre I was a little shocked but also intrigued. At least, my curiosity was piqued enough to get me to check out the book, which I did, and soon enough finished.

For any unfamiliar with this new genre, Jane Slayre was sort of written like a giant Mad Lib where the author substitutes new words to change the story around according to the theme (in this case vampyres with the occasional zombie attack), which is why they still have to give credit to the original author (Charlotte Bronte). I'd say more than half of the book is composed of direct quotes from the original work and follows the original storyline almost exactly.

I won't go into storyline specifics on this post since it's just like the original except for the fact that Jane is a born vampyre slayer. I had pretty low expectations going into this book so maybe it's not too surprising that I enjoyed it more than I had anticipated. I thought the language and editing were pretty good, and the vampyre slaying and zombie attacks were funny. In this version Jane was a stronger character with more backbone, which I suppose is to be expected if she is fighting vampyres and zombies, and it made her interactions with Mr. Rochester a little more interesting. It's almost like Sherri Erwin tried to improve upon the original Jane by giving her more courage to make a more satisfying romantic relationship with Rochester. It sort of worked but I mainly feel like the changes were overindulgent, tailoring to what she thinks a modern society would expect out of our heroine rather than something more realistic and traditional. But since we're working with vampyres I guess realism goes out the window.

Anyway, it was a fun read, though mainly due to the fact that I just love the Jane Eyre story so much, otherwise I probably would have been too bored or too annoyed to finish. Curiosity has been satisfied, may I never read a supernatural take on a classic again.

2 out of 5 stars