tiny pink books

Evernight by Claudia Gray
HarperTeen, 2008

There’s something very familiar about Evernight. As a boardschool/vampire/love story, it certainly was published to ride the Twilight wave.  As I read it, I couldn’t help but to grow slightly annoyed that the way it was so desperately trying to be another Twilight with a twist.

In Evernight, Bianca is forced to go to Evernight Academy, an exclusive, isolated boarding school that is full of creepy old gothic architecture and freakishly perfect students.  Bianca’s parents have been hired as teachers at the academy, so they’ve moved there too.  Bianca, who is painfully shy, has trouble fitting in at Evernight…until she meets Lucas.  Naturally, Bianca and Lucas immediately share a deep and intense connection, but there are, of course, some complications…vampire complications.  As the first book in a series, of course, many questions are left, leaving readers lingering for the next book Stargazer.

It’s not that Evernight is a terrible book, but there’s something a little boring about how hard it tries to be Twilight.  Although there are new elements and twists (boarding school!), it’s impossible to get past the lack of originality in Evernight. As if to prove my point further, there’s another YA vampire love story book called Evermore, which is not to be confused with this series.  Once you get past the lack of originality, there are some redeemable qualities to Evernight.  The plot takes quite a while to get going, but once it does get moving (about halfway through), it really takes off.  I found the second half of this book to be a pretty entertaining read.  The love story lacks the depth and intensity that it needs to really work, but it’s readable.  I think some (especially younger) teen Twilight fans will enjoy this book, if they can get past the rip-off factor, however, I do not think too many adult Twilight fans will enjoy it on the same level they did Twilight.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Harper Collins, 2002

Is it just me or is Neil Gaiman everywhere these days?  He’s gone from comic book and scifi/fantasy author, celebrated by gothgirls and teenage alterna-types everywhere in the 90’s, to multi-award winning children’s, adult, and young adult author, celebrated and praised by just about everyone.  And the funny thing is, he totally deserves it.  Coraline is Neil Gaiman’s masterpiece for children, combining just the right touches of creepy darkness and quirky, light-heartedness that makes a book memorable and beloved by children and adults.

In Coraline, Coraline Jones becomes bored one day when her parents are busy working and no one seems to be around to play with her.  She discovers a secret door in her flat that leads to an alternate world where the toys are alive and, more creepily, another, more doting, set of her parents live.  The other parents, most specifically, the “other mother,” want Coraline to stay in their world forever and when Coraline does eventually go back to her own world, she discovers that her real parents have gone missing.  Back in the other world, Coraline senses the darkness that lurks under the surface and must demonstrate all the intelligence, bravery, and cunning that she can to escape this weird other world and save her real parents.

I personally didn’t love this book in the same way that other do (especially given its long list of notable awards); however, I did think that it was a very well-written and exciting book that will hold up well to a vast range of audiences.  Children, who will read this more as an adventure, will be delighted with the character of Coraline and the fantastic elements throughout the book.  Teens and adults, on the other hand, will be sucked in by the subtle darkness that adds a real sense of urgency to Coraline’s dilemma.  I’ve seen many a review that compares Coraline to Alice in Wonderland. I can see the parallels in that both books are creepy to the core and surreal in their execution, however, I think that Coraline is a much more accessible book for most readers, young and old.  I adore Alice in Wonderland, of course, but I admit that it can be a challenging read, even for some adults.  Coraline, however, has that special place in that it is readable at many levels, allowing it to be interesting and enjoyable for all ages.  I would recommend this book to just about anyone who is in the mood for it.  I think it would work especially well as a family read.

I listened to the audiobook, read by Neil Gaiman himself.  Unlike many authors in their “read by the author” produced audiobooks, Gaimen does a good job of reading the book.  Music by the Gothic Archies is interspersed between disks, which I found a little irritating and out of place, though the musical interludes are short enough so as to be tolerable.

Saving Francesca by Marlina Marchetta
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2004.

It looks like I have found a new favorite book!  Saving Francesca is by Australian author Marlina Marchetta (of newfound Jellicoe Road fame) and is an absolutely wonderful YA novel.  Saving Francesca is about sixteen-year-old Francesca Spinelli and is set in Sydney, Australia.  Francesca (Frankie) has just started school at St. Sebastian’s, a traditionally all boys school that has just begun accepting a small number of female students.  Not only does Francesca have to put up with being wrenched from her old school friends, but she’s surrounded by disgusting boys, freakish girls, and unaccommadating teachers (the school play contains no roles for girls).  To top it all off, one day, Frankie’s mother won’t get out of bed.  As her family suffers from her mother’s increasing depression, Frankie struggles to fit into her new school, make friendships that really matter, and figure out just who she is.

Saving Francesca has your pretty standard coming of age fair-not fitting in, making friends, dealing with family problems-but Marchetta creates such a wonderfully realistic and emotional voice for Frankie that the book is a standout.  The book is full of powerful moments that make you laugh, make you tear up, or just make you smile along with Frankie in her personal journey.  The other characters are also really well written and speak in impeccably entertaining dialogue.  I really can’t say enough good about Saving Francesca. After all, it is my new favorite book!

The book is Australian and contains plenty of Aussie slang and terminology, but I think readers from any high school will identify.  I recommend it to girls, adult and young adult, looking for a coming of age story that’s as quirky and fun as it is tear jerking.  I listened to the audio version, narrated in a perfect Australian accent, from Bolinda Publishing and highly recommend it.  It really is an excellent audiobook.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Pfeffer
Harcourt Children’s Books, 2008.

The Dead and the Gone is a post apocalyptic book, this time set in the present day earth after the moon has been struck and moved by an asteroid, causing disastrous tides, volcanoes, and earthquakes.  Seventeen-year-old Alex Morales, devout Catholic and proud Puerto Rican, is left to fend for his two younger sisters in New York City when his mother and father fail to return home after the disaster.  Life in New York lingers in a state of semi-normal for as long as possible, but as the full effects of the moon’s new location kick in (flooding, earthquakes, volcanoes erupt so much ash that sunlight fades away, etc.), it becomes more and more of a struggle to survive.

Although a well-written book, I found The Dead and the Gone to be fairly dull, especially for a disaster book.  Maybe it’s because I prefer books with a darker tone, but I felt like too much of the book is dedicated to the semi-state of disaster, before things really hit the fan.  The things I credit The Dead and the Gone with, however, are the ways in which it handles an apocalyptic disaster in a way that is clean and appropriate for younger teens.  The book feels frightening at times and the subject matter certainly contains death and destruction in it, but it is seldom dark.

I can’t say that I enjoyed The Dead and the Gone, but I do feel that I might recommend it to younger readers who want to read things like The Hunger Games but aren’t quite ready for the violent and dark subject matter.  Also, I felt that the characters in this book acted much younger than they were supposed to be.  Alex is 17 and his younger sisters are 15 and 12, but each of them read as years younger than they were supposed to be.  As such, I feel like this book might be more appropriate for younger teens and older children.  I would not recommend it to older teens, especially those seeking an exciting or heart stopping read (which is how a lot of reviews tend to describe this book for reasons that I cannot understand).  I will admit that I am intrigued enough that I plan to read Pfeffer’s  companion book, Life As We Knew It.

The Unspoken by Thomas Fahy
Simon and Schuster, 2008

The Unspoken is about the teen survivors of a creepy cult that their parents belonged to. The kids escaped five years ago, when they set fire to the cult’s headquarters, killing Jacob  Crawley, the powerful and frightening leader of the cult.  Split up and sent to foster families across the country, the teens have not kept in touch with each other…until one of them ends up dead.  They meet up together for the funeral, returning to Meridian, the small Southern town where it all happened.  It seems as if Jacob’s terrifying prophecy is coming true-five years later, they are all being hunted down and murdered by their worst fears.

The Unspoken reminded me a bit of the Fear Street books that I used to read as a young adolescent.  Violently gory and a little bit naughty (the f-word makes an appearance here and there), but clearly written for the younger set of the YA audience.  The Unspoken is a bit higher quality (especially in terms of creating scarier jolts), than a lot of the Fear Street books, however, it’s really not that far off a comparison.  I found it hard to read at times, in part because it’s extremely cheesy, but also in part because it slips into present tense, third-person narration.  I can’t explain why I found this irritating to read.  An example:

“Allison pushes away from her desk with a jolt.  Goose bumps run down her spine, and she can feel her stomach dropping away.”

All in all though, I’d say that The Unspoken has its place on the shelves for younger teen horror fans.  It’s simple and it’s scary in the same way a PG13 horror movie can be.  It’s also short and certainly moves along at a reasonable pace.  I would not recommend it, however to any older teens (or adults, for that matter) or readers seeking something at all sophisticated or truly chilling.  There are better and scarier books out there for older teens (and adults).

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Simon Pulse, 2008

Living Dead Girl is told from the point of view from Alice, only that’s not really her name.  Alice was abducted by Ray, a sadistic, abusive kidnapper when she was ten years old.  Now 15, and outgrowing her child’s body, despite the fact that Ray underfeeds her to keep her small and underdeveloped, Alice knows that her time is limited. Alice knows that there was another Alice before her and that she was killed when she grew up.  Ray wants her to find a new Alice for him, help him kidnap her, and train her to his tastes.  Alice wants nothing more than death to escape her captor, however, she is trapped to Ray’s will as he threatens to return to her childhood home and murder her parents if she does not do what he says.  It’s about the darkest and twisted a subject matter you could have in a book.

I can’t say that I enjoyed Living Dead Girl exactly.  It’s one of those books that’s just so horrific and dark that it should be hard to read.  At the same time though, the plight of Alice is so frightening that I could not put this book down.  Written in a sparse, painful voice, the character of Alice is compelling and, though most of us can only imaging what it would be like to be her, easy to identify with in a strange way.  I found this book to be disturbing, but I also thought that there is a removal from reality that makes it readable.  This type of subject matter is hard to read about and it seems a bit sensationalized about the way it is treated in Living Dead Girl that is sort of like a teenage Lifetime Original Movie…but darker.  I would recommend this book to fans of Speak who can handle the subject matter.  Reader seeking an equally compelling, but more sensitive treatment of sexual abuse and violence should stick to the excellent The Lovely Bones or Lucky by Alice Sebold.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press, 2008

If you read this blog, you’ll know that I just can’t resist any kind of apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic science fiction.  The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian vision of North America known as Panem (or as Entertainment Weekly so intellectually put it in their review of The Hunger Games: “negative Utopia”).  Katniss Evergreen is a resident of District 12, the future version of Appalachia.  The people of District 12 (and many of the other districts) live in poverty, facing starvation and struggle for their entire lives.  Katniss, who lost her father as a child, takes care of her family by illegally hunting in the woods near their town with her friend Gale.  That is…until the day of the Reaping.  Every year, two teenagers, a girl and a boy, are chosen as tributes from each district to be given up into The Hunger Games.  The Hunger Games is a televised fight to the death between the tributes, which every citizen of Panem is forced to watch.  Of course, Katniss ends up in The Hunger Games with Peeta, her fellow District 12 tribute.  While she struggled in a bloody battle for survival, Katniss also finds herself thrown into a love quandary as Peeta and her are forced to team up…but is it for survival or is it something more?

That’s about all I want to say about the plot because it is fairly simple.  Kids are thrown into an arena and forced to kill each other.  The plot echoes back to Battle Royale (which is almost identical in setup), The Running Man and The Long Walk.  What makes The Hunger Games special is that, while maintaining that frightening aspect of survival, it is also well written and creative in its reality TV device to help drive the plot.  Not only does Katniss have to kill off all her enemies (or let them kill off each other without getting caught in the middle), but she has to play up her character and emotions to the cameras, making sure to get the viewers rooting for her in forms of sponsorship.  The result is a story that is both exciting and emotional.  While the love story may turn a few readers off, I’m pretty sure that there is enough excitement to keep most of them onboard.  As such, this is a book that I would recommend to a lot of different types of readers…those seeking excitement, those seeking a critique of society, and those seeking a adventurous survival story will enjoy.  I know that I did!  Not for those who are easily bothered by violence and dark subject matter.  While it is not nearly as bloody as something like Battle Royale, there is death and there is a little gore (less than I expected though…honestly!).

Note:  I listened to the audio version of this book and recommend it wholeheartedly to adult and teen readers!

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
HarperTeen, 2008

Taylor Mackham, seventeen, was abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe road when she was eleven.  She has since lived in Jellicoe School, a boarding school with other kids like herself and a woman named Hannah who has a mysterious connection to Taylor since she has arrived.  As leader of her dorm, Taylor is captain of the school’s involvment in longstanding, traditional territory war with the Townies and the Cadets, who come into town once a year for nature training.  As Taylor fights in the territory war, she begins to ask questions about her life’s story, her mother’s past, her confusing attraction to Jonah Griggs, leader of the Cadets, and her relationship to Hannah.

It’s hard to sum up my feelings about Jellicoe Road, the 2009 Printz award winner.  The second half of the book is powerfully emotional and gripping.  I found myself doing all the things you need to do when you read a book that is as moving as this–ignoring (or rather resenting) all conversation through lunchbreaks in order to read, staying up way past bedtime to finish another chapter or two, and tearing up as one emotional outpouring is followed by another in this heartfelt book.  If I were just reviewing the second half of the book, I would tell you that I loved it and that it was the best book I’d read in ages.  Unfortunately, there is the matter of the first half of the book.  I understand that it takes subtlety and length to built up to the kind of emotional power that the second half of the book offered, however, the confusing, nonlinear style of writing combined with the overly large percentage of pages dedicated to getting things going was frustrating to me.  I knew that this would, at some point, become a great book.  I just don’t think that it should take half the pages of a book to get started and I believe that a lot of teen readers will give up somewhere in the first 200 pages.  All in all though, there are a lot of things to love about Jellicoe Road. Despite the slow start, this is still one of the best books that I have read in a while.  I recommend it to teen and adult readers seeking a really layered and emotionally driven book.  Not for reluctant readers or readers seeking action though.  Oh and the book is Australian, which to me = love…because I love Australians (err, an Australian at the very least) and the slang (pashing!), the slightly different cultural references (to the song, Flame Tree, which is such a perfect song for Marchetta to pair her story with), and the way they spell the word jail (gaol!) is charming in its own way.