Read Rage

Readers who love cross-genre books will like this mixture of crime drama and supernatural romance, though I see it appealing more to women then to men. Lawyer Margrit Knight tests her mettle by running through Central Park after dark each night, aware but uncaring of the danger. There is someone watching her, however, every night she runs, and he's been watching her for years -- not to hurt, but to protect. His name is Alban, and he appears to her one night in the park just to speak with her out of curiosity, an act that ends up getting him accused of murder when a women is found murdered in the park the same night (scant hours after Margrit returns home from her run). Alban appears to Margrit again, proclaiming his innocence, and asks her to help him avoid the police while they hunt for the real killer. At first she wants to refuse, but there's something about him that she can't ignore -- and once he lets her in on his real secret, she's drawn into a world she didn't even know existed.

Alban, it turns out, is a gargoyle, one of the five Old Races who have hidden among us for centuries. And now that Margri's takes his case, gargoyles aren't the only of the five Old Races that she has to contend with -- there are also djinn, vampires, selkies, and dragons, all masked as human and walking among us.

I enjoyed Heart of Stone despite its wandering beginning (it takes a while to get to the real action). Margrit is a scrappy, smart-mouthed, tough woman, and she pretty much carries the book where it needs to go. Alban is moody and gentle, yet capable of being dangerous, which are always appealing characteristics for the supernatural romantic lead. Other characters -- her roommates; her on-again, off-again cop boyfriend Tony; and the various members of the Old Races that she runs into -- are colorful enough to be interesting while keeping the focus on Margrit and Alban. (Though I have to confess that Janx, the dragon, is my favorite out of the entire book.) The murder plot is strong enough to exist side-by-side with the romance, making this book a great blend of genre. The urban fantasy/supernatural romance genre is hot right now, and adding a murder mystery makes it even better.

This is book one of a series (the next is House of Cards) and I liked this one enough to read the next and see where it goes. We have this book in our Fiction section under call number F Murphy.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's the thing: I love Joe Hill. After reading Heart-Shaped Box, which is my favorite horror novel right now, I looked for other books of his and found nothing. And then along came 20th Century Ghosts. For someone like me, who wants horror to be more disquieting than disgusting, who appreciates being scared but prefers that this is accomplished by more than cheap shocks, who wants to see range . . . this book is perfect. I'm amazed at the depth and subtlety he brings to the genre, while also writing stories that are genuinely scary, spooky, unsettling, but also touching, poignant, sometimes even gentle. Of course, not all the stories are what I'd call horror, or at least standard horror: the ghosts are sometimes ghosts, but sometimes they are more (or also) metaphorical, the ghosts of lost childhoods, lost innocence, lost loves.

What I love the most about Hill is his people. Well, his people, and his weirdness. He writes very character-driven stories: beneath every monster, every horrible action, is a real person, with real feelings. He writes people you can connect with, people you can understand enough to like or, perhaps, enough to fear. And he writes weird stories, about weird people. My favorite story in the book -- "My Father's Mask" -- is so deeply, disturbingly, weird that I keep reading it again, trying to puzzle it out. I like that I can't get at all of it, and even though it's surreal, it's so unsettling and provocative that I keep thinking about it. The story resonates, for me, and perhaps it's because of all the layered-in fairy tale metaphors, what with the idea of sacrifice -- you can't get something without giving up something meaningful; and identity -- do we really know each other? ourselves?; and the masks and the woods both as metaphors of self; and whether it's better to know too much or too little, better to ask questions or just trust your parents. There's more but I don't want to write a pseudo-literary school paper like I used to be so good at. Heh. That's your job, Lakeside students!

