Book Review Poison Princess by Kresley Cole ( Arcana Chronicles 1)

Why does a 67year old librarian positively enjoy reading and reviewing the deceptively sweetly entitled YA book Poison Princess by Kresley Cole, is it to relive her angst-filled teenage years , well, er , no since at no time in my teenage years was I ever offered the possibility of reading material in which various bad boys were beaten to living pulps by the hero, or innocent girls wearing rusty iron collars and filthy rags were imprisoned next to corpses in secret basements-well I guess I could go on ( did I say the title was deceptive) - the closest thing, I guess, was Catcher in the Rye -- or maybe a particularly violent Shakespeare tragedy , and they are not in the same ballpark or the same universe, for that matter. Well, now that I think of it, maybe that is precisely why I do read these post apocalyptic tales, because of my complete lack of access to them in my teenage years and they touch precisely upon all those forbidden sights, sounds, thoughts and curiosities that all teens have. Teen books are kind of like graphic novels for adults -- only the graphic parts are in your head ( much more interesting and less intrusive than all of the chaos presented in the little boxes) and the written part is just much more satisfying to read. They offer additional benefits -- they teach valuable lessons to teens despite their violence, explicit sexuality, and mind boggling angst. Kresley Cole is a wordsmith -- her sentences are lyrical, her vocabulary is rich, she is able to conjure magic and desire . She also understands some of the fundamental problems that teenagers of any era have -- the scary search for identity and the scary coming of age , who am I, who should I choose to love, am I at all loveable, how can I be all things to all people -- well we all know about them, we have all lived them.
 The premise of this post-apocalyptic novel is rather ridiculous at best -- it will certainly not appeal to anybody with the least knowledge of science -- The earth tilts, or the sun comes too near, we know not how, and the world lies in waste, crops burned, the oceans sucked dry, people turned into liquid filled zombies searching for any moisture, militia groups wander the countryside searching for food, weapons, and any available young girl, a class of cannibals arises as the food supplies dwindle. Amongst the survivors is Evangeline, by day, before the Flash, a high school glamour queen trying to please everyone to the highest level, angsting over holding on to her boyfriend by giving up her" V card" to him , and by night a crazy, hallucinating Cassandra, envisioning the apocalypse. Into her life cycles the delicious Cajun bad boy Jackson ( Jack to his friends) Deveaux. He is by far the most appealing and best written character because he is real and tangible and lets his feelings all hang out .He is a survivor of brutal poverty, child abuse, prison, physical and emotional starvation and disillusion -He solves problems over and over again with his fists and his feigned disdain for his "betters". His mother is an alcoholic , his home a desolate shambles, yet of all the other teenage characters, he exhibits the most passion and lust for living - a brilliant star among the other teens beset with such problems as what should I wear, who should I sleep with and am I getting good enough grades to get into that college ( no disrespect to teens here, this is how the other teens are written, not the way real teenagers are) After the Flash, he literally drags Eva away from her house and , through skills in hunting, evading, hiding and killing which have gotten him though his life, saves her from vile zombies, truly terrifying militias, he feeds her, protects her, and loves her in his own rough way, because he does not know how to court her. In the meantime, Eva is acquiring the characteristics of the Empress, one
of the powerful members of the arcana ( hence Arcana Chronicles) in Tarot -- the powerful mother goddess who can command plants to grow, flourish and kill, whose claws are tipped with deadly poison. To me this tarot conceit is rather far fetched and strange -- in their odyssey ( how I love the symbolic and real journeys of characters ) Jackson and Evangeline meet other teens in varying states of transition and learn about the immense battles to come amongst the Arcana. What is most wonderful to me, is that all this forced arcana nonsense can be read on different levels which, I , as a old person, find myself wanting to
do since people with super powers hold absolutely no appeal for me whatsoever. We see Eva and the other arcana members hiding behind their powers,fearing their destinies, wearing masks -- much as teens may do themselves because the whole idea of self-actualization, of becoming a whole person is so difficult in those years when you are overwhelmed by sensation and expectation. We see them act in remarkably immature and selfish ways-
-Eva gains her power (very much against her will) but in doing so loses the trust of Jackson her passionate protector who only wants to take her back south where they can live a real life, where she can be his. The thought of a man loving and possessing a woman both literally and figuratively is evidently as frightening today as it was  appealing 50 years ago. Perhaps this is because of the plethora of choices young people have today. What was once considered normal human behaviour pales before the glittering possibilities. But sometimes the glittering lures deceive. So Jackson loses his ability to protect Eva because she no longer needs his skills. He needs to accept, change, develop in order to pursue her. And so the book ends - it is hoped, however, that, like the Hunger Games trilogy developed, that this one will succeed in teaching the characters that masks and superpowers and violent , endless conflict, adventure and death, are no competition for simply being human, knowing your own limitations, acquiring useful skills and loving relationships and gratitude for those who deeply love you and sacrifice themselves for you -- in short, it is Jackson, and not the phony masks and powers of the Arcana, who  triumphs.