Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer

by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Harcourt Children's Books
Orlando, FL, 2006

Miranda's dad is having a baby with his young new wife, her best friend is spending more and more time at church, and she's fighting with her mom because she won't pay for skating lessons but she'll pay for Miranda's little brother's baseball camp. As if that isn't enough to deal with, "some asteroid is going to hit the moon," (p. 9) around 9:30pm Wednesday night.

Written in journal style, this first book in The Survivors Trilogy gave me A LOT to think about. The dystopian tale puts a spin on the asteroid threat - rather than hitting earth, the giant rock knocks the moon out of orbit. Who knew that could cause such worldwide destruction? The middle-end of the book moves a bit slowly, but the slower pace matched Mirand's experience and it gives the reader a taste of the tense monotony she and her family must endure.

Bottom Line: Life As We Knew It had me adding canned food, bottle water and batteries to my grocery list, which is exactly what a world-wide catastrophe tale should do.

The Monstrumologist, by Rick Yancey

The Monstrumologist
by Rick Yancey
Simon & Schuster, NY 2009

monstrumology (n)
1. the study of life forms general malevolent to humans and not recognized by science as actual organisms, specifically those considered products of myth and folklore
2. the act of hunting such creatures (p. v)

Apprentice to the renowned Monstrumologist Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, orphan Will Henry is accustomed to the macabre studies of his master. But when a grave digger delivers the body of a young woman to the doctor, the boy must push aside his horror and disgust in order to assist the monster hunter as he dissects the Anthropophagus (headless monster) who chocked to death eating the dead girl. And, as all monstrumologists know, where there's one Anthropophagi, there's 35. Unfortunately for Will Henry, the malodorous creatures are quite hungry. 

I've been watching horror movies since I was eight (Nightmare on Elm Street) and reading horror novels (Chain Letter) since I was about the same age. Basically, it takes a lot to freak me out. Not only did this book give me nightmares and a general sense of unease, it grossed me out completely. Well done Rick Yancey. Well done.

Bottom Line:

Fantastically gory and scary; Step to, readers!

The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle

by Jeannette Walls

Scribner, NY 2005 

I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster. (p. 3)

In this memoir, Walls tells of her turbulent childhood (which included sustaining 3^rd degree burns as she prepared a dinner of hot dogs for herself at the age of 3) with a matter-of-fact style that carries the reader safely through her dangerous childhood. Scenes from this book replay in my mind, like Walls' ejection from the family car, and her haunting description of the family home on Battle Mountain. Though there was no question of who was to blame for her crazy upbringing, I enjoyed the author's ability to share her family's troubled past without pointing fingers. Walls' simply tells it like it was, allowing readers to absorb the craziness that was her childhood.

Bottom Line:

An inspiring story of willpower.  If Jeannette Walls can achieve success and leave a past this troubled behind, I can surely get through my daily to do list without complaining.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press, NY 2008

The seas have risen and North America is divided into 12 Districts ruled by the all-powerful Capitol. The poor Districts provide goods to the wealthy Capitol and once a year, as a reminder of the failed uprising of now-extinct District 13, the Capitol holds the Hunger Games. Two teens, a boy and a girl, from each district are chosen for the nationally televised reality show in which the contestants, or Tributes, fight to the death. The last Tribute left standing receives a lifetime supply of food and shelter for themselves and their families. District 12's Tribute, Katniss Everdeen is a born survivor. The sole provider for her family, she cannot lose the Games. Peeta Mellark, her fellow Tribute from District 13, throws a kink into her plans. 

The first in a trilogy, this book is simply fantastic. Suzanne Collins' imagined future is, in a word, bleak. I was rooting for Katniss from the start, but the real question is: Team Peeta or Team Gale? (Team Peeta!!)

Bottom Line:

Read it - not because the movie is coming out in March 2012- but because the story is a truly exciting, nerve-racking, inspiring, sad, imaginative ride.

The Cell, by Stephen King

The Cell  

by Stephen King

Scribner, NY 2006

Throughout his career, Mr. King has explored the idea of dangerous technology. Christine was a clunker with an evil mission. The Mangler was a demon-possessed laundry press, and Ur told the tale of Amazon Kindle that held unpublished works by dead authors and could predict the future. The Cell is about that indispensable little computer we all carry around in our pocket. It would never turn on us, would it?  

I actually saw Stephen King in Boston walking along the Public Garden across the street from the Four Seasons hotel. Ironically, he was steps from the setting of the opening scene of this book, near the ice cream truck where Pixie Light and Pixie Dark battle it out. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well for a week.

Bottom Line:

King's ability to plant terrifyingly possible what if's in our minds is what ultimately makes his stories so haunting, and The Cell gives off its own nightmare-producing pulse.

Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld

Leviathan

by Scott Westerfeld

Simon Pulse, NY 2009

This Steampunk tale opens at the start of World War II. With the help of only a few trusted advisers and a Cyclop Stormwalker, Alek attempts to evade his parent's assassins.  Meanwhile, Deryn, a young lady disguised as a young man, determined to view the world harnessed to a Huxley (a sort of floating jellyfish) enrolls in the British Air Service. A spectacular accident brings these two opposites together (Alek's a Clanker who believes in the old fashioned competency of steam powered war machines. While Deryn sides with the Darwinists, those quirky scientists who've managed to create fabricated beasts like huge hydrogen breathing air beasts) and thus we have the start of the Leviathan series.

I am a crazed Scott Westerfeld fan. Uglies, Pretties, and Specials? Brilliant, fantastic, and bizarre. So Yesterday? So perfect. And don't even get me started on Peeps. Leviathan did not disappoint, and the illustrations are fantastic.

Bottom Line:

We cannot keep this book (or its sequel, Behemoth) on the FHS Library shelves. The second a student returns it, it is checked back out by another student. And that, my fellow bookworms, is every library book's dream.

Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers

Zeitoun

by Dave Eggers

Vintage Books, NY 2009

Zeitoun sent his family out of New Orleans in preparation for the hurricane named Katrina. All he really expected were some downed trees and a bit of aggravation, so he stayed behind to watch after the house and check on his family's rental properties.  In the days following the infamous storm, he ends up paddling through the city in a canoe helping his neighbors and feeding the neighborhood dogs. Then things take a turn for the worse that you both do and don’t expect and we’re given a first hand account of the madness and chaos that followed hurricane Katrina.

At the end of Zeitoun's stranger than fiction account, I was left with one question: How could this happen here?

Bottom Line:
The author weaves Zeitoun's family history into the tale, personalizing the Katrina tragedy and making it more than the hard to fathom images on the television screen.

The Body of Christopher Creed, by Carol Plum Ucci

The Body of Christopher Creed
by Carol Plum-Ucci

Harcourt, NY 2000

… a town has to feel genuinely sorry for how they mistreated the weird guy who’s gone. To feel genuinely sorry, you have to be honest. And Steepleton needs its lies like a toad needs bugs. (p.10)

No one knows what happened to Christopher Creed, the bullied boy known as the class freak. He simply vanished, leaving only a cryptic farewell note to the school principal. Torey Adams, one of Creed’s tormentors is determined to discover the truth, but in doing so, he implicates himself in the the boy's disappearance. I dug the mystery's supernatural elements and the author's realistic portrayal of both the bully and the bullied, and the ending left me relieved, sad, and satisfied.

Bottom Line:

Thought-provoking in a, Would I have befriended Chris Creed? and Do I gossip too much? way; a keeps-you-guessing mystery.

The Maze Runner, by James Dashner

The Maze Runner

by James Dashner

Delacorte Books for Young Readers, NY 2009

This is the story of a group of amnesiac teenage boys living in a self-sustaining compound surrounded by very high walls with gates that close every night to protect them from the surrounding monster-filled maze. Basically, the boys have no memory of their lives prior to their arrival in the compound, and they can't figure out how to get themselves out of this pickle even though every day several of the detainees attempt to solve the maze. Enter Thomas. This Glader suspects he holds the key to everyone's escape, but is he just leading them from bad to worse? That's what Gally thinks, and he isn't shy about expressing his feelings.

This is the first book in The Maze Runner Trilogy, and I was all "Wait, what? Oh, now I get it!" throughout the story until I got to the end and realized I actually had no idea what was going on - so I went out and got book 2, The Scorch Trials, immediately and I still don't quite know how the story will end. Now I am impatiently waiting for the third and final book to come out.

Bottom Line:

I loves me a good dystopian novel and this one has all the right stuff.

Project 17, by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Project 17

by Lauri Faria Stolarz

Hyperion Books, NY 2007

Project 17 is totally like The Breakfast Club, if it had been set in a decrepit, haunted, abandoned mental institution. Derik (a hot jocky ladies man) hatches an escape-my-future-behind-the-counter-of-my-parent's-diner scheme. The plan is to film a stellar reality show in the old Danvers State Mental Hospital, hoping it will lead to an internship with a local news crew.  He casts several classmates to star in the reality fare; Liza, the gorgeous, miss goody-two-shoes, valedictorian; Chet, the class clown with issues at home; Mimi, the goth chick with a hidden agenda; Greta, the needy attention-seeking theater girl; and Tony, her leading man, whose nicknames for her (babycakes and sweetcheeks) are gag-worthy.

Each chapter is written from a different character's point of view, which is pretty cool, though aside from having different agendas and such, they sort of all "sounded" the same to me. However, supernatural twists and turns kept the pace moving but never went to far into "yeah, right," territory, which I appreciated. Overall, this was an entertaining story, made even more so by its local setting.

Bottom Line:

The scene with the creepy talking doll got to me; I just can't even imagine how hellish this place had to have been when it was a (dis)functioning hospital.