Review: WELCOME TO THE DARK HOUSE (Laurie Faria Stolarz)

3.71 STARS from 1,031 GoodReaders

Beware of directors bearing gifts.

ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO MEET LEGENDARY FILM DIRECTOR JUSTIN BLAKE AND GET A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT HIS CONFIDENTIAL NEW PROJECT

Dear Dark House Dreamers,

Greetings from the Nightmare Elf. I'm sending this note to say, if you tell me your worst nightmare, I can make it go away.

When director Justin Blake runs a contest it's like none other.  The horror movie maker wants teens to tell him about their real nightmares and if they are interesting and creepy enough he'll choose them to be the winner of an all expense paid trip to a preview screening of his new movie.

I have to tell you the 7 Winners get more than they bargained for. 
 

WELCOME TO THE DARK HOUSE is fast paced creepy novel from horror princess, Laurie Faria Stolarz.  (She grew up in Salem, Mass. Really.)

The story ought to appeal to fans of the Goosebumps series who have grown up and want something more mature.  There is cursing and making out... and clowns.  I hate clowns.

WELCOME TO THE DARK HOUSE begins with Ivy, a girl whose parents were murdered one night while she lay awake hearing strange noises.  She is not a particular fan of the horror genre but she is desperate for a get-away from her family for awhile, and so she enters the contest.  The other contestants are different in that each one is a huge fan of movie-maker Blake and his nightmarish characters. And they all are enjoying themselves as they fly into the remote location, are whisked off to a duplicate of Blake's horror hotel in a hearse.

The fun pretty much continues until the gang get to the amusement park. Then it gets so weird that the kids figure that they must be contestants in a new Reality Show.  But it's not a Reality Show at all, but their nightmares come to life.


WELCOME TO THE DARK HOUSE is told from multiple points of view as each character fills you in on their background and why they entered. I thought the plot was interesting but derivative, so probably better for middle-graders and young adults than older readers like myself.  First book in a series.

NOW WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? PACK YOUR BAGS... AND PREPARE FOR THE SCARE OF YOUR LIFE.

Pam~


WELCOME TO THE DARK HOUSE
by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Reading Information:
Word Count: 62,601
Page Count:
Accelerated Reader:  5.1 / points: 9.0
AR quiz: 168103
--sample pages and reviews available
--all links to amazon.com

updated by Pam
August 2015

Review: NEVER ENDING by Martyn Bedford

4.09 STARS from 56 GoodReaders

**Starred Review** Kirkus
**Starred Review** ALA Booklist

Death.  NEVER ENDING is about death and life, guilt and the choices people make. It's about how microscopic missteps can lead to catastrophes that carry people beyond their abilities to cope. And as you can expect, it takes finesse to make stories like this work. John Greene can do it. And so too can Martyn Bedford. 

BACKSTORY

In the wake of 12 year old Declan's death, Sioban (Shiv) and her family break down. Her mother becomes silent and distant while Shiv acts out, having spells of destruction that she can't even remember. And when local therapies prove to be insufficient, Shiv's father signs her up for a different sort of in-patient therapy.  This is how Shiv finds herself with 4 other young people at the Korsakoff Clinic.

Siobhan's story is told through two time lines.  Shiv's (Siobhan's) torturous journey through therapy is intertwined with the tale of her family's sun kissed vacation in Greece.  The first time line made her tragedy very real to me. The second kept me chained to the book so that I read it all in one day.  I was so curious about exactly what had happened that led to her 12 year old brother's death. I was also curious about whether the other participants could make it through their 60 days of therapy.  Whether they could shed enough of the guilt that they could finally resolve to go ahead and live their lives.

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Review: INFINITE SKY
Review: CHASING SHADOWS
Review: REALITY BOY
Review: FANGIRL  
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NEVER ENDING is a fast paced contemporary novel. Part drama, part mystery. There's humor and good writing.  The ending flowed naturally from the narrative but it was almost anticlimactic after all the characters had been through.

Definitely recommend this to readers looking for a smart drama. 

