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First sentence: Your noise reveals you, Todd Hewitt.

Premise/plot: The Ask and the Answer is the sequel to the Knife of Never Letting Go. To refresh your memory, these are the first two books in the science fiction Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness. In the first book, readers met Todd and Viola. Todd is the conflicted hero who can't decide if he's willing to kill in order to "become a man." Viola is the newly arrived colonist whose parents died in the crashing of the scout ship. She puzzles Todd because she does NOT have noise. All the men, all the animals have noise. Women are mysteriously noise-free. Their thoughts cannot be heard by others. (Women can and do read the thoughts of men. And MEN hate this so very much). The Knife of Never Letting Go ended in a horrible place. Our two had spent over four hundred pages racing to reach a town called Haven only to arrive and....

Viola spends this book worried about Todd--they are separated for most of the book--and worried about what will happen next. Will the women (led by Mistress Coyle) war with the President's army? The women are THE ANSWER. The army (mainly if not exclusively men) are THE ASK. Both seemed determined to defeat the other no matter the cost. Both seem short-sighted and not really thinking about what is best for the planet, best for humanity. Mayor Prentiss and Mistress Coyle seem to be two peas in a pod--stubborn, selfish, dishonest.

Todd spends this book worried about Viola--as I said, they are separated for most of the book. He will do his duty and do whatever the Mayor (the PRESIDENT) says if he promises to keep Viola safe and allow them to see each other and be together again. He'll bide his time following orders--always kept close by the Mayor's son, Davy--until an opportunity comes along. Todd doesn't like being in the army. He doesn't like working with the slaves--the SPACKLE. He doesn't like banding the slaves or the women. But unlike the women of The Answer he doesn't physically rebel and become violent. He's still conflicted.

Mainly the book is about the skirmishes between The ASK and THE ANSWER...and the lies and broken promises of Mistress Coyle and President Prentiss. Todd and Viola are sad, lonely, angry, confused. More than anything they want to be TOGETHER and live in a peaceful community. This seems impossible.

My thoughts: I really LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this one the first time I read it. I can't say the same the second time I read it. Perhaps because you can only be surprised by the story and characters once. One thing that really surprised me the first time was the character arc of Davy Prentiss. The ending of this one is SOMETHING especially the first time I read it.

I would still recommend this series with a few reservations. First, I think you have to read all three books in the proper order, and, close together at that. I think the books will have the biggest impact on readers if they're read back to back. Second, I think that the series isn't for all readers. You have to be fine with a moderate amount of profanity and really enjoy science fiction set on another planet. If you don't enjoy science fiction, then this series probably won't seem all that good.

"If you ever see a war," she says, not looking up from her clipboard, "you'll learn that war only destroys. No one escapes from a war. No one. Not even the survivors. You accept things that would appall you at any other time because life has temporarily lost all meaning." "War makes monsters of men," I say, quoting Ben from that night in the weird place where New World buried its dead. "And women," Mistress Coyle says. (102)

Everyone here is someone's daughter," she says quietly. "Every soldier out there is someone's son. The only crime, the only crime is to take a life. There is nothing else." "And that is why you don't fight," I say. She turns to me sharply. "To live is to fight," she snaps. "To preserve life is to fight everything that man stands for." (215)

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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I’m happy to be able to talk with Kristi Helvig about her writing, writing process, and her new YA sci-fi suspense Burn Out.

In Burn Out: Most people want to save the world; seventeen-year-old Tora Reynolds just wants to get the hell off of it. One of the last survivors in Earth’s final years, Tora yearns to escape the wasteland her planet has become after the sun turns “red giant,” but discovers her fellow survivors are even deadlier than the hostile environment.

How did you get your book contract for Burn Out? Did a publisher find you in the slush pile, or did you have an agent who submitted for you?

My fabulous agent, Jess Regel, submitted BURN OUT for me and I feel so incredibly grateful that I ended up with my publisher, Egmont USA. It’s been such a collaborative and wonderful learning process.

That was smart to get an agent first, to help you navigate the publishing world.

In Burn Out, Tora lives in a world where the sun is dying and the struggle to survive is hard. What made you want to write in that setting?

It wasn’t so much a want as a compulsion. I dreamt the plot of the book after watching a science documentary about our sun burning out, and I’d say the setting chose me rather than vice versa.

Wow, that sounds like an intense dream and inspiration.

Tora seems like a strong-girl character. Was that important to you?

Well, Tora was the girl in the dream I had that night so I watched her living in extreme conditions (it was one of those dreams that felt like it lasted the whole night), and woke up in complete awe of how she survived in a world like that. She kept talking to me that entire next day and refused to leave me alone until I started telling her story.

What character or part of the book has the most of you in it?

Probably the beginning of the book where Tora has been alone for months with only her thoughts, and books, for company. While I’ve never experienced that, I love being alone, and the idea of reading all the books I want without interruption is beyond exciting. I’m also sarcastic by nature, so Tora’s sarcasm came very easily to me.

I love being alone, too, and reading as much as I can. (smiling)

What was hardest scene for you to write in Burn Out? What was the most rewarding?

Without giving away spoilers, the hardest scene to write was when Tora realized what really happened to her sister. I felt her pain and grief in my gut as I wrote that scene. The most rewarding was the scene where she and James loaded guns out of the hidden weapons room. An unexpected intimacy occurred between them in that moment that I didn’t see coming and made me root for them.

I think that makes powerful writing, when we feel the emotion we’re writing about.

One last question–why do you write?

This sounds simplistic, but I write because it makes me happy. It allows the characters in my head the space to come out into the world and tell their story. As soon as I finish one story, new people visit my brain and insist it’s their turn for their story to be told. I feel less like a novelist and more like a conduit for these voices from other realms, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

I hear you, Kristi! Writing helps me, too, and I wouldn’t feel right if I couldn’t write.



Kristi’s interview was part of a Spring Fling Tour organized by Nikki Wang at Fiction Freak. I asked all the authors one extra question: What did you do to celebrate when you found out you’d gotten your book contract?

Kristi Helvig: When I found out that BURN OUT and the sequel sold, it was a Friday morning, so we lined up a sitter for that night and went out to our fave restaurant, The White Chocolate Grill, to celebrate.

Amy Rolland: When I found out I’d gotten a contract, I didn’t quite believe it was real. I called the few people who knew I’d been secretly writing for the past few years, but I didn’t do any crazy celebrating because I’m such a cynic. If the contract fell through or if the book flopped, I’d feel silly for celebrating. (I keep waiting for the bottom to fall out.)

Anne Blankman: This will probably sound terrible, but I can’t remember what I did to celebrate–my family and I probably went out to dinner. What I remember best is the moment my agent called to tell me about the book offer. After I hung up, I told the good news to my then-three-year-old daughter. She had no idea what was going, but she could tell it was good, so she started jumping around the room, cheering, “Party for Mommy!” It was so cute.

Bethany Crandell: As soon as I regained consciousness, I took my family to Disneyland for the weekend. Nothing says celebration like standing in never-ending lines with irritable children.

Spring Fling Tour Schedule:
May 12–Bethany Crandell at Adventures of a Book Junkie
May 13–Anne Blankman at Read My Breath Away
May 14–Kristi Helvig at my blog right here
May 15–Amy Rolland at Read. Sleep.Repeat

Spring Fling Twitter Party Info:
The twitter party will be held on May 15 with the hashtag #YASpringFling. 8:30 PM EST to 9:30 PM EST. There will be prizes donated by the spotlighted YA Valentines and the four Spring Formal authors will also be attending! We’ll also be handing out virtual cookies, of course!

---

Kristi Helvig will be at the Denver Comic Con June 13-15th along with William Shatner, Adam West, LaVar Burton, Johnathan Frakes, and Michael Dorn! It will be held at the Denver Convention Center.

