Love (Play With My Hair, #1) by Douglas R.

This review was written by: B

Received: Free E-book from the author

Publication Date of Book: December 2014

Pages: 192

Stars: 4.5/5

Myla is not like everyone else.  For one, she doesn't live on Earth, she's from Pandor, and secondly, she's a Lebra.  For Myla, yellow means warmth, but the color purple means death.  Being a Lebra is extremely important.  Her prestige leads to many things such as her having to possibly fight for her life!  She can't even see her family, including her little brother whom she has never met in person.  Then there is the fact that she can't have a relationship with anyone of the male species.  All of these things are distractions for her.  Distractions interfere with her training and her focus.  If she loses focus, she may die.  However, these rules do not make or break her.  She still finds ways to communicate on rare occasions with her family, and she might have even found herself a boyfriend!  You see, there's this big evil out in space, almost like a brain, that needs someone like Myla to inhabit so that it can become unstoppable.  Myla has gifts, and she's growing into them everyday.  Perhaps these powers are what led to her finding Blake.

One night, asleep in her bed, Myla dreams of a boy unlike any she has known.  His name's Blake, and he can't be real.  However, they both insist that they are in each others' dreams.  Who's real and who's not?  To settle this once and for all, the two give each other something of their own that have an almost personal value to them.  Myla is given Blake's iPod Touch.  When she wakes up, it's sitting there in her hands.  Now, that's pretty insane!  Falling asleep the next night, they meet again.  Can a relationship like this be possible, star crossed lovers even?  Blake's from Alaska, all the way on Earth while Myla's from Pandor.  It can't happen, but love can do strange things to a person.  If Myla hopes to have a relationship, she must save herself and him at the same time.

Love was a surprisingly captivating read!  I fell into it much harder than I thought I would.  A major reason for this was due to how much music played a part into this book.  Music is a huge part of my life and so many others.  It can influence your mood, sway you to feel a certain way, change the tone, and make emotions surface that you weren't even expecting.  I feel like this book demonstrated these concepts perfectly.  Music is freedom to be whoever you want to be whenever you want to be it.  It's a connection that links us all.  The fact that Blake cared so deeply about music and that Myla changes her outlook on her life, even if it's only to a certain extent due to her first experience with music, is quite powerful.

The relationship between Myla and Blake was also interesting to see unfold.  While she is certain of her feelings towards him, he is more hesitant to recognize what is going on inside of him.  However, the top two most favorite relationships that I read about was between Myla and her trainer Rhiannon along with the friendship between Blake and one of his best friends Sherri.  Each group showed true and tangible emotions towards each other to the point where I didn't feel like I was just reading a book.  They were earnest, and I was really jealous of what they had!  It was an intimacy that wasn't love but rather a desire to make each other happy and to protect what they had, and this was definitely the best part of Love.

Douglas R also wrote about the  issue of wanting to be yourself instead of hiding behind closed doors or trying to please everyone.  Myla was like a caged bird, as noted in the book.  The metaphors with this were really beautiful, and how her character is currently breaking free is wonderfully challenged.  The struggle to shine her true colors is written with perfection and brought to light something that I feel a lot of people struggle with, including myself.

The only reason that I gave it 4.5 stars was because at a couple of scenes, I felt like the wording was slightly awkward.  (For instance, Myla liked to call Blake "Baby" quite a bit more than I thought she would.  I didn't really have a problem with this too much, but maybe that's just me.)  Also, it seemed like it was really easy for Blake to convince his two best friends of this girl in his dreams and how she was real.  However, I believe that the closeness demonstrated between Blake, Sherri, and Matty made up for this because it made me feel like they could tell each other anything.

Overall, I definitely recommend that you give this book a shot.  I really want to read the next one in the series!          

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The Beasties by William Sleator

This review was written by: B

Received: Library

Publication Date of Book: October 1997

Pages: 208 (paperback version)
Stars: 2.75/5

Colette had already stepped off the wooden platform and was shining the flashlight down the slightly curving dirt tunnel.  Roots crawled and twisted over the walls and floor.  The tunnel was very narrow and had a low ceiling.  Colette had to crouch, and I had to bend almost double when I followed her off the platform into the tunnel, trying not to trip over the roots.  A full-grown adult would have had to crawl.  This place was not built for people.