Pam~


Never Ending
by Martyn Bedford

Reading Information:
Page Count:  304
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available
-- read review by Outlaw Poet

Review: INFINITE SKY by C.J. Flood

3.79 STARS from 462 GoodReaders

You can't tell that the coffin holds the body of a boy. 

He wasn't even sixteen, but his coffin's the same size as a man's would be.

It's not just that he was young, bu because it was so sudden. No one should die the way he did: that's what the faces here say.

I think about him, in there, with all that space, and I want to stop them. I want to open the box and limb in with him. To wrap him up in a duvet. I can't bear the thought of him being cold.

And all the time the same question flails around my head, like a hawk moth round a lightbulb. Is it possible to keep loving somebody when they kill someone you love?

This is the prologue to CJ Flood's INFINITE SKY.  The narrative by thirteen year-old Iris Dancy gives readers the bitter sweet story of young love. A forbidden love that ends in murder.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Review: CHASING SHADOWS
Review: REALITY BOY
Review: FANGIRL  (light-hearted drama)
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BACKSTORY

The Dancy family is self destructing.  Iris' mother upped and left. In her absence the household routine has ceased. Meals are haphazard and the house is a mess. Iris and her brother, Sam, struggle with their feelings of abandonment.  And their friends and father don't make the situation better. Mr. Dancy is drinking heavily, so when Gypsies move onto their property, it's possible for anything to happen. Even love. Even death.

It was three months after Mum left that the Gypsies moved in. They set up camp in the paddock one Sunday night while we were asleep.  My brother Sam was excited when he saw them.

"Gypos!" he shouted.

Sam used to have a Gypsy in his class: Grace Fitzpatrick. She'd been famous at school because she could do as many things with her feet as with her hands. She could even write her name with them, which was funny because she couldn't read. Sam, who'd sat next to her in assembly, said she smelled like cat piss and fire smoke.

The prolog sets the stage of INFINITE SKY.  As the book unfolds the reader is left wondering who was killed and how.  Is it Sam?  Is it the gypsy boy, Trick? 

The story is bitter-sweet and many of my friends loved it. To be truthful though it wasn't for me. The writing was excellent, but I just couldn't connect with Iris.  But don't keep you from investigating this debut novel.  

http://www.telegraph.co.uk  review

amazon reviews

theguardian.com review

Pam~


INFINITE SKY
by C.J. Flood

Reading Information:
Page Count: 256
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available

Review: MARY: THE SUMMONING (Hillary Monahan)

3.70 STARS from 619 GoodReaders

"Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. BLOODY MARY," Jess shouted.

The candle on the vanity cast eerie shadows, our forms tall and distorted against the walls. Our hands were clenched together so tightly our fingers trembled.

Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna are a tight group. Best friends forever-- which is how Jess coaxes them into a tiny bathroom in her basement to play at calling Bloody Mary. The only problem is Bloody Mary is real and the girls are totally successful in calling the ghoul.

 [Jess] understood people. If she wanted the four of us to do something, she'd appeal to us in whatever way would get her results.

and famous last words...

"I won't take any risks. I told you I was being safe."

Hillary Monahan tells this creepy tale in two narratives. The first unfolds through Mary's letters to her sister, Constance. They begin playfully in September of 1864, with Mary teasing her sister, saying that she's an 'abysmal sister' to have married the best man in the area and then run off to the big city.

Unfortunately the letters don't stay cheerful for long. A dark presence seems to have moved into their small town and the correspondence begins to foreshadow terrible events that lead to Mary's becoming an evil, restless spirit.

Shauna tells the present day story. We follow her as she and her friends call the murdering ghoul. And it's horrifying how Mary escapes the mirror and nearly drags Shauna into the world beyond. Worse, Mary gets a taste of Shauna's blood and begins to haunt her wherever there is a shiny surface.

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Review: IN THE SHADOWS
Review: MISTWALKER 
Review: THE GHOST BOX 
Review: LIV, FOREVER
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THE SUMMONING is a fun read. The scary-suspenseful parts are well written. Definitely Adult Worthy. Unfortunately for adults the sections of the story that portray the girls at high school or at home are not as well written, and it's likely that adults will end up skimming some of these parts because they seem so immature.  Middle-graders and other teens will no doubt find them more tolerable.