Kristi Helvig is a Ph.D. clinical psychologist turned sci-fi/fantasy author. She muses about Star Trek, space monkeys, and other assorted topics on her blog and Twitter. Kristi resides in sunny Colorado with her hubby, two kiddos, and behaviorally-challenged dogs. Grab a copy of BURN OUT on Amazon, Indiebound, or Barnes & Noble.

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Hanging By A Thread. Sophie Littlefield. 2012. Random House. 288 pages.

I had low expectations for this one because I don't generally like reading paranormal fiction. The heroine of this one, Clare, has a gift, a legacy. She touches fabric--clothes to be exact--and gets visions of their owners. She's recently moved to her mom's old hometown, and, well, there happens to be an ongoing mystery. Two murders over the past two summers occurring around the fourth of July. She stumbles across the jean jacket of the previous year's victim, and has a strong reaction to it, her strongest vision so far. A vision which prompts her to start investigating the two crimes. (She has a feeling they are connected.) It won't be easy to solve this one, and it may just lead her into danger if the murderer is still around, but, how can she ignore what she knows to be true?

I liked this one so much more than I thought I would. It's a paranormal romance and I still happened to like it.

Read Hanging By A Thread

• If you enjoy mysteries OR paranormal fiction
• If you are interested in fashion design

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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The Book of Blood and Shadow. Robin Wasserman. 2012. Random House. 448 pages.

I thought this one started out with a lot of potential. The opening chapter was great, I thought. I definitely wanted to love this one, but, by the end, I had lost my enthusiasm. (I do think others may enjoy this one more than I did.) This unsolved mystery case, which spans several centuries, begins as a translation project for several college students, Max and Chris, and a high school student, our heroine, Nora. The guys are assigned one part of the project, Nora another. Her project includes translating the private letters of Elizabeth Weston. She's looking for clues as to what she has to say about her father's work, and/or her brother's work on this mystery book. Nora becomes involved in her project and Elizabeth's life starts to fascinate her. (Nora's friends aren't always excited to hear about it.) But Nora's "unimportant" private letters become extremely important, but it takes attempted murder (the professor), theft (of the letters), and murder (of her very very best friend) for it all to become clear to her. With each chapter things become more and more complicated. It has plenty of action and suspense plus secrets, lies, betrayals, etc.

If I had cared about the characters more, I think this one would have been a better read for me. The mystery with its dozens of clues wasn't enough to hold my interest. I do think it may work for others better.

Read The Book of Blood and Shadows

• If you like mystery/suspense/thriller novels with puzzles, mysteries, riddles, codes to solve, etc.
• If you are looking for a gothic/horror read
• If you have a special fondness for heroines and heroes that love Latin 

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Monument 14. Emmy Laybourne. 2012. Feiwel & Friends. 294 pages.

Monument 14 was a quick and mostly compelling read. The book has an interesting premise, for the most part. Life as we know it has ended, at least for the near future, and a dozen (or so) students find themselves for better or worse "trapped" in a superstore. The students vary in age, of course, from kindergartners to seniors or juniors. They must find a way to work together to make the best of a very bad situation: the outside world has turned hostile and there is no guarantee that they'll be able to leave the store in the next few months. 

The narrator is one of the older students, a guy named Dean; he happens to be trapped with his brother, Alex. While there are plenty of characters, I didn't really feel connected to anyone. This one was not great at characterization or relationships. Dean happens to have a big, big crush on one of the girls he's trapped with...but she has a boyfriend, another one of the characters. And Dean is having to balance his "love" for her with his need to not make a bigger-than-him enemy.

For those who don't mind a premise-driven post-apocalyptic, this one may work well enough. It was definitely interesting in places, and intense too. But I didn't love it.

Read Monument 14

• If you like survival-catastrophe-thrillers 
• If you don't mind a little teen drama (high school stereotypes abound)

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Beautiful Lies. Jessica Warman. 2012. Walker. 422 pages.

It's one of those cool, crisp fall nights that make you feel like the air is ripe with possibility, like anything could happen. From where we stand on the jogging trail, my sister and I can see the whole city stretching out around us.

Rachel and Alice are identical twins. No one--not even their guardians--can tell these two apart, at least not without some help. One twin likes to wear make-up, the other not so much. There are also perhaps slight differences in wardrobe choices--but--for the most part the twins can at any given time switch places with one another and not get caught. Alice is the "bad" twin, the rebel, the artist, the rule-breaker. Rachel is the "good" twin, always trustworthy, honest, and good.

One night both twins go to a carnival in town. Only one twin makes it home...

Beautiful Lies is a dark novel. Think Lovely Bones. Think Living Dead Girl. The narration is by one of the twins--the one who is not missing. It's very personal, messy, frantic. I could say more, of course, but I don't want to spoil this one.

For readers who enjoy mystery and suspense novels, this one may be one to pick up.

Read Beautiful Lies

• If you like dark thrillers, suspense novels
• If you like mysteries (there are plenty of clues to help you solve this one)
• If you like unreliable narrators  

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Authorized Adaptation. Ron Wimberly. Introduction by Ray Bradbury. 2011. FSG. 144 pages.

First of all, it was October. A rare month for boys. Not that all months aren't rare. But there be bad and good, as the pirates say. Take September, a bad month: school begins. Consider August, a good month: school hasn't begun yet. July, well, July's really fine: there's no chance in the world for school. June, no doubting it, June's best of all, for the school doors spring wide and September's a billion years away. But you take October, now. School's been on a month and you're riding easier in the reins, jogging along. 

What makes a graphic novel adaptation work? I'm not sure I could say. For graphic novels are not in my comfort zone at all. I rarely pick up graphic novels to "review," for I don't feel qualified to comment. The graphic novels I tend to read are adaptations of novels that I've already read--for better or worse.

I recently read the official adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. What did I think of it? Well, it made me WANT to read the book, the "real" book. This story, in its adaptation, in its abridgment, just wasn't enough to satisfy me. I wanted more, needed more. That's not a bad thing at all. If every single reader of this graphic novel responds the same way I did--with the NEED or DESIRE to pick up the original Ray Bradbury novel, that wouldn't be a bad thing. Indeed, you might say it was a GOOD thing. For there is no replacing, no improving the original novel.

The magical wonder--the horror, the terror, the suspense--of this story is in the words, the phrases, the sentences. And this graphic novel adaptation is able to only capture a part of that wonder. Every reader will have to decide for himself (or herself) if the addition of the illustrations is worth losing a little something of the original. (For the record, only the cover has colored illustrations, the rest of the graphic novel is in black and white.) For me, the graphic novel just doesn't have that magical something of the original.

Read Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Authorized Adaptation

• If you're a fan of graphic novels
• If you're a fan of dark fantasy, horror, and suspense
• If you're looking for a dark(er) coming of age story
• If you're a participant of the R.I.P. challenge and are looking for an easy read you could finish in just an afternoon
• If you're a fan of Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, The Authorized Adaptation. Dennis Calero. Introduced by Ray Bradbury. 2011. FSG. 160 pages.

One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.

Compared to the adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, the official adaptation which I reviewed above, this adaptation of The Martian Chronicles is very satisfying indeed! Now, here's where it becomes tricky, compared to the original novel by Ray Bradbury, it still is second best at most. (I haven't listened to it on audio, or any radio dramas of it, and I definitely didn't make it past th

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Wither. Laura DeStefano. 2011. Simon & Schuster. 368 pages.

I wait. They keep us in the dark for so long that we lose sense of our eyelids. We sleep huddled together like rats, staring out, and dream of our bodies swaying. I know when one of the girls reaches a wall. She begins to pound and scream--there's metal in the sound--but none of us help her. We've gone too long without speaking, and all we do is bury ourselves more into the dark. The doors open. The light is frightening. It's the light of the world through the birth canal, and at once the blinding tunnel that comes with death. I recoil into the blankets with the other girls in horror, not wanting to begin or end.

