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Whatever Happened to Janie by Caroline B. Cooney

Posted December 31, 2012 By dorolerium

Title: Whatever Happened to Janie
Author: Caroline B. Cooney
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Genre: YA Mystery
Pages: 192
How I Read It: Paperback from the library.

Synopsis: How could it possibly be true?  But it is true.

As Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl on the milk carton, she was overcome with shock.  She recognized that little girl – it was she…

With the mystery of her kidnapping now unraveled, Janie’s story continues, and the nightmare is not over.  No one can bring back or relive the twelve years gone by.  The Spring family wants justice, but who is really to blame?  The Johnsons know that they must abide by the decisions made, but it’s difficult to figure out what’s best for everyone.

Janie Johnson or Jennie Spring? Who is she?  Certainly there’s enough love for everyone, but how can the two separate families live happily ever after?

* Synopsis taken from the back of the book

My Review: I’ve always been conflicted about this book.  I’m a huge “what happens next” kind of person, but in some way, I don’t really want anything more to happen to Janie.  Everyone involved in these stories has suffered immeasurably and I very much want things to be better.  But life doesn’t usually work that way, so why would a book?

I’d first like to acknowledge that this story is pretty implausible.  I know that most kids who are kidnapped aren’t really living safely with another family.  They don’t usually come home.  And they definitely don’t get to choose anything that goes along with this.  But if you set that all aside, I still say this is a reasonably realistic set of books.

Can you imagine how horrible it would be to be in the shoes of these people?  I don’t envy a single person on any side of this equation.  I don’t know what I would have decided if I had ever been faced with the choices Janie has to make.  Even though her New Jersey family is the one she was born into, they aren’t the people she grew up with.  She’s essentially forced to live in a house full of strangers, and it’s clear that the other kids involved have a difficult time accepting that it’s difficult for her.  As much as everyone wants to know each other, they don’t, and that’s hard.

Once again, this is a pretty difficult one to read in terms of the level of emotion in it.  I got choked up and teary on numerous occasions.  I could see this one from both sides – Janie didn’t seem to try very hard, but her family also seemed to have unrealistic expectations about how this would go.  As she points out in the book, there’s no real right choice.

Back when I originally read this series, it ended with this one.  We never knew what happened to Janie, beyond her going back to the Johnson’s.  A third book was published in 1996, but I had lost interest by then and had no idea it existed.  However, given the way this ends, I’m totally curious now to see what’s going to continue to happen in the lives of all these people.  They feel a little like real people to me, and I’m concerned for them!  I’ll be grabbing the third book from the library soon.

Read this book if: This is a decent follow up to the first book, and definitely gives you new information in Janie’s story!

My Rating: 3/5 – Two thumbs up, fine holiday fun!

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The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Posted December 29, 2012 By dorolerium

Title: Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 279
How I Read It: Hard cover from the library.

Synopsis: The way he said my name sent a chill down my back.  Nobody called me “Perseus” except those who knew my true identity.  Friends…and enemies.

Percy Jackson’s seventh grade year has been surprisingly quiet.  Not a single monster has set foot on his New York prep-school campus.  But when an innocent game of dodgeball among Percy and his classmates turns into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, things get…well, ugly.

And the unexpected arrival of Percy’s friend Annabeth brings more bad news: the magical borders that protect Camp Half-Blood have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and unless a cure is found, the only safe haven for demigods will be destroyed.

In this fresh, funny, and hugely anticipated follow-up to The Lightning Thief, Percy and his friends must journey into the Sea of Monsters to save their beloved camp.  But first, Percy will discover a stunning new secret about his family – one that makes him wonder if being claimed as Poseidon’s son is an honor, or simply a cruel joke.

* Synopsis taken from the book jacket.

My Review: Since the moment I finished the first Percy Jackson book, I wanted to make time to read the follow up.  I adore Percy as a character and wanted to see what other kinds of adventures he was going to get into.  What makes it all the more amusing to me is that he doesn’t even want this stuff!  It just finds him by default because of who he is.

We start this book about a year after the beginning of the previous one, as far as I can tell anyway.  It’s almost summer again, and unfortunately for Percy, it’s been requested that he not come back to camp this year, with no real explanation as to why.  However, Percy soon finds himself in an all new adventure to not only save his friends, but the camp he’s come to love.

