Teen Review: School Spirit by Rachel Hawkins

Today's recommendation is for a digital book and is from another book-lovin' teen: School Spirit by Rachel Hawkins.

Wanna to see your own review here? Fill out our What Did You Just Read form today!

What Did You Read? 

School Spirit by Rachel Hawkins.

I'd say this book was *mostly* about... 

An adventure, high school, mystery.

This book's main character(s)...

Should be my new best friend(s).

If others were interested in this book, I'd tell them...

Check it out RIGHT NOW.

Any other thoughts about this book?

Izzy and her family have sought out monsters for a long time. However, when they move to Mississippi and Izzy attends high school for the first time, she finds its being haunted. Filled with the hardships of high school and the danger of a troubled spirit, this book is great!

Teen Review: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Today's recommendation is from a Glendale book-lovin' teen: City of Bones.

Want to see your own review here? Fill out our What Did You Just Read form today!

What Did You Read? 

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.

I'd say this book was *mostly* about... 

An adventure, a love story, a magical world.

This book's main character(s)...

Are really different from me.

If others were interested in this book, I'd tell them...

Check it out RIGHT NOW.

Any other thoughts about this book?

It was really good.

Should We Know More About You?

i like to read almost every type of fiction.

Teen Review: Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

This next recommendation is for those who like the sound of a reform school for misbehaving supernaturals, like witches and vamps.  Enjoy a Glendale Public Library teen's thoughts on Hex Hall! 

Wanna to see your own review here?  Fill out our What Did You Just Read form today!

What Did You Read? 

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins.

I'd say this book was *mostly* about...

A love story, The past (it was bleak), A magical world, witches.

This book's main character(s)...

Should date me.

If others were interested in this book, I'd tell them...

BUY ALL THE COPIES.

Any other thoughts about this book?

It deserves a lot more credit then it gets! It is amazingly written and i am hooked all the trilogy! Every teen should read it no matter the gender! Good for teens / pre teens! 

Teen Review: The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

Our next teen review is here!  Enjoy another Glendale Public Library teen's thoughts on The Mortal Instruments series! 

Wanna to see your own review here?  Fill out our What Did You Just Read form today!

What Did You Read? 

The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare (book 1 is City of Bones).

I'd say this book was *mostly* about... 

An adventure, a love story, a magical world.

This book's main character...

Should be my new best friend.

If others were interested in this book, I'd tell them...

BUY ALL THE COPIES!

Any other thoughts about this book?

I am addicted to this ! YOU NEED TO READ THIS !!! although the love story gets mature through out the books it is great for teens and pre teens. The story line is great and well writen . I immediatly fell in love with the lead male , JACE and make sure to watch the tv show in 2016 and check out the movie!

The Walls Around This

Nova Ren Suma is quickly emerging as my favorite YA author. Her latest, The Walls Around Us, is perfect from start to finish. Told by two main characters--Violet, a ballerina with some major issues, and Amber, a juvenile prisoner at Aurora Hills Correctional--this book weirds you out and pulls you in from the first page when all the cell doors open and the teen prisoners "go wild." Then, time skips, "visitors" appear, and the eerie sense of Something Just Ain't Right, is fully upon you. First we're in Amber's world. Amber, imprisoned for murder, knows the rules of Aurora Hills, knows how to survive her time, but  also knows that something bizarre is happening, something she can't quite remember, and it all has to do with the Bloody Ballerina, the newest arrival to the correctional facility. She's been convicted of murdering two ballet dancers. But Violet, her former best friend, a rising star on her way to Juilliard, obviously knows more about those murders than she's telling. Switching to Violet's world, we see a girl obsessed with perfection, wracked with guilt, but also frighteningly cold and self-serving. She decides one day to visit Aurora Hills. .  . and then things get truly twisty.

Nova Ren Suma is an amazing, adept writer with crazy, awesome plots and characters that get under your skin, in a good way. Come visit Aurora Hills and see for yourself. I dare you.

Teen Spirit

"Our thoughts are wild creatures who've been wounded countless times. We have to tame them."

Francesca Lia Block returns this year with a new novel, Teen Spirit. Some vintage FLB touches are in evidence: beautiful L.A. houses, girls who dress in vintage and have a connection to the spirit world, loving characters snatched away too soon. . .

