Feral

Claire Cain moves to small town Peculiar, Missouri after surviving a brutal attack in her home town, Chicago. She had exposed a drug ring at her high school to clear her best friend's name after drugs are planted in her locker. Starting over in a small town should be easy, but too many things remind her of Chicago. The day she arrived in Peculiar, a girl named Serena Sims goes missing in a storm just like the one that Claire was attacked in. A few days later, Claire is the one to find her body, crushed by a tree branch and partially devoured by the many feral cats that populate the town. She needs to find out what happened to Serena and her journey for the truth leads to the abandoned basement of her school and the secrets that lay within.

Despite the writing being pretty decent, I just didn't like Feral. It seems to want to be a horror novel, but never quite gets that terrifying. The creepiest parts are when the young girls are attacked. The cats in the town are described being malicious and evil, but this annoyed me more than anything else. Feral cats may be a nuisance, but they aren't evil. I'm also kind of a crazy cat lady, so this part made me roll my eyes like crazy. Also, since the cats are really just for atmosphere, I'm not sure why it merited naming the book after them.

Although Claire has my sympathy for being attacked, I simply didn't like her. She is super smug, entitled, and just not likable. I couldn't relate to her at all. She does pretty offensive things like blaming her best friend for the attack she experienced and not even sending a one sentence text to the same friend who contacted her over and over to see if she's ok. I understand being frustrated that their relationship changed after the attack. It's hard to adjust after something like that and I'm sure it came from a caring place, but that in no way justifies Claire's later actions. The other characters kind of blurred together and lacked dimensions

The book veers into supernatural territory quickly, but in weird and heavy handed ways. For some reason Serena could still feel pain after death and then she possessed a cat and turned evil. There was no real logic to it and no real reason for a murder victim to suddenly turn murderous herself. A fog literally started talking to Claire, which just made me think she was mentally ill rather than experiencing supernatural phenomena. And you can't be suffocated in a car with the heater blowing. That's just ridiculous when air is being blown into the car at warm temperature and I'm supposed to believe the people inside are suffocating. Too much ridiculousness for one book. I was extremely disappointed and likely will not read another book by the same author.

My rating: 1.5/5 fishmuffins

Say What You Will

Amy has been going to school with the same people since she started, but very few people really know her. She has a severe case of cerebral palsy, meaning she can't walk without a walker, speak without a computer, or control her gestures or facial expressions. Adult aides have also helped her in her classes. To make more friends, she decided to employ people her own age in order to prepare for college and become more socialized. Enter Matthew, a sweet boy with obsessive compulsive disorder. He can't go a few hours without counting or tapping things, washing his hands over and over, fear of dirt or germs, and the irrational fear that something he does or doesn't do will inadvertently hurt someone. They become good friends when he works as her aide because he treats her like a real person and doesn't sugarcoat things. Their relationship eventually blossoms into something wholly unexpected.

Right off the bat, Say What You Will was a surprise because Amy's cerebral palsy, a central part of the novel, is omitted from the back cover. I'm not sure why this choice was made because I would definitely been more excited to read it had they included this aspect in the description. Her disability is severe and described accurately without glossing over things. There is no way for her to communicate without outward help: she can't speak or control her gestures or facial expressions. Despite her appearance and her nonverbal state, Amy is very intelligent and excels in school. She has never had any friends her own age, so she's very naive and doesn't know how to deal with people well. Her relationship with Matthew has a lot of extreme highs and lows due to miscommunication and the fact that neither of them has had a very close friend. He's the first person who isn't afraid to tell her the truth and refuses to treat her differently. I loved Amy for her honesty. She told things like they were and held realistic views. The lows she experienced were devastating because it's her first time experiencing rejection or being used or anything involving friends or boyfriends. Her depression and loneliness were written incredibly well and

Matthew was also a compelling and fully realized character. While he looks like a normal kid, he has debilitating obsessive compulsive disorder that isolates him and takes up much of his time. He's in denial about how severe it is despite the fact that it's very noticeable to everyone around him. Because of it, he avoids people, consumed with the irrational fears and compulsions in his mind. Although his issues are less obvious than Amy's, the effect is the same. They help each other out in a lot of ways and the relationship changes both of them dramatically. Most notably, Amy gives Matthew assignments to confront his OCD and he eventually gets professional help as a result. He is fragile in his own way and like Amy, the bad parts of the relationship are felt more keenly. Although their relationship never quite progresses to a full blown romance, their interactions are very sweet and I felt for them.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the story, some parts of it were bothersome. Amy and Matthew would go months without speaking after a fight at least 3 times during the novel. The same situation repeated and the characters learned nothing from it apparently when they regretted it each time. Amy was very analytical in her approach to things, sometimes too much so. She makes the most insensitive decisions sometimes and it's frustrating. The whole third act of the book is very unexpected and I understand why it's there, but I didn't like it. I felt it was sort of preachy and the narrative didn't go into the issues I felt were necessary involving the subject when teens are the target audience.