There are definitely things to like about THE SUMMONING. The story is intriguing. The suspenseful parts are well done for a middle-grade/YA book. And I liked how the author portrayed Shauna as a rational person. When there was a problem Shauna didn't let it boil but rather said what needed to be said that so issues didn't get worse.  I also like the mystery about poor Mary. What exactly did happen to her?  (We won't know until book #2)

Some profanity. One sexual reference.

Pam~


THE SUMMONING
(Bloody Mary #1)
by Hillary Monahan

Reading Information:
Page Count: 256
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available

Mary lingered. She'd shifted positions so she was clear now, her palms against the glass, the pads of her fingers smushed like she'd pressed too hard. She watched us with her sunken eyes, a small stream of yellow pus oozing from her tear ducts.

updated August 2015

Review: GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE by Andrew Smith

3.90 STARS — 1,877 GoodReaders

The GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE was a really interesting read. It has characters that were very well developed and if I had to classify it, I would say that it is a Coming-of-Age/Scifi hybrid.

***Special Note
Consider yourself warned.  I have to say that this will not be a book for everyone. There's a huge focus on sex and the book is rife with profanity. Even the giant bugs have sex-- and they may have said some naughty things too.

The end of the world began at about 2:00 a.m., around three-and-a-half feet away from a discarded floral-print sleeper sofa infested with pubic lice in Ealing, Iowa. 

BACKSTORY
Austin Szerba lives in a small town in Iowa.  He has a best friend .AND. a girlfriend .AND. life is pretty good. That is until Austin and friend accidentally unleash an army of unstoppable giant praying mantises.

The story is told from Austin's point of view.  It's unique in that he considers himself a historian of his own life. And ultimately we readers get to experience two timelines. The first timeline is in the present as Austin maneuvers through school and life in a small town. The other begins with his grandfather's survival of WWII.  It leads to Austin's father's birth and eventually Austin's own arrival into the world. It's a tale of how it took luck and perfect timing to initiate the destruction of the United States of America, and Austin's survival of it.


Three Stars?  Four Stars?  This is one of those difficult books to rate. I enjoyed reading GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE and feel my time wasn't wasted,  BUT I really have no desire to every read it again.

“Everyone on every road that crossed beneath the point of my pen was always going to do the same things over and over and over.
I was confused.
How could I be in love with a girl ‘and’ a boy, at the same time?
I was trapped forever.
You know what I mean.”

THE GOOD

--How the story was constructed. The use of historical perspective was just great.

--Portrayal of teen angst.  You should know that a large portion of this book is character development of teens.  And there's a wonkingly large amount of angst involved; and it is very well done.

--Humor.  Wonderful humor throughout. Some of it is gallows humor but most is just humor involving the human condition. Delicious.

THE LESS GOOD

--There's a lack of drama involving the creatures. They were never scary. And not all that funny either.

--The book's too long. I love quirky books. Especially a quirky book with interesting characters, but the amount of quirky I can appreciate is limited.  This book frequently bored me. It might not be that way for you.

--Repetitive. The main character is so obsessed with his 'manly parts' that it ended up being boringly repetitive.

So why is GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE on MUSTREADYA?  [Yes, GoodBooksforKids is going to become MUSTREAD YA and KIDLIT when I have time.] It's on the blog because the characters, both primary and secondary, are well drawn.  And it's on here because I was glad I read the book, and I think others are going to enjoy it as well.

Pam~


GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE
by Andrew Smith

Reading Information:
Word Count: 100,976
Page Count: 432
Accelerated Reader: 6.2 / points: 16.0
AR quiz: 165472
--sample pages and reviews available

Other resources:
NYTimes review
Washington Post review
Entertainment review
CommonsenseMedia

Review: LIV, FOREVER by Amy Talkington

3.77 STARS — 368 GoodReaders

It sucks to be dead.

I collapsed onto the ground. I swung my arms and felt stinging pain as they whipped right through the dead leaves. Through them. Not possible. I paused --calmed--tried to pick up a leaf. I focused intensely. I had to pick up that leaf. It would mean everything was normal. I managed to manipulate it between my fingers, but touching it caused a burning sensation on my fingertips as if it's orange-red color was actual fire. I moved it barely--almost imperceptibly. Then I dropped it and slumped over, my whole being exhausted ad weakened as if I'd just carried a heavy piece of furniture up a flight of stairs.

BACKSTORY

Liv Bloom has the opportunity of a lifetime. She's gotten a scholarship to the elite Wickham Hall school. When she arrives she finds that she doesn't fit in, but she doesn't care. They've given her a gorgeous studio with tons of supplies. And even better, before she dies she finds the boy that has all the makings to be her one great love.

YES, I said die. Poor Liv doesn't get to make much art or spend much time with her new boyfriend before she is murdered. The question is why? Why was she murdered and why does she see all these other ghosts?

The story centers around 3 characters: Liv, her love Malcolm, and a remarkable boy she meets by happenstance, Gabe.  Gabe's claim to fame, besides the fact that he is also an outlier in their world of super rich children, is that he can see ghosts. And it's the three of them that set out to discover who has been murdering girls over the centuries.

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Review: IN THE SHADOWS
Review: MISTWALKER 
Review: THE GHOST BOX
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Remarkably, LIV, FOREVER, with all of the ghosts and deaths, is a sweet story. It's also a very quick read.  A little slow in the beginning but that's more or less necessary to create the background and to invest the reader in the characters.  I enjoyed how the three worked out the mystery. Liv can talk to Gabe and Gabe to Malcolm so it made for a fun communication triangle.

For those that don't like high-stress/suspense stories, don't worry. LIV, FOREVER is not like that. It's a highly enjoyable twinkie read that would be suitable for Middle-graders and Young Adults. I enjoyed it.  

Pam~


LIV, FOREVER
by Amy Talkington

Reading Information:
Word Count:  66,148
Page Count:  278
Accelerated Reading level: 4.7 / points: 10.0
AR quiz: 164732
--sample pages and other reviews available
--audio version available
--sample e-chapters available

Review: MISTWALKER by Saundra Mitchell

3.49 STARS from 194 GoodReaders

The Grey Man is here, my thoughts sang. 

The haze sharpened—it gathered. Like milk swirling into coffee, curves formed. Shades and shapes and angles, they became: black eyes, silver hair. A thin mouth, a sharp chin. A hand reached out to take mine. “I thought you would never come,” he said.

BACKSTORY

Willa Dixon's family are fishing folk. They live in a quaint little village where lobsters provide their livelihood. The family struggles to get along but are content until Willa's brother, Levi, is shot and killed.  Then her family slowly falls apart as the tragedy overwhelms them.

With the help of her best friend Willa might have been able to move past Levi's death if it weren't for the criminal trial. She and Levi were on the boat alone when a man came up and shot him. Willa is the only witness, although she isn't the only one who knows why the murder took place. The whole village knows. And the whole village is adamant about keeping the reason a secret.

In her grief and with the pressure of the trial mounting, Willa seeks out the Grey Man, a local ghost who is supposed to be able to grant your wishes. And he will grant her desire but only at a terrible cost.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Review: IN THE SHADOWS
Review: THE GHOST BOX 
Review: LIV, FOREVER
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MISTWALKER is a ghost story for middle-graders and young adults.  It is told from the point of view of the Grey Man and Willa, and while it has some very good elements, it is not a book I can whole-heartedly recommend. 

Now part of this book was brilliant. Saundra Mitchell's descriptions were delicious. I could feel/smell/taste the small fishing village, the lobstering, the worming.  And the way that Willa and her boy friend and best friend interacted was so believable. I truly wish that the author had just written about these peoples' efforts to work their ways through and out of this tragedy, rather than pursuing the ghost angle.

Also, the choice to tell the story from both points of view didn't work for me.  It diminished the sense of creepiness, but this wasn't as big a problem as the pacing, which was very slow at times. 