Julie's life changes forever when her beloved grandmother suddenly dies. Julie and her mother lose their home, and more importantly, the touchstone of their lives. Julie's grandmother was the only one who comforted Julie after her winding nightmares and who told Julie she was excellent just as she is. Now set adrift, awash in grief, Julie begins a new high school, moves into a crummy apartment, and has to deal with her mother suddenly dating an inappropriate man. Julie realizes that in addition to her vivid dreams she can see auras around people. Then she finds an old ouija board left behind in the apartment and with it, she and her new best friend (a great character who wears odd hats and insists on smiling at everyone he meets) contact the spirit world.  Unfortunately--or not so unfortunately? it's not always clear--Julie and her friend bring back a ghost who doesn't want to be dead, and who has the ability to take over the body of a person Julie holds dear.

Can't say too much for fear of giving away plot points that are better discovered by the reader. Is this my favorite FLB book? No, not by a long shot, and perhaps FLB could have done more with the story than she did, but what she did do is satisfying. Good for readers who want to understand the nature of grief and loss
and who have an interest in the supernatural. Points for atmosphere--no one writes the hidden beauty of L.A. like FLB.  I can't wait to see what she writes next.

Conjured

Lost memories. Magical abilities. Nightmare visions of a terrifying carnival, a Magician, and a Storyteller whose tales turn dark with blood and misery.  These elements combine to make a supernatural story full of mystery in Sarah Beth Durst's Conjured .  Teenage, Eve, cannot remember her past or her family. She has gone into WitSec, a witness protection program of sorts and she spends her time with the agents who pretend to be her family. But where family should be--or any memories--is a void.  Eve's body isn't even her own but has been surgically altered to the teenage girl she appears to be. But Eve has the ability to change her eye color by magic, to make birds fly off of wallpaper and become animate too. Unfortunately, every time she uses her magic she loses consciousness. That's when the visions--or are they memories?--of a dark carnival come to her. Eve can't remember how she came to be in this world, and every time she has a vision, she loses more memory in real time. Weeks pass without her remembering a thing. When she begins working at a local library, she meets Zach, and when she kisses him, she's able to keep her mind in check. But so much is missing. . . how do all the pieces come together and how can she use them to bear witness against a supernatural murderer, one who is surely stalking Eve?

It took a little while for me to get with the flow of this book. I found myself impatient for some answers, but when those answers eventually came, they were so satisfying they were worth the wait.  One weakness is that it's hard to connect fully to a girl who cannot connect to herself. Luckily, Eve grows steadily through the book. Unaware of her past she creates who she will be, even as powers work to control her, and some, to try to kill her. I loved the human agents in this book, Aunt Nicki and Malcolm, who seems to be Eve's protectors but whom Eve can't trust completely. I loved the uncertainty of Eve's being able to trust anyone in WitSec and the gradual revelation of what they do and what they want from Eve.  One thing the reader must be willing to overlook--the fact that these super cool secret agents can apparently guard the front door of a house but don't seem to spend any time making sure the back door is covered. It's a little plot device necessary for some scenes, but kind of a cringer. Ah, well. There's too much other good stuff here to quibble over it too much. Characters like Nicki and Malcolm, and three other,also supernaturally enabled,
(but disturbing) WitSec teenagers, make this an intriguing read. Anyone who goes for supernatural romance and has a thing for spooky carnivals is bound to enjoy this one.

Have we seen the last of the characters in this book? Perhaps there will be more to come. . .

Monstrous Beauty

Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama is a beautifully told mermaid tale. It opens up in 1522 with Syrenka, the immortal mermaid, lusting after the human Pukanokick. And then she accidentally drowns him by forgetting that us silly, weak humans need air.

The novel alternates chapters between Syrenka and her love story and the current day Hester and her own love issues. Syrenka and her love from the 19th century--a man who studies marine life and falls madly in love with her. Hester and her decision to never fall in love. Every generation the women of Hester's family die in childbirth. Every generation. Is it genetics, a family curse? When Hester meets Ezra in a beach cove, everything changes for her. Everything.