Say What You Will is a thought provoking novel that deals with disabilities, both those that are easily recognized and those that aren't. It shows that these people are just like any person and they don't deserve to be treated like their fragile or incompetent. I particularly enjoyed the different modes of communication shown: e-mails, instant messages, unsent e-mails, etc. I will definitely keep an eye out for other books by Cammie McGovern.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Love Letters to the Dead

It's Laurel's first year in high school and the first school year without her sister, May, or her mother, who moved to California after May's death. She transferred to a different school so that she wouldn't be pitied and known as the girl whose sister died. Her English teacher assigns a project to write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because he is May's favorite singer and also because she relates to his emotional lyrics.This first letter leads her to write to other dead celebrities, such as Amy Winehouse, Heath Ledger, Judy Garland, and John Keats. Laurel relates her lonely existence, her first friends at her new school, their antics, and her first boyfriend. Unfortunately, her refusal to talk about her issues and her penchant for doing dangerous things drives the people she loves away. Can she work through her issues before she permanently loses her friends or causes sever injury to herself?

Love Letters to the Dead is a very emotional book. Laurel goes through a lot in a very short amount of time and uses her letters to a variety of famous dead people to cope with it. She relates to their lives, their feelings, and their tragedies. I'm surprised that she researched more than what is common knowledge about their lives so that I learned something about them as well. Her letters also describe her new life and how she tries to transform herself. High school has much different expectations than middle school and she wears her sister's cool clothes and changes her habits to fit in. I generally liked Laurel and I felt for her. She's trying to work through her grief and the deep pain she feels while making mistakes along the way. Ava Dellaira employs beautiful, poetic prose that made me relate to Laurel and also made the book easy and enjoyable to read.

Unfortunately, I had quite a few issues with the book. Dellaira's lyrical prose isn't consistent. At times, Laurel writes in short and very simple declarative sentences that are a stark contrast to the lyrical prose that ventures into deep territory. It felt a bit disjointed and weird to me. She befriends Hannah and Natalie who basically peer pressure her into drinking, ditching classes, going to college parties, etc. She doesn't seem to want to actually do these things, but only wants to appear cool to her friends. This is never seen as negative, is never really addressed, and left a bad taste in my mouth. These are also very similar to May's destructive behaviors, but they magically didn't negatively effect Laurel's grades or behavior during school or at home even though she was getting drunk a lot, partying late, etc. I also didn't like her relationship with Sky. The chemistry was forced and the double standards were glaring. Sky expected Laurel to tell him everything while he kept up this mysterious guy facade and kept things from her late into their relationship. It was a bit awkward and the double standard bothered me. I was also shocked that her mother just decided to move out of state and leave her grieving family very soon after such a traumatic event. I felt it was incredibly selfish and pretty much unforgivable, especially when she calls weekly and expects Laurel to be ok with it.

Love Letters to the Dead is a mostly beautifully written novel. I enjoyed Laurel, her journey, and how she related to these dead people. Her story pulled at my heartstrings and took me on an emotional rollercoaster. The book addresses these mostly tragic figures lives well and informs the reader about their lives and their feelings. I did have some significant issues with parts of the story, but I overall enjoyed it.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

The Shadows

Grace Knox's life has been turned upside down. Her father recently died, leaving their family with a failed business, lots of debt, lawsuits against them, and struggling to survive. Her family's only hope is for her to marry a rich man. Fortunately, Patrick Devlin, a wealthy childhood friend, expresses interest in her. He's nice, age appropriate, and seems to truly care for her. Enter Derry, or Diarmid of Irish legend. He and the Fianna, ancient Irish warriors, were called by Patrick in order to overthrow the English rule of Ireland. Derry infiltrates the Devlin house to see if Patrick is the one who called them and what his intentions are. Unfortunately, Patrick thought the spell didn't work and also calls up the Fomori, a rival band of ancient warriors known to be harbingers of chaos and enslavement. Will they put aside their difference to work to free Ireland or willy they destroy each other in an epic battle?

The Shadows immediately interested me because of the focus on Irish mythology and Victorian society. The book does explore Irish mythology that I wasn't famliar with before. The Fianna and the stories involving them were the most interesting part of the story for me. They were dead for thousands of years because their hubris turned them into selfish tyrants A spell was bestowed upon them to either find a cause worthy enough for a priestess to agree with them and sacrifice herself for it or they would simply fail and die. Their internal stories before this were also drama filled, with stolen loves, killer boars, jealous exes, and tragic deaths. The Fianna in the present posed as a street gang in order to blend in while they figure out their situation. Overall, I liked them, but I would have liked to get a better picture of all of them, instead of just the leader Finn and Derry. The Victorian society aspects were inconsistent and lacking. Sometimes Grace would freak out at impropriety and other times, she would embrace it. There were no concrete consequences for not following the expectations of her station and it made that part of the book fall flat.