One of my favorite things about reading Riordan is that he really just gets teens, or at least he presents them exactly the same as my impression of them.  His characters aren’t overly angsty, full of themselves, or difficult to like.  They’re just regular kids who find out along the way that they’re demigods, and that doesn’t seem to change them in a way you would expect.  Percy in particular is a rather reluctant hero who fights monsters because his friends need him, but he doesn’t wander around school treating other kids poorly as a result.  Truly one of my all-time favorite teen characters.

I do wish this book had been a bit longer than it was.  We spent about half the book learning about the problem our characters were facing, so I wanted more action and evil goodness from the monsters.  I guess that’s one good thing about reading this series: it leaves you wanting more, which is good motivation to pick the next book up.  I also wanted more Grover – I adore that guy and he was just not around enough this time.  Hopefully the next book will have more of him!

A couple of pretty big things happen towards the end of this book, which make me really eager to pick up book three right away.  I’m going to force myself to wait a little, mostly to savor it, but I’m absolutely excited to read more of this series.

Read this book if: I really enjoyed this follow up to the previous book.  If you read the first one, pick this up.  This is also a pretty great middle grade/YA series, so encourage your kids to get it too!

My Rating: 3.5/5 – Two thumbs up, fine holiday fun!

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The Threshold Child by Callie Kanno

Posted December 28, 2012 By dorolerium

Title: The Threshold Child
Author: Callie Kanno
Publisher: Kindle Direct Publishing
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 536
How I Read It: ARC received from the author – The views expressed in my review are mine alone and I have received no compensation for these opinions.

Synopsis: Adesina was trained from childhood to serve her land as a warrior and a spy. When she is selected to combat a group of seditious magic users, she must summon all of her talents–some of which have been buried in the deepest part of her.

*Synopsis taken from Goodreads

My Review: When we first meet Adesina, we’re not really sure what she’s all about.  This book starts out with her stalking someone, for what purpose we don’t know, and it’s not clear if she’s good or evil.  These questions are answered over time, as new ones are introduced and we watch Adesina grow from an unsuspecting adolescent to a maturing young adult.

The world Adesina lives in is a harsh one – there are isolated societies, a secret assassin group, persecution, and a lot of rumors based on which groups are getting along or not.  I enjoyed watching her go from essentially blindly following orders to figuring out that not everything the adults around her said was true, and learning when to question her orders or go out on her own.

I had a few areas of frustration while reading, most of which were resolved by the end of the book.  I found myself a little confused by the relationships between different types of people/societies, so I wish there had been a prologue or something else giving us a bit of explanation about this world up front.  And I hate to say this, but I found Adesina herself to be rather difficult throughout much of the book.  I think I would have liked her more if she had been a bit more humble in the beginning, so it took me awhile to warm up to her.  Granted, this was part of her evolution as a character, I just really want to love my main characters from the start.

Although things are mostly wrapped up at the end of this book, I felt like things were left open enough that a sequel could be written, which I would like to see.  I’d be curious to see what Adesina and her friends were to get up to if their stories were to continue in another book or even a further series.  This story definitely has potential for more!

Read this book if: I think fans of YA might like this one, particularly teens in the same age group as Adesina (about 15 to 17).  You can find it on Amazon!

My Rating: 3/5 – Two thumbs up, fine holiday fun!

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A Dangerous Inheritance by Alison Weir

Posted December 21, 2012 By dorolerium

A Dangerous Inheritance

Title: A Dangerous Inheritance
Author: Alison Weir
Publisher: Hutchinson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 537
How I Read It: ARC received from the publisher – The views expressed in my review are mine alone and I have received no compensation for these opinions.

Synopsis: England’s Tower of London was the terrifying last stop for generations of English political prisoners. A Dangerous Inheritance weaves together the lives and fates of four of its youngest and most blameless: Lady Katherine Grey, Lady Jane’s younger sister; Kate Plantagenet, an English princess who lived nearly a century before her; and Edward and Richard, the boy princes imprisoned by their ruthless uncle, Richard III, never to be heard from again.

