Numbers by Rachel Ward

The numbers never lie..., November 27, 2009 This was a so-so YA novel about a girl who has the peculiar ability of knowing the date of a person's death by simply looking into his or her eyes. The premise was original and it started out well, but then the "on the run" narrative got bogged down and the conclusion was disappointing. Jem is orphaned when her mother overdoses on heroin. Four years later, she's 15 and living with a foster mum named Karen, avoiding relationships and living on the fringe because of her peculiar psychic gift for seeing the date of death numbers reflected in the eyes of the people she sees. She doesn't want this curse or gift and is drifting through her life knowing that she is going nowhere even as she attends school to pacify Karen and keep the social workers off her back. One of her fellow students, a tall boy known as Spider, keeps pestering her and following her around until they form a distant and grudging sort of friendship. After both get suspended from school, they decide to spend a day enjoying the city and end up hassling those in a queue for the London Eye -- a giant Ferris wheel. Jem notices something quite odd -- many of those waiting there have the SAME death date in their eyes! In a panic, she senses that something is about to happen and she and Spider are fleeing the area when a bomb explodes and many people are killed. During the ensuing chapters, Jem and Spider are on the run from police and others intent on figuring out if they were involved or if they were witnesses. Jem is haunted and plagued by the death dates -- for you see, she has seen Spider's. Can she change the date or influence these numbers in any way? The story is part adventure, part love story, part paranormal -- but most of the time, it is simply unbelievable. The book started of strong, bogged down in the middle, and then whimpered toward an unsatisfying predictable ending. Ms C.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Engaging and unique YA adventure!, November 8, 2009

Apparently I've been remiss in my exploration of all reading genres and missed out on this one: steampunk. Westerfeld explains in his afterward of Leviathan that it is a blending of future and past. Indeed, this novel is set in 1914 at the beginning of what comes to be known as World War I -- but in this unique tale, it is the battle of the Clankers vs the Darwinists. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans (Clankers) use weapons that are iron machines equipped with canons and guns. The British (Darwinists) have engineered weapons that are living fabricated creatures made out of multiple different species of animals, reptiles, worms, and mammals.

The story begins as young Aleksander Ferdinand, son of the Archduke and heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, is secreted out of his castle home by faithful family retainers in the middle of the night after the poisoning of his parents in Sarajevo. This band of nobles and Alek escape ahead of the warmongering Germans in their engine of war known as a Cyklop Stormwalker. In a parallel story, a girl named Deryn Sharp disguises herself as a boy in order to be accepted into the British Air Service as an airman. On her first day of training, she is stranded aloft in a Huxley airbeast but is rescued by the great whale airship, the largest in the British fleet, the Leviathan.

Prince Alek and his crew encounter some difficulty and engage in a battle or two before arriving at the designated safe house in the frozen Swiss Alps where they plan to wait out the war until Alek can safely be restored to his rightful place as heir to the Empire. Meanwhile, the Leviathan stops in London to pick up a very important passenger, Dr. Nora Barlow and her mysterious cargo, and are supposed to head to a rendezvous in the Ottoman Empire. The plot converges in the Swiss Alps when the Leviathan is injured and downed on the glacier by German pursuers. Alek and Deryn meet and urge their respective alliances to join forces to escape certain death and to elude those intent on killing them. What follows is high adventure on a newly redesigned Leviathan! Secrets still exist, however, and the final chapter ends in a way that makes the reader want to know more of the story.

There will be a second novel that will follow the Leviathan and its motley crew to the Ottoman Empire and the city of Constantinople.

I'm looking forward to the sequel. Enjoy the adventure, the fantastic science, and this tinkering with history. The illustrations, the map of the European Powers, and the cover invite closer inspection and add greatly to the story. Recommend!

Fallen by Lauren Kate

2/5 stars -- just another "fallen" angel book...

This vapid tale goes on for a long, boring time before we realize it's just another fallen angel book. The explanation for how and why Daniel is "fallen" is never detailed nor is anything about the relationships between the good and evil forces in this overly long first novel in a planned series (#2 Torment due out in September of 2010).

Luce is sent to some sort of odd reform school after the unexplained death of her boyfriend in a fire. His death and the death of other "mortals" in the story are not given any weight and no reasons for them are given to the reader. None of the characters in the story have any depth to them and the book seems to be an endless, almost ridiculous, whine by Luce about which of the boys in the school she should like and trust -- she is pursued by the charming Cam and is shunned and stood up by the handsome, mysterious Daniel. Why those two fallen angels are interested in her is also never explained. I found the whole story basically boring and any hoped for interesting details or back story is missing! We are left without finding out why Luce has undergone the reincarnations, why Daniel and Cam want her, and exactly what these two fallen angels and their minions are doing on earth.

The romance seems shallow although the author goes to great lengths to describe the kiss and longing that Luce has for Daniel but again, the many questions the reader might have are never answered and any interest developed in the plot is quickly quashed with only vague hints of what is going on. The story ends with a strange epilogue and the reader is left hanging.

Skip it.

Ms C.

The Hate List by Jennifer Brown

How do you go on after your boyfriend goes on a shooting rampage?, November 2, 2009

This was an excellent YA novel about the aftermath of a school shooting. The protagonist, Valerie, was the girlfriend of the shooter and has to live with the consequences of being known as his ally and as the co-author of the "hate list" that instigated the bloodshed. Was she involved? Did she know he was going to do this?

Valerie returns to high school the fall after the shootings. She is shunned and feared, but tries to continue on. She's been in therapy and she's working through the feelings she has about her boyfriend Nick -- the guy she loved vs the boy who shot her classmates. How did she not know that he was planning this?

This is a well done novel about the aftermath of school violence. How people adapt, change, come to terms with the senseless act. The reactions of enemies, friends, family -- it's all here. There are no pat answers and Valerie isn't magically cured. The violent act changes everyone.

Recommend!

Ms C.

Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Do not waste your time..., November 1, 2009

I heard the buzz earlier this year -- the new hot sub topic in the paranormal genre: fallen angels. I was interested -- I'm a high school librarian and I'm always wanting to have the latest books for students. The cover of this one looked intriguing and I ordered it. The most positive thing I can say is that it's a quick read -- other than that -- well, I'm not recommending this one.

I think the author was trying to create an Edward Cullen of Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) fame with this book - and I even assume it's the first of a possible series given the nature of YA literature to follow that route. Patch is no Edward Cullen and the main character in this story, Nora, is no Bella.

From the beginning (the characters meet in Biology class for heaven's sake -- note similarity), the premise and the story defy all logic and there is nothing remotely believable about the characters or the plot. Nora and best friend Vee are drawn into a ridiculous story about a fallen angel and various other angels and Nephilim (half angel half mortal). At least once on every page I had to suppress a gasp of disbelief and just shook my head at the antics of the characters in the book. Most of what happens in these pages makes the reader suspend disbelief to such a level as to be laughable. From Vee calling in a bomb threat to the climax in the school library -- the things that occur seem far-fetched and unrealistic even given the fantasy nature of the story. There is no point to this whole book!

I'm not recommending this one, nor will I read a sequel. Fallen angels may be the new hot topic but hopefully other authors will make it less of of an attempt at Twilight copycat and more original.

Ms C