7 Souls

Title: Miller, B. & Orlando, J. 7 Souls.  New York: Delacorte Press, 2010.  Print.

Overview:  Mary Shayne is beautiful, popular, and loved by all.  On her 17th birthday all of that will change.  Waking up naked in a window display at Crate & Barrel is nothing compared to what happens that night.  When Mary is killed she learns that her friends weren't as true as she thought.  After her death she's forced to relive the day that she died with a twist - she's living it as her closest friends, taking over their bodies.  With each one she sees a memory they have of her and a reason they'd want her dead.  Hopefully, if she's lucky, she can figure out who killed her and how to keep it from happening again.

Critical Analysis:  I started reading this book at 11:30pm when I crawled into bed.  A while later I realized I was almost halfway into the book and it was 2:00am.  It was almost painful to stop reading, but my job requires a great deal of patience and coherence, something you can't get on zero sleep.  I turned out the light and found myself awake again at 7:30am unable to go back to sleep because I just had to finish the book.  I got up and finished it with moments to spare before I had to leave for work.

This book was amazing.  Not only is it a thriller, but it has my absolutely favorite thing ever - character growth.  As Mary lives the day she died through the eyes of her friends she learns just what kind of person she is and how she was seen by everyone around her.  The pain she causes others grows as she moves from friend to friend and lives one of their memories of her, a memory of a time she hurt them either knowingly or unknowingly.  I couldn't stop reading and I didn't want to.  The first half of the book records Mary's last day, the day she dies.  You see her image of herself, the way she interacts with the ones around her, and the events leading up to her death.  The second half of the book has Mary "possessing" her various friends and living a moment in their life on the day that she died.  It's a psychological thriller, another thing that's a favorite of mine in both books and movies alike.  In all areas this book delivered and I could be happy reading it again right this minute.

Book Recommendations With Similar Themes:

1. Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood by Eileen Cook.  In 8th grade Lauren did something so horribly humiliating to her best friend, Helen, that Helen's parents packed her up and moved to another city.  Such a huge betrayal isn't easily forgotten and Helen's spent three years obsessing over what happened that day and exactly how to get back at Lauren for it.  Now Lauren's the cheerleading captain, dating the star quarterback, and the most popular girl at school, but not for long.  When Helen moves back she's got a new look, a new name, and a very detailed plan on just how to get back at Lauren for what Lauren did to her.  Revenge is going to be very sweet.

2. Dead Girl Walking by Linda Joy Singleton.  Amber Borden has just had a near-death experience.  Unfortunately, when she recovers she makes a mistake and ends up in the body of the most popular girl at school, a girl who just tried to commit suicide.  Amber isn't sure what could possibly be wrong in such a perfect-looking life that would warrant a suicide attempt, but she's about to find out.  If she can get her classmate on the right track maybe, just maybe, she can get back into her own body.

Desert Angel

Title: Price, Charlie.  Desert Angel.  New York: Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2011.  Print.

Overview: Angel is on the run.  That's okay, running is something she's learned to be good at.  With a string of mother's abusive boyfriends in her life from an early age she's learned to be tough and protect herself.  Always have water, find a safe place to hide, fit in.  These are just some of the things that Angel has learned and after Scotty, her mother's current boyfriend, kills her mother Angel has to put all of her knowledge into action to stay alive.

Critical Analysis: This is a book that had a great potential to be one of those books you read in one sitting.  It wasn't.  I found that the plot lagged and things happened slowly.  After reading Dead Connection and loving it so much I dove into Desert Angel preparing to devour it the way I had with the previous Charlie Price novel.  That just didn't happen.  The characters seemed to all be alike with no real discerning qualities to separate one from the other.  Scotty was at least mildly interesting though instead of showing what he was doing from his point of view a paragraph was tacked onto the end of random chapters saying what Angel had missed (cigarette butts where they shouldn't be, a car that hadn't been there before) in an effort to tell us what Scotty was doing at that time.  I really hoped to love this book, but I was very disappointed.

Book Recommendations With Similar Themes:

1. Jump the Cracks by Stacy DeKeyser.  15-year-old Victoria is on a train to visit her dad.  When, big surprise, he doesn't show up to pick her up from the train station she's there to see a teen mom stash her dirty and bruised little boy in the train bathroom then run.  Fed up with parents who don't take care of their children like they should Victoria picks up the little boy and boards the next outbound train, determined not to let another child fall through the cracks.

2. So B. It by Sarah Weeks.  Heidi's mother is mentally disabled.  The woman only knows 23 words, one of which is the word "soof."  Heidi's never been able to find out what the word meant no matter how many times her mother repeated it.  All she knows is that this word is important to her mother and she needs to find out why.  Taking the little that she owns she heads across the country and finds out not only what "soof" is, but things about her past she never imagined.

The School for Dangerous Girls

Title: Schrefer, Eliot.  The School for Dangerous Girls.  New York: Point, 2009.  Print.

Overview: Hidden Oak is a boarding school and last resort for the most dangerous girls who have nowhere else to go.  Its fine staff of doctors and psychiatrists work hard to turn even the most dangerous girl into a contributing member of society.  The problem?  Some of their methods aren't exactly what you might call humane and some girls are never meant to leave.  As Angela gets further into the Hidden Oak program she finds out more and more secrets the school would do anything to keep hidden and she would do anything to expose.

Critical Analysis: This book was interesting with a side of weird.  It's some kind of strange cross between Girl, Interrupted and Lord of the Flies.  I really enjoyed the characters, each with their own unique "disorder" and personality.  There were parts that had me riveted and parts that left me thinking, "Uh...ooookay."  The plot was interesting, the characters well thought out.  While the staff's treatment of the girls was barbaric at the best of times it was fascinating to read, especially Angela's sessions with the school psychiatrist.  It didn't take me long to read - not because it was simple, but because I just wanted to know what would happen next and who would win.

Book Recommendations With Similar Themes:

1. After by Amy Efaw.  Devon Davenport doesn't remember what happened, but everyone is telling her that she gave birth and left the infant in a dumpster.  Could that be true?  She hadn't even known she was pregnant.  Her entire life she'd been the epitome of maturity and responsibility.  Now she's in lock-up with other girls who have done horrible things and are awaiting their trials.  As she works with her lawyer she pieces together what really happened to her and how she came to be on the front page of every newspaper as the teenager who left her baby to die.

2. Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson.  16-year-old Alison confessed to murdering Tori Beauregard, the most popular girl at school.  Unfortunately, Tori's body can't be found and Alison can't explain exactly how she killed Tori.  The thing is, Tori disintegrated.  Poof!  One minute they were fighting and the next Tori was just gone.  How can Alison explain what happened when she doesn't even understand it herself?  Committed to a mental institute, she works on figuring out exactly what she's done and what it means.

The Healer's Apprentice

Title: Dickerson, Melanie.  The Healer's Apprentice.  Michigan: Zondervan, 2010.  Print.

Overview:  To escape the constant barrage of wealthy aging men her mother constantly tries to convince her to marry, Rose becomes the apprentice of the healer of Hagenheim castle.  Healers don't marry and as long as Rose can learn to stomach the blood and illness seen daily she thinks she's found the perfect place for herself.  That is until Lord Wilhelm, the Duke's son, is injured while the healer is away.  Forced to care for his wound herself she attracts not only his attention but the attention of his brother, Lord Rupert.  Lord Wilhelm is kind and chivalrous, but has been betrothed since birth to a woman he's never met.  Lord Rupert is flirtatious and has a reputation with women.  Being apprentice to the healer won't solve her problems the way she had hoped.

Critical Analysis:  This book attracted me because of the time period.  It's set in 1386 in a time of castles and knights.  It has a great cast of characters including minor characters with their own plots of which I was eager to see the outcome.  Historical romances have always gotten my attention and I really enjoyed this one.  Rose's feelings for each brother and her confusion over her own heart is told in a way that's both beautiful and relatable.  It's a romance with just a touch of mystery and an evil conjurer thrown in for good measure.  I have a hard time sitting still doing one thing for very long, even to read, but I found myself reading this entire book in one sitting without being able to stop.

Book Recommendations With Similar Themes:

1. Matilda Bone by Karen Cushman.  Matilda is a young orphan who is sent to work under Red Peg, the bonesetter, in the 14th century.  Used to a quiet life filled with cleanliness and prayer Matilda isn't ready for the dirty, bloody life she's been thrown into mending bones and bandaging wounds.  But she will learn.

2. Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  In a retelling of Cinderella, Ella goes to the prince's ball and wins over the prince.  It seems amazing and romantic until she's taken into the palace in preparation of the wedding and realizes just what a princess has to do - daily lessons, needlepoint, proper etiquette.  Not only that, but the handsome prince doesn't seem to have a brain in his beautiful head.  Suddenly being a princess doesn't sound like quite so much fun.  Actually, it's downright boring and Ella isn't sure she wants to go through with the marriage.  The only problem is that getting out of the politically arranged marriage is not as easy as she thinks it will be.

Living Dead Girl

Title: Scott, Elizabeth.  Living Dead Girl.  New York: Simon Pulse, 2009.  Print.

Overview:  Alice is 15.  When she was 10 she was taken from a school field trip by a man named Ray.  Ray promised to take care of her and love her, but now she's getting older and he doesn't like that.  Maybe if she can find him a new Alice she can finally be free of him and go home.  She just has to find a new little girl to take her place.

Critical Analysis:  This book is labeled as teen fiction.  It does revolve around a teen, but the theme is incredibly brutal.  Elizabeth Scott holds nothing back as she describes Alice's life with Ray, the pedophile who kidnapped her.  The book is told in short chapters from Alice's point of view.  At times it's graphic and the entire time it's disturbing.  I would take extreme caution in reading it, though it is very well-written.

Book Recommendations With Similar Themes:

1. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Lia is a teenager with an eating disorder.  For a long time she's competed with her friend, Cassie, to see who could be the thinnest.  When Cassie dies because of complications of her eating disorder Lia is left to figure out how to conquer her own disorder or if she even wants to.  Wintergirls is told with complete honesty and holds nothing back as it describes the effects that anorexia and bulimia can have on the person with the disorders and the people around them.

The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group

Title: Jinks, Catherine.  The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group.  London: Quercus, 2011.  Print.

Overview: When Toby Vandevelde is found in the dingo pen at the zoo no one is really sure what happened.  No dingoes were seriously injured, but Toby has no memory of the event and no explanation for how he got out of his bed and into the pen.  Then a priest named Father Alvarez shows up with a man named Reuben who claims he's a werewolf and Toby is, too.  Does that explain Toby's "symptoms" or are Father Alvarez and Reuben just a bunch of crazies?

Critical Analysis:  I picked up this book because it's by the same author who wrote The Reformed Vampire Support Group and I loved that book.  There are a few crossover characters from the previous book, like Father Alvarez, Reuben, and a few of the members of the Vampire Support Group, but the book focuses mainly on Toby and can be read entirely by itself without any need to read the previous book.  The beginning gets off to a slow start as Toby figures out what's going on and what might have happened that night when he ended up at the zoo.  It takes reading through about the first 1/3 of the book before the action picks up and when it does pick up it takes off running and doesn't stop.  During the course of the book we get to meet two other werewolves and an entirely new species which keeps things very interesting.  Though the book was slow to start I still enjoyed it immensely and would definitely read it again.

Book Recommendations With Similar Themes:

1. The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks.  Nina Harrison is an 80-something-year-old vampire who was turned at the age of 15 and still lives with her mother.  If you think vampires are at all like on TV - gorgeous, strong, graceful, alluring - you are dead wrong.  Vampires are just that, they're dead, and their life is anything but glamorous.  When a vampire Nina knows is killed she and some of her friends from the Vampire Support Group decide to figure out what happened.  But tracking down the vampire hunter and saving a werewolf from an underground werewolf fighting ring might be more than a reformed vampire can handle.

2. Suck It Up by Brian Meehl.  Vampires aren't all they're cracked up to be, especially the ones at the Academy.  They're ready to come out of hiding and show the world that vampires and humans can peacefully co-exist.  That's where Morning McCobb comes in.  He's been chosen as the guinea pig and gets to be the first vampire to out himself to the humans - he's even been given a publicist to make that happen and make it happen big.  Unfortunately, things don't go quite as planned when his publicist's skeptical daughter, Portia, joins the mix.  As the official jacket description says this is unlike any other vampire book out there.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Title: Riggs, Ransom.  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  Pennsylvania: Quirk Books, 2011.  Print.

Overview: Since he was a child Jacob has heard stories of his grandfather's childhood surrounded by very special people including a girl who can levitate and a boy who is invisible.  As a kid Jacob thought the tales fantastic and mesmerizing but then, as all children do, he grew up.  Suddenly the tales weren't so believable.  That is until he has no choice but to believe.

Critical Analysis:  This particular book has been on my to-read list for a very long time.  I have to admit it's not what I thought it would be, though I really couldn't tell you what I had expected.  Halfway through I was on the fence, not really sure if it was the book for me.  A couple of chapters later I couldn't read it fast enough to find out what was going to happen.  There's just a touch of romance, told very humorously and accurately from Jacob's point of view, and a whole lot of adventure.  The story itself is supplemented by vintage photographs that the author has collected, like the one on the cover of a young girl in a tiara floating inches off the ground.  The photos add a haunting feel to the book and help the reader get an even more accurate picture of the story.  This is a book that I would definitely read again and one that I believe both girls and boys alike would enjoy.

Dead Connection

Title: Price, Charlie.  Dead Connection.  New York: Roaring Book Press, 2006.  Print.

Overview: Murray Kiefer is a lonely teenager with a special gift - he can talk to the dead.  His specialty is those who died young and he sees himself as a friend and comforter to them.  Nikki Parker is a cheerleader who trusted the wrong person and wound up dead.  With help from varying points of view from the various people who saw, heard, and/or interacted with Nikki before and after she died the story of what really happened to Nikki Parker comes to light.

Critical Analysis:  This is Charlie Price's debut novel and I have to admit that I'm impressed.  The novel follows 6 separate characters to show us vastly different points of view.  There's Murray Kiefer who talks to the dead, Pearl Janochek who finds out his secret and vows to help him, Pearl's father who is the caretaker of the cemetery Murray frequents, Deputy Roman Gates who has made it his mission to find out what happened to poor Nikki Parker, Mister Robert Barry Compton who is a schizophrenic with a hard time remembering things, and Officer Vern Billup who may or may not have a problem following the rules depending on who you ask.  I found the characters very interesting, most especially Robert.  Seeing the story from the point of view of teenagers, law officers, and others gives a very eclectic feel to the book that offers a full story.

Book Recommendations With Similar Themes:

1. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.  Susie Salmon is a young girl who has been gruesomely raped and murdered.  From her own personal version of heaven she watches as her friends, family, and crush deal with her death and try to move on.  Spanning years, the book deals with grief and its impact on the lives of loved ones.  With heartbreak at every turn of the page The Lovely Bones is not for the faint of heart...or those who don't like to cry.  Beautifully written and poignant it is worth every tear.

2. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.  When a man enters a home to brutally murder the family within he doesn't realize that the couple's son, a toddler, has left his crib to explore while his parents sleep.  Given the opportunity of an open door the small boy crawls out of the house, down the street, and right into a cemetery.  The ghosts there congregate and it's decided that they will keep the boy and raise him.  This book is the story of the boy's life as he grows and encounters various supernatural and natural beings, including the man who murdered his family.

A Bibliophile Can Not Possibly Have Too Many Books

Half Price Books, a discount used books store, had a sale this past weekend. Everything in their stores was 20% off from books, to music, to DVDs, and everything in-between. Before the sale I had two brand-spanking-new bookshelves that were bought, assembled, and just waiting to be filled. After the sale? Well, let's just say that if I purchase any more books I'll need to buy another shelf.

 My mom, the person I got my passion for books from, went with me to peruse the sale. There's a Half Price Books downtown that is gargantuan. We refer to this one as, "The big Half Price Books." After spending time and money there we weren't quite satisfied that we'd taken full advantage of this sale so we went to a store closer to home. Mom and I parted ways to peruse the aisles and when she found me again, my basket brimming with books even as I pulled more from the shelf, she made a comment on the quantity of books I owned. She told me that if I kept up that way I'd need an apartment where the only furniture was a bed, a chair, and bookshelves. I replied that that's all I need - a bed to sleep in, a chair to read in, and shelves for all my books. Sounds like a pretty awesome apartment to me! 

This blog will be used as a book review blog. Most books reviewed will be young adult fiction, but there will be some adult fiction strewn about here and there among the other reviews. With an entire 5-shelf bookshelf brimming with books I have not yet read let the reviewing begin!