Review: The Light (Morpheus Road)by D.J. MacHale

Synopsis from jacket:

Marshall Seaver is being haunted.







It begins with mysterious sounds, a fleeting face outside a window, a rogue breeze—all things that can be explained away. That is, until he comes face-to-face with a character who only exists on


the pages of a sketchbook—a character Marshall himself created.




Marshall has no idea why he is being tormented by this forbidding creature, but he is quickly convinced it has something to do with his best friend, Cooper, who has gone missing. Together with Cooper's beautiful but aloof sister, Sydney, Marshall searches for the truth about his friend while ultimately uncovering a nightmare that is bigger and more frightening than he could ever have imagined.




Number one New York Times bestselling author D. J. MacHale launches his eerie new trilogy with a story so packed with chilling suspense, readers will want to sleep with the light on.





Was This Book Worth My Time?

Yep.

I am a mystery fanatic.  Give me a good mystery book anyday, and I'll curl up under the covers and read until the last page is turned.  Based on my ultra-scientific rating system of "if it's worth my time, I'll read without breaking" this book earns a "great" on my scale.  I put this book down only in dire situations (cooking supper, showering, and fixing a nice sized bowl of vanilla yougurt topped with Cap'n Crunch). 

MacHale builds tension in the story at an alarming rate.  Right off the bat, Marshall is left at home alone and starts hearing strange noises.  MacHale does such a good job of painting the picture of Marshall going from room to room that I caught myself holding my breath as he opened a closet or turned on the light in a darkened room. 

His villians "pop" up at the most unexpected times, and Marshall is caught in some dangerous situations that a whole lot more creative than the overused dark alley. 

This book is an easy read with high-level of engagement.  This is pefect for any mystery lover!


What Bothered Me?

I totally hate books that lead up to a great ending and then let me down.  The whole way through the book I'm thinking, "This is great."  Then, I get to end, and I'm left thinking, "What just happened?"  The whole basis of the mystery - the whole reason Cooper went missing - is never explained. Sure, we know who caused Cooper's disappearance and what he wants, but we don't know the story BEHIND what he wants. I guess MacHale did this because he plans to write two more books that follow Marshall and Cooper, but, man, I hate feeling like I didn't get "it." 

Review: Bones of faerie by Janni Lee Simner

Synopsis from jacket:

The war between humanity and Faerie devastated both sides. Or so 15-year-old Liza has been told. Nothing has been seen or heard from Faerie since, and Liza’s world bears the scars of its encounter with magic. Trees move with sinister intention, and the town Liza calls home is surrounded by a forest that threatens to harm all those who wander into it. Then Liza discovers she has the Faerie ability to see—into the past, into the future—and she has no choice but to flee her town. Liza’s quest will take her into Faerie and back again, and what she finds along the way may be the key to healing both worlds.


Janni Lee Simner’s first novel for young adults is a dark fairy-tale twist on apocalyptic fiction—as familiar as a nightmare, yet altogether unique

Was This Book Worth My Time?

Sure.

This book was interesting to me.  The setting is futuristic in that the villagers once had TV, but the war destroyed them.  There are many parts of the book that made me stop and think about what kind of book I was reading because it seems so surreal.  There is no magic in our world, but in this book they make it seem as if there is no one in the world who does NOT possess some sort of magical ability.

This novel was a breath of fresh air after I struggled through Janni Lee Simner's second book Thief Eyes.  This book was written with more action and a lot more depth - somethign I searched to find in Thief Eyes.


This wasn't a "I don't want to put it down" kind of book for me.  It is a book that has elements of scary fairy-tale and post-apocalyptic characteristics. 


What Bothered Me?
I felt like I was never let in on the history of the characters. I was a little put off by this beacuse there were times when I couldn't understand why a character was doing something.  It's hard for me, as a reader, to justify a character's motive without a history. 


More than anything, I'm bothered with the fact that I don't have much to say period.  That speaks for itself.  It's a good book.  Nothing special. 

Review: Ashes by Kathryn Lasky

Synopsis from jacket:



Berlin, 1932: In many ways thirteen-year-old Gabriella Schramm lives a charmed, carefree life. She loves her parents and her sister, Ulla. She loves her new literature teacher. She loves her family’s summer lake house, next door to Albert Einstein’s. And most of all, Gaby loves books.


