What I've Read Lately - December

So as I start this post, it is December 9th and I have only finished three books for the month so far.  That puts me at 11 books behind schedule, with 18 still to read to meet my goal of 100.  Yeah, that doesn't look very likely to happen.  We'll see how close I actually get in the end:

It took me nearly two whole weeks to finish The Hollow Ground by Natalie S. Harnett.  Not because there was anything wrong with it; I just didn't have time to read.  As Professor Hinkle in the classic Frosty the Snowman says, I've been "busy, busy, busy!"  The book was actually pretty good.  It is intended for adults, as it is mostly about adults dealing with their demons, but it is told by an eighteen year old girl remembering the years when she was eleven and twelve, remembering her mother and father and grandmother and the 'family curse' and secrets that seemed to tear everything and everybody apart.  Although the story brings up issues not appropriate for younger readers, there is nothing graphic and I don't see why there would be any problem with older teens reading it.  (Reading Level ? / Upper Grades)

I loved The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr!  It is about a girl with no short term memory.  In fact, it is narrated by said girl.  Who has no short term memory.  So you can imagine what the story sounds like.  A whole lot of repetition.  But it wasn't boring in the least.  In fact, it was awesome!  The author did such a fantastic job creating a unique voice for the heroine, that you could really get into her head and her thoughts and her emotions.  This was a book that was really hard to put down.  I think I finished it in like four days, even though I was still really busy.  Oh, and the story has a bit of a mystery and a surprise twist, and a really nice ending.  So I'm not really sure what genre exactly this would fall under, but I think maybe that's why I liked it so much - you know how much I love finding something different!  You should definitely put this book on your list of books to read.  (Reading Level 4.2 / Upper Grades)

The Fox Inheritance, by Mary Pearson, had been sitting on my bookshelf since the beginning of October.  Yes, that is a long time.  I actually checked it out to read after my surgery, because not only is it pretty short, but it is a follow-up to The Adoration of Jenna Fox (see mini-review here) which I enjoyed.  For some reason I just didn't feel like reading it.  So the second week of December rolls around and I am super far behind on my reading progress, and I say to myself, I'll read that short book and knock one off the list in short order.  Which I did.  I think it took me less than two days to read it.  And it was really good.  Part dystopian, part science fiction, one hundred percent thought provoking, with some action and a secret thrown in for good measure.  And this one is told from a guy's perspective, so that's a bonus if you're tired of always hearing about books with a female lead (on the list of books I've read they actually outnumber the ones with a male lead by about 4 to 1),  but read the first book first or you won't really understand what is going on in this one.   (Reading Level 4.2 / Middle Grade+)

I saw A Line In the Dark, by Malinda Lo, on display in the library and I was like, Ooooh, look at that cover!  I should have known that after three good books in a row I was due for a let down.  After the third page this book already had three strikes against it.  First, the writing made absolutely no sense.  ( I don't know if the author was trying to be all suspenseful or what, but after reading certain passages multiple times and still not understanding what it was talking about I was like, no.)  Second, it was all about girls and their relationship drama.  (Again, no.)  And third, I don't even remember what the third one was, but it was enough to make me decide not to go even one step further.  Another book abandoned.  I'll never come close to meeting my goal at this rate.

Another book chosen merely because of the cover, another lost cause.  The Lost Causes, by Alyssa Embree Schwartz and Jessica Koosed Etting was lame, cheesy, full of cliches, and unbelievably unrealistic.   It is about a group of high school losers who get called to a fake counseling session where they are slipped a drug in their water that gives them special abilities because the FBI needs help solving a murder and they figured nobody would care if they monkeyed with these kids brains and then they spilled all of this classified information to them to convince them to help them instead of taking the antidote and going back to their regular messed-up selves.  I was already worried after the first chapter that it was going to be another abandoned book, but then I thought, maybe it just needs to get going and then it will get better.  Well, it got going all right, right into my return to the library bag.

A Short History of the Girl Next Door, by Jared Reck, is about a teenage boy and the girl who lives next door to him.  The two have been best friends for their whole lives.  And then he realizes that he has fallen in love with her.  The first half of the book is pretty lighthearted with a whole lot of basketball references and a little bit of crude language.  The second half of the book is very, very sad.  I was not expecting that at all.  It didn't ruin the book, but did make it very, very sad, so it is a good story for anyone who likes basketball and relationship angst, but not so good for those who aren't into reading sad stories.   (Reading Level ? / Upper Grades)

Tool of War is the third book in Paolo Bacigalupi's Shipbreaker series.  It is a post-apocalyptic science fiction action-adventure thriller, with the main character being a genetically engineered man-beast who is introduced in the first book and plays a substantial role in the second.  Each book could be read as a stand alone, but they would be much more enjoyable if they were read in order.  Although I liked the concept behind this one as well as the internal struggles faced by the lead, I wasn't as into the writing itself.  It is written in third person omniscient, and really feels less like a YA novel and more like adult fiction, which I tend to find on the boring side.  Not a bad read, though, so a good pick if you are into this genre.  (Reading Level 5.2 / Middle Grade+)

So, Dividing Eden, by Joelle Charboneau, is a fantasy novel about a princess and her brother who live in a kingdom that uses windmills on top of the castle walls to create electricity to light the city to keep away some evil something or others who attack in the cold months.  Oh, and the brother has some sort of secret his sister is trying to help him protect.  That's about as far as I got.  I was really struggling with whether or not to keep reading it or not (leaning heavily toward the not), but the decision was made for me when someone put a hold on it in the library and I couldn't renew it.  It might have gotten better, but I wasn't enjoying it so far so . . . . maybe try something different.

The Book of Lies, by Teri Terry, is quite similar to some other books, and yet different enough to still be interesting.  It has twins, and magic, and separation at birth, and one being good and the other evil, and an ancient curse, and an old house on the moors, and a family mystery, and visions of the past.  Sound familiar?  I thought so.  Although the majority of the book was a bit of a let down after the amazing first chapter, it was still more interesting and enjoyable to read than most of the books I've come across with some combination of these same elements.  So not a bad pick if you like this sort of thing, even if you've read all those other ones already.  (Reading Level ? / Middle Grade+)

Thankfully, I ended the year with a good book.  I really, really liked Thin Space by Jody Casella.  It is about a guy whose twin brother recently died in a car accident, and he is trying to find a 'thin space' that he can use to cross over to the other side and see him.  Just like the last book I read, it was really original and interesting, even though it covers ideas that have been written before.  And it has a bit of a mystery element with a surprise at the end that was really well done.  There were a few things that I found a bit confusing as I read, but once I got to the end and understood the twist, it all made sense.    (Reading Level 4.0/ Upper Grades)

Well, I guess seven books finished this month isn't too bad, it just wasn't enough to get me to my goal.  But 85 books for the year is a pretty good accomplishment anyway, so I don't feel too badly about falling short.  If you're interested in seeing all the book I read, check it out on the Goodreads My Year in Books page here.

