The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington

January 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington
Release Date: January 1, 2013
Publisher: Scholastic Point
Source: Digital Copy
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
Jade loves the house she’s just moved into with her family. She doesn’t even mind being the new girl at the high school: It’s a fresh start, and there’s that one guy with the dreamy blue eyes. . . . But then things begin happening. Strange, otherworldly things. Jade’s little brother claims to see a glimmering girl in his room. Jade’s jewelry gets moved around, as if by an invisible hand. Kids at school whisper behind her back like they know something she doesn’t.Soon, Jade must face an impossible fact: that her perfect house is haunted. Haunted by a ghost who’s seeking not just vengeance, but the truth. The ghost of a girl who ruled Jade’s school — until her untimely death last year. It’s up to Jade to put the pieces together before her own life is at stake. As Jade investigates the mystery, she discovers that her new friends in town have more than a few deep, dark secrets. But is one of them a murderer?

Review
I’ve read Harrington before – her Clarity series – so I had an idea of what to expect when I picked up this novel but I was pleasantly surprised.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m the world’s biggest scaredy cat.  I don’t do scary movies – not even for my most favorite actors and actresses – and suspense/horror novels are typically out of the question for me.  I remember reading certain scenes in Harry Potter when I was younger (like 13/14) and having to turn on every light in my room and HP isn’t meant to be that scary.  That’s how much of a wuss I am.  But I knew Harrington was a good writer and that this was meant to be a mystery novel more than a horror novel – although the description had me wary!  So I was prepared to have all the lights on and my teddy bear ready to read this one but I was happy to find that the book was more spooky than anything.  The ghostly supernatural elements reminded me of those in the Hex Hall series, for those of you who are pansies like me.

To the meat of the review – we start off with Jade who’s a teenager living in a haunted house.  At first she doesn’t think much of it aside from the fact that it’s creepy and the bitter Queen B ghost moves her stuff occasionally.  After a house party that goes awry, Jade’s ghost (Kayla) takes the situation into her own hands and gives Jade an ultimatum – find my killer or your brother is toast.  No problem right?  Sure, except the police never found the murderer – or even said that it was murder – and the fact that Jade is new to town and knows absolutely nobody.  She’ll figure it out in no time at all.  Jade enlists Kayla’s ex-boyfriend, Donovan, (and Jade’s current love interest) to help her figure out who the suspects are and their possible motives.  The first is Kayla’s second-in-command, Faye, who could have killed her from jealousy or hatred…after all, Kayla was a horrible person according to pretty much everyone.  Next we have Kayla’s competition for valedictorian, Alexa, the “robot girl” and Jade’s first friend at school.  Then there’s Kane, whom Kayla was cheating on Donovan with and whom she could’ve stolen a scholarship from.

All of the suspects are good contenders for murder, but Jade has doubts about all of them and then more clues start to trickle in.  The biggest clue comes in the end – Kayla’s hidden diary.  Although it’s written in a sort of code and obviously doesn’t say “ADAM KILLED ME,” it does give Jade a better road map to try to keep her brother safe as Kayla continues to lose her patience.  When all is said and done, Jade actually doesn’t figure out who the killer is until it’s too late.  I won’t go into further detail because that would spoil – but just let me say that it definitely doesn’t go how you expect it might.  In the end, it’s a fun, spooky read that gets you sucked in from the beginning.  Nothing like vengeful ghosts to get your blood pumping!

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Dark Eyes (Dark Eyes #1) by William Richter

January 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Dark Eyes by William Richter
Release Date: March 15, 2012
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: Digital Copy
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
Wally was adopted from a Russian orphanage as a child and grew up in a wealthy New York City family. At fifteen, her obsessive need to rebel led her to life on the streets.Now the sixteen-year-old is beautiful and hardened, and she’s just stumbled across the possibility of discovering who she really is. She’ll stop at nothing to find her birth mother before Klesko – her darkeyed father – finds her. Because Klesko will stop at nothing to reclaim the fortune Wally’s mother stole from him long ago. Even if that means murdering his own blood. But Wally’s had her own killer training, and she’s hungry for justice.

Review
I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up this book.  I feel like a broken record when I say this but I was interested in this novel because of its Eastern European roots.  I just can’t help myself when Russia is involved!  Enter Wally who is living on the streets in New York along with three of her friends.  This was something new for me to read about.  They squat in abandoned buildings and sell stolen goods to make cash.  A little bit Lisbeth Salander but not quite – lacking the photographic memory and the overall intelligence factor – but that same general feeling is what Richter was going for, I think.  The storyline was also similar to that of Lisbeth’s in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo as far as her father goes – he’s a very, very bad man and of course he wants to kill her.

