Chime

It’s rare that it takes me three weeks to finish a book.  Usually, it’s more like three days.  My latest read, however, almost completely stalled my reading progress, which is a shame because I was so excited about this book when I started it.  This book is Chime by Franny Billingsley.  (If you’ve been following the controversy surrounding this year’s National Book Award, this book might seem familiar to you.)  The cover is beautiful, nearly every review was positive, and the synopsis I read before diving into this book promised an interesting, engaging read.  Well, that might have been true for some readers, but this book just didn’t do it for me.

In Chime, we meet Briony Larkin.  Briony is not an average girl.  She spends her days taking care of her twin sister Rose, avoiding her father, and hating herself.  Why does she hate herself, you ask?  Well, Briony is a witch, and she can feel nothing but hatred for herself.  She cannot cry, she cannot love, and she cannot feel remorse.  She knows she’s a wicked girl, and only bad things will befall her and those around her.  After all, Briony’s jealousy injured Rose and killed their stepmother, right? 

When a young man, Eldric, arrives in the small village of Swampsea, Briony notices a change in herself.  She begins to feel more than just self-hatred.  She’s becoming adventurous, she’s laughing, and she’s having strong feelings for this boy-man.  She’s venturing into the swamp that she’s always been afraid of (and drawn to).  She’s longing to tell someone the truth about herself.  But what will Eldric do if he learns the truth about Briony?  Will he announce to the town that she’s a witch?  Will he watch Briony hang?  Will he keep her secret? 

Join Briony, Eldric, and a host of other colorful characters on a journey through the mysterious mires of Swampsea.  What will they discover?  What secrets will they unearth?  In the end, all truth will be revealed when you read Chime by Franny Billingsley.

Like I mentioned above, this book was not a favorite of mine.  The dialog was as hard to wade through as the swamp-filled setting.  On a more positive note, I thought the ending of the book was pretty good, and I like that this book serves as a stand-alone title (no trilogy in the works that I’m aware of).  If you decide to give Chime a try, let me know what you think of it.  Maybe I missed something that you didn’t.

If you’d like more information about Chime and author Franny Billingsley, visit http://www.frannybillingsley.com/.  I was just browsing this site, and I discovered that Ms. Billingsley wrote a favorite picture book, Big Bad Bunny.  Cool.

The Throne of Fire

Spoiler alert!  If you haven’t read The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, do that before proceeding with this post.  You’ll be really confused if you don’t.  (Not to mention that the first book will be totally…well, spoiled for you.  That’s why we call this a spoiler alert.)  You’ve been warned!

I finished reading Rick Riordan’s The Red Pyramid a few months ago, and I had every intention of jumping right into book two in The Kane Chronicles, The Throne of Fire.  Life, however, has a way of interfering with one’s plans.  (Also, I had a bunch of other books I wanted to read, too.)  So, it’s now nearly three months later, and I’ve finally finished The Throne of Fire.  (I blame my stress-inducing, energy-sapping book fair last week for interfering with my reading speed on this book.)  The Throne of Fire is a good book with a lot of action and suspense, and events are very fast-paced.  If you enjoyed The Red Pyramid or any of Rick Riordan’s other books, you’ll definitely enjoy The Throne of Fire.

Carter and Sadie Kane can’t just have a normal life.  It’s not enough that they’re descended from pharoahs, or learning to harness their skills as magicians, or teaching others like them to do the same.  On top of all this, they’ve got to find a way to prevent Apophis, the god of chaos, from rising while trying to find the Book of Ra so that the sun god can rise and help them to defeat the forces of chaos threatening to take over the world.  Easy-peasy, right?  Um, not so much.  As usual, things don’t exactly go quite as well as the Kane family would like.

Carter and Sadie are encountering new and unexpected things in their latest adventures:  girl trouble (for Carter), boy trouble (for Sadie), two gods taking over the forms of their grandparents, an unbelievably ugly–but helpful–dwarf god, a bad Russian magician lovingly called Vlad the Inhaler (he has some respiratory issues), and a bunch of gods, goddesses, mummies, and magicians who seem to want the Kanes dead.  It wouldn’t be so bad if all of this wasn’t interfering with their search for Ra.  (Did I mention that they have absolutely no idea where Ra is or what condition he might be in when/if they find him?  No?  Well, now you know.)

Things aren’t looking good for Carter and Sadie and their fight to restore order to the world.  Chaos is breaking free, and it will take immense strength and a fair bit of sacrifice to prevent Apophis from destroying everything.  Are Carter and Sadie up to the task?  What–or who–will they have to give up this time to win the battle before them?  And will it be enough to strike a blow in the war that is coming?  The answers are never easy, but you can discover them yourself when you read The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan.

I have to say that I enjoyed this book just as much as I did The Red Pyramid.  (Riordan’s Percy Jackson series will always be my favorite, though.)  I look forward to reading more about Carter and Sadie Kane and their war against Apophis.  The third book in The Kane Chronicles is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2012.  No word yet on the title.

FYI, if you’re in or around South Carolina, Rick Riordan will be at Books-a-Million in Columbia on October 4th to promote his latest release, The Son of Neptune, the second book in his Heroes of Olympus series.  He’s set to arrive in carriage pulled by three black horses–just like Hades.  I don’t have many details on the event yet, but I plan to be there. 

If you’d like more information on Rick Riordan, his books, and his upcoming tour schedule, visit http://www.rickriordan.com/home.aspx.  Have fun!

The Splendor Falls

I’ve been meaning to read The Splendor Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore for quite some time, and I’m happy that I finally got around to it.  This book is haunting and creepy, but it manages to keep the same relaxed pace as its setting–the Deep South (Alabama to be precise).  I have lived in the South my entire life, so I appreciated how true to the culture the author is in this book.  She recognizes that, though the Civil War is a dark period in American history, it still plays a very important part in Southern life (much to my dismay sometimes).  Ms. Clement-Moore also explores the Celtic connections that so many Southerners have, as well as the widespread belief in ghosts and evil spirits.  (Some of my Southern friends and family members may scoff at this, but I challenge them to visit Charleston and see how popular the ghost tours are.)

In The Splendor Falls, we are introduced to Sylvie Davis, a girl whose entire future is uncertain now that she can no longer dance.  After a horrible fall that ended her ballet career (and the depression that followed), Sylvie is now being shipped off to Alabama to spend the summer with her aunt Paula in the Davis family home where her late father spent much of his childhood.  Almost immediately, Sylvie senses that something is not quite right at Bluestone Hill.  She’s seeing things that couldn’t possibly be there, and she feels a chill in the air that can’t really be explained in the heat of summer.  What’s going on here, and why is Sylvie seemingly the only one experiencing these things?  Does this have some connection to why her dad left Alabama and never looked back?

As Sylvie explores old family secrets and tries to figure out where to go from here, she’s also dealing with the interest of two young men.  She’s unaccountably drawn to Rhys, a guest in her cousin’s house who is mysterious, has an adorable accent, and always pops up when she needs him the most (a lethal combination for any girl).  Then there’s Shawn Maddox.  He’s the town’s golden boy, and everyone seems to think that the sun rises and sets on him.  Everyone except Sylvie, that is.  But even she can’t deny that he has some kind of weird magnetic appeal.  But is that appeal completely natural, or is there a more mystical explanation?  (I know I completely gave away the answer by even asking that question, but bear with me.)

Is Sylvie going crazy?  Why is everyone so interested in her?  And why does she feel so connected to a place she’s never even been before?  Can she solve the mysteries in this sleepy southern town before she loses her mind…or her life?  Read The Splendor Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore to find out.

Although this book had a more relaxed pace than many books I’ve read, I appreciated the change.  The pace complemented the setting beautifully.  I would recommend this book to fans of Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.  I just love books about magical secrets in Southern towns.  I wonder if there are things like that going on in my own South Carolina town…

Anyway, for more information on The Splendor Falls and other books by Rosemary Clement-Moore, please visit http://www.rosemaryclementmoore.com/readrosemary/Home.html.  Enjoy!