What I've Read Lately - November

Well, I didn't get through very many books this month.  The first one was super long, and then I abandoned one that I was plodding along with because I just couldn't bring myself to read it, and then I read a really good one pretty quickly, but then I decided to write a whole post about it, which led me to start another post that required a whole lot of updating and formatting of my book lists, and then I've had a whole bunch of days where I haven't even had time to read at all.  So here it is: a measly four books (I won't be able to finish the one I'm in the middle of for at least a week).

I really enjoyed And I Darken by Kiersten White.  It is an alternate history book set in the 1400's, and follows a brother and sister from the time they are children, through being given over as political hostages to the Ottoman sultan, and into adulthood in the Ottoman court.  What I liked about it:  characters, characters, characters - this book is all about developing characters, and the author did a superb job with it; the writing - very well done.  What I didn't like about it:  the pace - at times it was a bit boring; the alternate history - this wasn't alternate history in the sense of a steampunk novel; it took the life of Vlad the Impaler and turned him into a girl.  Now, considering how I feel about messing with history (see my earlier post here), this added a whole new dimension, as it is taking history with a lot of knowns and purposefully changing it in a big way.  I am kind of forgiving here, though, because having him be a girl instead not only made a fantastic story, but allowed the author to explore themes she otherwise couldn't have.  On the other hand, the true history and characters are fascinating in their own right, and I'm sure the author could have made a fantastic story with great themes while staying true to history and keeping him a boy.  What I both did and didn't like about it: the action - the (very) few action scenes are GREAT, but she didn't include nearly enough of them.  Hopefully book two in the series will remedy that.  (Reading Level: 5.7 / Upper Grades)

Red Riding Hood, by Catherine Hardwicke, was really not so good.  It was really pretty shallow, and really pretty dumb.  It read like a book written by someone who watched a movie and then sat down and turned it into a book.  Oh, wait, that's because it was written by someone who watched a movie and then turned it into a book.  Now I know why I always avoid those like the plague - because they do. not. make. a. good. novel.  (I've never actually read one before, but I feel vindicated at having my suspicions confirmed.)  I actually abandoned this at page 63, after wondering for twenty pages or so if I should keep reading or not.  Seeing as how I am eleven books behind schedule on my 2017 reading goal with only about seven weeks left to go (probably from starting and then abandoning 25 books already this year), I figured I'd better not waste any more time on it.

I loved All Good Children by Catherine Austen!  The quote on the back cover by Tim Winne-Jones says, "It's important and riveting.  And somehow, miraculously, it manages to be deeply scary and funny at the same time."  For some reason I thought the book was supposed to scary, scary-like-Halloween scary.  But it isn't at all.  It's frightening in the OMG what-if-we-become-like-that sort of way.  This is the first book in quite a while that I've felt like I had enough to say about it to write a longer review, so . . . click here to read it!(Reading Level: 4.1 / Middle Grades+)

I actually have quite a lot to say about Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone, by Kat Rosenfield.  Some of it is good, and some of it is bad.  The two balanced out to make me give it just a plain 3 star rating.  If you want to know the details, see my upcoming post here.   (Reading Level: 5.9 / Upper Grades)







So that's it.  I thought about combining my November and December reads into one post, since this month's is so pathetic, but I am having a hard time acknowledging that I probably won't meet my 2017 reading goal (I've got 20 books to go in the next 30 days), so I will probably try to make it happen even though I should be smart enough to know that it is an impossible task, which means that my December list might have more books than usual anyway.  Check back at the end of next month to see how many I manage to read!

Read This, Not That: My Dystopian Dilemma Solved (For Now)

Back in August I posted a "Read This, Not That" review in which I told you all about two dystopian novels (see post here).  Unfortunately, I couldn't recommend that you read either one of them, because they were just so full of dumb-ness that I couldn't stand it.  I promised that I'd let you know when I finally found a good one, and now, twenty-six books later, here it is!  A book that is funny, heartwarming, heart wrenching, eye-opening, and suspenseful all at once:  All Good Children by Catherine Austen.

Quick-witted, prank-pulling graffiti artis Maxwell Connors is more observant than the average New Middletown teenager.  And he doesn't like what he sees.  New Middletown's children are becoming frighteningly obedient, and their parents and teachers couldn't be happier.  As Max and his friend Dallas watch their classmates transform into model citizens, Max wonders if their only hope at freedom lies in the unknown world beyond New Middletown's walls, where creativity might be a gift instead of a liability.  - excerpt from inside book cover

So, the story is about a 15 year old boy who lives in this perfect town, created and run by a pharmaceutical company, while the rest of the United States is falling apart outside its walls.  He is not genetically engineered, but he was genetically scrutinized as an embryo so that his parents could choose the best out of multiple choices.  His classmates are pretty much all genetically engineered, so they are all at least six feet tall, and muscular, and handsome, and smart.  They get to go to an academic school and will one day get a nice career and make good money, while most American children have to go to a trade school to learn a mindless job.  And then, as the blurb above tells us, someone decides that schools would be better off with a bunch of Stepford children and the story really gets rolling.

Now, most dysopian novels that I've come across are based on concepts that, although interesting, are not really very relevant.  You know, like girls being sent to baby making factories or the government outlawing the emotion love.  That's one of the things I liked about All Good Children.  But it didn't only focus on one relevant topic, it wove together a whole bunch of issues that our society is beginning to struggle with today: the obsession with technology, genetic engineering, the TSA and their pat-downs, the emerging problems surrounding pharmaceuticals, an aging population, etc.  I found myself nodding my head again and again, thinking I can see that happening.  Building on this framework, the book explores the topics of family dynamics, stereotyping and bigotry (not racial, but bigotry nonetheless), ethics (both corporate and individual), individuality vs conformity, the rights and freedoms of Americans and how many of those should be given up for the sake of safety.  Dystopian at it's finest.

