Review of The Labors of Hercules Beal, by Gary D. Schmidt, read by Fred Berman

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

The Labors of Hercules Beal

by Gary D. Schmidt
read by Fred Berman

Clarion Books, 2023. 8 hours, 17 minutes.
Review written December 13, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I already knew I love Gary Schmidt’s writing. Even knowing that, this one blew me away, touching me to the point of tears in several spots.

This story is told in the voice of a 12-year-old boy. He’s the smallest kid in his class, but insists he’s begun with the “Beal growth spurt.” His name is Hercules Beal. And yes, he’s heard all the jokes about a small kid being named Hercules. He lives in Truro, Maine, which he is convinced is the most beautiful place in the world.

Herc’s parents died in a car accident earlier this year, and his big brother Achilles has come back from his adventuring to care for Herc — and run the Beal Brothers Nursery, which has been in their family since Herc’s great-grandfather and his brother started it. But the school bus route has changed, and they’re not on it, and Achilles isn’t interested in driving Herc to Truro Middle School every day. So Herc will now be walking 22 minutes each day to attend Truro Academy for the Environmental Sciences.

His new home room teacher is a retired marine who insists on being addressed as Lieutenant-Colonel Hupfer. In studying Greek mythology, he has individualized project assignments for the class that are going to take the whole year, with regular progress reports. Herc’s project is to study the Labors of Hercules, figure out how they apply to his life — and find a way to perform them himself.

So this book is about Hercules Beal performing the Twelve Labors of Hercules. Like Lieutenant-Colonel Hupfer says, when you really look for parallels, you’ll find them. It starts out simple — instead of catching the Nemean Lion, Herc clears an abandoned house of feral cats. Many of the feats feel truly Herculean — and Herc learns along the way that he can ask for help.

My only complaint about the book is that the assignment was too big and the labors fit too well — how could the teacher ever have predicted that some of these labors would come to him? And a lot of them seemed like way too big a thing to put on a 12-year-old kid. Though Herc did learn that he was not alone — and some of the touching things about the book were his reflections on what he learned from each labor.

This book is deeply sad, because of Herc’s missing parents. But it’s also funny, quirky, inspiring, and beautiful. Gary Schmidt is great at writing characters who are so distinctive and unique, you don’t doubt for a second they’re fully alive. This book is one to treasure up in your heart.

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Review of Bonesmith, by Nicki Pau Preto, read by Molly Hanson

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Bonesmith

by Nicki Pau Preto
read by Molly Hanson

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 14 hours, 43 minutes.
Review written December 5, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.

Bonesmith is an epic fantasy tale in a world where smiths are born with magic and affinity for working with certain materials, and Wren is a Bonesmith, able to sense and manipulate the bones of the dead. (The living have too much flesh around their bones, protecting them.) As the book opens, she is ready for her trial in the Bonewood, and successful navigation of its obstacles will win her an official position as a valkyr, who fights the undead with weapons made of bone.

But Wren’s cockiness leads to her downfall — and a position at the outskirts of the Dominions next to the border wall. On the other side of the border are the Haunted Lands and the Breach which was caused when the ironsmiths dug too far. Before Wren was born, they orchestrated the Uprising because they didn’t like being left on the other side of the wall. Fighting in that was how Wren’s war hero uncle was killed. With his death, her father became heir to the House of Bone, but he (and Wren) can never please her grandmother like the fallen hero did.

Okay, the author does a much, much better job of explaining all this and smoothly building the world than I just did here. Let me say this: Wren ends up traveling with her supposed enemy, an Ironsmith, straight through the heart of the Haunted Territories and trying to cross the Breach itself, all while trying to fight off undead revenants and rescue a prince of the Dominions, but revealing more plots as they go.

I loved listening to every minute of this. The narrator has a British accent, and her voice is delightful to listen to. I wasn’t completely sure why Wren and her father have what I think is a Scottish accent, but maybe it was to show that even though they are nobility, they’re not as posh as the prince or even the Ironsmith.

The plotting was a little clunky in places. There was a big reveal toward the end that I saw coming a mile away, but still felt somewhat coincidental. Even worse was a climactic scene that Wren witnessed that I really had trouble believing she could have watched without getting spotted herself. And in that climactic scene, all of the big reveal was conveniently spoken for her to hear. (Kind of like the bad guy in the old Batman series always explaining how he did it when he thinks he has Batman trapped.) And then she conveniently had time to grab something that helped her escape. And I should stop, because I don’t actually want to give a spoiler.

So, I wasn’t crazy about the plotting — but I loved the characters. Wren’s a delight, and so are the two companions on her journey. The sexual/romantic tension is well-done. The whole enemies-to-lovers trope doesn’t yet come to fruition in this volume, but it’s off to a perfect start with legit misunderstandings and lack of trust between them.

And yes, that reminds me that the story is only beginning. The book stops at a good stopping point, but we definitely need to find out what happens next. I will make it clear that my reservations are only minor reservations when I say that I am going to make sure I read the next volume when it comes out next August.

nickipaupreto.com

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Review of Those Pink Mountain Nights, by Jen Ferguson

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Those Pink Mountain Nights

by Jen Ferguson
read by Julie Lumsden, Aaliya Warbus, Kimberly Woods, and Shaun Taylor-Corbett

Heartdrum, 2023. 9 hours, 15 minutes.
Review written November 27, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’ve just this past weekend finished reading for the 2024 William Morris Award for best young adult debut, so it’s fitting that I listened to the second book of an author whose debut was a finalist for last year’s William Morris Award, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet. That one was about Canadian indigenous teens working in an ice cream shop, and this one is about Canadian Indigenous teens working in a pizza shop, and both are completely beautiful.

In this book, we’re following the perspectives of three teens who all work at Pink Mountain Pizza, in a ski town. Each viewpoint character gets their own narrator. A girl named Berlin is central, and the other two, Cam and Jessie, both have a bit of a crush on her. Berlin has been feeling numb lately, and her best friend has suddenly completely ostracized her, not telling her what is wrong. On top of that, they learn that Joe, the Black owner of Pink Mountain Pizza, is selling the shop to a corporation. Berlin knows things won’t be the same. What she doesn’t know is that the head of the shady corporation buying Joe out is Jessie’s father.

And then one night, Berlin thinks she sees Kiki across the street from the shop. Kiki is a Black and Indigenous teen who went missing six months ago, and she’s Cam’s cousin. But was Berlin somehow dreaming? She couldn’t really have seen Kiki? When she tells Cam, some things start in motion that shake up their lives.

This book has themes woven through it of depression, friendship, discrimination, racism, activism, and especially the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women. The message is powerful, and it’s all wrapped up in a story of clever and creative teens you can’t help caring about. And amazing pizza recipes! This book won my heart. A fabulous follow-up to an amazing debut.

jenfergusonwrites.com

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Review of Royal Blood, by Aimée Carter, read by Kristen Sieh

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Mystery, Teen Fiction Review 0

Royal Blood

by Aimée Carter
read by Kristen Sieh

Listening Library, 2023. 10 hours, 21 minutes.
Review written October 25, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.

Royal Blood is a contemporary mystery about an American girl who is secretly the illegitimate daughter of the King of England. No, not Charles — this book looks at a modern world where King Edward VIII didn’t abdicate for Wallis Simpson and lived out his reign with a queen his family approved of. Now in 2023, Alexander, son of Edward IX, is on the throne.

Evangeline Bright has never met her father — that she can remember. But he’s been supporting her since she was eleven years old and her grandma died. Evan’s mother has schizophrenia, but it’s under control with medication. Evan keeps getting herself kicked out of boarding schools, hoping she’ll get to go home to her mother. But when this book opens, her attempt to burn the school’s grade book got out of control, and at almost eighteen years old, she’s got a potential felony pending. So when Jenkins, the liaison with her father, comes to help, he decides it’s time for her to get out of the country and go to England.

Her half-sister Maisie, the heir to the throne, isn’t thrilled to meet her, but Queen Helene even less so. And that’s nothing to what happens when the press gets wind of her existence.

However, that’s all just the beginning. The real trouble ensues when a charming rich boy attempts to sexually assault her at a party — and ends up dead. Did Evan kill him? She’s not even sure because the details of that night are hazy. But if she didn’t, then who did?

This story could get tawdry, but it’s told with heart, as Evan thinks about what makes a family and learns more about what makes her famous one. The book doesn’t feel like a gossip rag, but a novel of a teen in an extraordinary situation where she doesn’t know whom she can trust.

It turns out there’s a set-up to make this the start of a series. Yes, I find that I’m looking forward to spending more time with this American girl who’s finding her place in the British royal family.

aimeecarter.com

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Review of Solito, by Javier Zamora, read by the author

Audiobooks, Award Winners, Biography, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Solito

A Memoir

by Javier Zamora
read by the author

Random House Audio, 2022. 17 hours, 8 minutes.
Review written May 2, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2023 Alex Award winner

The Alex Award is for books written for adults that will appeal to teens. Solito is a worthy winner, since in the entire memoir the author is nine years old. It’s the intense subject matter that put this book into the adult market.

Solito is a memoir — and the story of the author’s journey from El Salvador to the United States all by himself in 1999 when he was nine years old. His grandfather took him on the first leg to Guatemala. But then Javier was entrusted to a “coyote,” supposed to be taken safely to Mexico and then the USA to be reunited at last with his parents.

The trip was supposed to be relatively simple, taking a maximum of two weeks. Pretty early on, the plans got messed up. I won’t tell you how many weeks or how many tries it took before he was reunited with his parents, because I don’t want to mess up the suspense — but it was more than one try and much more than two weeks.

The journey was harrowing. In boats, in cars, buses and vans, and on foot through the desert. The author remembers details from a child’s perspective, doing what people told him, and making up names for the desert plants and animals. He is especially grateful to the adults who took him under their wing when plans went terribly awry, pretending he was part of their family to get him safely past officials.

The author doesn’t tell you what to think about the journey. But my reaction is that this is terrible. No child should have to go through such an arduous journey just to have to be with his parents.

But no matter what you conclude, this amazing story will have you riveted and will touch your heart.

javierzamora.net

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Review of Daughter of the Moon Goddess, by Sue Lynn Tan

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review 0

Daughter of the Moon Goddess

by Sue Lynn Tan
read by Natalie Naudus

HarperAudio, 2022. 15 hours, 1 minute
Review written September 5, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
2023 Alex Award Winner (Outstanding books for adults that will have appeal to teen readers.)

I’m not completely sure why Daughter of the Moon Goddess is advertised for adults and not for teen readers. It’s a coming-of-age tale about the daughter of the moon goddess. The notes do say it’s the first part of a duology, so perhaps the second part has more mature themes. This part shows her growing up years, with the person she’s going to fall in love with still in question. There’s some kissing but no sex. (Just so you know what you’re in for.)

The story is lovely, and narrator Natalie Naudus does a good job immersing you in the tale. Xingyin has grown up with her mother on the moon. As a teen, she learns that her mother was exiled there for drinking the elixir of immortality that had been awarded to her husband, a great archer, who had saved the world by shooting down some extra suns that were burning the world. What the moon goddess kept hidden, though, was the reason she drank the elixir — it was because she was having trouble in childbirth and the doctors said that she and her baby were going to die. But she kept Xingyin (who is also immortal) hidden from the celestial emperor and empress so they wouldn’t punish her as well.

But when Xingyin accidentally accesses her magic, it brings the attention of the empress to the moon. Xingyin must leave her home and go out into the world, never revealing who she is.

Xingyin ends up in the celestial kingdom as a servant. She is determined to somehow, some way work to save her mother and set her free from the eternal imprisonment.

Then she meets a young man who turns out to be the crown prince. He is holding a competition to find a study companion. But what can there be in common between two people whose families are in enmity?

That’s only the beginning. Xingyin ends up having many adventures, no damsel in distress, but one who has inherited the amazing abilities of her archer father.

The whole tale is told with a mythical feel. Although I had a strong feeling where the plot was going, there were some surprises along the way. And though this book had a satisfying resolution, there were enough threads left hanging to make me glad to read it’s the start of a duology.

This is a gentle romantic fantasy tale with a heroine you’ll be happy to cheer for.

suelynntan.com

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Review of Leeva at Last, by Sara Pennypacker, read by Stephanie Willing

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Leeva at Last

by Sara Pennypacker
read by Stephanie Willing

Balzer + Bray, 2023. 5 hours, 36 minutes.
Review written September 11, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Leeva at Last is, essentially, a modern-day version of Roald Dahl’s Matilda without the telekinesis.

In both books, we’ve got over-the-top evil and neglectful parents with a sweet and brilliant daughter who has taught herself by reading and who is completely unappreciated.

Leeva has always followed her parents’ orders, as outlined in her Employee Manual, but one day she ventures beyond the hedge to the town library and a new world opens up to her. She meets Harry, who is running the library for his aunt, a librarian who has a life goal of making every kind of cookie in the world, but who can’t navigate the broken stairs of the library.

Leeva’s parents are the mayor and the treasurer of the town, and they rule it with an iron fist. And charge extra taxes to anyone who questions them.

There are more quirky characters, especially a boy who lives his life in Hazmat suits because his parents are insurance salespeople and have taught him all about risk. He convinces Leeva to take on the care of a badger who was orphaned when excavation was done for the mayor’s giant statue. Another friend Leeva finds is Fern, who must care for her many siblings and her great-grandparents — until Leeva gets them hooked on an exercise show.

All these characters combine together in brilliant and quirky ways to teach Leeva about community and to work things out so that people get what they deserve and everyone is happy.

None of this is meant to be realistic. However, it is fun, and it will warm your heart. In all her adventures, Leeva learns that everything is better when shared with other people.

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Review of Five Survive, by Holly Jackson

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Mystery, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

Five Survive

by Holly Jackson
read by Emma Galvin

Listening Library, 2022. 10 hours, 33 minutes.
Review written February 28, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Okay, Holly Jackson knows how to write a thriller. When I was in the middle of this book, there was no way I was going to give this book a star, because it was all too terrifying. The situation was too horrific, and the situation was bringing out the worst in many of the characters. And the main character simply had it way too hard. But by the time I finished listening, I’m just convinced the author is brilliant.

Mind you, the situation is terrifying, so please know what you’re getting into. There are six friends traveling in an RV from Philadelphia to Spring Break in Florida. And the title is Five Survive, so you get to thinking if that is supposed to be comforting?

They get lost in an area where there’s no cellphone service and get an unexpected flat tire. They come through and change the tire, but as they turn around, all four tires go flat. It takes them some time to realize that someone shot all four tires with a rifle. The realization is helped along when they also shoot a hole in the gas tank.

We’re seeing all this from the perspective of Red Kenny. She’s got a difficult life, and it was her fault the group chose the cheaper way to travel, by RV instead of jets, because her family doesn’t have much money. Her mother, a police chief, was killed years ago, in an execution-style killing that still hasn’t been solved. Her father drowns his sorrows in alcohol. But her friend Maddy always looks out for Red. Maddy’s 21-year-old brother came along as chaperone, and their mother, an assistant D.A., is about to take down a leader in the mob with a secret star witness.

The attack on their RV has clearly been planned, and they’re told someone among them has a secret. If they reveal the secret, the rest will be released. So maybe the mob is involved? It’s all a set-up for a terrible night.

And we don’t find out which one doesn’t survive until the very end of the book. Pick up this book if you want some incredible tension.

listeninglibrary.com

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Review of Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Tom Lake

by Ann Patchett
performed by Meryl Streep

HarperAudio, 2023. 11 hours, 23 minutes.
Review written September 5, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Ann Patchett writes immersive, meditative literary novels, and this newest one has a lovely dose of joy. With Meryl Streep narrating the audiobook, listening was a complete delight.

The first thing I wondered about the book: Is Tom Lake a person or a place? The answer is that it’s a place – a lake in northern Michigan where summer stock theater would happen.

The setting of the book is Spring of 2020. The world is shutdown. Lara and her husband have no workers to bring in the harvest on their cherry farm, but their three daughters, all in their 20s, have come home, and they’re doing the picking. While they work, they demand their mother tell them, at last, about her relationship with the famous movie star Peter Duke. She dated him before she met their father, when she was playing Emily in Our Town during that long-ago summer at Tom Lake.

That maybe doesn’t sound too exciting? In practice, it ended up being mesmerizing and engaging and I ended up dreaming about it when I stopped in the middle to sleep.

Lara reflects on her life choices, on Duke’s magnetic personality, on the pivotal events that turned her life to the path she ended up taking.

Something I love about the book is that it’s told by a happy middle-aged woman. She’s feeling a little guilty how happy she is in the middle of a pandemic because she got to be surrounded by her daughters and the husband she’s loved so long. (I remember feeling a little guilty how much I loved that my kids started playing online games with me once a week during the pandemic.) Yes, she went through some things when she was young. She didn’t end up making it as an actress and Duke didn’t stay with her and went on to be wildly successful. But she’s fundamentally happy about where life has taken her, and that gives the whole book a feeling of peaceful joy.

There are some surprises in the story — things her girls didn’t know at all and the reader doesn’t expect. The sense of place is strong and makes me want to go visit a cherry orchard in Michigan, or maybe find a summer stock theater show by a lake. Completely delightful.

annpatchett.com

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Review of Sorcery of Thorns, by Margaret Rogerson

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Sorcery of Thorns

by Margaret Rogerson
read by Emily Ellet

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2019. 14 hours, 21 minutes.
Review written February 10, 2023, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Last year, my Cybils panel chose Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson as our 2021 winner for the Cybils Award in Young Adult Speculative Fiction. And after reading for the 2022 Cybils awards, I finally made time to listen to an earlier book by Margaret Rogerson.

Sorcery of Thorns is fun because it features an apprentice librarian. But she doesn’t work in any ordinary library. Elisabeth Scrivener was a foundling who grew up in one of the Great Libraries of Austermeer — a library packed with grimoires, full of ancient magic.

But one terrible night, Elisabeth is the only one awake and she finds the director of the library dead, killed by a grimoire that got loose and turned into a malefict — a giant sentient monster. But with the director’s sword, Demonslayer, Elisabeth is able to defeat the malefict.

That gets Elisabeth the attention of all the wrong people. A young sorcerer, Magister Nathaniel Thorn, comes to escort Elisabeth to the chancellor for questioning at the magisterium, along with his demonic servant. Elisabeth knows not to trust sorcerers, but he’s surprisingly kind, and helps Elisabeth when they’re attacked by a horde of fiends. He’s compelled to take her into the protection of his own home.

But when the chancellor takes Elisabeth into custody, she begins to realize something is wrong. Little by little, Elisabeth — and eventually Nathaniel as well — start to unravel clues about a monstrous plot that could destroy the world.

I thoroughly enjoy Margaret Rogerson’s writing, and the romance in this book was delightful. Elisabeth is a wonderfully resourceful heroine who’s more likely to rescue the guy than be rescued, though some of both happens.

I do have a lot of quibbles with the magic. I never have patience for sentient objects feeling emotion. In this case, it was books, but if you look at those details too hard, it just doesn’t work. And the relationship between sorcerers and their demons has some problems as well, if you look too closely. But I enjoy Margaret Rogerson’s writing so much, I was able to set aside all those quibbles and thoroughly enjoy the story.

In fact, I finally got this audiobook listened to because I heard about a new volume coming out, Mysteries of Thorn Manor. I’m now disappointed that it’s only a novella, but happy to get to read a little more about Elisabeth and Nathaniel.

MargaretRogerson.com
simonandschuster.com/teen

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