Across the years, these four young royals shared the same small rooms in their dark prison, as all four shared the unfortunate role of being perceived as threats to the reigning monarch.

*Synopsis taken from Goodreads

My Review: I’ve had a deep love for historical fiction for many years, and just this year I’ve made an effort to read more about the years leading up to Tudor England, particularly about the house of York and the end of the Plantagenet house.  Any read into this time frame will lead you to the question of the Princes in the Tower, and the tumultuous reign of Richard III.  This book leads us through the life of Katherine Plantagenet (known as Kate in the novel) before her father ascends to the throne, and then into the life of Katherine Grey a couple of generations later.

The focus of Kate’s story is mostly on her trying to figure out what has happened to her cousins, Edward V and Richard of York.  At the beginning of the novel, Edward IV is still king and Richard III is just the Duke of Gloucester, so we see him in a more sympathetic light as simply husband and father.  Kate was born out of wedlock, but is taken care of by Richard and his wife, Anne, as though she were their own.  As events unfold, we watch how all of their lives change after the death of Edward IV and the eventual rise of Richard III.

Kate desires above all to clear her father of the rumors and suspicion about the fate of the princes.  The novel essentially draws the conclusion that Richard III ordered the deaths of the princes in order to secure his claim on the throne, something that I have mixed feelings about.  This is undoubtedly a mystery that will go unsolved for a long time to come, assuming we can ever find the real answer anyway, but I think the history of this question is rather clouded and it’s difficult for me to accept that Richard was a total villain.  Even so, the novel does present a compelling story about what may have happened.  And regardless of whether you’re for or against Richard, something definitely happened to those little boys, and that in itself is a sad story.

We alternate between Kate’s story and that of Katherine Grey, which I found to be very sympathetic.  It seems to me that the Grey children had to pay a very large price for the ambitions of their parents, as Jane never seemed terribly interested in being Queen, and Katherine is forever under suspicion simply because she is a princess of the blood.  In laymens terms, that essentially means she is related closely to the royal family in power.  This novel made me wonder just how different Katherine’s life would have been if her family hadn’t been so eager for the crown early on.  The course of history could have been changed, and Katherine may have been able to live a happy life had things just gone a little differently.

Given the details we read through the course of the novel, it seems a bit like Queen Elizabeth I overreacted when it came to Katherine’s life and marriage.  That being said, Katherine did outright defy her Queen and cousin, so while I’m not in favor of tossing the poor lady in the Tower, she’s got no one to blame but herself for the fact that she ended up there.  Her story is still an interesting one, and I liked the way the author tied these stories together through the investigation of the disappearance of those princes.

At times, this novel is a bit wordy.  We spend a lot of time reading about Kate’s investigations into the princes, which ultimately gets her in trouble time and time again, and then Katherine’s obsession of the moment.  I felt a lot of things were repeated, especially when it came to Kate either believing her father to be innocent or villainous depending on who she last spoke to.  I understand there was a mystery she yearned to solve, but it got a bit tedious for me at times.  I also found myself having to go back to the beginning of a chapter sometimes to see the date in order to figure out which lady we were reading about, but that’s really the fault of historical figures for naming so many children with the same name.

On the whole, I enjoyed it and I thought it was a good read that covered the last bit of the Plantagenet’s and various parts of the Tudor reign.  I’ve always found Alison Weir to be an interesting historical writer, so I appreciated her take on this part of English history.

Read this book if: I’d encourage any fan of this span of history to pick this one up, it was entertaining, and a bit educational too.

My Rating: 3.5/5 – Two thumbs up, fine holiday fun!

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The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney

Posted December 19, 2012 By dorolerium

Title: The Face on the Milk Carton
Author: Caroline B. Cooney
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Mystery
Pages: 192
How I Read It: Kindle edition from the library.

Synopsis: No one ever really paid close attention to the faces of the missing children on the milk cartons. But as Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl with her hair in tight pigtails, wearing a dress with a narrow white collar–a three-year-old who had been kidnapped twelve years before from a shopping mall in New Jersey–she felt overcome with shock. She recognized that little girl–it was she. How could it possibly be true?

Janie can’t believe that her loving parents kidnapped her, but as she begins to piece things together, nothing makes sense. Something is terribly wrong. Are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson really Janie’s parents? And if not, who is Janie Johnson, and what really happened?

* Synopsis taken from Goodreads

My Review: Like many women of my generation, I originally read this book when I was in middle school, not too long after it came out.  Along with Sweet Valley High and The Babysitters Club, this was one of my favorite go to reads.  It was always easy to pick up, and seemed light hearted at the time.  At this point, I probably haven’t read this book in at least sixteen years, so I was curious to see how it would hold up when I compared it to my memories.

As a kid, I was fascinated by Janie’s life and the disaster that was crashing down around her.  I was the oldest of six kids and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t envy Janie.  It always seemed like a nice idea, to go from a huge family to a small one.  Except, of course, Janie didn’t know where she had come from, so she wasn’t exactly relishing in it like I imagined I would have been.  So to an extent, this was a fun escape fantasy for me when I was younger.

Reading it as an adult, I found I was much more affected by the panic that Janie was feeling.  I remember one scene where Janie is so upset she throws up in someone’s bushes.  As a kid, I didn’t understand this at all.  But as an adult, I completely understand that feeling.  Sometimes things are just so overwhelming that you get sick.  And because I do understand that now, I felt that anxiety transfer over, with my heart pounding at times, genuinely feeling those same feelings.  Scenarios that didn’t seem to make a difference to me at all when I was younger had me in tears now.  Maybe it’s just that I understand the reality of threats of the world now, know that most kidnappings don’t go like it went for Janie.  Or maybe I can see myself more in her parents position rather than hers, and know that would be so heart wrenching.  Either way, I was definitely more affected than I ever was in past readings.

On the whole, I think this one held up beyond my expectations.  You never know how you’re going to feel about a book you loved as a kid if you reread it as an adult, so I was glad this didn’t seem silly when I explored it again.  I think the author dealt with Janie’s thoughts and emotions in a realistic way…assuming a kidnapping story would really go the way this one went.  I think it’s a natural reaction to wonder what you had done wrong, even though logically Janie wasn’t responsible, I can see myself feeling the same way.

I’m looking forward to continuing the series again, and to the fact that there are several more books in it now, that were written after I lost interest initially.  I’ve got the next one on my hold list at the library!

Read this book if: I honestly think this held up well against YA fiction being written today, so I’d recommend fans of YA to pick it up.  It was also a good reread, so if you read this when you were younger, read it again and let me know what you think!

My Rating: 3/5 – Two thumbs up, fine holiday fun!

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The Shadow Man by Mark Murphy

Posted December 7, 2012 By dorolerium

Title: The Shadow Man
Author: Mark Murphy
Publisher: Langdon Street Press
Genre: Suspense
Pages: 348
How I Read It: ARC received from the publisher – The views expressed in my review are mine alone and I have received no compensation for these opinions.

Synopsis: There is a devil in the night, silent and invisible, moving in the dream realm between life and death.  And he’s coming for you.

Savannah surgeon Malcolm King had a perfect life – a loving wife, devoted daughter, and a thriving medical practice.

And then it all ended.

A chance encounter with a reckless driver in an airport parking lot leads to his first brush with the law.  The senseless slaughter of a neighbor’s pet soon follows, with Malcolm inexplicably questioned in the matter by the police.  An adversary is found decapitated.  An acquaintance is chopped into pieces and stuffed into a garbage bag, Malcolm soon finds himself the prime suspect in a serial murder case.  But he’s not a killer.  Or is he?

Who is The Thin Man who lurks at the edges of his vision?

Are the flocks of ravens that crowd overhead a warning of impending doom?  Or do they exist at all?

And how can he protect his family from something – or someone – he knows absolutely nothing about?

As Malcolm fights to discover the truth, he learns from a mysterious Seminole tracker that he may not be the first victim of a chameleon-like serial killer known as The Shadow Man.  Malcolm’s quest for justice takes him perilously close to the edge of sanity – and perhaps a little bit over it.

*Synopsis taken from the back of the book

My Review: I didn’t really have any expectations going into this book, although I knew it wasn’t my typical reading genre.  Sometimes it’s good to break out of your personal reading mold, so I was looking forward to that very much.  If you’re looking for a thriller, this one won’t disappoint you.