But do you know what the best thing about the thought provoking messages in this book is?  It's that they are all wrapped up in a deceptively simple package - it is a book of deep issues masquerading as a lighthearted, entertaining read.  That means the reader gets to have their thoughts provoked while enjoying a fast-paced novel with great characters, great dialogue, great action scenes, and great writing.  That's a win-win situation for sure.

So, as I read, I stuck a bunch of sticky note tabs on the parts that I found so fantastic that I wanted to share them with someone.  I've got a whole bunch.  But then I was worried that if I shared too many, I'd be like one of those movies trailers that give away all the good parts and spoil the movie.  So I'm just going to share a few.

First, I loved the author's writing.  It had a way of describing things that was fresh and unique, sometimes quirky, and sometimes bizarre.  Here's an example:

Down the hall, Mr. and Mrs. Lavigne hover inside their doorway.  You have to use your imagination to see how Xavier and Celeste turned out so beautiful.  The Lavignes are unusually large, white and old, like Vikings gone to seed. 

Or how about this:

Brennan and Kayla stare at me like I'm an armless dwarf who's been beaten up by kindergartners.

And here's another one.  I especially like this one, because the main character, who is an artist, is describing his friend, who used to be the most handsome, exuberant teenager anyone has ever seen:

He has a Christ-on-the-cross sort of beauty that dazzles me.  I want to offer him a cup of water, sling him over my shoulder, carry him somewhere safe.

What a great way of describing how shocking and heart-wrenching it was to see the change in him.

Second, I loved the way the author describes the action scenes (and some other not-exactly-action-y scenes, but ones that still have the same feel):

I come up fast and furious.  Instead of struggling away, like they expect, I lean into Washington to get some leeway for my arm, then I elbow him in the throat.  He lets go fast, freeing my hand to grab the head of the grade nine goon and jerk it forward into the spot where Tyler's next punch is aimed.  Kapow.  I'm like a movie star.  Then Ally's umbrella trips me up so I take another shot from Tyler.

It's  almost like being there, watching it in real time.

Third, I loved how clever the author is.  For example, there are several times throughout the story that characters are discussing a movie or story and one character will be like I don't get it, and the other one is like, It's a metaphor.  Almost like the author is nudging the reader with these hints to see that her own novel is a metaphor, a cautionary tale (as all good dystopians should be) with parallels to events in the past and present.

Fourth, I loved the characters and their dialogue, especially the main character, Max, but all of them, really.  Even the ones we aren't supposed to like, I love the way she describes and portrays them.  Even the ones who are a complete stereotype, she still does such a fantastic job making us see and hear them.  For example, every time I read the football coach's words, I heard the voice of the P.E. teacher from The Goldbergs in my head (if you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this clip.)

(Sorry the window is so big and distracting in the midst of my post!)

This is a great book for everyone; adults and teens, guys and girls, people who love to read and those reluctant readers out there.  It is great for those who love dystopian novels and also for those who don't, for those who have a lot of time to read and those who have to make the most of their limited time by picking great books.  It's great for regular schooled kids and home schooled kids. (There are so many lessons to be learned from it!)  Heck, it's even great for teachers and school administrators (how about this lesson - yes, our 15 year-olds are still children).   I liked it so much that I'm actually going to buy a copy.  And if I'm going to squeeze it into the precious limited space of my bookcase, you know it must be good.


Rating:  4.5 Stars
Reading Level: 4.1
Age Appropriate: Upper Middle Grades
Page Count/Word Count:  300/73,559
Genre:  Dystopian, Thrillers/Suspence, Science Fiction, Home School Recommendation
Keywords: dystopian, family, friendship, genetic engineering, teen boys

What I've Read Lately - October

I wanted to do my usual Read-as-Many-Scary-Books-as-I-Can-Get-My-Hands-On stint since October has rolled around again, but as it happens, I couldn't seem to get my hands on hardly any at all.  And the ones that I could get, were mostly in the adult section.  Or were part four in a series (of which I hadn't read a single one).  I did manage to snag a couple of ghost stories and one about vampires and one that is supposed to be super creepy but is about some uncanny children or something.  So we'll see if I end up with anything Halloween-ish or what.  Here goes:

Splinter is by the same author who wrote a fantastic book that I reviewed nearly a year ago (Oblivion - see review here), Sasha Dawn.  Although it wasn't nearly as good as her first book, it was still a nice, solid read.  It is about a girl whose mother went missing ten years ago, and although her dad was the prime suspect in the murder investigation, they never really proved there was a murder and her dad was never arrested.  Then, new evidence is discovered that makes the girl not only think that her mother actually is dead, but that maybe her dad killed her after all.  There was nothing special about the novel to push it above a three star book (which is still okay if you're just looking to be entertained), but as far as murder mysteries go, it was well done.  No complaints.  Just no raves either.  (Reading Level: ?/ Middle Grades +)

I think When I Cast Your Shadow, by Sarah Porter, tied, if not beat altogether, my record for how soon I abandoned a book.  Folks, I don't know what the author was thinking, but pretty much everything that came out of the main character's mouth had a question mark at the end of it.  Seriously?  Did she write it that way to mimic the way teens talk these days where every sentence they say rises at the end like a question?  (I am not making this up.  I was helping my son practice for a presentation and he started doing that - even though I have NEVER heard him inflect a single statement that way before - and he told me that is how everyone talks when they do their presentations.  Needless to say my jaw hit the floor.)  If I can't stand listening to such a thing, I certainly can't stand reading it either.  And if you somehow, miraculously, are not bothered by it, I could already tell halfway through chapter one that the premise and characters were going to be annoyingly stupid, so just skip over this one for heaven's sake.

