Review of The Whispering Skull, by Jonathan Stroud

Adventure, Alternate History, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Mystery, Paranormal, Starred Review, Suspense 0

whispering_skull_largeThe Whispering Skull

Lockwood & Co., Book 2

by Jonathan Stroud

Disney Hyperion, Los Angeles, 2014. 435 pages.
Starred Review

I was so looking forward to this sequel to The Screaming Staircase, I preordered the book as soon as I heard its publication date. And I was not disappointed.

Jonathan Stroud is a genius for plotting. This book again intertwines many plot threads. We’re back with the 3-person (3-child) agency Lockwood & Co., in an alternate reality England where ghosts plague the populace. Lucy continues to narrate, and in this book she continues to hear from the skull-in-a-jar that George stole when he was working for the Fittes agency.

It is highly unusual for someone to be able to talk with a ghost. This is a Type Three ghost, and only one other Sensitive was ever able to do it. So this could bring Lucy and their agency fame and fortune. But is it worth it? The skull gives them information that almost gets them killed, and it sows doubts in Lucy’s mind about Lockwood and that door he asked them never to open.

Then there are, of course, the cases. The ones in this book are even more gruesome and frightening than the ones in the earlier book. Kids with an especially vivid imagination might want to stay away. Kids who like scary books, however, will be delighted. Mention that a ghost starts falling apart and forming ghost-rats that attack them. If they think they like the sound of reading about that, this is the book for them!

There’s also a rivalry with another agency – and a bet as to which one can solve the case first. There’s the usual fun banter between Lockwood and Lucy and George. (And George shines in this volume, I must say.)

But the meat of the book is the mystery. Who stole the Bone Glass, and what does it do? And can they get it back, yet stay alive?

This is yet another example of Jonathan Stroud’s superb writing. Even though I had my own copy, I checked out the library’s copy so I could read it on my lunch breaks. This is absorbing, clever, innovative, and completely delightful reading.

To give you the flavor, here’s a bit from a scene right at the start, where Lockwood & Co. get in a little over their heads:

“It’s getting close to the barrier,” I said.

“So’s mine.”

“It’s really horrible.”

“Well, mine’s lost both hands. Beat that.”

Lockwood sounded relaxed, but that was nothing new. Lockwood always sounds relaxed. Or almost always: that time we opened Mrs. Barrett’s tomb – he was definitely flustered then, though that was mainly due to the claw marks on his nice new coat. I stole a quick sidelong glance at him now. He was standing with his sword held ready: tall, slim, as nonchalant as ever, watching the slow approach of the second Visitor. The lantern light played on his thin, pale face, catching the elegant outline of his nose, and his flop of ruffled hair. He wore that slight half-smile he reserved for dangerous situations: the kind of smile that suggests complete command. His coat flapped slightly in the night breeze. As usual, just looking at him gave me confidence. I gripped my sword tightly and turned back to watch my ghost.

And found it right there beside the chains. Soundless, swift as thinking, it had darted in as soon as I’d looked away.

I swung the rapier up.

The mouth gaped, the sockets flared with greenish fire. With terrible speed, it flung itself forward. I screamed, jumped back. The ghost collided with the barrier a few inches from my face. A bang, a splash of ectoplasm. Burning flecks rained down on the muddy grass outside the circle. Now the pale figure was ten feet farther off, quivering and steaming.

There you have it: Plenty of adventure, danger from entities living and dead, swordplay, ghosts, mysteries and murders. This will appeal to many for its clever plotting, but is not for the faint of heart.

LockwoodandCo.com
jonathanstroud.com
DisneyBooks.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on my own copy, preordered from Amazon.com.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Extraordinary, by Nancy Werlin

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 2

extraordinary_largeExtraordinary

by Nancy Werlin

Speak (Penguin), 2010. 393 pages.
Starred Review

After reading Nancy Werlin’s Impossible on the plane on the way to Portland, Oregon, I went to two different Powell’s locations looking for the sequels. And had them finished before I got home.

