FINISHED: 
Smith, Ronald L. (2017). The Mesmerist. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[In Victorian England, 13-year-old, white Jessamine helps her mother in swindling those who wish to contact the dead, and comes to discover that her parents were members of the League of Ravens, a group of folk with special abilities who protected England from an evil necromancer named Mephisto.  When Jess figures out that she, too, has an ability (to read people’s memories) she goes to live with Balthazar, the old head of the League of Ravens, and two other young people with special powers, and the three of them take it upon themselves to banish Mephisto forever when it appears that he has returned and is spreading disease throughout London.  Smith’s follow up to his eerie Hoodoo (Clarion, 2015) is equally creepy, dripping with mood and a heavy sense of foreboding, with tense, claustrophobic battle sequences against ghouls in the newly constructed London Underground, and the repeated use of the rhyme/song “Ring Around the Rosie” that will elicit chills.  When London becomes overrun by a mysterious disease (caused by Mephisto) and townspeople look for a scapegoat, ultimately settling on immigrants (“Foreigners out of our England!”), one can’t help but call to mind Brexit, the “Muslim Ban”, and other similar events in the current tide of nationalism.  This is one that more mature scary story fans should thoroughly enjoy.]

STARTED:
Wolk, Lauren. (2017). Beyond the Bright Sea. New York: Dutton/Penguin Random House.

[Newbery buzz...]

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FINISHED:
Dougherty, Michael. (2015). Trick 'r Treat: Days of the Dead. Burbank, CA: Legendary Comics.

[.]

STARTED:
Appelt, Kathi, and Alison McGhee. (2016). Maybe a Fox. New York: Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Dashner, James. (2012). The kill order. New York: Delacorte.


[.]

STARTED:
Schmidt, Gary D. (2012). What came from the stars. Boston: Clarion.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Bruchac, Joseph. (2011). Wolf mark. New York: Tu/Lee & Low.

[Luke is a seventeen year-old living in a trailer with his father, a former Special-ops agent who has turned to alcohol and pot for comfort after the death of Luke’s mother, who does well in school, has a crush on his best female friend, rides a motorcycle, and just so happens to be a shapeshifter. When his father goes missing and he’s led to an old house by a note his father left behind, Luke finally comes to fully embrace his “skinwalker” ancestry by putting on a wolf skin he finds in an old chest which transforms him into a human/wolf hybrid. Luke’s search for his father ultimately ends (with the help of some Russian students at school who seem to be a vampire mafia) at Maxico, a mysterious “cutting edge” research facility in town which, it turns out, needs shapshifters in order to do tests on cellular self-regeneration, with the goal of hoping to stop the aging process. Despite a few encyclopedic asides that assume ignorance of the reader and come across as didactic, and some cultural references that Luke makes which seem unlikely for a teenager of today (“Make it so!” from Star Trek: Next Generation, David Byrne, E.T.), Luke’s personal journey is thorough and thoughtfully realized with a lot of attention paid to Luke coming to understand who he is and what that means (“That, my father’s brief instructions told me, has long been the way of our people. You must learn to be human first before you can accept the power and not be lost in it. Otherwise, you become a creature out of nightmares with no compassion for any being, no urge other than to hunt and kill.”). The novel’s size (almost 400 pages) and lack of much dialogue may be intimidating, but short, digestible chapters and a story which brings in elements of science fiction, thrillers, horror, spiritual lore, and even teen romance help to keep up a steady pace that moves the action along. An Author’s Note speaks to Bruchac’s own heritage, research on werewolf lore, knowledge of martial arts, and wanting to justly depict Russian characters.]

STARTED:
Jones, Allan, and Chalk, Gary. (2010). The Six Crowns: Trundle's quest. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. (2011). Tantalize: Kieren's story. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[Quincie and her uncle are reopening their family restaurant as Sanguini’s, an Italian restaurant that will cater to “predators” and “prey”… vampires and humans. When the head chef, Vaggio, is found murdered in the kitchen, Quincie’s on again/off again boyfriend, Kieren, a human/werewolf hybrid, is accused of the brutal killing. This sets Kieren off on an investigation to not only find out who really murdered Vaggio, but also to find out what may have happened to all of the high school students that have recently gone missing, eventually discovering that the new head chef of the restaurant is using it as a device to create new vampires. Based on her own 2007 dark fantasy novel Tantalize (Candlewick, 2007), though with the focus shifted from the female protagonist to her hybrid (human/werewolf) boyfriend, this graphic novelization ends up being more boring than violent: there’s one scene where the vice principal of Quincie and Kieren’s school gets his head chopped off, but, otherwise it’s Kieren driving around town trying to find Quincie for the majority of the story. Being based off of a novel, there are definite moments where it seems like there is jump in the storyline/action, and some of the illustrated panels are so busy and muddy that it is difficult to figure out what we are being shown. That said, though the werewolf/vampire craze may be waning, this will find a definite audience – albeit one that may be disappointed in the lack of blood and gore. A brief Author’s Note discusses the literary and setting inspirations for the original novel. [Review based on ARC.]]

STARTED:
Brosgol, Vera. (2011). Anya's ghost. New York: First Second/Roaring Brook.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Scieszka, Jon [ed.]. (2011). Guys read: Thriller. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Skye, Obert. (2011). Wonkenstein: the creature from my closet. New York: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt.

[Reviewing for ACL...]

*

FINISHED:
Black, Holly, and Justine Larbalestier, eds. (2010). Zombies vs. unicorns. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books.