-The Beasties

Doug and his family are about to be uprooted from their city life to go and live in the middle of nowhere, smack dab in the center of severe country life where neighbors are few and far between.  Doug's father is a botanist who wants to study a special type of fungus that can only be found in a this particular area, and with the woods being cut down by loggers at an alarming pace, he only has a short window of time to accomplish this.  On the other hand, his mother wants to get into painting new things (in this case that's nature).  However, the children are not too hyped up about this new development, especially after what crazy Al told Doug and his little sister, Colette.  Al said that it was of utmost importance that the family refrains from living in an old home and to steer clear of the woods located behind old homes.  That's where the supposed Beasties live...

Doug doesn't take Al too seriously, but once he nears his new home, he notices strange things.  People are moving about in the area, but they have missing limbs.  A person in Al's family also has a missing arm and leg, just like everyone else there.  What's this mean?  Then, as soon as they arrive at their new house, Doug finds out that it is not only old, but it is also placed by the woods.  Soon enough, Colette and her brother find a baseball bat and a book randomly sitting out in the middle of the yard, just waiting for the siblings to pick them up.  Doug's actually a huge baseball player and Colette is an avid reader who believes that she can learn more from books than she can from real live people.  However, these gifts do not bode well with Doug.  Who could have known about their favorite pastimes?  The bat's brand new.  Why were they left there?  Something's obviously not right here.

Soon Doug discovers that the woman who helps to take care of the house and makes meals for them wears a mask.  She says that she hurt her nose in an accident.  Why does everyone have missing body parts?  To make matters worse, Colette wants to go into the woods behind the old house against Doug's protests.  Not wanting his sister to go alone, he follows her into the darkened forest where they find a mysterious trapdoor that leads down into the ground.  Who would have placed that there?

Going down into it, the siblings discover a deep and dark secret.  They just found the home of the dreaded and rumored Beasties...

WARNING: SPOILERS ARE REVEALED WHILE I DISCUSS MY THOUGHTS ON THIS BOOK!

I'll be honest, I have very mixed feelings about The Beasties as you can probably guess by my rating. For me it wasn't quite a three star novel, but at the same time, I felt like it deserved a little more than a two star rating.  So, here we have a 2.75 rating rounded to a three for the sake of displaying stars!  Yep.  I'm indecisive.

I really enjoyed the story and the themes within it.  The reader gets to see how it is extremely important to take care of the environment.  I totally agree with this, but I think that the book had a strange way of trying to justify fighting back for nature.  For one, the Beasties are harmed when the surrounding forest, their home, is being destroyed and cut down piece by piece.  These creatures then contract a disease that messes with their body, making some creatures born without an arm, leg, or any other appendage that you can think of.  The Beasties' queen is  also dying.  She is the only one who can have children, and all of her litters are dying along with her.  This obviously presents a problem for their race.

To compensate for the current deforestation and their lost limbs, Beasties raid logging sites and take humans, cutting off various appendages and attaching them to themselves.  Weird, I know.  It's equally creepy and mortifying.  However, this is really what this story is all about: horror.  Colette immediately goes along with the Beasties and fights for them amongst their ranks, but Doug is torn between turning away from their gruesome ways or choosing to support them.  Which way will he choose?  Well, (HUGE SPOILER HERE) he chooses to go along with the Beasties in the end.  In his mind he sees things as if, while they do take body parts from humans, they only take one or two.  This leaves their victims still able to live and function, unlike the Beasties who have to contend with a dying forest and race.  Okay, so what is with that logic?  I don't understand how he could possibly be okay with the Beasties and defend them!  Aren't the lumber jack guys and the Beasties both in the wrong??!!!  I just...I don't...understanding is not going on here.  My brain does not think like that.

Then we have Colette and her admirable love for reading.  She has a deep passion for literature.  However, her father kept talking about how he couldn't fathom how his own daughter could just sit around with her nose stuck in a book.  He kept telling her to close the book and go out into the woods.  Do something, anything but read.  Hmm...discouraging a child from reading?!  Oh, that was the true horror here.  I wanted to rip this man from the pages so I could give him a lecture on how it's okay to let your child read.  Let them be adamant about it and support them!  Oh, my heart just broke.

