Review: Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Title: Texas Gothic
Author: Rosemary Clement-Moore
Publisher: Delacorte
Publication Date: July 12, 2011
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Gift

Amy Goodnight's family is far from normal. She comes from a line of witches, but tries her best to stay far outside the family business. Her summer gig? Ranch-sitting for her aunt with her wacky but beautiful sister.

Only the Goodnight Ranch is even less normal than it normally is. Bodies are being discovered, a ghost is on the prowl, and everywhere she turns, the hot neighbor cowboy is in her face.

Texas Gothic is a combination of ghost story, forensics, archaeology dig, mystery, and magic.

Amy (short for Amaryllis) is an adorable main character, and is easy to like. She's smart and funny and has designated herself as "the normal one" in her family, doing what she can to keep a lid on the crazy. I like Amy's voice. She's a fun character to follow, and the type of girl that I could be friends with. Amy often becomes exasperated at her sister Phin's (short for Delphinium) inability to at least pretend to be normal. Phin combines witchcraft with science in ways that are both fascinating and hilarious. She's very pragmatic about it all, and anytime that she's involved in a conversation it becomes funny because of how seriously and scientifically she discusses things like ghosts and auras. Ben is the hot neighbor cowboy. He infuriates Amy because he is frustrated by her family's eccentricities and meddlesome nature. But he is also a good ole boy who can't help being helpful. If you like Tucker from Unearthly, then you'd probably feel some similar affections for Ben. They have some similarities (obnoxious cowboys who are still totally cute and gentlemanly when it counts, anyone?), but Ben also has some family troubles and burdens that weigh him down. The characters are well-developed with distinct personalities. One other thing that I like about them is that Amy has graduated high school, and all of the other main characters are college aged. Sometimes I get sick of reading about high school. So if you like the new adult age group this one would fit into that category.

I adore the setting in Texas Gothic: Amy's Aunt Hyacinth's ranch as well as Ben's family's cattle ranch. An anthropology/forensics team is sent from UT to Ben's ranch to dig up some old skeleton that was found during construction. I like the inclusion of this element to the story. The anthropology enhances the mystery surrounding the ghost and gives it some historical relevance. Plus, it's interesting!

Texas Gothic has a pacing that is quick and easy. The plot is constantly moving forward, but is not rushed. Some things about the story are fairly predictable, but not in a way that ruins the story. Everything is resolved in the end. I enjoyed Texas Gothic, and would recommend it to lovers of hauntings, fun characters, cowboys, anthropology, paranormal aura science, and Texas settings.

In My Mailbox (36)

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

What's up bookish people?! It's that time of week for the sharing of the spoils! This week, I controlled myself and didn't buy any books. But I did get a nice little smattering of e-galleys for review. Here they are:

For Review:
Pure by Julianna Baggott (NetGalley)
Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook (Galley Grab)
Cinder by Marissa Meyer (NetGalley)
Don't You Wish by Roxanne St. Claire (NetGalley)
The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges (NetGalley)
Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale (NetGalley)




What books did you get this week?

Review: Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris

Title: Bad Taste in Boys
Author: Carrie Harris
Publisher: Delacorte
Publication Date: July 12, 2011
Series: Kate Grable #1
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Gift

Someone's been a very bad zombie.

Kate Grable is horrified to find out that the football coach has given the team steroids. Worse yet, the steriods are having an unexpected effect, turning hot gridiron hunks into mindless flesh-eating zombies. No one is safe--not her cute crush Aaron, not her dorky brother, Jonah . . . not even Kate! She's got to find an antidote--before her entire high school ends up eating each other. So Kate, her best girlfriend, Rocky, and Aaron stage a frantic battle to save their town . . . and stay hormonally human.

Bad Taste in Boys is a fun mixture of horror and humor.

Kate is a mostly likable protagonist. She considers herself a geek who recently began blossoming out of her geekdom. She's an epileptic who has finally been having some success at keeping her seizures under control. Her voice is enjoyable in an awkward, genuine sort of way. The only complaint I have there is that she refers to herself as the geek too often. Her friends aren't around that much but are also likable and have personality. Aaron is a worthy love interest. He's cute, he's quarterback of their terribad football team, and he seems like a regular, genuine guy. Jonah, Kate's little brother, is much geekier than Kate but is also pretty adorable in how he cares for his sister.

