NOW I Get It, part 3

In my original post, NOW I Get It, I told you about a book that had a great beginning.  Then, in NOW I Get It, part 2, I shared some books that I had previously reviewed that also grabbed readers from the start.  Well, once I got going I couldn't stop, so here I am back again, with even more books that promise something special in the first couple of pages.

These are all books that I read before I started my blog and never wrote a post about. (Sorry for that dangling preposition.  After having watched a few seasons of The Last Man on Earth, I'm starting to notice those more!)  Anyway, I've included a mini-review for each of these books so you know if you should give them a try or not.

Chime
by Franny Billingsly

Read a preview here.

Just one page.  That's all it took.  Well, actually, this is one of those books that had me hooked with the very first line. (See my post about that, here.)  I read this way back and never wrote a review for it, but it's a great fantasy novel.  Not high fantasy, mind you, but more the kind that deals with uncanny lore, along the lines of Neil Gaiman.  (Reading level: 4.4 / Upper Grades)

Railsea
by China Mieville

Read a preview here.

Here is another book that I read years and years ago that had a fantastic prologue.  If I were an editor, I would have jumped at this one.  You can't tell from the beginning, but it is actually a futuristic steampunk-ish retelling of Moby Dick.  And did you notice those ampersands in place of the word 'and'?  They are supposed to represent the twisting and turning of the rail lines and the entire book is written that way.  Seriously.  Which, interestingly enough, really seemed to slow down the pace at which I was able to read.  (Good thing it was only 424 pages, and not 720 like Herman Melville's classic.) So, if you decide to give this book a try, don't wait until two days before it is due back at the library before starting it!  (Reading level: 730 Lexile / Middle Grade+)

When I Crossed No-Bob
by Margaret McMullen

Read a preview here.

When reading the first two pages of this book, you'll notice two things.  First, that it is historical fiction. Second, that the author does a superb job creating a unique voice for the narrating character.  Since this is yet another book that I haven't written a review on, I will tell you now that the rest of the book lives up to the potential promised at the beginning.  It is the second book in a trilogy (each comes at a later time and focuses on a different character who is in some way related to the one from the previous book), and it is really, very good.  In fact, I gave it four stars on my Goodreads list, and you know how often I actually do that (not very)!  (Reading Level: 5.0 / Middle Grades)

Out of Darkness
by Ashley Hope Perez

Read a preview here.

Although this prologue doesn't have that special something that usually grabs me right away, what it does have is the ability to make the reader understand the horror of the situation it is describing.  In a powerful way.  Which is the mark of a good writer and a great book for sure.  This imagery, along with the last line of the prologue, combine to let us know that this story is not going to be a walk in the park.  And it definitely isn't.  It is about life in a small Texas town in the 1930's, and all of the ugliness that society allowed at that time.  Due to the subject matter, it is definitely a book for older readers.   (Reading level: 4.6 / Upper Grades)

Thirteen Days to Midnight
by Patrick Carman

Read a preview here.

Here is an example of a prologue that is intriguing.  Not only does it imply that the book will have an interesting subject matter, but it makes the reader curious about exactly where and how the author is going to take us through that subject matter.  And notice how the books starts at 'Midnight.'  So we begin at the end and then find out how we got there.  As it turns out, I loved this book.  The concept was so original and amazing.  The story follows a guy and his two friends through the thirteen days leading up to one culminating event.  I don't want to give anything else away and spoil the awesomeness for you, so just go out and grab a copy and read it already.    (Reading level: 5.0 / Middle Grade+)

The Rules of Survival
by Nancy Werlin

Read a preview here.
Read an alternate preview here.

Okay, so this one is a little weird, because the previews are laid out differently depending on which version you get.  In this preview, you have to actually start reading on the page in between the two title pages where it says "The Harsh Truth."  I found a preview where this was on its own page, but I somehow lost it and can't find it again.  Anyway, some preview versions replace it with a long letter, but I think this one is better, because it has that whole commenting-on-a-deep-truth thing going for it, while also hinting at the specifics of this book.   When you read it along with the first page in chapter one, you can also see what makes this book unique - it is written to somebody.  I haven't run across that very often, and not where it started out so well.  Just so you know, this is a book about abuse and neglect, so it is very sad and emotional.  But it is also a book about hope, so once again, emotional.  I read this almost ten years ago, and it was probably one of the first books that I rated as four stars (a pretty high rating for me).   (Reading level: 4.3 / Upper Grades)

After the Snow
by S. D. Crockett

Read a preview here.

