Sisters Red

Pearce, Jackson. Sisters Red. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010. Print.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/8547268]

Booktalk:

"Versteck euch!" Oma March whispered hoarsely, pointing urgently toward her bedroom in the back of the cottage. Hide. Hide now.
...
"Schatzi, my treasures, I won't let him have you!" Oma March murmured under her breath, like a prayer. She dashed for the telephone and began dialing.
"Charlie? Charlie, one is here. Outside," Oma March whispered frantically to Pa Reynolds, the woodsman who lived down the road. "Oh god, Charlie, hurry," she pleaded.

p.4-5

But Pa Reynolds didn't make it in time, changing the lives of Oma March's granddaughters, Rose and Scarlett, forever.

Review:
Everyone was raving about Sisters Red when it came out last year, and I, ever the cynic, figured no book could live up to that much hype. So I skipped it. Even though it's a fairytale retelling of sorts. Even though it's a fairytale retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

Sometimes I'm dumb.

Luckily, I'm willing to admit my mistakes, so when I overheard someone in the bookstore telling her friend how much she loved this book, I snuck up and grabbed a copy for myself. By "myself" I mean "my library,"* but Sisters Red is a book I would gladly spend my own cash monies on. I loved it, and my gushing while reading has already prompted a holds list, which is pretty unusual for a YA novel in my academic library. Here are just a few of the things I was gushing about:

• Scarlett is so tough. She's deadly with a hatchet and harshly truthful and fiercely loyal and secretly proud of while being secretly self-hating because of her many battle scars. She feels overwhelmingly obligated to do the work that she does, and she's good at it. She's generally kick-ass.
• Rose is so conflicted. She wants Scarlett to trust her to hunt alone, but she also wants Scarlett to need and protect her. She wants to remain half of a pair, but she also wants to break away into a different life. She's got wicked aim with throwing knives, and she holds Scarlett together when no one else can. She's generally kick-ass.
• Silas is quite literally the boy next door. As such, he's managed to win the crushes of both Scarlett and Rose over the years. But he is first and foremost Scarlett's partner; they are a team and they act like one. He also manages to be first and foremost Rose's support. He pushes Scarlett to trust Rose on the hunt, and he pushes Rose to break away from hunting and live her own life. And he does all of this without being two-faced or playing one sister against the other. He totally gets that no matter how much Rose might swoon over him or how much Scarlett depends on him, he will never be able to compete with the relationship Scarlett and Rose have with each other. So he doesn't try.
• The twist that Pearce puts on werewolf mythology is great. They're still totally evil people-eaters (unlike some other werewolves you may be familiar with), but they're not the werewolves of B-rated horror films (or Harry Potter) either. How she weaves the girl in the red riding hood into this mythology made me giddy. She's created a werewolf that is, a lot of the time, victim to his own senses and sensations. In showing how Scarlett and Rose manipulate these monsters, she completely immerses the readers in a rich fantasy: the one that Scarlett and Rose (with help from Silas) nightly create. 
• None of this compares to the twist Pearce has put on the ending of her own story. I thought I had it figured out about halfway through the book, then I lost it, then I figured it out again, but by then things were so complicated that I didn't know how Scarlett, Rose, and Silas were going to pull it off.

Seriously guys, I loved this book. The opening hook worked like a charm, and by the end, I was reading with my heart in my throat. I was so invested in these characters. Pearce's second book, Sweetly, came out last month. I will not be skipping it.


Book source: bought it for and then checked it out from work!


* And, of course, i couldn't just get one book... They'll never let me out with the library credit card again.

Links to Amazon.com may be affiliate links for the Amazon Associates program. If you buy something through this link, I may receive a referral fee.

The Midnight Palace

Zafón, Carlos Ruiz. The Midnight Palace. Trans. Lucia Graves. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011. Print.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/3595363]

Booktalk:
On a dark night in 1916, a man ran through the streets of Calcutta in fear for his life. And in fear for the lives of the infant twins he carried. Sixteen years later, Ben meets Sheere, an intense girl exactly his age, and starts seeing ghost trains in the night. Together with a group of Ben's friends, they seek out the source of Ben's visions and their own history, which leads them back to a dark night in 1916...

Review:
If you are a fan of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's adult novels (which I am, go read Shadow of the Wind right now!), this may not be the book for you. It lacks some of the magic of his adult work. However, if you are the kind of reader who likes to see the evolution of a writer's work as he hones his skill (guilty again), this is most definitely the book for you. Written before his adult works but translated into English later, The Midnight Palace shows the beginning of CRZ's talent for layering stories, juggling a large cast of characters (though none are very well rounded in this one), and placing the unbelievable in the middle of a believable  place and time. Unfortunately, his ability to turn a place into a character in its own right is not on display here, which is a shame because Calcutta would have been a good one. Here, it is incidental rather than integral to the story. If you're not already a fan or CRZ, really, go read Shadow of the Wind. Also, the rest of this review is for you.