The Beasties also didn't sit well with me for one more reason.  In the beginning, I was definitely scared and horrified.  That's why I picked up this book from the YA section at the library after all.  However, after they found the trapdoor leading down to the Beasties' home and explored it, I felt like it lost its fear factor rather fast.  One minute there's YA horror going down and then a little more of a Middle Grade feeling set in for the rest of the novel.  Maybe this was just me.  I lost a tad bit of interest in it.  So, I would recommend this to higher Middle Grade or lower YA readers because there is some violence, but there is also a MG vibe to it.

Overall, it was a nice, quick, and easy read, but I think that the length was what created the problem for me.  I was not convinced at all in Doug's choice or that the Beasties were less in the wrong.  There were some great themes in here, though.  It gives the book a tone of what it means to take a step back and realize what you are doing to the earth.  We have to think of the bigger picture.  So, there was a great message, a nice splash of horror, but problems that kept me from totally enjoying The Beasties.

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December Topic of the Month: CHRISTMAS

Christmas!

Check out our Topic of the Month page for some fun Christmas reads!

(November 2014) Topic of the Month: Ghosts

GHOSTS

November's Topic of the Month is officially Ghosts! Check out some of these haunting reads!


Read by F and H

Here is the GoodReads summary of the book: Callum Blackwell thinks his life can't get any worse.  But he's wrong. Callum is haunted by the dead. The only thing that keeps them away is a diary he has found in the basement of his house. After he moves to a godforsaken town of Olden Cross, the haunting stops. But one day Callum and his friend, Nathan, find something terrible. And then the dead reappear. Callum's existence turns into a living hell. Boys and girls Callum's age start disappearing, and when Callum least expects it, his diary goes missing.

Read by B, C, and H

Here is the Amazon summary of the book: Jack is not a normal boy. He can talk to ghosts. In his new home, an aging farmhouse, he meets the Ghost Mother, a grief-stricken spirit who becomes very attached to him...too attached. He learns that the Ghost Mother is preying in the cruelest imaginable way on four child ghosts who are trapped in the house, stealing their energy to sustain her own. Before Jack can figure out how to help them, the Ghost Mother takes possession of his real mother's body. Jack wants to fight back, but he has severe asthma and risks fatal attacks with any physical exertion. It will take all his resources to fight off the Ghost Mother and save the ghost children from a horrible fate.

Here is the GoodReads summary of the book: When Elliot and his brother move into the old and crumbling Glebe House they don't expect to find themselves sharing it with ghosts. But soon sinister events are unfolding. An old diary reveals glimpses of the mansion's past - and of a terrible tragedy. An old woman talks to ghosts - but is she in fact being controlled by them? And what of the sinister East Wing - a hideous labyrinth devised by a truly twisted mind? Can Elliott and his family escape the clutches of Glebe House? Or will they end up trapped in the endless maze of corridors, forever hunted by the dead?

Read by B

Here is the GoodReads summary of the book: Travis and his sister, Corey, can't resist a good trick - so when they learn that their grandmother's sleepy Vermont inn has a history of ghost sightings, they decide a little "haunting" of their own. Scaring the guests proves to be great fun, and before long, the inn is filled with tourists and ghost hunters eager for a glimpse of the supernatural. But Travis and Corey soon find out that they aren't the only ghosts at Fox Hill In. Their thoughtless games have awakened something dangerous, something that should have stayed asleep. Restless, spiteful spirits swarm the inn, while a dark and terrifying presence stalks the halls and the old oak grove on the inn's grounds. To lay the ghosts at rest, Travis and Corey must first discover the dark history of Fox Hill and the horrors visited on its inhabitants years earlier.

Read by H, C, and B

Here is the GoodReads summary of the book: The time is 1872. The place is New York City. Horace Carpetine has been raised to believe in science and rationality. So as apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer, he thinks of his trade as scientific art. But when wealthy society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photographic portrait, strange things begin to happen. Horace's first real photographs reveal a frightful likeness: it's the image of the Von Macht's dead daughter, Eleanora. Pegg, the Von Macht's black servant girl, then leads him to the truth about who Eleanora really was and how she actually died. Joined in friendship, Pegg and Horace soon realize that his photographs are evoking both Eleanora's image and her ghost. Eleanora returns, a vengeful wraith intent on punishing those who abused her.