The Candidates

I don’t know why I like books about high schools so much, especially high schools where the students have magical abilities.  I hated high school when I was in it, and I always felt like I didn’t fit in.  Maybe I just like the idea of going to a school where you can be yourself, don’t have to hide who you truly are, and can still fit in…kind of like Xavier’s school in X-Men.  The school in my latest read, The Candidates, is kind of like Xavier’s school, but it’s a little more complicated.  At Delcroix Academy, some kids are your average, run-of-the-mill geniuses, but others, like Dancia Lewis, have special “gifts,” powers that they neither understand nor know how to harness.  And how can Delcroix Academy help them with this?  Well, the answer may be a little complicated…

Dancia Lewis first became aware of her power when someone she cared about was threatened.  Bad things happen when the people she loves are in danger, and Dancia is scared of what she is really capable of.  Her solution?  Don’t get close to anyone.  And it works for a while…until she is invited to attend the mysterious Delcroix Academy.  Delcroix is not your typical high school.  Everyone knows you must be invited to attend, and that usually only happens to geniuses or ridiculously wealthy people.  Dancia is poor.  Why would they want her at Delcroix?  Could they know her secret?  Could they possibly know about the powers she’s never told anyone about?

When Dancia enters the gates of Delcroix, her life immediately changes.  She’s got friends for the first time in years, she’s caught the eye of the most popular guy in school, Cam, and she’s growing closer to the resident bad boy, Jack.  Dancia is still afraid to use her powers and tries her best to avoid them, but that may not be possible, especially when she learns that Jack has his own powers that are just as dangerous as hers.

Dancia is confused, and she doesn’t know what to do.  It doesn’t help that she has feelings for both Cam and Jack.  Cam is seemingly the perfect guy, and she doesn’t understand why in the world he would be interested in her.  Jack is mysterious, misunderstood, and emotionally broken, and part of Dancia wants to be the one to save him from himself.  How can she reconcile her feelings for these two totally different guys?

When the truth about Delcroix Academy becomes clear to Dancia, her life becomes even more complicated.  What will she do with what she’s discovered?  Who can she trust?  Why is everyone so convinced that Jack is a danger to her and beyond saving?  Is Delcroix really all about helping her understand her powers, or is something more sinister going on?  Read The Candidates, book one in the Delcroix Academy series by Inara Scott, to discover the answers to these questions and many more.  Just like Dancia, you’ll be surprised at what you find.

I truly enjoyed stepping into the world of Delcroix Academy.  The Candidates was a great first book in what promises to be a captivating new series.  The characters are flawed, but readers will root for them to overcome their many obstacles.  I look forward to reading the next book, The Watchers, which should be out sometime this year.  For more information on Inara Scott and her books, please visit http://www.inarascott.com/.  Enjoy!

Crescendo

Warning!  Read Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick before proceeding.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you! 

In April of this year, I read an amazing book.  (Actually, I read several amazing books in April, but that’s beside the point.)  The book I’m talking about is Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick.  It had everything–bad boys, forbidden love, fallen angels, mystery and intrigue.  It was awesome, so I was stoked to find out that it was the first book in a trilogy (as so many of them are these days).  Well, I finally finished reading the second book in this series, Crescendo, a few minutes ago.  While I like Hush, Hush better, I think Crescendo is still a great book.  I think it’s a typical second book in a series in that it serves as a bridge between the first and third books.  It set up a lot of what will happen at the end of the series, but it still had enough going on to keep readers interested in what the characters are currently up to.  A couple of new characters were introduced, but they only added to the mystery surrounding our main characters.  I’m definitely interested to see how the author will conclude this series, especially since Crescendo ended with such a cliff-hanger.  Now, on with the show…

In Crescendo, readers return to the world of Nora Grey.  After a harrowing experience, she’s trying to get on with her life, and a big part of that is her boyfriend and guardian angel, Patch.  Things aren’t exactly perfect, though.  Patch seems to be putting distance between himself and Nora.  He’s even spending time with Nora’s worst enemy, Marcie Millar.  What is going on?  Nora doesn’t really know, but she’s sure something’s going on, so she and Patch go their separate ways for a while…sort of.

