Quick Hits: Part I

I'm seven books behind in posting, not including posts already in draft. A bunch of new books just came in, which is going to get me even further behind. So I'm just going to do a some quick impressions of a few of the books I've recently finished.

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough
3Q 4P; Audience: J/S

Tamsin is the only unTalented person in her family, even though her grandmother predicted when she was born that she would be immensely powerful and a beacon for all. She's felt like an outsider her entire life, which partly explains why she agrees to take on a "finding" task even though she's not the person the request is intended for. As she works to find the item, a lot of things change: she discovers she truly is very Talented indeed, she gets reacquainted with her best friend and sparks fly, and she puts her family into the gravest danger they have faced in over a hundred years.

Magic, romance, time travel, and danger: it's a great mix. Tamsin is a very relatable character. I felt very positively about this book right up until the climax, where it fell apart a bit. It wasn't clear to me what the villain actually needed to do in order to achieve his objective, but somehow our protagonist (Tamsin) knew exactly what he planned. Predictions about the future are an important element in this book. It's made clear that "the future is like water", so a foreseen future can still change. But we should at least see the branching point where things could go one way or the other. There's at least one prediction about what will happen if Tamsin Travels into the past that has her mother in a panic, yet I don't recall any situation where Tamsin actually finds herself confronting that likelihood or any slight change that prevents it from occurring. It would appear from the ending that there will be a sequel, so perhaps that prognosticated event has yet to happen. But if that's the case, why is it so prominently mentioned now? I also thought Tamsin adapted to her new-found Talent and power awfully quickly. But overall, I liked the characters (though some of the family members and their Talents push the edge of twee), especially Tamsin and Gabriel, and I was caught up in the story most of the way through. It was a good escape-reading book.

Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe
4P 4P; Audience: J/S

Ever since her sister Paige died, Cass can see and talk to ghosts. For years, she's used this ability to gather dirt on her classmates, particularly the ones who have been giving her grief ever since middle school. Very much the loner, she doesn't know how to react when Paul, one of the guys who hangs with that group, asks her for help contacting his dead mother. She makes a deal with him: she'll help him if he'll help her get the goods on her ex-best friend's boyfriend. What she doesn't count on is how very messed up Paul is. What she doesn't expect to do is let someone see the real her for the first time in a very long time. After years of allowing only ghosts into her life, interacting with a live human being is difficult and frightening.

Ghosts aside, this is a keeping-it-real novel. Cass is dealing with the loss of her sister, a mother who seems to want to be anywhere but with her, and a betrayal by her best friend that has left her a social outcast. She's unhappy, angry, and unable to trust anyone. Paul is in a world of hurt. He's as angry at his friends as Cass is. None of them seem to understand or care how he feels about his mother's death, and he feels totally alone. These are two people who need to reach out to someone else and who are equally unwilling or unable to do so. Certainly they have no intention of revealing their pain to each other, and it's a surprise to both when it happens.

Minor quibble: Middle school can certainly be a miserable experience, but people generally move on from its petty backstabbing and casual cruelties a little better than Cass and her one-time friends do. I found it a little hard to believe that she was still persona non grata four years later. Danielle's dirty work and Paige's death (and Cass's new-found ability to see and talk to ghosts) came almost simultaneously, so we're asked to accept that the two together set Cass on her leave-me-the-hell-alone path. Mmmm...okay, I'll go with it, but with a raised eyebrow.

There's no presto-chango magic fix in this book. Change is slow and painful, and there's not much of a tidy wrapping up at the end. I was left with a sense of life going on as a work in progress. Grieving and forgiving and learning to trust are all things that take a while, and this book acknowledges that. I appreciated that.

Creepy, Creepy, Creepy

Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler
4.5Q 3P; Audience: J/S

Frozen Fire is creepy and atmospheric and had me completely engrossed. On a hot summer night, I got chills, and not just because of the suspense. You can almost feel the cold and the snow.

Imagine being alone in the house and getting a phone call (your number is unlisted) from a voice you don't recognize. The voice says, "I'm dying." The boy on the other end of the line sounds about your own age, maybe a year or two older. His voice is slurred and angry. He calls himself Josh. Your brother's name. Your missing brother's name. He's not your brother. But he knows things about you he should have no way of knowing. Creepy, right? Who is this boy? Why did he call her? What does he want?

He says he wants to die. But he can't die. Not yet. Not before he tells Dusty what he knows about Josh. He must know something about him. Why else would he have given her that name? How else would he know her secret nickname? How else would he know what Josh's last words to her were?

When Dusty rushes out into the snowy New Year's Eve night to find the boy, she discovers she's not the only one looking for him. Three vicious men with their equally vicious dogs are also after him. They threaten and terrify her. But they are all stymied in their attempts to find the boy. He has disappeared, literally without a trace. How could he have left no footprints in the snow?