The Midnight Palace is not the kind of book I usually read. It's an action/horror/paranormal-type hybrid that leans toward the scary/creepy end of things, and it is not at all character-driven. No one really grows or changes because of what happens. It has both a prologue (not my fave) and a where-are-they-now epilogue (one of my pet peeves). And yet, I really enjoyed reading it. While I was reading, I was scared and jumpy right along with the rest of Ben's gang. I was concerned for everyone's safety because they were so concerned for each other. I was nodding along with Sheere when she longed to be part of a group like theirs. It looked like fun (until it looked like a house of horrors), and I wish CRZ had let me, the reader, a bit more into the group. I never felt like I got to know any of the characters, Ben and Sheere included. Frankly, almost as soon as I finished reading, they were gone from my mind. What they went through and what they did, though, that stayed with me.

Looking back, there were holes and a few things that could have used an explanation, but I didn't notice at the time. I was too caught up in the bowels of a burnt-out train station with the rest of the gang. There was plenty going on to keep my attention. In addition to the ghost train there is a pool of blood that never dries, a grandma who operates strictly on a need-to-know basis and fails to realize that Ben and Sheere Need to Know it all, court records in vast archives, an architect's dream house, and a guy whose hand burst into flame on a disturbingly regular basis. The action is quick, the consequences are severe, and the reasons behind it all are shrouded in mystery.

In short this is a quick, fun read. It's certainly not light and fluffy summer reading, but it's the dark and stormy night equivalent.


The Midnight Palace is out and available for purchase now!


Book source: ARC provided by the publisher.
Series note: Goodreads has this book listed as the second in a series with Prince of the Mist as the first. However, nothing in the book indicated that this is not a stand-alone novel.

Links to Amazon.com may be affiliate links for the Amazon Associates program. If you buy something through this link, I may receive a referral fee.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

McBride, Lish. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2010. Print.

[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/9880508]

Awards:

ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults (2011)
William C. Morris YA Debut Finalist (2011)
Booktalk:

     "You even smell a little like him," he said, his voice going throaty.
     Disturbing. Was it good to smell like someone else? I reached out cautiously and put my hands over his, leveraging for a bit of breathing room. "Like who?" I choked out. Buff Guy had a fierce grip [on my neck].
     "Like the grave," he said, not really answering my question. "Like cold death."
     "Thanks," I said. Creepy, creepy, creepy. I didn't add that he smelled like meat. Not that I could. Apparently, choking helped me keep my mouth shut and mind my manners. I wished he'd put me back down. Or that Ramon and Frank would rush him from behind. Then he'd have the opportunity to strangle all of us. I needed to get bigger friends.
     "And blood," he said. "You smell like blood."

p.22-3

Sam has pissed off the wrong guy. A guy who unnerves Sam for reasons he can't explain. A guy who radiates evil and power in equal measures. A guy who employs a very large, slightly unhinged henchman. But Sam is not going to go down without a fight, and he'll be damned if he lets this guy take his family and friends out with him. Unfortunately, it's starting to look like Sam might be damned already.

Review:
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer is a hilarious book, but it's still horror. When I was thinking about this review, I knew I wanted to include a quote that showed both at once. I found this one by opening the book to a random spot near the beginning. That's how much the humor and terror go hand in hand throughout the novel. The hilarity keeps the book from getting too too scary, but the story still never loses it's dark and serious edge. It's awesome.

For me, though, the funny stuff won. I laughed out loud (on a quiet commuter train, no less) while reading this book. Sam's a smart and introspective college drop-out, Brooke's a manipulative smartypants (and I mean that in the most flattering way possible) in a cheerleader's body, Ramon's still in college and living on Sam's couch, and Frank's the new kid that they're all trying to break and/or befriend. What they have in common is their cynicism, irreverence, and fast food employer. They are masters of biting and witty one-liners, exactly my kind of humor. Ramon, Frank and Brooke do their best to make sure that Sam stays firmly grounded in his regular life even though he's being pursued by creatures he's not sure he even believes exist.