I had a difficult time getting through this one in terms of the material covered.  This is about a serial killer, which is bad enough, but the killer is an especially brutal one, doing things like removing organs and leaving murdered pets outside for kids to find.  I think a more experienced reader of this genre may be used to things like that, but it really made me sick to my stomach at times and I’d have to put it down for awhile to calm myself.  There were also several situations that filled me with anxiety, scenarios where someone’s sanctuary was breached, and that kind of thing just scares the pants off me.

If you’re the kind of reader who really gets lost in a book, so wrapped up you really feel like you’re there, I’d recommend you read this during the day.  And maybe in a public place.  I normally read before bed and I seriously couldn’t do it with this one, it made me that on edge often enough that I didn’t want to risk it.

Aside from all that, the story was pretty good considering this is the authors first fiction book.  I would have liked to see some things done differently, mostly I would have liked to see more of Malcolm before his life fell apart.  At the beginning of the book, I didn’t feel like I knew him well enough to have an emotional connection to what was happening.  I mean, it sucks when people you’re associated with are dying, but there was a part of me that kept wondering a little why I should care.  I think this would have been remedied if we got a little more insight before everything started, like maybe if the story had started at the medical conference Malcolm was coming home from when the book started.

I was also a little distracted by the serious medical terms used to describe some of the early murders in the book.  On one hand, I appreciate the insight, but on the other, I found myself more confused by those descriptions than anything else.  This only happens a couple of times earlier on, so it wasn’t a huge issue for me through the rest of the book.

The killer is one of those you really dread to see, who always seems one step ahead of everyone else in a super creepy way.  You definitely never knew if a character was going to make it from one chapter to another, which makes for a lot of suspense, and I found that to be the thing that kept me going most of all.  I kept asking myself, “what is this guy going to do next?”

I may be the only one in this boat, but I wasn’t in love with the twist ending and the explanation given for the motives behind all this mayhem.  Sometimes people just do really awful things, with no explanation, and those are the kinds of endings that intrigue me more.  In the end, things wrap up nicely, which is probably better in the long run.

The fact that the author is from Savannah made the descriptions of the town more detailed than you often see, which I especially loved because I have this fictional love affair with the city of Savannah, even though I haven’t ever visited.  I’m sure people who either live there or have spent some time there will recognize some of the names of places visited in the book.  Since there isn’t a known serial killer wandering around there (that I *know* of), it makes me want to visit even more.  Oh Savannah, someday we’ll meet!

Read this book if: This seems like a decent book for the genre, so I think fans of this type of book will enjoy it.  Those of you are more into historical fiction, like me, may not want to pick it up.

My Rating: 3/5 – Two thumbs up, fine holiday fun!

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The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

Posted November 30, 2012 By dorolerium

Title: The Swan Thieves
Author: Elizabeth Kostova
Publisher: Little Brown & Company
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 565
How I Read It: Hard cover purchased by me.

Synopsis: Robert Oliver, a renowned painter, has brutally attacked a canvas in the National Gallery of Art.  What would compel an artist to destroy something he values beyond all else?  From the confines of his hospital room, Oliver maintains a stubborn silence, offering only the briefest explanation before he stops speaking altogether: “I did it for her.”

But who is she?  Psychiatrist Andrew Marlow prides himself on his ability to make even a stone talk, but he gets nowhere with Oliver.  Driven at first by professional curiosity, and then by a determination that disrupts his ordered, careful world, Marlow embarks on an unconventional pursuit of the answers his patient won’t provide, and on a journey into the lives of the women Oliver left behind.

As these women paint a portrait of love, betrayal, and artistic obsession, Marlow is pulled deeper within the mind of a troubled genius.  Carefully braiding the strands of a life undone, he finds surprising possibilities in a package of century-old love letters.  The voices in these letters soon tell their own story, one of secret passions and heartbreaking treachery, and they bring France of the late 1800s blazingly alive.  Does the key to unlock the mystery lie in a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism?

*Synopsis taken from the book jacket

My Review: I was excited to pick this book up, since I enjoyed the authors first novel quite a bit, and I was hoping it would be as rewarding a book as The Historian.  After reading it, I can say I have mixed feelings, so I’ll hit my least favorite pieces first.

