Review: Altered by Gennifer Albin

Title: Altered
Author: Gennifer Albin
Publication Date: October 29, 2013
Target Age Group: YA
My Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5

Book Jacket Blurb:

Life. Possibility. Choice. All taken from Adelice by the Guild—until she took them back.

But amid the splendid ruins of Earth, Adelice discovers how dangerous freedom can be. Hunted by soulless Remnants sent by Cormac Patton and the Guild, Adelice finds a world that’s far from deserted. Although allies are easy to find on Earth, knowing who to trust isn’t. Because everyone has secrets, especially those Adelice loves most. Secrets they would kill to protect. Secrets that will redefine each of them. Torn between two brothers and two worlds, Adelice must choose what to fight for.

 

Altered is Gennifer Albin's thrilling sequel to Crewel. Adelice is about to learn how tangled up her past and future really are. Her parents ran to protect her, but nothing can save her from her destiny, and once she uncovers the truth, it will change everything.

My Review:


I was lucky enough to receive this book at Book Expo America 2013, and I am just now getting around to reviewing it. I finished it some time ago. Thanks to Gennifer Albin and BEA for their generosity!

Altered is the second book in Gennifer Albin's Crewel World series. I've been very impressed with "seconds" in book series lately, and Altered is definitely no exception. It has action, continued character development for Adelice, suspense, and tension, and those are good enough reasons to read the book.

But the biggest thing I was impressed with is that the book has ANSWERS. While many books, movies, and TV shows (Lost comes to mind) like to pile more questions on top of the questions already posed, Altered does a great job in revealing the mysteries presented in books 1 and the new ones in this book. 

For instance, you learn:
     1. The true nature of Adelice's abilities, as well as the abilities of those in charge of Arras
     2. What the condition of Earth is and who is living there
     3. What the relationship is between Arras and Earth
     4. Some interesting facts about Adelice's family and past
     5. Who created Arras, why it was created, how it was created, and when.

And I promise you, you'll be blown away by ALL of these answers. This book is very well thought out and presents a very exciting mythology for this world Gennifer has created. 

Above all, you're in good hands with Gennifer's capable writing skills. The pace is quick when it needs to be, slow in other places where it needs to be, and everything written seems to have a purpose.  In fact, it seems to be knit as tightly as Arras is. When the story does slow down in a few places in the middle (which is one of the only things I could possibly find to pick on), it's mainly because things are being revealed to Adelice (and the reader), but believe me, you WANT to hear these reveals. 


Finally, for those fans of romance, you finally find out who Adelice chooses - Jost or Erik? I grow weary of the love triangles in some YA fiction I've read, but I like the fact that Adelice, Jost, and Erik have to make a lot of complicated choices, and they're not just three love-crazed teens. Their relationships are just as complex as the world in which they live. Ultimately, Adelice went with the best choice for her and didn't waffle or flip-flop. That, and the one Adelice winds up with seems to connect with her in a meaningful way.


Overall, I highly recommend this book and, especially after another cliffhanger ending, can't wait to read the third book!

Review: Thumbprint by Joe Hill

Title: Thumbprint
Author: Joe Hill, Jason Ciaramella, Vic Malhotra (illustrator)
Publication Date: 2013
Target Age Group:
My Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

Book Jacket Blurb:

Private Mallory Grennan had done terrible things as an Abu Ghraib prison worker. After being discharged from the army, Mal thought she was leaving her sins behind to start a new life back home. But some things can't be left behind - some things don't want to be left behind!


My Review:

Thumbprint is a graphic novel adaptation of Joe Hill's short story of the same name, published in 2007. The version I read is a hard-bound collection of all the Thumbprint issues, which also includes the original short story as well as another of Joe Hill's graphic novels, Kodiak.

My review is based on this particular hardbound version and all the stories included inside.

First, I have to say I find it interesting to see the graphic novel interpretation of the short story "Thumbprint". The way it has been interpreted makes it a VERY different story.

Both have the same essential plot. Mal is ex-army and involved in terrible goings on while working at the Abu Ghraib prison. Now that she is home and trying to resume a more normal life, she begins receiving mysterious letters in the mail containing only a single thumbprint. She, and the reader, quickly realize the threatening nature of these letters and the fact that someone knows about her checkered past. The ratcheting up of the tension in these stories is done very well. I also especially love the grittiness of the artwork in the graphic novel version.

The major difference between the two, however, and the main reason for my strange grading of this book above, is the way Mal is portrayed in both versions. In the short story version, Mal is NOT a very sympathetic character. You can tell she is a cold person, even before she enlists in the army, and her character doesn't change throughout the story. In the graphic novel version, however, you get the sense that deep down Mal is a good person, but something snapped in her during her time in the arm and she's now a haunted person trying to resume a normal life but unable to. This version of the story is much better in my opinion. I can get emotionally behind her, whereas I couldn't in the original short story.

Finally, the very brief graphic novel excerpt Kodiak is an interesting short, unrelated epilogue to this book. The story's theme is a simple one, about how you shouldn't judge by appearances, about the nature of relaying stories about real-life events, and about how they can sensationalize and blow the truth way out of proportion. Two boys hang around the home of a man, Dominico, who's been scarred, and they speculate about the nature of these scars and of the man himself. Then you find out his story, which is told compellingly through both story and images, about his confrontation with a giant bear. I wish there were more of this story and these characters, but it does seem to be complete in and of itself. It sounds like what's included in this book is simply an excerpt, but I'm not sure. In any case, I was happy with its inclusion.

Review: Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

Title: Mr. Mercedes
Author: Stephen King
Publication Date: 
Target Age Group: Adult
My Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5

Book Jacket Blurb:
In a mega-stakes, high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely and winning heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands.

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.

In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.

My Review:

Although this book has many elements of a classic detective story, there is one main noticeable difference: you already know who the killer is at the beginning of the story. So why would you want to spend time reading this book?

First of all, this is the master, Stephen King, and he weaves a tale like no other. This book being no exception. He knows how to string us along, keep us entertained, keep on ratcheting up the suspense, and keep us guessing. And yes, there's plenty to guess about, even though the killer is known right up front.

Second, this is a THRILLER, as opposed to a MYSTERY, novel. And, as I've alluded to above, the thrills start from page one and don't let up until the VERY last page... and beyond. (I hear there will be two more books featuring Detective Hodges.) Watching this cat-and-mouse game between Detective Hodges and the killer as each tries to outwit, and psych out, the other is fascinating.

Third, the characters in the story, as in all of Stephen King's work, are very well developed. The heroes are your every day, average people, with their own flaws and idiosyncrasies, trying to stop a deranged killer from escalating the violence he already started right at the beginning of the book. Even the villain is well-developed. It's hard to feel sorry for someone so hell-bent on mass killing, and yet Stephen King allows the reader inside the killer's mind and life, and you almost feel sorry for him at certain points in the story. Almost.

Fourth, Stephen King takes the well-known tropes of the classic mystery story and turns them on their heads. Detective Hodges is your typical hard-boiled old-school detective, yet what makes the story really interesting are his side-kicks Jerome and Holly. Their methods are less formulaic, more chaotic, more modern. And the three of them together make an awesome team. My only beef I have is that I wish they played more of a role right up front, but I do like how Stephen King ushers them  to center stage in the story.  (I won't give away the point in the story where this happens, but you'll definitely know it when you see it. Keep an eye out for "the hat".)

I purposely didn't provide many details because I didn't want to spoil a thing. I wish I could go into more specifics to sell you on this book. Just take my word for it. It's one of Stephen King's better works, and it's a damn good thriller story in general. Go check it out!

Review: Indelible by Dawn Metcalf

Title: Indelible
Author: Dawn Metcalf
Publication Date: July 30, 2013
Target Age Group: YA
My Rating: 4 out of 5

Book Jacket Blurb:

Some things are permanent. Indelible. And they cannot be changed back. 

Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. 

Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep and a life that will never be the same.  

Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink's chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future…and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both.  

Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes. 

Somewhere between reality and myth lies… 

THE TWIXT

My Review:

This book I received from Dawn at Book Expo America 2013 and, unfortunately, am now just getting to the review of it, even though I read it last year. So what did I think? Excellent! I read her debut book prior to this, Luminous, and I have to say that her storytelling is improving as she goes along. One of the things I love most about this book is that she's created an entire world - the world of the Folk, which is a kind of re-imagining of traditional faeries - and somehow, seamlessly, this world exists alongside ours and she makes that perfectly believable. 

The Folk have existed for a long time, and their purpose is to "mark" humans that they feel are important. The mark, or signatura, signifies that a human "belongs" to one of the fae. Indelible Ink and Invisible Inq are beings who have been created to place such marks on humans.

Enter our heroine, Joy Malone, who, while out dancing one night with her friends, catches sight of Indelible Ink. Humans are not supposed to be able to see the fae, so Indelible Ink stabs her eye in order to remove her sight. However, instead of blinding her, he accidentally marks her as belonging to him.

That's when things get crazy for Joy.

Because now that she has been marked as Ink's assistant, others from the Folk come calling, wanting Ink to do jobs for them and asking Joy to pass messages to him. 

And here I'll stop with my own synopsis, because this covers two things I absolutely love about the book. (Also, I don't want to give too many details away. This is a great ride of a book which should be experienced.)

First, the book is creepy, and creepy, as anyone who knows me, is right up my alley. Just the opening scenario of Joy catching a glimpse of this strange boy with black eyes who doesn't seem to exist in the real world, and who attacks her, basically. Then all manner of strange beings appear and disappear, notes and threats start appearing wherever she goes, etc.

Second, the world of the Folk is both Alice-in-Wonderland-loopy and yet also has a strange internal logic to it all. There are rules in this other world, which may be strange to the reader but do hold together and are passed out to the reader as you delve deeper into the book. Yet you also get the sense any number of strange things can happen in this world, and any number of stories exist within it (apparently, as book 2, Invisible, will be coming out in September 2014).

In addition to these more atmospheric qualities, the main character is refreshing because she actually plays an active role in the story, unlike other books I've read in this genre. I also love how she has "real-world" problems typical of any teenager, and she has "fantastical" problems related to her role in this new world of the Folk. And that she learns things along the way to actively solve her problems.

If I had to complain about anything (which explains why I didn't rate it 5 stars), it's this: I find it a stretch as to how accepting Joy is of being attacked by Ink and how their relationship seems to progress rapidly from there. It's a bit of a stretch for me. I don't know if I'd be that accepting.

Aside from that, however, this book gets a great recommendation from me, especially in light of the fact that book 2 will be coming out soon. Hurry up and grab this one while you still have time.

Review: Perfection by J. L. Spelbring

Title: Perfection
Author: J. L. Spelbring
Publication Date: July 16, 2013
Target Age Group: YA
My Rating: 4 out of 5

Book Jacket Blurb:

The personification of Aryan purity, Ellyssa's spent her whole life under her creator's strict training and guidance; her purpose is to eradicate inferior beings. She was genetically engineered to be the perfect soldier: strong, intelligent, unemotional, and telepathic.

Only Ellyssa isn't perfect.

Ellyssa feels emotions--a fact she's spent her life concealing. Until she encounters the epitome of inferiority: a dark-haired boy raised among renegades hiding since the Nazis won the war a century ago. He speaks to her telepathically, pushing thoughts into her mind, despite the impossibility of such a substandard person having psychic abilities.

But he does.

His unspoken words and visions of a place she's never visited make Ellyssa question her creator. Confused and afraid her secret will be discovered, Ellyssa runs away, embarking on a journey where she discovers there is more to her than perfection.

