Books That Go Bump in the Night
Posted by: J.C. on: March 22, 2009
I’ve decided to resurrect my old blog, Books That Go Bump in the Night.
It’s primarily a vehicle to show off and discuss my Halloween book collection. I’ll still be reviewing books here, but likely most of the horror themed books will be reviewed over there. Or maybe not. We shall see.
Spring Reading Thing!
Posted by: J.C. on: March 20, 2009
- In: Challenges
- 5 Comments
Callapidder Days is hosting the 2009 Spring Reading Thing. It sounds like fun, so I’m joining.
These are the books I will be reading between now and June 20th:
- Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
- Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock
- Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson
- September Sisters by Jillian Canto
- My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath
- Gidget by Frederick Kohner
I know I could read much more than that and I might be adding to the list as I go on.
Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Posted by: J.C. on: March 20, 2009
Imagine living in a world surrounded by death. Isolated and behind a fence, the only thing separating you from the deep, vast forest where the Unconsecrated- the flesh easting zombie hordes–roam. This is the world of Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth. The world Mary has been born into. The only world she knows, but dreams is not the only world there is. After her mother’s death and return, Mary realizes that her life is not her own. Who she is and everything she knows has been tightly controlled by the Sisterhood, the ruling religious order in her village. When Mary catches a glimpse of proof that there is life beyond the Forest of Hands and Teeth, Mary is determined to find the answers she desperately needs. She must follow her own path, a path that leads deep into the forest.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a breathtaking novel of death and life, love and dreams. At once filled with treacherous secrets and life-giving truths. There’s violence and raw emotions, but there’s also heartbreaking, tender moments. This is so much more than a run of the mill zombie apocalypse novel. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is the after. It’s what happens long after people stop fighting the walking dead and resign themselves to just surviving. This is a story of a people who cannot remember how the world was before. There is no struggle to maintain life as it was.To these people, there is no other life. The past, a life without the Unconsecrated, is just stories. Stories that Mary desperately wants to be real.
Mary is an incredibly strong heroine, but she is still believable. She is not strong to the point of being invincible. Her relationships are realistic, as are her emotions and reactions.
Aside from Mary, the most penetrating aspect of the novel for me is the role of religion, both positive and negative, in a society that has no reason to hope, surrounded by death, despair and decay. A society that knows what the afterlife looks like. On one hand, the Sisterhood gives a semblance of order, a reason for the chaos. Sister Tabitha, the head of the Sisterhood, tells Mary that the Unconsecrated are God’s punishments, penance for cheating death and God’s will. On the other hand, the oppressive religious influence further isolates the villagers, and in essence only creates more chaos, more despair, and sets them up for more tragedy. If the Unconsecrated are reminders of human sins of commission, then the horrific events that transpire later are reminders of the Sisterhood’s sins of omission. The secrets they kept came back to bite them, literally!
I can’t say I’m unhappy with the recent influx of zombie themed novels in YA literature. I find them a nice contrast to the glamourous portrayal of death in so many vampire novels. The Forest of Hands and Teeth shows the other side of death- the decay, the dirt, the violence, the sorrow. There is no beauty in this world. No beauty in hovering between true life and true death. The beauty is in surviving. The beauty is in loving. If vampire novels give you something to die for, then The Forest of Hands and Teeth gives you something to live for.
This is young adult literature at its best. Mature, intelligent, and appealing. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a look at a world where dreams are sometimes all you have and love can’t always win over death.
Rating: 5 unnaturally red vests out of 5.
Review: The Roar by Emma Clayton
Posted by: J.C. on: March 20, 2009
On a future version of the Earth where nature and animals are not revered and respected, but instead feared and destroyed, the entire planet’s population lives behind massive concrete walls to protect them from the Animal Plague. Into this dystopian world, in dreary future-London, twins Mika and Ellie are born and raised in the damp, moldy lower level of the city until one day Ellie goes missing. Everyone but Mika believes that Ellie is dead. When the Youth Development Foundation begins running a contest using video games, Mika knows that winning the contest is the only way to rescue his twin from the clutches of sinister Mal Gorman. As Mika moves through the contest levels, he discovers secrets that were never supposed to be revealed. Secrets that change lives and shake the very foundation upon which life behind the wall has been built.
The Roar by Emma Clayton is a fast-paced futuristic adventure with likable characters and an interesting setting. The Sci-Fi aspects are non-technical enough to appeal to those opposed or unfamiliar with the genre.
The Roar is a very kid-centric novel, which is a large part of its appeal. Parents take a back seat and while some might bristle at the portrayal of the parents as uninterested, naive, and oblivious, with the parents out of the way, the kids can take a more prevalent role, allowing them to not be in positions where adults can rush in and save them. This is a kids against the world story and that’s what makes it fun.
The Roar is also a nice social commentary on the treatment of the natural world, the influence of the media, and classism.
This entertaining novel has a wide-open ending, ripe for a sequel.
Rating: 4 packets of Fit Mix out of 5.
Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Posted by: J.C. on: March 20, 2009
I was starting to feel like the only one in YA-lit land that hadn’t read The Hunger Games. That feeling soon turned into “well, it’s probably overhyped anyway…”
Sour grapes, and all that.
Let me just say, wow! This lived up to the hype. I didn’t want it to end. I was completely captivated by the dystopian world Suzanne Collins created.
Katniss is a great character, strong and likable. There’s compelling amounts of drama and a nice dash of romance. Sometimes in books like this, romance can seem forced, included only to appeal to teenage girls. Not so in this case. Katniss and Peeta’s love story adds another dimension to their fight to survive the Hunger Games, the brutal reality show competition used as a means of control by the tyrannous government of Panem, formerly North America.
The Hunger Games is just wonderful. I can’t wait for the sequel.
Rating: 5 mockingjays out of 5.
Review: Seven Tears into the Sea by Terri Farley
Posted by: J.C. on: March 20, 2009
Seven years ago, Gwenn had a strange experience at the beach with a dark haired boy. He tells her:
“Beckon the sea, I’ll come to thee…
Shed seven tears, perchance seven years.”
It’s an experience shrouded in mystery and gossip and drives her family to move away from Gwenn’s beloved beach. Now, Gwenn has returned to Mirage Beach to help her Nana run the inn. But as Gwenn finds herself drawn more and more to the sea, she finds it impossible to forget the words the boy spoke. Have the boy’s words sealed her fate? What about the odd prophecy her Nana saw in her scrying mirror?
“The power which commands the waves will pull you back, [...] Back to a reunion no mortal can imagine and no female can resist.”
Will Gwenn reunite with the boy from the beach? Gwenn must decide if destiny is unavoidable or if destiny can be a choice. Seven Tears into the Sea by Terri Farley is a rich, mythical novel, seeped in Celtic lore.
I’ll start by saying if I had known what this was really about, I probably wouldn’t have read it. Too much to suspend disbelief over, I suppose.
Anyway, I did read it and it wasn’t bad by any means. The prose is taut and has an almost forboding sense about it. The characterization is fairly well done and the plot moves at a good pace. But like I said, just not my cup of tea.
If you like Celtic mythology and folklore, you might want to pick this up.
Rating: 3.5 buckets of raw fish out of 5.
Review: Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell
Posted by: J.C. on: March 19, 2009
In a small Louisiana town where nothing exciting has happened since the disappearance of Elijah years before they were even born, fourteen year old Ivy and her best friend Collette, bored with their lives in a boring town, dabble with magic and spirits. It’s all play until Ivy sees the real ghost of the missing boy, Elijah. Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell is a story of a girl haunted by much more than a ghost as she struggles to solve a mystery, navigate a stormy friendship and a first crush, and deal with her own coming-of-age.
While the young girl haunted by a ghost plot has been done before in many incarnations, Shadowed Summer is worth the read. Early on, it becomes apparent that it’s as much a story of a family, a town, secrets, and tragedies both small and large as it is a ghost story. That’s not to say the ghost story is superfluous or feels tacked on to ride the paranormal trend wave. Elijah and his haunting of Ivy is the catalyst that forces Ivy to reevaluate her friends, her family, and all that she has been told.
The setting, post-Katrina Louisiana, in a town named Ondine, where Ivy says people are “bred with God and superstition in [their] blood” is what really won me over. I don’t think this would have worked as well had it been set in suburban New England or amidst urban sprawl. This is an atmospheric novel. It’s very Southern-feeling, mossy and humid.
The characters are likable enough, though at times they seem a little younger than they actually are. Overall, Shadowed Summer read like a middle-grade novel, and I think it would be entirely appropriate for the older members of that audience.
Recommended.
Rating: 4 witch boards out of 5.
Review: Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia
Posted by: J.C. on: March 13, 2009
Told in three alternating perspectives, Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of one school day in the life of three very different girls at an inner city high school: Dominique, the tough basketball player determined to teach another classmate a lesson; Trina, the pretty and artistic girl unaware of what she’s in for once the final bell rings; and Leticia, the observer of it all from start to finish who must decide to take action and warn Trina, or just let it happen.
This novel shines. The prose is honest, and at times has almost a Slam poetry feel to it. But the real centerpiece of the novel is the characters. Jumped is almost a character study in a way. Each of the three girls are much more than they seem. The writing never stoops to stereotypes or caricatures.
For me, Leticia is the one who brings everything together. Her observations reign the other girl’s perspectives in and put small details in focus. At one point, Leticia sums up the crux of the novel, the reason Trina is getting jumped, a fact of life that Trina is not aware of, and Dominique follows without verbalizing:
“When you’re an outsider, you should know your situation. Know who you are when you step out. Know what you can and can’t do.”
However, Leticia’s observations are not meant to influence readers into judgments of the characters. Readers are really left to decide for themselves what to think of the characters and their actions.
Jumped is a gritty, compelling novel from start to finish. I’d consider this award-worthy.
Rating: 4.5 sketch books out of 5.
Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia
Published: March 1st 2009 by Amistad
Binding: Hardcover, 176 pages
ISBN: 0060760915
Reading Level: Young Adult
Review: The Book of Michael by Lesley Choyce
Posted by: J.C. on: March 12, 2009
Is life something that can picked up where you left off? The Book of Michael by Lesley Choyce tackles that very question. After being wrongfully accused and convicted of the murder of his girlfriend Lisa, sixteen year old Michael’s life is over. Or so he thinks. After six months in prison Michael is released. The real killer confessed. But for Michael, freedom isn’t what he imagined. Innocent is still guilt in some people’s eyes. Michael is forced to live and grieve in a world that let him go to prison for a crime he did not commit.
Oh, I’ll admit it took a good number of pages for this book to grow on me. Initially, reading The Book of Michael reminded me of the Covenant House books my grandmother used to get in the mail. Good boy from good family meets bad girl from bad family. Bad girl introduces good boy to bad things like rap music and baggy pants. Good boy gone bad smokes a little weed and next thing you know he’s in prison. Thankfully, that tone didn’t continue for too long, and the novel transformed into a rather well-done piece of work. I was even pleasantly surprised at the relatively positive portrayal of teen sex and the importance of libraries in prisons.
There’s a nice twist at the ending that might polarize readers, but I thought it added something extra to the book. It shows that sometimes redemption and justice isn’t something juries, judges, and lawyers can give. Sometimes it’s something that has to be internally created on one’s own terms, as Michael finds:
“at times the world is not such a terrible place after all. It has given us permission to get on with our lives as best we can. And I am convinced that this is enough.”
While not the best piece of literature ever written, I think The Book of Michael is a necessary work, and would probably make a good fiction companion to No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin.
Rating: 3.5 books on I Ching out of 5.
The Book of Michael by Lesley Choyce
Published: October 4th 2008 by Red Deer Press
Binding: Paperback, 224 pages
ISBN: 0889954178
Reading Level: Young Adult
Review: Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Posted by: J.C. on: March 12, 2009
“Eventually we decided there was only one solution: go and see for ourselves. We shook hands over a mighty twenty-dollar-bet, a staggering amount to gamble even on a sure thing, and planned an official scientific expedition to the mysterious outer suburbs.”
Welcome to outer suburbia, where strange animals roam, backyards house hand painted missile silos, and the absurd is a way of life.
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan, of The Arrival fame, is a collection of 15 illustrated short stories. The stories are stark but poignant. Some are even quite humorous. More than a few of the tales ruminate on home and what home really means. Some delve into seemingly political realms, but not in a heavy-handed lecturing way. Some read like myths. All are almost magical.
The drawings range from simple sketches to more elaborate pieces incorporating a wide variety of media.
I highly recommend this quirky, delightful book. It’s beautiful for all ages.
Rating: 5 homemade pets out of 5.
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Published: February 1st 2009 by Arthur A. Levine Book
Binding: Hardcover, 96 pages
ISBN: 0771084021
Reading Level: Young Adult