This is a slow, methodical, and somewhat plodding book at times.  We’re presented with the idea of Marlow trying to get to the bottom of Oliver’s illness, but to me it was apparent rather quickly that the illness is just a plot device for Marlow to finally find himself.  And all his extra focus into Oliver’s illness, rather than treating him like the other patients or spending as much time on them, really got to me.

Ultimately, I think that was my biggest problem with the story: it was supposed to be about Oliver, but wasn’t really about him at all.  I wanted to see more deeply into Oliver’s illness, because he clearly is mentally ill, and I never felt like the expectation was fulfilled.  For example, by the end of the book, we learn why he really attacked the painting, but the interesting question to me all along was why did he become obsessed with this mystery woman to begin with?  It’s not normal to paint the same random person over and over again for years, and I’m sure Oliver didn’t have the full story at the beginning, so I would have loved to see more about what was at the core of this to begin with.

Marlow is supposed to be this great psychiatrist, but we never get to see why this is, and instead he seems to have so little insight into himself that it’s almost as though he’s a bit mad just like his patients are supposed to be.  He seems to think that all he needs is his work, painting, and running, but the way his focus is drawn to practically every woman he runs across sure makes it seem like he’s obsessed with finding a partner.  As the reader, we also know that at the time he is supposedly writing the story he has a wife, but didn’t back when the story was taking place.  That, coupled with the way he felt about all these women, made me think early on that this was going to turn into his love story.  If this novel had been presented as that, I might have enjoyed it more, but this was a bit irritating to me.  I’m not sure if it’s crossing some ethical boundaries to talk so much about your attraction to all the women a patient was ever involved with, but it sure gets annoying to the reader.

I also felt like a lot of things happened purely out of convenience, like there was an end goal in mind but no real plan of how to get there story wise.  The last seventy or so pages were wrapping up all the loose ends in the story, and I just didn’t love the way that happened.  If nothing else, the supposed central conflict to the story, being Oliver’s illness, just seemed to resolve by magic.  I couldn’t buy the explanation given for his illness, again because I think it started before he knew the full story, so I didn’t feel like he was cured at all.  And I certainly didn’t feel like Marlow did much to help him.

Also, everyone keeps commenting on Oliver’s size – there are numerous situations where he is described as an enormous man, separate from his commanding presence.  Marlow talks about it quite a bit, which was just weird to me.  Anyway, when we finally get a description of how tall he is, it turns out he’s 6’2!  Which is tall, don’t get me wrong, but I would never say that’s a huge person.  No one ever says what his build is like, or his weight, so I started out with the impression that this guy is pushing 7 feet and is built like a basketball player, when it turns out he’s just a slightly taller than average man.  He wouldn’t have to duck to get through doors, or have modifications made to his vehicle to accommodate his size.

At some point during the book, I decided to set these frustrations aside and just read the story.  I accepted that those particular points were flawed, and there would hopefully be other redeemable qualities elsewhere.  After that, I found that I really loved the descriptions of the scenery, hearing how an artist may look at a coastline or forest differently than I do.  As a non-artist, I was intrigued by the descriptions of color, paint, and painting as a whole.  I couldn’t really identify with that aspect of the characters lives, but I did appreciate it.  The impact that Robert Oliver had on the lives he touched was also interesting, although it did make me long for a story just about him.

In the end, nothing exactly happens in this book, and although I did have these problems with it, I still enjoyed it.  Sometimes, we as readers don’t need a big climax or a read that will change our lives, so this book was a nice change from some of the heavier material.

Read this book if: This was okay historical fiction and interesting art fiction.  It’s probably worth a try for people who like historical fiction and semi-mysteries.  I have a bit of a hard time knowing who to recommend it to.

My Rating: 3/5 – Two thumbs up, fine holiday fun!

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The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

Posted November 23, 2012 By dorolerium

Title: The Casual Vacancy
Author: JK Rowling
Publisher: Little Brown & Company
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 503
How I Read It: Hard cover purchased by me.

Synopsis: When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen.  Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity, and unexpected revelations?