I L.O.V.E.D. The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks.  It is told by a girl who is a vampire, but not the evil-attacking-other-people kind of vampire.  She is reformed, trying to live like a normal person (as much as is possible considering her condition), and has a bunch of vampire friends who are in the same predicament as she is.  This book is original and interesting and funny and heartwarming . . .  It's not really Halloweenish at all, but it is a fantastic read nonetheless.  You should definitely check it out, even if you aren't a fan of vampire stories.  In fact, if you are so-not-a-fan-of-vampire-stories, you will probably enjoy this anyway, so all of you out there should pick up a copy.   (Reading Level: 5.3/ Middle Grades +)

I Am Not a Serial Killer, by Dan Wells, was pretty good.  It is about a teenage guy who is not only a sociopath, but also obsessed with serial killers.  The problem is, being a sociopath predisposes him to becoming a serial killer, and the fact that he is obsessed with serial killers (and death in general, I guess) isn't helping matters any.  To make things worse, a serial killer actually starts killing people in his hometown, and he tries (successfully) to figure out who it is and how to stop them. The library has it labeled as horror, which is why I chose it, but I just wasn't feeling that vibe.  It is similar and yet very different from I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga.  Interestingly, this book is shelved under adult fiction while Lyga's book is in the young adult section, and I would say that they are pretty equal in the shock and gore factors.  If you like shock and gore, mystery, suspense, as well as psychology and personal angst, both books are a good fit for you.  Oh, and if you like books with a twist, you should really enjoy this one, because it sure does have one.  Oh again - although this is part one of four, it reads like a stand-alone so you won't be too irritated if you get to the end and don't want to read the rest of the series.  (Reading Level: 6.0/ Upper Grades)

The Rattled Bones, by S. M. Parker, is another novel that is a whole lot like another book (Mistwalker - see mini-review here) but also not.  It is supposed to be a kind of horror/ghost story, and it kind of is, with some actually creepy scenes here and there, but it mostly reads like a book about a grieving girl from a Maine fishing family (which it is) with a lot of relationship drama and a bit of historical mystery on her hands.  Since I like historical mysteries, it didn't bother me too much that is wasn't the creepy/scary book it was hyped up to be and I enjoyed it - despite the relationship drama, which I normally can't stand.  (Reading Level: ?/ Middle Grades +)

I was so hopeful that I would like Three Dark Crowns, but alas, it was not to be.  I thought Kendare Blake's first series (Anna Dressed in Blood) was just okay, but I loved, loved, loved her Antigoddess trilogy (see review here).  I just hate it when my favorite authors disappoint!  SIGH.  Why didn't I like it?  Well, I didn't get super far into it before I abandoned it, but I didn't really like the concept or the writing.  It is about three sisters (triplets?) who are being trained to be the next queen, but only one gets to be it.  And she has to kill the other two before she can rule.  Apparently she is supposed to kill them using her gift that she has been trained in for the past sixteen years, but also apparently they were just randomly chosen when they were very young which faction (and thus which gift) would get each girl.  Never mind that only one of the girls even seems to really have the gift they are trying to nurture.  On top of that, the story skips from one girl to the other, and there are advisor/mentors and such and it was hard to keep all the names straight.  And it was boring.  Maybe I should have stuck with it a little longer, but I didn't.  SIGH (again).  (Reading Level: 4.5/ Upper Grades)

Nightstruck, by Jenna Black, is another book that I chose because it was supposed to be scary.  And chapter one, I have to admit, was quite creepy indeed.  But despite the novel concept (some evil magic breaks through the barrier to our world and puts out a 'lure' and our heroine unwittingly take the bait and lets the evil magic into her city), the author did a TERRIBLE job writing the story.  Now, in her defense, I was on narcotics recuperating from surgery while trying to read this book (strangely enough they really seemed to dampen my enthusiasm for reading - anything at all), but I don't think that was the real problem.  Her writing itself wasn't bad, it is what she chose to write that was the problem.  I think she spent at least half the book with the heroine angsting (I know that isn't a real word) over her guilt for liking her best friend's boyfriend and telling herself that he would never like her anyway.  Another quarter of the book was devoted to our heroine making bad choices over and over again even though she knows she shouldn't.  That leaves a quarter of the story devoted to the actual story.  Seeing as this book is only a part one, the author could have deleted all of the annoying baloney and had one really great book.  Another example of an editor failing to give good advice, I guess.  (Reading Level: ?/ Upper Grades)

Reading The Clearing, by Heather Davis, was kind of strange.  I was still early on in my recuperation, and I kept reading a portion and thinking this book is pretty good.  And then I'd take a break for one reason or another, and when I'd sit down and start reading again I'd think, why was I thinking this book was pretty good?  It's actually pretty awful.  I'm not kidding when I tell you that this went on for the entire book.  Well, now that I think about it, by about the last six or seven chapters I'd gotten disgusted with the stupid decisions of both protagonists and had pretty much decided it wasn't such a great book after all.  I guess it started out with potential and crashed and burned by the end.  And speaking of the end, I didn't like it.  I would have done it differently, for sure.  If I were you, I'd skip this one and and spend your time on something else.  (Reading Level: 4.1/ Upper Grades)

The Children's Home, by Charles Lambert, was also supposed to creepy/scary.  But it wasn't really.  Well, it did have some scenes that were kind of creepy, in the sense that things were off and made you feel uncomfortable, but really the story was more fairy-tale-ish, but not in a nice or happy way. It is about a whole bunch of uncanny children who mysteriously appear at the home of a wealthy recluse, and a whole bunch of strange things ensue.  But it is just as much about the recluse himself and what he learns about himself, and life, and the world around him from the children.  Goodreads says "The Children's Home is a genre-defying, utterly bewitching masterwork, an inversion of modern fairy tales . . ." and I would have to agree. They compare the author to Neil Gaiman, and with that I would also have to wholeheartedly agree. Which is why I really, really liked it. It is shelved in the adult section of the library due to the disturbing nature of some of the subject matter, but I don't see a reason why more mature teen readers shouldn't read and enjoy it.  (Reading Level: ?/ Upper Grades)

There's a reason why Neal Shusterman is one of my all-time favorite authors.  Actually, there are a lot of reasons, and Challenger Deep is just one of them.  No sighing over disappointing authors here, folks.  This book is pretty different from Shusterman's other works, but then again, when I actually think about it, all of his books/series are pretty different from one another.  But pretty consistently (except for maybe a few of his earlier ones) great.  This book is about a teenage boy who is spiralling deeper and deeper into mental illness.  It is told in first person, in very short 'chapters,' some of which are reality, and some of which are constructs of his mind/the result of his anti-psychotic medications.  It is bizarre and brilliant.  It has me alternately thinking that Shusterman is a literary genius and wondering whether he is writing this from someone's actual, personal experience.  (So I finished the book, and the answer is both.)  Given the subject matter I was getting worried about halfway through that the the ending would be too depressing, but Shusterman balanced the sad with equal parts hopeful and it left me feeling okay at the end.  (Reading Level: 5.5/ Upper Grades)