This darkly gothic paranormal romance is not the typical YA paranormal romance novel. Which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. I read this a few months ago and reviewed for a book journal. Typically, that means that I will not blog about it here or on my goodreads page. But this title struck me still as one that needs to be highlighted. It has a little bit of everything in it. Mystery, ghosts, romance, horrific mermaids, murders, violence, history, and rich characters. Without the characters' depth that story would have faltered.

My only complaint about this novel is the cover art! The image on the left is the hardback version. The image on the right is the cover image from the ARC (Advanced reading copy) that I reviewed. I love that cover art. Who decided to change it to the boring one on the left?

Anyway, if you're looking for something a bit more than the typical paranormal story. Something with a bit more grit, depth, literary quality, et cetera. Look no further than Monstrous Beauty. You won't be disappointed.

The Diviners

Don't miss this fun new read by the ever wonderful Libba Bray.  I read an ARC of this one a month or two ago and just loved it.  Set in the twenties, The Diviners is the first in what must be a series to come.  Our main character is the hilariously irreverent flapper Evie O'Neill who has the unusual ability to read a person's past by holding an object that person owns.  Drinking a few too many (during the Prohibition) Evie spills the beans about a socially important young man who's been cheating.  To avoid further social disaster, Evie's parents send her to New York to live with her uncle, who runs  the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition and the Occult.  Evie gets involved in the murder investigation of a young woman and falls head over heels into a mystery steeped in the occult with a very dangerous spiritual entity intent on unleashing himself into the world.  Evie, with her best friend, a handsome assistant at the museum, and a rake pickpocket, take on the supernatural.

Libba Bray has written a hilarious and simultaneously creepy story.  The pages are many but you won't be able to stop turning them.  From the woman who brought us Going Bovine and Beauty Queens, here is a fun new novel of the roaring twenties with a supernatural twist.  Jeepers!

Imaginary Girls

I don't know how this excellent, eerie novel escaped my notice for so long.  Once I started reading I was mesmerized.  Perhaps its the power one of the main characters, Ruby, holds over everyone who encounters her, extending to the reader.

Ruby is a character you won't forget.  Beautiful, unique, Ruby has the ability to get what she wants, from whomever she wants it.  At first the reader takes her for another queen bee, a charmer and manipulator of extreme ability, but as the book progresses, it becomes clear that she's more than simply persuasive.  She's powerful.  Ruby hold sway over the boys in her small town who fall instantly in love with her--that's a given--but her power extends further.  No one seems able to resist her will, especially not her baby sister, Chloe, whom Ruby claimed as her own from the moment she was born.  As the book opens, Ruby asks her sister to prove herself by swimming all the way across the town reservoir, where a group of kids has gathered for a night party. The reservoir has a haunted history.  Years ago a flood drowned an entire town, a place called Olive, and in Ruby's wild. fanciful stories, the people of Olive still exist beneath the water, looking up and watching the residents on the land.  When Chloe starts to swim across, she almost doesn't make it.  She imagines a cold spot in the middle of the water, right over Olive, exactly where she runs out of energy and almost drowns.  But luck is with Chloe and she manages to grab onto a rowboat bobbing in the reservoir.  Chloe doesn't die, but someone else does that night.  There's a body in the boat, and Chloe is so traumatized by the sight of a dead girl her own age and the fact that her sister didn't protect her when it mattered most that she does the unthinkable.

She leaves.

Just like that, Chloe breaks the bond between herself and her sister.  They've been inseparable all their lives, but trauma pushes her to the home of her father, away from Ruby.  There life is ordinary, until Ruby appears two years later and urges her sister back home.  Ruby has a chilling surprise for her sister, and before she knows it, Chloe is back in her sister's web of power, shocked and frightened by what Ruby has managed to summon.

This book is a must-read for lovers of the eerie.  More than a simple horror story,  Imaginary Girls, is also the story of sisterhood, love, and power.   The author tells her tale in gorgeous language, with a storytelling power that one can describe as Ruby-esque  itself.

Kearsten's Book Club: White Cat by Holly Black

Last night, Kearsten's Book Club met to discuss Holly Black's magic-con-men-caper novel, White Cat. Cassel's grown up in a family of con men, and learned from an early age how to spot and manipulate marks for gain.  However, unlike the rest of his family, Cassel has no ability for 'curse work', an illegal type of magic that can manipulate emotions, memories, luck, and even the human body. An outsider in a family of outsiders, seventeen-year-old Cassel has distanced himself from that criminal world, full of magic-wielding gangsters, and is just trying to coast through an elite boarding school when he begins sleepwalking himself into very dangerous situations.