Read by: C

Here is the GoodReads summary of the book: After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living note the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack-who has already killed Bod's family.

Here is the GoodReads summary of the book: Doug Mitchell's daughter, Janie, has a new imaginary friend...who wants Doug to leave his house. After being awoken by strange sounds night after night, Doug realizes his daughter's imaginary friend might be something paranormal. In his pursuit of answers, Doug exhumes entails about the history of their property, including a possible reason for the spirit's presence. After a near-catastrophic injury to his wife, and a shocking revelation from Janie, Doug learns this spirit doesn't want Doug to leave-it wants young Janie for itself. As the paranormal power increases and Janie's will to resist the spirit's advances weakens, Doug must fight for the safety of his entire family.

Here is the GoodReads summary of the book: In the scorching summer of 1976, the hottest since records began, Christopher Norton, his wife, Laura, and their young daughter, Faye, settle into their new home in north London. The faded glory of the Victorian house is the perfect place for Norton, a composer of film soundtracks, to build a recording studio of his own. But soon in the long, oppressively hot nights, Laura begins to hear something through the crackle of  the baby monitor. First, a knocking sound. Then come the voices. For Norton, the voices mark an exciting opportunity. Putting his work to one side, he begins the project of a lifetime, a grand symphony incorporating the voices and becomes increasingly obsessed with one voice in particular. Someone who is determined to make themselves heard.

Read by: B

Here is the GoodReads summary of the book:  Zack, his dad, and new stepmother have just moved back to his father's hometown, not knowing that their new house has a dark history.  Fifty years ago, a crazed killer caused an accident at the nearby crossroads that took 40 innocent lives.  He died when his car hit a tree in a fiery crash, and his malevolent spirit has inhabited the tree ever since.  During a huge storm, lightning hits a tree, releasing the spirit, who decides his evil spree isn't over...and Zack is directly in his sights.

Read by: C

Here is the GoodReads summary of the book: Could the road to the afterlife be a two-way street?  Derek Stone just turned fourteen.  He's lived in New Orleans with his dad and older brother, Ronny, his whole life.  He's a little overweight.  He can't hear well out of his left ear.  Oh, and he's on the run from the dead.  Derek never imagined that the dead could be anything but dead.  But there's no denying it.  They're back-and they're after him.  He just doesn't know why.  And he doesn't have long to figure it out.

Death Note, Vol. 1: Boredom by Tsugumi Ohba

This review was written by: B

Received: Library

Publication Date of Book: January 2001

Pages: 195

Stars: 5/5

The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

 -Death Note

Shimigami are death gods who have the ability to end a person's life early.  All they have to do is write down the human's name into their Death Note, and their subject dies within forty seconds of a heart attack, unless otherwise specified.  If the person was supposed to live until they were sixty years old but the death god transcribed their name into their Death Note when they were only forty years old, the god gets the remaining twenty years of the human's life for themselves.  This in turn allows Shinigami to live forever if they keep continuing the previously described process.  If someone shoots them, they will still live. If stabbed, the god will carry on as if nothing really happened because they have so many years built up.  However, there is a way to kill one of these frightening creatures, but only several know of it and barely any death gods have the knowledge of it either.  With years of life stocking up for them, the Shinigami have become lazy beings, sitting around and doing absolutely nothing.

One death god is different, though.  His name is Ryuk, and he has become bored.  To relieve his so called "boredom," he drops his Death Note into the human world where he hopes someone will pick it up and give him a show to watch.  As luck would have it, someone does pick it up, Light.  Light is not your typical high school student.  In fact, he has above average intelligence and a driving desire for the world to be set right.  Actually, they both describes themselves as "bored."  Once he finds the Death Note, he discovers instructions inside on how to use it, what it does, and just what will happen if he writes someone's name down.  At first it seems like a hoax, something like this can't be real after all.  However, the Death Note has an alluring quality to it that drives a person to use it.  So, against Light's trepidation, he goes ahead and writes a criminal's name down because he has just seen them on television.  Almost immediately, he discovers that they turned up dead.  It works.

