Marie August's Blog, page 33

The Fox and The Firebird - Page 17

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Thursday

September 8th, 2011
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Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Stunningly told urban fantasy for older teens with star-crossed lovers

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 432
Source: Amazon Vine
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Karou is an azure-haired, 17-year-old attending art school in the ancient Czech city of Prague. Her talent alone sets her apart from the other students, but it is the air of mystery about the lovely girl that fascinates. No one, not even her best friend, really knows her. They can't, because the truth is too fantastic for them to accept, even if she were free to talk to them about it, which she is not.

Karou lives a double life. Though she has passed for many years as a human among other humans--even taking a human lover and feeling the same type of anger and betrayal any human girl would experience on finding out he has cheated on her--she is not like other humans. Karou lives another life that she can only reveal to her human friends through her art--which they think is pure imagination. Karou was raised by odd beings who look like they are a mixture of human and animal parts. We are led to presume, from the opening of the book (more on that in a moment), that they are "demons," so I will call them that to avoid any spoiler beyond the author's own.

These beings would be terrifying to any ordinary human, but Karou has known them all her life, and to her they are simply family who have protected her, cared for her, and in their own way loved her. In fact, the only thing they do that is strange to the point of being grotesque is a mysterious traffic in teeth by the head demon, Brimstone. He collects all kinds of teeth, not just animal teeth, but human teeth, too, and he is not particular whether they come from the living or dead. Most of the individuals selling the teeth are the scum of the earth ("rank brutes with dead eyes, stinking of the slaughterhouse"), and though many of them want money in exchange for their teeth, others have discovered that Brimstone, whom Karou calls the "Wishmonger," can also offer wishes in payment, which range from inconsequential to enormous in their power. The trouble with those wishes is that they all too often play out in a way that is more curse than blessing to the one who possesses them.

Laini Taylor is an extremely gifted writer on a number of levels. She uses language in an often stunning way, but it never takes center stage, overpowering her characters and plot. She has also chosen to tell her young-adult, urban-fantasy story in omniscient point of view, which alternates between a distant, all-knowing narrator who sounds like the voiceover of a movie and close-and-personal forays into the heads of various characters. Though this point of view is common for high fantasy, it is rarely used in urban fantasy, and it is also uncommon in young-adult fiction, both of which are written a huge percentage of the time in first-person ("I/me") point of view. In less skilled hands, this approach might have failed, but in this story it contributes strongly to the forbiddingly mysterious mood. It also gives the author the flexibility of focusing primarily on Karou while also offering the reader fascinating glimpses into the thoughts and motivations of other characters. Most delightfully the thoughts of Karou's angel-warrior love interest, Akiva, a riveting romantic hero whom Karou does not encounter for the first time until page 77.

This delayed "first meet" is another bold move in a story which is being heavily promoted by the publisher as a dark, YA paranormal romance. But the power, intensity--and uniqueness--of their first meet is worth the wait.

Another brave departure in this story is that the reader is spared the now cliché YA love triangle. We know from the start of the book what there will be only one romantic interest for Karou (her human ex-boyfriend is never in the running) and exactly what the romantic conflict is going to be when the author opens the book with this quote: "Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well." Even though this is something of a spoiler, letting us know what Karou's identity must be and that the romantic conflict is of the "Romeo and Juliet" variety, it fits with the fairy-tale tone of the story as a whole.

Overall, in every way that matters, this story is a riveting read. Only the ending, which is a fairly typical cliffhanger format for most YA paranormal series these days, is rather unsatisfying, but not enough to stay away from reading the book until the full series is complete.

Advisory for parents and teachers: This book has frank sexual content, and there is violence that is typical of the genre of urban fantasy. As a result, it is best suited to mature teens age 17 and above.

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 5

Writing: 5

Action-Adventure Plot: 5

Romantic Subplot: 5


Overall: 5

Interview at Allison's Book Bag

Allison's Book Bag has posted an interview with us (Kate McMurry and Marie August). The interview can be found here. We are also posting a copy of this interview below:


Allison: Interviewing authors has become one of my favorite parts of being a book review blogger. To my surprise, when I wrote Kate McMurry to request an interview, she responded by telling me that she was writing out replies to the questions I had used in my other interviews. As I like to personalize each interview by asking questions based on an author's site and book(s), I wasn't sure what to expect. To my delight, her interview was well-crafted and interesting to read. Moreover, when I shot her a few other questions, she immediately integrated them into her original interview. It's my pleasure to introduce to you the new co-author team of Kate McMurry and Marie August. As Kate is also a fellow blogger, I hope to treat you later in the year to a collaborative review with her.
 