In some of his stories, like "The Black Phone", "My Father's Mask", "Best New Horror", and "You Will Hear the Locust Sing", for example, he builds up a level of dread so intense that I was almost afraid to keep reading for fear of what will happen next. "Pop Art" and "Voluntary Committal", on the other hand, both made me shed a tear or two. "The Cape", "You Will Hear the Locust Sing", and "Abraham's Boys" made me understand and sympathize with the protagonist before he does something truly awful. And several of his stories, especially "20th Century Ghost" and "Bobby Conroy Comes Back From the Dead", have romantic themes -- these two both deal with lost chances, lost loves, though one lover is a ghost and one is not.

Hill does one of the things that I appreciate most and think is hardest to do in short stories -- he leads you right up to the edge of the ending, where you can sort of, almost, see it for yourself, and he leaves it to you to make the leap, complete the story. His stories continue on after you read the last word, because you have to think about many of them to capture the full import of What Happens Next. They're ambiguous, but powerful, and I think they stay with you long after you're done. This is definitely one for the horror lover, but also for those who just know how to appreciate a damn good story.

We have this book on display right now, but will have it available in the fiction section later. The call number is F Hill.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This collection of fifteen short fantasy stories are by some of the top names among authors who write for teens and adults: Cecil Castellucci, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Nini Kiriki Hoffman, and Jim Hines, among others. The stories all address familiar topics (dating, families, bullies at school and home, friendship, justice, revenge), with an element of magic added to complicate (or sometimes solve) the problems. Many of the stories are contemporary urban fantasy, though a few take place in other fantasy worlds, such as Laurence M. Schoen's "The Amulet of Winter," which tells the story of a thief who is confronted with the disquieting results of his biggest job: to steal an amulet from a city that depends upon it for survival. Some stories are retellings of familiar fairy tales, such as Eugie Foster's "Princess Bufo marinus, Also Known As Amy", which imagines the frog prince story taking place in an average high school. Some of the best stories are the revenge ones, as far as I'm concerned, such as Cassandra Clare's "Have You Ever Seen a Shoggoth?" and Sean Manseau's "Veronica Brown", where the bullies, one an entire school and one a mean older sister, meet bloody and/or horrible ends. The stories range from funny to weird to bittersweet to a little bit scary, so there's something here for everyone who enjoys fantasy and magic.

We have this book in a display on the main floor, but it will be shelved with the short story collection on the second floor later. The call number is SC M194.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the second book in the Caretaker Trilogy, after Firestorm. In Firestorm, all-around normal guy, Jack Danielson, finds out that he has been sent from the future to save the world's oceans, thus averting an apocalyptic environmental hell a thousand years in the future. Despite feeling like he is not hero material, Jack manages to save the oceans and defeat Dargon, an evil Machiavellian bad guy from the future who is intentially destroying the oceans to make a lot of money. The book ends with Jack adrift on the ocean, alone, with no way of knowing if he can reclaim his once-normal life.

Fast forward six months, where Whirlwind picks up. Jack has made it back to his hometown in order to see his old girlfriend, P.J., who is the only remaining person left in Jack's life. Unfortunately, her parents, instead of welcoming him, call the police -- turns out that P.J. is missing, and everyone believes Jack is to blame. And even though Jack wants nothing more than to forget about his destiny, it won't forget about him -- the Dark Army comes for him at the jailhouse, and he narrowly escapes with the help of his old pal, Gisco (the telepathic dog from the future, and yes, it does make sense when you read the books). In order to find P.J. and avert another ecological crisis, Jack has to travel to the Amazon rain forest, where Dargon's father has taken P.J. in revenge over the murder of his son. This man is even more dangerous than Dargon was, and is destroying the rain forest in order to wreck the positive changes Jack made in the future when he saved the oceans. But that isn't the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that Jack cannot defeat this man -- another time traveler, hiding in the present, is the only one who can. Jack must find this mysterious person in order to save the girl he loves and stop the destruction of the rain forest before the damage to the future is irreparable.

Just like the first, this book is scary, suspenseful, humorous (Jack and Gisco especially are very sarcastic), and absorbing, while conveying an important ecological message that rarely comes off as preachy or didactic. We will have this book available in the library soon, but until then, read up on Firestorm at the New York Review of Books, or read about how David Klass got his information on the rain forest from this Greenpeace blog.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'll preface this review by saying that we do not have Uglies, nor the others in the series (Pretties, Specials, and Extras), at the Upper School Library. We do, however, have them at the Middle School Library, and all Lakeside students are allowed to check out books at either library. Just sose ya know.

I'd meant to read this series for a long time now, because they are quite popular and because I love Scott Westerfeld, the author, and I finally picked up a copy of Uglies to see what the excitement was all about.

In Uglies, Tally is about to turn 16, and in Tally's future Earth, this birthday means it is finally time to turn from an Ugly to a Pretty. An Ugly is pretty much you and me -- people who look the way they do because they are born that way. But in Tally's world, when you turn 16, you have an operation that will turn you into a biologically-determined, perfect, beautiful person. And this operation is pretty much mandated by the government, so that everyone has this operation. After the operation, the New Pretties get to live in New Pretty town, where their only job is to have fun all the time: drink, go to great parties, have all the clothes and high-tech gadgets you want. Of course, after a time, they become a Middle Pretty and go on to get good jobs, get married, and have children -- who will become Pretty on their 16th birthday. It's a cycle that no one questions, and why should they? Making everyone Pretty rids the world of looks-based discrimination forever, in employment, in social life, in racial terms. It also rids the world of diseases like anorexia and bulimia.

So, why would anyone not want this operation? Tally, very lonely after her best friend becomes a Pretty and goes to live in New Pretty Town, meets a girl named Shay, who quickly becomes a friend. Shay and she share the same birthday, and Tally is excited that they will turn Pretty together. But Shay doesn't want the operation. She believes that people are beautiful the way they are -- different, imperfect, not boring. The night before her operation, Shay runs away, looking for a group called the Smoke, who have refused the operation and live in the wilderness off the land. Of course, this is illegal, as Tally finds out when she goes for her own operation and is told that she will never become Pretty -- unless she tracks down her friend, infiltrates the Smoke, and leads the government right to their hiding place.

In a world where Ugly and Pretty are sharply defined, the only discrimination that can exist is discrimination of people who, for one reason or another, do not get to be Pretty. Tally cannot bear the thought of living in her neighborhood forever, growing disgustingly old, the only old Ugly in a sea of perfect Pretties. Though she doesn't want to hurt her friend, she agrees to find Shay and the Smoke, and betray them -- and that's just where this book starts. Along the way Tally learns a terrible secret about the Pretty-making operation that the government doesn't want anyone to know -- but is it too late for her to change her mind?

I can safely say that this first book is excellent -- thought-provoking, suspenseful, scary, funny, and sad. All of the characters introduced are multi-layered. Tally, the protagonist, has to make some difficult choices in which, no matter what she chooses, someone she loves will be hurt, whether that is her new best friend, Shay, or herself. The choices she makes are often ones that come about because she feels she is not in control of her own destiny, and you have to wonder reading this -- is she? Tally does some terrible things in this first book, then rationalizes them or attempts to correct them, leading to even more terrible things, but she remains extremely sympathetic. She's just a teen trying to do the right thing and finding that the "right thing" is all about perspective. This book raises questions with no easy answers, and the ending only sets the scene for the next three books.

This series is highly recommended. Go check it out at your local library, or ask an Upper School librarian to contact the Middle School library for you!

Posted by Krista Hutley at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You'd think another vampire love story wouldn't make such a splash, but Twilight is one of those books that became an instant teen favorite. Seventeen-year-old Bella moves in with her dad in Forks, WA, where she meets Edward Cullen, a mysterious, distant, and of course gorgeous senior, at school. Though he is a vampire, his clan only hunts wildlife, not humans, so Bella feels free to fall in love with him, and he with her. Ttheir romance isn't without complications, however. Edward is still a predator, and Bella would still be helpless if he lost control of himself and attacked her. Furthermore, another clan has infiltrated Cullen territory -- one that doesn't have Edward's scruples -- and they are also interested in Bella.