But soon she begins losing all these thing, one by one, as Hitler unstoppably climbs to power. People Gaby thought she could trust turn out to be Nazis. Many of her friends are fleeing, or, worse, being taken away. And there’s something troubling about Ulla’s boyfriend that Gaby can’t quite figure out. As always, she turns to her books for comfort – but even those are disappearing.


Newbery Honor winner and master of historical fiction Kathryn Lasky once again brings the past to life with this searing portrait of a nation on the brink of war, and a girl whose life is about to change.



Was This Book Worth My Time?

YES! YES! YES!

I spend a 6 weeks in my classroom teaching a Holocaust unit and was anxious to see if this book portrayed the Holocaust in an interesting way. Let’s face it, when a teacher says we will be studying historical fiction many students sigh. It’s hard to get kids to want to learn about history (kudos to you history teachers that made it interesting).

This book is FANTASTIC. Somehow, Lasky weaves the rise of Hitler’s power into a story about a curious, independent girl, Gaby, and her family’s fight to be independent thinkers.

I learned more about the Holocaust than I have in doing research to present in my lessons. Lasky nonchalantly throws in information in a way that feels easy and simple to understand. I thought about why it was that I felt this way and came to the realization that it was because I was Gaby. It was easy due to the style of Lasky’s writing to become Gaby and live her life. I felt her emotions and lived her fear.

What Bothered Me?

When I get to this part of my blog, I always think really hard about something, anything, that might throw a reader off the novel. If I say that “nothing” bothered me, it’s because I literally could not find one thing that might throw someone off.

When I thought about this book, the only thing that “threw” me was the fact that there were many paragraphs devoted to talk between Gaby’s father and Albert Einstein. As you can imagine, any talk with Einstein would include in-depth discussions about science, and the talks with Gaby’s father were no exception. I am a fan of learning (you would be hard-pressed to find a teacher who wasn’t); however, I am neither a science nor a math lover and ,therefore, spent most of those paragraphs feeling a little bored.

Review: Wayfarer by R.J. Anderson

Synopsis from jacket:

In a time of deadly crisis, Linden alone has the power to save her people.

The faeries of the Oak are in danger of extinction, and their only hope for survival rests in fifteen-year-old Linden. Armed with the last of her people’s magic, she travels bravely into the modern human world. Along the way she makes a reluctant ally – a human boy named Timothy.


Soon Linden and Timothy discover a danger much worse than the Oakenfolk’s loss of magic: a potent evil that threatens to enslave faeries and humans alike. In a fevered, desperate chase across the country, Tim and Linden must risk their lives to seek an ancient power before it’s too late to save everyone they love.


R.J. Anderson has artfully crafted a world of stunning magic, thrilling adventure, and delicate beauty, where the key to the future is in an unexpected, forbidden friendship.



Was This Book Worth My Time?

Yep.

I was a little worried when I read the synopsis. I thought to myself, “Eh, I’ll give this book a try, but if this is another paranormal romance novel I might throw up.”

Little did I know I was in for a nice surprise. This novel isn’t your typical girl falls in love with a werewolf, pixie, vampire, or any other crazy creature. Instead, this is a novel packed full of love for a community and the fight to save what matters most.

Anderson writes a beautiful and captivating story of a young girl on a quest to keep her faery community safe from an Empress who threatens to overtake their world and demand their allegiance to her. Anderson takes her readers on a journey through England as Linden and, her human friend, Tim try to find the one thing that might keep the Empress at bay.

This novel is mysterious, fast-paced, and full of page turning events.



What Bothered Me?

Not a thing.

Review: Lies by Michael Grant

Synopsis from jacket:

It’s been seven months since all the adults disappeared. GONE.


It happens in one night. A girl who died walks among the living; Zil and the Human Crew set fire to Perdido Beach; and amid the flames and smoke, Sam sees the figure of boy he fears the most: Drake. But Drake is dead. Sam and Caine defeated him along with the Darkness – or so they thought.


As Perdido Beach burns, battles rage: Astrid against the Town Council; the Human Crew versus the mutants, and Same against Drake, who is back from the dead and ready to finish where he and Sam left off. And all the while deadly rumors are raging like the fire itself, spread by the prophetess Orsay and he companion, Nerezza. They say that death is a way to escape the FAYZ. Conditions are worse than ever and kids are desperate to get out. But are the desperate enough to believe that death will set them free?



Was This Book Worth My Time?

Totally. I am a huge fan of Grant’s “Gone” series. I came across Gone browsing Barnes and Noble one day and decided to give it a try (I’m a fan of trying the first books of series in hopes to find good stories that last longer than 300 pages). I love the plot line. I mean isn’t it a compelling thought to be in a world where any person older than 15 disappears? It was for me. I couldn’t put the first book down.