Allison: What are your publications for young people?

Kate and Marie: We have one published book so far, Girl vs Ghost, a YA, paranormal, romantic comedy targeted primarily at teens age 12-16. It is Book 1 of the Misdirected Magic Trilogy . Book 2, Witch vs Wizard, will be released in November, 2011, and Book 3, Spells vs Spirits, will be released in May, 2012.

Allison: Why did you become a writer?

Kate and Marie: Kate has been writing for the sheer joy of putting words on the page since she first learned to form sentences in elementary school. As an adult, she has worked professionally as a technical writer, an English teacher, a private editor, and a freelance journalist. Writing fiction was a passionate avocation from 1993 until she formed a partnership with Marie in 2006 with the goal of becoming published YA novelists.

Marie has been telling stories since she was a small child, and Kate (due to her background as an English teacher) began training Marie in her teens in the art of critiquing and writing popular fiction. One of our favorite joint hobbies during Marie's high school years was creating characters with elaborate backstories together, and Marie attempted her first novel at age 14.

Marie is also a professional artist with a B.A. in visual arts. She has worked as an illustrator and web designer and was commissioned to design the cover and internal illustrations for Girl vs Ghost. As a special promotion for our book, Marie created a webcomic of the first chapter which is available at Misdirected Magic. She also writes and illustrates a fairytale webcomic called The Fox and the Firebird at Fairy Tale Twisted, and she created and maintains our blog.

Allison: Why did you decide to write as a team?

Kate and Marie: As mother and daughter, we have always been very close personally. For many years we critiqued each other's fiction, until it finally occurred to Marie that if we worked together, we could get a whole lot more done than we ever managed to do separately. She was absolutely correct. Our teamwork has had an additional wonderful perk of giving us an excuse to spend much more time together than we might have been able to do in the ordinary course of events.

Allison: Why do you write for young people?

Kate and Marie: We both feel that the famous piece of writer's advice, "Write what you love to read," definitely applies to us for YA fiction, since for many years now, it is the genre we have both most enjoyed reading and discussing. Marie is also a fan of manga, Japanese graphic novels, and the animated films based on them which are called anime. The vast majority of the protagonists of these stories are teenagers, and they have served as an inspiration to her for the kind of YA plots she would like to write.

Allison: Kate, you wrote on your website: "Reading young adult (YA) fiction has been a passion of mine for many years and has strongly influenced my decision to write YA fiction myself." Why did you start reading young adult fiction?

Kate: My mother (Marie's grandmother) was a middle-grade and secondary-school librarian before she retired. One of the joys of my adolescent years was when she allowed me to help her pick out books to purchase for the school library. My love of fiction written especially for teens began then, but it has continued all my life because YA fiction is such a vibrant genre.

Allison: Marie, what inspired your interest in young adult fiction?

Marie: I started getting heavily into reading fiction when I was twelve because of Madeleine L'Engle. I loved her "Time" series. In seventh grade, I read them together with a friend and we talked about them a lot.

Allison: Kate, why did you become a reviewer of young adult fiction?

Kate: I've been posting reviews on Amazon since 1999, and when they implemented the Vine program in late 2007, I was among the first wave of people invited to participate. I was delighted to discover that Vine was offering advance reading copies of YA books. Until then, though I had always read a lot of YA fiction, somehow it hadn't occurred to me to review it. Once I started posting Vine reviews for YA books, I discovered I enjoyed it very much. I've been writing reviews for almost all the YA novels I've read ever since. During this past year, I discovered NetGalley, and it has become another source of acquiring current YA books to read and review. I cross-post all my YA reviews on my own website, the blog Marie has created for us, Goodreads and Amazon.

Allison: Kate, you have completed a lot of studies and pursued many careers. What has been your favorite program of studies? What has been your favorite career?

Kate: I am one of those people who, if given the chance, would have loved to spend decades pursuing degree after degree. I have extremely fond memories of everything I studied, but probably my English studies, both creative writing and English education, were the most fascinating and fun. As for my favorite career, hands down it is teaching writing, both nonfiction and fiction, to students of all ages.

Allison: The two of you wrote a story together based on the Medusa myth (posted on the Bio page of marieaugust.com) when Marie was in sixth grade. What inspired this idea? What are your favorite myths? Any plans to write other take-offs on myths?