Extraordinary isn’t exactly a sequel to Impossible, but it’s got a similar element of Faery and our world interacting with one another. And the third book, Unthinkable, has threads from each of the previous two books. So you don’t have to read the first and second books in order, but it’s good to have read them before you read the third book.

In a short section called “Conversation with the Faerie Queen, 1,” which appears before “Chapter 1,” we learn that a faerie girl is being sent into the human realm.

“You are anxious. Naturally. It is a great deal of responsibility. But remember, your way has been prepared. The Tolliver woman will believe you to be her own human daughter, miraculously restored to her. Grief, depression, and loneliness have caused her to lose herself, so she will gratefully accept your guidance in all things, young though you are. Managing her will be easy for you; you will give her certain human medications to keep her under your influence, and you will use her money for all your needs in the human realm.”

“I understand. And the Rothschild girl?”

“The girl is of course your main focus. You will observe her at school. I need not tell you again that everything — everything — depends on her.”

“The stakes are high.”

“Frighteningly high, at this point. It is useless to deny it.”

Chapter One begins with the sentence: “Phoebe Gutle Rothschild met Mallory Tolliver in seventh grade, during the second week of the new school year, in homeroom.” From the conversation with the Faerie Queen, we know something’s up, that something’s at stake, but we don’t know what. Mallory is being talked about by everyone for how peculiar she is.

However, Phoebe decides to be Mallory’s friend. Mallory meets again with the Faerie Queen:

“But child, what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. You are absolutely sure the Rothschild girl is the right one? And yet you say she is not ready?”

“Yes, she is the right one, and yes, she is not ready. That other human girl that we were watching, the one called Colette – she had not achieved what we thought she had. The Rothschild girl was fighting back. While she is not very self-assured, she has personal strength of will. Your Majesty, I now understand that when we observe human activity from outside, we can be mistaken when we try to interpret what it means.”

Mallory goes from saying she can finish in a few days to a few weeks, and then to a few years. We pick up the story four years later – “four good, solid years of best-friendship later.” One day, Mallory tells Phoebe that her half-brother is coming to live with her and her mother. Phoebe doesn’t believe it at first. Mallory has never mentioned a brother before.

Mallory’s brother Ryland is older and incredibly handsome. And he is very interested in Phoebe. And it doesn’t take long before Phoebe is obsessed with him. But why do they have to keep it secret from Mallory? And what is Mallory trying to tell her?

We’re eventually going to learn what the Faerie world wants with Phoebe Rothschild and what the high stakes are. And we also get a look at friendship and self-esteem and character – all with magical undertones that stretch into our world. And the story of a generations-long bargain made with the Fae.

This is a worthy successor to Impossible

nancywerlin.com
penguin.com/teens

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a book I purchased at Powell’s.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Impossible, by Nancy Werlin

Fantasy, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

impossible_largeImpossible

by Nancy Werlin

Speak (Penguin), 2008. 376 pages.
Starred Review

For ages now, I’ve been meaning to read Impossible, by Nancy Werlin. I keep meeting Nancy at ALA conferences and like her very much indeed, and every time I was embarrassed that I haven’t yet read her work, even though I’ve wanted to since before I ever met her. Part of the problem is that I own a copy of her book, so it doesn’t have a due date, so I don’t get around to it as quickly.

But I like to bring my own books on vacation, and I like to bring paperbacks. So when I left for a week in Oregon, I put Impossible first on my list of books to read on the plane. The only problem with that? When I finished, I liked it so much, I didn’t really want to start another book, since I wanted to savor the one I’d just finished. However, while in Oregon, I visited Powell’s, and bought the two sequels, so now on the way home I can continue to feast on Nancy Werlin’s books.

The premise of Impossible is that the ballad “Scarborough Fair” actually happened and tells of an actual curse that was put on a young woman and her daughters after her, and her daughters’ daughters down through the generations to today. An elfin knight demanded her love, and she could only escape if she performed three impossible tasks. And then, eighteen years later, her daughter must perform the three impossible tasks or be caught in the same curse.

