Review: Hereafter by Tara Hudson

Can there truly be love after death? 

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life or her actual death, she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive. 

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.
Thrilling and evocative, with moments of pure pleasure, Hereafter is a sensation you won't want to miss. 

Hardcover, 404 pages

Published June 7th 2011 by HarperTeen
(info grabbed from GoodReads)

What teenager is this forward?  Ridiculous quote time!  I think three from the first 100 pages will suffice:

"'Beautiful.  Too beautiful for people not to have noticed you the other night.'"

-Joshua pg 35

"'...otherwise I'm crazy and I'm talking to a beautiful, electrified, imaginary girl.'"

-Joshua pg 71

"'Anyway, it doesn't matter where we go, I just want to be wherever you are.'"

-Amelia pg 87

Joshua, I do believe you are crazy.  I understand some odd behavior from Amelia since she's been dead for a mysterious length of time and hasn't brushed up on how to act like a non-dead-and-desperate person.  But Joshua?  His only reason for wanting to be around Amelia is "UR BEAUTIFUL AND I SAW YOU IN THE WATER WHEN I DIED.  WEIRD."  Granted Amelia's main reason for wanting to be around Joshua is also his looks, added with the fact he's the only person who can see her so, you know, slim pickings.  I don't like it.  It's not even insta-love; it's insta-attraction and nothing else.  No chemistry.  Just stupid.

  

Also, all mysterious-ness is forced.  All questions regarding Amelia could be answered with a minute of research.  And on that note, if I was a ghost and suddenly starting to remember my previous life, I think I'd be more interested in that than following around a boy who is perfectly aware of who he is.  Furthermore, if I were a boy hanging around a ghost only I could see who didn't even remember her last name, I would start investigating.  Immediately.  This book is written in the modern age (or not stated otherwise), and Joshua doesn't even think to look up recent obituaries on his smart phone?  Or go look up old newspaper articles about a girl who died in the river?  No desire to know the unknown?  What the hell! 

There is no love between HEREAFTER and me.  It is unfortunate, because I don’t like to not like books, but this one was a complete dud with me.  Momo and the infinite sadness.

Final Thought: Zero.  Just zero, no toadstools.

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

The year is 1876, and there’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper—

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor…from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she’ll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including their maddeningly stubborn yet handsome inventor, Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

Hardcover, 388 pages

Published July 24th 2012 by HarperTeen 

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

Something Strange and Deadly had everything I could ever want in a historical fiction novel: a dynamic heroine, swoon worthy gents, Centennial Philadelphia setting, and zombies.  I don’t think I really have to point out what makes this book special, but just in case you missed it, here again: zombies.  A steampunk zombie novel.  But labeling it so just doesn’t do it justice.

I really liked the addition of magic and voodoo to the story.  Within zombie fiction, there are two main types of zombies that every other classification of zombie fall into, those being biological or demonic.  Biological has become much more common and are in books such as Feed by Mira Grant and movies such as Resident Evil.  Biological zombies happen from a disastrous science experiment or virus causing the condition of being a zombie.  Biological zombies can be scientifically explained and zombification spreads more like a disease.  Demonic zombies are more spiritually based in origins and are a bit more flexible in what they are defined as.  The main thing about demonic zombies is that there is a necromancer or wizard controlling them for his bidding, typically.  In Something Strange and Deadly, Susan Dennard made a story about a girl and a boy while tying in demonic zombies invading Philadelphia and sprinkling some voodoo and the magic of friendship on top.  How can that not be a winning combination?

I’m honestly not a fan of the rag-tag-thrown-together-band-of-friends trope, but it works in this case.  Every character within the group is well defined and has their own quirks that add to the story.  The two main characters weren’t really enough to keep me totally vexed into the story, and the side characters give the story a bit more pizzazz.  The Spirit-Hunters are also the main source of steampunk goodness in the book, so as much as the rag-tag group trope bothers me, it is necessary in this story.  It’s not particularly annoying, I’m just being particularly critical.

One big criticism I have is that the action scenes were not very clear.  I found them very confusing and it was very difficult to follow what was going on.  It’s kind of a huge problem since with any zombie book, action is going to be a big element.  It doesn’t compromise the story itself, but when it comes to getting a bright, beautiful picture with some steampunk glory and zombie gore, well… there was no picture forming in my head.  It was just words on a page.  Imagery suffered a bit in the book -- I felt that there should be more in general and that the setting should have been played up more.  Again, I still really liked this book and am going to attribute this issue to Something Strange and Deadly being a debut.  Hopefully, we will see the author grow and write some fantastic action scenes in the sequel.