Now Light goes on a rampage, believing that it is his duty to rid the world of all those he deems to be scum.  These are top level criminals that he's eliminating.  Tons of names are written down, and he believes that if these men who are condemned to death by his hand are being killed and talked about on the news, then everyone else will be too afraid to sin, therefore creating an eventual utopia that he can dictate.  Also, once he wrote his first name in the book, Ryuk suddenly appeared.  (Once a human uses a Shinigami's Death Note, they can see them.)  Ryuk then reveals that a human user of a Death Note can neither go to Heaven or to Hell after death.  This does not stop Light though.

Soon the police take notice of all of the dying criminals.  They start an investigation to stop whoever is behind all of these sudden deaths, but how can you catch someone when all you have to go on is heart attacks as evidence?  Quite frankly it seems impossible...until they call in L.  L is a last resort for the authorities. He has been known to solve any case given to him.  He's quite illusive, though.  Only one person alive can contact him. Also, L is a very smart cookie.  Together, Light and L go head to head indirectly, trying to outsmart each other and divert their true identities.  Neither can be found out or they will die by each other's hand or forces.  And so begins the journey that all started out of a little bit of boredom....

My thoughts on the book:

I'll be honest, I was really excited to read this manga.  I know that tons of people loved the anime (at least up to a certain point.)  So, when I got it from the library I immediately started to read it.  However, after a short while I wasn't so sure that I wanted to finish it.  It was weird, creepy, and definitely an "out there" type of book.  Plus, I can say that it is absolutely on the list of my top five weirdest books that I have ever read, and this list extends to manga, comic books, and novels.  It definitely tops most of them.  I'm really glad that I stuck with it though because it just became addictive.  I had to know what L would come up with next to try and decide where the killer was located and who he was.  It's brilliant how L and Light try to go up against each other without revealing their true identities.  These two characters were really interesting to read out, and I'm excited to see more of them.  They are pitted perfectly against each other as equally worthy opponents.  Everything is so clever and exciting.  Death Note is a very creative series.

The Shinigami are super creepy looking.  The whole entire ambiance of this book is also really dark, and the illustrations are beautiful, descriptive, and truly well done.  The only thing I will say though is that, while the Shinigami were grotesque and stange looking, it was almost like Ryuk had no change in emotion shown on his face throughout the whole manga.  For me, that was a small let down because the illustrations tell so much of the story and really convince me of the storyline.  (He did have a couple of different expressions going on a few times, though.)

Death Note is your classic series with a new twist that brings to light the question: What is truly wrong, and what is truly right?  For example, is it moral to get rid of a criminal if they killed people and were going to do it again?  What if they were going to be put on death row?  Light believes that you should just eliminate those who can harm humanity because they will ruin all of the good around them.  However, if you take L's stance in his opposite perspective, you would have something  completely different.  Isn't killing bad no matter who is doing it, despite their reasons?  Murder is murder, isn't it?  Both of these points were explored fairly well in volume one, and  I hope to see more of it as I go through the series.  In Volume 1: Boredom, the reader can decide which stance to take because Tsugumi Ohba does a great job of not taking a side or making it clear which way you should sway.  It's all up to you!

So, if you're a hardcore manga lover, this is definitely for you if you haven't read it yet.  If you want to get into the genre, this might be a good place to start as long as you don't mind creepy!

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Recently Added to Topic of the Month: Ghosts!

The following books have recently been aded to the Topic of the Month! Go check them out!

          

98 by V. L. Holt

This review was written by: B

Received: Free e-book copy from the author

Publication Date of Book: August 2014

Pages: 275 (Kindle Edition)

Stars: 5/5

"Your silence is more valuable to me than anything you could have said.  There's something big going on and I'm going to find out, even if you don't want to tell me."