What I love about Impossible? All the reasons why Lucy Scarborough’s case is not hopeless. Even though her mother’s a crazy bag lady, she’s been brought up by warm, loving, and wise foster parents. And there’s a young man who truly loves her. So she doesn’t have to complete the challenges alone.

And the story of how she does so is truly beautiful.

I also like the way this unbelievable, impossible curse is woven into a story of a modern-day believable seventeen-year-old girl with ordinary concerns like being on the track team and going to Prom. I like the way all the characters realistically have a hard time believing it and the modern ways in which they tackle the challenges together.

Most of all, I just love Lucy and the people around her. Nancy Werlin has written a brilliant book about True Love.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember us to all who live there
Ours will be true love for all time.

nancywerlin.com
penguin.com/teens

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/impossible.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on my own copy, which I got at an ALA Annual Conference.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Dreams of Gods and Monsters, by Laini Taylor

Fantasy, Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

Dreams of Gods and Monsters

by Laini Taylor

Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2014. 613 pages.

This is the culminating volume of the trilogy that began with Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I’ve been waiting impatiently for it since I finished Days of Blood and Starlight.

This book begins not as expected, with the Seraphim of Eretz coming to earth as a legion of angels, which happens in the second chapter. Instead, the first chapter introduces a new character, a graduate student named Eliza, who has horrible dreams of worlds being devoured, dreams involving gods and monsters.

We do get back to Akiva and Karou, still in love, but pulled apart by circumstances. Now they need to work together to save earth from Jael, the evil emperor of the Seraphim who has gone to earth, pretending to lead the heavenly hosts from earth’s religions, but actually planning to acquire weapons of mass destruction, to do away with the Chimerae once and for all.

Can the remaining Chimerae, led by Karou and the White Wolf, and the Misbegotten, the disillusioned Seraphim, led by Akiva, possibly form an alliance to overcome astronomical odds and defeat Jael? Can they overcome their hostility and generations of enmity for a greater good?

Let me say first off that this book does provide a satisfying, epic conclusion to the trilogy. We see both Akiva and Karou come into their own. And I especially like the way lowly humans Zuzana and Mik contribute their talents to saving the world.

I was surprised, however, by how long it took me to get through the book. More than just the length, I think the omniscient narrator and the epic scope meant there were many places where it was easy to put the book down. The tone was a little too self-aware in spots – it called my attention to the narrator.

This part was probably a good thing, overall, but I also got discouraged by the many setbacks our heroes faced. Now, they did manage to overcome almost all of them, but at times it looked too dark for me, which provided more points where I was willing to put the book down. And the author did throw in yet more plot threads that were only hinted at in the earlier books, or were entirely new, such as Eliza’s part in the bigger picture.

And this love at first sight thing? This idea of soulmates knowing each other instantly despite years of one’s people being enemies? This is perhaps overdone. It makes a nice story, and I’m especially happy for the characters involved, but I was a bit skeptical. Nice, though. I can’t help being happy for those who found this Destiny, even if there did seem to be an awful lot of them.

However, I do have to say that by the end of the book, the author had pulled together the various threads masterfully. She wrote an epic tale about the fate of worlds and wove it nicely with ancient religious tales. And she made us wonder: What if gods and monsters are simply souls like us, dressed in bodies that don’t necessarily express the hearts inside?

daughterofsmokeandbone.com
lainitaylor.com
lb-teens.com
bookish.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/dreams_of_gods_and_monsters.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Constable & Toop, by Gareth P. Jones

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Paranormal, Starred Review 0

Constable & Toop

by Gareth P. Jones

Amulet Books, New York, 2013. 391 pages.
Starred Review

I like the blurbs at the front of Constable & Toop. They’re by “The Ghost of Oscar Wilde,” “The Ghost of Dr. Johnson,” and other distinguished ghosts. The Ghost of Emily Brontë says, “I very much enjoyed the melancholy and tragedy contained within these pages. The humor was less to my taste.”