The zombies and Kate's reactions to them are hilarious, but it is difficult to explain why. Sometimes she's very nonchalant about it all. She's surprised and scared, but it's kind of like, "Well shit, now there are zombies. Guess I better do something about it. Oh here's a foot. Probably I can use that." It's just FUNNY. The zombies are so dumb! But still will eat your face off. And people just seem to accept it and be like, "You can borrow my car to go fight that zombie, but I'm not going with you because I have tryouts." I laughed so much at all of this. I was almost sad once the resolution started forming, because I wanted more amusing zombie scenes. It just isn't as funny once things start getting back under control. How could it be when the zombies are the main source of the entertainment? But the resolution is alright and the ending is pretty cute.

Bad Taste in Boys is a short book (barely over 200 pages), and the pacing is fast. Combine that with the humor and the zombies and it makes for a quick and entertaining read. It has been the perfect book for me to break up all of the scary stuff that I've been reading this October by injecting some lighthearted zombie humor in there with it. If a funny zombie book sounds like something that you'd like, then you should definitely read this one. It won't teach you the meaning of life or anything, but it will provide you with a few hours of entertainment.

Review: Past Perfect by Leila Sales

Title: Past Perfect
Author: Leila Sales
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: October 4, 2011
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Galley Grab

All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend, hone her talents as an ice cream connoisseur, and finally get over Ezra, the boy who broke her heart. But when Chelsea shows up for her summer job at Essex Historical Colonial Village (yes, really), it turns out Ezra’s working there too. Which makes moving on and forgetting Ezra a lot more complicated…even when Chelsea starts falling for someone new.

Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think that a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. But with Ezra all too present, and her new crush seeming all too off limits, all Chelsea knows is that she’s got a lot to figure out about love. Because those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it…

Leila Sales has officially become one of my auto-buy authors. I am in love with the characters that she creates! They are smart, witty, and quirky. They are hilariously entertaining, and they are these things in normal, everyday ways that cause them to feel effortlessly natural. It was true in Mostly Good Girls (which I adored), and it's true again in Past Perfect.

Chelsea, the main character, has an awesome and relatable voice. Her parents are history buffs and she's been sucked into their obsession via a job at a colonial reenactment village. (This allows for some serious history geeking to occur. Anachronisms are practically a crime. Violators are "farbs".) Once again, Leila Sales has drawn up a wonderful friendship in Chelsea and Fiona. Her characters feel incredibly authentic, and it makes it easy to love them and laugh with them and cheer for them.

The conflict in Past Perfect is war. The colonial reenactment village is at war with the Civil War reenactment camp across the street, and anything goes. The plot is more complicated than that, since Chelsea becomes interested in one of the boys from the Civil War camp. It's a little difficult for them to separate work and their personal business in the midst of a war, and to keep it a secret from their co-workers! And can they trust each other? There's a little friendship and ex-boyfriend drama going on as well. The pacing is steady and it makes for a quick, fun read. Leila Sales also includes some really interesting commentary on history and memory throughout the novel, which I really love. (Inconsistencies in memory has always been something that I love to see addressed in literature. I think it's fascinating, personally, the way that our memories can fool us.)

This book is a ton of fun. I enjoyed it immensely and I'd recommend it to fans of Leila Sales, history lovers, and appreciators of well-written realistic fiction.

Review: The Revenant by Sonia Gensler

Title: The Revenant
Author: Sonia Gensler
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: June 14, 2011
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Random Buzzers

When Willie arrives in Indian Territory, she knows only one thing: no one can find out who she really is. To escape a home she doesn't belong in anymore, she assumes the name of a former classmate and accepts a teaching job at the Cherokee Female Seminary.

Nothing prepares her for what she finds there. Her pupils are the daughters of the Cherokee elite—educated and more wealthy than she, and the school is cloaked in mystery. A student drowned in the river last year, and the girls whisper that she was killed by a jealous lover. Willie's room is the very room the dead girl slept in. The students say her spirit haunts it.

Willie doesn't believe in ghosts, but when strange things start happening at the school, she isn't sure anymore. She's also not sure what to make of a boy from the nearby boys' school who has taken an interest in her—his past is cloaked in secrets. Soon, even she has to admit that the revenant may be trying to tell her something....

The Revenant is a historical fiction, a bildungsroman, and a story about a vengeful spirit all in one.