My Review:

I cannot say enough good things about this book. This one blew me away in terms of the characters, the setting, and also the eerie believability of the events portrayed in this book, as fantastic as they are.

It's hard to put a classification on this one.

1. It's part historical fantasy. It envisions a world where Hitler succeeded in his horrible plan of world domination and selective purging of the population.
2. It's part science fiction. It deals with topics of genetic selection and development of telepathic and other superhuman traits.
3. It's part fantasy. If you don't believe in superhuman abilities as natural, this could be categorized as fantasy. Also, the series seems like it could go in an almost superhero kind of direction. For those who HAVE read the book, you might understand what I'm getting at here. It's very apparent to me at the end.

From the very beginning of the book, Ellyssa's conflict is very clear. Everything she knows about her world (which is very twisted mind you due to her "father"'s world views having been pushed upon her) collapses when she meets a prisoner - someone who is not among the "perfect race" - who has the same telepathic ability as she does. This, along with learning the true nature of what she was created for, causes her to question her father and everything about the bubble she lives in. So she escapes the compound where she has lived her entire life.

The book hits the ground running at this point, only providing the background above as necessary. I love the action at the beginning of this story. Ellyssa is on the run, running away from the people who raised her and running toward some understanding of the conflicting views she has. I love her interaction with the world outside, especially the people. I love how the people are portrayed as ordinary people, who are twisted by the morals put upon them by Hitler's regime, but still ordinary people just the same. It shows the effects of propaganda and faulty values in upbringing very well through the storytelling.

The book then enters another stage, where the action almost slows to a crawl, but this is where Ellyssa's emotional conflicts begin. When captured by the renegades, the people she has always associated with inferiority and as the enemies, she realizes these people are no different than the "perfect race" her creator has been teaching her about. She becomes herself in this stage of the book, and I think it's executed brilliantly.

Here, unfortunately, is where I have to dock a few points from my scale, because I find this section is very similar to the middle of the book The Host, by Stephenie Meyer. Seeing as though I also enjoyed that book, I can't take TOO many points off though. And, the outcome of this section is very different in this book than it was in The Host, because whereas Melanie Stryder in The Host took a more passive approach to solving her problem, befitting of her character, Ellyssa takes a more active, kick-butt approach in J. L. Spelbring's book, which is befitting of HER character. Because once Ellyssa's discovers herself, she brings her knowledge and wisdom back to her father to deal with him. I won't say how the book ends, but the ending is very, very action packed and a cool setup for what I'm hoping will be a sequel to this book.

The only other place I would say is a bit of a disappointment is with the character development for the detective who is in charge of hunting her down and bringing her back home throughout the book. I was kinda hoping for some redeeming quality for this character, and it ALMOST seemed like that would happen, but it never came to fruition. Unlike the same type of character in The Host, who at the end you can almost feel sorry for her.

Finally, there is the romance element between Ellyssa and Rein. The two are from very different backgrounds. They learn about each other and move toward the center regarding their understanding of each other as the story progresses. I felt their connection was a little too strong by the end, however, given all they had to overcome. But other than that, I felt the romance was done very well. It's a bit of a Romeo and Juliet, with a much happier ending, at least for Ellyssa and Rein.

The book has definitely been left open for a sequel, which I will wait for impatiently.

I would highly recommend this book.

Review: The Listeners by Harrison Demchick

Title: The Listeners
Author: Harrison Demchick
Publication Date: December 17, 2012
Target Age Group: Adult
My Rating: 4 out of 5
Book Jacket Blurb:

It's a bit long to put the entire blurb here, so here's the beginning and end of it:

Before the plague, and the quarantine, fourteen-year-old Daniel Raymond had only heard of the Listeners. They were a gang, maybe even a cult, or at least that's what his best friend Katie's police officer father had said. They were criminals, thieves, monsters - deadly men clearly identifiable by the removal of their right ears.

That's what Daniel had heard. But he didn't know.

...