Lies is a book that did not let me down. I was worried that this book, like so many series books, would be dull and repetitive; yet, never once did I feel bored. I thought the best part of this novel was the fact that these kids have multiple conflicts to resolve. Their makeshift council is falling apart, their food supply is nonexistent, and their “hero” doesn’t want to be a hero. There is still fighting between the “freaks” and humans which helps to excel the level of action in the book. Two people we thought were “dead” aren’t really, and Sam and Astrid’s relationship is on rocky ground.

If that wasn’t enough, Grant introduces a whole family we weren’t aware lived in the FAYZ.

This series is great for middle school boys and girls.



What Bothered Me?

Truthfully, if I had read this book pretty closely after reading the other two books in the series nothing would have bothered me. However, because I waited so long after reading Gone and Hunger I felt out of the loop. There were lots of points in the novel where I questioned characters and events.

Despite this, I give Grant kudos for being an author who does not spend chapters reminding his readers of what happened in previous novels. I hate that.

You have to read the first two books before this one. No cheating; it wouldn't be worth it.

Review: Infinity: Chronicles of Nick by Serrilyn Kenyon

Synopsis from jacket:
At fourteen, Nick Gautier thinks he knows everything about the world around him. Streetwise, tough and savvy, his quick sarcasm is the stuff of legends. . .until the night when his best friends try to kill him. Saved by a mysterious warrior who has more fighting skills than Chuck Norris, Nick is sucked into the realm of the Dark-Hunters: immortal vampire slayers who risk everything to save humanity.
Nick quickly learns that the human world is only a veil for a much larger and more dangerous one: a world where the captain of the football team is a werewolf and the girl he has a crush on goes out at night to stake the undead.
But before he can even learn the rules of this new world, his fellow students are turning into flesh eating zombies. And he’s next on the menu.
As if starting high school isn't hard enough. . .now Nick has to hide his new friends from his mom, his chainsaw from the principal, and keep the zombies and the demon Simi from eating his brains, all without getting grounded or suspended. How in the world is he supposed to do that?

Was This Book Worth My Time?

Yes. 

Just the other day I was expressing my sadness that there are not many YA books out there for middle school boys.  As a teacher who strives to find books that girls and boys will enjoy, I was so excited about this book.  I hoped that it would have enough for both my girls and my boys.  My hopes were met!

This book is FULL of action, but the best part? The main character, Nick, is a boy whose family has very little money, and he is picked on for being different than the rich kids at his private school. I LOVE when the bullies come out on the bottom, and this book shows just that.

The second thing I adored about this book was the sarcasm.  If you know me, you know I'm sarcastic by nature.  It's hard for me to "turn off" my sarcasm , and Nick has that same problem.  I found myself laughing out loud at many parts. 

It was refreshing to read a book that involved zombies, werewolves, and demons without all the silly romance.  This is not a paranormal romance; it's a full-on war. 

What Bothered Me?
Nothing.

Review: Thief Eyes by Janni Lee Simner

Synopsis from jacket:
The latest YA fantasy book from Bones of Faerie author Janni Lee Simner!







After her mother mysteriously disappears, sixteen-year-old Haley convinces her father to take her to Iceland, where her mother was last seen. There, amidst the ancient fissures and crevices of that volcanic island, Haley meets gorgeous Ari, a boy with a dangerous side who appoints himself her protector.






When Haley picks up a silver coin that entangles her in a spell cast by her ancestor Hallgerd, she discovers that Hallgerd's spell and her mother's disappearance are connected to a chain of events that could unleash terrifying powers and consume the world. Haley must find a way to contain the growing fires of the spell—and her growing attraction to Ari.






Janni Lee Simner brings the fierce romance and violent passions of Iceland's medieval sagas into this twenty-first-century novel, with spellbinding results.

Was This Book Worth My Time?
Not so much. 

There are very few books where I feel like I have nothing great to say, but I'm afraid this is one.

What Bothered Me?
I thought a lot about why it was that this book didn't "speak" to me.  I finally realized it was because I was not emotionally connected to the characters.  Every reader knows that the books you can't put down are the books where you feel like you are friends with the characters.  These books are the books that pull you in, and when the characters are happy or sad, you are too.  I never felt that way about Haley and , thus, never got into her story. Sadly, with a slow plot and little connection to the characters I felt little love for this book.