Okay, so if you just skip the two pages with the quotes (one from the Bible and one from the unknown Irish author), and you start reading at chapter one, after the first two pages you're probably going to be like WHAAAAAAT?!  But in a good way.  After those first two pages you know that you've got something different on your hands.  And in the vast sea of books that are just variations of one another, different is definitely good.  This book is a post-apocalyptic story about a boy trying to find his family and survive in a new ice age.  It is fantastic, with a very interesting character and a well-developed theme that will provoke some deep thought and teach us some important lessons.  I highly recommend it.   (Reading level: 3.8 / Upper Grades)

Catherine Called Birdy
by Karen Cushman

Read a preview here.

You have to scroll quite a few pages of the preview to get to the actual story with this link.  Start reading at the point where it says SEPTEMBER.  And then you will see why I love Karen Cushman's books.  She writes a unique kind of historical fiction, with irreverent heroines learning to be strong through the situations thrust upon them.  This one in particular grabs you from the start, as it is rare to find a book that is written entirely in short snippets of a diary, and the humor is evident immediately. If you are looking for a good historical fiction book for middle grade readers and up, this one won't disappoint.  (Cushman's earlier books are better than her later ones.  You can find these on my Historical Fiction book list marked with an *.)  (Reading level: 6.4 / Middle Grade+)

What I've Read Lately - February

This month I made it my mission to whittle down that ENORMOUS pile of library books that I collected at the beginning of January.  I think I did pretty well, with only five left waiting on my bookshelf now.

Five Flavors of Dumb, by Antony John, was a refreshing change from what I've been reading lately.  It is about a deaf high school student who becomes the manager of a band comprised of some fellow students.  On a more serious side, the story addresses the struggles of being deaf in a hearing family, sibling dynamics, and relationships with parents.  But it is full of humor as well, because a teen rock band with five wildly different personalities and a deaf (teen) manager lends itself to some pretty funny situations.  With just the right balance of humor and coming of age type angst, as well as being a pretty quick read, this book is a good one to try.  (Reading Level 5.8 / Middle Grade+)

Rikers High, by Paul Volponi, follows a seventeen year old boy who is incarcerated for several weeks on Rikers Island while awaiting sentencing.  It was interesting, well-written, and did a wonderful job of showing how broken our justice system is, from the lack of a speedy trial, to mixing juveniles with the adult prison population, to the abuse and brutality inmates suffer at the hands of other inmates and correctional officers.  The only thing I didn't like about it was that it ended with a comment implying that minority men are targets of the criminal justice system, which I found disappointing, because ending the story on that note distracts the reader from the larger issue of the system needing to fixed.    (Reading Level 5.3 / Upper Grades)

Jane, by April Lindner, is a remake of the classic Jane Eyre.  I have never read Jane Eyre, myself, because I don't really care for 19th century writing, so I thought, I'll just try out this modern version and get a sense of what the original was all about.  Well. . . I got a sense of the story, which I liked, and I liked the modern twist that Mr. Rochester a.k.a. Mr. Rathburn in this version was a rock star, but I didn't like the writing one bit.  In fact, after reading this book, I read the first few pages of the original online, and I actually found the writing much more enjoyable.  Which should tell you something since, as I've already mentioned, I don't care for 19th century writing.  The problem is that this one is just so boring.  I mean, I get that Jane is supposed to be a serious, no-nonsense type of girl, but she was boring beyond belief.  And the fact that the story is written in third person made it even worse.  If you've read the original version yourself, you might enjoy the modern twist in this version, but, really, you probably will not be able to stand the writing any  more than I could, so you might just want to skip this one.  I think I am going to grab a copy of Charlotte Bronte's novel the next time I'm at the library, so keep your eyes open for my take on it.  (Reading Level: 5.0 / Upper Grades)

Crusade is a novel written by two authors, Nancy Holder and  Debbie Viguie.  Which almost made me not give it a try, because for some reason every book I've ever come across written by two authors has been a major disappointment.  In fact, in at least half of them, I haven't even been able to finish them.  I'm guessing this is one of those books that was riding the Twilight wave, since it was written two years after the movie came out and is all about vampire hunters.  But then the authors decided to throw in an over-abundance of supernatural stuff, because not only does it have vampires, but it has a werewolf (go figure), a white witch, and a magick-practicing priest.  Which is about three more reasons to think it would be a total bust (had I known this ahead of time, I wouldn't even have started it).  Surprisingly enough, though, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was anticipating.  Yes, the characters were completely stereotypical.  Yes, it did mention glowing red eyes about fifty too many times.  Yes, the main character, with her constant self-doubt was kind of annoying.  Yes, the sort-of love story was too cheesy for words, and yes, the poems at the beginning of the chapters were absolutely horrible.   But the writing overall wasn't too bad, it was paced nicely, there was some pretty good action-y stuff, and it gave little snippets of the back story for each character gradually as the book went on.  Which actually made it pretty interesting.  Of course, I wasn't expecting a great piece of literature when I picked up this book.  Heck, I wasn't even expecting to be able to finish it, and it ended up being better than a lot of the books I've attempted to read.   (Reading Level: 5.5 / Upper Grades)

So, Half Brother, by Kenneth Oppel, is nothing like the other books I've read by this author.  This one is about a thirteen year old boy in the early 1970's, whose behavioral psychologist father brings home a baby chimpanzee for a study.  The parts about the boy interacting and bonding with the chimp, which is being raised as his brother, was nice and entertaining.  The parts about his trying to fit in at school and get the girl, not so much.  Those parts were actually quite boring.  It has a pretty good ending, though, so I gave it three stars.  It's probably a really good book for, well, thirteen year old boys to read.  (Reading Level: 4.4  / Middle Grades)

At first I didn't think I was going to like Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick, because I found the main character quite annoying.  After a bit, though, she got much less annoying and the book actually turned out to be pretty good.  My only complaint - the author was really sloppy with some of the details.  Like. . . Carmina and So-and-so were best friends who were in love with the same guy, but here we are years later and So-and-so's son is best friends (and the same age) and Carmina's teenage grandson.  See what I mean?  How did the editor even miss that?!?  Anyway, if you can ignore the things like that, you'll have a story that's hard to put down with a male lead you can't help but love, so overall I'd say go ahead and give this one a go.   (Reading Level: 4.8 / Upper Grades)

Tell the Story to Its End, by Simon P. Clark, is a fantasy story that reads like a dark fairy tale.  It is about a boy who goes to the countryside to live in the old family manor, only to find an ancient monster in the attic who feeds off of stories.  I really liked the book, all the way to the end.  The end, I hated.  Absolutely hated.  So that pretty much spoiled it for me.  You, on the other hand, might not mind the ending.  You might even like it.  So don't pass this story up just because I disagree with the author's choice of conclusion. (Reading Level: 3.7  / Middle Grade+)

The blurb about Instructions for the End of the World, by Jamie Kain, says that it is a story about a teenage girl who's father has trained her to be a survivalist, and who ends up alone without her parents, having to survive.  So you would think it would have some survivalist stuff going on in it, right?  Nope.  This is actually a story about teenagers with crappy parents.  Quite a few of them.  And that's about it.  Not a bad book, but not anything you ought to run out and get your hands on, either.  Unless you are looking for a mediocre coming of age story about kids whose parents are messed up and basically abandon them.  Then by all means, race to the library and grab a copy.     (Reading Level: ? / Middle Grade+)