As if Nora’s tumultuous relationship with Patch wasn’t enough to throw her for a loop, she’s also got to take chemistry in summer school (with the hated Marcie as her lab partner); an old family friend is back in town, and he’s got secrets of his own; Nora’s best friend is now dating Patch’s best friend, Rixon (a fallen angel); she’s confronted with more and more secrets that Patch may be keeping from her; and Nora is continuously haunted by the mysterious death of her father.  How can she deal with all of this, especially without Patch by her side?  How is everything connected?  Most importantly, who really killed her father, and can Nora stop this mysterious figure before she’s next?  Fall into the mystery when you read Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick.

There’s a lot going on in this book, and sometimes it’s hard to keep things straight, especially if it’s been over six months since you read the first book in the series.  I would definitely recommend reading (or rereading) Hush, Hush immediately before starting Crescendo.  I had to go back to Hush, Hush a couple of times to refresh my memory of what happened, and I know I’ll have to do the same thing when the third book, Tempest, comes out.  It won’t be released until the fall of 2011, so we’ve got quite a wait ahead of us.  In the meantime, I encourage you to visit Becca Fitzpatrick’s website at http://beccafitzpatrick.com/index.html to learn more about this author and her wonderful books.  Enjoy!

Dirty Little Secrets

It is with a sense of relief that I have finished my latest read, Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu.  First of all, while I’ve been reading, I’ve had the song Dirty Little Secret by the All-American Rejects stuck in my head.  While I like the song, I don’t want to hear it on a seemingly endless loop.  Also, the book’s subject matter, hoarding, has made me want to deep clean my house.  I can’t even watch the A&E show, Hoarders, because I can’t seem to quell the urge to disinfect things after seeing how these people live.  Anyhoo…after I finish this post, I plan to clean a little, listen to some music to replace the song repeating in my head, and move on to my next book.

In Dirty Little Secrets, Lucy is hiding the dirtiest of secrets.  Her mother is a compulsive hoarder, and the piles of garbage have overrun their home.  Her siblings have done their time in the house, and her father has a new family, so it’s just Lucy, her mother, and piles and piles of junk.  Lucy can’t have friends over because she can’t risk the fallout from people discovering how she lives.  The garbage in her house has spilled into her life, and Lucy is simply counting the days until she graduates and can finally leave.

One morning, Lucy makes a gruesome discovery.  Her mother is dead.  Lucy can already see what will happen if she allows paramedics to see how her mother lived and died.  The media will be disgusted yet fascinated by the girl whose mother died in a house full of garbage.  Lucy will lose her new friends when they discover how she’s been living.  All of her carefully guarded secrets will become fodder for the public.  Lucy knows she must take drastic actions to keep her family’s secrets, but what can she do?  How can she get rid of years of accumulated filth and junk?  How can she possibly let people see the wreck her mother allowed their lives to become?  Is there anyone she can turn to?  Read Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu to see how far one girl will go to protect her mother’s dirtiest secret.

While this book was quite the downer, I think it highlighted an issue that many children face.  Hoarding is a serious problem, and the children of hoarders are victims of their parents’ disorders.  To learn more about Dirty Little Secrets, C.J. Omololu, and to find information on compulsive hoarding, visit http://cjomololu.com/.

Now, I must clean!

Identical

There are few books that have disturbed me as much as my latest read, Identical by Ellen Hopkins.  In fact, I can only think of two books that creeped me out as much as this one did:  The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott.  If you’ve read these two books or know anything about them, you know why they are so disturbing.  Hopkins’ Identical is similar to these books, but some of the subject matter is so sickening that I had to put the book down on several occasions.

Kayleigh and Raeanne are identical twins.  Their mother is running for Congress and has no time for them.  Their father escapes into whiskey bottles and uses Kayleigh as a replacement for his absent wife.  Kayleigh feels like she’s dying inside, and Raeanne uses drugs and sex to escape her miserable life at home.

As the problems at home begin to escalate, Kayleigh and Raeanne each face the turmoil in their own ways.  Kayleigh cuts herself and binges.  Raeanne is always looking for a bigger high and a newer guy.  What will become of these twins when one of them cannot harbor her secrets any longer?

As I stated previously, this is a very disturbing read.  At the same time, I cannot keep Ellen Hopkins’ books on my shelves at school.  Identical is no different.  I would caution some students that this is a very mature read, and they should proceed with caution.  Some readers simply will not be able to handle it (adults included).  It is definitely a book that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading it.