Sanctum

Sanctum

Madeline Roux

(Trigger Warnings: Pretty much everything. I'm not kidding, I tried to keep track of all of them, but this book hit almost all of the triggers I know. If you have any triggers, stay clear.)

Dan, Abby, and Jordan return to Brookline following a trail left by their previous enemy. Someone's been sending them photographs of a circus, with threatening notes scribbled on the backs. As they follow the clues, they find themselves deeper and deeper in the history of Brookline.

Haha I decided I had three sentences of patience. That's what happens. Okay, onto the review.

I seriously expected some second book syndrome. Even series I love with all my heart, I kind of roll my eyes (or glare, for the Son of Neptune). Plot twist! This book didn't have SBS! Or, in a mild enough form that I chose to ignore it. Either way, that's pretty good.

The characters stayed consistent. I mean, that's kind of like half of SBS. The characters get a wild makeover and suddenly they're just them by name. This makes it easier on me, because I can just redirect you to the first review for my feelings on the characters.

The main problem I had with this book was just the sheer overpowering Dan-ness. He did a lot, which is okay! Cool! That's the great part of a proactive protagonist! But at the same time, he did a lot. He really overshadowed the other two characters.

I loved all the plots/subplots. Horrific horror. (I'm going to admit- I don't read that much horror. It's up to someone else if it was really that scary. I thought it was.) Secret societies? Rad. They're ignored so often for things that aren't actually that scary, like zombies. I mean, secret societies really mess stuff up. And carnival horror, which have boomed for no apparent reason, since there hasn't been an actual carnival boom, totally worked.

One problem with the plot/subplots, though. I was sort of torn between it being a secret society horror or a carnival horror. Or an asylum horror (see paragraph under this one). They were all connected, yeah, but I felt like the connection to the carnival was kind of weak. Like it might simplify the novel a bit more if [Iiiii don't care if the world knows what my spoilers are] the hypnotist's stone [Goodbye, spoiler] had just been moved to a different setting and the carnival been cut off. Say, the [hello, spoilers, my only friend] hypnotist was passing through, sans carnival, and Daniel Crawford I saw him instead of going to the carnival [please wash hands of all spoilers]. I don't know. I might just be being fussy about plot matters.

Okay, I've grown and learned since I read Asylum, the first book. And I've realized something kind of great about this series. Most books relating to mental asylums portray the patients as 'evil, SCARY mentally ill ppl oh no bby so dangerous :'('. Honestly? Mentally ill people aren't scary. The wardens were terrifying. So, I'm really, really glad that there's an asylum horror that doesn't reduce the mentally ill to props. A book that's honest about the history of asylums.

Thanks

(I might as well just make the date for these things the 16th, huh. Also, short review because tttthhhhbbbbpppthbpppppp.)

~Corinne

On the Day I Died

On the Day I Died

 (Image via juniorlibraryguide.com)

Cadence Fleming

(Trigger Warnings (book and review): Death, fire, spiders, blood, the undead, murder- Okay, -almost anything that has the potential to kill you was in here. For the love of a Smiling God, do not read if you have basically any triggers.)

Mike is driving fast to get home before he almost hits a dripping wet girl with his car. He slams on the brakes, and, knowing he's already late and the girl is clearly miserable, offers her a ride home. Except her mother says she's dead, and her real home is White Cemetery. Michael's visit there, however, leaves him trapped by the ghosts that need to tell their stories.

I read this book the first time the same year it was published. I didn't have a blog at the time, and my tastes were kind of underdeveloped back then anyway. It became my favorite book. I read again recently and came to some frightening truths about younger me (Why did I feel the need to read about all these deaths? Why was I upset when a cat was mentioned to have died, but not when the narrator died?  What was wrong with me?). It now ranks as 'decent' on my book-o-meter. Let's find out why.

This book is the ultimate exercise of writing different voices. And it succeeded. The characters were all obviously individuals. Heck, it sounded like it could have been different writers writing, even, which I mean in the best way possible.

So, another part of this book is that they died in supernatural ways. A couple, though, went from 'ooooh spppoooookkkkyyyyyyy' to 'wait what'. And the first didn't really even go under the theme of supernatural. Unless there's something I missed there, which is totally possible.