Various people spot a mysterious figure on the paths, up in the mountains, and in and around town. The word is out: this boy is dangerous. He's responsible for horrible crimes. Stay away from him at all costs.

But Dusty can't stay away from him. How could she, knowing that he has the answers she's been desperate to find for so long? She finds him. Now she's more frightened than ever.

This isn't quite fantasy, and it's not supernatural, exactly, either. It's a blend of both, with suspense and mystery thrown in. It may not be everyone's cup of tea (some readers will be discomfited by some of the ambiguity and the British slang and style), but it's expertly told and a great choice for readers who like to be kept on edge. Readers may also want to look for Bowler's Storm Catchers. Bowler's books, including Frozen Fire, have won several awards in England.

Another reading roundup

As you may have gathered from the long drought since my last (well, last-but-one) post, it's been a hectic time here at the library. I've read lots of books but have had no time to post about them. The post I put up today about The Comet's Curse was started back in May! I've got at least seven more books I've been toting around for anywhere from a day to ...weeks, and I need to get them out in circulation where they belong, so I'm going to forego anything other than brief plot descriptions (which you may prefer anyhow) and just give you my impressions.

Swim the Fly by Don Calame
4Q 4P; Audience: S

Three fifteen-year-old boys make a pact to see a real live naked girl by the end of the summer. There's not a lot they won't do to make that goal a reality, including dressing in drag. Matt compounds that probably unattainable goal with another: swimming the 100-yard butterfly in multiple swim meets. This, from a guy whose best showing in any swim meet using even his best stroke is a fifth-place ribbon. Did I mention the butterfly is the most grueling race of all? Why is he doing this? Why, to impress a girl, of course. Yeah, like watching a skinny dude flail in the pool as he slowly turns blue and goes under is going to do that!

Swim the Fly is going to have a lot of fans among teenage boys. It's fun, it's fast moving, and it's definitely got its share of gross out moments. (There's a scene in the girl's locker room involving laxatives and the girl of Matt's dreams that made me squirm but will make most readers howl with laughter.) Matt's a likeable guy, and you can't help but root for him. He's patient (and funny) with his lovelorn grandfather, sweetly oblivious with (and about) girls, and a loyal friend. My favorite scenes were those with Matt and Ulf (the kind of swim instructor that would make Michael Phelps quiver in fear) and Matt and Valerie ("she's just a girl, not the girl". Matt, you're such a dimwit!). I also enjoyed the banter between Matt and his friends Coop and Sean. It captured the way boys really do talk to each other. (Calame must have scoured the Internet so he could pad their conversations with just about every possible synonym for a particular male body part. I confess to thinking "enough already" more than once!) Coop and Sean are, shall we say, a little less scrupulous than Matt when it comes to playing by the rules and definitely ingenious when it comes to breaking them. While their actions are not always admirable, they will definitely get their readers cheering them on.

I suspect that this is a book that boys will not only enjoy reading, they'll also recommend it to their friends.

Soul Enchilada by David Gill
3Q 3P; Audience: J/S

Here's another one I think boys will like, which is not to say that girls won't enjoy it too.

Bug Smoot is on her own, and things aren't looking good. Just about the only thing she has to her name is the Cadillac her grandfather left her when he died. What her grandfather didn't tell her is that he also left her something else: an unfulfilled contract with Mr. Beals, aka Beelzebub. Nothing says "I love you" like a contract with the devil. What does Mr. Beals want? The car for starters. Her soul for dessert. But Bug is not about to give up either without a fight. Good thing she has Pesto on her side, given that Pesto knows a thing or two about fighting demons and devils.

I heard David Gill speak at a conference a couple of years ago, and I knew he could be laugh out loud funny, so I was looking forward to reading this book. It wavers between humor and horror more than I expected, though I'd recommend it to someone who wants to laugh sooner than I'd suggest it to someone who likes to be scared. I have to say that the details of the plot haven't stuck in my mind as much as the characters have. I'd say that readers who enjoy a book for the people they meet in it will probably like this more than readers who love to chew over what actually happens. But how can you go wrong with a feisty girl who refuses to give the devil his due? Bug isn't frightened by Mr. Beals. She's just royally ticked off that trying to get rid of him means getting hairspray and coyote piss all over her beautiful, shiny, clean car. Their conversations have snap and wit. Equally fun, though for different reasons, is her relationship with Pesto. Bug's not sure what to make of this guy who claims to know all about demons and how to get rid of him. But he's nice, he's hot, and he doesn't run when things get tough. He even puts up with her surliness, and Bug does surly very, very well. What's not to like? At the end, Gill deftly pulls seemingly random things together for a very satisfying climax. (Warning: there's a definite ick factor involved in fighting the devil for your soul. It's not stomach-churning stuff, but there are a few descriptions I'd prefer not to read just before going to bed.)