So this is a try-it and see book.  And one of those times where I have to admit that a younger person might enjoy this novel more than I.

Pam~


Mistwalker
by Saundra Mitchell

Reading Information:
Page Count: 320
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available

Review: TESLA'S ATTIC by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman

Good characters, lots of humor, adventure...
... and Science!  

4.01 STARS from 170 GoodReaders

TESLA'S ATTIC is a smart, laugh-out-loud book from Neal Shusterman, Eric Elfman, and Disney-Hyperion. (At least I laughed out loud). 

It's a book that could have been written by Dan Brown, if he had Douglas Adam's sense of humor and ability to create engaging characters who had a wickedly sharp understanding of how the middle-school world churns. 

Back Story
After loosing his mother in a horrible house fire, Nick and his brother and father move from Florida to Colorado Springs where they take up residence in a weird old house.  In the attic there are a bunch of devices which they believe are old junk.  And since they need the money they decide to sell them at a garage sale.

What they don't know is that these are devices created by none other than Nikola Tesla, the famous physicist/inventor. And when Nick turns on a light to brighten the rainy day, events get bizarre very fast.  Crowds rush in, and items are scooped up by people who are apparently overwhelmed with a desire to buy them.  Items which they are destined to own.

As he looked around at this boneyard of uselessness, Nick Slate had a simple idea. An idea that would not only change the direction of his life, but the very course of human existence.

He would hold a garage sale.

~

In some ways this story is familiar.  It's like other middle-grade books were there is a group of young teens that find themselves facing off against an ancient organization of bad guys. But there's also a significant difference between this book and the others. And that is that Shusterman and Elfman do it right.  TESLA'S ATTIC is intelligent and carefully plotted.  They create imperfect characters and give them time to explain and express themselves.

I recommend this book for those that like quirky characters and weirdness.  The humor is geeky and pedantic.

Nick took a deep breath, his resolve setting in.  "We have to destroy it," he said. "We have to destroy them all."

The scorched-earth policy is a time-honored tradition of war.  Villagers about to be overrun by the enemy would burn their own homes and crops to deny the enemy shelter and food.  Armies would destroy their own munitions to prevent their attackers from using their own weapons against them.

The Russians used this strategy very successfully against a very irritated Napoleon, burning everything they had and retreating into Russia.  And since there was no end of Russia to retreat into, Napoleon was pretty much screwed.

Pam~

TESLA'S ATTIC

(The Accelerati Trilogy #1)

by Neal Shusterman (script writer for shows like Goosebumps, and books like UnWind, Everlost, and The Schwa Was Here)
and Eric Elfman (author of The Very Scary Almanac and The Almanac of the Gross, Disgusting & Totally Repulsive, and three X-Files novels)

Reading Information:
Word Count: 67,009
Page Count: 256
Accelerated Reader: 6.0 / points: 11.0
AR quiz: 16404

Thank you to Disney-Hyperion for providing me with an advanced copy of Tesla's Attic!

Review: CHASING SHADOWS by Swati Avasthi

Junior Library Guild Selection

**Starred Review** Kirkus
**Starred Review** PublishersWeekly

**Starred Review** SchoolLibraryJournal

CHASING SHADOWS is Swati Avasthi's second novel and a definite departure from SPLIT, her wonderful first book.

One of the twists she's employed to make this book different is to include graphic-novel pages like the one that follows. These pages don't just reduplicate visually what readers are told; they stand in place of text.

Artwork by Craig Phillips

Backstory

In CHASING SHADOWS the principle characters are Holly, her twin brother Corey, and their best friend and girl friend, Savitri (Sav).

The three of them are high schoolers in their senior year, and while deeply bound to one another, they realize that the coming year will most likely see their group fall apart as Savitri, the most academic of the group, awaits responses from Princeton and other first tier schools.

It's not that Corey and Holly aren't interested college, but they aren't inspired to leave the home town they love.

Related books...

SPLIT by Swati Avasthi - Sixteen-Year-Old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist), $3.84, and a secret.

All of this turmoil about schools and the future is brutally stripped away and made moot when Corey is shot and dies. His sister doesn't recall much of the nightmare event, but Sav bears the scars of a survivor who wishes she could have saved him.