         -Crady

Have you ever tried to keep a life changing secret from your best friend?  Every wonder what it would be like to never know your father?  Has your boyfriend ever died and come back to life more than ninety times?  Well, Jane has experience in all of these matters and so many more.  Her true love is William, a Warrior who has died 97 times and only has a couple lives left to live before he runs out of chances.  However, he desperately wants to cling to the time he has remaining so that he can be with Jane forever, but this is definitely not going to be easy.  Evil Lochspawn are hot on his and all the other Warriors' trails at every turn, just waiting to tear them apart.  A normal relationship is hard enough for two average teenagers, but for two people who live very extraordinary lives, things cannot turn out well, or can they if they choose to fight for it?  This is Jane and William's story back in action and continued with just as much awesomeness as the first book in the  Rise of the Battle Bred trilogy.

William and his father are backtracking to Toledo, Ohio to clear their names in the incident that previously occurred in 97.  (I won't spoil it here if you haven't read it yet.)  However, after realizing a fatal mistake from back home, William races back to Deer Fjord before things can turn sour.  However, will he lose another one of his precious lives in the process?  Depressed and already missing William after only a day, Jane is pacing and can hardly do anything but obsess over this special guy.  At the same time, strange occurrences are going on elsewhere.  Smitty, a college student who witnessed the horrible accident in Toledo involving the previously said characters, is figuring out what really happened that fateful night and what he should do.  When a strange man shows up wanting something from him, things only get more suspicious, dangerous, and real for this innocent yet influential bystander.  Smitty has the ability to clear William and his father's name, but will he be able to do just that before time runs out?  Then there are the Warlochs.  Are they being infiltrated?  Can they be brought down finally?  Strife continues to ransack their ranks, and the five men are at odds.  What will happen next?

He had died for Jane just a short while ago.  Now he was going to do his damnedest to live for her.

I personally felt that 98 was even better than 97!  I know that some series can get monotonous after awhile, especially with the same old scenes coming up, over and over again.  However, V. L. Holt was able to create not only a great sequel but also a compelling story line that was unique and different than 97.  Once again, the reader was able to witness several different characters and their reactions, personal stories, thoughts, and feelings.  This is something that really made me fall in love with these books. I never get bored with all of the different perspectives going on.  Plus, there are thrilling events going on around them.  Holt switches to a new character at just the right moment for the perfect suspenseful moments!

What makes 98 so different from 97 is the incorporation of Agnes and her story.  We get to see a hefty majority of what exactly transpired in her life.  Her troubles, conflicts, struggles, loves, losses, triumphs, and scarifies are laid bare for all to see.  Given to the Church at a young age as a tithe from her family, her troubles began when she was quite little.  I feel as though there are so many admirable qualities in just this one character that so many people will fall in love with her and what she stands for.  Her life, situations, and responses to her ever unfair circumstances are honest and heartbreaking.  Yet, at the same time, she is strong and willing to help others even if she has not been shown the same respect by those around her.  She has really stuck with me and in my thoughts throughout the entirety of this series so far and is one of my favorite characters to read about.  I don't think that it will be easy to forget about her.

Lastly, as I expressed when I was talking about Jane and William in my review for 97, I just love them to death.  They're just so innocent together.  Their love is undying and hard to dismiss because their connection is just so prevalent.  When I read the last few lines of this book my heart just stopped.  It was the sweetest thing ever!  I just wish that every girl could get a William of their own.  I think that the one thing that really draws me to these two characters, especially in my believing in their relationship, is how they act towards each other.  It is simply so pure and warming to the heart.  The two care so deeply and wholly for each other that you just can't help but root for them.  They'll forever go down as two of my favorite book couples!!!!

If you haven't read 97, you really need to.  The backstory and lore behind the whole thing is really amazing and creative.  The entire idea is alluring, and if you have already read 97 and are deciding to pick up the next book in the series, the answer is a no brainer.  You have to read 98.  While it may be easy for me to like a book, I loved this one.  Holt created a wonderful world, backstory, and a series that I cherish so much.  Oh, and you know what?  Before you know it, it'll be Christmas soon, and you know what that means!  Presents!!!!  So, if you're looking for a great YA book to get someone or even a nice little gift for yourself, the Rise of the Battle Bred series is a great way to go.  Also, your birthday is sometime during the year.  Just say it's an early birthday gift for yourself.  It's okay to be spoiled a little!  I can also eagerly say that I can't wait for the last book in this trilogy to come out! I don't know if my heart can take it!!!

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