*Synopsis taken from the book jacket

My Review: Like many other readers, I was delighted to hear awhile back that JK Rowling had an adult novel for us…adult like it was written for adults, not that it was going to be some erotic romance or anything like that.  I preordered a copy the day it became available, and lamented the fact that I couldn’t pick it up as soon as it arrived, since I was traveling overseas at the time.  Meanwhile, as reviews started popping up around the internet, I was disappointed to read that people seem to have quite mixed opinions about this novel.

After reading the entire thing, I can see why people have these mixed feelings.  This novel is nothing like Harry Potter in the story elements, the chief among them being that this is set in the actual world without any magic, no true heroes or villains, and no one overwhelmingly charming or likeable.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that the only character in this novel who isn’t mildly repulsive in some way is our deceased gentleman, Barry.

With all that in mind, if you only liked the Harry Potter series because of the magic and all that, this novel won’t be your kind of thing.  Rowling breaks any mold we may have put her in, shows us that she’s not afraid to tackle evil in the real world, and really demonstrates what a remarkable writer she is.  If nothing else, it took me at least four or five HP books before I shed some tears, but this one had me going by the end.

Rather than telling us a story about good versus evil, this novel is about life.  Regardless of where you’re from, you can probably recognize something of your life in one or more of the characters, whether that’s the unhappy/happy marriage, the singledom with or without a child, neglect and abuse, going beyond expectations to break the stereotype of your life, or just being an average teenager.  The teens in this novel aren’t without their flaws either: they are cruel, confused, destructive, and trying to find their way to adulthood.  Oh, and most of them hate their parents.  Shocker!

I feel like I can’t review this without at least mentioning to y’all that there are some difficult situations, and if you’ve got triggers for things you can’t read, this might hit them.  There’s abuse, both emotional and physical.  A lot of talk about drug use and what it’s like for an addict trying hard to stay clean.  There are many instances of bullying and the self-injury that can result from that.  This book really does not pull any punches when it comes to these hard truths of life, and shows us what can lie behind closed doors inside any of our communities.  But if these situations are hard for you to read, I would say be warned that they exist.

In some ways, this was an exhausting read, but I mean that in the best way.  I’m glad I read it, and I’m happy to have it on my shelf, yet I won’t be picking it up again for awhile.  What I can say is that I’m very excited to see what Rowling comes up with next, and that people who enjoy good writing or character studies will enjoy this one.

Read this book if: I think fans of realistic fiction will like this.  If you’re into paranormal, or want to read Rowling expecting this is going to be like Harry Potter, don’t be disappointed when it’s not.

My Rating: 4/5 – Borderline amazing!

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Filed in 2012, JK Rowling, Royal Reviews | Tagged: ,

Andy Squared by Jennifer Lavoie

Posted November 9, 2012 By dorolerium

Title: Andy Squared
Author: Jennifer Lavoie
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Genre:  YA LGBT
Pages: 264
How I Read It: ARC received from the publisher – The views expressed in my review are mine alone and I have received no compensation for these opinions.

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old twins, Andrew and Andrea Morris, have always been close. They share everything—from their friends to a room—and they both enjoy star positions on their high school’s soccer teams. All’s right with the twins…or is it?

When new student Ryder Coltrane moves from Texas to their small New York town, he spins Andrew’s world upside down. All of Andrew’s past relationship troubles begin to make sense and his true feelings start to click into place after Ryder comes out to him. His friendship with Ryder turns secretively romantic, but secrets, they soon find out, are hard to keep. Once rumors start to fly, so-called friends turn on them, and the boys’ relationship turns into a bomb about to explode. But Andrew never expected it would be his own twin, Andrea, holding a lighter to ignite it.

*Synopsis taken from Goodreads

My Review: Andy Squared starts out like a lot of other YA novels – teens in their senior year of high school, just trying to live out the rest of the year before fully figuring out what to do with the rest of their lives.  Our main characters are twins Andrew and Andrea, who have always done basically the same thing.  Both soccer stars, in the same position on their respective teams, with Andrea seeming to think things are going to remain the same when they go off to college.