(Corey, Holly, and Sav are seriously into freerunning)

As a read, I found this story gut wrenching. Swati's portrayal of Corey's family's and friend's grief made me have to put the book down twice. But I always came back. Basically because there's a mystery to be solved. And because I needed to know what the girls would do. Were they crazy enough to try to find Corey's assassin. And could Sav find the strength to leave and find her future.

Another element that worked to keep my attention was the question of the strange alternative world that was portrayed. While she was in a coma, Holly 'entered' this world where Corey was being dragged off by Death.  (a simplification) The story was written so that I was never certain whether this was a product of the drugs Holly was given, a sign of madness, or whether it was simply a view into a real other world.

CHASING SHADOWS won't be a read for everyone.  It's very much into the drama, and it's not a topic that everyone is going to take to heart. One of Avasthi's strength though is her characters.  They live.  They breathe.  They are dimensional and so realistic that it's hard not to be drawn into the stories where she places them.  Suitable for Adults and Young Adults.

Pam~

------------------------------------------------------------------
Review: INFINITE SKY
Review: REALITY BOY
Review: FANGIRL  (light-hearted drama)
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CHASING SHADOWS

by Swati Avasthi

Craig Phillips (Illustrator)

3.92 Stars from 60 GoodReaders

Reading Information:

Word Count: 61,004

Page Count: 320

Accelerated Reader:  4.2 / points: 9.0

AR quiz: 160989

Review: REALITY BOY by A.S. King

4.15 Stars from 305 GoodReaders

Wow.  Just wow.  King's REALITY BOY is a heavy roller.  I loved this book but sometimes it was difficult for me to read, as I was drawn into the thoughts of a boy who grew up in such an unloving and hostile environment. 

Background

Gerald is 17.  Back when he was about 5 years-old his mother agreed to have his home invaded by cameras and 'reality creators'. Next thing you know, family life is worse, everyone is stressed out, and worse, Gerald is permanently labelled 'the crapper' for his use of poop as a means to communicate to adults how unhappy he was.

Forward 12 years...

Gerald's mom and dad are still inept and as a result of the 'help' they received from the fake Nanny and the show's director the whole family is living in hell.  There oldest child despises her siblings, and Lisl, Gerald's slightly older sister, has escaped to Europe.

And Gerald.  Gerald is filled with almost uncontrollable rage.

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Review: INFINITE SKY
Review: CHASING SHADOWS
Review: FANGIRL  (light-hearted drama)
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REALITY BOY is an amazing book.  Alternately sweet and uplifting, and then again, angering and insightful.

[I swear I will never look at Realty TV the same way again.  And the irony of my observing Gerald so closely, when this was just how his life got so screwed up in the first place, isn't lost on me either.]

Gerald and Hannah are simply fantastic characters.  Her oddball quirkiness is the perfectly complimented for him, and it was so enjoyable to watch them slowly forge their relationship.

If you are in the mood for a pretty intense read, READ THIS.

REALITY BOY is probably not suitable though for middle-graders.  There is fierce bullying, profuse profanity, and mild sexual content.  So it's probably not going to be for all adults or young adult readers either.

Pam~


REALITY BOY
by A.S. King

Reading Information:
Word Count: 75,243
Page Count: 368
Accelerated Reader: 3.8 / points: 10.0
AR quiz: 162363
Lexile: HL620L--sample pages and reviews available

Review: FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell

4.28 Stars from 9,676 GoodReaders

FANGIRL is a solid 'Romance' for New Adults. 

Characters
Cath - is the fangirl. She's a pretty famous writer of a fan-fic blog about the Simon Snow characters. She's a delightfully geeky introvert with a wicked sense of humor. And she's come hesitantly to college to up her writing skills, and is more than a little put off by having to leave her comfort zone.

Wren - is Cath's twin.  She's the extravert to Cather's introvert, and while she's loving, she not as wise in the ways of the world as she think she is.  And this gets her into some serious trouble.

Dad - poor dad.  He's suffering more than a little bit from empty nest syndrome.

The boys - there are some wonderful guy characters.  Levi, for one, is the kind of guy most girls are going to wish were theirs.

The book begins with dad dropping off the girls on their first day at college.  It's a particularly trying time for dad and Cath, as now dad has to return to an empty house, and Cath has to face the fact that Wren doesn't want to room with her anymore.

Wren cheerfully leaves Cath to her own devices and heads out to experience all college has to offer, leaving Cath to fret and stumble her way through so many new experiences; none of which are particularly welcomed.

There's the new roommate, who is hardly every around and who doesn't seem friendly at all.  And there's the mysterious cafeteria, which is out there somewhere, if only she could get up the nerve to seek it out.  Not to mention the strange classes and the whole boy thing.

As it turns out though, Cath's hesitant approach to life leads to a lot less serious bumps in the road.

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Review: INFINITE SKY
Review: CHASING SHADOWS
Review: REALITY BOY
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This is the first Rowell book I've read, and I have to say that her writing is superb.  Her characters are well thought out and very complete; and the story comes off as real, honest and smart. It's no wonder Rowell gets such high praise.

So, Good plot and Good characters. The writing is clever, intelligent and funny, and there are plenty of rewarding moments that make this a good read.

But having said that, FANGIRL won't be for everyone as there's many adult-sized problems that are tackled --sex, drugs, and love.

Pam~


FANGIRL
by Rainbow Rowell

**Starred Review** PublishersWeekly
**Starred Review** Kirkus

**Starred Review** SchoolLibraryJournal
**Starred Review** ALA Booklist

Reading Information:
Word Count: 107,994
Page Count:  438
Accelerated Reader:  3.9 / points: 15.0
AR quiz: 160991
--read sample pages & get other reviews

Review: SPLIT by Swati Avasthi

SPLIT is a quick read. A light read. I'd like to say it was fun read but that seems somehow inappropriate given the book's central theme of domestic abuse.

The story is about a family where the father domineers by virtue of his fists and anger. The elder son escapes only to find his estranged younger brother at his door, five years later.

The Book Description describes the situation thus:

Sixteen-Year-Old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face..., $3.84, and a secret. He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend, who is keeping his secret.


Excerpt:::
He slams the door, then glances over his shoulder at the light in Professor Coe's study next door. Paranoid-at-all-hours Prof Coe moves to the window and opens it. Everything slows down and changes: my dad is sauntering, not storming; his grimace downgrades into a casual smile. He bumps my mother out of the way with his hip and leans into the car.

"Come back, and I'll kill her." His tone is controlled— taut and calm. Except for his grip on the door, he could have been saying Drive safely.

The blood runs out of my face. My breathing shallows, and I glance at my mother. Her eyes are shocked wide. This is my dad at his most dangerous. I've only seen him like this one other time, the time she tried to leave him before.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Review: INFINITE SKY
Review: CHASING SHADOWS
Review: REALITY BOY
Review: FANGIRL  (light-hearted drama)
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SPLIT is not the sort of book I usually read. You see, I don't generally pick up books set in the present, and I'm not especially interested in books that deal with the serious problems of teens in the present— and so the fact that I could not put it down makes me conclude that Swati Avasthi's writing is really good, if not downright addictive.

And Avasthi does a superb job of portraying how this abuse effects the relationships of these young men and their ability to move on with their lives. And yet, I found myself drawn more to the secondary characters than to Jace and his older brother, Christian. There was the mother, for whom I felt both sympathy and anger. She became the focus of not only Christian and Jace, but me as well, as the question cropped up as to whether she could escape the demon that was their father, And there were the girlfriends (and potential girlfriends) that really brought home to me the consequences of being brought up in an abusive household.

This is a very good read. You should know though that there is violence and adult situations that may not be appropriate for sensitive readers.

Pam~

SPLIT

by Swati Avasthi

4.09 Stars from 3,259 GoodReaders

Reading Information:
Word Count: 68,444
Page Count:  288
Accelerated Reader:  4.1 / points: 10.0
AR quiz: 136277
Lexile: HL610L