Review: A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano

A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: Yes, #1 in the Pram series
Release date: September 1st, 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Length: 240 pages
Source: ARC from BEA
Rating: Magical, creepy, and lovely



Pram Bellamy is special--she can talk to ghosts. She doesn't have too many friends amongst the living, but that's all right. She has her books, she has her aunts, and she has her best friend, the ghostly Felix.

Then Pram meets Clarence, a boy from school who has also lost a parent and is looking for answers. Together they arrive at the door of the mysterious Lady Savant, who promises to help. But this spiritualist knows the true nature of Pram's power, and what she has planned is more terrifying than any ghost.

Ooh, I quite enjoyed reading this book. It's precisely the sort of middle grade I was utterly obsessed with when I was middle grader myself: creepy and mystical and morbid and precious, all at once. (Plus there's a little baby MG ship, GO SHIP GO SAIL SHIP SAIL. Middle grade ships just GET to me, I don't know why. Maybe because they're so precious and pure). Perhaps the characters are a touch bland, but it suited the atmosphere and style of this book, which was lovely. Slightly macabre, slightly wondrous, all delightful.

Review: Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker

Review: Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker
Goodreads
Release date: October 21st, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: No
Length: 336 pages
Source: e-ARC via Edelweiss
Rating: A Southern Gothic fairytale with gorgeous writing and a creepy, atmospheric setting. LOVE.



It's an oppressively hot and sticky morning in June when Sterling and her brother, Phin, have an argument that compels him to run into the town swamp -- the one that strikes fear in all the residents of Sticks, Louisiana. Phin doesn't return. Instead, a girl named Lenora May climbs out, and now Sterling is the only person in Sticks who remembers her brother ever existed.

Sterling needs to figure out what the swamp's done with her beloved brother and how Lenora May is connected to his disappearance -- and loner boy Heath Durham might be the only one who can help her.

This debut novel is full of atmosphere, twists and turns, and a swoon-worthy romance.

 The thing about me and Harper books lately is that you never really know which book in the crop is going to be one of the magic books. For me, they tend to be the less-hyped, more experimental, refreshingly off-center ones. And Beware the Wild is magic, plain and simple.

We have an uncanny ability to keep secrets where anyone else can see them in Sticks, Louisiana.

Review: Between the Spark and the Burn by April Genevieve Tucholke

Review: Between the Spark and the Burn by April Genevieve Tucholke
Goodreads
Release date: August 14th, 2014
Publisher: Dial (Penguin)
Series: Yes, #2 in the Between
Source: Print ARC from the publisher
Length: 320 pages
Rating: Chilling, haunting, and atmospheric. Not perfect, but damn if I didn't love it even more than the first. Also, NEELY.

 

The conclusion to Between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea, this gothic thriller romance with shades of Stephen King and Daphne du Maurier is a must-read for fans of Beautiful Creatures and Anna Dressed in Blood.

Freddie once told me that the Devil created all the fear in the world.
But then, the Devil once told me that it's easier to forgive someone for scaring you than for making you cry.
The problem with River West Redding was that he'd done both to me.

The crooked-smiling liar River West Redding, who drove into Violet's life one summer day and shook her world to pieces, is gone. Violet and Neely, River's other brother, are left to worry—until they catch a two a.m. radio program about strange events in a distant mountain town. They take off in search of River but are always a step behind, finding instead frenzied towns, witch hunts, and a wind-whipped island with the thrum of something strange and dangerous just under the surface. It isn't long before Violet begins to wonder if Neely, the one Redding brother she thought trustworthy, has been hiding a secret of his own . . .

My review of book one, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
This review contains spoilers for book one

I really loved book one in this series, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, even though part of my brain new that I shouldn't have. Just like Violet, the protagonist, I felt glowed up by the prose and the creepy atmosphere and the haunting, chilling quality of the storytelling. I was charmed and repulsed by smooth-talking, magic-doing, lying liar River in equal measure. And the sequel was just the same experience for me in that the writing is still magnificent, the settings are still Gothic and chilling, and I was completely spellbound by it yet again. However, it was also a very different experience, because Violet is a very different protagonist.

She's starting to see more clearly, and it could NOT be more welcome.

How to Survive the Apocalypse (As Taught by YA Fiction)

I used to think that, if aliens took over or a meteor crashed to earth or half of us turned into zombies or microwaves turned out to be evil sentient brain-zapping machines, I'd totally be the first to die. I still think that, but now I realize I might have a fighting chance in our hypothetical zombie-alien-microwave apocalypse. Why? Because of just how many YA novels I've read set in fraught times. It's not just survival of the fittest anymore, folks. It's survival of the best read. I've done the research.

Here are some of the tips I've learned from YA novels over the years:

Find water, stay near water, water water water. Katniss knows this, the chick in Not A Drop to Drink knows this. WATER.

Shoot first, ask question later. Better to be safe and guilty than sorry and dead! The apocalypse doesn't care if you're a good person or not. NEITHER SHOULD YOU.

Fall in love with someone really hot, because you'll probably survive if your life has a better storyline in it. Zombies only eat ugly people with no boyfriends.

Don't do anything anybody in this book did.

 

Schools, supermarkets, and prisons make for optimal environments to be trapped in. Schools, because then your struggle for life can neatly mirror the sociological tropes found in most high school societies, prisons, because why not, and supermarkets, because food. Try to be stuck in one of them already when the apocalypse beings. I'll write a post on tips for getting sent to prison some other time.

Don't make friends with other boys besides your boyfriend because they are probably aliens in disguise who want to eat you or kill you or sex you. It's hard to tell with aliens.

Do not have too big a group with you, because a lot of them will clearly die because its hard to keep track of too many characters and why put yourself through that. Especially if they are girls who are prettier and more interesting than you. They will totally die.

DON'T EVER TRUST ADULTS OR THE GOVERNMENT OR PEOPLE THAT SOUND AT ALL REASONABLY INTELLIGENT. THEY TOTALLY WORK FOR THE ZOMBIES/ALIENS/MICROWAVES.

Never, EVER separate. "You check that floor for zombies, I'll check this floor, we'll meet at the top!" Yeah, NO. You deserve to have your face eaten off. You idiot. And if someone bangs on the window or doors, DON'T LET THEM IN! They want to eat your face and not in a good way!

If one douchebag is out-douchebagging the rest of the people in your survival group, trying to be the leader and making dumb-ass decisions, just kill him. Immediately. He'll just die later anyway. Then eat him for dinner. The supermarket-ware won't last forever!

Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant, and die. Don't have sex in the missionary position, don't have sex standing up, just don't do it, okay, promise? Okay, now everybody take some rubbers. 


With this fool-proof guide, you're sure to survive whatever the end of days happens to throw at you. Except for werewolves. I've got nothing against those things. You're on you're own. This can only end in tears.

 

Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Review: Ten by Lauren Gretchen McNeil
Goodreads 
Release date: September 18th, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Series: No
Source: Purchased
Rating: It's about teenagers trapped in an old house on an island with a serial killer, so it probably wasn't the best idea to read this while in an old house on an island that presumably has serial killers somewhere. So obviously, Ten scared the pants off me AND had a very surprising killer.



SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?


The cover: CAN YOU SAY OMINOUS? JUST LOOKING AT IT MAKES ME ANXIOUS.

The story: I was lucky enough to meet Gretchen McNeil at a signing in Glendale, and let me tell you, there is a hilarious dispartity between in-real-life McNeil and on-the-page McNeil. IRL Gretchen had a huge smile, gorgeous swoopy red hair, and was wearing a vintage-esque cherry-patterned white dress like she was on The Donna Reed Show. OtP Gretchen is a blood-spattered madwoman who wields her pen like a butcher knife. I LOVE IT. Seriously, I didn't expect to enjoy this scare-fest at all, but I did. Gretchen McNeil, you crazy scary.




I can't handle horror movies, but for some reason love horror books. McNeil effectively employs a lot of classically frightening motifs to enormous effect in Ten, which is inspired by an Agatha Christie novel and other classical horror influences. It doesn't reinvent the horror wheel, but oh, how it horrifies.The book isn't perfect, but the overall mystery and murder and mayhem was brilliantly done.

Meg and her best friend Minnie, who have a very unhealthy, codependent, enabling relationship that I found fascinating and troubling, are invited to a tiny little house party on a tiny little island in the middle of a not-so-tiny storm. If this sounds like a SUPER MEGA BAD IDEA TO YOU, that's because it is. Because then kids start dying. In really awful ways.

The main character, Meg, was sadly quite flat to me. Her one defining characteristic seemed to be that she was a writer, and this was only evident because every single darn character seemed to bring it up in ever darn conversation. Every now and then she'd have a snarky comeback, which made me connect with her a bit more. I always enjoy sisters in snark. Minnie is tremendously irrititating, but I loved that about her. She's not a healthy person, and her relationship with Meg is damaging. TJ, the love interest, I kind of adored. He's a POC (YAY!) and the cutest, most popular boy in school. He's not overflowing with personality, either, but he's pretty adorable. I thought the characterization in this book was probably the weakest point, but the scary stuff was by far the strongest. Which works for me in a campy, bloody, scary kind of quick read.

THE BODY COUNT IS HIGH. The murders are delightfully gruesome and terrible and frightening. When Meg and TJ venture into the other house on the island I nearly wet myself. The final climax is frightening, even if the killer does monologue a bit. And hey! The killer was a total surprise to me, which NEVER happens. So kudos to McNeil for fooling me.

So many of the deaths were so frighteningly original that I fear somewhat for the sanity of the author (DON'T TELL HER I SAID THIS OR SHE'LL FIND ME). I said earlier that McNeil is like a madwoman with a butcher knife, but the murders in Ten are less convential and more HORRENDOUSLY CREEPY. I'm not going to tell you about any of them, but oh GOD. Oh God. OH GOD. *turns on all he lights* *never goes anywhere again*



The writing didn't exactly light my world on fire, but still. DON'T read this when you're in an old drafty probably haunted house on an island with poor internet speed at one o'clock in the morning. I'm speaking from experience.

Review and Giveaway: Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

Review: Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff
Goodreads
Rating: Gorgeous writing, ghosts, and serial killers collide for a story that'll creep the heck out of you with its eerie mood and somehow lift your heart at the same time.



The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.

For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.

With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life—and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again.

Paper Valentine is a hauntingly poetic tale of love and death by the New York Times bestselling author of The Replacement and The Space Between.

The cover: I'm obsessed with silhouette covers and this cover in particular. I love the intricacies of the cutout and how equally sweet and sinister the girl is, even with her delicate ponytail and profile. It suits the feel of the book and the main character perfectly.

The book: Do you ever read a book where you're just so in love with the prose that you kind of feel sick with envy and happiness, and the plot could kind of go anywhere and you'd be happy with it, because you'd be able to continue reading this author's words? I feel that way about Tahereh Mafi, and now I feel that way about Yovanoff. There's a whimsical almost-poetry to her descriptions and the details she chooses to include. Like, it's all sparkly and lilting on the surface, but there's this dark grittiness underneath. That perfectly sums up Paper Valentine, a beautiful, engaging, horrifically disturbing novel about the many layers a person can be hiding, for good or for bad.

Strange things are afoot in the city of Ludlow, where Hannah Wagner lives. And by strange, I mean, horrible. Hannah's best friend Lillian, who died after a long battle with anorexia, now haunts her day and night, and there's a serial killer murdering middle school girls. Plus Hannah's friends are all really awful people and she may or may not be inordinately interesting with the dangerous and very much off-limits Finny Boone, a huge, delectable pile of YA swoon. I loved being in Hannah's head and hearing the unique way her thoughts form. When I talk about liking characters with layers, I mean Hannah. She wears vintage dresses that she sews herself, and ribbons in her hair, and Alice in Wonderland charm bracelets. She does crafts and smiles a lot and always has something whimsical to say. But there's so much more to her, things she doesn't want others to see and things she even keeps from herself.

I'm a lot like Hannah, but even those who aren't can find themselves in that, I think. And in Lillian, the self-destructive dead girl, and Finny, the absurdly attractive, silent, gentle, shy, awkward, and completely misunderstood guy. All these characters are continually, deliberately seen a certain way that doesn't at all line up with what's inside.

As for the mystery of who's murdering all these teenage girls, it's so freaking creepy.  The killer was both a total surprise to me and an "Of COURSE!", which is exactly what you want. I love murder mysteries, and this one definitely isn't for the faint of heart. Yovanoff doesn't spare any of the gruesome details.She's determined to thrust you right into the ugliness of the situation, not in a graphic way, but emotionally. It's not as unpleasant as it sounds, really. I felt wiser and sadder and happier by the end of this book. Hannah deals with so much in this book. Death. Friendship. Loss. Peer pressure. Finding herself without the dominant, bossy Lillian, and becoming the strong person who is kind of a mix of both of them. And somehow, Yovanoff managed to tie that journey in with Hannah catching a serial killer with her dead best friend.

There's also the relationship Hannah has with her little sister, Ariel. I always love reading about family relationships in YA, and this one was no different. Ariel's a plucky, vibrant kid, and it's obvious she and Hannah care about each other. It added another great dimension to this book. And lasty, Finny. I can't say much without getting spoilery, but...Finny. Yes. Please. At first blush he seems like a stereotype, and I had my insta-love sensors going at full-blast, but everything between them was perfectly understandable. Everything that happened before and during and after made perfect sense. Let me say that the big finale was without a doubt the best part. Don't get stopped by a possibly slow beginning.

Enter to win a signed copy of Paper Valentine! US/CA ONLY.

a Rafflecopter giveaway