Female Assassins Are So Fetch

Female assassins. It just sounds good, right? It sounds like bad ass, feminist candy. It sounds like my new favorite trope.

In actuality I have only read three YA books with female assassins but I love them all and therefore raise them up into magnificence.

 Graceling by Kristin Cashore 

                          

 

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

 

 

Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers

 

 

1. Fantasy

As soon as I realized my love for female assassins I also realized that they were all fantasy. Which makes sense...in a way. In order for women assassins to be sensationalized in a culture that culture has to be pretty restrictive to women. And since fantasy usually takes place in a medieval setting this is set up nicely. Also, assassins mostly go after people in the royal court or royal family. Bam! Fantasy.

However...all of these girls are "special" because of the effects of their fantasy world. Katsa is born with the extraordinary skill to kill and survive. Ismae is marked by Death and trained to be his handmaiden. Caleana may seem like your regular deadly assassin but with her mysterious past there is undoubtedly something fantastical lurking under the surface.

So is it really that feminist? Hard to say.

2. Levels of Girliness

As I said before I love all three girls, dearly. They just rubbed me the wrong way sometimes.

Katsa. Girliness Level: -2
It isn't how she dresses, or keeps her hair short or her intolerance of most men. It really isn't. It is the fact that she rejects everything female, to the point of denouncing marriage and children. A lot of people have problems with this and Cashore has received some grief on the subject so I'm not going to go on and on.

It's just hard to fully connect with  a "strong female" who doesn't even like being a girl. In my opinion Katsa is a bit too extreme but, hey, that's her choice and her personality so I respect it.

Ismae. Girliness Level: 5

LaFevers has a wonderfully balanced female character in Ismae. She loves being so capable and even loves making all those arrogant men pee their pants a little. She enjoys the freedom of being less feminine. YET. Yet she doesn't lose her femininity. She still appreciates dressing up and looking nice and bonding with other women.

As a girl I admired Ismae's strength and skill without losing camaraderie with her. I could see myself in Ismae, in her vulnerability and struggles to do the right thing.

Calaena. Girliness Level: 9
My, my, isn't Calaena snarky and whip smart! I loved her confidence and even, at times, her arrogance.

Mix this superior attitude with atypical longing for material things and beauty though and I have middle school flashbacks. Did Calaena need to be so materialistic? Did she need to use her beauty as her weapon? Maybe not but that is her character and while it didn't sit right with me at times I still liked her.

In summary: Katsa is too manly, Calaena is too girly and Ismae is just right. God, I sound like a horrible feminist right now but I'm just being honest. Some psychological introspection is probably needed but there is my opinion. (this post has some great points)

3. Court Intrigue

Dear God, I love court intrigue! Perhaps it stems back to Shakespeare and Chaucer but it is so satisfying to follow the dramas of the high and mighty. Us peasants just don't have those big, society altering dilemmas very often. Add assassins to the mix and everything gets so deliciously complex that my fragile heart can barely take it.

It is so cathartic somehow. And it's the classic "wow, my problems look so puny and easy compared to these peoples". Also it's the "even though this is no way resembles my problems I definitely feel this way, this character totally understands".

(this post is getting so articulate as it progresses)

4. ...IN SPACE

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every plot gets better when your add "in space" to it. My favorite is pregnant teenage boarding school in space.

So you can probably guess what is on my Christmas Wish List this year. Yep, FEMALE ASSASSINS IN SPACE.

Can anybody do me a solid and write this?

Now that would be fetch.

Please comment with your thoughts on female assassins, especially if you disagree with me or have something new to add :)

Joint Book Review: Shatter Me and Incarnate

After reading--and really enjoying--Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi I moved on to Incarnate by Jodi Meadows. I was suprised and pleased to find that they shared some interesting ideas and themes.

Here are thier synopsis from Goodreads:

" Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel."

"New soul
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

No soul
Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

Heart
Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana's enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life."

Wow. Don't you just want to go devour these books and then horde them forever?

If those enticing bits are too much for you then I say shoo! Go forth! Read read read!

Are you still here? Did you just get back from reading these two yummy nuggets of awesome? Nice...

The main thing that inspired me to write this joint book review (comparison? analysis?) was the heroines: Juliette and Ana. I would describe them both as isolated, unprecidented, abused, powerful and underestimated. They are in the position of being the first of thier kind and are therefore constantly in danger. Juliette can kill with a touch. Ana is the first new soul in 5,000 years. They have many enemies and no friends. But that is about to change...

The boys *Victorian swoon* The BOYS! Just by virtue of allying with these girls alone I would love them. They're not the bad boy or the unattainable guy or the clown or the super bad ass. What I loved so much about them is that they weren't cookie cutter but they were the smart-girl choice. Things they had in common: mature, passionate, responsible, sacrificing and not threatened by strong women. It takes a special guy to break down the walls that Juliette and Ana have built around themselves and these guys were perfect for the job. Although I love me a good love triangle I really appreciated the abscence of one in these novels. As a reader I was able to focus on one couple, I knew where to put my energy and hopes. The world outside the romance was where I needed to put my anxiety and I found that refreshing.

Next on the roster are the worlds that Mafi and Meadows created. Shatter Me is set in a dystopian future shrouded in mystery. A new goverment has taken over and wants to effectively destroy the past. Incarnate takes place in fantasy world that resembles our own in minor ways but is completely original in major ways. It is baffling to think about a group of people who can essentially live forever (of course they have to body hop, but for immortality? psh whatevs) and what that would mean culturally and socially. Juliette lives among chaos and drastic change. Ana brings the chaos and drastic change. Seeing as this is science fiction compared to fantasy these books stayed true to thier genres. Some cool connections my brain made (because my brain never concentrates for long, too much of a free spirit that one) involved some all time scy fy and fantasy favorites. Shatter Me definetly has some X-Men elements that I really look forward to being explored in further novels. On the other hand Incarnate reminded me of Lord of the Rings with modern elements. Mostly because of dragons but also because of sylph eggs and a magic city that came out of nowhere. How did Heart get there??? Yet again I must wait for the sequels. Le sigh.

The point of this joint review isn't meant to pick a winner, it isn't a contest. However I am dying to talk about the strong elements that aren't necessarily shared by both novels.

1. Steamy Romance. Boy does Shatter Me have this in spades! I was all blushy and had to resist the urge to fan myself and kept thinking "this is so much hotter than most YA...hooray!" Don't get me wrong Incarnate gets nice and steamy but its not as prominent. Think about it: Juliette hasn't been touched/held/cherished her whole life. And when she gets a taste of that, well...*gives in and fans herself*

2. Character Building. For me Incarnate hits this out of the park and its all because of the complexity of souls and Sam. This beautiful boy has lived for thousands of years, lived and died, as a man, as a woman, had every job imaginable. He was like this huge onion (cake? parfait?) and I couldn't go through his layers fast enough. And yes he made me tearing up (Megan: making onion analogies work since This Sentence).

3. World Building. Both books were successful but for very different reasons. Incarnate benefited from being a fantasy which requires a good deal of background and doesn't require a super fast pace. I was fascinated by the culture and religion and history that Meadows dreamed up. Shatter Me on the other hand needed to be action packed and able to keep the reader on the edge of their seat. I was totally satisfied by Mafi's dystopian future but have a ton of questions that I trust will be answered in time.

In conclusion: I love how complex characters, original worlds and satisfying romances are being written for YA more and more. Shatter Me and Incarnate are amazing debut novels that give you substance and fun and an unquenchable thirst for more.