Kevin D. Hendricks's Blog, page 37
June 23, 2014
Not a Drop to Drink
I haven’t read a good straight up post-apocalyptic story in a while, and Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis fit the bill.
Focused on water scarcity (something I haven’t seen a lot of in the genre, but will surely become more common), we get a strong teen character in Lynn who knows the dangers of the outside world but has to learn to recognize the potential joys.
How well does she know the dangers? Her mother raised her to shoot strangers on sight—no warnings, no questions asked.
The story is...
June 20, 2014
Randi Rhodes Ninja Detective: Characters Trump the Mystery
Randi Rhodes Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit by Octavia Spencer is a quick mystery featuring a kid detective and her friends. I’m not a big mystery fan, so I need to be really impressed. Not so much with this one.
The characters were good. I liked Randi Rhodes and her friends. They’re realistic and relatable, dealing with real problems. The biggest is Randi overcoming the death of her mother.
But the mystery didn’t stand up to the quality characters. It felt a little too si...
June 19, 2014
The Living: What’s the Plural of Apocalypse?
Conspiracy and cover up in the midst of apocalyptic mayhem on a cruise ship—with a scary disease thrown in for good measure.
The hits just keep coming in The Living by Matt de la Peña.
The story centers on Shy, a hard-working kid stuck in the middle of it all. In many ways this book can’t quite decide what it is, and you get some of everything from class-based cruise ship hijinks to suicide mystery to Titanic sinking to adrift in a life boat.
It’s also the first in a series, so there’s not a lot...
June 17, 2014
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
In a futuristic, post-apocalypse city state the political system is ruled by women and a summer king is elected every five years—only to be killed when the winter ends. Yes, The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson has a complicated, dystopian setup. In a nutshell, men couldn’t be trusted after ruining the world, so women held most of the power.
But this year’s summer king is pushing the rules and he inspires teenage artist June as she struggles to figure out her place. Like everyone else, she’...
June 16, 2014
Sideways Stories Wasn’t as Magical as I Remember
Sideways Stories From Wayside School by Louis Sachar was one of my favorite books growing up.
I read it to the kids and it wasn’t as magical and hilarious as I remember. It’s still fun and definitely quirky, but it’s also disjointed and sometimes just weird (dead rats?).
It makes me wonder how much of my enjoyment came because one of my teachers read it to us and those books always seem to be better?
It was also written 35 years ago and what was considered off-beat and quirky back then is pretty...
June 13, 2014
The First Part Last: We Need More Bobbys
The second story in the Heaven trilogy, The First Part Last by Angela Johnson tells the story of Bobby and Feather and how this father-daughter duo from the first installment came to be together.
It’s just as quiet and simple as Heaven, but told in a then/now format that slowly builds to the climax. It’s the right amount of mystery and intrigue without spoiling things and without overpowering the story.
As a teenage father, Bobby is the hero we seldom see. We need more characters like Bobby. He...
June 12, 2014
Killer of Enemies Is a Fun Read
When I carried Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac around while reading it people kept asking me about it and I struggled to summarize it: “Um, post-apocalyptic YA thriller starring a Native American female warrior?”
And maybe that’s the best way to describe it. It features genetically modified monsters and weird bits of telepathy, but it’s otherwise realistic, fast-paced and quite the page-turner.
Lozen is a bad ass. She’s got the survival skills of a good Western hero, but she’s living in the...
June 11, 2014
Heaven is Refreshing
Marley has a simple life in a town called Heaven, hanging out with friends and getting letters from her traveling Uncle Jack. Until she learns that her parents aren’t really her parents and she’s set adrift.
Heaven by Angela Johnson is really a simple, quiet story, despite the head-spinning topic. It’s slow building and has a subtle grace.
It’s not the typical urban black youth or witty teen story, and for that alone it’s refreshing.
It’s also the first in a trilogy, though they’re really more t...
June 10, 2014
A Wish After Midnight Struggles in Octavia Butler’s Shadow
In A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott a teenage black girl inadvertently travels from modern day to Civil War-era Brooklyn. It’s reminiscent of Octavia Butler’s Kindred, though it’s much slower paced. It’s more character driven, taking time to thoroughly introduce the reader to modern urban poverty and focusing on the racial differences between 1863 and the modern day.
While Kindred really dove into the time travel and let the social commentary speak for itself (more or less), A Wish After...
June 9, 2014
Adaptation: Forget Conspiracy, More Drama!
Terrorism turns to government conspiracy and much, much worse in Adaptation by Malinda Lo. It’s basically a quick-paced teenie-bopper thrill ride.
It explored some interesting concepts (SPOILERS: Birds breaking planes! Genetic testing! Intergalactic hanky-panky!), but in the end the giant conspiracy saga was completely overshadowed by the teen romance. The lesbian teen romance—well, the xenosexual teen romance.
Yes, Adaptation includes a little human-alien romance. It’s not nearly as weird as y...