Kate and Marie: Marie was studying Greek mythology in school at the time, and it inspired her to write a short story about Medusa. She initially intended to write it as a tragedy, but Kate said that it would be great fun to tell it as a dark comedy. Marie liked the idea, because she shares Kate's strong sense of the absurd, and our partnership writing the story took off from there.
Marie's favorite myth is Hades and Persephone. Kate's is Siegfried/Sigurd of Norse mythology. We both have a strong attraction to myths, folklore and fairytales. Kate owns many collections of fairytales from around the world, and Marie's fascination with fairytales has inspired the creation of her fairytale webcomic at Fairy Tale Twisted.

We have discussed the possibility of writing an urban-fantasy series for teens sometime in the next few years. Definitely one powerful source for magic in fantasy comes from mythical gods, and we may well eventually incorporate myths into our YA fiction.

Allison: How did the two of you come up with the idea for Misdirected Magic? How long did it take to write?

Kate and Marie: Marie came up with the idea for the three main characters, Tripp, Isabel and Marc. when she was still in her teens. She had originally envisioned a very different ending for the story and a much darker tone than we ultimately decided on together, and there was at least one important character in her initial conception whom we ended up abandoning–though we hope to use him someday in another story.

We first planned to write Girl vs Ghost as a single title when we began working on it in 2006. It was a slow process finishing it because we were only able to get together a few hours per week. In 2007 it struck us that this story had potential to be a trilogy, because by then our "fantasy bible," which includes the rules for the magic in our characters' world, was over 25,000 words long. We decided that we didn't want to start submitting the first book of our trilogy for publication until we had at least a full outline and hopefully a rough draft of the second and third books so that we could be sure that we wouldn't hit a "sophomore slump." Achieving that goal took several years, and as we worked on the second and third book, new ideas for the direction of the overall arc of the three books led to rewrites of Girl vs Ghost. We started submitting Girl vs Ghost to editors in early 2010.

Allison: What was your reason for writing your book with fantasy elements?

Kate and Marie: We both love YA paranormal stories, whether books, television shows or movies. In addition, for the past eight years Marie has had extensive experience running role-playing games which has involved creating fantasy worlds with magical characters and many unique storylines for individual games based in those various worlds. This hobby has given her extensive experience in fantasy world-building which she has brought to bear in creating the Misdirected Magic trilogy.

Allison: Why did you decide to write your book as a comedy?

Kate and Marie: We both enjoy humorous YA novels, and we love writing comedy. There are endless possibilities for humor in the wild incongruities that occur when fantasy elements are introduced into a plot.

Allison: In reading about your publisher, I admire the stand that Blazing Star Press has taken to focus on comic novels targeted at young adults. How did you find Blazing Star Press?

Kate and Marie: Through a referral from a fellow writer. We ultimately decided that the greater flexibility of a small, "indie" publisher might provide an edge that larger publishers do not have in order to survive the enormous upheavals within the publishing industry today. We were also promised, and have happily received, a great deal of personal attention for editing and promotion of our book that overworked editors and marketing staff in large publishing houses have been unable to provide to anyone besides big-name authors for quite some time. In addition, the strong appreciation of Blazing Star Press for YA comedy was a big draw for us as well.

Allison: What are your favorite books for young people?

Kate and Marie: We are major fans of paranormal YA. We've devoured the Harry Potter books and the Twilight series, and recently we've been very impressed with Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series, the series begun with Angel Burn by Lee Weatherly, and the Raised by Wolves series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Our favorite authors of comic YA novels, many of which have fantasy elements, are Meg Cabot, Janet Rallison, Tera Lynn Childs, Suzanne Selfors, Wendy Toliver, Allison van Diepen, Kristin Walker, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Tina Ferraro, Aimee Ferris, Maryrose Wood, Alex Flinn, Martha Freeman, Ebony McKenna, and Sydney Salter.

Allison: What is one writing tip you'd like to pass onto others?

Kate and Marie: If you want to write fiction, don't just try to write what is "hot." Instead, figure out which genre you enjoy reading the most. That will very likely be the one you understand best and are most likely to excel at and be enthusiastic about writing.

Allison: What is one other thing you'd like to share?

Kate and Marie: Any time you read a novel that you love, consider writing a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or a comment on a blog such as this one, in order to support that author's work. Positive reviews by readers not only encourage the author, they also help other people who are eager to find their next good read to locate that author's work.

Last, but certainly not least, we are very grateful to Allison for interviewing us on her wonderful blog!