Sam Toop can talk to ghosts. The ghosts know him as a “Talker,” and often ask him to help them with their unfinished business, like give a message or uncover a hidden will. But there’s something terribly wrong at the church where one of the ghosts wants his body buried.

Meanwhile, Lapsewood has been doing his desk job faithfully, in death as in life. But when he gets transferred to another department, and expected to check on residents of haunted houses, as the past Outreach worker has gone missing, he also stumbles on something terribly wrong.

At the same time, Clara’s parents invite an exorcist to their home. As Clara had suspected, they did have a ghost haunting their home, but the exorcist banishes her. After that event, nothing feels right, but things are even worse after the body of a girl is found in their home.

Constable & Toop is set in Victorian London, at a time when people were obsessed with death and funerals and the supernatural. Gareth Jones spins an entertaining tale of plots and murderers, among the living and the dead, and good people who try to do their bit to help.

This story is highly imaginative, intricately plotted, and a whole lot of fun.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/constable_and_toop.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, by Holly Black

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

by Holly Black

Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2013. 422 pages.
Starred Review

I’m not a fan of vampire novels. In fact, I liked Twilight specifically because it didn’t read like a vampire novel. However, I am a fan of Holly Black. So when she wrote a vampire novel, I had to at least try it.

Tana wakes up after a big party lying in a bathtub. When she goes out to see where everyone else is, she finds them all dead.

One of the windows was open, she noticed, curtain fluttering. The party must have gotten too warm, everyone sweating in the small house and yearning for the cool breeze just outside. Then, once the window was open, it would have been easy to forget to close it. There was still the garlic, after all, still the holy water on the lintels. Things like this happened in Europe, in places like Belgium, where the streets teemed with vampires and the shops didn’t open until after dark. Not here. Not in Tana’s town, where there hadn’t been a single attack in more than five years.

And yet it had happened. A window had been left open to the night, and a vampire had crawled through.

But Tana learns that not everyone is dead after all. Aidan, her ex-boyfriend, has been bitten, but is alive, and tied to a bed. And there’s a vampire boy chained beside the bed.

When Tana was six, vampires were Muppets, endlessly counting, or cartoon villains in black cloaks with red polyester linings. Kids would dress up like vampires on Halloween, wearing plastic teeth that fitted badly over their own and smearing their faces with sweet syrup to make mock rivulets of cherry-bright blood.

That all changed with Caspar Morales. There had been plenty of books and films romanticizing vampires over the last century. It was only a matter of time before a vampire started romanticizing himself.

Crazy, romantic Caspar decided that unlike decades of ancient, hidebound vampires, he wouldn’t kill his victims. He would seduce them, drink a little blood, and then move on, from city to city. By the time the old vampires caught up with him and ripped him to pieces, he’d already infected hundreds of people. And those new vampires, with no idea how to prevent the spread, infected thousands.

In America, they ended up shutting the vampires up in Coldtowns. Anyone infected was supposed to go to a Coldtown. If an infected person could keep from drinking human blood for eighty-eight days, the infection would flush out of their system. But few could do that. Tana’s mother couldn’t.

Tana ends up setting free Aidan and the vampire. But as they escape out the window, one of the vampires from the slaughter gets his teeth on her leg, so she may be infected, too.

Tana knows they need to get to Coldtown. The trouble is, no one who goes into Coldtown is allowed to come out, infected or uninfected. There’s only one way out, and that’s with a token you get for turning in a vampire. For some reason their vampire companion, Gavriel, wants to go into Coldtown. He says he has a friend he needs to kill. So Tana gets a token for bringing him with her. If she can keep from turning into a vampire, she’ll be able to go home when it’s all over.

This book is scary and compelling. The world is frighteningly believable. Vampires in Coldtown livestream their parties, and Tana meets some teens who have always wanted to go to Coldtown and become vampires. The life is glamorized, and the reader isn’t surprised when it doesn’t turn out as they hoped.

Along the way, Tana makes friends and allies and gets involved with Gavriel, who has some dark secrets. But worst of all, her little sister decides to come find her.

If you like vampire novels, you’ll love this one. If you don’t like vampire novels, like me, you just may find yourself loving it anyway. You certainly will have a hard time putting it down unfinished.

blackholly.com
lb-teens.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/coldest_girl_in_coldtown.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at an ALA conference and had signed by the author.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Far Far Away, by Tom McNeal

Fantasy, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Far Far Away

by Tom McNeal

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2013. 369 pages.
Starred Review
2013 Capitol Choices Selection

Here is how Far Far Away begins:

What follows is the strange and fateful tale of a boy, a girl, and a ghost. The boy possessed uncommon qualities, the girl was winsome and daring, and the ancient ghost . . . well, let it only be said that his intentions were good.

If more heavily seasoned with romance, this might have made a tender tale, but there was yet another player in the cast, the Finder of Occasions, someone who moved freely about the village, someone who watched and waited, someone with tendencies so tortured and malignant that I could scarcely bring myself to reveal them to you.

I will, though. It is a promise. I will.

This strange and fateful tale is narrated by the ghost himself — who is, in fact, the ghost of Jakob Grimm, and someone who knows something about tales.

Jakob was alarmed, after death, not to find his brother Wilhelm anywhere about. He did, however, find a boy in a small town who was able to hear ghosts, Jeremy Johnson Johnson. But this boy was in danger. Jakob knew that somewhere in the same town was the Finder of Occasions, who would want to harm such an uncommon boy.

This story tells about that harm, and how Jakob attempted to help. Along the way is a remarkable tale, fully worthy of the Brothers Grimm. Jeremy and his friend do go far far away, but can they end up with a happily ever after?

I always said that I’m not particularly a fan of ghost stories. Yet 2013 may have changed my mind about that. It seems to have been a year for excellent ghost stories, each one having a flavor and plot all its own. In this story, there’s nothing sinister about the ghost. But there are definitely sinister forces endangering Jeremy, which the ghost tries to protect him from. Beautifully told.

mcnealbooks.com
randomhouse.com/teens

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/far_far_away.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on my own copy, which I got at ALA Annual Conference, and had signed by the author.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Conjured, by Sarah Beth Durst

Fantasy, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Conjured

by Sarah Beth Durst

Walker Books (Bloomsbury), 2013. 358 pages.
Starred Review
2013 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #9 Young Adult Fiction
2013 Cybils Finalist

I wasn’t sure about this book at first. It seemed awfully dark, and I wasn’t sure what was going on. But oh my yes, Sarah Beth Durst pulled it all together into a fantastic and powerful story.

Eve doesn’t remember anything. As the book opens, she’s being taken by two people from the Agency to live in a home. It’s a Witness Protection Program, but she doesn’t remember what she witnessed, why she is being protected by the Agency, even what sort of Agency it is. She’s sure her face didn’t use to look like it does now. And she remembers surgeries, but not what was done. And she has strange powers. But whenever she uses them, she blacks out and has a vision, a sinister vision of a Magician.

Here is a scene from the first chapter:

She wondered how she even knew this was a bedroom when she didn’t remember ever having one. She’d known what a car was too, though the seat belt had felt unfamiliar. She could recognize a few kinds of birds. For example, she knew that these painted ones on the walls were sparrows and the live one outside had been a wren. She didn’t know how she knew that. Perhaps Malcolm had told her in one of her lessons.

Or maybe it was a memory, forcing its way to the surface of her mind. But the sparrows she remembered flew. She pictured their bodies, black against a blindingly blue sky. She didn’t know where that sky was or when she had seen it. The birds had flown free.

Eve raised her hand toward the birds on the wall. “Fly,” she whispered.

The birds detached from the wall.

The air filled with rustling and crinkling as the paper birds fluttered their delicate wings. At first they trembled, but then they gained strength. Circling the room, they rose higher toward the ceiling. They spiraled up and around Eve’s head. She reached her arms up, and the birds brushed past her fingers. She felt their paper feathers, and she smiled.

