Are You Afraid of the Dark?

I used to be.  Back in the day when I thought there was a guy under my bed waiting for me to fall asleep so he could grab me.  And maybe I was still a little frightened when things were really quiet in the dorm of my undergrad college and I was sure that everyone had disappeared from campus.  The dark is also kind of daunting when I am camping at night and the trees move and it could be a bear or a murderer or a squirrel.  So while I am not afraid of the dark, I do have a healthy respect for it.  But what if you could not stop being afraid?  What if your fear was ruling your life?  What would you do if someone told you they could get rid of your fear forever?  Would you do it, no matter what the cost?

Patrick Carman’s Dark Eden tackles this question.  First you meet Will Besting.  He has been scared for a long time, and his therapist has finally told him that there is nothing more she can do to cure him.  He has only one last option, to go away on a retreat with six other incurable teens to finally overcome their fears.  Will is against going, he is fine living his life in constant terror.  But once his parent shave decided that he is going, there is no stopping it from happening.  Good thing that Will just happened to download the other six patients’ audio files, and a map of the retreat area.  Now Will exists in a world where he knows everything about everyone, and he is just going to hide away until the week is over.  That was the plan before he saw the monitors, before he saw what happened to Ben, and before he decided to trust one of the six.

 

This book intrigued and at points overwhelmed me.  You see all the action through Will’s eyes, and at points it can be frustrating, not knowing everything at once.  The good thing about this book is that is connected to a website that allows you to explore more about the book, audio files, diaries, video, etc.  The downside is that apparently only the first segment is free.  I did have fun rummaging around the site though.  All in all, Dark Eden is a book with an interesting premise, and an author who has the know how to pull it off.  I fell like this could have been a silly idea coming from anyone else, but the book and all of the multi-media additions; make for a really interesting experience.  Definitely not the book to miss.

Doublespeak and big brother.

So this weekend I may or may not have dressed up as a zombie librarian and shuffled through streets scaring people. If you did see my awesomely bloody visage and it frightened you, I would be sorry but that was totally what I meant to do! Before I ran around as a zombie, I did have the time to read a fabulous new dystopia book that we just added to our collection here at the Tucker Free. I highly recommend coming on over to check it out!

Scored by Lauren McLaughlin takes place in a world that is pretty much identical to where we live now. Parents still work, kids go to school, and everyone lives in harmony for the most part. Well, the kids live in harmony as long as they hang out with their score group and maintain their scores no matter the cost. See in this future, a private corporation decided that if kids were scored based on the choices they made and the friends they had, they would work harder to be better. If you score above a 90, then college is paid for and you are pretty much set for life. Score below a 70, and you can kiss all your hopes and dreams goodbye. Imani has always been an above 90 girl. Her best friend Cady, was in the 90s once, but has fallen to the low 70s and it does not look like she will be able to move her scored up anytime soon. You are supposed to stick with your score gang. Imani is supposed to hang out with the other 90s. But how do you forget your best friend? How does some faceless corporation who is watching your every move decided that one person’s actions affect you, even if you have no idea that they were doing something. More importantly, how do you deal with an unscored boy deciding that he wants your help to take down a system that holds the key to changing your future?

Zombies + Pizza = A pretty decent weekend!

So this weekend I found myself with a little down time in the evening.  The other half was wrapped up in course work, so of course I had to be super studious by his side!  And by super studious I mean reading a whole bunch of amazing and incredible books.  Mine have fewer diagrams of human bodies, but they have way more magic and unexplained phenomena.  All the hard work of reading led to a brief pizza break, a viewing of a truly epic horror film, and then more reading!  All in all, a truly satisfying October weekend.

Unforsaken by Sophie Littlefield had me at zombies.  Though in all honesty it was not the zombies that kept me reading.  Instead, it was the amazing characters and the awesome adventure they went through.  Which more than made up for the fact that the zombies in this book are very much in the background.  Hailey is a sixteen year old girl with the amazing ability to heal.  This power is hers because she descends from the Banished, who came to America from Ireland centuries ago.  Healing, however, is not her only power, that would be too simple.  Hailey can also create zombies, but only if she tries to heal someone when it is too late.  She is finally getting a chance at a normal life, after surviving some unimaginable hardships she finally has a home with her Aunt Prairie and little brother Chubs.  That is all shattered after a secret call to her secret boyfriend Kaz.  Someone tapped the line.  Someone knows where she is living.  And that someone just kidnaped her aunt and brother.  Hailey and Kaz go on a cross-country journey to save their loved ones and protect the Banished from mysterious forces who would exploit them.  They can only hope they’re not too late.