Book Review: Dead Is Not an Option (Dead Is #5) by Marlene Perez

Adorable, funny, satisfying, fifth and final book in the "Dead Is" comic, paranormal, mystery series for teens

Dead is Not an Option (Dead Is #5) by Marlene Perez
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: May 2, 2011
Publisher: Graphia
Pages: 252
Source: NetGalley
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Daisy Giordano is about to graduate from high school in the quirky little town of Nightshade, but what would normally be a happy time is filled with anxiety. All of Daisy's friends have received acceptance letters for college—including her boyfriend Ryan, who will be attending a university in another part of the country. Daisy hates the thought of being separated from him, but even if she had a chance to be accepted to Ryan's school, she wouldn't take it. She wants to attend Nightshade University to be near her father, who was recently rescued from years of captivity by an evil group called the Scourge, who consider it their mission to destroy every paranormal creature on the face of the earth.

Daisy is also determined to break the evil spell that has trapped a young woman in a juke box and her fiancé in the body of a pig for around sixty years. But only the witch who cast the spell on them can break it. And that witch, a celebrity chef named Circe Silvertongue (who first appeared in Book 4 of this series, Dead Is Just a Rumor), shows no signs of cooperating.

In addition to all that, several violent attacks in town on paranormal teens have led many of the residents of Nightshade to believe that the town's werewolves and vampires have begun a vendetta against each other. The escalating conflict spills over into Daisy's own family because Daisy and her oldest sister Rose are dating werewolves and her older sister Poppy is dating a vampire. As a result, Rose and Poppy keep breaking into arguments as they take different sides in the fray.

Marlene Perez has done it again. This story is a great opportunity to visit again with Daisy, a determined and highly sympathetic heroine, and all the magical denizens of Nightshade. It also provides a gratifying ending to this rollicking paranormal-mystery series. Every plot thread is tied up in a satisfying way, including the Lily-Balthazar-Circe storyline, Daisy's romantic relationship with Ryan, Daisy's future plans, and the evil Scourge that has plagued the town throughout the five books. I highly recommend this book to readers of all ages who enjoy comic, amateur-sleuth, paranormal mysteries.

Note for parents, teachers and librarians: This book is G-rated. There are no incidents of drinking, drugs or adolescent sex either on or offstage, and Daisy's family relationships are warm and loving.

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 4.5

Writing: 5

Mystery Plot: 3.5 for adult and older teens; 5 for younger teens

Romantic Subplot: 5



Overall: 5

Book Review: Raised by Wolves (Raised by Wolves #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Fantastic start to an exciting new YA urban-fantasy series!

Raised by Wolves (Raised by Wolves, #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: May 10, 2011
Publisher: Egmont USA
Pages: 448
Source: Amazon Vine
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Fifteen-year-old Bryn has, literally, been raised by wolves. At the age of four, her parents were murdered by a rogue ("rabid") werewolf, and Bryn barely avoided their fate when she was rescued by Callum, the powerful, ancient alpha in charge of the local werewolf pack. Callum placed Bryn under his particular protection and enfolded her into his pack, and he put her in the care of another human, a woman named Ali who is only 17 years older than Bryn. In addition to granting Ali great latitude in raising Bryn as her own daughter, Callum has permitted Bryn to engage in a highly unusual mental resistance to the engulfing tide of the pack's all-inclusive telepathic connection. He has also offered her a remarkable amount of freedom from his alpha ability to compel obedience on all the werewolves in his pack. The combination of uncommon freedom with an innately forceful personality has led Bryn to engage in a great many verbal and behavioral rebellions over the years, which Callum has responded to with remarkable patience and tolerance. But one of the things Callum has absolutely insisted on since earliest childhood that Bryn has always eagerly agreed to is a strict daily regimen of exercise and training in various warrior arts. Bryn runs up to 12 miles per day, climbs extremely tall trees, practices martial arts, trains with guns and knives, and engages in hand-to-hand combat with werewolves in their human form.

After over a decade of close, affectionate supervision, Bryn would have sworn that she could trust Callum in every possible way, most especially that he would never lie to her, either directly or by omission, and he would certainly never allow harm of any kind to come to her. But all of those assumptions are blown away the day she discovers a teenage boy named Chase in a cage in Callum's basement. Chase has been turned into a werewolf by the savage, bloody attack of a rabid werewolf. He holds the secret to the elusive memories Bryn has of the rogue werewolf that destroyed Bryn's family, but Callum refuses to allow Bryn to pursue that crucial information--on threat of dire pack punishment if she disobeys.