Overall, Something Strange and Deadly is a great debut.  It throws a lot of things that haven’t been done together and combines them to form a story that is something familiar and refreshing at the same time.  It is a story that any zombie aficionado won’t want to miss and any historical fiction fan who is curious how zombies could force their way into Centennial Philly.

Final Thought: 10 out of 12 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

Hardcover, 328 pages

Published January 22nd 2013 by Hyperion 

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

Victoria Schwab is becoming a fast favorite author for me as I love her original ideas and the way she writes.  Like in The Near Witch, her prose tends to be more long winded and breathy, giving it an ethereal feel.  It didn't have quite the effect that it did in The Near Witch, as this is an urban fantasy and would be less appropriate.  The writing is even paced and relaxed, and it never rushes.  While I do enjoy fast paced books, I also like more relaxed reads like this one.  Though the writing makes this story more relaxing to read, the story itself is not.  The Archived is full of action and butt-kickery, as Mackenzie’s job requires it. 

In The Archived, our main character, Mackenzie, works doing maintenance for the library that houses the dead.  (HOW COOL IS THAT?)  But by maintenance, I mean she has to chase down awoken spirits in the dark cloisters of the space inbetween the library and the real world and lead them back to the library -- sometimes by force.  The mystery of the book is that many more spirits are waking without any apparent reason.  Mackenzie already had her hands full with keeping her job a secret, but with an influx of spirits, it becomes more than simply overwhelming.

There is some romance in The Archived, but it’s not a huge part of the book.  More like sprinkles on top than the ice cream that is the mystery.  It is also interwoven with the rest of the plot, so it doesn’t feel like it was tacked on for marketability.  I guess that means it’s not-so-much sprinkles and more like the cookie dough in cookie dough ice cream -- it would be vanilla without it and who wants vanilla?  Bring on the cookie dough!

I also always appreciate an ending that doesn’t leave me screaming, which occasionally happens in trilogies.  I want to read more and know more about the world Victoria Schwab is designing, but I’m not ripping my hair out in agony waiting for the sequel.  However, I’m not a particular fan of cliffhangers.  If you need to be rocking in your chair with questions for the next book, this may not be for you.  But if you want a solidly great book with an awesome mystery, a heroine who can hold her own, and lyrical prose, The Archived is most likely a good fit for you.

Final Thought: 9 out 10 cookie dough toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Every girl who had taken the test has died.

Now it's Kate's turn.

It's always been just Kate and her mom - and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear that her mother won't live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld - and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he's crazy - until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride and a goddess.
If she fails...

Paperback, 293 pages

Published April 19th 2011 by Harlequin Teen 

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

This book gave me all the feels.  I laughed, I cried, and I swooned.  I swooned some more.  So seriously, all of the feels. 

Kate hasn’t been given the best of circumstances.  Her mother is dying and she had to leave her beloved New York City for middle-of-nowhere Michigan.  I mean, who wants to live in Michigan?   Ha ha ha… oh wait, that’s right.  I do.  But then an opportunity arises to save her mom by taking a potentially deadly test!  Because of her mom’s illness, Kate didn’t have a lot of time for friends, so her mom is really all she has, which makes it perfectly understandable for her to agree to basically being a creepy guy’s house guest for six months.  Kate’s misfortune made me care for her as a character and made it really easy for me to back her on her quest.  I wanted her to succeed.  And that’s not to say that Kate is a perfect character, or a Mary Sue; she has faults.  She is stubborn, kind of cold outwardly, among other traits that made her feel more like a real person rather than a fictional character.

All right, on to the romance (I mean, this is Harlequin Teen).  Oh tortured soul that are Henry, how I loved you, even if you are kind of creepy at first.  He’s been burned from Persephone in the past and is reluctant to get close to Kate.  During Kate’s test, Henry would visit her in the evening to play cards and just so they could get to know each other.  From that you see the two characters gradually fall in love and just… swoon.  They also felt like two people who would genuinely fall for each other, nothing felt forced in the story.  So yeah, did I mention swoon-ing?

Within all the craziness of moving, caring for a sickly mom, and being tested by the God of the Underworld, Kate also makes friends.  I particularly liked how Ava turned from the mean girl into Kate’s best girl friend.  It was sweet, as Kate had never had friends before as she was always busy with her mom and Ava’s cheerleader-ness added certain charm to the story. 