Fantastic plot, wonderful concept and some beautifully created characters.  Littlefield gives herself a solid base on which to make crazy things happen in Unforsaken, and I loved every minute of it.  The powers that Hailey and her family have are understated in the best way.  They never discover an ability that can magically save the day, they have to rely on their wits and the power they already have and have mastered.  The action was superb.  All too often a girl can be overshadowed in a story like this by her oh so hunky boyfriend.  While Kaz does sound oh so hunky, he never becomes the main action guy.  He and Hailey are truly equals in all of the action scenes and plotting and that makes it wonderful to read.  They work so well as a team that I had no trouble believing that two sixteen year olds could take down this mysterious and evil corporation.  The back story is given to the reader in wonderful little hints and subtle remembering of the past.  Never feels out of place, never feels forced and it always is relevant to what is going on at that point in the story.  Overall, I loved this story and cannot wait to get my hands on its companion title!

There are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

So it was rainy, and dreary, and gross.  The weather this weekend was remarkably like that of Prague.  Prague happens to be a city in which most of the book I read this weekend takes place.  Coincidence?  I think not!  I controlled the weather via my reading choices!  Next time I’ll read a book about fire raining down from the sky and see what happens.  Anywho, the book I read this weekend had some fabulous word creation, great mythology, and a heroine who grew on me like a tumor.  You hate it at first, then get used to it, then when it is removed you kind of miss it in a weird way.

My reluctantly liked heroine came from a book by Laini Taylor called Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  Karou fills her sketchbooks with picture of monsters that don’t exist, and tells tales of what they do in their far away world.  Only, their world isn’t so far away.  In fact, it is accessible via a portal just 10 minutes away from her apartment.  Karou has always known these monsters, they are her family.  They are, in fact, the only part of herself that she is very sure about.  But the world is stirring around her, and more creatures are coming out of the woodwork.  Is there something more to Brimstone’s tooth business than meets the eye?  Is there a reason that scorched handprints have been showing up on all the doors?  And who is the stunningly beautiful man who Karou senses following her, and why did he try to kill her?

This book had a heroine who I was sure was going to make me want to hurt myself rather than finish reading about her.  I was all set to hate her.  And then she had to turn out to be kind of awesome.  She never became a blundering wreck, she did not immediately fall for her one true love, and even when she did, she was very reasonable and controlled about the whole thing.  Karou had wonderful perks and some great flaws, and I would let her travel by my side if I had to kick some otherworldly angel booty.  The romance storyline was wonderfully done and meshed in well with the books mythos and world creation.  At no time did I find myself not believing the world that Ms. Taylor was creating, even though it was very far-fetched.

There is nothing better than a Slayer.

So I have always loved me some vampire slaying action.  Since Buffy showed up when I was in middle school, I have loved the idea that there is someone out there destroying these devious creatures of the night.  I like my blood exactly where it is thank you very much!  So last night, when I was home alone and totally vulnerable to vampire attack, I decided to read a book about a vampire slayer, in the hopes of deterring any blood-sucking demons hoping to leap through my windows.  Since I was not attack by a vampire, I am going to say that it was successful!

The wonderful Heather Brewer decided that she could not just leave the world of Vladimir Tod without giving us Joss’s side of the story. The Slayer Chronicles: First Kill takes us back to the beginnings of Joss McMillan’s journey toward becoming a full-fledged slayer.  The road is not always easy, but Joss takes on the deadly task of becoming a vampire slayer to avenge the death of his beloved younger sister, Cecile.  Joss saw Cecile being drained by a vampire at the tender age of ten, and since then has been training towards killing the monster that took her from him.  Through his hard work and dedication, it looks like Joss may have a shot at becoming the most awesome slayer of them all.  That is if he can keep the other slayers from turning on each other.  And if he could just stop asking questions about exactly why the slayers are doing what they do…

Ms. Brewer weaves another fascinating tale, and this one all about slayers.  It takes some getting used to, especially after reading all of the Vladimir Tod books and knowing how vampires interact with one another and the world at large.  Beyond Joss, you are hard pressed to find a slayer who does not believe that they are fighting soulless evil monsters who are things rather than people.  That being said, the interactions, albeit brief, between Joss and the vampires have amazing potential.  The slayers are pretty two dimensional, but we are introduced to eight or so at one time, and they all just seem to be about the killing.  It is a promising start for what will undoubtedly be another amazing series by Heather.  Wing by the library to pick it up!

I’m forgetful, but not to this extent!

So I picked up a book I would have never in a million years chosen to read, and decided to give it a shot.  I went through a few basic stages that one goes through when reading a new book they are not sure about.  First there was disgust; I could not believe I was reading this book that was written in such a convoluted way.  The second was despair, this book would never end!  After disgust came grudging respect, the plot was picking up and things were coming together, I hated life a little bit less.  Lastly was acceptance and love.  While I may have wanted to throw the book across the room when I started, by the end I was so involved in reading it I would not have heard if someone had thrown my entire book collection across the room.