And that's where the horror part kicks in. The evil guy, Douglas Montgomery, is a ridiculously powerful necromancer, and he thinks Sam is a necromancer too. The guy in the quote above? Sam isn't quite sure WHAT he is, but he's left huge cuts down Sam's back that could only have come from a knife. Only no one saw a knife. Within the first 50 pages, someone we already care about is dead. Without getting too spoilerly, let me just say that necromancers are not the only magical/paranormal beings to grace these pages. There are werewolves, fae, witches, vampires and more. Oh, and Douglas's house comes complete with a magical cage and basement torture chamber.

This is one that I think is more suited to older teens. Sam is out of high school and has already nixed college, and  his "normal" life problems reflect that. That's not to say that the average high schooler won't love this book. It is darkly humorous, scary, and Sam and co. exhibit the kind of sarcasm and cynicism to which many in high school aspire (myself included, at that age). And Sam is stuck in the stage of life where he is trying to find himself, something that is highly relatable for many teens and twenty-somethings. He's just got the added pressure of "to raise the dead or not to raise the dead" making everything more interesting. I loved it.


I mentioned the internal musical loop this title can inspire, but luckily the chapter titles mix it up a bit. Leah's got a series of posts going to help you place the song lyrics.


Book source: Philly Free Library

Links to Amazon.com may be affiliate links for the Amazon Associates program. If you buy something through this link, I may receive a referral fee.

Monsters of Men

Ness, Patrick. Monsters of Men. Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 2010. Print. Chaos Walking 3.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/9116020]


As I've said before, Ness doesn't do nice little catch-up spots in the openings of his book, and all his books end on HUGE CLIFFHANGERS (even, to some extent, this one). So, while I have tried to avoid them at all costs, this review has some spoilers for the previous two books. Don't read this if you haven't already read The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer. But really, if you haven't started reading this trilogy, you should. The entire thing is heart-wrenchingly wonderful (though pretty freaking violent).


Booktalk:

"And what other kind of man would you want leading you into battle?" he [the Mayor] says, reading my Noise. "What kind of man is suitable for war?"
A monster, I think, remembering what Ben told me once. War makes monsters of men.
"Wrong," says the Mayor. "It's war that makes us men in the first place. Until there's war, we are only children."

p.11

Monsters of men, I think. And women.

p.287

Review:
Reading this book is like getting punched in the stomach. In a good way. And if I learned anything from Monsters of Men, it is that there is, in fact, a good way. It's basically when you're keeping someone else from getting decked, or when you're getting pummelled to protect the one you love.

Monsters of Men was the most satisfying end to a series or trilogy that I've read in a long time. A really long time. Like the previous books, the plot runs at a breakneck pace that left me breathless, and it covers a lot of ground. Coming into the book I couldn't have even imagined things that happened in the middle, let alone how it would end. There are a lot of loose ends that are tied up over the course of the book, but ending is not finite. I don't think Ness will be writing another book in this world or with these characters anytime soon (ever), but the ending is open to possibility and to the imagination of the reader. This book is full of passion, action, and general umph.

I know I'm being really vague, but I think the best way to read these books is to go in blind.

And, word to the wise, it can reduce just about anyone to a sobbing mess. There were a few moments in the beginning that had me looking out the train window and blinking a lot during my commute, but the real stuff is saved for the end. I wouldn't advise that anyone read beyond page 400 or so outside of the comfort of their own home. We're talking hug the book, can't see through the tears crying for the last 100 pages. But oh-so-good!


Book 1: The Knife of Never Letting Go
Book 2: The Ask and the Answer
Book source: Philly Free Library

The House of Dead Maids

Dunkle, Clare B. The House of Dead Maids. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2010. Print.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/8873918]

Booktalk:
When Tabby Ackroyd arrives at Seldom House, she finds her place there unlike any other job she's ever had. She's a maid, specifically the Young Maid, but she's not really expected to do anything until the Young Master, her charge, arrives. No one knows the Young Master's name, including the Young Master who refers to himself as Heathen Git. Tabby is determined to save the boy, who she calls Himself, and bring him to the light despite the darkness of Seldom House. And despite the previous Young Maid, now dead, cold and eyeless, who won't leave Tabby and her charge alone.

Review:
This cover grabbed me at ALA. I walked past the huge poster of the girl with no eyes probably a dozen times before I decided I just had to have a copy of this book. That girl on the cover is so enthralling. And a little disturbing. And she doesn't disappoint. This book is enthralling. And a more than a little disturbing. Tabby's life at Seldom House is odd, creepy, and plagued by ghosts, some seemingly kind and some openly menacing.

The House of Dead Maids has a wonderfully creepy and complicated set-up. It is hard to guess what is really going on at Seldom House with its old maid and young maid, neither of whom are actually maids, and its old master and young master, neither of whom act like the wealthy landowners they're supposed to be. Everything is a bit...off, from the way the house is run to the way the townspeople react to those in it. In the beginning, it's not so weird that it alarms Tabby, every town and house has its quirks, but it does make her feel vulnerable and a little off-kilter. It's in this state that she starts to encounter the ghosts, one in particular that she might have know in their lives before Seldom House. The mood ranges from a little dark to pretty darn scary. When we finally see what is really going on at Seldom House, there are a few holes left in the story, but they do not detract from the rapidly increasing creepy factor that just keeps getting higher the more things are explained.

Much has been made of The Heathcliff Connection in this book. Himself, or Heathen Git, is supposed to grow up to be Brontë's Heathcliff, and Tabby, a real historical person, grows up to be the Brontës' maid and teller of late night ghost stories. While this is kind of cool, I do think that The Heathcliff Connection is being emphasized a bit too much (on the blogs, by the publishers, in the jacket copy). It didn't seem to have too much to do with the stories, The House of Dead Maids or Wuthering Heights. Tabby's real life connection to the Brontës, on the other hand, was pretty interesting, especially when an explanation involving the hauntings at Seldom House is given for why the real life sisters cared for this maid so devotedly for her entire life. The epilogue offers more information about the historical Tabby, which I found very interesting and much more related to the story in this book than the (I felt) forced Heathcliff Connection. The epilogue also contains a plug for the author's website where there is more information about the historical Brontës, Wuthering Heights, and Tabby Ackroyd.


This is a very spooky, scary story that is a perfect Halloween read, and with the extra awesome cover it will be perfect for Halloween displays as well. For Brontë fans, The Heathcliff Connection will be an added bonus to a book that is a great keep-the-lights-on story for the rest of us as well.


Book source: Arc picked up at ALA.


PS - And there are illustrations! Little ones at the beginning of each chapter. Some of which make that cover art look as harmless as a tea party.

The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall - for Tween Tuesday

Tween Tuesday was started over at Green Bean Teen Queen as away to highlight awesome books for the 9-12 yr olds or Tweens. Any book highlighted on Tween Tuesday also counts for the In the Middle Reading Challenge! This week's book is:

Hahn, Mary Downing. The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall. Boston: Clarion Books, 2010. Print.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/9790662]

Booktalk:
When Florence's uncle sends for her, taking her from Miss Medleycoate's Home for Orphan Girls and offering her a place in his home, she thinks her life must be finally looking up. When she gets to Crutchfield Hall, she finds her uncle to be wonderful and caring but away a lot on business. She's left with a crotchety aunt who doesn't bother to hide her dislike of Florence, her sickly cousin James who refuses to leave his bed, and the oppressive memory of James' older sister Sophia who died a year earlier. But then Sophia's memory stops just being oppressive; Sophia becomes...persuasive.

Review:
Mary Downing Hahn was the author of my childhood nightmares.

Her books, especially Wait Till Helen Comes, terrified be as a child. The only time in my entire life that my mother limited the content of my reading was to not allow me to read her Hahn's books after dark. As I've admitted before, I scare easily, but Hahn's books scared everyone. I have a distinct memory of my friends Karen and Paige and I reading one of her books out loud at a slumber party. Later that night we were dared to go outside by Paige's sister. That's it, just go outside. We couldn't do it. Paige's sister put all our underwear in the freezer as our "consequence" for turning down the dare. We felt lucky. We were in the sixth grade. I'm pretty sure that stopped my torrid affair with Hahn's book, but I still remember them.

It was with this background that I picked up The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall, expecting to be scared. And I wasn't. It's not that I'm so grown-up now or so desensitized by years of scary books and movies that I hadn't been in late elementary-middle school. I admitted just a couple months ago that I couldn't read The Dead Boys right before bed. It's that Sophia wasn't all that scary. She's mean, but not evil; jealous, but has no power/knowledge to get what she wants. She's just a sad, spoiled girl who doesn't want to be dead and who will hang around grabbing everyone's attention with her antics and tantrums until she gets what she wants: a second chance at life. Because it's just nor fair! Especially when James gets to live. Sophia terrorizes James and tries to get Florence to help (and sometimes succeeds).

But it still wasn't scary.

Because the whole story revolved around Sophia and Florence and James' fear of her, The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall kind of fell apart for me. Younger readers who are not quite ready for the super-scary stuff but are still looking for a Halloween book will be happy with this one.

Readers who aren't expecting Mary Downing Hahn to always remind them why Joey is right to be afraid of little girl ghosts* might be happy with it too.


Book source: Arc picked up at ALA


*I tried to find a clip, but no dice:


Chandler: Joey, there was a little girl who lived here, but she died like 30 years ago.
(Joey's eyes double in size)
Joey: (frightened) What?
Chandler: Ha! I'm just messing with you.
Joey: That's not funny! You know I'm afraid of little girl ghosts!
- from http://www.friendscafe.org/scripts/s10/1014.php

You can also watch the whole episode online, if you want the visual. The scene I'm referencing is at about 17:30. :)

The Dead Boys - for Tween Tuesday

Tween Tuesday was started over at Green Bean Teen Queen as away to highlight awesome books for the 9-12 yr olds or Tweens. Any book highlighted on Tween Tuesday also counts for the In the Middle Reading Challenge! This week's book is:

Buckingham, Royce. The Dead Boys. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons - Penguin Young Readers Group, 2010. Print.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/9872472]

Booktalk:
When Teddy moves to the small town of Richland so that his mother can work at the nuclear power plant upstream, he is inexplicably drawn to the abandoned house and HUGE tree next door. But when he wakes up in the middle of the night to find tree branches sneaking through his bedroom window trying to get to him, he realizes the tree is much more dangerous and sinister than he could ever have imagined.

Review:
This book is pretty creepy. For me, the creepiness was compounded by the "about the author," which appears at the beginning of my ARC, telling a bit about Buckingham's childhood in Richland, downstream from a nuclear power plant and with a huge and gnarly sycamore tree in his back yard. If this ends up coming at the end of the published book, I think it'll add a little chill after everything is over and done with. Because I read it at the beginning, I kept thinking, "This is a real place!" even if the things happening in it are clearly fiction.

Warped by toxic nuclear waste that was dumped into the river during the Manhattan project, the tree next to Teddy's house has decided that it no longer likes to draw it's energy from the sun and the water. It likes to suck energy from twelve-year-old boys. And it's been doing just that for decades. Teddy, new to town, is looking to meet new friends and runs into a few of the trees past victims. At first these boys seem a bit odd to him, but not so out of place that he doubts their existence. The bell bottoms and "wiseacre" sayings were a big tip-off to me that these kids were visiting from the past, but middle grade readers might, like Teddy, just think he's moved into a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and so a little behind the times.

Teddy is slow to figure out what is really going on, but not so slow that I wanted to shake him. Near misses with the tree also kept the suspense at a high, distracting me from Teddy's sometimes sluggish sleuthing. By the time he gets it all sorted out, Teddy is either going to be the tree's next victim or the tree's downfall. In trying to save himself, he has to decide if he wants to/can also save the boys who have been trying to help the tree, the only kids he's met at all in Richland.

Again, this was a creepy book. Those chapters about the tree breaking in to Teddy's window while he's sleeping are best not read right before bed. Surprising choices about loyalty and doing what is right verses doing what is best for you right now make The Dead Boys a slightly more substantial read than your average horror book.


The Dead Boys comes out this Thursday!


Book source: ARC picked up at ALA

The Midnight Guardian

Stratford, Sarah Jane. The Midnight Guardian: A Millennial Novel. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2009. Print.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/8970909]

Booktalk:
In this fantastical remembering of the beginnings of WWII, the vampires of Great Britain jump into the fray long before their human countrymen in an attempt to keep Hitler from decimating the food supply of European vampires.

Hitler, of course, has other plans. He puts together a group of men, the sister team to the SS, who hunt vampires instead of Jews, homosexuals and gypsies. They've been taught by true vampire hunters, men and women whose families have been keeping the vampire population under control for centuries, who have traded their family secrets for a promise of safety from the Nazis. 

Review:
This was a fun and engrossing read. It splits, very early on, into two storylines. One follows Brigit and the rest of the Millenial vampires, as they try to take down the emerging Nazi empire by infiltrating its ranks and/or seducing men in high places. Brigit is joined by Cleland, Mors, Swefred and Meaghan on her trip to Germany. It is only safe for vampires over a millennium old to voluntarily walk into a country quickly filling with vampire hunters. Swefred and Meaghan, together since the beginning of time it would seem, have each other and Mors has been single and loving it for his whole millennium long and more life, but Brigit and Cleland both have to leave their partners behind in London.

Much is made of Brigit and Eamon's love and heartbreak over their distance throughout the book, Brigit is the main character after all, but Cleland and his partner Padriac (both men, in case you aren't well versed in really old Irish names) also suffer through their separation. Cleland and Padriac's love is portrayed as just as true, long-lasting and, above all, normal as that of Brigit and Eamon's, even if it doesn't get as much page space devoted to it. The only "problems" that arise out of their homosexuality is Cleland's annoyance at having to seduce Nazi wives and the prison cell in which they found Padriac on his last night as a human hundreds of years ago.

The other story, the one that sucked me in, shows Brigit trying to sneak back to London on a train of German soldiers and possibly vampire hunters. She is escorting "precious cargo," which is why she has to take such a public route and is constantly in danger of being caught with forged papers, revealed as a vampire, or having to change trains in broad daylight. The way that loyalties change in the face of the force of the Nazis becomes so interesting in this storyline, but to talk about any of it would be to give too much away. Some liberty is taken with the vampire myth, what they can and cannot do, but it still remains a horror story of sorts. Except that you will side with the monsters.


This is an adult book and does have a few, um, sexy moments, but overall, I think that it would be suitable for mature teenagers with an interest either in vampires that don't sparkle or historical retellings. I don't think the slim bits of actual historical content would be enough for a WWII buff.


Book source: Philly Free Library

The Red Necklace

Gardner, Sally. The Red Necklace: A Story of the French Revolution. New York: Dial Books, 2008. Print.
[Book Covers Credit: librarything.com/work/4039836]

Awards:
ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2009)

Booktalk:

Then, without thinking, [Topolain] inquired, "Forgive me for asking, but haven't we met before? I never forget a face and yours is one that--" He stopped, realizing too late that his tongue had run away with itself. He knew it was a fatal mistake.

Kalliovski's eyes narrowed to scrutinize the man in front of him. He turned to look at the dwarf, a spark of recognition showing on his face. Only then did the poor magician remember when and where he had last seen the count. Under his blotched white makeup all the color drained from his face. The count smiled inwardly.

He turned on his red heels and left the room. Tetu and Topolain listened to his footsteps retreat into the distance. They were well and truly trapped.

"What have I done?" said Topolain.

p.28

Yann, a young gypsy boy, can read minds and throw his voice. He works in a magic act with Topolain and Tetu, two gypsy men who tangled with the wrong person a long time ago. When that past comes back to haunt them, they know that their lives are over. But France is in turmoil as the peasants for whom these three perform in the theatres rage against the wealthy elite, who call the magicians to their homes to perform at their endless parties. Can these three gypsies, masters of blending in all, get lost in the shuffle and leave their past behind?

Review:
Sally Gardner is awesome. This book is full of action, magic, budding romance, evil, and facts about the French Revolution that you probably didn't know; I know I didn't. And the best part? It's not about Marie Antoinette. She's mentioned, of course, but just that. In The Red Necklace Gardner shows readers how the French Revolution affected rich people besides the queen, peasants who had everything to gain from the Revolution, and the terrified people in between: those who had served, helped, or worked for the aristocracy a bit too long to look good in the eyes of the Revolutionaries but did not have the finances themselves to flee to England. The back matter explains the political and financial triggers for the French Revolution. She even manages to make sure that this back matter doesn't read like a history book.

My only real problem with this book is the pretty, pretty cover on the American edition:


It's hard for me to complain because, to be honest, I would never have picked up this book if I had only seen the cover at the very top of this post. It looks too History Channel or something. I picked up this book because of the pretty girl in a fancy dress who is so obviously being beheaded, because that's what pretty girls in fancy dresses (especially blonde ones who could be mistaken for Marie Antoinette from behind) did during the French Revolution. I thought I was going to read a story about her.

That girl is not in this story. I didn't miss her, but she's why I picked up the book. I'm sure that girl on the cover is why a lot of people will pick up this book. I don't think they'll be disappointed either. I'm more worried about the readers who might really enjoy Yann's story and all of the little details about how those not in the aristocracy (like that girl obviously is) experienced the French Revolution, but won't pick up this book because of that girl on the cover.

This cover is just one more in the long line of "girls in period dresses" covers that have been gracing the shelves lately, but the story in the pages could be a "boy" book. I hate that term, because I think that the idea that boys can only read books about boys while girls can read books about anyone is ridiculous. But if I can't even get my girlfriend to read this book (even though she was really interested in it after reading my booktalk) because it's too girly looking, what chance is there that a teenage boy will pick it up voluntarily?

In conclusion: Great book. Misleading cover. Potential audience lost.


Book source: Philly Free

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Ryan, Carrie. The Forest of Hands and Teeth. New York: Delacorte Press, 2009.

[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/6113580]
Booktalk:
ZOMBIES!!!


Well, it worked on my sister. That and the trailer:



I just hope she sticks it out through all the exposition/love story/cult-ish stuff for the Big Zombie Payout. But more about in the

Review:I liked this one, but I could have done without all the dragging out of the "is the Sisterhood hiding all of everything from us" in the beginning. I was especially mad about all of the slow lead-up when I got to the end of the book, and none of the intrigue with the Sisterhood seemed to matter.

Well, I guess it mattered in that it gave time and safeness before the Big Zombie Payout for the romance circle to develop: Mary loves Travis but Travis is betrothed to Cass who loves Harry who has been in love with Mary since they were kids. Did I mention that Travis and Harry are brothers and Cass and Mary are BFF's? Well, these things happen when you're living in the post-zombie apocalypse, landlocked equivalent of the Robinson's island (remember both guys being in love with the one girl? At least there are two girls in this isolated go at it). Even though the romance circle is hardly new, it came out in a different way here. Both girls have feelings of loyalty, if not love, towards both boys, and both boys want to remain loyal to each other. I wish somebody, one or both of the guys or even, no, mostly the girls themselves, had made the girls the most important. Though Mary and Cass are still buddies (they're the only girls left after the Big Zombie Payout, what choice do they have), they're never BFF's again. If my BFF agreed to marry the guy I was in love with and I agreed to mary the guy she was in love with to get back at her/because he's the only guy left/cause I don't have the balls to go for the real thing, I wouldn't call her my bestie anymore either. In a book where both of the female protagonists take very different yet both strong, ass-kicking roles, it's sad that they let their friendship fade because of these guys. Neither of which was all that amazing, even though each had their swoon-worthy moments.

But then there's the Big Zombie Payout that I was waiting for! It doesn't erase all the drama, far from it, in fact, since it forces the romance circle into really close quarters. But at least there are zombies everywhere to keep everyone distracted. All of a sudden all of the petty arguments and injustices aren't as important as the imminent threat of the undead. At the same time, given that we're talking about BFF's stealing the loves of each other's lives, the petty arguments are so much more important. And Mary kind of checks out. She thinks she's figured out enough of what the Sisterhood was hiding from everyone to get their little party (which includes the romance circle, Mary's brother and his wife, and a random kid that Harry saved) out of the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

The sequel, The Dead-Tossed Waves, won't be out until March. I though that The Forest of Hands and Teeth could have stood on its own with a reasonable amount of loose ends (can you really wrap of everything with millions of zombies trolling the forest looking for lunch?). I really hope that some of the remaining questions I had about the Sisterhood get answered, as I felt like there was a lot of build-up to nothing on that front. Still, I loved this book, in a way. It was like zombies with brains (haha).

Book Source: Philly Free

Vampirates: Tide of Terror

Somper, Justin. Vampirates: Tide of Terror. Vampirates. 2. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/2388637]

Booktalk:

"Each of the charms has an important meaning. They symbolize the three core talents required to be a successful pirate. The sword represents the ability to fight and is modeled on my very own Toledo Blade. The compass represents skills in navigation. The anchor recognizes that we must ground ourselves in pirate history. And the pearl...well the pearl is perhaps the most important -- it marks the capacity to take the most dark and unprepossessing of situations and break through it to find the treasure within."

p. 142

So begins Connor and Grace's training at the Pirate Academy. While there, each will learn how to tie knots, sword fighting and skills that make a good captain. One of them will also learn to let go and the other to hang on.

Review:
Even though it's been a while since I read the first book in the Vampirates series, it took me no time at all to re-orient myself in Connor and Grace's (and Lorcan's and Sidorio's and Cheng Li's) story and be sucked back into their future world of piracy. The Pirate Academy and Pirate Federation both play a big part in this book, as does Captain Wrathe's opposition to both. Good guys become bad guys right and left in this second installment, and a lot of that has to do with Connor and Grace's changing feelings toward institutionalized piracy.

Grace hopes to convince Connor to go along with Academy life as a possibly stepping stone away from piracy altogether. If she can't have what she wants (to go back to the Vampirates, of course) why should he? As the death of a crew member aboard The Diablo shows, Connor is in just as much danger every time he helps out in an attack as Grace was hanging out with vampires. He takes to Academy life, but not in the way she hopes; he sees how it will help him to excel as a pirate captain. In turn, Grace begins to visit the Vampirate ship, if only in spirit.

Their stories are just as separate now that they are together as they were in the first book when they were apart. I kind of like that about this book. Grace and Connor are very distinctive people with very different dreams, even if they are referred to as "the twins" by just about everyone(longer rant about that in a minute). Even though Connor and Grace are in some really weird circumstances that, I feel, hardly anyone can relate to on a literal level (though, if you know of a real pirate academy, please let me know!), what they go through in this book is something that most kids go through. Connor and Grace both have to grow up a bit in this book and, in the process, grow away from each other. My sister is ten years younger than I am, so I didn't ever go through this process with a sibling, but I did go through The Big Middle School Friend Shift. It sucked. All of a sudden you're not only surrounded by all the people you went to elementary school with, but with a bunch of other kids too. And some of them are pretty cool and have the same schedule as you and so on and so forth. I know I didn't mean to ditch old friends in middle school, and I hope that they didn't intentionally ditch me, but as the world got bigger, friends changed. Connor and Grace both realize that in this book and have to come to terms with the fact that they won't always be together. It's kind of heartbreaking, even though they both end up (spoiler) happy in the end.


Okay, enough touchy-feely business. I couldn't stand how often Connor and Grace were referred to as "the twins" in this book. It drove me crazy! Especially since, though they were both at the Academy, they were hardly ever together. This whole book (I think) is about the two of them realizing that they are two completely different people, and yet they are referred to as a set throughout! Granted, the twins saves the printer 6 six characters and the speaker 2 syllables, but still. If this continues in the next book I might have to pull my hair out.


Book 1: Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean
Book Source: I bought this baby.

Sweet Far Thing

Once again, don't read this unless you've already finished Rebel Angels. Unless you like to ruin things for yourself, in which case, go right ahead.
Bray, Libba. The Sweet Far Thing. New York: Delacorte Press, 2007.
[Book cover credit: www.librarything.com]

Awards:
Books With Bite: Teen Read Week, Teen Picks (2008)
New York Times Bestseller, Children's Series (2008)

Teaser:
When Gemma, Ann and Felicity return to Spence, construction has begun on the East Wing to restore it to its past glory. This has brought many protests from Mother Elena, which would usually make Gemma rush to the realms to check on things, but she hasn't been able to make the door of light appear since she bound the magic to herself and trapped Circe in the Temple well. Added to this frustration is a new recurring vision. One of a woman in lavender that will not speak, but whose horror and urgency are communicated to Gemma regardless.

But, as always, there are more pressing matters, such as perfecting one's curtsy for her debut before the queen, a feat which, if unaccomplished, has the potential to rob Felicity of her inheritance and her freedom. Ann must face her future life of servitude and torture at the hand of her young charges as her time at Spence comes to an end. And Gemma, who feels so trapped in her destined future of debut->balls->marriage->endless tea, must sort out her feelings. Does she desire Simon, who is still so handsome, especially now that he no longer desires her, or does she have the courage to admit that she truly desires Kartik, who is still the star of her dreams even though he has not honored his pledge of allegiance to her by returning to the woods behind Spence to be near her, woods that seem to be suddenly overfull with crows.

P.S. - The real teaser, at the end of Rebel Angels (in paperback), is a complete and utter lie. Completely and utterly. I loved The Sweet Far Thing anyway, so much so that I finished its 848 pages in roughly two days.

Vampirates

Somper, Justin. Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006.
[Book cover credit: http://www.librarything.com/]

Summary:
After the death of their father, twins Grace and Connor run away from life in an orphanage or as the pet children of a wealthy banker in their father's boat. They are caught in a storm, capsize, and are rescued separately, Connor by pirates and Grace by the mythical Vampirates.

Review:
This book has pirates, vampires, vampires who sail like pirates, and, just so no one feels left out, is set in the year 2505 with vampires who insist on living as if it's still 1920s or earlier. Put that way it sounds like Vampirates must read like a train wreck; to a certain extent, it does. There are so many different elements to the basic premise of this novel that some definitely fall by the wayside. For example, once you read past the page that tells you the year is 2505, it is impossible to tell that you are not being plunked down into another Caribbean pirate story (that still has about a million twists) set whenever our favorite bucchanears usually make an appearance.

Though the many angles of this book can cause some problems, they also allow for many, many entry points into this novel, making it a great choice for reluctant readers. The chapters are also short, and, because they switch back and forth between Connor and Grace's experiences, the reader doesn't have to slog through too much to get to the storyline s/he is really interested in. And, problems aside, these storylines suck you in. As Grace and Connor are distracted from their mirror goals of finding the other by their own circumstances, the reader cannot forget that Grace's special status as a twin is all that keeps her alive and that Connor must succeed in finding her for her to survive. The ending is satisfying on some levels and COMPLETELY UNFINISHED on others, causing me to rush out to find book two of the series (Tide of Terror) as I will most likely run out to find books three and four.