Halloween Book Review #3!!

—4—

For anyone who hasn’t read Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, Halloween is fast approaching and this is a great time to do it!  But considering I’m the last one to read it, that may be irrelevant.  But I am going to review it anyways, perhaps to encourage the last few of you to pick it up.

Nobody’s family was murdered when he was an infant, but he escaped into the local cemetery.  There, the “residents” take it upon themselves to raise and protect Nobody (Bod), and adopt him as their own.  Bod is granted full run of the graveyard, which means he acquires some of the ghosts’ abilities, such as being able to fade.  He is taught by characters from all different eras of history.  His guardian is Silas, a figure who is able to leave the graveyard to gather food and items for Nobody, as well as protect him from the man who is still hunting him.

You would think a story about a boy growing up in a cemetery would be morbid, and at times it is a bit frightening, but overall it is a story about a community, unusual as it is, coming together to love, teach, and raise a child.  At first Bod is confined to the graveyard, but he is taught to survive and thrive outside of it as well.  And what a wonderful set of characters!  Ghouls and a witch, a Roman and a poet, and a little girl from the outside world who befriends young Bod even though her mother thinks him her imaginary friend.

I was definitely stressed at the end when the murderer known as Jack finds Nobody, and Bod must escape him and save his best friend.  Besides this, the story is not too frightening or dark.  I think it is perfectly appropriate for most children, and is great for adults too!  Love it!

4/5

Another Halloween Book Review…

—3.5—

I ordered Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle from interlibrary loans, and the copy I received was practically ancient.  And I think the ambiance of the story was better off for it.  It had that old book smell that makes reading a scary story at night just that much more authentic.

Not that this story was particularly scary; it was more just weird.  Really weird.  And I’m not quite sure I get everything that happened.  But I’m also not sure I was supposed to.

No-one in town likes the inhabitants of Blackwood House.  One of its three residents probably poisoned all the other family members that once lived there.  Merricat is the only one who ever leaves the house, forced to enter town to shop for groceries and borrow books from the library.  She is a young lady who is not at all right, but it is hard to put your finger on exactly why.  Her sister Constance is an agoraphobe to the extreme, and Uncle Julian has dementia and a obsession with murder.  What exactly is going on in this house?  And what happened the day of the poisoning?  As these things often go, a stranger brings irreversible change to this house and these haunted characters.

These are weirdo characters.  They are unhinged to say the least.  And yet, you almost want to sympathize with Merricat, as her world dissolves around her, while at the same time feeling that her world should never have existed in the first place.

There is something about books that I don’t quite get.  I feel like they are incomplete when they finish.  So this book left me just a bit unsatisfied.  But despite that, this book has some of the best dark, macabre humor and some of the most neurotic characters I’ve ever read.  More eerie than frightening, this is another good Halloween read.

3.5/5

#1

I saw The Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink over on Bloggin Bout Books.  It is apparently the first in a triology, and it sounds pretty intense.  The description from Amazon:

“An ancient prophecy divides two sisters- One good…One evil…
Who will prevail?

Twin sisters Lia and Alice Milthorpe have just become orphans. They have also become enemies. As they discover their roles in a prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other, the girls find themselves entangled in a mystery that involves a tattoo-like mark, their parents’ deaths, a boy, a book, and a lifetime of secrets.
Lia and Alice don’t know whom they can trust.
They just know they can’t trust each other.”

Neato.

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#2

The Coral Thief is the new historical fiction novel written by Rebecca Scott, the author of Ghostwalk, a novel which I have been meaning to read since it came out in 2007.  This one is set in post-revolutionary France.  And the main character is a medical student.  Sounds up my alley!

Here is my first in my Halloween Book reviews!  It is the beginning of October and time to get into the Spooky Spirit.  My first selection was The Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie.  This book is perfect for those looking for a seasonal story that is neither scary, nor gory.

—3.5—

The Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie is one of the series of Hercule Poroit mysteries, one of her recurring detectives.  It all begins with an old-fashioned, very quaint Halloween Party (of course), which ends with a young girl drowned while bobbing for apples.  Poroit is called to assist in the investigation and solve the murder mystery.  No one in town seemed  particularly fond of the girl, and most called her a liar.  So can her confession that she witnessed a murder be believed?  If true, it seems a good motive for murder.  In which case, the murderer must have been a member of the party who overheard her boast.

This mystery is quite dated, and so sometimes reads almost comically.  And it was less than suspenseful through most of the book.  But Christie does what she is good at, and provides some nice twists and great character development.  This is a great Fall pick for those in the mood for a quaint mystery with a good ending.

3.5/5

#1

Hurry Down Sunshine: A Father’s Story of Love and Madness by Michael Greenberg.  I saw this in my Random House newsletter this week.  It is Greenberg’s memoir of his daughter’s mental illness.  Amazon reviewer Daphne Durham describes it as “an unforgettable story of a young girl’s descent into madness, told through the eyes of a harried and helpless father trying desperately to bring her back.”

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#2

American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Polps and American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s PUntil Now is the two-volume anthology of horror stories collected by Peter Straub.  Thinking these would be great reads around Halloween this year!

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#3

Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness is Book Two in the Chaos Watching series, the first being The Knife of Never Letting Go, which I of course want to read first.  I was reminded of this series by Jenny at jennysbook.wordpress.com.  I don’t know how to describe the plot quickly, so I’ll just say that is looks great and I can’t wait to start reading these books!

—2—

I am finally writing a review for the second novel in the Pink Carnation series, The Masque of the Black Tulip by Lauren Willig.  Like the first, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, I listened to this on audiobook in the car.  And unfortunately, it was more ridiculous than even the first.  Another romance pretending to be historical fiction, with a hint of spy-genre.  This story line followed one of the supporting characters of the first book and the hunt for the nemesis of the Pink Carnation, The Black Tulip.  In the present time, it is graduate student Eloise Kelly researching these figures, and looking for answers among the handsome but frustrating Colin Selwick’s archives.

The romance writing made me uncomfortable, and the rest of the story was preposterous.  It seemed parts were trying to be humorous, but overall the plot was too long and too unbelievable.  There are several more in this series, but I definitely wont be picking up anymore.  The only thing that made me read this one was that I really liked Eloise, the modern day researcher, and I am disappointed that I can’t follow her story and her relationship with Colin without reading the rest of the nonsense.

2/5

Read my review of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation.

What books last week were added to my TBR list?

#1

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I read and really enjoyed Codex, also by Grossman. This was Amazon’s best book of August 2009, and is described as “Harry Potter discovers Narnia” by Publisher’s Weekly.——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

#2

September 15 Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is released, and it makes it feel ashamed that I haven’t yet picked up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. So the goal is to do side by side reviews with the original Jane Austen classics. See the Book Trailer. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-#3

A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd is the first in the Bess Crawford Mystery Series, and is based around, obviously, Bess Crawford, a WWI British nurse.  Sounds like a combo between a mystery and historical fiction, plus I always like reading about the history of medicine.

—3.5—

As further evidence of my extreme listlessness, I am combining three book reviews into one!  Pathetic, huh.  Well, besides my disgusting laziness, there are other reasons for this.  First, this is obviously a trilogy, and so I have the excuse of wanting to consume and then review the work as a whole.  Second, I listened to these on audiobook, and for some reason this make writing reviews more difficult, especially detailed reviews.

So here’s what I have to say about The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, by Libba Bray.  The first book, A Great and Terrible Beauty turned me off a bit, mostly because I did not realize that these stories would involve witchcraft/magic/other realms, etc.  It’s not that I dislike those topics, quite the contrary.  But do you ever find yourself disliking a book just because it was not what you had expected?  I guess I should have read the synopsis.  However, by the end, strong-willed Gemma Doyle had won me over.

The trilogy begins with the death of Gemma’s mother, and Gemma’s exodus from her home in India to an English finishing school.  Gemma is different from the other girls in many ways, but the biggest is that she has visions and can enter other realms (that’s pretty different if I do say so).  Gemma has also been followed, by a young man, Kartik, and he tries to convince her of the danger of her visions and the realms.

The next books continue Gemma’s adventures, as she learns more and more about the realms, and herself.  The experiences in the realms bind her to a few true friends, power-hungry Felicity, timid Ann, and beautiful Pippa.  By the end of the trilogy Gemma learns the power of the realms, and how much strength she has as well.

I sometimes felt that these books were dragging out the story a bit too much.  So much time is spent in the realms, and I began to feel it was getting repetitive.  I loved the characters however; every teen girl (or woman who was once a teen) will be able to identify with one of the characters, if not parts of all of them.  My favorite of the three was the second, Rebel Angels, because this story takes the reader away from the boarding school and into Victorian London, and we get to learn a little more about Gemma’s family.  This was a decent teen trilogy, but when comparing it to series such as the Hunger Games, it still falls short.

3.5/5

—5—

This weekend I devoured the sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.  And it was wonderful, and now I’m heartbroken that I must wait for the last in the trilogy. Catching Fire picks up Katniss’ saga where it left off; she has returned home with Peeta, victorious in the last Hunger Games, and now must try to resume life in District 12.  But of course things are irreversibly changed, including her relationship with her best-friend Gale, the life of relative ease her family now lives in, and even the mood of the Districts themselves.  There is unrest among the oppressed in the Districts, and Katniss unbenowenstly becomes the figurehead for rebellion.  And the Capitol can’t have that, so they set another plan in motion to make sure that the uprising, and Katniss herself, are stopped once and for all.

Catching Fire expands on life in the different districts, and so the reader is allowed a better view of the world Collins has created.  Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, and Gale are all still the magnificent characters they were in the first installment.  Katniss is pulled in so many directions, and she must realize what Peeta and her have set into motion cannot be contained, and that they have no choice to help finish what they started.  It is deliciously suspenseful!

I can’t wait for the next one!  Lovers of The Hunger Games will not be disappointed by Catching Fire.

5/5

And Thanks to www.galleysmith.com for this:

—3—

I read Standing Still by Kelly Simmons in one sitting, while riding on the train to downtown Chicago.  It is not a big book, it is not a particularly profound book, but it was an enjoyable read and it passed the time well.  We chose this novel for our June book club selection.   We all had similar perspectives about the book.  None of us were blown away, but we all enjoyed the story for what it was.

A former journalist, with a hidden past continuously alluded to, Claire is now the mom that does it all, all the while suffering from panic disorder.  A kidnapper breaks into Claire’s home, and she begs him to take her instead of her daughter.  So begins the seven days Claire is held captive.  Claire undertakes a journey while in one hotel room, and light is shed on who she has become, the life she now leads, the man who is her husband, and the bond developing with her mysterious abductor.

This is not a novel of action and plot, as is implied through the title.  It is instead a window into a character and a life, and a peak at how the decisions we make and relationships we have lead us down very unexpected paths.  Claire comes out the other side a new women with a new perspective, but I was left with more questions and a sense of incompleteness.  But that may have been intentional; Claire’s new life was just beginning I suppose.

3/5