Then she heard a rushing like a flood of water, and a familiar blackness filled her eyes.

Eve gets a job, since her handlers want her to live a normal life, meet other teens. Her job is a library page. (I love that detail.) A teenage boy also works at the library, and he seems quite taken with Eve. But is it safe to make friends?

This book is a little confusing at the start, mirroring Eve’s confusion. But trust me, it all comes together by the end and is completely worth a little confusion! A wonderful and imaginative story.

sarahbethdurst.com
bloomsbury.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/conjured.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater

Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Dream Thieves

Book II of the Raven Cycle

by Maggie Stiefvater

Scholastic Press, New York, Sept. 17, 2013. 438 pages.

This sequel to The Raven Boys takes the mysterious magical happenings in Henrietta, Virginia, to another level.

We still have Blue, the only non-psychic in a family of psychics, entangled with three Raven Boys, Gansey, Adam, and Ronan, from the private school Aglionby. The boys, led by Gansey, are looking for an ancient Welsh king that Gansey is certain is buried in the area. Whoever finds him will have a wish granted.

This volume focuses on Ronan and his ability to take objects out of dreams. We find out this ability is all wrapped up in family secrets. And there are others who want it. Dangerous others. And there are surprises and mysteries along the way.

I’m not quite sure why I don’t like this series more. It’s well-crafted and powerfully written. The plotting is intricate and keeps you intrigued. Each book has a doozy of an ending. I think the main problem is that I don’t particularly like the characters. There’s a new character we see more of in this book who is a drug addict and generally distasteful. We also follow the activities of a hit man. His addition to the book adds much to the story, and I like that we do get to see his side. But he’s a hit man! I can’t quite like him.

I will, however, definitely snap up the next book as soon as I get the chance. I don’t love these books, but I like them very much, and I am absolutely hooked. I should also say that Maggie Stiefvater, did, in fact, win me over to the heavily foreshadowed romance strongly hinted at in the first book. I had a feeling she would.

Here is how the Prologue begins:

A secret is a strange thing.

There are three kinds of secrets. One is the sort everyone knows about, the sort you need at least two people for. One to keep it. One to never know. The second is a harder kind of secret: one you keep from yourself. Every day, thousands of confessions are kept from their would-be confessors, none of these people knowing that their never-admitted secrets all boil down to the same three words: I am afraid.

And then there is the third kind of secret, the most hidden kind. A secret no one knows about. Perhaps it was known once, but was taken to the grave. Or maybe it is a useless mystery, arcane and lonely, unfound because no one ever looked for it.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/dream_thieves.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at ALA Annual Conference.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of The Madness Underneath, by Maureen Johnson

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Madness Underneath

Shades of London, Book 2

by Maureen Johnson

G. P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin), 2013. 290 pages.
Starred Review

This is the second book in the Shades of London series, and, yes, you should read the first book, The Name of the Star to properly enjoy this one.

Without saying too much about the first book, Rory is an American who’s going to boarding school in London. But while there, she has an almost-dying experience and then begins to see ghosts. And then one of those ghosts begins recreating the murders of Jack the Ripper. And he knows she can see him.

Book Two comes after she has survived what the Ripper tried to do to her. Her parents are upset and have been keeping her in a bubble. But some powerful friends want Rory’s help — she gained some power through her experience — and they are able to make it happen that Rory goes back to school.

But she didn’t get much work done while she was away. And the schoolwork in England was difficult already.

So now she’s in danger of failing, and there is more than one group who is interested in her, and it seems a crack has opened under her school that connects to the burying ground of Bedlam, the old mental hospital. And the ghosts that are coming out now are not happy.

In many ways, this book feels like a bridge between what went before and what comes next. But some dramatic things happen in this book, and I’m dying to know what Rory will do next.

I love Maureen Johnson’s writing style. I could easily imagine her tweeting most of the things that Rory says. The style is a little demented and a whole lot of fun, and Rory’s the kind of person who would always be fun to be around. So we get to be around her for as long as it takes to read these books.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

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