[Which is cooler: zombies or unicorns? This anthology of 12 short stories, 6 featuring zombies (on whose side editor Justine Larbalestier firmly falls), and 6 featuring unicorns (the team led by editor Holly Black), aims to settle this debate once and for all. The stories themselves run the gamut: a girl rescues a newborn unicorn from a carnival sideshow at a time when unicorns are running wild and murdering with their poisonous horns; a take on a babysitter horror story where a college student ends up sitting for a famous actress’ adopted, reanimated children; a man is beheaded after being accused of sexually assaulting a princess, but when the princess gives birth is becomes clear that the baby’s father was actually a unicorn; and a group of high school students are determined to have their prom despite the fact that their town is becoming overrun with zombies, many of whom are their family members and fellow students. Interestingly, two of the zombie stories are written in 1st person and are not explicitly about homosexuality, but in both there are references, or a sense of equation, between homosexuality and being a zombie. In one of the stories, after the female narrator and a female friend become “blood buddies” with a bit of zombie blood, the friend cryptically says, “Like, if Dr. Bill saw you and me next to each other, he’d figure out what we were.” Each story is preceded by a witty tete-a-tete – palate cleansers that involve the editors stating their arguments, relating to the upcoming story, on behalf of their preferred beast. For the most part, every story is a compelling gem – some funny, some eerie, and some just plain bizarre – making the debate of “zombie or unicorn” that much more difficult.]

STARTED:
Railsback, Lisa. (2010). Noonie's masterpiece. San Francisco: Chronicle.

[Reading for ACL Distinguished.]

*

FINISHED:
Shan, Darren. (2010). The thin executioner. New York: Little, Brown & Co.

[After being publicly humiliated for his perceived weakness by his executioner father, Jebel embarks on a mythic quest to ask a fire god for invincibility in hopes of being able to return to his home and win a competition to be the new town executioner. Accompanying Jebel is a slave, Tel Hesani, whom he knows he will eventually need to sacrifice in order to appease the god, though along the way Jebel learns tolerance and the fact that it’s the journey, not what’s at the end of the road, that really matters. Shan, author of the popular vampire series Cirque du Freak (Little, Brown, 2001) has penned a (trademark) gory homage to Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which includes cons, cannibals, and involuntary graverobbing. Most characters are a bit one-dimensional and the quest story is nothing new, but Jebel’s paradigm shift in regard to what he has always learned is traditionally “right” or “normal”, and the examination of religious differences (though somewhat heavy-handed) are important lessons. Plenty of blood is shed through realistic human-on-human stabbings, slicings and beheadings which should satisfy young adult horror fans [Reviewed from ARC.].]

STARTED:
Houtman, Jacqueline. (2010). The reinvention of Edison Thomas. Honesdale, PA: Front Street/Boyds Mills.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:

King, Stephen. (1991). Four past midnight: The Langoliers. New York: Signet/Penguin.

[.]

STARTED:
Buzbee, Lewis. (2008). Steinbeck's ghost. New York: Feiwel and Friends/MacMillan.

[Heard great things, plus I believe that it won an award - maybe something to do with Northern California authors?]

*

FINISHED:

Koontz, Dean. (2003). Odd Thomas. New York: Bantam Dell/Random House.

[Odd lives in a medium-sized town in the California desert and can communicate with the dead. He sees them hanging around the places where they died, and he has the ability to sense when evil and/or death are around. This one reminded me too much of a Stephen King novel, and I just don't like Stephen King - there's just something icky and upsetting about their work, to me. There's a nice love story here, and I was quite surprised by an event at the end, but it was also a lot of explanation and not a whole lot of action, suspense, or horror.]

STARTED:
Riordan, Rick. (2008). The 39 clues: The maze of bones. New York: HarperCollins.

[This is the start of some new series in which a couple of kids have to find a bunch of clues to something that will affect their family name, and, likely, the world at large. Each one, I guess, will be written by a different author, and kids reading these will be able to collect cards and go online to help solve a major mystery which could earn them big bucks. Color me INTRIGUED!]


ABANDONED:
Hardinge, Frances. (2008). Well witched. New York: Scholastic.

[Just drudgery. Quite a letdown for me because I was really looking forward to this one. It was confusing, I kept feeling like I missed something, and just never really got going for me.]

*

FINISHED:

Coville, Bruce. (2008). Oddest of all. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.

[Here's my review for ACL:

In a spooky house on a rainy night, Chris and Nine help a woman to make amends with her dead mother who has been haunting her; Harley Burton finds himself in the possession of a creepy mask that looks suspiciously like a young man who has been missing for 50 years; Dennis comes to find out, after being pulled down into a pond, that he is part frog and is enlisted to speak for frogs who are victims of toxic waste dumping; in a “Tiger or the Lady” tale, humankind must decide whether they believe the good intentions of aliens who say they would like to help rid Earth of it’s problems. These, and five other tales of the twisted and fantastic are told in Coville’s latest short story collection, each tale being his own take on certain “scary story” standards. Coville hits on many different genres here, including science fiction, gothic horror, ghost, fantasy, and realism (13-year-old Murphy is recruited by the girl of his dreams to take part in a skit, written by, and opposite her, titled Debbie and the Doofus), and each is deftly set apart by it’s own language apropos to the genre. There are some nice chills and genuine creepiness here sure to appease hungry young fans of scary stories. It should be noted that there is a reference to marijuana in one of the tales, and that many of these stories have appeared, albeit in slightly different forms, in previously published short story collections.]

STARTED:
Pfeffer, Susan Beth. (2008). The dead and the gone. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.

[Reading and reviewing for ACL.]

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