I grabbed Witchtown, by Cory Putnam Oakes, off the library display because I was having such a hard time finding Halloween books and hey, witches are Halloween-y, right?  Forget the fact that, as I have mentioned before (see post here), I don't read modern witch stories.  The blurb on the book cover made it sound like it had more meat to its bones that just witch-y stuff, though, so I said hey why not?  It turns out that the book wasn't all that witch-y, even though it was about witches and their powers.  And it wasn't all that Halloween-y either, even though it had witches and rituals and even a couple of ghosts.  What it was, however, was a surprisingly good story.  There was nothing special about it, but it was a nice, entertaining read with NOTHING ANNOYING.  No annoying characters, no annoying dialogue, no annoying plot, no annoying question marks . . . you get the picture.  The story moved along at the just the right pace to keep me interested and had just the right amount of stuff to develop the characters and plot and twists about secrets just right.  The font was just slightly bigger than normal, making it a quick read as well.  So if you like witch stories or don't, this is probably a good pick for you, unless you are against reading stories about witches in general or are looking for something deeper than simple entertainment.   (Reading Level: ?/ Middle Grades +)


So, pretty much nothing I would recommend in the 'Halloween-ish' category this month.  I'll probably have a ton of those for you in November, because I'm pretty sure that I am living proof that Murphy's Law is a real actual thing.  (Not kidding one bit, folks.)   See you next month!

The Page 69 Test

Yesterday I came across a blog that was talking about the Page 69 Test.  I'd never heard of this before.  Apparently, some guy says that if you are trying to find a good book, you should just turn to page 69 and read it.  If you like it, the book is worth reading.  If not, chuck it aside and move on to the next one.

I thought it might be interesting to see if this method really works.  I usually choose my books by looking at the cover and reading the blurb.  That's all fine and dandy, but it really doesn't tell you much about the actual writing, which is often what ends up making or breaking a book for me.  Also, so many absolutely fantastic books get that way because of the mystery and suspense and the ah ha's, all of which take time and page after page to develop.  So I'm skeptical at best.  But, since I have 14 books waiting on my bookshelf right now, I figure this would be the perfect opportunity to put the Page 69 Test, well, to the test.

The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Prediction: Honestly, if reading page 69 was the only thing I had to go on, I probably wouldn't read this one.  It sounds like a science fiction that is going to have some action/adventure (hinted at by this page).  However, the writing seems to be kind of boring, which will kill a supposed action book in no time flat.

Verdict:  At first I didn't really like it.  At all.  The premise is that people will trade a body part to a 'demon' in return for a favor.  That's not the part I didn't like.  I hated the way the author set up the premise behind what our heroine wanted the demon to do for her.  It was a valid enough reason, but the way it was described was just weird.  Hated that part.  Once we got past that, however, LOVED the book.  Very original story, great writing, characters you couldn't help but love with banter that was perfect, poignant little comments all over the place, the chapters were organized fantastically, and the ending - not only did it wrap things up wonderfully, but it was the kind of surprise ending that makes you look back and see things in a different light (LOVE that!).  Not really an action book like I thought it would be, but definitely a keeper.  Page 69 didn't do it justice at all. (Reading Level: ? / Upper Grades)

The Leaf Reader by Emily Arsenault
Prediction:  Page 69 is basically a conversation.  It seems pretty interesting.  It hints at a mystery, a ghost, and some romance.  The writing is good - just the right balance of words and thoughts, spoken by characters who seem interesting.  I think I'll like it.

Verdict:  Actually, I didn't like it.  And the characters weren't interesting.  And neither was the story.  It was B.O.R.I.N.G.  I quit reading after page 80.  On to the next one.

Mark of the Thief by Jennifer Nielsen
Prediction:  This sounds like a historical fiction with some paranormal elements.  The writing is good and the page contains a building sense of suspense.  It should be a good book.

Verdict:  Well, it wasn't as good as I thought it would be.  For the most part the writing was good (her books always are); it had action and suspense and the right balance of narration and dialogue.  But the characters kept making stupid decisions and saying even stupider things, which was annoying.  Of course, it IS a juvenile fiction book so a younger reader might not see those things as being quite so dumb.  But also, this is a historical fantasy book set in the Roman Empire.  If you are going to set a story in a specific time and place, you should do your research and get your facts straight.  I am only going to say this one time, people:  Women who lived during the Roman Republic and Empire DID. NOT. WEAR. TOGAS.  That article of clothing was reserved for men.  Uuugghhh.  If you don't care about history and have kids, go ahead and give them this book.  They'll probably love it.  (Reading Level: 5.2 / Middle Grades )

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler
Prediction:  This book looks like it will have plenty of conflict, both the verbal as well as physical kind.  The writing is pretty descriptive, but not overdone in a boring or annoying way.  I'd call it a keeper.

Verdict:  As far as the writing goes, what you see on page 69 is what you get.  So I should have liked this book.  What page 69 doesn't reveal, however, is much of the actual story.  And the story here is that an anorexic girl somehow gets chosen to be Famine, of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse fame.  I HATE reading stories about anorexia.  So I quit this one at page 78. And I would have to call the Page 69 Test a failure for this one, because it is supposed to help you choose books you will like.  And it didn't.

How to Fall by Jane Casey
Prediction:  I wasn't really too impressed with page 69 of this book. The characters don't seem very likeable, and the plot seems way uninteresting (as if I could determine that from one page!) The writing isn't bad, but nothing special, either.

Verdict:  I read this book for maybe an hour before I said NOPE and chucked it into my Return-to-the-Library bag.  The characters weren't very likeable.  The premise was stupid.  The dialogue (pretty much all there was at the the beginning of the book) was boring.  I just didn't have the patience to see if things would improve.  I think the Test hit it pretty spot on here, even though it didn't convey the extent to which I would not be into this book.

Unwept by Tracy & Laura Hickman
Prediction: Hmmmm.  Girl is unpacking trunk full of turn of the century clothes.  They're supposed to be hers, but she seems to have amnesia.  But they don't feel like they would be hers.  So, historical fiction, and maybe some nefarious goings-on.  It might be good.

Verdict:  Well, the first chapter was AMAZING! Super creepy and atmospheric and very well written.  Then, it got quite boring.  So boring, in facts, that at page 72 I put it aside and started reading something different.  I went back to it later, hoping to like it more, but alas, I did not.  It had a lot of good mysterious stuff wrapped up in a super boring package.  And it is the first book in a trilogy.  NO WAY was I going to make it through three books of that writing.  Too bad, because it seemed to have a fantastic premise and a lot of great ideas.  Maybe somebody can just give me a condensed summary of what happens.