Daniel's mother went out for toilet paper. She never came back. He hasn't heard from Katie since the phones went dead. And with his real family gone and surrogate family unreachable, Daniel, scared and alone, has nothing except the walls of his apartment, the window shattered, the poisonous air seeping in.

That's when the Listeners arrive. Derek, the one-eared man with the big, soulful eyes, promises protection, and hope, and the choice not to sit alone and wait to die in some horrific way. He offers a brotherhood under the watch of their leader, the prophet Adam. He offers a place in the world to come.

My Review:

This book is called a literary horror novel, which is interesting in light of a recent post I put up regarding plot-based vs. character-based novels, or genre vs. literary novels. This book seems to work well on both sides of the fence. You get to know Daniel, his personality and his world, but then there's movement in this novel as well. Daniel travels down literal roads, moving from the instability of his own apartment into the care of the Listeners and then out into this apocalyptic world that Harrison Demchick has created, but Daniel also travels down a road in his head toward a grim understanding of himself and how he fits in this new world and the consequences of the choices he makes throughout the novel. This balance is brilliantly executed in this novel.

I love how the plague and the walking-dead-like people it's left in its wake is simply the vehicle in which to place Daniel, his family and friends, this group of people known as the Listeners, and the police in this lawless microcosm. It's very reminiscent of Stephen King's Under the Dome, which is another book I enjoyed that explores these same themes.

If I have to say anything negative about the book, it would have to be the places where the novel strays from Daniel's point of view. Harrison Demchick doesn't spend nearly enough time letting us get to know the other characters for us to have a vested interest in them. This fact ALMOST caused me to rate this a 3 or a 3.5 out of 5, but because the writing is so well done and the rest of the book is so well executed - even the appearance of these other characters reminds me of a Pulp Fiction kind of plot where characters have intertwined stories - that I feel more comfortable rating it a 4 out of 5.

If you're looking for a horror novel that is less horrifying because of the traditional horrors of a plague and walking dead (which this book does have as its backdrop) but more horrifying because of the experiences of a teenage boy trying to survive in a lawless, dangerous environment where nothing is quite as it seems and the truth of his situation is elusive and truly horrifying when finally known, then this is the perfect book for you.

Review: Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

Title: Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Publication Date: September 24, 2013
Target Age Group: 8 - 12 yrs
My Rating: 4 out of 5

Book Jacket Blurb:

Since I have a BEA advanced reader copy, there is none on my copy. However, here's one I found on Amazon, which was taken from School Library Journal:

Flora, obsessed with superhero comics, immediately recognizes and gives her wholehearted support to a squirrel that, after a near-fatal brush with a vacuum cleaner, develops the ability to fly and type poetry. The 10-year-old hides her new friend from the certain disapproval of her self-absorbed, romance-writer mother, but it is on the woman's typewriter that Ulysses pours out his creations.

My Review:

First of all, I loved this book overall. It's a book about the very serious topic of divorce and how it affects both children and their parents, but told in a whimsical, heartfelt manner.

One of the things I love most about the book is how it mixes those very serious issues of divorce with the fantastical story of a squirrel that Flora names Ulysses who finds himself suddenly coming to terms with super powers bestowed upon him after being sucked into a vacuum cleaner.

The squirrel superhero element is cute, and I would say the most heartfelt parts of the book revolve around him. Ulysses has strange superpowers - he can fly, lift heavy objects, and is able to understand English and write poetry on Flora's mother's old typewriter.

Ulysses allows the main character, Flora, to do something she hasn't been able to do on her own throughout the divorce process: hope.

I love the quirkiness of all the characters in the book. They're all very distinct and endearing. The book's style is a little disjointed, however. Transitions between sections and character's POVs are not very clean. There are also insertions of comic book pages which tell parts of the story, which takes some getting used to, but the illustrations (they're rough ones in the copy I have) look very fun and they involve the adventures of Ulysses the squirrel. They also seem appropriate due to Flora's love of comic books and her belief that Ulysses is a superhero and destined for great things.

Overall, great book that I would highly recommend to your middle grader.