The book that had me so emotionally confused was As I Wake by Elizabeth Scott.  Poor Ava wakes up in a room she doesn’t recognize, surrounded by people she doesn’t recognize, being told who she is and that everything will be okay.  She just has a minor case of memory loss.  Ava is convinced that something isn’t right; she remembers nothing about the world she lives in, but keeps having flashbacks to a world she feels is where she belongs.  A world filled with a nasty government, secret agencies that spy on you, and Morgan.  All of these memories jumble together with impressions of people she vaguely remembers, she knows her friends, but in a very different world then the one she lives in.  Is she really the Ava that everyone says she is?  Or is there another world out there, one in which she truly belongs?

This book did not impress me at first.  The book is written from Ava’s point of view, so for the first few chapters as she is struggling with what is happening to her, you are struggling right alongside her.  You keep waiting for the explanation that will make everything clear, that will let you truly grasp what is going on in this book.  Fortunately, as Ava figures things out, what has happened to her becomes clearer, the writing style fleshes itself out, and just like Ava is gaining balance in her world, the writing of the book gains balance as well.  Elizabeth Scott does a good job of separating what is happening in the world where Ava is and the world where she remembers being.  The characterization of the people in the different worlds is done wonderfully and helps to add to Ava’s confusion, as well as helping her solve some problems she is facing.  This is a book that I feel I am going to have to revisit, just because there is so much happening under the surface that I feel like things were explained to me and I completely missed them when I was caught up in the action of the book.  Overall, As I Wake is a wonderful work and I hope you come to the Tucker Free Library to check it out for yourself!

It staved off boredom during a bus ride to NYC.

So this weekend I was a bus warrior.  I traversed the route from New Hampshire to Boston and from Boston to NYC.  Along the way I battled boredom, hunger, and the weird smelly guy that always seems to want to sit next to me.  Thanks to this book, a granola bar and throwing bags on the seat next to me I survived.  Barely.  The latest addition to our Young Adult collection was riveting enough to keep me thoroughly entertained during this journey, and that speaks words in and of itself.  It also happens to be a wonderful book modeled after one of my all-time favorite Greek plays (and yes, I have all-time favorite Greek plays) Lysistrata.

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger is a book that focuses on the unique solution a few ingenious girls come up with for a heinous problem.  At Hamilton high school, the biggest rivalry is not with another school, but is between the football team and soccer team.  This rivalry has been going on for so long that no one on either team really knows why it started.  What they do know is that they love pranking and terrorizing each other beyond reasonable belief.  Who gets caught in the middle you may wonder?  The girlfriends.  Constantly ignored or shoved aside so that their boyfriends can continue this stupid feud.  They have had enough, especially when a freshman soccer player is seriously injured due to a prank.  Lissa, the girlfriend of the quarterback comes up with an ingenious plan in order to end the feud once and for all.  She convinces the girlfriends of all the players to go on a hookup strike.  Until the boys decide to be friends, they won’t get any action.  The plan seems to be working, but what happens when the boys start working together?  Will the hookup strike go on too long?  Or will the girls finally win back their boyfriends once and for all?

Seven and Sweets all around!

This was a weekend of epic reading.  I wish I had been reading these books while punching a shark.  Or jumping out of a flaming dirigible.  Or building a log cabin out of toothpicks and unicorn tears.  But alas, I read these books on my couch, which is epically awesome in its own way, but nowhere near as cool as a couch made out of live badgers.  Then again, I cannot imagine a live badger couch would be very comfortable.  Or conducive to reading.  Thankfully my couch is, and I therefore spent some quality time reading The Power of Six and the haunting Sweetly.

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore is the long awaited sequel to the thrilling I Am Number Four.  This is a continuation of Four, Sam and Six’s adventures, with the added bonus of number Seven!  While at times I found I Am Number Four to be slow and tedious, I never felt that way with the sequel.  Talk about fast paced and riveting.  The constant switch between Four and Seven, noted by slight but noticeable text changes, was well executed. We go easily from chapter to chapter alternating between Four and Seven, following two stories at once.  You never feel lost or out of place, and everything flows together very naturally.  When it comes time for the separate stories to merge, it is such an awesome back and forth that you just do not want to put the book down.  I loved all the action in the sequel, most of the set up was taken care of in the first book, so we can really get into the alien slaying action.  Now questions are answered in this book, and in a very satisfying manor.  Things that could be ridiculous are handled in a wonderfully believable way as well, not once was I left feeling like the author pulled an answer out of thin air just to appease me.  While the first book left me a little wanting, the sequel has only left me wanting more.  You can trust that this librarian will be on the edge of her seat until Mr. Lore deems it time to release the next book.