Since You Asked by Maureen Goo
Prediction:  Sounds like a bunch of high school drama with a bunch of immature girls.  And I hate the font.  Doesn't seem too promising.

Verdict:  It wasn't too bad, really.  Although I've read funnier books, this one was pretty funny.  It's about the challenges of being a teenager in a Korean-American family. The characters are a bit immature, but the petty fighting wasn't a big part of the story.  And I didn't notice the stupid font after awhile, so I guess page 69 didn't work so well as a predictor of whether or not I'd like this book either.   (Reading Level: 4.6 / Middle Grades +)

The Unfortunate Son by Constance Leeds
Prediction: There is really no way to tell.  Three friends of indeterminate age, two girls and one boy, teasing each other, probably in the past sometime.  That's all I've got.  Nothing that looks particularly bad, though, so worth a try.

Verdict:  There wasn't anything particularly bad about the book, but nothing particularly good either.  The characters were about as flat as they come, but I guess that's to be expected from a story shelved in the juvenile fiction section.  Too bad the dialogue was as flat as the characters. There wasn't any action or adventure (that cover is soooo misleading!), and things moved at a pretty slow pace.  I don't think I would have finished it if I didn't want to know what finally happened to the main character in the story.  (Reading Level: 4.6 / Middle Grades)

The Freemason's Daughter by Shelley Sackier
Prediction:  Historical fiction, untrained, uninmportant girl at a ball hosted by a duke.  Nice, vivid descriptions.  Other than that, I've got nothing.  I don't like this experiment anymore.

Verdict:  Okay.  The story was about the son of a duke who is really a nice guy, even though nobody around him seems to be, who is unhappily engaged to the spoiled daughter of a count.  And also about the daughter of a Scottish Freemason who is hired by the Duke to build a garrison to imprison supporters of the (deposed?) King James, but is secretly a supporter himself.  You can see where this story is going before you are very far into it.  And it is boring as all get out.  And the author tries so hard to use the aforementioned descriptive language that it comes out forced and way overdone.  I quit reading it at about a quarter of the way through.  So much for one page telling me whether I would like it or not.

The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis
Prediction:  Funny, I'd completely given up on this page 69 thing, but this book, page 69 is - wow!  Rough and tough girl with a sense of humor speaking a backwoods/old-west kind of dialect is apparently drugged by some guy and she wakes up strapped to a table.  Great writing, interesting characters, and one heck of a plot.  I think this is going to be good.

Verdict:  This was so much better than just good.  It was absolutely fantastic!  In fact, it is the first 5 star book that I have read in I don't know how long.  Every single thing about this book was good.  There was nothing, nothing at all, that I didn't like about it.  The story was original and engrossing and thought provoking, the characters were interesting and believable, the plot was perfectly paced, and the voice - amazing!  The page 69 test was spot on this time, probably because every single page is packed with good stuff.  The book is shelved in the adult fiction section, but there is no real reason that an upper grade reader shouldn't read it.  (Reading Level: ? / Upper Grades)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
So, I have to start out by saying that I have been hearing rave reviews about this book for YEARS, which is why I have avoided it like the plague.  I have found that too often everyone just jumps on the bandwagon and raves about a book that isn't really that good.  I was also avoiding it because it is about WWII and I've read enough of those to know that they are usually sad and depressing.  I am only reading it now, because my son has to read it for school and he asked me to read it too so I could help him if he needs it.

Prediction: Page 69 just seems a bit mediocre.  I'm not sure I like the writing style at all. And the book is long.  Combined with my existing bias against it, I don't think I would bother with it if my son hadn't asked me to read it.

Verdict:  The Page 69 Test is an evil, misleading construct.  This just might be the best book that I have ever read.  Yes.  I said THE BEST.  Out of almost 800 books.  Markus Zusak is brilliant.  I can't believe I only bought the paperback copy (and paid hardcover price to get it the next day!).  If you haven't read this, you must.  Right away.  With no distractions so you can appreciate the brilliance.  And if you don't like it, I'm sorry, but maybe you'd better stick to the Twilight type stuff.  (Reading Level: 5.1 / Upper Grades)



So, it looks like, overall, the Page 69 Test was an epic fail.  Not even half of the books turned out the way I predicted they would.  Not only did it entice me into reading a bunch of books I didn't like, but I would have missed out on two books I actually loved.  My advice - find someone who has the same taste in books as you do and ask them for recommendations instead.

Read This, Not That: The Devil Is in the Details

There's nothing like a good dystopian novel to illustrate just how dysfunctional a society can become when it tries to impose unrealistic expectations on its members.  And there's nothing like a BAD dystopian novel to show us just how dysfunctional a piece of writing can be.  Take for example, The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons.

In a world where females are scarce and are hunted, then bought and sold at market for their breeding rights, 15-year old Aya has learned how to hide. With a ragtag bunch of other women and girls, she has successfully avoided capture and eked out a nomadic but free existence in the mountains. But when Aya’s luck runs out and she’s caught by a group of businessmen on a hunting expedition, fighting to survive takes on a whole new meaning.  - excerpt from Goodreads

Okay.  So I've come across blurbs for books that seem to have a pretty similar concept, but I've never actually read one before so I thought why not give this one a try?  Apparently, I shouldn't have.

Now in defense of the book, I didn't even make it past like, page thirty, so maybe my decision to quit was a bit premature, but I just couldn't make myself read it anymore.

I think there were two main things that turned me off.  The first was the way the concept was presented.  The blurb says it is supposed to be that females are scarce and sold for their breeding rights.  But when you actually start reading the story, it says that females are scarce, and most are infertile, so only men in the  outlying 'backwoods' villages actually have wives.  In the city, most girls are auctioned off and stuck into brothels.  But, even though women are scarce, the men still control the female population, and every once in a while, when the numbers get too high, they do something (I barely read this yesterday and I can't even remember what - that's how not into the story I was) to reduce the population.  What???  It's been more than a few years since I sat in my Anthropology classes, but I distinctly remember learning that whenever women (a.k.a. 'resources') are scarce, there is a hoarding of wives, with the wealthier or more prominent men snatching up as many as they can get their hands on (either by paying a bride price or by simply stealing them).  I didn't understand the contradictory concept the author was presenting at all.  