I absolutely love this book! I read a lot of urban fantasy, both for adults and teens, and the ones I like the most have great characters with loyal, protective, loving relationships which invariably are the force driving all the action. The protagonists of such stories get into lots of high-octane trouble because they are highly sympathetic, positive warriors who will risk everything, including their lives, to help the humans and nonhumans that they love. Bryn is a worthy addition to the best of urban fantasy in this regard. She starts out the book sounding as if she might just be an ordinary, rebellious teenager, but in fact she is rushing headlong across the length of the book toward becoming an amazing person. Someone with tremendous potential for caring for and loving others, both as a nurturer, protector and leader.

I am a huge fan of Patricia Briggs's werewolf-based urban fantasies for adults, such as Book 1 in the Mercy Thompson series, Moon Called, and I'm also a big fan of the Twilight urban-fantasy series for young adults. For readers who like comparisons, I would say that this book--the start of what looks to be an extremely promising new series--is much closer to Briggs than Meyer in her approach to urban fantasy. Romance is the center of Twilight, but in RBW, the core of the story, as in the Mercy Thompson series with Briggs, is a very strong heroine discovering across the first book in the series who she is and the range and force of her unique gifts.

I believe that all YA novels, no matter what type, are enriched by a strong band of friends surrounding the protagonist, but loyal allies are absolutely crucial for emotionally compelling urban fantasy. I'm delighted to report that this book has that component in spades. Bryn has a sixteen-year-old BFF, Devon, who is a purebred werewolf (a were born of two werewolves, an extremely rare event in this book's cosmology, since only one or two female werewolves are born every hundred years). Dev also happens to be a gorgeous, six-foot-four hunk with a quirky sense of humor who loves to sing and act in plays. Bryn is also very close to ready-for-anything, fifteen-year-old female werewolf, Lake, who adores guns. And most of all, she can count on Chase, the fifteen-year-old, made-by-bite werewolf. Bryn has an intense emotional and romantic connection with Chase that transcends time and space and is extremely moving. Fans of Edward and Bella, take note--this is a great romance!

I also find it brilliant the way that the author manages to allow Bryn and her teen allies to accomplish amazing things in the climax of the story in spite of the over-protectiveness, and sometimes active hostile opposition, of dozens of adult werewolves. So many YA's create the necessary opening for independent, self-actualizing, dramatic action by the teen protagonists by having the adults in their lives be callously or selfishly neglectful. But the adults in this book are the dead opposite of that cliché. They are so totally involved with Bryn, they are practically smothering her with over-protectiveness.

Finally, and very importantly, this book is extremely well written. The language in the book serves the story, rather than the other way around, and it doesn't scream a message, so it is definitely not lit fic. It is truly excellent popular fiction, meaning the heroine has a strong goal, takes dramatic action to get it, comes up against powerful resistance, and ultimately achieves a very satisfying, upbeat resolution.

I cannot wait to read the next book in this series. The setup the author has created for future adventures is extremely original, compelling and heart-warming.

I highly recommend this book not only for teens, but for any adult who loves urban fantasy. It can safely be read by kids as young as 12. Though some parents might find the violence PG, it is not particularly graphic, and the book is G-Rated as to sensuality and bad language.

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 4

Writing: 5

Action-Adventure Plot: 5

Mystery Subplot: 5

Romantic Subplot: 5


Overall: 5

The Fox and The Firebird - Page 16

I've finished Page 16 of The Fox and The Firebird. For more information on the comic, please visit http://www.fairytaletwisted.com

If you like my comic, please vote for The Fox and The Firebird on Topwebcomics.com.

Thursday

September 1st, 2011


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Book Review: In the Arms of Stone Angels by Jordan Dane

YA supernatural, murder-mystery thriller for older teens age 17 and above

In the Arms of Stone Angels by Jordan Dane
Reading Level: Young Adult (17+)
Release Date: March 22, 20111
Publisher: Harlequin
Pages: 320
Source: NetGalley
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Two years ago, when she was fourteen, Brenna Nash stumbled upon her best friend, Isaac Henry AKA White Bird, of the Euchee tribe in Shawano, Oklahoma, in the aftermath of a brutal murder of a white, teenage girl. Though Brenna had known Isaac for over a year and had never seen him act in any but the gentlest manner toward animals and people, she instantly assumed he had committed the murder and turned him in to the police. In spite of her status as a witness against her friend, her former friendship with him led to her and her mother, a real estate agent, being stigmatized in Shawano, and her mother soon moved them away.