As this story is full of awesome twists, I'll have to limit revealing everything we talked about, but it ran from admiration for Holly Black's writing (she does a wonderful job building a world with clear and logical rules, yet does so without that annoying info dump many other authors rely on), Cassel's incredibly messed up family/upbringing, to a great discussion of whether a person would remain his/herself if that person's memories were stripped away.

Reaction to White Cat was mixed - while a couple of us LOVED this one (Cassel joins the ranks of Kearsten's fictional boyfriends), others found it too slow to get started.

If you like snarky male protagonists like Cassel, dig on Holly Black's writing, or just like smart, awesome characters, try some of these Book Club suggested titles:

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride.
Valiant by Holly Black.
Hero by Perry Moore.
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
Gone by Michael Grant.

Wolf Mark by Joseph Bruchac

I really enjoy contemporary tales based on American Indian legends. Joseph Bruchac has written a very interesting twist on the werewolf tale. Everyone is familiar with how humans turn into wolves, there are many cultures which share this story.

Lucas King is having a very hard time trying to adjust to the death of his beloved mother and how his father's grief is making both of them miserable. Luke doesn't understand how his father has let him down and how their roles have seemed to reverse themselves.

There is also the problem of the personal anomalies he can't understand about himself. He can't have a watch or a cell phone and he messes up computers if he tries to use them. Luke has a sense of smell that does not quit and he doesn't sweat. So what gives? To make matters worse, he is very interested in a pretty girl who is from Pakistan and is confused about his feelings towards her.

There is also this weird group of Russian students who are very strange, Luke calls them the Sunglass Mafia. They smell funny and seem to have a hypnotic affect on everyone but Luke.

Suddenly things change dramatically. Luke's father is abducted and people are watching and following him. His father leaves him clues as to what Luke's is all about. Unbelievable secrets that Luke couldn't even guess.

It is interesting to go along on the ride with Luke and find out what his heritage has given him and how his whole life must change in order to accept what he is. In some ways Luke is a typical teenager and the reader can relate to the kinds of problems that go along with being a teen.

Bruchac lets us see and share Luke's life and to be just as shocked and surprised to find out about Luke, his father and his "uncle". The mental and physical adjustments Luke must make are hard and it is almost a little hard to believe that he could handle all the changes without more help from his father. However, this was not enough to spoil the adventure.

I liked the characters. There was a good mix of good guys, bad guys and some who you are not sure are either good or bad. They were pretty realistic and I think we could all think of comparable figures that we have met in our lives. Wolf Mark is a good read and I like seeing a positive side to werewolves. There is no happily every after ending, but it is a hopeful one.

Demonglass

This must be my month for reading sequels. I already blogged about how much I enjoyed The Dark & Hollow Places, the exciting conclusion to the Forest of Hands & Teeth series. Then I got my copy of Sweet Valley Confidential on hold. Now I am filled with glee because I finally have the sequel to Hex Hall in my hot little hands. Funny thing is, I normally enjoy stand-alone books. Go figure.

Hex Hall was my surprise find on 2010. I figured it for another run-of-the-mill supernatural romance. Yes, it was supernatural and yes, it had romance, but it totally surpassed my expectations--strong characters, strong dialogue, mystery, romance, mean girls, humor, and magic. At the end of book one, Sophie, our main character, has just discovered the truth about her supernatural heritage and also discovers that someone she's trusted is part of a clandestine order determined to wipe out those of her kind. In the sequel, Demonglass, Sophie is preparing to leave Hex Hall, on her way to undergo a procedure that will strip her of her powers. Nooo, Sophie! Say it ain't so. Why do I have the feeling Sophie's powers are staying in place? After all, she'll need them to fight back against the multiple people (or should I say, monsters?) who are angling to kill her.

Horror & Supernatural Manga

The Foothills library has a monthly anime and manga club called Ani-Manga Club. Each month we talk about manga and anime and do some sort of activity. Last month, we made character buttons. This month we played Anime Bingo and focused on horror and supernatural manga titles. I wanted to share with you all some of the titles we discussed. Just in case you would like to read some too!


It's interesting to booktalk horror manga since there are so many different types available. If you want a truly Japanese horror experience, then look no further than Junji Ito's manga. The one I like the most is Uzumaki, a book creepier than any Tales of the Crypt or Twilight Zone. Kirie lives in a small town that has become obsessed with spirals. Yes, you read that correctly, spirals. So obsessed that people kill themselves attempting to become a spiral and the spirals seem to focus their own obsession with Kirie. A three volume series, it's perfect for a late night October reading.


For a bloody violent vampire manga, you have a few options, but I enjoyed Lunar Legend Tsukihime by Sasakishonen. Shiki has the ability to see the weaknesses in things and people. He sees them as lines on the object that if cut, it would be destroyed. He hides the ability with his glasses, but one night walking home he uses his ability and kills a woman. The next night, he meets the woman again, who scolds him and informs him that "it hurt." Now, he is forced to work with the woman--a vampire--to fight and destroy a maniac vampire on the loose killing humans and hunting her.



And last, but not least, supernatural manga which can cover a huge amount of manga titles! More of the lighthearted fantasy manga could fall here. The gothic lolita styled manga tends to be in this category too. I thought I'd talk about my favorite one of this field, Demon Ororon, but I've probably written about it before. So instead, I'll write about Gothic Lolita mystery series called Godchild by Kaori Yuki. Cain is the Earl of Hargreaves who spends most of his days hunting down poisons for his collection, solving dark mysteries, or opposing the criminal organization that his deceased father started. Detailed artwork is this manga creator's strength. Yuki creates the mood of the story in every ink stroke in the panels' artwork. Deliciously moody and a true guilty pleasure of yours truly.

I hope you find some enticing reads for the last week of October. The next Ani-Manga club meeting is Tuesday, November 16th at 4-5:30 p.m.

The Frenzy

Always a huge fan of Francesca Lia Block, I eagerly read her newest book, The Frenzy just released this month. It's a perfect October read---set in a grim town that borders a creepy forest where wolves roam the woods and a series of unsolved murders have occurred. Liv has always felt different from the other small-town people she grew up with. She looks different, with her bright red hair, flashing green eyes. . . and the fine down of hair that covers her whole body. Liv has only two friends, one who is hiding his homosexuality from the conservative community, and one with whom Liv has fallen in love with and who loves her back, despite her oddness. But even from her boyfriend, Liv harbors a secret. Four years ago when she turned thirteen, something happened to her. A rage within took over when she saw that her mother had shot a wolf on a hunting trip. Liv remembers wanting to attack her mother, but instead turning and running into the woods where something she can't remember--doesn't want to remember--happened. Now the same rage threatens to take over each month. A strange woman in the woods holds the key to Liv's secret. She may have the answer to Liv's biggest question: what am I?

As always Francesca Lia Block weaves a magical tale. The Frenzy feels quite different from FLB's well-known style--the lyricism of her previous books has been replaced by a more straight-forward narrative, though this isn't a criticism. I tore through this novel in one night, eager to know what would happen to Liv, to her boyfriend, to her best friend. Liv's is a tale of longing, lycanthropy, and a search for identity.

Numbers

I love an unsettling cover. So I was drawn to Numbers by Rachel Ward immediately. As I suspected there's a supernatural theme to the plot. British teenager Jemma has the ability to see the date a person will die. Literally, the date of death hovers over a person's head when Jemma interacts with anybody. Jemma first figures this out as a young child when her mother dies of an overdose and her mother's "special numbers" disappear. By the time she's a teen, Jemma has been shuffled from one foster home to another, never getting close to anyone. It's hard to form attachments when you know a person's final day on this earth. So, it takes Jem by surprise when she forms an unlikely friendship with Spider, a juvenile delinquent Jem runs into when they both cut class one day. Unfortunately Spider's death date is less than a few months away, and the closer Jemma grows to Spider, the more desperate she is to learn if she can prevent his death. Then an act of terrorism in London leaves Jemma and Spider on the run. They're not responsible, but the cops think they are. If they're caught before Spider's death date, Jemma might not be able to save him. If she can at all.

I liked that the main characters in this book were the "bad" kids. I also enjoyed the London slang, which could leave some American readers puzzled. (Don't worry--you get into the swing of things pretty quickly and might even find yourself with a fake British accent by the end of the book.) This is probably an older teen read, and not quite the Twilight fan's cup of tea, because it's more realistic fiction than supernatural---although the numbers are a key part of the plot, it's easy to forget for long stretches that the story is formed around a supernatural ability. Relationships in this book rang true, in all their complications. Nothing comes easy for anyone in Numbers. I wasn't sure how the author would end the book---right up until the end, I was uncertain---and all I will say is that I found it very satisfying. The last line in particular is deliciously chilling in its punch.

Hex Hall

Man, I wish the next book in this series was out already! That's saying something because normally I don't like series. When I first picked up this book, I wasn't too impressed with the first chapter and I wondered if it was just another novel riding on the coat tails of the current supernatural-romance, girl-with-special-powers wave that is taking over teen lit. There are certainly many titles out there hoping to be the next Twilight--and failing miserably. This book is not one of them.

In Hex Hall, sixteen-year-old Sophie Mercer finds her witchy self sentenced to supernatural reformatory school, or Hecate Hall, a place teens with supernatural powers go when they reveal their powers too openly to mortal humans. There three types of the Prodigium matriculate--witches like Sophie, shapeshifters, and the fey (fairies.) While studying the magic arts, they form cliques, worry about their social lives, and learn that powerful groups of anti-Prodigium them dead, which makes their lessons in supernatural defense key. Students keep turning up dead in Hex Hall, drained of their blood. Suspicion turns on the one vampire in the school, Sophie's roommate and closest friend. But is Jenna really to blame? Has something powerful and dark infilitrated the one place that the Prodigium are supposed to be safe? Throw in a completely hot, unattainable warlock, the gorgeous Archer Cross, who first seems to be Sophie's enemy and then her hopeless crush plus his girlfriend, the ridiculously beautiful and icy cold, Elodie, and you have all the elements for a satisfying first book in a series.

In another author's hands, this might have fallen flat, but Rachel Hawkins gets Sophie's sarcastic yet sympathetic voice just right. Sophie is what Bella Swan could have been with some more gumption. No, scratch that. Sophie is worlds more satisfying a main character than Bella. First off, she has powers that she learns to tap. Second, she is always in the midst of the action. Humor, action, romance, catty teen social posturing. . . all of the elements of this first book in a series come together in a most satisfying manner. I enjoyed this far more than I expected and wholeheartedly recommend it to readers who are looking for a just-right blend of supernatural romance action. Now I am just waiting for the author to get the second book out into the world.

We're Back! And Holly Black!

It's been several months since we went silent on this blog. We're back and ready to talk about books again! So I'm going to get the ball rolling with a short story collection that I just finished up reading.

The Poison Eaters and Other Stories by Holly Black

I wrote a pretty detailed review on my personal Goodreads page, so I copied most of it for here. (I just don't want you all to think I'm copying somebody else's review!) I'm also removing all the spoilers from that review!

I was reviewing a short story collection right when I started reading this book. I started writing about how much I enjoyed one story in the collection when WHAM! I remembered it was in The Poison Eaters and not the other short story collection. I felt horribly bad for the other book when reading just one of Holly Black's short stories erases all the other short stories in my mind. That's how good she is.


Most of these stories are found in other anthologies, but it doesn't matter because having a whole book of Black's stories makes all the difference. It made me wonder how was she going to make another story as good as the last? The crazy thing is, I don't really like reading short stories all that much. They tend to be forgettable stories to me. When I'm vested in characters already, such as Harry Potter, then I'm happy to have one more story about the characters, but if I'm not already vested I typically wonder why I should care. I didn't feel this way with this collection. So I'll break down some of the stories found in this collection.


The Coldest Girl in Cold Town: I finished this one and I wanted to read a novel set in this world. I wanted to see the fighting between vamps and humans before cold town existed. I wanted to see the 88 days the infected human had to suffer to become human again. I wanted it all. Innovative and gritty. Side note, I started to mention this story in a teen program earlier this month and one of the teens immediately piped up that this was sooooo good! Holly Black, if you're listening--I really really really want a novel about this world you created in this short story!!!


Reversal of Fortune: Selling the soul to the devil and then tricking him in a eating contest. Bizarrely effective. I don't think I would have expected anyone to ever have a supernatural eating contest in a story.


The Night Market: I loved the foreign setting. Different for Black's work to be set in a foreign place and not a city at that, but still had the grittiness expected of Black.


The Dog King: One of the stories that debuts in this collection. I liked where she took the story and the nice twists in it.


In Vodka Veritas: Bizarre. That's all I can say. Just bizarre.


Paper Cut Scissors: I loved this one. Granted it stars a library science student cataloging a library in which the characters come out of their books at night for cocktails. How could I not love it? But it has some fabulous quotes in it too. Justin is the type of reader who reads the last page first to make sure the endings happy. He can't handle bad things happening to the characters. "Books were something that happened to readers. Readers were the victims of books." How could you not like this writing!?


The Land of Heart's Desire: Another new one. This one takes place after Tithe Valiant and Ironside so read with caution if you haven't read those titles. But I will say it made me want to read those books all over again!


The Poison Eaters: Ahh, court corruption and the three sisters who can kill with a kiss. Perfect way to end a great collection of short stories.

Devil's Kiss

What do you know, another novel with the Templars as the main characters! It seems that many authors have found them to be fertile ground for novels.

Devil's Kiss is a mishmash of various supernatural and legendary elements that it is almost too much even for me. It may be a bit hard to follow all the bits and pieces that the Chadda includes in his novel. It would have been better if Mr. Chadda had used only a few devices so readers could see the connections the author was trying to make.

Billi SanGreal, as the first female Templar is an interesting twist, since Templars could not have anything to do with women. Ordinarily, being sympathetic to the Templars, I generally like the characters. I found this group only nominally interesting. They all seemed too one dimensional and I could never get into any of them.

The Templars have their back against the wall these days. There are very few of them left to fight the good fight. It also seems that training Billi to be a Knight Templar has caused a great deal of friction among the remaining knights.

Billi is put in an untenable position of being forced to become a Templar and trying to be a "normal" girl going to school. She is an outsider and because the only friend she had has been sent away for training (Kay is also part of the Templar group) so she has no one.

With Kay coming back, the Templars are being threatened with dark forces. Which are being led by Michael, the Archangel. Michael is determined to take back the last Templar treasure (a mirror) that keeps his brethren imprisoned. If this happens the tenth plague will be unleashed into the world and firstborns will die everywhere.
At all costs the Templars must keep this from happening.

While the actions scenes were good for those of us that like good fight scenes, the novel was not one that I was wanted to pick up as soon as I could. However, if the reader has an interest in the Knights Templar they will likely be satisfied with Devil's Kiss. It will be interesting to see future offerings from Chadda.

Creature of the Night

The story is set in Ireland and it certainly sounds like a vampire or werewolf tale, but it isn't. How about a story involving the sidhe? The wee people or perhaps, wee person, play a role in this slightly creepy tale.

Bobby gets himself in one too many scrapes. He and his cousin are part of gang of thieves in Dublin. Bobby's mother decides the best way to keep Bobby out of trouble and to avoid the moneylenders she owes money to, is to move to the country. Bobby does not like the idea and once he gets a look at where they wind up, he tells his mother he's going back to Dublin.

The previous tenant of the cottage they are renting, simply left. No one knows where he went. Since on identification or money was found, it was assumed he just left. No one seems overly concerned. However, as Bobby's curiosity gets the better of him, he finds evidence to suggest that Lars never left. There are also some strange drawings and writings of Lars' that sound somewhat like the superstitious tales of fairies.

None of the main characters are likable. Bobby is a troubled teen who has no respect for his mother and shows it. His mother leaves much to be desired as a mother, but she was very young when she got pregnant and her family more or less deserted her. Dennis, Bobby's younger brother is to be pitied since both his mother and brother treat somewhat cruelly.

Creature of the Night is more a study in how Bobby begins to see the world in a different light and how he has to change in order to relate to this new world. The old tales and the gruesome discovery of Lars also make him wonder about the reality of the Tuatha de Danaan. It is interesting and the ending is not neatly tied up, but I see a more mature man with perhaps a chance at a future.