Full of heart-pounding suspense and heart-warming romance, this book is a quick, fascinating read about star-crossed lovers trying to stay together and survive the dangers around them. We have it in the fiction section, under F Meyer. We also have the two sequels to this book, New Moon, and Eclipse -- they are both new books in the library.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Firestorm tells the story of Jack Danielson, a normal high school senior--or so he thinks. He's starting running back on the football team, gets decent grades, and has a beautiful and talented girlfriend, P.J. The night his life goes from normal to dangerously weird, Jack breaks his school's rushing record (340 yards) and appears on the local news; he's everyone's hero, yet when he gets home, his parents are angry. Jack’s parents have told him to blend in--to stay quiet in class, to not do too well at sports--and now that he's appeared on the news, his life is in danger. Before Jack can even understand what's going on, his father has hustled him into a car to escape. Jack learns that his parents aren't really his parents, he has supernatural enemies who are out to kill him, and he's the only one with the power to avert a worldwide ecological disaster that happens sometime in the future. Jack is sent to find a mysterious power source called the Firestorm, and he's joined by Eko, a girl from the future who trains him by kicking his butt with her ninja skills, and Gisco, an enormous dog who just happens to be able to communicate with Jack telepathically. (He's also quite the smarta**.)

This eco-fantasy is the first in a series called the Caretaker Trilogy. It's packed with high-intensity thrills, and it conveys how easily ignorance can cause environmental atrocities; because of our actions in the present, we unwittingly destroy our future. Some of the scenes of ecological disaster are downright chilling, yet they never come across as preachy or cheesy. Jack comes off as a regular guy, right down to his awkward sexual impulses (and he has many): he loves sports, girls, and can't imagine how somebody like him is going to save the world. Jack’s surprising fate at the end of the first volume will leave readers waiting eagerly for the second installment, Whirlwind, that comes out March 2008.

This book is currently on display on the shelves behind the circulation desk on the first floor; after that, it will be in the fiction section, call number F Klass.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In honor of today's Ayrault lecturer Dr. Brian Greene, string theorist, physicist, and author of The Elegant Universe, I thought I'd mention The Last Universe by William Sleator, a science fiction book that uses quantum mechanics to send its two main characters -- fourteen-year-old Susan and her brother Gary -- to other times and other versions of their present reality by virtue of a complicated maze in their garden.

Susan is annoyed that she has to spend her summer taking care of her brother Gary, who is wheelchair-bound and getting more and more ill; she resents the attention that he gets from their family and friends and hates giving up all the fun times with her friends to push him around in the garden. Gary, though terminally ill, is brilliant and has been reading about quantum physics, knowledge which comes in handy when he and Susan discover a sometimes-invisible maze in their garden that can only be seen from one window of their house. Their great-uncle, who was celebrated in the field of quantum mechanics, is credited for building this maze, and each time they enter it, something shocking happens -- when they return from the maze, reality is different, at first in little ways, and then progressivly bigger ways, with no one else the wiser. Gary also seems to get better with each trip, and he and Susan continue to enter the maze in search of an alternate reality in which Gary is well.

The science used as a backdrop for this book is explained well and doesn't get too confusing, but it is an important part of the story; meanwhile, the dynamic between siblings Susan and Gary is the focal point, as first Susan resents going into the maze and then realizes that she has to continue to do so to save her brother's life. Each trip into the maze is dangerous and suspenseful, because Susan and Gary never know what will be waiting when they come out again; when Susan has to enter the maze without Gary, who has been hospitalized, the suspense ratchets up further, and the surprising twist ending is a shock, but a wholly satisfying one.

So, if you're looking for a fictional exploration of the uncertainty of quantum mechanics and how it may be extrapolated to affect reality, look no further than The Last Universe by William Sleator.