After leaving town, Brenna sought no information about White Bird from her grandmother, who was still living in Shawano, and she descended into a rage-filled, self-destructive depression, manifesting as rebellion toward her mother, isolating herself, and deliberately mutilating herself by cutting her arms and legs.

Brenna's only comfort in her abject misery during that period post-trauma up to the present moment has been to visit graveyards. She has the gift of seeing ghosts and, far from frightening her, their presence feels comforting. No doubt in large part because they never speak, which prevents them from making demands as living people do.

Suddenly, when Brenna is sixteen, her mother informs her that her grandmother has died and left her home to Brenna's mother. Her mother insists that they must return to Shawano, prep the house and sell it. Brenna at first flatly refuses to return to the scene of the source of her despair, but eventually she succumbs to her mother's wishes.

Once she is back in Shawano, Brenna cannot resist finding out what happened to White Bird and discovers that he has not been sent to jail for murder, but is confined to a mental hospital where he has been in a catatonic state since the day of the murder. Brenna sneaks into the hospital, finds him sitting alone in a wheelchair staring into space, and touches his arm. She is instantly pulled into a hellish landscape and, since her paranormal ability has previous consisted only of seeing ghosts, she is terrified that she is going insane.

After this experience, Brenna feels guilty for her part in White Bird's terrible condition--and afraid for herself. Then, as if all that weren't awful enough, friends of the murdered girl make it their mission to confront Brenna on numerous occasions, letting her know that they blame her for the murder almost as much as White Bird because she was his friend.

Surrounded by enemies on all sides, with a mother who refuses to leave town, Brenna has nowhere to turn, and the dead--including the murdered girl--are no help at all.

In an unusual departure for YA--though not uncommon in adult thrillers--this book is written in many different points of view, at least four of them villains and several adults. To distinguish Brenna from the other point-of-view characters, her voice is in first person ("I said"), and all the rest are in third-person ("he/she said").

Though the heroine is presented as apparently suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), there is no mention that she has ever had therapy. Yet many of her thoughts are those of a mature adult who, from some distant time, is reflecting back on this awful moment in her youth from the perspective of someone who has had therapy. For example: "I could have spared Mom the attitude...but attitude was all I had left," and "I guess Mom had her reasons and I had mine. And maybe we both had something to prove." Some readers may find this pulls them out of the story, but for me personally, the distancing this provided from the main character helped me to deal with the many awful things done to the heroine, by herself and by others.

The author of this book, Jordan Dane, has written many best-selling adult thrillers which are best known for their "very damaged characters" in plots sometimes referred to as "21st century noir." She states on her website that when writing this book, she was determined to create a gritty story for teens. She has certainly succeeded in her goal. This YA thriller is by turns shocking and frightening. So much so, including a scene with sexualized brutality (though not outright rape), that this book is best suited to the R-rated, over-17 end of the extended YA age range of 11-19.

This book is strongly recommended to fans of thrillers. Fans of Jordan Dane, in particular, will find this book an exciting read.

Heroine: 4

Subcharacters: 3

Writing: 4

Thriller Plot: 5

Romantic Subplot: 3


Overall: 4

Book Review: Dead Is Just a Rumor (Dead Is #4) by Marlene Perez

Quirky, fun fourth book in the "Dead Is" comic, paranormal, mystery series for teens

Dead is Just a Rumor (Dead Is #4) by Marlene Perez
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: August 23, 2010
Publisher: Graphia
Pages: 216
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Halloween is always a big event in Nightshade, a small community running over with paranormal residents. But this year it is particularly huge, because it is the town's two-hundredth anniversary. The festive atmosphere is dampened, though, when many residents begin receiving blackmail letters and no one can figure out who is sending them. Daisy Giordano, whose psychic gifts include ESP and telekinesis, is determined to solve this mystery, but she is hampered by her father. He was recently rescued from years of captivity at the hands of an evil group called the Scourge, whose mission is to wipe out all paranormal beings from the face of the earth. Now that Daisy's father is back with his family again, he is both emotionally scarred by his experience and extremely overprotective of his daughters--especially Daisy, who is younger than her two college-age sisters.