Evermore by Alison Noel
3Q 5P; Audience: J/S

Ever is an orphan at seventeen, and it's all her fault. If only she hadn't...But she did, and the car crashed, and her parents and younger sister died. She'd have died, too, if she hadn't chosen to linger in that strange, beautiful land they entered after the accident. They were all together, heading towards the bridge and whatever was on the other side. But Ever stopped, and when she looked around, her family was crossing the bridge and she couldn't reach them before they disappeared. The next thing she knew, a beautiful man's face appeared over hers, calling her name. And there she was, back in the real world again. Alone. But never really alone now, because now she hears everything that everyone around her is thinking. Touching someone spills all their secrets. And everyone has an aura. Ever is psychic now, and it's tearing her apart. She can find no peace. Until Damen enters the picture. Beautiful Damen. Damen, who can produce flowers from thin air. Damen, who does not have an aura, whose thoughts she can not hear, and whose touch brings a blessed respite from the constant barrage of thought-noise. Damen, who she can not help but love, but who she has reason not to trust.

Fans of the Twilight books are going to love this one. It is not a vampire story, but it is a love for the ages story. Of all the characters, Ever is the only one who felt close to three-dimensional to me. Her despair over her unwanted powers, her desperate attempts to shield herself from a world that assaults her senses past bearing, her love for and need for her sister Riley (who makes several appearances) all made sense. And I could certainly believe her attraction to Damen, and I appreciated that she wasn't a patsy about it. He gives her plenty of reason to doubt him, so doubt him she does. No "he's gorgeous and mysterious, and yes, he's dangerous, but so what?" for Ever! I like a girl who uses her head when it comes to falling in love. Damen isn't nearly as well-rounded, but the appeal is clear. Aside from his ability to soothe her senses, he's charming, talented, romantic, and sensitive. (And he cooks, too!) The romantic tension works. That being said, I do have some problems with the book. First of all, most of the other characters are one-dimensional, particularly Drina, Matt, and Aunt Sabine. More disturbing, I hate it when an author sets something supernatural up, but when it comes to explaining how it all works, cops out with "well, the whole thing is just too complicated to explain, so just trust me, okay?" After Damen explains things to Ever, she and the reader are left almost as much in the dark as we were before. Nope. Sorry. Don't create the devil if you can't figure out how to give us the details. And c'mon: (SPOILER ALERT! If you want to know what else really bothered me, use your mouse to highlight the next few words.) Isn't it an oxymoron for an immortal to be able to die?

Don't read this book expecting anything deep or particularly logical. Just enjoy the story, the romance, the tension, and the supernatural touches. And if you like this book and have already read the Twilight books, you may want to try Golden and (link is to my blog post) Platinum by Jennifer Barnes next.

My next post will be another reading round up. I hope to get it up soon, sooner, soonest.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

Need by Carrie Jones
3Q 5P; Audience: J/S

Imagine this: There's a small, isolated town in Maine. Boys start disappearing from that town. Not just one boy. A few. No clues are left behind. No signs of struggle, no footprints to track. Maybe just a little gold glitter here and there. No arrests are ever made, but after a few weeks the disappearances stop. But the boys are never seen again. Now picture this: It's about thirty years later. Zara, a South Carolina girl through and through, hates the cold and has no interest in living in a small backwoods town. But her stepfather has recently died, and she is so devastated by his death that her mother is afraid she's going to do something drastic and final. She needs to get her daughter away from the pain of her memories. Where can she send her? She sees no choice but to send Zara to live with her stepgrandmother up in Maine, to the same town where all those boys disappeared so long ago. To a town where boys are disappearing again.

Zara arrives in Maine depressed and angry. She also thinks she might be going a little crazy. She keeps seeing this guy everywhere she goes: in the airport when she left home, in the airport when she got to Maine, on the road on her way to her grandmother's. Who is this guy? What does he want from her?

Zara goes to school depressed, angry, and scared. A kid in a fancy car almost smashes into her in the parking lot. Sparks fly. He's Nick. He's hot. He's bad. Need I say what happens next?

Of course, there's another rival for Zara's affections, as well as new friends. There are also secrets and danger. A lot of both, in fact. Because that mysterious guy Zara keeps seeing? He isn't good news. Pixies tend not to be. Especially pixies who kidnap young boys and have plans for Zara.