I love fairy tales.  I love fairy tale retellings.  I have never had a retelling haunt my dreams quite like Sweetly by Jackson Pearce.  Seriously, this book made me wake up in the middle of the night panicking, and I don’t even have a ton of woods around me.  The writing is wonderful and descriptive, and I love the heroine.  You all know how rare it is for me to love a heroine.  They really need to be awesome to win my respect and Jackson Pearce has written an extremely awesome heroine.   Sweetly is the story of Ansel and Gretchen, a brother and sister who lost Gretchen’s twin one fateful day in the woods.  After their mother died and father remarried, they knew their step mother held no love for them.  This was confirmed when she kicked them out of the house the moment that Gretchen turned 18.  Glad to be able to get away from the forests of Washington which haunted them, the siblings drove as far away as humanly possible.  All the way to South Carolina in fact.  It may have been bad luck, or fate, that made their car break down in the middle of a washed up town.  Things look up when the pretty woman who runs the local candy shop lets them stay with her in exchange for doing some work around the house.  While Ansel is trying to impress the pretty Sophia, Gretchen is being draw to Samuel, a loner who seems to know more about what is happening in the woods around town that anyone cares to know.  What is going bump in the woods at night?  And does Gretchen really want to find out?

 

No one finds it weird when a stranger kisses you awake? Really?

As a fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty always weirded me out.  A strange guy climbs into my bedroom and wakes me up with a kiss?  After which I decide to run away with him and live happily ever after?  No way.  I would have some questions for this guy.  How long exactly have you been watching me sleep?  Who told you about me?  Did you know the kiss was going to wake me up, or are you just a perv?  Why did you kiss a girl who hasn’t brushed her teeth or bathed in 100 years?  Just basic things I would need to know before running off with my supposed hero to his castle.  When it came to my attention that there was a modern retelling of the story, I was of course skeptical.  I really could not see how you could modernize a tale that felt so thoroughly stuck in the past.  Lo and behold it is possible, but with a spin that one would never expect.

A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan is the modern retelling of the Sleeping Beauty tale with a wonderful twist.  Rosalinda Fitzroy has been asleep of sixty-two years, locked away in a chemically induced slumber in a stasis tube.  Talk about an awesome premise for a fairy tale retelling.  She slept through events that killed millions and radically altered the world in which she now lives.  In this strange new world, she is the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire.  Because in this brave new world, we have gone and colonized other planets and now freely roam all over the galaxy.  Most people in this new world don’t know what to do with Rosalinda, and some heads of the corporation would rather she disappear.  Now Rosalinda has to navigate this new world with the help of her savior, Bren, and a unique individual by the name of Otto.  Will she ever figure out how to fit in, or will the forces that kept her in stasis stop at nothing to have her back?

Goths and Magicians took over my weekend

Yay!  A new book review!  I have been anxiously waiting for a new shipment of YA books to come in, so when they finally did I tried hard not to just pounce on them and scurry away to read them.  Instead, I elegantly walked down to my bat cave and then devoured them like a madwoman.  Double lucky for me, one of the books is by one of my all-time favorite authors.  The other one I have chosen to review was picked at random when I closed my eyes and grabbed.  Enjoy!

The Implosion of Aggie Winchester by Lara Zielin was the biggest surprise of the summer for me.  I have never been so taken by surprise as I was by this book.  Aggie Winchester is a junior in high school, the principal’s daughter, and is very much a gothic outsider.  Ever since she was bullied her freshman year, she has depended on her goth friend Sylvia to protect her from the nasty cheerleaders.  But now Sylvia is pregnant and the father is one of the most popular boys in school.  Not that anyone else knows that he is the father.  With Sylvia becoming more and more withdrawn, Aggie is wondering who she really is, and if she is really happy.  Add in a dash of bass fishing, some suspicious ballot box action, and a sexually demanding ex-boyfriend, and life as Aggie knows it is falling down around her.

 

Switching from goths to magicians is no easy feat, and I have no clever segue.  Umm…both books have teenage girls!  Now that the clever segue is out of the way, I can continue telling you about the fabulous Across the Great Barrier by the wonderful Patricia C. Wrede.  Wrede is the woman who wrote the book that shaped a vast majority of my young life.  Many a day was spent trying to be more like Princess Cimorene from Dealing with Dragons and I am better for it.  I was overjoyed to see the Wrede has once again written a heroine that I can get behind, strong, with a good amount of humility, a little magic but not too super special and just the right hint of bravery.  Eff is the thirteenth daughter who is not sure just what she wants to do in life.  Her twin brother Lan, the seventh son of a seventh son, thinks she should be going off to college and honing her magical skills.  With Eff on the fence about what she wants to do with her life, she decides to take on more responsibilities at the college menagerie.  While working there, a Professor asks her to go a journey west, out into the settlements, where animals, both natural and wild, roam free.  When Eff makes a discovery that could shake the settlement of the unknown west to its core, what is the free world going to do?