The writing style, while it varied from story to story, was consistently interesting. Or, didn't leave me skipping over paragraphs out of boredom, even in the slowest-building stories. However, the descriptions weren't usually as detailed as I wanted. There was a lot left to the imagination.

An anthology of ten short stories usually means ten different settings. Or, it's in New York. But instead On the Day I Died is set in Chicago, and does that fine. It's not the same story over and over again, it's not even really the same setting over and over again. Way to milk your surroundings. Also in a good way.

Overall, good light reading for creep addicts.

(Sorry for the patheticness of this review, and the fact I missed the 15th...)

~Corinne

Silver

Silver

(image from chriswooding.com)

Okay, I'm going to put the actual summary here, but I swear it's not because I'm lazy. You'll see why later.

Paul is the new kid at Mortingham Boarding Academy, and he has a dark secret.
Caitlyn admires Paul from afar and resents that he only has eyes for Erika.
Erika thinks that she and Caitlyn are best friends, but she's wrong.
Adam is a bully with a major chip on his shoulder.
Mark is outgrowing his old friends but doesn't know how to make new ones.

In a few short hours, none of this will matter. Without warning, a horrifying infection will spread across the school grounds, and a group of students with little in common will find themselves barricaded in a classroom, fighting for their lives. Some will live. Some will die. And then it will get even worse.

(Summary EBILLY taken from its amazon page)

Okay, this review has a lot of spoilers. You might as well ignore it if you don't want spoilers.

Silver is a book I'll have trouble describing. I desperately want to say it was good or bad, but it just... wasn't. It felt like it wasn't even there. However, I'll try my best to break it into parts.

The plot screamed "zombies!", but it wasn't a regular zombie book. It had a different take on zombies, making them something new and interesting. It also wasn't a robot-uprising book. Frankly, I hadn't ever thought the two could even come together, much less so well. Anyone know any other genre combining books like this? I'm really getting to like them.

The characters were distinct in their own ways, but I'm going to have to admit their voices didn't seem too different. That might have been just because the narrative was third person (making it, like, a yasreadyas first, I think). At the same time, it was just a little too hard to differentiate them. The boys were much better off than the girls in that respect. They had plenty of development and were active characters. Generally, they were just so much better than the girls. Caitlyn and Erika were nearly indistinguishable if you didn't pay attention to the opinions they were stating. 

Continuing on the last paragraph, I don't even think this book passed the Bechdel test. With two female main characters, I'm not certain if it passed the narrative Bechdel test, if that exists. Caitlyn's thoughts entirely revolve around Paul or being mad at Erika because Paul likes her. Just read the mini descriptions in the summary. The boys all get blurbs of their own. Caitlyn's is about Paul. Erika's is about Caitlyn, and it tracks back to Paul. I don't know, it just made me really uncomfortable how little Caitlyn and Erika acted on their own.

The boys, I'll restate, were really interesting. Paul was an extremely proactive character who's actions were great to follow. Mark was my personal hero, as the socially inept geek trying to look normal. And failing. Miserably. There are probably a few readers on here who can relate to that. Adam's backstory was blurry and a bit generic (bully who's only mean because of a bad home life, thus making them unaccountable for all actions), but his character, present tense, was strong and true.

The descriptions in this book were fantastic. How the Infected were shown was so interesting. It felt like you could really see them. Also, they were painfully creepy. So maybe you don't want to see them. However, if you enjoy being plagued by nightmares for what may be the rest of your natural life, this is your book!

Subtle mentions at the beginning of the book may become very important later on, just warning you. I liked how everything tied together that way.

Since the romance didn't quite exist outside of one-sidedly, I'll give you this mini-rant. Why is science always the bad guy in these books? Why? You are not helping anyone by making science evil. I mean...

(Before I forget, trigger warnings for the book- Suicide, death)

~Corinne

Lola: a Ghost Story

Lola: a Ghost Story

(From the artist's deviantArt page)
J. Torres and Elbert Orr

Now I shall attempt something never having been done in the history of YAs read YAs...

I'm going to try and review a graphic novel.

I know. You're shocked. I'm shocked. But I've got to spread my wings, like the majestic cabbage moth.

Okay. Summary time.

Jesse is gifted (or possibly cursed) with the ability to see demons and dead people. He doesn't know anyone else who can do the same- except his grandmother. Their relationship was strained (she tried drowning him) while she was alive. Going to the Phillipines for her funeral, he doesn't expect much from the rest of his extended family. But while he faces his demons, can he help others, too?

Ugh. I was doing so well with that until that last sentence. Anyhow, review time.

Jesse, the protagonist, is all around a really likeable character. He's mostly quiet and scared of lots of things (Seeing ghosts, you know?), but he isn't a cut-and-dry coward. In fact, he's not a coward at all. Paranoid, yes, nervous, of course, a bit of a loner, who isn't? I would be if I could see dead people. Maybe if I met him as a person instead of a drawing on a piece of paper, I'd feel a bit differently, but whatever. He doesn't exist. His entire life does not exist. Nothing exists. Nothing but the void.

*Cough* Well, onto the weather. I mean plot.

Let me remind you (in case you forgot since The Lost Snuggie) that I am in love with folktales and monsters and demons and such. I also like mermaids, but they come up a lot less. So the fact that there were things that go bump in the night totally amped up the plot points for me. However, the plot would definitely do great even if it weren't being read by the monster-obsessed me.

While I can't review the writing style, which usually fills this empty spot in the review, I will talk about the execution. Since the story bordered on the horror genre, secrecy and slow reveals were fairly important. They were mostly good, but could get a little confusing.

Oh! And translations. I love the way that translating the Tagalog words into English was set up. It always kind of annoys me when dialogue translations are done like this- "Delicioso! Delicious!" He exclaimed. Like, who would translate what they say after they say it. Asterisks are the way the cool kids do it. I am 100% pro-Asterisk.

Through all my love, I have one thing to say, and it's not even the book's fault. The fact that it was labeled "7+" (at least where I saw it) kinda gets me. I'd hate to say "Shield your children! They can't know about reality!", I don't think this is exactly suited for "7+". There are dead people. I mean, like, really, really dead people. And a brief show of drinking problems, but I'm more concerned about the dead people. When I was seven, I was scared of friggn' Scooby Doo. Personally, I think a bit higher age rating is necessary.

I feel so old saying that.

Well, short review. I loved the book with my own heart and the hearts of all those in my control. Since there's nothing to whine about, I'm just going to gently force you to read it.

Read it.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

(Image from its goodreads page)

Cat Winters

It's 1918, and death hangs in the air. Influenza and war have ravaged not only Europe, but the hearts of the American people. When Mary Shelley Black finds out her first love, Stephen, has died, she's grief-stricken. But when his spirit returns to her, she's determined to learn more about what happened to him.

Okay, I'm not huge on historicals (you may notice that they're an endangered species here), and I rarely get through them. This is definitely one of the better ones.

It took a while to get into this book. Nothing particularly interesting happens for the first two, three chapters or so. So I was just kinda sitting there like, "It'll get better. It'll get better. Going sooooo sloooowwww, but it'll get- HURRY UP." I am an impatient person. This took me two check-out sessions from the library to get through it, just because the beginning didn't pass quick enough.

But it's like a slingshot. Cat Winters pulled it back ever so slowly, took target (your very being), and let go. Once Stephen died (it's not that big of a spoiler, get over it), it was off. And Mary Shelley the rock was speeding ahead at speeds I didn't think rocks could reach. And I enjoyed that.

The plot was faaaaabulous. It was well executed (trust me, there are so many bad ways to write a murder/ghost book) and once we reached that flying point, well timed. 

The style was awesome. You have no idea (or maybe you do- maybe you spy on nerds and are freakishly obsessed about what they read) how many ghost or otherwise paranormal books are purple. Like, 'Okay, I see we know how to use our descriptors here. But what are you talking about?' I am so glad this book defied my expectations.

The characters, however, I wasn't so fond of. Most of them were fairly two-dimensional. Their actions got predictable once you found out their main characteristic. And it's never good when characters have a main characteristic. People don't usually have one personality trait that defines their existence. And I can tell you those traits right now.

Mary- She's smart. Really smart. Super smart. She does smart things. Smartly. And she's brave. Like Harry Potter if he was a Ravenclaw. Because then he would be smart.

Aunt Eva- She's superstitious and protective. She's protective because she's superstitious. Or maybe not. We'll never know.

Julius- He's creepy and no one loves him.

Stephen- He's brave and hot. Oh, and smart. I guess.

Well, that's not the entire cast, but you know. Now, I didn't mind that Mary was smart and could, thank the gods of Asgard and Vaniheim, do stuff by herself. She didn't need Stephen to give her step-by-step instructions to get the job done. She is the girl, in concept, that I have been waiting for for SO LONG. But it the whole intelligence/bravery combo thing was kind of shoved in your face. And there didn't need to be (SPOILER SPOILER SKIP THE REST OF THE PARAGRAPH OR YOU SHALL DIE AT THE FIREY HANDS OF THE GODS) so much dying for her. The briefly-got-the-flu-and-survived thing was just a little much.

La, the emotions in this book. They were so deliciously well written. And there were a lot of them- you can't write about death and not have them. HAIL TO THE CAT OF WINTERS.

A good debut novel, I expect more from her soon. :D

~Corinne

Asylum

Asylum

Madeline Roux

(Picture from r-moran.blogspot.com)

Daniel is a gifted student. Not in a paranormal sense, but a legitimately-smart way. He decides to go to New Hampshire College Prep, a five-week course for those wanting to enrich their educations. But NHCP harbors a dark secret, one that can only be found by going headlong into it.

I read this book in a day. This is saying something, because I'm usually a fairly slow reader and this wasn't exactly a magazine.

So, I'm sure you can assume from that that this was a good book. The main character, was fairly well developed and the plot was intricate and interesting. 

I like ghosts, so I'm going to have to say that this review might be a bit subjective. But otherwise I probably wouldn't have read the book, so that's how it goes with most of what I review. Sorry. 

You pretty much can't mess up ghosts for me. Actually, you can, but let's not delve into that since these ghosts were awesome and I don't want to get side-tracked. Yeah. Freaky messages, unexplainable notes and untrackable texts? Count me in. And I am so, so glad of this, Ms. Roux didn't go overboard with it. I know, ghost story, gotta be creepy, but when you put in too much writing on the walls? Nada. It's annoying, not suspenseful.

The characters I didn't like quite as much. The only one that really clicked with me was Dan, the narrator (which is kind of a shock because I usually hate the MC). Abby didn't seem to develop all that much, and Jordan finally confirmed the most bizarre trope I have ever seen in YA: The Camp Gay Sidekick Who Comes Out Really Early On Even Though it Doesn't Make Sense and Disappears Conveniently for the Romance to Take Hold. I'm not kidding. I have seen that way too many times. It doesn't even make sense. He comes out in the first minute he knows Dan. That's just wrong. And then he disappears when it gets lovey dovey. That's just odd.

Eh, enough about that, let's talk about the plot. As I said, it was intricate and well developed. I can't go too far describing it simply because I don't know how. It was good, okay? There. That's all I can say, that's all I care to say. I don't want to be too spoilerful. Spoilerriffic. Spoiled. Uh. Something. I don't know.

Okay, so, awesome. Let's get to the one thing that really, really bugged me, because something always does.

This book was extremely predictable.

I don't know if it's just me being a jaded little book emo or what, but I found it really predictable. I knew who the love interest would be as soon as we saw them (hint: it's not Jordan), I knew the antagonist and the antagonist incarnate.

I kind of blame Far, Far Away for the figuring out the physical antagonist, though. Yeah. I think otherwise that would have been a shock moment.

Overall: Good book, short review, kind of predictable, weird tropes with gays.

~Corinne

Far, Far Away

Far, Far Away

(image from its Goodreads page)

Tom McNeal.

This'll be a short review, because if I say too much, it'll ruin the story. The entire story was so unpredictable that almost any detail can easily become a spoiler.
So. Instead I chose to use an aspects format, which I'll use for stories like this.
Jeremy Johnson Johnson has been considered strange for almost all of his life. In the town of Never Better, he lives with his father and is usually too engrossed with studying to really make friends. Well, except one- the ancient ghost of Jacob Grimm.
Then Ginger Boultinghouse comes along and becomes a fast friend of Jeremy's. She falls in love with him with a bite of an enchanted Prince Cake, a town specialty made by the baker Sten Blix.
But the house Jeremy lives in will soon be foreclosed, and Ginger takes it as her duty to save him.
Plot: This is definitely going with Going Bovine in the list of stories that, when you read the description, you laugh and call it crack fiction. I don't care if crack fic is a fan fiction term. I do what I want.
Anyhow, despite how utterly bizarre the idea was, the product of it was amazing. Everything made sense and had a kind of whimsical (and, later in the book, very, very dark) feel to it. It was fun to read and not as hard to understand as my description makes it sound.
Characters: This is the point where I usually have something to gripe about. I like complaining. And right now the only thing I can complain about is the fact that I have nothing to complain about.
Jacob Grimm- In an interesting twist on perspective, this guy is our narrator. Logically, since he's the MC, Jeremy should be, or maybe it would just be third person. It definitely wasn't bad this way though. Okay. Onto the actual character.
I usually despise famous past figures being parts of fiction books. I don't know why, I just do. But I'll have to excuse this one, because the personality of Jacob (it's pronounced Yah-cub, by the way) Grimm is, from what I know (near nothing), the same as the guy that never found love but liked writing about girls getting pregnant and others dying horrible deaths. Yeah, nice guy.
I've got to say, his character really developed over the story. I loved how he changed from a nagging ghost to the reader's best friend. And makes you cry. And laugh. And cry. And want to punch him in the face. And want to hug him.  He felt very real, to me at least.
Jeremy Johnson Johnson- He is our MC. He's pretty much a textbook nerd/loner, which was kind of disappointing, but made up for it by being a realistic and interesting nerd/loner. Though he didn't develop as much as Jacob, he continued to interest me. By the end of the story, any emotion he's experiencing, you are too.
Ginger Boultinghouse- Though this character was by no means bad, she was my least favorite character. She was energetic and friendly, but didn't develop as much as I hoped through the story. Nyeh.
Style: I liked this style a lot. It wasn't beige or purple, which, trust me, is a pretty big plus in YA paranormal (what this was classified as). It kept me interested throughout the story.
Sorry for the short review. I might update this later. Guh'bye.
~Corinne

Never to Sleep

NEVER TO SLEEP

RACHEL VINCENT
(Pic from http://stuffyoungpeopleread.blogspot.com/2012/01/never-to-sleep-rachel-vincent.html)

Well, I've been a bit lacking when it comes to reviews, mostly because I've been doing a lot of rereading of books I've already reviewed.
This is a novella, not a novel, but boo hoo..
Onto the review.
Sophie has a cousin (Kaylee, because Thoth forbid there's a spelling I recognize) who is certifiably crazy. It's hard to tell, to Sophie, at least, if she's genuinely nuts or if she's faking it for attention, though. Either way, Kaylee is ruining Sophie's  high school reputation as dance and drama queen.
Then the handsome stranger I've gotten so used to shows up and accidental hits her with a door. Very romantic.
Blah blah blah, they hit it off pretty quick and are somehow dragged into the Netherworld, an evil parallel of our more familiar earth.
So, the plot seems pretty standard. I've read plenty of alternate-reality fics. How it was executed, though, is the beautiful part. It had your usual escape plot, but it somehow avoided your usual cliches, such as alternate love interest and thinking about staying. Plus, there are evil carnivorous plants that liquefy your organs and are everywhere. It was 'everything can kill you' played straight.
 There were monsters (only two were really described, though), reapers, X, X, and X. You know. Also standard. I was still more interested in the evil plants. Little Shop of Horrors was even mentioned. Woo hoo for shout-outs!
*Cough* Uh, onto the characters.
We shall start with Kaylee, our local crazy. And that is all she is ever really described as. Seriously. She had absolutely no personality beyond 'crazy'. I know she wasn't too important, but I think she deserved a little more than that.
Then there was Peyton, your usual popular girl. Also her simple personality. I've already complained about that kind of thing, I won't waste energy explaining again. It's in my rant about characters I'm tired of.

Onto Luca, Mr. Lovey-Dovey-Interesty-Winteresty. I am notorious for hating love interests. Maybe because they usually mess up the MC for me somehow. More on how he didn't later. Anyhow, he actually seemed like a realistic human being, who makes realistic human mistakes. I was basically cheering when he hit Sophie in the face with a door and panicked, because, hey, I'd panic too. He wasn't described as 100% perfect besides his abs. I really, really got tired of how much his chest was described, and how Sophie was for a moment willing to risk their lives so he wouldn't put his shirt on. No. Just no.

Lastly, Sophie. I don't think she was written badly, exactly, I just really didn't like her personality. She came off as extremely shallow and was more worried about her designer jeans than escaping. She didn't really develop that much through the story, which was disappointing. It's pretty sad when I like the love interest more than the main character.
This, to people who have read my reviews before know, is big: I accepted the romance. It wasn't annoying and Sophie stayed as an action girl instead of turning into a damsel in distress, and could figure out things by herself with or without Luca. There was a surplus of kissing towards the end, though.
The descriptions were very clear and really helped the story. There were a couple plot points that didn't seem to materialize (Sophie is being kept because she is of use to a hellion, but it's never said why or even hinted at), but it was definitely worth reading.

What Curiosity Kills

 WHAT CURIOSITY KILLS

HELEN ELLIS

Mary feels different, but can't explain why. The fainting, the strange cravings...and worse, the things she's noticed about her body.

Mary doesn't know where to turn. If she tells her parents or her sister, she'll risk losing everything. She has no other family, no way of knowing if what she's going through is normal. Everyone she's ever known and loved could reject her...

There’s a lot to say about the YA paranormal section. The first thing I can think to say is that the bad ones always seems to get noticed more than the good ones. And despite writing paranormal myself, I’m not a huge fan of what there’s out there. So do you know how much it means when I say I loved this book?

First off, there were the characters. Yay! Non-Mary-Sue and non-Gary-Stus! No sparkly vampires! Believable quirks and personalities! Personalities! The love interest wasn’t always right and perfect! He lied and deceived the main character! She questioned how good he was for her! My favorite paranormal love interest ever.

Of course, I still wasn’t too huge a fan of some of the backstories. Then again, I am rarely pleased with backstories. Yes, I understand the main character was adopted and had to get into the system somehow, but did Ms. Ellis have to make it so horrible if it wasn’t going to be mentioned ever again? Then again, this is a series (I’m still waiting for the second book, though), so maybe it’ll get mentioned again. Maybe.

Wait, can I get back to the romance for a second? Oh, yeah, first book with romance I’ve liked so far. Because, c’mon, the guy’s not perfect! Well, he did have the dark hair and such description, but whatever. I’m still stuck on the lies and deceit. And distrust! Tee hee, I love this romance.

Okay, now mandatory writing style check-up. Ms. Ellis sounded just right, echoing the ways teens speak without mocking it. The main character was rather genre savvy, too, which is always good. Always good.

The plot. I’ve got to say, it was original. I mean, in how many books do people (SPOILER ALERT) turn into cats? I mean, Ms. Ellis could have used werewolves or something, but cats. I’m not sure what to say. It’s not bad, I mean, I love cats, but it didn’t hit me in the face and make me say “WHOA GURL SO ORIGINAL”. Well, neutral towards that, I am.

So, one last thing to say. As much as I loved this book, sometimes you had to wonder if the main character was a self-insert. She seemed very similar to the author, complete with southern accent. This doesn’t necessarily make her a mouthpiece or insert, but it did kind of bother me.

Overall, this was a great book. There were a couple issues, but they weren’t important and didn’t bother the story that much. I would recommend it.

~ Corinne

Jenny Pox

JENNY POX

BY J.L. BRYAN

I told my sister I didn't get this book just to review it. I told her I wouldn't. Well, I finished two days ago, and now I have to. I just have to.

So, the book is set in South Carolina, and has a pretty simple plot. Jenny Morton, nicknamed Jenny Mittens because she has to where gloves, gives a variant of the plague to anyone she touches. Except she's not the only superhuman of Fallen Oak. There are two more.

So, yeah. Simple. Easy. I don't have to choke on a description. And the book was awesome.

I absolutely loved how the words just flowed together, and were descriptive, but you could easily slip into the book and soon forget you were reading. I ate through that book fast than I eat pie.
I could definitely relate to the characters, and I feel they're back-stories were weaved in well.
Okay, so we're going to assume everything was perfect except the one thing I'm about to say. It was the romance that killed it. It just felt tacked on. It's kind of hard to explain, it just was. The romance felt like a distraction, and wasn't actually as important as it sounds to the plot except for as a trigger.
Yeah.
That's it.
I'm lazy.

Corinne