Willie is an interesting main character. She admits to being a liar and a thief. She's also sort of immature and spoiled. There are moments in which she allows herself to be intimidated or is close-minded and ignorant about some things. It sounds like a recipe for hating her, but it isn't. Her point of view does something to dilute her flaws because we know the motivations behind them. She's flawed, but she's also got great qualities such as drive and determination. And a love of Shakespeare. The other girls at the seminary are pretty well-developed also. Her friend Olivia is warm and likable, her boss is hard and strict, and the girls range from the Caroline Bingley type to charity cases. There exists a separation of class, as well as some racial distinction (assimilation with white people seems to be preferred by the upper class girls).

The setting is a lot of fun. Who doesn't like a haunted boarding school in the late 1800s? There are strange occurrences, confrontations, and struggles on Willie's part to fit into her stolen role, which keep the pacing steady throughout and make it a quick read. The haunting is presumed to be the ghost of a student who the girls all believe was murdered, so there's a good deal of mystery surrounding her death as well. The one complaint that I have is that I wish there'd have been a little more of the relationship development between Willie and Eli. I didn't feel like their attraction to each other was rushed or forced, partly because of the time period, but I do wish that there'd have been more of their interactions throughout the story to give it a little bit more sentimentality.

The novel resolves the ghost and the mystery. But the thing that I really like is that it then goes beyond that and forces Willie to deal with her past and her family issues. She's forced to make amends for her irresponsibility. She suffers some consequences for her choices. And this was probably my favorite part of the book - the ending. I'd recommend it to fans of ghost stories, murder mysteries, historical fiction, coming of age stories, and kittens.

Review: The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Title: The Monstrumologist
Author: Rick Yancey
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: September 22, 2009
Series: Monstrumologist #1
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Won

Monsters are real.

Will Henry is the orphan apprentice of a doctor with an unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. When a midnight visitor brings them the body of a young girl entwined with the corpse of an Anthropophagus, it is the start of the most mysterious case of Will Henry's life. Anthropophagi are headless monsters whose razor-sharp teeth are in their stomachs - and they are supposed to be extinct in this part of the world. Now Will and the monstrumologist are in a race against time to put a stop to the plague of monsters before they kill again.

The Monstrumologist is an awesome adventure. It's got monsters, gore, conspiracy, mayhem, creepy crawlies, insane asylums, and characters that range from lovable to heinous and everything in between.

Will Henry is a great protagonist. He's part young and naive and part hardened and experienced. I love that he retains his innocence even though he's become desensitized to Dr. Warthrop's work as a monstrumologist. He's seen horrible things but he remains ever hopeful, and his character is very easily likable. Dr. Warthrop is a fascinating character, both to the reader and to Will Henry. He is aloof. He is a work in contradictions. At times he seems wholly indifferent and preoccupied, and in others he exhibits an obvious care for Will. And Will speaks and acts in contradicting ways regarding the doctor as well. I find their relationship to be intriguing and very symbiotic. The secondary characters are well-written as well. Even briefly encountered characters have a distinct identity and none of them fall flat. Some of them are pretty vile and detestable in the best way.

The setting is absolutely perfect for this story. It's set in the late 1800s, which I love because it allows for a certain superstition to exist where today that sort of thing does not. I think that the old fashioned setting also aids in creating a classically horrific mood to the story. Insane asylums are scarier. Tools are less advanced. The world is wilder, less civilized, not as small as today's technologies make it. All of these things make the story feel a lot more believable, like just maybe it is possible, and I love that.

The plot is presented as a framed narrative. Will Henry tells his story through a series of notebooks, or folios. I like this approach, because it reinforces the mood created by the setting of the story to have these events related to the reader in the form of what is essentially a journal. It gives it an historic vibe that I enjoy. The pacing is quick. Once the Anthropophagi are discovered it's basically one task after another until BLAM there's a huge anthropophagi vs human epic battle to the death. And, by the way, there's a lot of death. And a great deal of gore as well. You're not going to get through this story without having to read about somebody's brain matter being splattered onto a wall or onto someone else. But, unless you're really sure that you can't deal with that, don't let that deter you from picking up this book. In addition to the horror, it's got a literary aspect to it as well. There are insights into humanity and monstrosities in the story. At the end of The Monstrumologist, there is a feeling of resolution. You can read it and be satisfied to stop there or continue with the next adventure as you see fit.