Before I started reading The Diabolic, by S. J. Kincaid, I was pretty skeptical as to whether I would like it.  That's because I tend not to be a big fan of science fiction.  A few chapters in, I was still skeptical, because I am even less a fan of science fiction that takes place in future space.  But then the story really got going, and I found that I actually did like it.  It drew a lot of parallels with the Roman Empire, which is something I am a big fan of, and that made the story interesting.  The concept behind the book was pretty good, too - a humanoid, genetically engineered bodyguard poses as her master when called to court by the emperor, and attracts the attention of the mad successor to the throne.  Most of the main plot points were pretty predictable, but I still enjoyed the details of how things moved along to get where it was going.  Oh, and it was a good mix of intrigue, action, and romance, with a main character who is struggling with who and what she really is.  If you like science fiction, and can put up with the ridiculous descriptions of fashion, you'll probably like it too.   (Reading Level: 6.2 / Upper Grades)

I have read a lot of stories written by Avi, most of which I enjoyed. The Unexpected Life of Oliver Cromwell Pitts lived up to my expectations and did not disappoint.  This is a book intended for middle grade readers, but it was written in a way that made it really interesting for older readers as well.  It is told by a boy living in England in 1724, and does a great job of describing what life was like at the time without sounding like it is doing so (see my mini review of At the Sign of the Sugared Plum).  It is definitely a page-turner, as the author ends each chapter at a critical point in the action or drama.  I read it in one day. That's how hard it is to put down.  (Of course I had a few hours of down time to devote to it.)  Not only is a good book for students learning about this era in history, but it would also make a great bedtime story.  But be warned - this is a part one in at least a two book series and it just came out.  So you might not want to read it to any of your kiddos at bedtime until the ending is available, probably some time later this year (although I can't find anywhere giving a date yet!)  (Reading Level: 5.8  / Middle Grades)

When I first started reading Going Vintage, by Lindsey Leavitt, I was really in to it.  It was pretty funny, and the concept that a girl's boyfriend cyber-cheats on her, causing her to swear off all technology that wasn't around in 1962 (the year her grandmother was 16) was new and interesting.  And I could really relate, because, even though I am sitting here typing a blog, I am really pretty anti-technology myself.  Then, the main character was all like, Oh, it is so hard living without my social media and texting.  I don't know what anyone else is doing right now and I can't give anyone else a play by play of my life, and god forbid I have to actually talk to someone in person because texting is so much easier emotionally.  And at that point I was like, gag, this just depresses me to think about what this world is coming to. (Plus, she was a total flake, which I hate.)   But then, the girl starts becoming friends with this guy who is also not big into technology and is witty and charming and polite and super cool, and totally not like the average teen of her day.  And then the book got pretty good again.  So, of course, there is a lot more to this story, especially stuff dealing with family dynamics and family secrets, and it is really quite funny.  Definitely one you should read.  (Reading Level: 4.4 / Middle Grade+)

So, as I was reading, I went back and forth, and back and forth over whether or not to include Cain's Blood, by Geoffrey Girard, in this post or not.  That is because the book, which is based on the premise that a biotech company working with the DOD has cloned and raised a bunch of notorious serial killers (who are now teens) and one of the scientists let them lose on the world, is designed for adults, and if it were a movie, it would definitely be rated R. It is quite graphic and absolutely horrifying, both in the sense of being a horror novel and in the sense that people just shouldn't be exposed to this kind of stuff.  Not adults, and definitely not teens or children.  I almost quit reading it several times, that's how bad it was.  So why the back and forth?  Well, if you could get past the really disturbing violence, the book was very well written, with multiple layers of conflict, a well developed theme, and great plot development with a fantastic ending.  So, any of you adults out there, if you think you can deal with the graphic violence and disturbing subject matter, will probably enjoy this one.  It is definitely one of the best adult fiction books that I've come across.  If you are an older teen, there is a companion novel named Project Cain, which tells the same story, but through the words of one of the teen clones who is traveling with the main character (an adult) in this one.  I haven't read it yet, but I can only imagine that it would be good as well.  Middle grade and even younger upper grade readers should wait a few years to read either.  The subject matter just isn't appropriate for still-developing minds.  (Reading level: ? / mature readers only)

It's strange how the shortest month of the year can seem so long.  It feels like forever ago that I read those first four books on this list!