The other thing I didn't like was all the little details the author chose to throw in.  First, the story is a mix of modern technology and primitive stuff, not just weapons, but also the clothes they wear and living in tents and hunting and singing to mother eagle or something like that.  I didn't care for it.  In fact, it was pretty annoying. Why does the city guy wear a suit and tie but hunt with an electric whip and spear while on horseback?  Why does the girl who has been hiding out in the wilderness for years live in a tent, even though she isn't a nomad?  Why did the Trackers, who were of some lower cast or something, have a mark branded into their cheeks?  And that's another thing - what's with the obsession with castes that some writers have?  I've never read a book that uses that concept that I've actually finished.  Are only the mediocre writers drawn to that concept?  Or is it a hard concept to do well in a book?

I don't know.  I also hated the dynamics between the girls in the place-where-they-were-holding-them-until-the-auction-took-place.  (I didn't really get exactly what this was supposed to be.  Fenced in like a prison, but the purpose was supposed to be to fatten them up, even though the auction was that night and they were all still super skinny because they ate nutrient pills instead of real food.)  So anyway, the girls were all bitchy to the wilderness girl because they all assumed that she was fertile while they had to have fertility treatments and so she would claim a higher price at auction, even though they wouldn't want to be somebody's backwoods wife with responsibilities and it would be better to just be a prostitute I guess.  Again, what???   They would rather be sold to a brothel instead of have a comfy family?  And why are they taking fertility drugs when they are probably just going to a brothel anyway? And what do they even care who fetches a higher price, if they are all going to be sold anyhow and won't keep any of the profits themselves?  Never mind the fact that wilderness girl keeps sabotaging things so that she has already  managed to not be sold at like seven auctions in a row or something.  

Ugh.  I don't even want to talk about this book anymore.  The more I think about it, the more I hate it.

So.  This is where I'm supposed to tell you all about what you should read instead.  After searching long and hard for another dystopian novel that was actually good,  I came across one with a similar concept:

Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth's population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. But the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school's real purpose and the horrifying fate that awaits her.

Fleeing the only home she's ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Arden, her former rival from school, and Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust... and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

What the blurb hints at but doesn't come right out and say, is that the school's real purpose is to keep the girls busy until they graduate, at which time they will turn into breeders, carrying multiple offspring in one pregnancy after another in an attempt to repopulate the earth.  I know, I know, you're probably thinking that I'm a big spoiler.  Well, we are given this information in chapter two of the first book of a three book series, so it's not like it's supposed to be a big surprise or anything.  In fact, the story doesn't even get going until after we are given this little tidbit of information.

So here we have another book with a girl kept behind a fence with a bunch of other girls, who are given vitamins and fattened up in the hopes of making them super fertile.  And I'm thinking to myself at about chapter three, this book is going way better than that other one.  And then I got to chapter five.  And that, my friends, is where things started to fall apart.  Piece by piece.  One detail at a time.

For example:
When we first meet our heroine's future love interest, he is shirtless, riding a horse, and absolutely filthy.  (But, he's a gentlemen nonetheless, of course).  So what? you might be saying.  Well, I'll tell you what.  First, this is the only time in the story that said boy is shirtless.  He is always fully clothed after this.  He lives with a bunch of other boys, none of whom are described as being dirty, much less filthy, probably because they all live right by a lake.  I mean, it is a post-pandemic world and all, but it's not like they don't have water.  Oh, and he has a room with a bed and a nice quilt and he reads novels, so he isn't a savage or anything...  Then, said living accommodations are supposedly only an hour away from where the boy discovers our girl, yet I guess the author forgets this because it ends up taking them two days to get back.  And then there's the horse.  Horses, actually, because at one point all the boys have them.  They live in a dugout hidden under a hill.  Where are the horses?  Nowhere, I guess, until they are actually being ridden.  Annnnndddd, why are the boys hunting with primitive weapons?  98% of the population is dead.  I'm sure they could have found actual weapons at the defunct Walmart or Cabelas or somebody's abandoned house?  No, they make their own stone spears.  And, even though their spears are useless against the kidnapper (I'll mention him again in a minute), they somehow manage to kill deer and wild boar with these things all the time.  Of course, they gut these animals inside the main living quarters of their dugout, instead of say, outside (?) so I guess maybe the author didn't put a lot of thought into this whole hunting thing.

You know what else?  Our heroine is told when she escapes to go two miles until she finds a road that will take her to interstate 80.  She is then to go west until she finds the big red bridge and salvation is on the other side.  So, off she goes.  She informs us later what the gps location of her School was, and I looked it up.  It's Carson City, Nevada.  It only takes 17 hours to walk from Carson City to I-80 (so that's like two days, tops).  Then it's another 6 days to San Francisco from there.  You'd think the author would have started her out a little farther away.  Because, what kind of an adventure story is it if you can get where you're going in less than a week?  (Never mind the fact that she has been walking for eight days already without even reaching the highway before she meets the boy.  She should have been at the bridge by then, I think.) The author decides to deal with this by having her get kidnapped and driven all the way to Sedona, giving her a 159 hour walk back north to interstate 80 before heading west again.  Now we've got a story!

Here's another thing: Carson City only gets about 26 days of precipitation each year.  It has only been 12 years since the plague (I know the blurb says 16, but I swear the book has said twelve on numerous occasions).  Yet all of the houses are covered in mildew and the roofs have fallen in and the floors are all rotted and the cars are all rusted.  It's only been 12 years folks.

And how about we go way back to the beginning:  Why are the girls kept in schools until they are 18 years old before they are shipped to the baby making factory?  If they are so intent on repopulating things, why not send them over there when they are 15?  Or maybe as soon as they can bear children?

To tell, you the truth, the bones of the story are good.  I liked the way our heroine gradually discovers that the girls were fed a bunch of anti-male propaganda in School so that they would be happy and obedient being locked up with a bunch of other girls.  I liked the way she discovers about male-female relationships and love and all that stuff.  I liked the way she formed a bond with her former nemesis (also escaped and on the run), and I even liked the budding romance between her and the boy, even if it did happen really quickly.  It made sense in the context of the story.