Unlike some other heroines of recent supernatural-themed books, Zara is not the type to sit around and be babied. True, she's a pacifist and quite familiar with various phobias, but she's also feisty and angry, and she's not about to be bullied around, whether it's by Nick, Luke, or a pixie. Whatever the pixie king wants, pacifist or not, he's not going to get it without a fight.

Musings, leaning towards a rant:

I was prepared to like Need a lot, based on what I'd heard about it. And I thought I did like it. It was, for the most part, an enjoyable read. But every time I think about it now that I've finished it, I find myself getting more and more frustrated with it, because I think an interesting premise and likable characters were compromised by poor logic and unbelievable character actions.

I'm a librarian. I use the Internet every day to find information. Google is my friend, but it's not a miracle worker. No way do they have enough information to plug into Google and find the answer to who/what is stalking Zara. I know that sounds like a petty complaint, and maybe a lot of people wouldn't even notice, but it took me right out of the book.

I had a hard time believing the sequence of events. Wouldn't you think that when boys started to disappear again, the people who had inside knowledge of what had happened thirty years ago would realize what's probably happening again? Wouldn't you think that the werefolk (highlight to see the missing word) who battled the pixies before would give their kids the training and information they need to battle them again, instead of letting them figure it all out themselves? Isn't that the logical thing? Then why doesn't it happen? This whole aspect of the book (the werefolk ) felt strangely incomplete and underdeveloped.

Last, but hardly least, and trying not to say too much: Zara's mother sending her back to Maine in this situation? Not buying it.

Read this one for the fun of it, but turn down the volume on your inner critical reader first.

Another Reading Roundup

I've got five books on my pile to write up, and two of them have been waiting for two or three weeks. So I'm just going to put up a couple of quick impressions about a couple of them, just to clear the pile a bit.


Bonechiller by Graham McNamee
4Q 4P; Audience: M/J/S


I love booktalking Acceleration, and although it's a very different kind of book, Hate You is also a powerful read. So I've been waiting for a new McNamee book for years. Though this one didn't captivate me as much, it was still worth the wait. McNamee always tells a great story, and there's always more to it than just what's on the surface.

Ever since his mother died, Danny and his father have been moving from place to place, trying to escape their memories. In cold, desolate Harvest Cove, Danny winds up trying to escape from more than that. Deep in the most isolated reaches of Canada, this small Army outpost town holds a terror that most people don't even realize exists. Danny encounters it on a night that was already unsettling: he has just witnessed an arson/murder. His mind reeling and his nerves already taut as he walks home in the pitch dark, it takes him a little while to realize that he's being followed. At first it's just a feeling. Then he catches something (but what?) out of the corner of his eye. Maybe it's just a plastic bag blowing in the wind. Maybe it's just a dog. He tries to shrug it off. But then he hears the growl. It's a growl so deep it hurts his ears. And then he sees it. This is no plastic bag, no dog. But whatever it is, it's big. And it's fast. It is, in fact, a huge beast right out of legend, with teeth and claws eight inches long. Danny is sure he's a goner when he falls into a ditch and the beast catches up to him. But no - - the only mark he has to show for his meeting with the beast is a blue dot on the back of his hand. A fang mark? As the days go by, Danny realizes that no, the blue dot isn't the only mark the beast has left on him. His body temperature drops and he can always feel the beast watching and calling him. He can't sleep. The beast has invaded his dreams. He knows the beast will be the end of him. It's just a question of when.

Danny is not the only teen affected. One boy in their community has already succumbed to the call of the beast. Danny's friend Howie has also been bitten, and his symptoms are even worse than Danny's. Danny, Howie, Howie's psycho brother Pike (the aforementioned arsonist), and Danny's girlfriend Ash need to know what's going on. A little research reveals that dozens of local teens have disappeared over the years. Though common wisdom has it that they were runaways, the details point toward something else entirely, something that Danny and Howie know all too well. The beast has been luring teens to their death for thousands of years. What are the odds that Danny and Howie will break the cycle? 1000-1?

McNamee generally builds the tension well. Some readers may be irritated when the focus switches from Danny's present to Danny's memories of his mother and how her absence has affected his life. Others will recognize that these sections add to Danny's sense of isolation and that the emotional coldness he's been left with mirrors his physical coldness. Most readers will also appreciate the relationship between Danny and Ash, especially as it often adds a welcome note of humor that breaks the tension. In the beginning, much is made of Pike's mental stability or lack thereof, so I expected it to play a bigger role in the story and for things to play out a little differently as a result. Despite any quibbles I may have, I think Bonechiller will be popular, particularly with teenage boys. It's a book best read straight through, preferably with a warm blanket wrapped around you.