Their differences start to show to the reader when Andrew begins thinking he might want something other than what his sister has previously settled upon as a mutual decision.  From the start, Andrea seems a little unhealthily attached to doing everything with her brother, but I may be a little biased.  It always grated on me growing up when my siblings wanted to do all that I was doing.  With that in mind, it annoyed me every time Andrea insisted she and Andrew were going to the same college, to play the same position on the soccer teams, and lead parallel lives indefinitely.  I don’t think this is bad writing, in fact I think it does a great job of illustrating how the twins are growing apart even before Andrew really figures out just how different he really is.

To an extent, I avoid reading coming out stories.  The mistreatment of LGBTQ youth is a cause dear to my heart, but reading about it can be really hard when there are thousands of It Gets Better videos out there to pull at my heart strings.  Because of all that, this is really the first fiction I’ve read in this genre.  There were parts I truly felt overwhelmed by and completely overcome by emotion.

I think kids are pretty cruel as it is, and it’s harder to swallow when that cruelty is focused on something as unimportant as another person’s sexuality.  There are a few scenes that gave me pause because they took me back to memories of my own senior year of high school, especially in light of the fact that I was reading this on the anniversary of Matthew Sheppard’s death.  While being gay isn’t a choice, how you react to your loved ones coming out is, and I think we’ve all seen people react in positive and negative ways.  Reading about that array of reactions was difficult for me because I don’t think I’ll ever understand intolerance when it comes to this particular situation.

These scenarios are described in such a realistic way that it makes me wonder about the author’s personal experiences with the LGBTQ community when she was a teen.  I wouldn’t be surprised if her story was similar to mine, and I’m glad she wrote this story regardless of her personal history.  It was a lovely journey to take and makes me hope I can personally ease the coming out of more teens going forward.

Read this book if: I think that understanding and becoming comfortable with the gay community is an important step in the lives of every youth around the world.  As a result, I would recommend this to anyone who has questions about what it might be like to come out, or to have someone come out to you.

My Rating: 4/5 – Borderline amazing!

Filed in 2012, ARC, Jennifer Lavoie | Tagged: , ,

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Posted November 7, 2012 By dorolerium

Title: The Hobbit
Author: JRR Tolkien
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 320
How I Read It: Hard cover purchased by me.

Synopsis: Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure.

They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.

*Synopsis taken from Goodreads

My Review: It’s been a little more than a decade since I last read The Hobbit, I know that I read it before the LotR movies came out, but that was quite some time ago!  With The Hobbit coming out in December, or at least the first one, I wanted to refresh my memory of the book that started it all.  One of the things I love most about reading The Hobbit is that you have no idea the significance of anything.  This was written as a children’s story, and is presented as such.

Reading it after reading LotR, you look at things a little differently.  For example, I adore that Gimli is the son of Gloin, who is on this journey, but has a reasonably small part in the adventure.  It would have been so easy for Tolkien to make Gimli the son of someone like Balin, or even Thorin somehow, but I love that he picked a lesser part dwarf.  And Legolas is the son of the Elvenking of Mirkwood, but that is also not mentioned at all in The Hobbit.

Obviously the major thing that happens and has much further reaching consequences is Bilbo meeting Gollum and accidentally finding the Ring.  Upon first reading this novel, you have no idea just how important these two incidents are for future generations.  And honestly, I know that seeing this on screen won’t translate the way I want it to.  See, I want it to be somewhat glossed over like it is in the book, and have everything focus on the action that actually takes place in The Hobbit.  Unfortunately, that’s not how movies work these days.

It had been long enough since I read The Hobbit that I forgot some of the pieces of the book, so it was a bit like reading it for the first time.  Towards the end, I was very surprised to find tears on my cheeks – there was a sad bit in the book, but I was so engrossed in it that I didn’t even realize I was crying at the time.  I love when a book can do that to me, make me forget everything around including my own emotional state.

The Hobbit is one of those on my list of books I want to read to a child some day, assuming I ever have one.  But in the meantime, I would highly recommend everyone else read this to their own children for me!

Read this book if: Everyone should read this, I can’t think of a single reason to skip it!

My Rating: 5/5 – Did I say cool?  Make that awesome!

Filed in 1% Well Read, 2012, JRR Tolkien | Tagged: ,
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