Infandous by Elana K. Arnold

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Infandous is raw, gripping readers with hideous fairy tales and myths, weaving them into Sephora's life.  Each of these seems unrelated to the overall story, but with each chapter narrated by Sephora, you can see how she is living them, to a degree. 

There are so many angles to this story that pull away layers of love, pain, truth, fear, and acceptance.  It's not a feel-good book that will make you long for the romance of it all.  It is a gritty look at what life is really like sometimes.  Sometimes you have no read choices; sometimes you're thrown into the storm that other people have cast around you and the best thing you can do is try to keep your head above water and get through it.

Arnold gives us an unapologetic look at the dark side of love.  Sephora has secrets that will hurt everyone she loves, but they hurt her most of all.  She can't see a way around the choices she (or anyone else in her life) has made.  And she can't imagine a life for herself that is separate from her mother's.  She does give us the courage to look at horrifying things and hope that they might be overcome, no matter the brusque tone of the narration, or the utter helplessness you feel as more is revealed.  For such a grim book, I was oddly buoyed by it.  I highly recommend you try it.

Infandous by Elana K. Arnold: Fantastic!  Available from booksellers and libraries in March of 2015.

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

It's hard to know where to begin talking about this book.  There is the driving force of the life-sustaining need for a witch on Prince Island.  There is the tension produced between a the girl who wants to become the witch and the mother who would do anything to keep her from it, and the tension between the same girl who wants to learn from the grandmother who blames her for failing lessons the grandmother never taught.  Then there is, of course, the relationship that develops between Avery and Tane, in spite of everything. 

I had issues with the writing and the story line, but some things can be overlooked for the sake of a good tale and others cannot. The one I can't overlook is the writing.  There is almost no variance in sentence structure- every single one is long, with an overabundance of the word "and."  This does lend itself to the historical aspect of the book.  At times, though, it makes it less engaging and more of a question of unnecessarily dragging things out.

Avery is incredibly strong as a character, never giving up hope that she'll figure out how to unlock her magic.  What that magic is, exactly, is never really explained.  It's protection, I get that, but whaling itself was a dying industry at that point, and the island would never be able to sustain itself on that tack forever.  There's not even a hint that Avery would be able to adapt her magic to help in any other venture that would provide the islanders with their futures beyond whaling.  So what protection could the unlocking of her magic really give? 

Overall, I liked Salt and Storm.  I think it needs some polishing in the writing and some fixing of holes in the story line, but I did read a galley copy and am hopeful that these things are addressed in the final product.  I especially liked that this is a stand-alone book in a YA world chokingly full of series-based stories.  

3 of 5 stars.