While we do not have this book in Pigott Library, we do have four other Sleator books, all which deal with compelling scientific ideas: cloning (The Duplicate), time travel (Strange Attractors), the fourth dimension (The Boy Who Reversed Himself), and psychological experimentation (House of Stairs). Sleator is an excellent dark science fiction writer, and his books are all recommended.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm a sucker for a good anthology, and because I read mostly speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, and horror, heretofore known as F/SF/H), I gravitate to those Best of Whatever Year spec fiction anthologies, like Fantasy: The very Best of 2005, edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2006, edited by Rich Horton. Both of these are new books in Pigott Library and available in the short story collection on the second floor.

I finished Strahan's anthology recently, and found it to be full of excellent stories, but not too full, if you know what I mean. Anthologies like The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and The Year's Best Science Fiction are great, but they are too huge to take anywhere, and almost overwhelming in their contents. I do try to read them every year, but I never get through it all before going on to other things. This much more manageable anthology has 16 stories by a variety of authors, many quite well known, like Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman , M. Rickert, and Jane Yolen, to name a few. Almost all of the stories are worth reading twice, and the beauty of a collection like this is that everyone will have a different opinion on which stories those are.

Personally, my favorites were "Snowball's Chance" by Charles Stross, "Boatman's Holiday" by Jeffrey Ford, "The Language of Moths" by Christopher Barzak, "Anyway" by M. Rickert, and "Monster" by Kelly Link. Most of them are dark stories, with damaged or cynical narrators and ambiguous or disturbing endings. That's the kind of stuff I love (and the kind of stuff I write, or try to write). You may be different. I didn't care for Neil Gaiman's "Sunbird" even though I normally love his writing, or Theodora Goss's "Pip and the Fairies," even though it is appearing in every anthology in the universe and nominated for a Nebula, besides.

Next on my list is Horton's anthology, which has 19 stories, including four of the same stories in Strahan's. Weirdly, out of those four, two are the stories I didn't care for, leading me to believe that I must have missed something when I read those. Still, since reading tastes are subjective, I'm not beating myself up about it. If you read either of these anthologies, feel free to let me know which stories were your favorites and which stories you thought were meh.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just finished Dead Connection, by Charlie Price, and it was a quick, suspenseful read with a unique premise. Teenage Murray hangs out in the Forest Grove cemetary nearly every day after school, sometimes late into the night. Partly he's avoiding his mom, a sometimes-prostitute who is always dating a different (yet always similarly deadbeat) man, but mostly it's because the dead are his only friends. There's Dearly, who died in 1969 in a car wreck, and Blessed Daughter, who died when she was 11 of a brain tumor, and others like this that he knows by the name on their tombstones. They understand him so much better than any of the kids at school, who tease him relentlessly.

Then a girl, Nikki, disappears from her high school parking lot and Murray begins hearing a new voice in the cemetary that he cannot place. He puts two and two together and realizes that he's hearing the girl who disappeared. This act brings a cast of unique characters into Murray's life. There's Deputy Gates, who's working overtime to find the girl or her body and bring the killer to justice; Vern Billup, an alcoholic police officer who may or may not have had something to do with the girl's disappearance; Robert Barry Compton, a mentally challenged ex-con who witnessed the murder but can't remember that he did; and Janocek, the groundskeeper of the cemetary, and his daughter Pearl, the only people Murray believes he can trust with his secret.

Chapters follow each characters' thoughts and movements as they, and the readers, piece together the truth of what heppened to Nikki. The characters are realistic and fascinating, the story is well-plotted and actually very funny at times, as well as a little bit creepy (not scary) and the mystery unfolds at a quick enough pace to keep it interesting. Murray, the main character, is one many teens will empathize with--he's kind of weird, but immediately sympathetic. I highly recommend this book to teens who like mystery and suspense; those who like ghost stories will also enjoy.

This book is available in Pigott Library; the call number is F Price.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 02:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)