I had most of Christmas week off this year, and I took advantage of that time to do some shorter-book reading. Imaginary Girls is a book I've had sitting on my shelf for a while -- an ARC I got from work -- and finally picked up. It was an atmospheric, slightly creepy, slightly disturbing head-trip kind of book. I liked it, but didn't love it. I kept waiting for a little bit more...more resolution or explanation maybe. But I also fully realize that may be more me than the book, becuase it was definitely well-written, just not for me.


The second book I read over break was Lament by Maggie Stiefvater. I'm a big fan of Steifvater's books, but had never read her first-published series. Lament is a fairy book in the traditional fairies-are-beautiful-and-amoral-and-certainly-never-to-be-trusted way. Even though it's set in Virginia, it feels like a Celtic story, and I really dug that. In addition to the "homicidal fairies," this book is a love story, with an intense, love-at-first-sight kind of romance. Not my favorite kind of romance, but I enjoyed the story and characters enough to not mind so much. It's easy to see how Steifvater's craft has just gotten better over the years, but even if this book is a bit rougher than her most recent work, it's still got that great story-telling quality that I enjoy about her books.