It was just all the stupid details getting in the way.  Maybe I think too much.  Maybe I know too much.  Maybe I just care too much when I read something that doesn't make sense (Not true, though, because I can ignore one thing here or there.  But a whole story full of them?)  Or maybe, just maybe, authors shouldn't fill their books with a bunch of baloney.  Because as The QuoteLab says, "more often than not, when something goes screwy it's because we forgot to pay attention to the detail(s)."


By the way, I'll still be on the lookout for a good Dystopian novel.  I'll let you know when I find one.

What I've Read Lately - August

August has seemed to stretched on forever, so I'm wondering why I didn't manage to read more books.  Actually, it's only August 22 right now, so I could, quite possibly, get through a few more before the month is over.  But . . . I'm going to need to include all of the books currently waiting on my bookshelf in next month's post (for reasons you will understand when you read it), so I'll just wrap this one up now and call it good.

The Vanishing Season, by Jodi Lynn Anderson, begins with a poignant little prologue about things that are lost and buried, and the yard of the house being "a graveyard of moments,"and a declaration that their (whoever it is) purpose is to dig and find the pieces of the past.  The simple half page expresses something that any archaeologist can relate to, and I thought, I am going to love this book.  Alas, I did not.  In fact, I did not even finish it.  At page 110 it felt like the author was still trying to familiarize us with the characters and establish relationships between them.  Also, the book was sold to us as being a ghost story (or at least having a ghost who figures prominently in the story), but by the time I quit reading she had only showed up in three tiny little interludes, the first and second of which had nothing at all to with the rest of the story.  I'm sorry, but at nearly halfway through a book the story should have not only started going somewhere, but be well on its way to actually getting there.

Dead Ends, by Erin Jade Lange, is a book about a bully who befriends a boy with Down Syndrome.  It turns out that they have a few things in common, and crazy things happen, and old relationships change and new ones are formed, and the bully tries to teach some lessons to the boy and, of course, ends up learning a few of his own in the process.  It was pretty good.  Interesting, funny, has a bit of a mystery, and moves along at a nice brisk pace.  (Reading Level: 4.6 / Upper Grades)

Hell & High Water, by Tanya Landman, is a historical fiction mystery.  It's not what I thought I was going to get, but after going back and reading the inside of the book jacket about half-way through, I realized that it pretty much summed it all up and I don't know why I thought it was going to be something different.  Overall, I'd have to say that the the book was kind of boring, in a way, I guess.  I'm not sure what the problem was (I suppose I shouldn't even say problem, because that makes the book sound bad, and it wasn't).  The story was mostly believable, the mystery was well done, the characters were like-able enough . . . I think it just didn't have the action I was looking for.  I thought it was going to be an adventure story, but it wasn't.  And the writing wasn't bad, it just didn't grab me and make me want more.  I never once considered putting it aside and not finishing it, though, so I guess that makes it a whole lot better than a lot of the books I've come across.  (Reading Level: ? / Middle Grades +)

As far as books for adults go, A Green and Ancient Light, by Frederic S. Durbin did not fit the usual pattern I come across.  It read more like a Neil Gaiman or C. S. Lewis book than what I usually end up with.  Maybe that's because it is about the Old Folk (as in faery and fauns and the like), or maybe because it is told in first person by a nine year old boy, kind of like Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane.  I enjoyed it, even though it took what seemed like forever to read.  The story was pretty slowly paced, but it was interesting and different and there was nothing about the writing or characters or plot that I could complain about.   (Reading Level: ? / Middle Grades +)

Do you remember way back when, when I said that I was going to have to find a good pirate story?  (It was here if your'e interested.) Well, I'm pretty sure that Steel, by Carrie Vaughn, doesn't fulfill that quest.  I say pretty sure, because I didn't get very far into it.   After reading three of the last four books that were paced slower than a Sunday drive, I was ready for something with some action.  What better than a swashbuckling adventure?  I never even made it to the swashbuckling.  Simply put, I didn't like the writing.  The author just seemed to throw in too much detail that we couldn't care one bit about.  And I don't mean long rambling descriptions of scenery.  I mean stuff like describing what the mom - who isn't even really a character - was wearing to the beach, and that she already had a good tan after three days on vacation.  This is on top of the relatively simple sentences and paragraphs she throws at us.  If all that baloney filler was taken out, the book would probably be half the length and half as uninteresting.  If you want a good pirate story, with a female lead as well, skip this book and see my mini-review here.

I'm still trying to decide if I actually liked Eve, by Anna Carey, or not.  It is a dystopian action-adventure romance based on the premise that most of the population has been wiped out by a plague and they now need babies.  Lots and lots of babies, and what better way to get them than by forced breeding of teenage girls?  Lots of running and fighting and misunderstanding and even kissing ensues.  It is the first book in a trilogy, but apparently it is either old enough or unpopular enough that my local library system decided it wasn't worth replacing the missing second installment, and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to try to track down a copy. What did I like about it?  What didn't I?  Read my extended review here to find out.   (Reading Level: 5.2 / Middle Grades +)

Glimpse, by Carol Lynch Williams, is a story in verse.  When I pulled it off my shelf to read it, I saw that and was like Ugh, I don't want to read that.  I don't know why, because the last story in verse that I read was really good.  Glimpse was really good, too.  It's equal parts mystery and equal parts heartbreaking.  The author did a fantastic job choosing and using verse for this story - it was super effective in conveying emotion and making the reader feel like they are getting little hints toward solving the mystery all along the way.  And she also did a great job of developing a picture of the characters and their relationships with one another by switching between present and past (memories).   If you don't mind reading stories that are likely to evoke negative emotions, you should definitely pick up a copy of this one.  (Reading Level: 3.5 / Upper Grades)

Graveminder, by Melissa Marr, was pretty good.  It had an incredibly creepy premise with an incredibly creepy first chapter.  I mean, fantastic stuff you don't come across too often. The concept isn't entirely original; Deathwatch by Ari Berk is based on a sort of similar idea, but it was original enough and well-enough put together to make it amazing.  Unfortunately, the main concept deals with a centuries-old relationship passed down through the generations, and it just so happens that the two new inheritors of the relationship already have had an on-again off-again romance history, giving this novel a little too much relationship drama and not quite enough mystery and creepy stuff.  Had the balance gone the other way, this would have been a solid 4 star book for me.  And, even though it is an adult novel, it reads like YA (except for the fact that the characters are mostly all adults and there is a short, steamy scene), probably because the author wrote YA fiction before she did this novel.    (Reading Level: ? / Upper Grades)