Don't Read This One in the Dark of Night

Bliss by Lauren Myracle
4Q 4P; Audience: J/S

I'm actually not quite finished with this book, but it's Halloween, and that makes it the right day to post about it. A big part of the reason I haven't finished it yet is because I read a lot at night, especially once I'm in bed for the night. Well, I've gotten to the point in this book where I'm frankly afraid to read it within an hour or two of trying to fall asleep. The tension has been building and building, and I'm expecting a Carrie moment any time now. I'm a little twitchy and I'm discovering it's pretty hard to read when you're trying to avert your eyes from the page because you're dreading what you're about to see. In other words, Lauren Myracle has done a terrific job setting her scene.

Bliss IntheMorningDew has recently arrived in Atlanta to live with her grandmother. It's a far cry from the hippie commune she grew up in in California. Going to school is a new thing for her, let alone a preppy private school. But she actually finds it surprisingly easy to fit in. She even makes friends quickly, leading her to wonder which two of these girls might be the ones that her psychic friend from the commune told her she foresaw in her future. Even though Flying V warned her that the vibes aren't entirely positive, Bliss isn't at all thrown. Bliss herself has had occasional contacts with the other side, and they don't frighten her. No, Bliss is determined to make the most of her new situation, and making friends will be a welcome part of that. Flying V saw her caught between two girls, but doesn't that just mean she'll have at least two friends? Isn't that a good thing?

Bliss's commune upbringing has produced a strange blend of innocence and knowingness in her. She's not unfamiliar with sex, Grateful Dead concerts, and 'shrooms, but she has been sheltered in other ways. She expects life to be as uncomplicated as it is in Mayberry with Andy Taylor and Opie. It's not. Moving from the commune to Atlanta is eye-opening. She's grown up side by side with people of different races and it's never been important before. But Atlanta has the Klan and the school has one token black student ("so they can't force integration on us"). Everyone likes Lawrence - as long as he doesn't try to get too familiar. It makes no sense to her. Why is it such a big deal that he's black? But it clearly is a big deal, as becomes apparent when she catches Lawrence and Sarah Lynn, the most popular girl in the freshman class, in a clinch. Bliss also doesn't know anything about cliques and social groups, so she sees no problem in befriending Sandy, the school outcast. While her other friends don't exactly give her a hard time about that, it's clear they disapprove. She's okay with that. People with her background don't worry much about what others think. But Bliss has no clue how much danger she's inviting into her life when she ignores her new society's conventions.

Bliss's new school has a history. Rumor has it that a girl who lived there when the school was a convent jumped from a third-floor window of one of the campus buildings. "Some say you can still see the blood stains on the pavement" a student mentions casually. Bliss's sympathy for the poor girl turns to something else entirely when she realizes that she hears a voice...the girl's voice?...in her head whenever she passes by that building. And she does not like what she hears. The voice is insistent, demanding, and clearly evil.

Interspersed throughout are handwritten pages from S.L.L.'s journal. Just a little odd at first, the journal entries soon take a decidedly sinister tone. As we read on, it becomes clear who S.L.L. is and how her journal entries fit into Bliss's story. And that's when the creep factor started ratcheting up for me. Reading on and waiting for Bliss to catch on too has been like watching a mouse sniff its way to cheese and start to nibble. You know it has no idea that the cheese is attached to a trap that's about to snap its neck in two, and you want to look away before it gets caught. That the Tate-LaBianca murders committed by the Manson Family is a thread woven throughout the book does nothing to lessen this sense of dread. I don't have to finish the book to know that when the trap snaps, Bliss is going to be well and truly caught in it, and what happens next is not going to be pretty.

I have read that there is a link between this book and Myracle's Rhymes with Witches. If I'm not too unnerved when I finish this book, I'm going to have to check that one out. But I don't think I'm going to want to read that one late at night in the dark either!

THIRSTY - Booktalk

THIRSTY
by M.T. Anderson

My parents are worried about me. I can tell from the way they look at me when they think I’m not looking at them. They’re right to be worried. Right now, I can hear them whispering to each other about me. When my father comes up to my room, I’m a little afraid of what he’s going to say. But for the moment, it’s okay. All he wants is a little father-son bonding ritual. It’s time to teach me to shave. I can handle that. I just couldn’t handle it if they knew what was going on with me, if they knew what I’m turning into.