The most difficult part to follow, for me, in the novel is the connections that everyone has to each other and one person in particular – although I won’t give away their name because they’re pretty important and I don’t want to tip anyone off.  For the most part, though, all the threads fall into place fairly well and while you can understand them, you won’t be able to guess half of what’s going to happen – TRUST ME.  I thought I had most of it figured out a quarter of the way in and nope, totally went a different way.  Not only does she have her evil father out to kill her but she’s trying to find out who her mother is since she was adopted from Russia at such a young age.  Plus she’s living on the street and she’s not some kind of awesome assassin or anything, she’s just a regular teenage girl.

In the end, while this is in the vein of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Dark Eyes is its own novel.  It has its own demographic and plotline.  It’s like saying that Divergent and Delirium are both dystopians and are both similar in that they’re fighting the establishment but they – ahem – diverge from there.  Dark Eyes also has a sequel coming out called Tiger that’s going to focus on Wally’s long-lost brother, Tiger, that I’m really excited about.  He was super mysterious in the book so this one might be even more interesting.

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Unspoken (II) by Sarah Rees Brennan

January 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
Release Date: September 11, 2012
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Source: Digital Copy
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Buy It: Amazon
Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met…a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head. But all that changes when the Lynburns return.The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

Review
Ok, so I’m going to preface this review by saying that out of all of us here at NIAB, I’m probably the worst about the delay between reading the book and getting the review out.  A lot of that has to do with my schedule and the schedule here at the blog.  That said, I read this book on the recommendation from Tina about two months ago, well before both her and Ashley put it on their favorites of 2012 list.  I scheduled my review and it just so happened to fall after the favorites list came out (we’re scheduled into February already!) so I’m not trying to be contrary, I promise.  I just didn’t like this book.

Why didn’t I like this book?  First of all, it was marketed as a YA novel when it read as middle-grade.  I like middle-grade just fine – Ella Enchanted is one of my most cherished books – but I was expecting something a little more adult, young adult if you will, when I started this one.  What I got was bunch of bratty teenagers who were completely immature and wouldn’t listen to anybody.  The plot itself was intriguing – Kami has a friend that she’s only spoken to in her head and then she meets him in real life!  Then things got sticky when they strongly dislike each other, they can’t handle their connection, she’s attracted to his cousin, and something is afoot in Sorry-in-the-Vale.

Instead of letting the authorities handle it, Kami investigates it herself.  It would be one things if she were a regular Veronica Mars, but she’s just a teenage girl with one friend and absolutely no common sense.  She ventures off in the woods by herself more times than I can count, is pushed down a well and can’t tell friend from foe.  It was almost like watching one of those slasher movies where you yell at the screen “DON’T ANSWER THE DOOR, YOU IDIOT!” and then they answer the door.  That’s pretty much how I was with Kami throughout the entire novel.  And the plot was a little too muddled for me.  A lot of it didn’t make sense.  Even in the end I was kind of just like, “Um, ok?”  Soooo…this one isn’t for everyone I guess.  At least it wasn’t for me.

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The Cavendish Home For Boys and Girls By Claire Legrand

December 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Cavendish Home For Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand
Release Date: August 28, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Source: Library Copy
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
At the Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, you will definitely learn your lesson. A dark, timeless, and heartfelt novel for fans of Coraline and The Mysterious Benedict Society.Victoria hates nonsense. There is no need for it when your life is perfect. The only smudge on her pristine life is her best friend Lawrence. He is a disaster—lazy and dreamy, shirt always untucked, obsessed with his silly piano. Victoria often wonders why she ever bothered being his friend. (Lawrence does too.)

But then Lawrence goes missing. And he’s not the only one. Victoria soon discovers that The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls is not what it appears to be. Kids go in but come out…different. Or they don’t come out at all.

If anyone can sort this out, it’s Victoria—even if it means getting a little messy

Review

This book came highly recommended to me by one of my dear friends. Even with that recommendation I was wary of starting. Mostly because my TBR list is already forever long and I put a lot of thought into adding another book to the list. Okay, who are we kidding, of course I add a lot of books to it. Reason my Goodreads list is currently pushing 400. All of that being said, I am thrilled my friend recommended this book to me. I can tell you I would have never ever picked this up on my own for various reasons; however, I am glad I did. This is a really good/thrilling YA book.

The Cavendish Home For Boys and Girls is at its heart the story of Victoria. Victoria who hates most things, including her only true friend Lawrence. She doesn’t even consider Lawrence a friend, she considers him a project that she needs to fix because he isn’t perfect and often troublesome (to her). One day, however, Lawrence disappears. His parents have a cover story, but even to Victoria the story sounds fake. She is convinced there is more to this story than Lawrence’s parents are letting on. This becomes more obvious when more of Victoria’s class disappears.

Victoria starts to research this when it becomes obvious. She notices people go into the Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, but they rarely come out. When Victoria begins to research this, she notices she has much in common with the owner of the home, Mrs. Cavendish. This is a fact that ends up worrying Victoria, because she hates who Mrs. Cavendish is. Slowly Victoria herself becomes trapped in the Home and starts to break her down. Victoria, the one who always must be strong, starts to break down because of what the house, and Mrs. Cavendish, do to people once they become stuck there.

The ending is amazing and very fitting to the story and will make you look at common aspects of your house twice. Also, have I mentioned the illustrations? They are perfect and even fit the story perfectly. Sarah Watts perfectly captured the tone of the story in an illustration. I only wish Legrand had other YA/MG books out right now for me to read!

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The Dark Divine (The Dark Divine, #1) by Bree Despain

December 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
Release Date: December 22, 2009
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Source: Personal Copy
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Buy It: Amazon
Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared–the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood–but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held.

The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude’s high school. Despite promising Jude she’ll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel’s shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes.

The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy’s dark secret…and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it–her soul.

Review

This is the story of Grace Divine. Yes, that is her name. Her father is a preacher who named his eldest son Jude. Jude, who happens to be the perfect child. But we’ll get more into that later. Grace Divine lives a fairly normal life. She has a loving family, goes to school, volunteers. She is a completely normal teenager. Until the day her brother comes home after a night out with his friend Daniel, who Grace happens to be in love with. Jude and Daniel’s friendship was forever changed that night and no one talks about it again. That was over three years ago and that night is still not discussed in the Divine household.

Until Daniel comes back. Grace didn’t know how much she missed or how much she was drawn to Daniel until he comes back. They are drawn to each other like two magnets. Daniel is artistic and makes Grace want to be a better artist and makes her look at things in a way she never truly did before. Of course this is problematic because Grace promised Jude that she would stay away from Daniel and she doesn’t lie to anyone, family or not. She takes that very seriously. She also turns many shades of red which make it next to impossible to lie, but that’s not the point. When she promises something to her family it’s important to her to stay truthful and honest.

Of course she doesn’t stay away from Daniel. She can’t. The magnets! The more she stays near Daniel and talks to him, the more she comes to find out what happened that night with Jude three years ago. This is where the mysterious element comes into play which I will not ruin for you. I will state that Despain handles it in an interesting way and with this being a series, I will be interested to see how it continues.

I wanted to like this book, and I did. Don’t get me wrong, I totally liked this book, I just expected more from it in the end. Thankfully it is a series and more is coming. Despain has a very interesting writing style and while I enjoy it, I often found it a tad too preachy for me. The fact that Grace’s father is a preacher, Jude is perfect, Grace often makes sure her point gets across in a childish way while continuing to be the good girl. I have no problem with the good girl character. However this version of the good girl was so sickeningly sweet it often hurt to read in parts. That is honestly another reason it didn’t get another star from me. I hate when books get preachy with me. You can get your point across without repeating it over and over again.

Alas, I will be reading the rest of the series because well, I am hooked.

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Origin by Jessica Khoury

December 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Origin by Jessica Khoury
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: Library Copy
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Buy It: Amazon
Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home–and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.

Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia’s origin–a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.

Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.

Review

Origin was a buzz book of 2012. It is YA heaven. This is the story of Pia. Pia’s life is surrounded by a jungle, literally. She was born and raised in the middle of a jungle to be immortal. Pia was created by a group of scientist to be the strong immortal out there, which she is. Her skin cannot pierced, she has heightened hearing, sight, smell and even speed. Pia  however has her weaknesses. She has normal strength and is extremely stubborn, both of which are extremely looked down upon by her ‘family.’ Of course she doesn’t really have a family, she has a group of scientists who have become her family. She calls a woman ‘mother’ and a group of men ‘uncle’. There is nothing wrong with creating your own family, I am all for it. However when it comes down to it, and in a pivotal point of the novel it will, she’ll come to find who is really her family and who isn’t.

Pia is often seen as naive throughout this book by many scientists because she has never left this bubble that is her life. And it’s true until one day her need to know about the outside outweighed her need to stay in the bubble that was her world. She  found a hole in the electrified fence and went through it. Once through that hole Pia realized that the world outside of all that she once knew isn’t that scary. In the outside world, Pia meets Eio, who happens to be a jungle boy. While he is kind and patient with Pia, he sees the danger of her bubble, of Little Cam as it is known. Eio is also honest to a fault and because of this honesty he tells Pia how bad Little Cam is and how dangerous it is to Pia.

Pia of course doesn’t believe Eio because Little Cam, her bubble, is all that she knows.  Yet, even with Eio encouraging her to leave, Pia and Eio slowly fall into love. Eio is quicker to admit to love of Pia than Pia is of Eio because she isn’t confident in what love is. Pia’s world of Little Cam is quickly changing throughout the week that Origin covers. Even though Origin only covers a week, Khoury’s writing is so strong that you don’t even notice the fast pace speed of the book.

All of this being said, this book is a solid 3.5 book. There is nothing wrong with it to me, this book just isn’t my type of book. I highly recommend it, I just couldn’t give it a higher rating because I personally won’t be running out to buy the book.

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The Mysterious Howling (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #1) by Maryrose Wood

November 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Mysterious Howling (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #1) by Maryrose Wood
Release Date: March 1, 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Library Copy
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
Found running wild in the forest of Ashton Place, the Incorrigibles are no ordinary children: Alexander, age ten or thereabouts, keeps his siblings in line with gentle nips; Cassiopeia, perhaps four or five, has a bark that is (usually) worse than her bite; and Beowulf, age somewhere-in-the-middle, is alarmingly adept at chasing squirrels.

Luckily, Miss Penelope Lumley is no ordinary governess. Only fifteen years old and a recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, Penelope embraces the challenge of her new position. Though she is eager to instruct the children in Latin verbs and the proper use of globes, first she must help them overcome their canine tendencies.

But mysteries abound at Ashton Place: Who are these three wild creatures, and how did they come to live in the vast forests of the estate? Why does Old Timothy, the coachman, lurk around every corner? Will Penelope be able to teach the Incorrigibles table manners and socially useful phrases in time for Lady Constance’s holiday ball? And what on earth is a schottische?

Review

This is the story of Penelope Lumley, a fifteen year old recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. Penelope is invited to Ashton Place to help the Incorrigibles. Alexander, Cassiopeia, and Beowulf, or the Incorrigibles, were found running wild in the forest of Ashton Place. This fact however does not deter Penelope, she embraces it. She wants to dive right in and teach them how to speak Latin and use a globe; however, the first thing she must teach them to do is to overcome their canine tendencies.

This of course is easier said than done after years of the children living in the woods by themselves, but Penelope doesn’t mind. She truly is up to the challenge. Things that would faze other nannies, the way they drink, the way they bark is just another bump in the road for her. She takes her time with them and they appreciate it because they slowly become ‘normal’ in the sense that they are proper and can be seen in public by their adoptive parents when they host their upcoming ball.

The Incorrigibles take to Penelope, and she takes to them. They are quickly their own little family. This comes in handy when the mystery of the novel takes place. What is also important is many of the mysteries that take place in this novel don’t actually get answered in this novel, which makes me glad that this is a series.

Also, I am a big believer and fan of audio books. There are two reasons I hit my goodreads goal this year. One: middle grade books and two: audio books. That being said, The Mysterious Howling is a book that needs to be read, not listened to. The illustrations and drawings of this book are almost as important to the book as the story is. Plus, they are adorable.

I adored this book and I hope you do, too.

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The Diviners by Libba Bray

November 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Diviners by Libba Bray
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readres
Source: Personal Copy
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City–and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult–also known as “The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies.”
When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer–if he doesn’t catch her first

Review

This is the story of Evangeline, who if the story took place in 2012 would be considered a normal teenage girl. However, this story takes place in the 1920s and because of that fact she is considered rebellious, her parents are unable to control her after her brother died in World War I. Evangeline, or Evie as she prefers to be known as, is shipped off to New York City to live with her uncle after she did a parlor trick that embarrassed one of the rich families in her town. This story quickly turns into one that tells two tales at once. Evie’s story and Memphis’ story. Both of which run parallel to each other, but by the end overlap just a little bit. But if you are reading this for Memphis’ story you will be let down, this book is mostly Evie’s to tell.

Evie is the type of character who is overly theatrical and often childish, even though she wants to be taken seriously as an adult. Much like everyone her age wants to be, even in 2012. However, even with that said, she is entertaining, has a smart mouth and isn’t afraid to speak her mind. A few times I wanted to be Evie! She spoke her mind with no worries about the repercussions about what would happen until said repercussions happened. I can’t wait for the second book to see more of fiesty Evie.

I recently read her Beauty Queens and that was so light and fluffy I wasn’t sure that Libba Bray could do creepy well. My fears were not needed, she does creepy beyond well. Naughty John, isn’t the type of character that one wants to read about at night; which of course when I read this book! At 600 pages, Bray has a chance to make this book complex, compelling, and only a few pages too long. This is one of those books that uses its 600 pages to the best of their ability. Any fewer pages and I’m not sure this book would have been the same. This book needed the length to make the reader feel like a flapper in New York City in the roaring twenties, and that I did

I adored this book. If you follow me on goodreads you will notice it took me longer to read than most books usually do but that is only because it’s midterm time in grad school and all my time is dedicated to reading about libraries and how they can shape the future while emailing a friend going “I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE I NEED TO QUIT.” So the fact that this book took me over a week to read isn’t a sign that it’s a bad book and I couldn’t get through it; it was more of a situation of I only read before bed, but then this is a mystery book and required a lot of thought. Plus, Naughty John at night? I could only handle so much!

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Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy #1) by Sarah Rees Brennan

October 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
Release Date: September 11, 2012
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★★
Buy It: Amazon
Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met…a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head. But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

Review
I honestly didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I started this one. You’re kind of thrown into Kami and Jared’s connection, and the background comes later. Kami is Asian, and it’s always nice to follow a POC around a novel, who communicates with a boy named Jared in her head. He’s been there for Kami’s whole life, though she keeps it a secret. When the Lynburn family moves back to Sorry-in-the-Vale, the voice in her head becomes a real boy-Jared Lynburn, himself. Jared is, of course, a leather jacket-wearing bad boy who Kami dislikes on first sight, mostly because he’s an over-the-top jerk to her when they realize who they are to each other. I’m sure he has his reasons (like he’s just trying to protect Kami from something, sigh, boring tropes are boring). I was sure Jared was such a jerk so we could see how nice his cousin, Ash, was by comparison, thus setting up the love triangle! Excuse my snark, but the beginning of this one didn’t do much for me. Maybe I’ve read too much fanfiction, but that’s what this reminded me of at first. (You must be wondering why I gave it five stars if I disliked it so much. Oh, ye of little faith! Read on!)

Eventually, Jared and Kami start hanging out, which brings us back to the plot: someone is killing animals in the woods near Kami’s house, and she’s determined to find out who and why. I really, really liked the conversations Kami and Jared had. They were both smart and witty, and it made the dialogue pleasant to read. I felt their spark, even if they fought it. Did I mention I was wrong about the love triangle? Wrong in the best way, really, as there is very little romance at all in Unspoken. You should all know by now how happy that makes me. Basically, try to go into this one expected and hoping for absolutely nothing romantically, and you should be just fine. In fact, I even started to like Ash a bit. It’s a romance I’m willing to let burn slowly, throughout the series, let’s put it that way. And oh, this one is funny. The interaction between characters left tears in my eyes from all the laughing. One of my favorite lines, out of context, is, “Oh my god, Jared. Don’t tough-talk the lambs.” The friendships between Kami and Jared, and Kami and Holly, and Kami and Angela were just so fluid and perfect in this book. That made me so happy.

Another thing I liked is how matter of fact everyone is about magic. You’re confused and in the dark at first, but once it comes out, people are talking about it like it’s no big deal. And I feel like maybe I should know better, but I like how dark and unsettling Jared is. That doesn’t necessarily mean I personally like him, but his characterization was just right for me. He has had a tough life, and his whole family are like creepy wax dolls with very little emotion. You’re bound to be messed up with that kind of life. So he grew on me, and so did angry, angry Angela. I liked Kami, Ash, and Holly right away. I love them all as a team so much. They’re all so different, but they complement each other in myriad ways, and I just feel like I was always laughing (when I wasn’t basking in this book’s delicious subtle angst). I was dismissive of the romance at first, but it is truly bittersweet, and I just loved the way it hurt my heart to read about. They’re teenagers, and they’re so interconnected, they haven’t had a chance to figure themselves out. That’s what adolescence is all about, and they haven’t been given that crucial developmental period. But they love each other. It’s so heartbreaking that it makes me happy, which should tell you something about my cold, black heart. That’s all I’ll say about that.

The ending to this one kills me, as does knowing how long it’s going to take for the next one to come out. This book is a must-read for all fans of Gothic, paranormal YA with magic, a bad boy, and witty dialogue all around. Definitely pick this one up!

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Hanging by a Thread by Sophie Littlefield

October 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Hanging by a Thread by Sophie Littlefield
Release Date: September 11, 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Buy It: Amazon
Summer is the best part of the year in Winston, California, and the Fourth of July is the highlight of the season. But the perfect town Clare remembers has changed, and everyone is praying that this summer will be different from the last two—that this year’s Fourth of July festival won’t see one of their own vanish without a trace, leaving no leads and no suspects. The media are in a frenzy predicting a third disappearance, but the town depends on tourist dollars, so the residents of Winston are trying desperately to pretend nothing’s wrong.  And they’re not the only ones hiding something.  Clare, a seamstress who redesigns vintage clothing, has been blessed—or perhaps cursed—with a gift: she can see people’s pasts when she touches their clothes. When she stumbles across a denim jacket that once belonged to Amanda Stavros, last year’s Fourth of July victim, Clare sees her perfect town begin to come apart at the seams.  In a town where appearance means everything, how deep beneath the surface will Clare dig to uncover a murderer?

Review
I liked this one a lot more than I thought I would. I like fashion, but fashion to me is more like Forever 21 and Macy’s as opposed to sewing machines and thrift stores. Clare was interesting and so was her power, even though I couldn’t remember her name for the first third of the novel. The mystery was really engaging and I found myself sucked right into this story. I like a popular girl with a secret, and I like a female protag with female friends. I guessed a lot of things, but I still found myself intrigued by the mystery (which I didn’t get until the end) and even by the romance, a little. There were some problems, in my opinion, with the way Clare thought about Jack, but all in all, this one was the right amount of fun mixed with the right amount of mystery. I liked it a lot, actually, and think if you want a quick read with a mystery and slight paranormal activity, it wouldn’t hurt to pick this one up.

There are mysteries everywhere in Winston, but the top two are the mysterious deaths of Dillon Granger and Amanda Stavros. That’s the overarching mystery in this novel, the one Clare concentrates all her psychometry on to solve. There’s also the mystery of Rachel, Clare’s best friend, and why she parties so much, why she didn’t get into the prestigious Golden Key in ninth grade, and what secrets she might be keeping from Clare. I liked Clare and Rachel’s relationship, along with the peripheral girls, Victoria and Giselle. Too many books follow heroines who have no platonic friends and spend all their time with their romantic interest. Another mystery in Winston is why Clare’s mother is so angry with Clare’s grandmother, but this one is kind of an easy one. Even Clare admits she knew all along, but didn’t want to admit it to herself.

And then there’s Jack. Jack is fine. He’s a teenage guy who’s gone through a lot, as they do in YA, and he has some anger issues. I liked their little romance for the most part, especially when Clare reveals her gift to him. That scene was very sweet. My main problem with the Jack/Clare pairing was how very aware Clare was of Jack’s anger, of the possibility of Jack causing violence, but she thinks “he’d never do that to me.” I know it’s supposed to be intuitive, that she just knows he’s safe to her, but that is classic victim-abuser thinking. How many articles in women’s magazines are about women being abused, when they started out thinking “he loves me, he’d never do that to me.” They’re almost always wrong when they think that, and I don’t think we should perpetuate this kind of thing with teens. It’s kind of scary. So that’s why this book got three stars instead of four.

Despite my misgivings, as I mentioned above I still liked this one. It was quick and interesting, with Clare confronting a lot of issues teens might face (moving, new school, trying to fit in with new friends, dealing with partying, friends keeping secrets, family interaction, etc). As I said, I liked Clare’s friendships, but I also liked how her relationship with her mother grew over the course of the novel. It was nice to see a parent who wasn’t completely absent in a YA novel. So I think this one is one to read, especially for all the female bonding happening throughout.

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