In addition to trying to solve the blackmail mystery, Daisy is heavily involved with cooking lessons with celebrity chef Circe Silvertongue. When Daisy won the lessons as a prize, she had high hopes that they would be an exciting opportunity to advance her considerable cooking skills. But Circe treats Daisy more like a despised lackey than a talented student. Not only that, Circe's behavior in general is highly suspicious. It is obvious to Daisy that her mentor has magical talents, but what are they? And why would someone as famous as Circe want to hang out in Nightshade. What is she really up to?

On top of all these events, Daisy is troubled with boyfriend problems, too. Her beloved Ryan is considering attending colleges far from Nightshade due to the advice of Nightshade High's new guidance counselor, and as a result, Daisy might lose him within the year.

I've really been enjoying this series, and this book is no exception. Daisy is a wonderful heroine, and her boyfriend Ryan is a sexy and endearingly wholesome werewolf. There are repeat appearances of a cast of quirky, paranormal residents of the fascinating little town of Nightshade, some new villains to keep Daisy on her toes and, delightfully, we gain new clues about the history of the enchanted juke box at the local diner.

Anyone who enjoys YA fantasy with a comic twist will love this book and the entire "Dead" series.

Note for parents, teachers and librarians: This book is G-rated. There are no incidents of drinking, drugs or adolescent sex either on or offstage, and Daisy's family relationships are warm and loving.

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 4.5

Writing: 5

Mystery Plot: 3.5 for adult and older teens; 5 for younger teens

Romantic Subplot: 5


Overall: 5

Book Review: A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

A stunning social drama for teens of all ages packaged in a science-fiction format

A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: August 9, 2011
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pages: 352
Source: NetGalley
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Rose Fitzroy has been in suspended animation for 62 years when she is awakened by the kiss of a handsome young man to a completely unfamiliar world in which everyone she knew before is long dead.

As I sped through page after page of this book, I tried like crazy to figure out why I simply could not put it down because, in major ways, it violates my normal preferences in a YA novel:
I don't much care for science fiction (SF), and I rarely read SF novels other than a few in the YA genre (I really liked both Inside Out and Outside In by Maria Snyder). In addition, I almost never watch SF TV shows or movies, other than Avatar, which is one of my all-time favorite movies ever, of any genre, because of the characters and their relationships with each other (and the flying!). I also greatly enjoyed Independence Day, again because of the characters and their relationships.
I do NOT generally like passive heroines, and Rose objectively is very passive throughout most of the book, though it is well motivated and understandable because of the way she was raised and her health problems from 62 years in suspended animation. My personal taste runs to heroines who are active and have strong goals they are focused on achieving, no matter the antagonists opposing her. In contrast, most of this book is very quiet and internal.
I cried, several times reading this book--which is not a plus for me personally since I normally don't like "tear jerkers," whether books, TV shows or movies.
I also love a strong, clear romance plot where it is obvious who the love interest is. The romance in this book takes a back seat to friendship and isn't the intense kind that makes the heart flutter.
And yet....

In spite of all of these issues that violate my own personal taste, this book is so well written, that I read every word, which I only do for about one book out of ten that I read these days, if that, because I'm an extremely jaded, picky reader.

So what is it that I liked? The outstanding job the author does of portraying the issue of child abuse, writing a truly excellent example of a "social drama" YA novel. This story deals with a fascinating, and heartbreaking, situation of emotional child abuse. I'll go farther and state (this is coming a bit from my past history of working as a family therapist and teacher) that in my own opinion, what Rose's parents did to her with frequent, long internments in suspended animation was physical abuse as well. Putting a child in suspended animation for decades, with all the chemicals involved and the effects on the body and mind, just for the convenience of the parents? To me that is horrific, physical child abuse.

In fact, in not-so-subtle ways, in my perception the author is providing social commentary on the current-day, ever-increasing trend in our country of parents being urged by medical and educational authorities--to the point of sometimes being legally coerced--into drugging their children, for the convenience of their various caretakers, into compliant passivity. Experts estimate that up to 5 million children (almost 10% of all the children in our country) are on mind-altering prescription drugs. That sounds an awful lot like the parental "coping mechanism" provided by the drugs in the stass tube described in this book.

The author also takes on the "ripped from the headlines" social issue of multinational corporations and the ever increasing growth of the wealth of the very few and the poverty of the very many in our country over the past few decades--extending that through the medium of SF into multi-planetary corporations wreaking harm on billions, with the heroine Rose's parents as head of the most powerful, and dangerous, multi-planetary corporation of them all, UniCorp.

It is a tragic fact that when a human being has absolutely no compassion for his own child, there is little chance he will have compassion for any other living creature, and the author shows this social truth with intense clarity.