I admit that initially I wasn't sure if this book would be my sort of thing, but I picked it up after repeated recommendations from a friend who adored it, and I can honestly say that I absolutely love it. The characters are amazing, the writing is great, the plot is awesome and is very different from pretty much everything else that is being written for YA today. And it's the perfect book for Halloween. Try it, if you haven't. Get a sample of the e-book and see if it doesn't suck you in. I'd highly recommend this book to fans of horror, monsters, great characters, and YA books that are fast-paced and action-packed while maintaining a literary quality.

In My Mailbox (35)

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

What's up bookish people?! It's that time of week for the sharing of the spoils! Here are the books that I've gotten since last time:

For Review:
Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber
Fury's Fire by Lisa Papademetriou
Fracture by Megan Miranda
Amplified by Tara Kelley
Just Your Average Princess by Kristina Springer
So Silver Bright by Lisa Mantchev
Slayers by C.J. Hill

Bought:
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
The Death Cure by James Dashner
Blood Promise by Richelle Mead (found this copy, signed, at Books-A-Million as one of those publisher overstock $6 hardcover bargain books - score!)

Gift:
Bloodspell by Amalie Howard (Random Act of Kindness from Amber - Thanks!)

What books did you get this week? Let me know in the comments!

Review: Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

Title: Desires of the Dead
Author: Kimberly Derting
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: February 15, 2011
Series: Body Finder #2
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Purchased

The missing dead call to Violet. They want to be found.

Violet can sense the echoes of those who've been murdered—and the matching imprint that clings to their killers. Only those closest to her know what she is capable of, but when she discovers the body of a young boy she also draws the attention of the FBI, threatening her entire way of life.

As Violet works to keep her morbid ability a secret, she unwittingly becomes the object of a dangerous obsession. Normally she'd turn to her best friend, Jay, except now that they are officially a couple, the rules of their relationship seem to have changed. And with Jay spending more and more time with his new friend Mike, Violet is left with too much time on her hands as she wonders where things went wrong. But when she fills the void by digging into Mike's tragic family history, she stumbles upon a dark truth that could put everyone in danger.

I really liked The Body Finder and was excited to start Desires of the Dead. Unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed this time around. I still enjoyed the story, but it just wasn't as fulfilling as the first installment in the series.

Violet was on my nerves for a lot of the story this time. It's as though she didn't learn ANYTHING from the first book. She still makes the same stupid mistakes. Her lack of self-preservation didn't bother me in the first book, because it was a new situation to her and her motivations and intentions were good and maybe she was a bit naive. But this time, she should know better. She should've learned from her mistakes, but apparently she didn't. So now it is less endearing desire to help and more frustrating stupidity. She still keeps secrets from Jay. She still runs off alone into situations that she knows are dangerous without even telling anyone she's leaving or where she's going, constantly! It frustrates me because it feels like there is no growth there for Violet between the last book and this one, when there should be.

I'm not sure how I feel about the introduction of the new characters, Sara and Rafe. I'm curious about where their involvement will carry the series, but I'm hesitant to jump on board with the idea as well. I'm not a fan of Rafe. He feels more like a plot tool than a character to me, and I don't like the idea that he could end up coming between Violet and Jay at some point. I hope that he doesn't, because I'm over the love triangle thing being splatter painted all over YA lit. I will keep my fingers crossed for Jay.

The pacing is similar to that of The Body Finder. The story moves pretty quickly, and there are chapters thrown in sporadically that are from the point of view of a character who is something like a stalker. The plot of Desires of the Dead is more predictable than that of the first book. It is obvious (at least it was to me) early on in the story how everything is going to play out in the end. The predictability of it makes it a bit less enjoyable than it would've been if I had been kept guessing. I kept hoping for some sort of a twist, but none ever came. It is pretty straightforward this time around, and is more dramatic irony than mystery.

I'm complaining a lot, but I did enjoy the novel for what it is. It just isn't quite as captivating as what I was hoping for when I started reading it. That being said, I'm still really looking forward to The Last Echo and I'm very curious to see what dimensions are added to Violet's story with the introduction of these new characters and everything that their presence implies.