Grace is honestly kind of boring. I feel for her and her situation, but her constant oscillating between Patrick and Derry is annoying. Plus her decision for this book will most certainly be changed at least once before the series is over. Her logic and thought process was odd and unnatural at times and I felt more annoyed by her than anything. It feels like nothing truly happens throughout the book. It takes a long time to even move forward with the characters finally becoming aware of each other. Nothing is resolved and nothing very exciting happens. It feels like a second book in a trilogy, which is typically all set up and no payoff which is saved for the last book.

The Shadows delivered on Irish mythology, but not much else. I felt as if nothing really happened except a lot of set up through the entire novel. I grew bored with the story as a result and I'm not sure I would even read the next book in the series.

My rating: 2.5/5 fishmuffins

(Don't You) Forget About Me

Gardnerville is a miraculous town. No one dies of disease and only the extremely old finally succumb after over a hundred years. People come there as a last resort when all treatment has failed. But the town isn't perfect; it's also magical. You might think this would be amazing and wonderful to live in, but the reality has hormone filled and emotional teenagers murdering their peers with magic powers. The effects are the most devastating during fourth years. Sisters Piper and Skyler were always inseparable until Piper committed a horrific crime during a fourth year and was then imprisoned in the reformatory. Skyler has been taking forget-me-not pills to live in a constant state of oblivion. She gets the pills in exchange for pointing out people who are on the verge of emotional instability that would give rise to another disaster. If she wants to save her sister, she has to kick the pills and figure out a way to stop the murderous cycle in Gardernville.

(Don't You) Forget About Me was a surprising read. I had an idea going into it how the plot would go and I couldn't have been more wrong. Plus the concept of a magical town with a dark side is one reason why I couldn't put the book down. Gardnerville is a magical place filled with health and people who live abnormally long. The price for that longevity isn't small: every year strange and dangerous occurrences happen with the teens there, triggered by hormones and heightened emotion. Anything can happen from heating the weather to unbearable temperatures to electric orbs that lure people into touching them to compelling people to jump off a cliff. Is it really worth it? People with inoperable tumors or incurable diseases will live healthily for a very long time, but risk dying in a bizarre and unforeseeable way. The ways the extreme fourth years can manifest were varied and unique. These scenes provided a level surrealism and dark whimsy that I haven't read in a while.

The characters were odd in their own ways and the town gave most of them some sort of supernatural power. Skyler is the most unreliable narrator I've ever read because she doesn't even know what's true or false. She constantly takes these forget-me-not pills that send her into comfortable oblivion with no idea how much of the past or present she has forgotten. The reader stumbles around with and her tries to make sense of the glimpses of the present and the past and it all comes together in an unexpected way in the end. Skyler's sister Piper is hard to deal with. She's strong, take charge, and bossy, but she doesn't seem to always think things through or consider how her actions will affect other people. I liked her in general, but she could be annoying. The romance with Foote was sweet, but not really needed in the story. I liked his character all right, but the story wouldn't have changed much without him,

(Don'tYou) Forget About Me is a surreal and mindbending adventure. I love Gardnerville and I enjoyed trying to solve the mystery before the end, which I failed at. The characters are memorable and fully realized. I would definitely read other books by Kate Karyus Quinn. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Afterworlds

Darcy Patel spent a month during her senior year furiously writing a complete YA novel. It's been picked up by a large book publisher and Darcy puts off college to edit the book as well as write and edit a sequel. She moves to New York City for a change of scenery, encountering other authors (both debut and seasoned) to help her survive in the city and the publishing industry. The first book she's writing is called Afterworlds and features Lizzie, a girl who can travel to the space between living and dead after being the sole survivor in a terrorist attack. Both girls fall in love, experience heartbreak. and have adventures they never expected to have.

Afterworlds is two novels in one. One is in our world with Darcy Patel, debut young adult author struggling to finish her first book, and the other is in a fictional world with Lizzie, survivor and psychopomp (one who escorts the dead to the afterlife and yes it sounds weird). They are told in alternating chapters with no indication when it switches save for change of point of view. Each story is distinct and I never had a problem guessing which one I was in at any given point. Although the book is lengthy at over 600 pages, both stories kept momentum and my interest.

I honestly expected Darcy's story to be insanely boring and hard to get through compared to the much more exciting other story that has ghosts, another world, and a cute and mysterious death god. Contemporary fiction isn't my favorite genre either. I was pleasantly surprised when her story was equally thrilling and entertaining to read. Her story has more things every day people can relate to: the detachment from her familial culture, the discovery of her sexuality, her first relationship, and the trials and tribulations of creating a book. I liked Darcy because of her journey. She started out as extremely naive and unsure of just about everything, but eager to embark on this new adventure. Along the way, she matured and learned to trust in those she loves and how to make more informed, responsible desicions. I loved her relationship with Imogen Gray. Westerfeld captures the feeling of first love well, the magic and also the insecurity. It's also nice to see an LGBT romance when so many teen books act like they don't exist at all.