My father takes me into the bathroom and shows me how to put on the shaving cream and wets the razor with hot water for me. “Now take the razor,” my dad says, “and put in right under your nose.” His fingers grab just below my wrist and guide my hand down. “Okay, you can let go now,” I tell him. He pulls away and the razor slips just a fraction. I say, “Ow.” He’s saying, “There, now you’ve cut yourself.” But I’m noticing the obvious thing. The sweet, tangy smell of my blood. I hit the floor. I know what’s going to happen next. I have to get him out of the room before he notices, too. “Get out, Dad. Could you get out? I want to do this alone.” Dad goes. I can hear my parents talking outside the door. They think I’m overreacting. “It was just a little cut,” my dad says. He doesn’t know. He can’t know. I look into the mirror, and I don’t see myself. I’m not surprised. I guess I’ll have to do the rest of the shave blind. Carefully, I drag the razor down my lip again. More red. I start licking. The shaving cream is not as sweet as it smells. The blood is good and salty. There isn’t much from two wounds. So I take another exploratory scrape with my razor. Without the mirror, this is just a joke. I’m cutting the hell out of my face. And I’m loving it. I’m licking and licking, laughing, and licking some more. I have been so thirsty.

It’s spring now, almost time for the annual Sad Festival of Vampires, almost time for the special rites which will keep the Vampire Lord Tch’muchgar locked safely away for another year. Except I think I really blew it. I think maybe I did something I shouldn’t have done. And I think I’m turning into a vampire.

Fey? Feh!

Hallowmere: In the Serpent's Coils by Tiffany Trent

I wanted to like this book, but I can't say I did. I found it a frustrating read, as it seemed to take forever for Corinne* to figure out what was going on. In a nutshell, she wakes up from a serious illness to discover that her mother is dead and she is living with her uncle, who she does not know and who dislikes children. She has started to have visions and see and hear things that do not seem to be of this world. Because of this and because she breaks his rules, her uncle sends her to a reform school for wayward girls. It is unclear what most of the girls there have done to deserve this fate, which I found annoying. Is Corinne the only girl there simply because she can see/hear the Fey? Even when I thought I had an answer to that question, later events made me wonder. The actions of the teachers in the school seem illogical and contradictory, especially later in the book. There's a story threading through the book that is intriguing, but it doesn't go anywhere. I can only suppose that it is continued and embroidered upon in the subsequent books. But because it's not resolved in any way in this one, the reader is left wondering what it has to do with anything, although I assume we are supposed to read between the lines and get the idea that all is not as it seems. I found the idea of setting the book in 1865 fairly novel (not many fantasies of this type are set in the past), but I thought it could have been done more effectively.

There are already several books in this series, and I gather there will be ten in the series, not all of them written by Tiffany Trent. Hmmm. Okay, so it's a series, but they won't all be written by the original author? I find that...interesting.

*Was Corinne really a popular girl's name in 1850, when she would have been born?

Oh, Say, I Don't Want to See!

PLATINUM by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
3P 4P J/S

This is a sequel to Golden, which sets up the basic situation: Lissa, her little sister Lexie, and her parents move from California to small-town Oklahoma. Lissa was popular at her old school, but one look at the Goldens in her new school and she knows she wants no part of that crowd. She'd rather be a Non, as in "your social life in this school is dead", than be a part of such a nasty group. But purposely Non-ing herself has frustrated Lilah, top Golden and the daughter of the woman her uncle is dating. Lilah's not happy, and Lilah's not someone you want to be on the bad side of. Unfortunately for both of them, there's some mysterious tie between them that keeps pulling them together when they really want to be miles apart. Lissa hopes that she's also leaving behind her color visions, but no such luck. Complicating that: her Sight has followed her, and it's going to get her involved in a life or death situation.

Well, as it turns out, Lissa's not the only one with Sight, and she's not the only one who really, really doesn't want it. Much to her dismay, Lilah, who got roped into Lissa's supernatural adventure in the first book, is suddenly seeing people who aren't there. She's even talking to them. And they're talking back. The guy is hot. He has an annoying habit of calling her Princess (well, maybe it's not that annoying). And he keeps making cryptic statements that she can't figure out. For instance, he keeps saying he's not dead, but he's most assuredly not really there, so he's got to be some kind of ghost, right? She doesn't just see him hanging around her in school or in her bedroom (can't a girl have a little privacy?). No, he's also one of the star players she's having in the visions she keeps getting. The deadly ones.

This is not good. She has a reputation to protect, after all. And when standing in the middle of a bunch of Goldens and you're caught arguing with thin air, that reputation is going to take a hit. Unless Lilah can do damage control. Lilah is very, very good at damage control. (Just ask Fuschia, her best friend, who makes the mistake of putting moves on Lilah's boyfriend. What happens next is not pretty.)

This second book in the series was pure fun to read. Lilah, while not the worst of the unholy trio in the first book (Golden) shows herself to have a little more heart and conscience than Lissa gave her credit for. Yeah, she runs roughshod over all the Nons in school. Yeah, she'll squash flat anyone who tries to get the advantage over her. And yeah, she doesn't go out of her way to be nice. But who would have guessed that she actually feels bad about almost all of that? Or at least, that she doesn't enjoy it much? And much as she tries to play the cool sophisticate who has no use for anyone who isn't a Golden, she's a sucker for Lexie, who is the epitome of all good things.

(Editorial note: The previous section was written two weeks ago, prior to surgery. In keeping with my recent blog post, I will add just a brief note or two so that I can publish the post in an almost-complete form.)

Despite how desperately, she doesn't want to know, Lilah is forced to See that Hot Guy is trapped in some sort of cycle, and it's clear that it's up to her to put a stop to it, or things will end tragically. And not just for him, but for people she is very, very close to. She also Sees that there's more to her relationship with Lissa and Lexie than meets the (normal) eye.

One of the fun things about this book are the chapter titles and the commentaries that follow them. A random sampling:

• Lying. The easiest way to lie is to convince people you're a bad liar and then prove them wrong.
• Me. If you want to be popular, it's not nearly as important that you know who you are as it is that everyone else does.
• Truth. Gossip. If I say it, it's true. And if it isn't, it doesn't matter.
• It. The It Factor. If you have to ask, you'll never know. And if you don't think you have it, then you're right.
  
• Information. It's not what you know. It's not who you know. It's what you know about who you know.
• Hurt. Once you feel it, it's real.

Predator or Prey?

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith
3Q 5P J/S

Among the reviews I'm more or less giving up on (see previous post) is one on this book, which I had mixed feelings about. Interesting characters, intriguing setting (a vampire-themed restaurant in the middle of Texas?), a cup of murder, a dash or two of romance, a pinch of humor, and some seasonings you don't find in your typical recipe...I mean book!...those would seem to be the ingredients of a terrific read. It's gotten really good buzz on the blogs I read, but when I finished the book, I wasn't really sure how I felt about it. I'm still not sure. It's not so much a liked it/didn't like it dilemma. It left me feeling...unsettled, I guess, and a little creeped out. I've read other vampire/werewolf books and liked them, even though it's not my favorite genre, so that's not what got to me. This one had an element or two that made me more uncomfortable after I read it than while I was reading it, and I guess that's what's throwing me. Anyhow, I can't wait to hear what my patrons think of it, and if you're reading this and have read it, please tell me what you thought of it.

You can find information and other bloggers' thoughts about Tantalize

on the author's web site

and

on Required Reading (This site has a review of the book and a "Five Lists of Five" interview with Smith that I enjoyed reading. Gotta like her taste in vampires and authors!)

and

on Bookshelves of Doom

and

on Talking Teen Books

I Hear Dead People

Dead Connection by Charlie Price
4Q 4P J/S

(This review is carried over from a blog I had on Live Journal. Over the next few weeks I'll be copying those reviews over here, interspersing them with new reviews.)

I really liked the way this story is structured. It follows several characters, most notably Murray, a psychic who has conversations with dead people in the cemetery, Gates, a sheriff investigating the disappearance of a local high school girl, and Vern Billup, the alcoholic Public Affairs Officer in the local police station. Some readers may find it hard or frustrating to follow the storyline, since each (short) chapter alternates the point of view. We start out following Murray, then move on to various other characters, coming back to each several times. This really worked for me as a technique, particularly because the mystery and investigation aspects of the story lend themselves to following various leads to may or may not pan out. It also helps build the suspense, since some of the characters are considerably less stable than others. I do have a quibble with the ending, which relies on a revelation that comes pretty much out of nowhere. But I liked the book anyhow. Murray's a loner. His mother is a prostitute (even if she probably wouldn't describe herself that way). He's a poor student. He has no friends, unless you count Dearly Beloved, Edwin, and Blessed Daughter, his favorite dead people at the cemetery. He has long, satisfying conversations with them. But of course, he can't tell anyone that's what's going on, because everyone will think he's crazy and ship him off to some psych hospital. That's what he thinks when Pearl Janocheck, the cemetery caretaker's daughter comes up to him in the cemetery to ask what he's doing. He blows her off, which ticks her off and makes her vow to get revenge. Her revenge is sweet but short-lasting, since her father quickly realizes Pearl has set Murray up for a crime he didn't commit. That's an unusual way for a friendship to develop, but it happens anyhow. While Murray and Pearl are slowly developing a relationship, Murray is being watched by Billup. Billup can't stand the kid, because of an incident between Billup and Murray's mother a while back. Billup just knows the kid in the cemetery is up to no good, and he's gonna get the kid if it's the last thing he does. But first he has to deal with his alcohol problem and the blackouts that are happening almost daily now. If he could only remember what happened the night before... Meanwhile, Gates is pursuing any scrap of a lead he can dig up on what happened to Nikki, the high school cheerleader who disappeared in October. One of those leads is Robert Barry Compton, a schizophrenic former crackhead who knows he saw something, but can't remember just what it was. All of these threads begin to come together the day that Murray hears a new voice in the cemetery. It's a girl's voice, and she's saying something like "Find me."

Don't Eat the Cupcakes!

Devilish by Maureen Johnson
4Q/4P J/S

What a fun book! I've read and liked Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Key to the Golden Firebird, but they didn't prepare me for the humor in this one. Some authors write the same book over and over again, just changing the names of the characters. Like Pete Hautman, it looks as though Maureen Johnson likes to throw her readers a curve ball now and then. I'm all for that.

Jane Jarvis is a senior at Saint Teresa's Preparatory School for Girls. Although highly intelligent, she is hardly their model student, since she is also opinionated, skeptical, and not prone to suffering in silence. She also has a talent for racking up the demerits. This means she's not exactly the nuns' favorite student. She won't win any popularity contests with her fellow students, either. So Jane isn't expecting much from Big-Little Day, the day that each incoming freshman chooses a senior to mentor her through the school year. She has hopes, though, that her best friend Allison will do better. Unfortunately, the Junior Judges, who write reviews of the seniors to help guide the freshmen towards good choices, pan them both. (Jane: If you are the angry, brainy type, consider Jane. She can be your personal Yoda. Allison: If you haven't got anyone else for your big and no one else will take a second...Well, we do what we must.) But maybe all isn't lost after all. Someone has left a red velvet cupcake (the edible kind) in Allison's locker, with a note that reads "WILL YOU BE MY BIG?" But when the ceremony begins, littles flock around all the popular seniors, but nobody comes near Jane, and nobody comes near Allison. Jane's cool with it, but Allison isn't. She starts to sweat. Her skins turns a sick shade of blue-gray. And then, just as a freshman starts to come her way...she projectile vomits. Poor Ally. Poor freshman.

After a disaster like that, it's a shock to both Jane and Allison when a girl wanders into the bathroom where Allison is hiding, sees Ally's humiliation, and offers to be Ally's little. Lanalee Tremone is a sophomore transfer student. She's the kind of girl who instantly attracts attention and revels in it. She's pretty, stylish, smart, and altogether not the kind of girl anyone would ever have expected to choose Ally for a big. It's supposed to be the bigs who help the littles, but in this case, it seems to work the other way around. Within days, Ally's got a new stylish haircut, a new look, and a new confidence in herself. She's also getting more and more distant with Jane. She also seems to have hooked up with Jane's old (but definitely not forgotten) boyfriend. This is not good, Jane thinks.

Little does Jane know - yet - that this is more than not good. This is, in fact, the opposite of good. This is evil. As in, "Anyone bought any good souls lately?" evil. Now it's up to Jane, with a little help from Owen, a freshman from the boy's school across the road, to somehow save Allison. And if that's at the expense of her own soul, well, sometimes that's what a friend has to do.

Musings: Examples of stuff that made me laugh:

Jane has a younger sister named Joan. Joan got the looks in the family. Jane got the brains. ALL of the brains. As Jane says,

...I'm completely used to her looking up at me with that lip-glossy stare of hers and asking questions like, "Is the Tour de France in Spain?" or, "Do they make cotton out of plastic?" This is a girl who I had convinced that Alaska used to be called Frigidaire...She was lovely and happy, even if she was as intelligent as a rubber band.

And then there's this section, where Jane, Owen, and Brother Frank (a teacher at Jane's school) are discussing the nature of hell:

"Demons are always moving up; new ones are always coming in. You always have to keep trying to get promoted."
"Many large corporations are actually modeled on hell," Brother Frank added. "The policies and organization are almost identical."

I think this one might actually be my favorite. I so relate to the sentiments! Jane and Owen are at a party. They are not enjoying themselves.

Many stories below us, costumed adults were making their way to parties in town. "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" came thundering from inside the ballroom.

"DJs are from the other side," I said. "Right?"
"Yeah, a lot of them are," he said. "Especially the ones who do proms and weddings. How'd you know?"
"Just a guess. Anyone who tries to force other people into having fun like that...has to be evil."
"It's an entry-level position."

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has snarkiness, humor, tension, suspense, and a few good twists and turns. It doesn't try for totally-freak-you-out horror, but there is a definite creepiness factor. But I'll be honest. I mostly enjoyed it because it made me laugh. I liked Jane for her feistiness, her loyalty, and her sense of humor. I would happily read another book about her. By the way, if you check out Maureen Johnson's blog, you'll see that Jane's sense of humor is genetic: it comes from her "mother".