Eden's Escape by M. Tara Crowl, 2016 (+ Giveaway!)

This is my review of the second Eden of the Lamp book. Don't read on unless you've read Eden's Wish (my review–which includes a giveaway for both books).

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Eden's new life on earth begins in New York City under the guidance of her new guardian: Pepper, a petite, bubbly genie alum who's also a Broadway actress. Before she has a chance to settle in, though, Eden is whisked away for a granting--only to find herself trapped in a laboratory. David Brightly, owner of the world's leading tech company, cares more about tapping into the lamp's power than making a wish and starts performing tests on Eden. With Brightly's plasma shield around the lamp, Eden has no way home. Left without a choice, she escapes the lab and goes on the run. After her daring exit, Eden finds herself on the streets of Paris--home to Electra's headquarters. Left in a strange city with a price on her head (courtesy of scheming Brightly), Eden has to keep her wits about her. She dons a chic disguise and flits around Paris incognito, investigating Brightly Tech. Assisted by Pepper and her old adversary Bola, as well as some new friends, Eden embarks on a quest to retrieve the lamp and protect the secrets of the genie legacy.

(320 pages)

Okay, well it's time for my review of Eden's Escape. It just came out earlier this month, and I got copies of both books from the author so I could participate in the blog tour. I'm posting my tour stop with all its goodies today too, so click here to check it out–I've got an excerpt from Eden's Escape on there, plus an exclusive Top Ten list written by Ms. Crowl herself just for Read Till Dawn.

Now for the review itself. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect after the ending of Eden's Wish with the announcement that Eden would be going to live on earth. I thought Eden would probably be struggling to fit in, going to school, making friends, doing all the things she did in the first book but on a much grander scale. Instead, Eden spends most of the book in hiding after a granting goes horribly wrong: a scientist named David Brightly has tracked her lamp down and rubbed it, for the express purpose of performing experiments on Edem until he can figure out how to get unlimited wishes. She makes a desperate escape, but has to leave the lamp behind; the rest of the book covers Eden's attempts to avoid being found by Brightly (a feat made a thousand times harder by the fact that his company made all the phones, and he's not at all shy about tapping phones to get the information he needs), find allies, get the lamp back, and generally set everything to rights. It seems like a pretty hopeless mess at some points, and it was interesting to watch the magic of the lamp collide with all the advantages of cutting-edge technology.

It was also fun watching Eden try to interact with modern technology for the very first time. Xavier completely neglected to teach her anything about it, because he thought it was a waste of time, so she's stuck figuring things out on her own. One of my favorite scenes is when she sits down at a computer to get on the internet. She stares at the screen for a minute, clicks the Word icon on the bottom because she thinks the "w" stands for "web," and then proceeds to type in what she needs and wait for the results to pop up. It was funny, and really realistic! It may have been slightly less realistic to see how quickly she caught on to the internet after that–I've spent some solid time teaching my grandmother how to navigate the web, and it definitely wasn't as intuitive for her. I guess being a genie makes Eden better at figuring things out than my human grandmother, though. That's one of the perks of being, you know, a magical immortal being with supernatural powers.

I don't want to talk too much about the story itself, for fear of spoilers. I would like to just touch on the interpersonal relationships, though, because I think they're both the main weakness and the greatest strength of Eden's Escape.

My only real complaint is Eden's relationship with Pepper. Now, don't get me wrong: I love Pepper. She seems like a fascinating character, and a very kind one. I would happily spend a whole book just learning about her backstory or watching her move forward in the present. My trouble, though, is that she and Eden develop a strong bond too quickly. They're together in New York for just two weeks, yet when they're separated and then reunited both act as though they were in a legitimate mother-daughter relationship. I love that Eden adores Pepper–because I do, too–but I was just a little turned off by the way she saw her as a mother figure so soon after leaving Xavier and Goldie (the couple who actually raised her, and who she recognized as her true family in Eden's Wish). You'd think there'd be a little more homesickness for her masters, but Eden barely thinks of them throughout the novel except in relation to her attempts to rescue the lamp.

The relationships are also a huge strength to the book, though, simply because they're so compelling. Whether it's Eden's relationships with the main characters from Eden's Wish, or with her new friend Melodie, or even with some of the members of Electra, there's always an interesting dynamic to watch. This goes to the character-building, too: Crowl builds dynamic characters, so that–for the most part, anyway–there are no stock characters. This is a huge plus, and it really makes the entire novel for me.

Overall, I'd say that Eden's Escape is a very strong MG fantasy novel (that's perhaps not quite as strong as its prequel). I really enjoyed reading both books, and I look forward to finding out whether there will be a third installment in the series. There's certainly room for one!

And now it's time for the giveaway. Enter below in the Rafflecopter form (the same one that's on the main blog tour post). Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I received complimentary copies of both Eden of the Lamp books so I could participate in the blog tour for Eden's Escape. I'm also being entered into a random $50 giftcard giveaway for posting my review and the blog tour stop during the month of September.

Eden's Wish by M. Tara Crowl, 2015 (+ giveaway!)

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All twelve years of Eden's life have been spent in an antique oil lamp. She lives like a princess inside her tiny, luxurious home; but to Eden, the lamp is nothing but a prison. She hates being a genie. All she wants, more than anything, is freedom.
When Eden finds a gateway to Earth within the lamp, she takes her chance and enters the world she loves. And this time, she won't be sent back after three wishes.
Posing as the new kid at a California middle school, Eden revels in all of Earth's pleasures--but quickly learns that this world isn't as perfect as she always thought it was. Eden soon finds herself in the middle of a centuries-old conflict between powerful immortals. A ruthless organization run by a former genie will stop at nothing to acquire the lamp and its power--even hurt Tyler and Sasha, the new mortal friends who have given Eden a home. To save her friends and protect the lamp's magic, Eden must decide once and for all where she belongs.
(272 pages)

I may, on the surface, be a little old for Eden's Wish. According to the information sheet I got from the author, it's targeted toward kids aged nine through twelve; I'm seventeen, five years above the highest age suggestion. But I still loved reading Eden's Wish, perhaps partly because of its target age. You see, I'm in the middle of applying to college. I've been very stressed out about grown-up questions like where to apply, what to major in, and - oh, you know, no biggie - what I want to do with the rest of my life. I loved reading Eden's Wish, because it took me back, for a few hours, to sixth grade. You see, back then I would have been swept entirely away in the breathless combination of magic and relationships that is Eden's Wish. It was nice to take a break from my applications and be transported back to that simpler time in my life by reading Eden's Wish.

Before I go any further with this discussion of Eden's Wish, I want to get the negatives out of the way. There are only two troubles I have with the book, and both of them are pretty small. The first is that it does slightly blend in with other novels in its genre simply because there are so many fractured fairytales on the market about young characters dealing with unwanted destinies. This isn't a huge problem here, since Ms. Crowl creates a pretty unique storyline and Aladdin isn't usually retold that often anyway, but it does mean that in a few years I might have trouble remember many specifics from Eden's Wish. The other trouble I have with the book is that I get a general sense it could have delved deeper into the possibilities of its plot. Perhaps this is just a side effect of its younger audience, but I personally would have liked a better explanation of how the genies are born (is there a surrogate involved? Do they grow out of the lamp's walls? Does Goldie give birth to them?). It would also be cool to learn even more about how granted wishes shaped history, and about how Xavier and Goldie made the lamp in the first place.

Those were the minuses, so now it's on to the plusses!

I really loved Eden as a character. She wants to do the right thing, but she's so desperate to escape the confines of her lamp that she unwittingly brings danger to the world. The ethical dilemma that she faces throughout the book is - when you actually stop and think about it - really fascinating. I spent the entire book unsure whether I wanted Eden to be free from the lamp (but let it fall into the wrong hands), or to go back inside it and be safe (but trapped). I can't spoil the ending, of course, but it's definitely an interesting question.

The supporting characters are also very interesting and three-dimensional. Eden's human friends Tyler and Sasha are really great, and I enjoyed reading about them, but my favorite supporting characters were actually Xander and Goldie (the creators of the lamp, who raised Eden inside it). We don't get to see too much of them throughout the book, but observing their relationships with not just Eden but also all of the ex-genies was really interesting.

This review is getting long, so I'd better bring it to a close. There's more I could talk about, but suffice it to say that Eden's Wish is a good book. I wouldn't go around crying from the rooftops that it's the best book in the entire world, but it's good as a comfortable escapist MG fantasy novel. If that's what you, or a middle schooler you know, is in the mood for, then definitely give it a try! Also, from now until the end of September you can enter to win a signed set of not just Eden's Wish but also its sequel, Eden's Escape. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Oh, and also: the author's having a $50 giveaway to celebrate the release of Eden's Escape. Click here to check out my blitz post with the giveaway details!

Disclaimer: I received complimentary copies of both Eden of the Lamp books so I could participate in the blog tour for Eden's Escape. Also, I'm not responsible for sending the prizes in this giveaway: I will give the winner's information to the author, and she will mail out the books.

Smek for President by Adam Rex, 2015

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In this much anticipated sequel to The True Meaning of Smekday, Tip and J.Lo are back for another hilarious intergalactic adventure. And this time (and last time, and maybe next time), they want to make things right with the Boov.
After Tip and J.Lo banished the Gorg from Earth in a scheme involving the cloning of many, many cats, the pair is notorious-but not for their heroics. Instead, human Dan Landry has taken credit for conquering the Gorg, and the Boov blame J.Lo for ruining their colonization of the planet. Determined to clear his name, J.Lo and Tip pack into Slushious, a Chevy that J.Lo has engineered into a fairly operational spaceship, and head to New Boovworld, the aliens' new home on one of Saturn's moons.
But their welcome isn't quite as warm as Tip and J.Lo would have liked. J.Lo is dubbed Public Enemy Number One, and Captain Smek knows that capturing the alien is the only way he'll stand a chance in the Boovs' first-ever presidential election.
With the help of a friendly flying billboard named Bill, a journey through various garbage chutes, a bit of time travel, and a slew of hilarious Boovish accents, Tip and J.Lo must fight to set the record straight-and return home in once piece.

(272 pages)

This wasn't as good as the first book, featuring a lot more fluff and a lot less message, but I still enjoyed it. Tip is a bit more angsty this time around, but that doesn't take over the plot too much. It was a lot of fun seeing the Boov in their "native" habitat (as it were), and meet more than just J.Lo.

The Boov are simply hilarious, even when they're being serious, and I loved seeing how they lived (in these house/bubble things), communicated with each other (an argument over whether J.Lo will eat the Koobish "now or later" is particularly memorable), and ran their government (I'm pretty sure I couldn't just walk into Obama's reception room and ask for an appointment in the oval office!). The slightly stale feel to the second book doesn't really have too large an effect on the excitement level, and I was still gripped all the way through. It's just that after I put it down, I didn't feel like I had gleaned much from it - except maybe a lesson about mother-daughter relationships, and that honestly felt a little forced.

There's not much more I can say about the book, because it was really just a goofy romp through Smekday. Tip was, as I said above, as awesome a narrator as ever except for when she was getting a little angsty about her mom, J.Lo was still absolutely amazing, and the new characters introduced in this book were pretty awesome as well (although Smek was only awesome as in "awesomely, hilariously bad - in every sense of the word"). Also, the ending made like no sense but it's fine. I'm cool with that. What more could I expect from a universe where there's such a thing as Koobish, edible pets?

So yeah. If you've read the first book, by all means grab a copy of Smek for President. It won't blow your socks off the way The True Meaning of Smekday did, but it sure will make you laugh.

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, 2007

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It all starts with a school essay.
When twelve-year-old Gratuity (“Tip”) Tucci is assigned to write five pages on “The True Meaning of Smekday” for the National Time Capsule contest, she’s not sure where to begin. When her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended on the Earth and the aliens – called Boov – abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it “Smekland” (in honor of glorious Captain Smek), and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod?
In any case, Gratuity’s story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo.; a futile journey south to find Gratuity’s mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion.
Fully illustrated with “photos,” drawings, newspaper clippings, and comics sequences, this is a hilarious, perceptive, genre-bending novel by a remarkable new talent. the planet from a really big catastrophe.

(423 pages)

I heard really excellent things about The True Meaning of Smekday, so I decided to read it even though my mother really didn't like it (she thought it was stupid). After finishing it, on one hand I can see what she means about the book being stupid fluff - after all, it's a silly book about a girl and an alien driving across the country in a floating car after the aliens invaded Earth. Yeah, not a lot of depth there. But on a different level, a deeper level, The True Meaning of Smekday is much more than a silly romp through cliche action tropes. On that other level, it's actually mocking those cliches. Case in point: this quote from the book (which I added to Goodreads because it was too long to put in here).

Underneath the entertainment fluff, it's actually a pretty serious look at racism and "racial superiority." There are a lot of parallels between the Boov's colonization of Earth and the European colonization of America, and I think it's an amazing way to point out the terrible mistakes made in the past through a first-hand exploration of the colonization of the Boov, who honestly believe that humans are basically like dogs and don't really mind being relocated into cramped human reservations. The parallel is accentuated by one of the secondary characters, a Native American man who has spent his entire life dealing with bias. It's also extremely powerful, at least to me, that every time Tip talks about her mother she has to explain to people that her mom is Caucasian, not African American. The idea that a black girl can have a white mom doesn't jive with people's perceptions of race, and it throws them for a loop.

But enough about the serious stuff. Let's get into the characters who make this book so funny! Tip is a fun narrator because she's so down-to-earth and sarcastic. She is such a realist it's hilarious, and she's constantly saying things like "this is the way things should happen: [insert what usually happens in novels] . . . and, yeah, that didn't happen." This was incredibly refreshing to read, and made her feel so much more realistic. Her life isn't like something out of a storybook, things happen that are messy and ridiculous and embarrassing. And sure, crazy stuff happens that will never, ever happen in real life, but it never feels like the book jumps off the real end because Tip is just so . . . so human that it really feels like her story is perfectly reasonable.

Now let's talk about J.Lo. He has to be my favorite character! I love his way of speaking English, slurring words together and using them incorrectly at the funniest times. He's like a combination of an adult and a little kid, altering between adult-level skills (like dealing with complicated machinery) and making kiddy mistakes/having the simplistic reasoning skills of a child. It works out to be hilarious, and heartwarming, and I just want to bring J.Lo home and have a long conversation with him about, I don't know, just about anything so I can hear more of his goofy reasoning.

All in all, a great book that I highly recommend. It's the most engaging social commentary I've ever read, and the awesome thing about it is that you can totally not pick up on any of the underlying messages, and still have a great time with it! The message doesn't drive the plot, the characters drive the plot and the message just kind of hitches a ride underneath.

P.S. You've probably heard of the movie Home, which is based on The True Meaning of Smekday. I watched it right after finishing the book, and I really enjoyed it. You should definitely watch it if you're interested. Don't watch the movie first, though, because it cuts out a lot of the best parts from the book, and spoils the rest of them!