Having stated that, it sounds like I'm praising this book for being a big lecture on ethics, but it's not. All this information is in the background. The effect of these social evils are shown through the literary lens of one broken, but ultimately extremely resilient, abused teenager, without any preaching whatsoever. This is an amazing feat.

As for the romance plots centering around friendship, as I experienced that portrayal of love, it became increasingly clear to me as I moved through the book that the author's handling of relationships--something I treasure as a reader--is brilliant as well. There are times, yes, when the teenagers in the story are a bit too self-aware to be quite believable, such as when love-interest Bren is capable of standing back from a "codependent" relationship with Rose in which he tries to throw everything he has, as a loving, kind person, into the deep void of need in her created by her criminally neglectful parents. But even so, the way that Rose is able to create three absolutely amazing friendships with three male characters in this book is a wonderful accomplishment--one that is unprecedented in current YA fiction which focuses on romantic/sexual obsession more than tender emotion between heroines and their love interests.

If I were to rate this book as SF, even as a non-fan, I would grade it down because the world-building is rudimentary at best. But rating it as a coming-of-age story, I give it the highest marks possible since, as stated above, the character growth and development are superb.

Though this book does cover a harrowing subject, it does so in a way that makes it suitable for all ages. The age range for YA extends from age 11-19 according to YALSA (the YA portion of the American Library Association), and I would personally peg this book as appropriate for even pre-teens at the younger end, yet dramatically engrossing enough to hold the interest of teens at the oldest end of the scale.

Heroine: 4

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 3

Writing: 5

Action/Thriller Plot: 3

Romantic Subplots: 3

Friendship Subplots: 5
 
Family Relationships Subplot: 5


Overall: 4

Book Review: Dead Is So Last Year (Dead Is #3) by Marlene Perez

Captivating third book in the "Dead Is" comic, paranormal, mystery series for teens

Dead is So Last Year (Dead Is #3) by Marlene Perez
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: May 4, 2009
Publisher: Graphia
Pages: 208
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Daisy Giordano and her older sisters Rose and Poppy have just returned home from vacation in Italy the summer after Daisy's junior year. Their psychic mother has stayed behind to work on an important case and is unavailable to help solve a big mystery here in Nightshade, the quirky little town where the Giordanos live in Northern California. Doppelgängers of local residents are appearing all over the place, a fact the girls hesitate to mention to their mother because one of the mysterious doubles appears to be their long-lost father. Their mother has never stopped trying to find him for the past six years, and Daisy and her sisters don't want to get their mother's hopes up about him until they are 100% sure that the man who looks and acts like their dad--at least some of the time--is really him. But figuring out the truth is made doubly hard because they are prejudiced in favor of the man due to their desperate longing that he might truly be their beloved father. Fortunately, they have working in their favor Rose's ESP, Poppy's telekinesis, and Daisy's ability to do both those things, as well.

On top of this pressing family problem, Daisy is confounded by the fact that a big portion of the players on the high school football team--including her hunky boyfriend Ryan--have bulked up massively in just the three short weeks Daisy has been in Europe. This seems physically impossible, and Daisy is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, too, while simultaneously attempting, along with her two sisters, to make a little money at a summer job. Rose is working for an eccentric scientist at a secret lab at the local university, Poppy is running a concession stand at the beach, and Daisy is cooking and waiting tables at the local diner. The fact that her boss is permanently invisible and his juke box is enchanted doesn't phase Daisy a bit compared to the many other problems facing her during the weirdest summer on record.

This book is another big hit for Marlene Perez, in her wonderful "Dead Is" series. Daisy is as unstoppable as ever, and the kooky characters in her town alternate between being spooky, scary and downright hilarious, including, besides her boss, the juke box, and the sugar-snarfing doppelgängers, a powerful witch and assorted werewolves and vampires.


This book is the third of five books, which are best enjoyed in order. Book 1 is Dead Is the New Black. Book 2 is Dead is a State of Mind. Book 4 is Dead Is Just a Rumor. Book 5, the final book in the series, is Dead Is Not an Option.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys light, humorous YA fantasy stories with an intriguing mystery plot.

Note for parents, teachers and librarians: This book is G-rated. There are no incidents of drinking, drugs or adolescent sex either on or offstage, and Daisy's family relationships are warm and loving.

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 4.5

Writing: 5

Mystery Plot: 4

Romantic Subplot: 4



Overall: 5