Did I like Wither? Yes! I really LOVED it! One of the best 2011 books that I've read so far. Rhine Ellery knows almost exactly when she'll die--and why she'll die. Mad scientists, so called geniuses, from previous generations have manipulated human genes too much. Having created the "oh-so-perfect" generation of children, they've cursed the human race. Every woman dies from a deadly virus at age 20. Every man dies from that virus at age 25.Will there be a cure found in Rhine's lifetime? Maybe, maybe not. She's just sixteen. But she's not that hopeful. Rhine knows one thing for sure. She does NOT want to spend her remaining years in a forced marriage with two other sister wives. Even if her husband, Linden, is ignorant of how his three wives really came to be his. Even if he doesn't know the truth about his father's schemes and manipulations. No, Rhine wants to be free, needs to be free. She wants to find her twin brother, Rowan, and live the rest of her days free. But will she find a way to escape?

I enjoyed Wither! I enjoyed spending time with Rhine and her sister wives, Cecily, the youngest, Jenna, the oldest. I also enjoyed spending time with Gabriel, one of the servants who works at the estate. Their developing friendship adds a great deal of excitement to the novel! I didn't hate Linden. While Rhine may not have fallen for him, may not have found that lifestyle tolerable under any circumstances, I can't help pitying him.

Overall, I found the novel fascinating and compelling. The world Lauren DeStefano created was haunting and horrible and so wonderfully developed. I'd definitely recommend this one.

She wanders down one of the aisles, and I follow her as she runs her finger along the spines of books, taps one of them, eases it out of its place. The book is dusty, the cover eaten away, the pages yellow and brittle as she flips through them. All of these books are from the twenty-first century or earlier, which isn't very strange. The television also airs old movies, and most shows are set in the past. It has become a form of escapism to visit a world in which people live a long time. What was once real and natural has become a fantasy. "There are lots of love stories here," she says. "They either end happily, or everyone dies." She laughs, but it sounds more like a sob. "What else is there, right?" (86)

A few minutes later we're huddled under a blanket on a couch in the sitting room, sharing a gallon of vanilla ice cream she ordered from the kitchen, and we're watching an early-morning rerun of yesterday's soap opera. Along with the romance novels, these are another of her guilty pleasures. The actors are all teenagers made up to look much older. Jenna tells me they're constantly changing the actors, since of course the show has been on for more than a decade and the original actors have died by now. The only consistent actors are first generations. And

4 Comments on Wither (YA), last added: 4/3/2011

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Amanda said, on 4/2/2011 7:31:00 PM

Too funny! I just posted a pile of to-read that included Divergent, Delirium AND Wither. I loved Hunger Games and heard Maze Runner is awesome. Glad to hear this one is as well! Can't wait to read it now!

Liviania said, on 4/2/2011 10:31:00 PM

I pitied Linden too.

The Reading Rōnin said, on 4/3/2011 12:03:00 PM

I loved this one too! Definitely one of the best dytopian ya books I've read since Hunger Games.

http://ivorytowerlibrary.blogspot.com/2011/03/wither-by-lauren-destefano.html

Sorilla said, on 4/3/2011 3:10:00 PM

...last drop...this was...for me to download the book to my iPad! I got "Wither" finally, good its raining outside, gtg ;).
Thanks for your review, as always,
Sorilla

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The House of Dead Maids by Clare B. Dunkle. 2010. September 2010. Henry Holt. 160 pages.

I was not the first girl she saw, nor the second, and as to why she chose me, I know that now: it was because she did not like me.

Our heroine, Tabby Aykroyd, has been chosen to be the new nursemaid at Seldom House. The young master has also been newly chosen. Something that Tabby finds odd indeed. Why adopt a young boy--a wild boy at that--to be the new master?

Of course, if Tabby were waiting for things to make sense at Seldom House, she'd be waiting forever. Everything she's seen, everyone she's met has been strange. Mr. Ketch and Miss Winter especially. And that would also include the ghost haunting her room. (There's something so familiar about that ghost...)

The boy Tabby cares for doesn't have a name exactly. Mr. Ketch, the one who brought him to Seldom House, just calls him his little heathen git. But Tabby chooses to think of the boy as Himself. He doesn't want a Christian name--so he says. Since this one is a mystery, I can't say much more about the plot. But I would definitely recommend this one!

The House of Dead Maids is a prequel to Wuthering Heights. And while I didn't love Wuthering Heights, I did love this one very much. Dunkle knows how to do gothic! The atmosphere of this one is just right. This one would be perfect for Carl's RIP challenge.

You can read the first two chapters at the author's website.
To view a slideshow of the interior illustrations, also visit the author's website.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Alphin, Elaine Marie. 2000. Counterfeit Son. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 180 pages.

He chose the Lacey family at first because of the sailboats.

This was completely an impulsive read. There was no urgency in getting to it. It's not a new book. (Though I believe it is soon to be reprinted soon in paperback by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. January 2010, according to B&N.) But the moment I picked it up, the moment I read the first page, I just had to keep reading this one. It was so very readable, so very compelling. Which--just so you know--was so unexpected, because this is not a book in my comfort zone, this genre is not one I usually read. At all. And yet for some reason, it grabbed my attention from the start.

Long story short, I was surprised by this one. And I definitely recommend it! It is the 2001 winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Mystery.

What is it about? It's about a son who hates his father. With good reason. Cameron, our narrator, is a young boy--fourteen, I think--who has been through so much. His father, a man he calls Pop, is a serial killer and child abuser. But there is light, there is hope. Now that his father is dead--killed in a police raid--Cameron sees his chance. He wants a new life, a real life. By claiming to be someone he's not, by pretending to be one of the victims, Neil Lacey. But will this plan work? Or will his past catch up with him?

You can read an excerpt here.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Duey, Kathleen. 2009. Sacred Scars. Simon & Schuster. 554 pages.

Sadima sat cross-legged on the cold stone, just outside the cage. She was holding her slate so the boys could see the symbol she had drawn. Most of them were trying to copy it. Two stolen lanterns hung from the iron bars above their heads, held in place by some Market Square merchant's missing tarp hooks. The rest of the vast cavern was dark.

Is magic good or bad? Is it more harmful than helpful? Should anyone be allowed to use it? Even if it is supposedly for the benefit of all? Sacred Scars is the sequel to Skin Hunger. Both books are complex. Not easily summarized. The book continues its dual narration. We have Sadima's story--her being torn between love and hate. Hating Somiss, loving Franklin, and being oh-so-confused about magic but wanting to preserve the (gypsy) songs all the same. We have Hahp, a young man, who among others, is tortuously being taught magic by the wizards. These teens (I'm assuming they are teens) are being deprived of so very much. (In a way, it reminds me of the cruelty of battle school in Ender's Game only this is five hundred times worse.) Their stories are generations apart at least--perhaps hundreds of years. Yet the two share overlapping characters. How can this be? Well, you won't really find any answers in Sacred Scars.

This is the second in the series. And I'm only assuming more is to come. Because the story does not have a resolution. Not even close. True, it doesn't end quite as cliff-hanger-y as the first one did. But still. No resolution. Over five-hundred pages and there are still more questions than answers.

I'm torn about this series. On the one hand, they're complex and (almost) always compelling. You don't always know what is going on. You don't have a clue where it's heading. But somehow you care anyway. Or maybe I should just say I cared anyway. But on the other hand, these are two very long books and we're not any closer to having the answers, to having the story make sense. I kept waiting for a time where I could finally say that all the pieces had come together. A place where I could come to appreciate the complexity of it.

One thing Kathleen Duey did do well with both books is make both narrators compelling. It's hard to do when the stories and plots are so different (in a way) from one another. In books set in two time periods it's really really hard to make the reader care about both (in my opinion). And Kathleen Duey did do that for me. So I can say it was well-written. I just wish I'd gotten more satisfaction from the experience.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Marsden, John. 1995. A Killing Frost. 275 pages.