There’s also this awesome twist at the end that made everything that much more awesome.  And since I don’t want to ruin it for you, The End.  The Goddess Test made for a novel about relatable and endearing characters in a crazy circumstance enhance with the allure of Greek mythology.  I personally adored it and recommend it to anyone who likes sweet romance and Greek mythology.

Final Thought: 21 out of 25 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.

An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.

The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

Hardcover, 386 pages

Published January 10th 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers 

(info grabbed from GoodReads) 

The Gathering Storm surprised me by being exactly what I expected, but in a way I didn’t expect it too.  I was not expecting to really like this book, as I thought mixing Russian history with the supernatural would be too… I don’t know, but it would be “too-something.”  But I didn’t find The Gathering Storm to be too anything; in fact, I thought it served up a generous heaping of both historical fiction and paranormal and mixed them seamlessly to form a dish that turned out to be “just right.”

I have been bored with historical fiction in the past by the slow pacing and lack of plot development, and I grew to expect that from all historical fiction.  That was incorrect of me, and any time you generalize to an entire genre it usually will be just that: an overgeneralization.  I was happy to find in The Gathering Storm a well paced plot while maintaining the sense of history in the novel.  The historical aspect seemed very accurate to me in terms of what nobility everyday life is like, and even felt that the writing fit.  Not that it read like late 19^th century literature, just that the prose wasn’t as relaxed as contemporary paranormal.

The insert of paranormal elements into the Russian court was like adding a needed spice to a dish -- it would have been incomplete without it.  At first, I thought having fairies mingling within court a bit odd, but it grew on me.  I thought Katerina’s response to her own gift of necromancy (she saw it as a curse) was appropriate for the character and the time period.  Raising the dead unintentionally is pretty scary and her reluctance towards exploring her ability was understandable (though maybe a little annoying for me as I heart some zombies).  

The Gathering Storm is a great start to a potentially superb trilogy.  I loved how it felt like a complete book in and of itself while still alluding to its sequel, as some other trilogies have failed to do.  The addition of the paranormal to history was something I had not anticipated liking as much as I did.  I would recommend it to anyone who thinks the mix of paranormal and historical fiction sounds intriguing and is craving something a bit different.

Final Thought: 5 out of 7 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.

For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.

With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life—and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again.

Hardcover, 306 pages

Published January 8th 2013 by Razorbill 

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

 I was really expecting to love Brenna Yovanoff’s writing and the blurb for Paper Valentine made it one of my most anticipated releases for 2013.  So with a heavy heart I admit that this book was a complete let down.  I was expecting creepiness, great atmosphere, but what I got was boring high school melodrama and just …drabness -- as if the whole world was painted gray.  I kept reading out of stubbornness and it didn’t ever pay off. 

My biggest issue was that the mystery (which from the blurb and title is supposedly what this book is about) didn’t really even begin until after page 200.  I mean, the book is called Paper Valentine, and the serial killer in the book is called the Valentine Killer because he leaves hand crafted paper valentines with his victims.  So how is that not what the book is about?  Until Hannah starts looking in the deaths in her community, I was bored out of my mind and almost put the book down.  There were all these details and attempts at character building that made me think: “Okay, maybe it will all be tied in at the end.”

But no.  Just no.  These irrelevant details stayed irrelevant.

There are so many things going on within the story that aren’t really ever explained or explored.  For example, it is the hottest July on record, but what does that have to do with anything?  Nothing ever comes about from that; it’s never even mentioned if the bodies of the victims started smelling quicker than normal because of the heat.  It didn’t add to anything.  The birds are dying and The End.  The birds have nothing to do with anything.  What is sad is these are the two most extreme examples and are on the blurb on the back of the book, but there are even more issues like this throughout. 

Looking back now, I feel that the book was kind of a hot mess that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.  The first third was high school contemporary, filled with details that were not important and not even interesting.  The second third was romance, which seemed to have a lot of unnecessary back story and not enough romantic development.  The last third is where all the mystery happened.  It finally starts to pick up, but still fell flat for me.  I felt that there should have been more.  More intrigue, more excitement, more everything!  Even the plot twist at the end was just not enough.

I think Paper Valentine suffers from trying to do too many things at once and not succeeding in any of them.  The characters were not incredibly interesting, the mystery was blah, and just too much was going on in relation to nothing.  I feel bad writing such a negative review.  Really.  But I honestly think this book is not up to the same quality as other books in the same genre.  I do plan on reading Brenna Yovanoff’s other novels, as I have heard great things, but I cannot recommend Paper Valentine to anyone.  

On the bright side, it has a gorgeous cover.

Final Thought: 12 out of 36 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads