Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman captured my attention on Twitter with his wildly exotic and informative tweets. Even in 140 characters Gaiman steals the show and is the most entertaining author I follow. I received The Graveyard Book as a Mother’s Day present and set down immediately and began reading. It was immediately apparent that I was destined to fall in love with Gaiman’s writing style. I have read several more of his works since, and am always impressed by his use of colorful language and interesting plot scenarios. The Graveyard Book also features brilliant and dark illustrations at key points in the book. The author is able to capture audiences from a wide range of genre’s and ages, and has become one of the most innovative writers of his time.
Gaiman’s Graveyard Book follows a boy through his life being raised inside a cemetery. While this sounds a bit dark for younger readers, I assure you the author makes this seem the most normal occurance that could possibly be available for young Bod. He runs to the graveyard as a small child in the middle of the night and is immediately, after some small debate accepted as a resident with full supernatural graveyard powers. As Bod grows up he is challenged with school, friends, and coming of age. Realizations that maybe he wants more than what is to offer inside his small protective home.
It is not safe for Bod to leave the graveyard but as he becomes older he is learning there is more to life than spirits and the small tract of land, and graveyard law. There is a whole world of people just like him living normal lives outside the gates and Bod makes a decision to try to become part of both worlds. When the extent of what happened to Bod’s family surfaces he is forced to finish what was started years before when he was a small child.
I recommend this book for people who have enjoyed Gaiman’s previous works, age 11 to adult, people who like the Septimus Heap or The Nicholas Flamel Series. Fantasy buffs in general will enjoy the vivid storyline.
Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Gayle Forman tugs at your heart strings in this latest YA novel. Mia is a self adjusted, happy teen who loves her parents her younger sibling, and her life in general. Which in it’s own is a pretty novel concept for recent YA literature. A talented cellist with a very bright future, everything in Mia’s life is absolutely perfect. You get an immediate sense of the character and she is an easy character to love and maybe even adore.
Mia gets an unexpected snow day from school, her parents decided to take an impromtu car drive as a family. A car crash later Mia has major life decisions to make. She is a spriting outside of her barely breathing body. Does she choose to stay earth bound and return to her beaten and bruised body and the people left who love her, or does she move on to a different plane and leave her weary body behind.
As I stated before I really love the characters in this book, the building and relationships fit and mesh well and it was refreshing to have a teen who actually isn’t embarrased of, or who just dislikes her parents. Her relationship with her boyfriend is healthy and she has a good sense of self esteem. The writing style of the book read straight through. No huge plot jumps. You really will not want to put this novel down.
Now I just want to touch on the “I am going to compare this book to Twilight” reviews. This book at no time or in no way reminded me of Twilight. There was an actual story line, a real plot,and even awesomely structured sentences. There was no character in any way resembling Edward or Bella, Mia is self adjusted and confident, Adam the boyfriend is a wreck worrying about his girlfriend to the point of doing illegal things to see her. Just so we are clear, this book is not a replacement for or related to Twilight in any manner.
If you enjoyed books such as The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray, Evermore by Alyson Noel, or Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher then you will really dig into this YA thriller.
Review: Nightworld Series L.J. Smith Volume 1, 2, & 3
The Night World..Love has never been so dangerous.
The Night World isn’t a place. It’s all around us. The creatures of Night World are beautiful and deadly and irresistible to humans. Your Best Friend could be one-so could your crush.
The laws of Night World are very clear: humans must never learn that Night World exists. And members of Night World must never fall in love with a human. Violate the laws and the consequences are terrifying.
These are the stories about what happens when the rules get broken.
It’s probably a well known fact to people who read my blog that I am a huge L.J. Smith fan. I didn’t find her works until recently when I saw the Vampire Diaries in reprint from Harper Collins, but L.J. has fans and books spanning back across the past twenty years. The Vampire Diaries is even slated to be a television show starting this fall on the CW, so look out for that one. Also if you are a going to start reading L.J.’s work The Secret Circle books are also in reprint so it is easy to grab copies of those and The Vampire Diaries and the books we are going to be talking about today. The Night World saga.
After picking up a copy of one of the other series, I immediately became hooked to the author’s style of writing. Everything had detail and the situations and places were supernatural but seemed so real as if these events were a fantastic history not a fiction. The Night World is my favorite series from Smith. In the three volumes so far available there are three books each. So in essence nine books are out in three volumes from Simon and Simon Teen. The first volume introduces us to the Night World, what the different inhabitants are and also gears us up to learning what the soul mate principle is. As you read from the book excerpt before, Night People are supposed to stay away from humans, but yet an old power is awakening and humans are becoming the soul-mates of the most influential Night Persons. I recently interviewed L.J. and asked her some questions about the Night World series. Where the idea came from, and who her favorite Night World citizen is.
The second volume in the series, continues with the soul-mate principle. We learn a bit more about why this is happening and we learn of a group of witches called Circle Daybreak that allows humans and Nightworlders into their flock. They want to get along as one society and believe the soul-mate magic is waking up for a reason, something big is on the horizon and the whole world will be rocked.
In the most recent volume we learn that there are four wild powers that will decide the end of the earth. Will they join circle Daybreak and fight for good, or Hunter Redfern and bring about the end of the world? Well the end of humans that is. The stories in this volume are so fantastic and action packed I was shocked when each was done, thinking “that can’t be right, the book is over”. I cannot wait for the final installment so I can tear through and see what happens to the world in this apocalypse. Of course I hope Circle Daybreak finds all the wild powers before the darkness takes over.
I read a lot of teen supernatural books, more than I should probably. I realize a lot of them are fun, and give you a day off from having to think too hard. Relaxation at it’s best. It is however rare to find quality of writing, and quality of story, in these paranormal teen books (ahem Twilight for example), I would like to see the teens who are reading this genre to pick these books up and see what good quality storytelling can mean for how you feel when you lay the book back down. If you liked the Immortal Instrument Series, Twilight Saga, or even the Vampire Diaries, you will love Nightworld.
I think my favorite story of the nine so far is Ash Redfern finding his soul-mate. What is yours?
Author Review: Candace Havens
A while back I received an amazing box from Candace Havens, even with rocking bookmarks. This box really made my day as a reviewer, the books were pristine and signed with one of the most beautiful signatures I have ever seen. I am now aspiring to come up with my own fancy signature, even though I really have no need. Guess I could start writing checks for bills instead of paying them online.
It’s not very often as a reviewer that you get such an awesome present, and with that aside reading these books for me was a pure joy. It has the mystery of Charlaine Harris without all of the plot skipping and annoyances. Candace takes each of her characters and within the first few chapters she has fleshed out a person that you can see bumping into at the local Starbucks. Her list of side characters are also very personable and you really are able to like or relate to all of the persons in her stories. Her writing style is easy to follow and fun, and at least once in every single one of the books I laughed out loud. I am in awe of her persistence, and ability to keep up with the details of previous works from herself, even the small.
I first read The Demon King and I
Immediately enthused with Havens stories I jumped straight into Charmed & Dangerous 
The last and final book I had from Candace was a great surprise to me. Like a Charm
Review: The 8th Confession, The Women’s Murder Club book 8 by James Patterson
The 8th Confession by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro is the first of the Women’s Murder Club for me, and the 8th in the series. The book is up for sale on the 27th of April, so no spoilers here for you.
I have to admit I always wanted to read some of Patterson’s books and just never got around to it, my official excuse was “I am in the middle of so many trilogies and series now how can I possibly keep up with another one.” I still do not know the answer to that but I know this, I am adding several more series to my list of things to watch out for while I back read some of James’ work. I am especially interested in The Women’s Murder Club and the Maximum Ride books.
This book follows the women through several cases at once and some personal drama. Rich socialites keep turning up dead with no clue on cause of death. Even the toxicology reports are clean. Lindsay and Rich are having a hard time finding which way to go on this case and they had been pulled off a case they wanted to work. A local homeless messiah called Bagman Jesus turns up dead violently on the street, happens all the time for the homeless right? This story is just a bit different, everyone loved Bagman Jesus, he saved so many people on that block, and no one saw or heard a thing of course. Cindy the reporter and Rich start seeing each other and both decide not to tell Lindsay, of course Cindy has no clue how Lindsay and Rich feel about each other. These are the kind of secrets that rip friends apart.
I had to give this book five stars, I was reading it thinking, okay there are lots of characters here but I can keep up this is great, and all the characters are so well defined. There are 4 separate plots but they are all very interesting, but how is this going to tie in to the last couple of chapters. Well let me just say it all tied in, I stayed up late last night to finish this book and the ending was so mind blowing and sublime I immediately wished I had another Patterson novel to pick up and start with, but alas I will have to order them today and wait for the mail.
Big thanks to Miriam at Grand Central Pub and Little Brown for giving me the unique opportunity to discover and review Patterson.