Books for Halloween

I don't know about the rest of you, but for me October and Halloween put me in the mood to read books that are scary and books that deal with ghosts, witches, and other things that go bump in the night. I've been making an effort to read and review books of this sort on the blog this month. If you're like me, and are looking for some seasonal reading this Halloween season, then you may want to consider picking up some of these for the end of October:

The Monstrumologist
by Rick Yancey

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for nearly ninety years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me.

So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a doctor with a most unusual specialty: monster hunting. In the short time he has lived with the doctor, Will has grown accustomed to his late night callers and dangerous business. But when one visitor comes with the body of a young girl and the monster that was eating her, Will's world is about to change forever. The doctor has discovered a baby Anthropophagus—a headless monster that feeds through a mouth in its chest—and it signals a growing number of Anthropophagi. Now, Will and the doctor must face the horror threatening to overtake and consume our world before it is too late.

My Review | Amazon | Goodreads

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

by Carrie Ryan

In Mary's world there are simple truths.

The Sisterhood always knows best.
The Guardians will protect and serve.
The Unconsecrated will never relent.
And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But, slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future-between the one she loves and the one who loves her.

And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

My Review | Amazon | Goodreads

Tighter
by Adele Griffin

When 17-year-old Jamie arrives on the idyllic New England island of Little Bly to work as a summer au pair, she is stunned to learn of the horror that precedes her. Seeking the truth surrounding a young couple's tragic deaths, Jamie discovers that she herself looks shockingly like the dead girl—and that she has a disturbing ability to sense the two ghosts. Why is Jamie's connection to the couple so intense? What really happened last summer at Little Bly? As the secrets of the house wrap tighter and tighter around her, Jamie must navigate the increasingly blurred divide between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Amazon | Goodreads

Anna Dressed in Blood

by Kendare Blake

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story…

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

My Review | Amazon | Goodreads

There are a lot of good books for the Halloween season! Here are some others that you might want to try:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman   Amazon | Goodreads
Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves   Amazon | Goodreads
Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore   My Review | Amazon | Goodreads
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson   My Review | Amazon | Goodreads
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting   My Review | Amazon | Goodreads
Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith   Amazon | Goodreads
Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry   Amazon | Goodreads
Graveminder by Melissa Marr   Amazon | Goodreads
Dracula by Bram Stoker   Amazon | Goodreads
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier   Amazon | Goodreads
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins   Amazon | Goodreads
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe   Amazon | Goodreads

How many of these have you read? Did you like them? What are some other scary or Halloween-appropriate books that you'd recommend?

Review: The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

Title: The Near Witch
Author: Victoria Schwab
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: August 2, 2011
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: NetGalley

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

The Near Witch is part fantasy, part mystery, and a little bit haunting.

Lexi is a wonderful main character. She's smart and strong-willed. Even though her world is an old-fashioned one in which people use candles for light and expect girls to wear dresses and have the auspicious goal of marriage, Lexi doesn't share society's ideas of what is proper behavior for a girl. She wears her father's old boots with socks stuffed into them to make them fit. She carries his knife. She sneaks out late at night to attempt to track missing children. She's got a mind of her own and ideas of her own, and she won't be told by anyone else what those ideas should be.

The other characters are fleshed-out well also. Lexi's mother supports her. Lexi and her kid sister have a relationship that is both adoring and teasing (with maybe some slight terrorizing), as sisterly relationships should be. Her uncle is overbearing out of a desire to protect her, and thinks that Lexi should act more like a little lady. The people of Near, even the minor ones, have some pretty clear motivations and create a fleshed-out society that is believable. Cole, the outsider, is a mysterious unknown and throws a wrench into the lives of the people of Near, who have never encountered strangers. His presence, along with that of the two witch sisters who live in Near, reveal the deep-seeded prejudice and fear that the townspeople have of those who are Other.

Lexi's task is singular, but proves difficult to accomplish. It seems like everything that can go wrong for her does go wrong. Her obstacles do their job of making the reader feel Lexi's frustration and increasing urgency as the story moves forward. The pacing isn't FAST, but it does encourage the "one more chapter" mentality that makes the book a quick read. And the plot also has a definite creepiness to it that is only enhanced by the setting of this little town of Near, settled among the wildness of the moors, and complete with its own history and folklore. So the pacing, plot, and setting are fantastic.

I wholeheartedly enjoyed The Near Witch. It has just the right amounts of magic, mystery, and danger. The setting against the moors is perfect for a witch story. I recommend it to anyone who likes witches, fantasy, mystery, and moor settings.

Waiting On: Spooky Books

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features upcoming releases.

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
2012
I loved Anna Dressed in Blood, and am exasperatingly impatient for the sequel. I love that the cover for book two ups the horror elements. It's much scarier this time!
Goodreads | My Review of Anna Dressed in Blood

The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting
April 17, 2012
I enjoyed The Body Finder more than I expected to, and just recently finished Desires of the Dead. I'm looking forward to seeing where Violet's story takes her next. And to some hopefully creepy chapters from the bad guy's POV.
Amazon | Goodreads | My Review of The Body Finder

The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff
November 15, 2011
This book looks creepy and interesting. I'm very curious about it! I liked The Replacement, and I hope that Brenna's next book is even better.
Amazon | Goodreads

What book(s) are you waiting on?

Review: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Title: The Name of the Star
Author: Maureen Johnson
Publisher: Putnam
Publication Date: September 29, 2011
Series: Shades of London #1
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewers

The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it's the start of a new life at boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific work of Jack the Ripper in the autumn of 1888.

Soon, "Rippermania" takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police now believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was with her at the time, didn't notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, what is he planning to do about her?

The Name of the Star is a supernatural thriller with interesting characters, a classic setting, and a terrifying villain.

Rory Deveaux is a girl of my own heart. She's from a southern Louisiana rural town. She talks a lot. She likes to eat. And she's got a pretty great sense of humor. So of course I liked her, for the most part. My problems with Rory lie not in her character but in the portrayal of her background which I find to be almost wholly inaccurate, being from South Louisiana myself. I'll get to those later. But overall, I found her to be a sympathetic and enjoyable protagonist. The secondary characters are mostly well done, as well. Boo and the other Shades are probably my favorites because they have the best-developed personalities. I also liked Rory's roommate, Jazza, who is studious and sort of meek but is also a great friend to Rory. Jerome, Rory's current love interest, is probably the least well-developed and my least favorite, though he does show some personality and may have been a lot more interesting if there were more of him in the story. The relationship shared between Jerome and Rory is built more on making out than actual emotional attractions. Though I don't have any reason to dislike Jerome, I favor a different dude and I'm hoping future books will lead Rory in that direction.

I really like the setting and the plot. Rory is in a London boarding school (awesome!) and someone is running around recreating the Jack the Ripper murders from 1888 (creepy!). I don't know how accurate the London atmosphere that Johnson creates is since I've never been to London, but it feels believable to me. A lot more believable than, say, the portrayal of Rory's Louisiana background, with which I have some gripes: Nobody from Louisiana calls them "crayfish". I don't care what the technical spelling is (though both spellings are in the dictionary), if you want authentic Louisiana, you say "crawfish". This is a huge faux pas to me as far as authenticity goes, especially since it's a pretty easy thing to learn and fix. (I admit my final copy has yet to arrive so I do not know if this has changed between the ARC and finished version, but something causes me to doubt that it has. If any of you have the answer to this, please let me know.) Rory's weirdo family feels more like any small town family that happens to include many bizarre relatives, and not like a small town cajun family. Except that she lives in a town built on swampland that constantly floods (I imagine that I can thank Katrina for this) and at one point finds an alligator in her backyard. Of course, she does. I'm not saying that these things are never true, but it seems like when authors try to portray Louisiana they always resort to swamps and gators and voodoo - "local color", as my professors called it, and it's becoming a little too platitudinal for me. There are a few other things that I can nitpick over that bothered me, but I won't continue this rant any further than I already have. Just know that I have some discrepancies with that part of the story, which is a pretty small part of the book, but one to which I am particularly close.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm for various inaccuracies and cliches regarding Rory's background, I found the rest of The Name of the Star to be wholly enjoyable. The characters are generally sympathetic and interesting and likable. The plot is a little scary and a little exciting. I like the supernatural aspect of the story, which blends well with the atmosphere and never feels forced or out of place. I like the way that it ends - conflict is resolved, but Rory makes a discovery about herself in the last pages that gives readers a good idea about where the series will go from here. I'll be picking up the sequel. I'd recommend it to fans of Maureen Johnson, as well as lovers of supernatural books and thrillers. It makes for an awesome Halloween read, as well.