Why "The Fire & Ice Book Series" is Middle Grade Fiction | Olivia J

"The road to hell is paved with adverbs," -Stephen King

I love indie authors. I love supporting indie authors. It's basically a part of my brand at this point. 

I also believe that all feedback is good feedback - save from things that are purely subjective and comments that aren't constructive criticism. 

I know that a lot of people love this series. I know that Erin has found a lot of success with this series, and that's great. I'm glad other people have enjoyed it and have been inspired by it. 

However, I personally don't get the hype. 

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If you're interested, my review for The Elementals can be found under the 2 star rating section here, and my review for The Lost Dreamer can be found under the 3 star rating section here, but they're not essential to understanding this blog post. 

But let's get on with why you actually clicked on this blog post . . . 

The Fire & Ice Book Series is Middle Grade Fiction

Forbes herself brands the Fire & Ice Book Series as a YA fantasy series, which is incorrect on several levels. The characters are sixteen, so that must mean it's YA, right? 

Wrong. 

This series is Middle Grade. It's not Young Adult.  It's important that you know this right off the bat, because if you go into this book thinking it's MG fantasy, then you'll probably like it. Unfortunately, I went into F&I series believing that it was YA, and this greatly impacted my perception of the series. 

I found this amazing article on Writer's Digest about the key differences between MG and YA.  It makes compelling points on why F&I is not YA. I will be using this article as evidence to support my points. I highly recommend checking this post out - it's super insightful.

The complexity and themes are what differentiates these two genres - not just age ranges. MG usually has to do with friendship, family, and the character's reactions to the immediate world around them. However, YA concerns itself with love, changing relationships, how the character fits into the world on a grander scale, and self-discovery/reflection. YA often tackles heavier and more nuanced content and themes, and MG has more of a focus on adventure and good overcoming evil. 

In all these cases, F&I fits the criteria for MG and not YA. I'm not saying that F&I should have been grimdark, but what I am saying is that in order for F&I to truly qualify for a YA title, it must earn it by fulfilling the conventions of the genre. 

For example, our main character Alice Hanley - and all of the characters for that matter - are undeniably good. The Elementals are good, and the Creatures of the Night Oak Forest and Cleo Lennox are bad. This kind of simplistic, black and white categorization is usually nowhere to be found in YA books, because teens have the self-awareness that the world and people are much more complex than that. When reading The Lost Dreamer, I felt so much sympathy for Cleo Lennox. She has the potential to be such an interesting and nuanced character in future books, but Erin glossed over all of the interesting things we could have explored with Cleo and wrote her as evil and vindictive. Granted, the end of The Lost Dreamer left this plot open-ended, so I'm hoping for some more interesting development with Cleo. 

The problem is that the way F&I goes about tackling its themes is characteristic of MG. Things are allowed to be a bit more cut-and-dry in MG, but not YA. F&I does a whole lot of telling in every aspect (characters, world, everything), which, again, you can get away with more in MG than in YA - and this is due to the nature of the audience. Older teenagers are able to think for themselves and deduce information from context clues - aspects of the story and characters can be more subtle, nuanced, and not stated outright. In contrast, middle-grade readers need to be spoon-fed certain aspects. And this isn't bad, it's just a hallmark of the genre. 

Now I'm not saying that Middle Grade isn't as deep or as complex as Young Adult,  because that's simply not true. What I am saying is that the two genres are deep and complex in different ways, and they both have different methods of going about it. 

To clarify, the fact that I'm insisting that F&I is not YA and is MG is not necessarily critique of the work itself. It's a critique of the branding and the genre choice that Erin Forbes has made. She would find much more success if she branded F&I as MG instead of YA. 

If you go into reading this with the mindset that The Fire & Ice Book Series is an uplifting and whimsical Middle Grade series, then you'll probably enjoy them. 

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*Phew*. That was a lot. Congrats if you made it to the end.  I haven't done one of this literary analysis blog posts in a while, mostly because they take a lot of time and mental energy, and those are two things I'm quite short of these days. 

~The WordShaker

Book Review: Bus 59 & A Half by Mel Ingrid | Olivia J

"Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now," -Ernest Hemingway

I feel like my book blogging goes through phases. Just like everything else in my life. 

Oh well. Welcome Back to Olivia's Hodgepodge of A Blog, where some weeks we analyze the nuances of literature and film and other times Olivia posts whatever emo or self-serving shit she wants. It's a gamble, really. 

But anyways, I'm back to reading and reviewing indie books, which is one of my favorite hobbies. This installment is a review of Mel Ingrid's debut, Bus 59 & A Half. 

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As per usual, let's get the negatives out of the way. 

Spoilers, duh.

The Bad

1. Cluttered Narrative

B59AAH follows several different narratives, all in third person. B59AAH also has a large cast of characters, from Alexi and Reid, to Dana and Ace, to Yusuf and Frank . . . the list goes on. While I did enjoy how the characters and their stories were interconnected, most of the time it all felt a bit too much. With so many characters and so many things going on in such a short book, very few characters were able to be developed to the fullest, and it was hard to get invested in all of the storylines. 

Another problem was a lack of narrative focus. Who is the main character? The beginning will have you believe it is Alexi, but by the end, it's obvious that Yusuf is the main character. This also relates to there being so many perspectives and storylines. Because there is so much going on, it's unclear who we're supposed to be rooting for and who we're not. At times, Frank seemed like he'd turn out to be "the bad guy", but then he didn't do much for the rest of the book after Alexi, Ace, and Vanessa were captured. 

Also, having this many storylines covering so much of the plot and covering so many characters, it undercuts the story being a successful mystery/psychological thriller. If Ingrid wanted the readers to truly be hooked, then she should have left much more to the imagination, and left some larger reveals toward the end. Keeping things a mystery is what makes a mystery a mystery. Ways this could have been fixed were to have cut out several different narratives, and really condense the story into something with razor-sharp focus and proper development that would truly hook and thrill the reader. 

B59AAH has so much potential. There's a really good story here, but it's bogged down with too many perspectives and a lack of focus. Because there are so many characters and story threads, we never get fully invested in any of them. 

2. Pacing

B59AAH is a scant 170 pages, and this definitely shows in the development and pacing of the story. Everything in B59AAH happens so fast - and sometimes, that's good. But not at the expense of proper development. 

For example, the conflict that arises between Frank and Yusuf in Chapter Four and Five begins, culminates, and comes to a head very rapidly. The problem is that Ingrid is introducing and developing characters while simultaneously trying to develop and further character arcs. The reader has just been introduced to these characters - there's no way that we can be invested in Frank's character arc and the massive complexities of his character in the first chapter we're introduced to him. By having him go through such drastic emotions and such drastic change in such a short period of time feels rushed and undeserved, especially since Frank has little to nothing to do after Chapters Four and Five. 

This theme continues on throughout the book. Not enough time and care is dedicated to characters like Mark, Reid, Frank, etc., who have the potential to further enrich the story and the characters to whom they're related to (Vanessa, Dana, and Yusuf). While many characters were written with finesse, others were just there. If B59AAH was given about a hundred pages more of development, the reader would have been able to be fully immersed in the story and in all of the characters.

The timeline also feels very rushed. Mysteries and thrillers are often slow burns, with just enough information to keep the reader turning one more page, with startling reveals throughout. However, B59AAH moves so fast that there's virtually no room for the reader to breathe, for the weight of a moment to sink in, or for proper and in-depth character, plot, or theme development. Emotional moments breeze by, and even when they're written well, they don't sink in because we've spent so little time with all of these characters. 

Bus 59 and A Half would be a great story if the narratives and character arcs were drawn out and properly developed. It's not like a story with this many perspectives, this type of story, and these kinds of characters wouldn't ever work - it's just that B59AAH is much too short of a medium to do any of the elements justice. 

And now . . . 

The Good

1. Mature Writing

Ingrid is fourteen currently, and I was immediately impressed with her use of language. While the pacing falls short, her writing rarely fails to evoke a sense of tension. Her writing is quirky and atmospheric and actually fits perfectly with the mystery/thriller genre. 

I loved her inclusion of poetry, with the prologues and epilogues. The cryptic writing, albeit curt and clipped in many emotional moments, works to benefit the tone of the novel. 

Ingrid is also skilled at writing dialogue. The conversations between Alexi and Reid, I felt, were the most profound in  terms of character. The beginning of B59AAH is so incredibly strong. We really do get essential snapshots of each character, however, not much else is expanded upon with the fantastic groundwork that Ingrid set up. 

But really, despite all that I've said, I really did enjoy B59AAH, and I think the skilled writing added to that enjoyment. 

2. Diversity

Mel Ingrid does diversity right. I was pleasantly surprised at how diverse B59AAH was - and the fact that it doesn't rub your nose in it. Diversity is present, but it doesn't overpower the story nor does it define the entirity of the characters. The diversity in B59AAH is awesome and beautiful, and it deserves a round of applause for that alone. 

3. The Mental Illness Themes

This one's another small one, but super important. The moral behind Yusuf's character arc, summed up in the line about how mental illness isn't just angst or pretty tears or beautiful, but that it's actually very painful and destructive. Not only did this pleasantly surprise me, it's very relevant.  


Final Thoughts

Overall, Bus 59 & A Half isn't bad - just short, fast, and unfortunately underdeveloped. What saves it are it's clean and efficient writing, and it's themes and use of diversity. 

Objective Rating: 6.5/10
Enjoyment Level: 7/10

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Gah! Another book review complete! Get used to seeing these in your feed because I've got lots of indie books I want to discuss!

~The WordShaker