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!