Sometimes I think I'd rather be frightened than bored. At least when you're frightened you know you're alive.

This is the third in the series. (The first being Tomorrow, When the War Began and the second being The Dead of Night.) What can I really say about this one? Is it just as action-packed and intense as the others? Yes. Is Ellie's world still crumbling around her? Mostly. The fact that Ellie and her friends are adapting doesn't mean that things aren't still changing. That new dangers aren't always popping up. And emotionally speaking, some things are just now being absorbed. Does it go places the other two didn't? I'd say yes to that as well. As Ellie, our narrator, and her remaining friends increase in determination and strength, so do their tactics for sabotage. What they pull off in this one is their biggest effort yet. Danger. Risks. Consequences. Everything is still life-or-death in this series.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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McMann, Lisa. 2009. (February Pub.) Fade. Simon & Schuster. 248 pages.

Janie sprints through the snowy yards from two streets away and slips quietly through the front door of her house.
And then.
Everything goes black.
She grips her head, cursing her mother under her breath as the whirling kaleidoscope of colors builds and throws her off balance. She bumps against the wall and holds on, and then slowly lowers herself blindly to the floor as her fingers go numb. The last thing she needs is to crack her head open. Again.

Thus begins Fade, the sequel to the widely popular--the bestseller, in fact--Wake. Janie is our dream-catching heroine with the "curse" of falling into other people's dreams. When other people fall asleep around her, she 'falls into' their dreams. Witnesses it all. This as you can imagine is very draining, very awkward, very icky at times. But now Janie is using her 'curse' for good; she's helping the police force out. Working undercover alongside her boyfriend, Cabel. Soon after the book opens, the two are told about a new case they'll be given. A case allegedly involving teachers from their high school having inappropriate relationships with students. There was a tip called into the crime hotline about teachers having sex with students. The lead sounds suspicious to me--as a reader--but this is something they are taking very seriously. Janie, as the young-and-beautiful-one will act as bait. Cabel, her boyfriend, is not happy about that. So a new year, a new semester begins.

Fade is fast-paced, no doubt about it. It's written that way--in present tense. And everywhere you turn, you'll find a fan (or two or three) that just love this series. This one is popular--and it deserves it, it's earned it. The book is all about combining danger and romance and suspense. And that sells.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
If you're reading this post on another site, or another feed, the content has been stolen.

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Werlin, Nancy. 2008. Impossible.

If you haven't read one of Nancy Werlin's books...you really don't know what you're missing. Here are the books I have read (and loved): Rules for Survival, Double Helix, and Black Mirror. I can now add Impossible to the list. (If anyone is looking for books to read during the 24 Hour Read-a-thon, I'd definitely recommend Werlin!)

What can I say about Impossible? It's good. It's a page turner. It matches my high expectations in a Werlin novel. But that doesn't really do it justice, does it? Lucy Scarborough is our heroine. She's seventeen. It's spring. She's preparing for prom. Little does she know just how at risk she is to falling prey to the old-family-curse. A curse that she, of course, has no knowledge of. She's got her foster parents. She's got her best girl friend, Sarah, and her best guy friend, Zach. She's got a prom date, Gray. She's not quite carefree. She's a bit bothered that her birth mother, Miranda, has popped up in town again. Lucy always finds it hard to deal with her mentally ill, emotionally unbalanced, and homeless mother. But Lucy is full of hope for the future...

Back cover:

From the sting of my curse she can never be free Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme Unless she unravels my riddlings three She will be a true love of mine

Jacket copy: Lucy has only nine months in which to break an ancient curse.

Lucy Scarborough is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child's birth. How can Lucy succeed when all of her ancestors have tried and and failed? But Lucy is the first girl who won't be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents beside her. And she has Zach, whose strength amazes her more each day. Do they have enough love and resolve to overcome an age-old evil? Inspired by the ballad "Scarborough Fair," this spellbinding novel combines suspense, fantasy, and romance for an intensely page-turning and masterfully original tale.



© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Bodeen, S.A. 2008. The Compound.

T.S. Eliot was wrong. My world ended with a bang the minute we entered the Compound and that silver door closed behind us. The sound was brutal. Final. An echoing, resounding boom that slashed my nine-year-old heart in two. (1)

It has been been five years (or is it six?) since Eli and his family took refuge underground. Their father, an ultra-successful businessman, built a secret hideaway for his family to retire to in event of a nuclear holocaust. With enough provisions to last a full fifteen years, Eli and his family (mom, dad, older sister, younger sister) are now resting safe and secure sealed off from the world. But Eli can’t forget, won’t forget who he left behind. His twin-brother Eddie.

Eddie, the good twin to his evil, didn’t make it to the compound—the metal door—in time. He along with their grandmother are gone now. Along with the rest of the world, right? That’s what his father says anyway. Now after so many years of trusting his father, Eli is beginning to have his doubts, beginning to question everything he knows about his father, his family, and his world as he knows it.

The back of this one reads that, “this debut thriller is perfect for teens who like their movies scary and their books suspenseful.”

I’m not one for scary movies. I’m a chicken. But I do like a good suspense. I’ll admit that I couldn’t put this one down. The novel is a nice blend of predictable as well as unpredictable plot twists. I can’t say too much more!


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Sanders, Scott Loring. 2008. The Hanging Woods.

What can I say about this one? Really? Truly? It's dark. It's depressing. It's truly dreadful--dreadful in content, not style. It's disturbing, very disturbing. A difficult read, a discomforting read. Warped. Twisted. And oh-so-wrong.

First sentence: "In 1975, when I was thirteen, I killed a fox. It happened a few weeks after I'd snuck into my mother's room and read her diary. That diary told me a lot of things that I didn't want to know. Or maybe I did want to know them. I can't say for sure."

The good news is that you should be able to tell fairly early on whether or not The Hanging Woods is for you. In the first chapter alone we've got the slaughtering of a fox and a chicken. (And the two aren't connected. The fox wasn't after the chicken.) In the second chapter, we see many signs of unhealthy relationships. Relationships between friends. Relationships between families. And we see our first human death. Very bizarre. Not exactly murder. Not exactly calculated. But strange indeed. And in the third chapter, we learn that our narrator, Walter, committed arson. He burned a house down. So right from the start you know this is going to be one dark-and-weird book. It's not for everyone. The language. The violence. The subject matter. It just paints a very dark and unpleasant portrait of humanity. Not that I'm denying that humans can be ugly and cruel and tortured and demented and perverted and whatnot. But dismal, dismal, very dismal.

The Hanging Woods is about the breakdown of friends, of family, of the mind itself.

Personally, I don't like dark and edgy all that much. I prefer my narrators a bit more sane. HOWEVER I know that some readers will appreciate this one. It is well written. If it had been poorly written, I wouldn't have found the strength to keep reading.

Edited to add: I slept on this one. Given it some more thought. And I wanted to add that it was really well done. When characters are so thoroughly written, so powerfully drawn that you have to keep reading even if you personally hate where they are going...then that says something about the writing. So for skills in writing, in characterization this one gets my approval.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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I've just started using a website called Goodreads. It's a website where you list the books you're reading (or have read), and see what your friends are reading. It's a great place to get reviews and recommendations.

I've added two links to Goodreads on the sidebar. The first "bookshelf" is for the books that I'm currently reading... which is an interesting mix of books for graduate school, books for work (I'm a children's bookseller) and picture books I read with my son. Here's what it looks like so far:

I'm noticing that the picture books look a little strange. For example, Bark George, is a long wide book... but for some reason it comes out on the bookshelf as tall and narrow.

My second bookshelf is for books that the DC Kidlit book club is reading. The first book we're reading is The Secret Garden, and I'll update this bookshelf as more books are selected. If you're an adult who lives in the Washington D.C. area and enjoys discussing children's literature and would like to join, please let me know.

Are you on GoodReads? What has your experience with it been? Do you find it useful?

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