The Awesome Lois Duncan

Sometimes after I've read a book, even one I really liked, the plot details grow hazy within a few months. I go to hand the book to someone, knowing I have a good reason for recommending it but not entirely sure what that reason is until I read the back of the book and jog my memory. Other books I read back in adolescence and years later the plot is still so vibrant in my mind, that I could practically tell the story chapter by chapter. Lois Duncan's books fall into that latter category. In fact, it's probably due to LD that I developed such a love for horror and suspense. I'm happy to see she's still in print, even though she stopped writing horror some years ago (more on that later), and it really says something for the staying power of her work.



Down a Dark Hall takes place in an exclusive (and creepy) boarding school. It's so exclusive, in fact, that there are only four students in the entire place. The staff are strange, the girls are isolated, and each of them seems to have been chosen for a particular talent she holds. From the moment she arrives, Kit wants to leave Blackwood Hall, but it soon becomes clear that the staff has no intention of letting anyone go anywhere.


Summer of Fear-- after Julia's family is killed in a car crash she comes to live with her cousin Rachel. Everyone loves popular, beautiful Julia. Everyone but Rachel, that is. Only Rachel senses something wrong, but every time she tries to say something, she's accused of jealousy. Slowly Julia is taking over Rachel's life. First her friend flock to Julia, then her parents dote on Julia, and finally, her boyfriend falls prey to Julia's charms. But when Rachel pries into her cousin's past, she discovers that the truth about Julia is more horrifying than she could have imagined.

I Know What You Did Last Summer-- do not be put off by the somewhat mediocre horror movie of the same name. That movie is based very loosely on LD's novel, and the author was quite upset to discover they'd turned her story into a slasher movie (more later on why she was so upset.) In the book, four friends are bound by a terrible secret. They've vowed not to speak of it to anyone, though the guilt is slowly eating them alive and their friendship has suffered. It's hard enough living like this, but life turns into a complete nightmare when they begin receiving anonymous letters that read "I know what you did last summer." Who knows? And what is that person going to do? The letter is only the beginning of a terrifying ordeal for each of them. . .
Who Killed My Daughter? ---this would be the "more later" I kept mentioning above. Unfortunately, this title is not one of LD's fictional suspense tales. Instead, it's the true crime story of her own daughter's murder. Frustrated by what she construed as police incompetence, Lois Duncan tried to find her daughter's killer herself. It won't surprise you to hear that Lois Duncan called this the hardest book she ever had to write. Read the book, and visit the website dedicated to the search for Kaitlyn's killer: http://kaitarquette.arquettes.com/index.htm



I wish Lois Duncan was still writing suspense and horror because I consider her the YA master of the genre. I only described a few of the titles, but all of them are good. Do not skip Stranger with My Face, Daughters of Eve, or Locked in Time, three more of my all-time LD favorites.

Scorpia Rising

The last in the Alex Rider series. The final mission, will Alex survive it and see 16? That seems to be the question in Anthony Horowitz's final Alex Rider novel. Alex has a reprieve of several months where he has lived like an ordinary student with his friend Jack Starbright as his guardian. Things are so "normal" that Jack is seriously thinking about leaving Alex and going to take care of her ailing parents. Unfortunately, things do NOT stay normal for very long. Once again Alan Blunt, outgoing head of MI6 and his assistant Mrs. Jones make a visit to Alex and Jack in order to talk him into being put undercover in a school in Egypt. At first Alex is not prone to do them any more favors until his best friend is shot. Alex is lead to believe that students at Cairo College could be in danger, so he regretfully decides to go to Egypt. Jack, however, demands to go with him or there is no deal. They arrive in Cairo and spend a couple of really fun days exploring and having a good time. Alex goes to school, makes friends very quickly and starts to fit in pretty well. But he absolutely abhors the spying he has to do while he is there. A little after a week, things begin to fall apart as Alex follows the target he has been assigned to a boat on the Nile River. Once he boards the boat and starts following Gunter, Alex discovers a dead body and then must survive the boat exploding. The action is nonstop after this and Alex decides that he has been lied to and is going to leave. I will not spoil the story for readers of this review but be prepared for a shock. Horowitz had Alex go out in a blaze of glory. Lots of action and some excellent surprises and one not so much. The additional characters are colorful and pretty much one dimensional but were still very interesting. If readers enjoyed the series they will read Scorpia Rising with regret because there will be no more adventures for their teenaged James Bond. I get hooked on series and when they are fun to read with lots of action, I find that I wish they could go on forever. I know he ended the series at a good time. I am sure he thought about all the television series that went on past their prime. Still, I will miss Alex, Jack, Smithers and even Mrs. Jones. This is a good read and won't take to long, simply because you have to know what is going to happen next. The cover is enticing, so pick it up and happy reading!

Falling from Grace

A missing girl. A suspicious teenager. An aging one-hit wonder. Combine these elements for the suspenseful if sometimes choppy Falling from Grace.

One stormy twilight, Grace and her sister, Annie, become caught in a storm on the beach. They've gone way off the beaten path following a penguin. . . yes, a penguin. . .this threw me for a loop and I thought at first the characters were hallucinating but apparently in Australia, where this takes place, you can come across a penguin on the beach, small penguins as they fit into school backpacks (so, not the emperor penguin I was picturing, not at all) . . . Anyway, to continue, the girls try to climb up a cliff. Annie makes it to the top; Grace falls when the cliff crumbles. And that's the last Annie sees of her sister. Did she get swept out to sea? Did she get buried under the debris of the cliff? Where is she?!! In the meantime, Kip, a teen boy who has recently become "troubled" in the eyes of his parents--mostly because he's quit the swim team where he used to excel--meets a few strange people. First he sees a little boy jumping out of a moving a car. Then he encounters a drunk, bleeding man on the beach. The drunk turns out to be a rock star from some decades past. He's a bitter guy who behaves oddly at best, suspiciously at worst. Yet, Kip hangs out with him, gets blood on his clothes helping him and later drinks a rum-laced Coke the guy gives him--all of which makes Kip look really suspicious when he discovers Grace's backpack and a pair of her jeans, now bloodied. The police obviously think he's done something dreadful. Kip keeps digging himself in deeper. The reader knows he's innocent. The reader also knows there's something wrong with the one-hit wonder. So why is Kip spending so much time with him, going back again and again to talk with him? (Well, mostly to advance the plot. . .)

Confused? Well, it wasn't confusing to read, but the story jumped around so much I wondered how it was all going to come together. That jumpiness was essential to the structure the author chose to tell the story--each character must contribute his or her own bit of information and the slow piecing together of the bits solves the mystery--but it took some getting used to. The novel is mostly told in two alternating voices, Annie's and Kip's, and the two seem to be in competition for whose story it really is. Eventually it becomes clear that the story is Kip's--his character is much better developed than Annie's. Then, a third voice suddenly butts in. I was disappointed because A) it feels like cheating, especially considering who it is and B) it felt like a clear plot device. That voice had to be there or the story wouldn't have made any sense. I've read plenty of books that switch points-of-view, but there was something aggravating about this one, maybe because the reader can feel those plot devices in play.

Aggravation aside, I simply had to know how it was going to end. The suspense worked, and I would say it's the book's greatest strength. Is Grace alive or dead? Is Kip going to take the fall for someone else's misdeed? Is Annie going to have to live with the guilt of losing her sister? What is the deal with this weird old rock star? There were also some very nice psychological moments. Halfway through the author really hits her stride in portraying the confusion of a teenage boy who has chosen to abandon the thing that's always defined him. He does some stupid things, but doesn't everybody do some stupid things, especially when they're young and unsophisticated? As for why he keeps doing the things the rock star tells him to--drink this drink, play this guitar, listen to my rambling weirdness--Kip explains "I don't know why I didn't just leave. I suppose you get used to obeying adults who tell you what to do." I realized, right then, that the author had hit the nail on the head. Adults program kids to obey them, so they tend to do that, even to their own detriment.

The ending was satisfying and I was glad I read the book. I got used to the structure pretty quickly and put my minor aggravation aside to get to the meat of the mystery. Worth the time and the read. Now I need to do some research on Australian penguins. . .

Gentlemen

What a great cover! Is that kid in a hoodie or a body bag? This sort of dark uncertainty--what is really happening?--is at the heart of Gentlemen by Michael Northrop.

The novel's main characters are four high school guys who make up a tight-knit, loyal band of friends. These guys are the bad grade makers, the delinquents, the trouble makers, but one thing they have down pat is loyalty to the group. When Tommy, one the four, hurls his desk over in class rather than answer the teacher's question, his other three friends assume he has been expelled. How else to explain his sudden disappearance? But when his mother hasn't heard from him and no one has seen him in days, the guys wonder if Tommy has run away again. Around the same time, their weird English teacher--a guy who snidely insists on calling the guys "gentlemen"-- brings a big blue barrel into class, inviting the students to guess what might or might not be stuffed inside. It's supposed to be a visual aid tied into their Crime and Punishment reading assignment, but when the three friends are forced to help the teacher move the barrel to his car, they become aware that the mystery item inside is as heavy as a body. The thing is unwieldy, strangely joint-like and wrapped up in a blanket. Only later does the horrible idea come to them: Could it actually have been a body they helped move? Could it actually have been. . . Tommy?

With an authentic voice, fifteen-year-old Micheal (his parents misspelled his own name) narrates this story of crime and punishment, guilt and suspicion. Thrown in for good measure, questions of loyalty and how far a person should go for friendship. At what point do the bonds of friendship constrict too tightly? What do you do when you suspect something awful has happened to your friend and especially what do you do if you've been implicated in the potential crime? No one is going to believe the ramblings of a bunch of juvenile delinquents, after all. So, how to get to the truth?

Great tension, eerie premise. What really happened to Tommy? Suspenseful and creepy, this novel keeps the reader guessing until its chilling ending.

Feathered

I started Feathered by Laura Kasischke last night. This morning I am on page 208, hurtling toward the end.

A sense of impending doom hangs over this tale—the tone set early on, almost from the first line. The reader doesn’t know exactly what has happened, but it’s clear something terrible has. The author’s beautiful writing, infused with an underlying current of great unease, seduces the reader, whose discomfort and worry grows as the plot unfolds.

Feathered opens with three Midwestern girls in their senior year of high school embarking on what is supposed to be a fabulous spring break trip to Cancun. Shortly after they arrive, the trio splits up, with the most outgoing of the girls pursuing drinking and romance. The other two find themselves less drawn to the party scene. Wandering into a quiet corner of the hotel bar, they meet an older man. He seems friendly enough and harmless enough, though a stranger, and before they know it, they’ve agreed to tour a Mayan pyramid with him. As soon as they’re in the car though, eighteen-year-old, Anne realizes they’ve made a mistake. The man, Ander, seems obsessed with death and sacrifice; he’s not quite right. Anne is desperate to get away from their tour guide, but Michelle—dreamier, introspective, and more unusual than her friend—senses a deep connection with this pseudo father-figure. As much as Anne wants to leave, Michelle wants to stay. The reader finds herself torn between the two disparate views of the girls—is Ander a threat or is he just a lonely man passionate about anthropology? Where does the real danger lie? The reader wants to cry, Run!—but run from what, to what? The more Anne identifies Ander as a terrible threat, the more Michelle seems to cling to him. Soon, it seems as if Michelle will follow Ander anywhere he asks her to go, from the top of the pyramid where human sacrifices were once made to the depths of the inner pyramid, where the hearts of the victims were laid on the altar. What does Ander want from Michelle? Can Anne get them out of this, whatever this is?

The sense of dread, of something awful about to happen, hangs over this novel like a shroud. That’s not negative criticism though. Kasischke writes beautifully, poetically, drawing the reader into the story not only with powerful description, but with a deft understanding of human motivation. The author’s writing seduces the reader almost like Mexico seduces the characters of this novel. In some ways this is The Ruins for teens, minus the supernatural element. Both books are about young American tourists whose idyllic Mexican vacations turn nightmarish; both describe the psychological reactions to that horror.

I’m anxious to get to the end and yet I want to take my time reading it too. Unless the author ruins the ending in the next 40 or so pages, I would highly recommend this.

Sight

I read this one all in one night. Every time I thought about putting it down, my curiosity got the better of me and before I knew it, I was turning the last page.

Sight by Adrienne Vrettos is the novel of a small town collectively affected by the murder of a young boy and the fear that results when law enforcement fails to catch the killer. Dylan, now a teenager, was only five-years-old when her school classmate went missing. She knew before anyone else did that he was dead, because that was the first time Dylan ever experienced “the sight,”otherwise known as a psychic vision. Sure enough, her young friend had been murdered, and then the entire town was nearly torn apart by the resulting suspicion and fear. Eleven years later and the murderer, nicknamed The Drifter, is still on the loose—and possibly killing again, in nearby towns. Suddenly the creepy rhyme Dylan and her circle of friends made up at the time of their classmate’s murder seems more accurate; just like in the rhyme, the Drifter is coming back and nothing seems to be stopping him.

Although friends in small towns tend to be close-knit, the closeness of Dylan’s group has always been magnified by the death of the child in their kindergarten class, as though the tragedy bound them together in ways that the rest of the town couldn’t fathom. And that’s why it’s so hard for Dylan to keep the truth from her friends—that she experiences visions and uses them to lead the police to the scenes of crimes. Since Dylan can only see a child during his or her last moments alive, the process of detection is always a grim and draining one. Dylan only helps the cops find bodies, never living victims. And Dylan is also one of the first to realize that the Drifter may indeed be back. Dylan wants to tell everything to her best friend, Pilar, but can’t bring herself to do it, so it’s a surprise, even to Dylan, when she spills the truth about herself to Cate, the new girl in town. Cate is more than a willing confidant—she seems to become obsessed by the Drifter and the details of the murder that bind the town kids together but seem to leave her on the outside of the circle. As Dylan grows closer to Cate, her friendship with Pilar becomes strained, and as the Drifter moves closer into everybody’s sphere, the town threatens to crack under the pressure.

Obviously I liked this, considering the speed with which I devoured it. I especially liked the question of how well we know our best friends, and the idea that anyone could be keeping secrets, motivated by any number of reasons to do so. I enjoyed the creepy tone of this and the portrayal of the ties that bind more than I enjoyed the solution to the unsolved murder. The “surprise ending” in which The Drifter’s identity is revealed seemed glaringly obvious to me, but was also a little convoluted, to the point where I just had to shrug and say, “Okay, that was stretching, but I liked the book so much I will accept it.” The richness of this book is in the main character’s conflict about her “gift” and the portrayal of friendship put to the test.

I loved Adrienne Vretto’s first book, Skin, and am happy to be able to recommend Sight as well. I can't wait to see what she writes next.

Newes from the Dead

The last thing Anne Green remembers is being hanged for murder. Now she's lying in the dark, unable to move a muscle. Where is she? Has she been buried alive, or is she in Purgatory? Terrified, Anne recalls the events that led to her sorry state. . . whatever that happens to be.

At the same time, a roomful of medical students waits to dissect the corpse of a newly hanged woman. Robert, a student at his first dissection, is stricken by the sight of the recently deceased. Is it his imagination or did he just see movement behind the "corpse's" closed eyes?

Set in 1650, Newes from the Dead, is a thrilling novel. Is Anne dead or alive? Has she somehow survived her hanging only to be dissected while the blood still runs through her veins? And why exactly has young Anne come to be accused of murder? As her back story unfolds, the reader comes to sympathize with the naive servant girl who has found herself in this nightmarish situation, through a series of unjust events.

Highly recommended! A terrific read with wonderful language from the era. Based on a real story, the 17th century description of this "amazing newes" is given at the end of the book. This one was a fast, shivery read.

More Alike than You Think....

So, as part of my "professional development goals" for the last year, I've been trying to read a more diverse range of teen books.

See, I read a lot of graphic novels, a good amount of fantasy, a fair amount of the softer sci-fi, and I like a good horror novel if things don't get to gross. But, to be a good teen librarian, I need to read more widely, I think, so that when a teen needs a book recommendation, I can hook them up.

So, right now, I'm trying to read things that I wouldn't normally pick up. Grand and Humble by Brent Hartinger is one of those books.

Harlan and Manny may go to the same school, and know some of the same people, but their lives couldn't be more different. Harlan is Mr. High-School super-star: handsome, charming, flirtatious, a star on the swim team and student body president. Manny is a geek, a genius at theatre lighting, an aspiring filmmaker, quiet and unassuming.

What the two boys have in common is that, lately, things have been getting weird. Manny has killer headaches, and recurring nightmares of being crushed. Harlan has been having premonitions of his own death by drowning. Manny can goes to his dad, his only parent, about the dreams -- but why did his dad get shady when he tried to talk to him? What is his dad trying to hide from him?

There's no way that Harlan could talk to his control freak mother or his senator dad about his visions; but they keep coming, more and more intensely, and they're starting to cramp his style. Even his airhead girlfriend has started to notice that Harlan is acting weird. As both boys search for answers, they discover more about their lives and past than they expected.

The secret to the premonitions will surprise you. In fact, the twist ending of this book is one of the things I liked best about it, because I totally didn't see it coming. I also liked some of the secondary characters in this book; Harlan's best friend is a gay super-jock, and Manny's best friend is a really cool deaf girl, and both are not at all presented in an "after-school special" kind of way.

I knocked this one out in about an hour and a half, so it is a really fast read. If you're looking for a good quick read to take your mind of of the holidays and finals, Grand and Humble is a great choice.

(And, Brent Hartinger is my MySpace friend, so that's another reason to like him. )

The Art of Keeping Cool

Well, this is my first post to the blog and I am sure everyone else is saying "finally!!". Sorry!! I have been reading Newbery contenders for our mock Newbery in January, so I haven't been reading much teen stuff. But now I'm reading teen books again!

I just read The Art of Keeping Cool, a historical fiction novel set in WWII in Rhode Island. It was written by Janet Taylor Lisle. Robert and his mother and sister move to the coast of Rhode Island during WWII when they can no longer keep their family farm in Ohio working. Robert's father has gone off to fly for the Royal Air Force in England, before America has entered the war. They are living in a house owned by Robert's dad's parents, who live down the road, along with his aunt and uncle and cousin, Elliott.

Elliott is an artist - he can draw sketches of what he sees that are realistic and funny. He spends a lot of time alone, roaming the woods and avoiding their house. Robert and Elliott's grandfather has a mean temper, and Elliott has found that it is best to "keep cool" and stay out of his way. In Elliott's roaming, he has discovered the home of a German painter, Abel Hoffmann. When they begin to know Abel, they find out that he came to America just as the Nazis were coming to power. The townspeople in their small town don't really trust Abel, since they have been told by the local Naval base that there are German submarines just off the coast of Rhode Island, spying on the Americans.

There are enormous Naval guns at the local Navy base, pointed out to sea in hopes of scoring a direct hit on a submarine, and protecting the American shore. One day, during practice manuevers for the Navy, Robert and his young sister sneak into the Naval base to watch the guns being fired. While they are there, they see Abel Hoffmann, watching too, and taking notes. Now Robert is faced with a dilemma - does he tell the police about Abel's suspicious activities, making Robert a patriotic hero? Or does he confront Abel, and find out what he was really doing on the Naval base? As the tensions of WWII build, Robert is trapped between patriotism and friendship.

This is a really good book, with a lot of suspense. I also liked the setting, since I lived just off the coast of Rhode Island for a couple of years, on Nantucket. What happens to Robert, Elliott and Abel will make you really think about what you would do in this situation.