Hotel Iris; Brightly Woven; Nightlife....All in one day.

I was on a roll yesterday and managed to knock out three books before bedtime. I am actually very impressed with myself. (Well, no, not really.)

Hotel Iris is my first Yoko Ogawa novel. I say first because it certainly is not going to be my last. (Is that too hammy?) Although Ogawa has been writing since 1988, only three of her works have been translated into English, the most recent being Hotel Iris.

The inside flap of the novel describes the book as being a twisted romance between a seventeen year old girl and a middle aged man, set in a seaside resort in Japan. Mari is a timid girl who hates herself; the translator is a repressed man who needs to control the world around him. Together they satisfy the dark and painful needs that each of them hide from the rest of the world.

Hotel Iris is not a happy novel. Mari and the translator are both broken in deeply disturbing ways and their union is not a healthy one. This is probably why I enjoyed it so much. Ogawa's writing is smooth and spare, leaving enough room for the reader to read between the lines and come to their own conclusions about the motivations of the characters as they move through the quiet drama of Mari's secret relationship with the translator. It is actually the scarcity of words used that make the novel so powerful - Ogawa does not feel the need to go into long descriptions about Mari and the translator's relationship to get across the fact that it's intense and dark.

After finishing up Hotel Iris, I picked up Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken. Completely different from Hotel Iris, Brightly Woven is a fantasy novel with magic, dragons and stopping a war. Sydelle is a weaver from a town on the outskirts of the country of Palmarta who is forced to become the assistant of North, a young wizard who came to her town to warn of coming enemy forces. They spend two months together traveling across the country trying to reach the wizard stronghold to warn of treachery. 

During those two months, they somehow fall in love with each other. The only problem is that we miss out on a big chunk of those two months. Bracken just sort of skims over it and says "Ta-da! It's been a month and a half since they left Sydelle's town." Then you're left thinking "What happened during all that time?" I felt that this was a serious weakness in the story. I was left wondering if the story was an adventure story or a romance - or a nice blend of both. It felt like Bracken was trying to do both but fell short. She gave us a little bit of adventure, a little bit of romance, and we're left wanting because she only skimmed the possibilities. She doesn't delve deeply into either aspect and it's rather unsatisfying.

Otherwise, Brightly Woven was an interesting coming-of-age story as Sydelle is forced to grow up after leaving her small town to accompany a wizard to the other side of the world. I also like the glimpse of the world Bracken has built and if she decides to write another novel set in this world, I'll definitely buy a copy. I just hope she works on fleshing out her story and characters better.

The final book I read yesterday was Nightlife by Rob Thurman. Now, I've been working on this novel for the longest time. This is something like when I was struggling with the Cassandra Palmer series by Karen Chance: I pick it up, I put it down. Wander away. A few months pass. I pick it up again. But after finishing up the book, I find myself wanting more.

Nightlife is the first of the Cal Leandros series.  Cal and his older brother Niko are on the run from Cal's father - they're half brothers - who is not human and bent on capturing Cal for some nefarious business. While Cal is only half human, Niko is all human - but you wouldn't be able to tell. Niko is scarily disciplined and has made it his life's mission to protect his little brother from all things that go bump in the night. This means Niko is a walking weapon despite the fact that he is very mortal. That is not to say Cal is defenseless. Both brothers can dish out a lot of pain to the supernatural creatures that pop up every once in a while. But Niko is just better at it than Cal.

I don't know why it was so difficult for me to get through Nightlife but I finally finished it after months and months of slowly going through it and I find myself actually enjoying the characters and the gritty world the story is set in. I can't wait to go to the bookstore and pick up the next copy. This might be because the boys are pretty and the action is good. The only problem I have with Thurman's voice is that, well, she's trying to channel a teenage boy and sometimes it feels rather over done. This might be why I had such a difficult time trying to finish it.

But now that I've been drawn into this world, I find myself unable to pull away. There are four - five? - other books in the series so I'll definitely have plenty of books to gush over Cal and Niko because they have definitely grown on me.

I have managed to finish three books out of my immense to-be-read (TBR) pile. And although I do feel sort of accomplished, when I look at my TBR pile all I can think is "Damn, barely made a dent."

So look forward to many more rambling reviews of books I have read as I continue this little mission of mine to read everything I can get my hands on.