The story within a story was awesome and I couldn't get enough of it. The first chapter just hit me like a freight train and I couldn't put it down after that. Lizzie experienced a very traumatic event and on top of processing that, she has to figure out her new powers as a psychopomp. The character are less interesting than Darcy's story, but the concepts and themes are more complex. Ghosts survive on people's memories of them and they disappear when those people are gone. Their personalities and memories are also affected when someone dies who remembers a part of them that no one else remembers. It calls into question if ghosts are really people and never really resolves it. Lizzie has a whole slew of abilities including traveling on a river made of shreds of ghosts/memories, visiting buildings that are long gone, travelling through walls, and of course, talking to ghosts. The story had some seriously creeptastic moments, which I loved! This story also had the most problems. The death cult that orchestrated the terrorist attack is a big blank and isn't explored at all. The characters are less detailed. My biggest problem was when Lizzie commits a horrific crime and only feels remotely bad because her death god boyfriend doesn't want to spend time with her anymore. Darcy's narrative informs this book as the characters in that story discuss edits and decisions made about the plot, characters, etc, which is a cool added level.

Both stories are compelling in their own way, but Darcy's story feels more complete and well written. I think everyone could find something they like whether it's paranormal romance, contemporary fiction, cool mythologies, insight into the publishing industry, dark angsty stories, or more realistic stories. Scott Westerfeld is one of my favorite authors and Afterworlds doesn't disappoint. I'm not sure if there will be a sequel, but I will be all over it if there is.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

One Kick

Kick Lannigan is twenty-one now, but the public still sees her as an eleven year old being rescued from kidnappers after five years missing. After being effectively brainwashed by the pedophiles and child pornographers that captured her, she vows to never be forced to do anything against her will. As a child, her abusers trained her to pick locks, go unnoticed, and a slew of other skills to help them. On top of this training, she educated herself in other relevant skills in order to save as many children as she can from her own fate. By herself, she only listens to the police scanner and searches up and down highways for the license plates on amber alerts. John Bishop, mysterious guy working for a mysterious and very rich private company, employs her because she will be able to see things others don't because she spent years with these criminals. Kick will have to delve deeply into her traumatic past in order to save these children, even delving into events locked away long ago.

I'm a big fan of Chelsea Cain's and I was super excited to see she's coming out with a new series. Her other series is mystery, but focuses on serial killers, gruesome crime scenes, and an incredibly twisted relationship. This new series is very different and focuses on child abuse and child pornography. Despite it being a central part of the plot, the book is not super descriptive about the sexual abuse of children because it would frankly be too offputting and offensive. I think quite a few readers won't read it because of the subject matter along with the fact that it isn't mentioned at all in the marketing. It's not a subject widely talked about or even covered much in the news, but this disgusting exploitation and buying and selling of children is real. Cain trades the extreme gore of her Gretchen Lowell series for a more subtle horror that sickens in a much different way.

Kick Lannigan is a memorable and very flawed character. She's a tough cookie who has been through a lot despite being quite young.. Her paradoxical personality and outlook give her character realistic dimensions. She's worldly yet naive, strong yet fragile and broken, observant and insightful yet so blind. Her motivation to save missing children stems from her own actions as a child. She was trained to destroy all computer evidence if the police ever came for them and she performed the maneuver well without knowing how many children would continue to be victimized and how many pedophiles would go free. That's some pretty intense guilt even though she wasn't truly at fault. I was a bit annoyed at some of her decisions, but I make allowances for her because of her young age and the abuse she experienced that still affects her. The most disturbing effect of that abuse is the Stockholm Sydnrome between her and her abuser. She insists he isn't like the others and still feels affection for him. I just want to shake her, but the effects of abuse can't be reversed even over a decade.

The other characters are just as interesting as Kick. I love Kick's relationship with James, an adopted brother who experienced the same abuse. They protect each other and care for each other at all costs. Kick's mother is a piece of work who doesn't hesitate to exploit her daughter for media attention. Deep down, I think she does care, but the shellacked and perfect persona she puts forward disgusts me. James, tall, dark and mysterious, annoyed me at first, but proved to have a lot more layers than I thought. He's kind of an ass and keeps a lot of important information to himself, but he's a good person who wants to save children just as much as Kick does. These characters stayed with me long after I closed the book.

One Kick is a thrill ride of a mystery that tackles very uncomfortable subject matter. I read it within a day and I already want the sequel even though this book isn't out yet. The series has great potential and I can't wait to see where Chelsea Cain takes these characters next.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins