Indigo - Alice Hoffman

This book was really terrible. It read like a children's book, but it was in the adult section at my library. It was written too vaguely for a child to understand, so I suppose it was meant for adults, but oh man. Never read this. If you do, it will only take about ten minutes because it's very short, but you can never. Get. That. Time. Back.


Indigo is about two orphan boys who have a curious affinity for all things ocean-related. They're adopted, ironically, by a couple who lives in a landlocked town terrified of water. One day the boys decide to run away to the ocean with their friend Martha, but the town floods the day they leave, wreaking havoc on everything and eventually forcing them to go back home because Martha breaks her arm. The two boys then "save" the town by diving underwater and destroying the wall that is holding the water in. In doing so, they miraculously remember that their mother is a mermaid. Their adopted parents decide to move to the ocean, accepting that it is a part of who the boys are. And Martha's father, who has been seeing a heinous woman named Hildy since his wife died, decides to leave her and he goes from clinically depressed to sunshine and daisies happy in a matter of minutes.

This might seem an unnecessarily harsh summary, but the book is written in a very similar fashion. The true tragedy is that the story has all the potential to be awesome. If Hoffman had made this a novel or even a literary short story, she could have given it a depth and subtlety it decidedly lacks.

It is books like this that give me hope that my work will one day be published. The bar is obviously set very low.

The Trylle Trilogy - Amanda Hocking

You know when you read a noun in a book and you pronounce it a certain way, and then at the very end you realize you've been saying it wrong all along? That's what happened to me with the Trylle Trilogy. For some reason, I thought it should be pronounced "Try-elle," as if there was an extra 'e' in there. At the end of the book, I found a glossary that informed me in no uncertain terms that Trylle is pronounced "trill." Oops.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

I absolutely loved the books. So much so that I finished all three in about three days. The main plot line is that Wendy, the protagonist and narrator, is a troll changeling placed with a human family at birth. Now I know what you're thinking - but trolls turn out to be humans 2.0 - more beautiful than a normal human with some kind of superpower, be it control over the elements, telekinesis, psychokinesis, you name it. When Wendy is seventeen, she is taken back to her real family, where she learns that she is Princess and future Queen of the Trylle people. Throughout the three books, she falls in love with a "tracker," basically an indentured servant lowest on the social ladder, then the Prince of the Vittra (another troll tribe whose King wants to kill Wendy and take over the Trylle kingdom), loses her mother, and kills her father. Sorry if I just ruined it for you.

The Trylle Trilogy is your quintessential fantasy fairy tale set amidst unsuspecting normal humans. The characters are hilarious and lovable, the world Hocking paints gorgeous and appealing. The men are beautiful. Need I say more? When I put down the last book I was almost depressed. Thank god Hocking has more books I can read.

Each book includes a short bonus story, which is kind of exciting. It gives you some background and it's great to go back to when you're wringing your hands in despair because you've finished all the books.

Hocking has self published a few books, which I think is terrifically cool, given how popular she's become. Just saying.