Category: Fiction

Soulless by Gail Carriger

Soulless

Alexia Tarabotti is a 25-year-old spinster in Victorian London.  She also has no soul; her father is Italian and dead; and she was attacked by a vampire in the library during a social event.  As if that were not bad enough, she finds herself working with the disturbingly handsome werewolf, Lord Conall Maccon, to determine who is creating vampires outside of vampire hive rules.

This is a witty blend of the supernatural, steampunk, alternative history and romance.  Alexia’s spirit is engaging, and the clever plot will keep readers enthralled.  Happily, Soulless is the first in a series of Alexia Tarabotti mysteries, which appear under the name of The Parasol Protectorate.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity

Verity was a passenger in British spy plane that was shot down over Nazi-occupied France.  When she looked the wrong way before crossing the street, and almost got hit by a van, she was picked up by the Gestapo.  In order to get Verity to reveal her mission and any other pertinent information about the British war effort, the Gestapo subjected her to a wide variety of tortures.  Verity’s confession gives an account of both what she endured and what she told the Gestapo, but it never explains whether it is completely truthful or if it contains any lies.  Compounding this confusion, of course, is the inclusion of this quote in the beginning of the book:

‘Passive resisters must understand that they are as important as saboteurs.’
SOE Secret Operations Manual
‘Methods of Passive Resistance’

Only by reading the second half of the book, told from the perspective of Verity’s pilot friend Maddie, can readers ascertain the truth.  This would be a good story for you if you want to learn more about some of the lesser-known facets of WWII, enjoy suspenseful stories, and appreciate heart-wrenching tales of friendship and devotion.

Ashes by Ilsa Bick

Ashes is the story of Alex, a girl with an incurable brain tumor, who runs away into the woods to come to terms with her illness and say goodbye to her deceased parents.  As if that weren’t depressing enough, an unexplained electromagnetic pulse suddenly strikes, killing most of the population, turning teens into zombies, and giving some of the survivors the power of heightened senses.

With angry, eight-year-old Ellie and handsome Afghanistan War soldier Tom, Alex seeks answers to what has happened and fights for survival in a world where nothing is the same anymore.

Alex is a good, strong main character.  Even with her new powers, it is easy to root for her and care about what befalls her.  This new world is a perilous one and the adventures of these characters are frightening and addictive, dark and creepy.  Note:  A sequel is planned.

Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson

Christine wakes up one morning to find herself having aged 20 years, seemingly overnight.  To her horror, she discovers that she has amnesia and that she wakes up and makes the same discovery over and over each morning — she has no memory of the day before, or the twenty years prior.  Her husband patiently guides her through the shock each morning and fills her in on the details of their life.  But when she finds her secret journal, which records her painstaking attempt to hang on to more than a day’s worth of knowledge, she realizes that there are holes and inconsistencies in her husband’s account.  Is her husband lying?  What about the doctor that she refers to in her journal, or her friend Claire, both of whom offer further differing information?  As she inches, day by day, closer to the truth, Christine realizes she may be in danger.  This suspenseful page-turner was a best-seller during the summer of 2011.

The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman

Tom Sherbourne has survived the horrors of World War I and trains to become a lighthouse keeper on a tiny island off the desolate coast of Western Australia. When a chance meeting with a young woman leads to enduring love, the couple settle on the island, and their marriage flourishes despite the harsh land and the isolation of their lives.  The one problem they cannot solve is  Isabel’s inability to have a child.  So, when a small boat carrying a dead man and a newborn infant washes onto their shore, it seems like the answer to their prayers.  Their love for the child knows no bounds, so the decision to keep her simply evolves, and it is easy for Isabel to put thoughts of the child’s identity aside. But Tom struggles with the morality of the decision, setting the couple on the road to despair.

The moral dilemma that the story presents is heartbreaking.  The reader can clearly feel the desperation and loss that result from the couple’s tragic secret.  This is a book that compels attention, making it hard to put down.  This is a riveting debut from Ms. Stedman that leaves the reader wanting more.

In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin

In post-World War II Manhattan, veteran Harry Copeland has returned to the city he loves to begin his life after serving as an elite paratrooper behind enemy lines in Europe. The family business, manufacturing fine leather goods, awaits his return.  But on a late spring morning on the Staten Island ferry, Harry’s life is upended when he sees a  young woman across the deck. When they meet, the magic is instant, but the beautiful heiress is already engaged to be married.

Their romance develops despite the rigid social traditions of the time, but their choices threaten not only Harry’s livelihood but their very lives. Only Harry’s wartime experiences give him the means to protect Catherine and their future.

While this is a mesmerizing love story,  the language is the most compelling part of the work. Mr. Helprin’s descriptions of New York and its residents are breathtakingly beautiful with evocative prose that allows the reader to experience the sounds and images of 1940s  Manhattan and the battlefields of Germany.

 

See You at Harry’s by Jo Knowles

Sometimes I go into a book knowing pretty much what is going to happen but just curious about how the whole thing plays out.  This book, on the other hand, was one of those “everyone says it’s great, so I’m going to read it even though I don’t remember what the reviewer said about it back when I decided to order it” kind of books.  I put myself on the waiting list and then, when it showed up, I started reading without so much as a glance at the summary.

I usually like going into a book completely blind because I can enjoy the story better if my experience is not tainted by another person’s opinion.  When I first started reading this book, I thought the story was going to be a healthy serving of “coming-of-age in a small town” with a side order of “gay older brother.”  Boy, was I wrong!  When the tragic twist happened somewhere near the middle of the book, I felt like someone had punched me in the gut.  I immediately flipped to the back of the book and then looked inside the front cover to see if there had been any kind of indication or warning about it in the summary.  Yup…  I guess there was.  Part of me is glad that I wasn’t able to steel myself against the shock, so I could react more naturally to the story, but part of me wishes I had known something was going to happen so I didn’t have to fight so hard not to cry while I was reading in the middle of the pediatrician’s waiting room before my son’s check up!  I refuse to give anything away, but I will say this much — read this book somewhere you can feel free to let the tears flow and be sure to have a hanky or a tissue handy.

No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz

Dystopian sci-fi is a genre that I can’t seem to get enough of…  But this book was a bit too realistic and definitely freaked me out!  I actually had plans to go to the mall and told my husband that we’re just going to shop online for a while!  The blurb on the back of the book may very well be one of the shortest blurbs I’ve ever read, but it summed it up very well:

“It’s just another Saturday in a busy suburban mall. But not for long.”

When a kid named Marco stumbles upon a small device with a red, blinking LED, he just knows it’s a bomb.  When the bomb squad gets called in, things take a turn for the worse.  The entire mall ends up on lock-down because the bomb was in the HVAC [heating, ventilation, and air conditioning] control room and it may or may not have spread some form of contagion through the mall.  Alternating perspectives between two guys and two girls, this book lays out the details of a terrifying possibility — being quarantined in a mall, with limited supplies, for an indeterminate amount of time.  [shudder]  The worst part for me, though, was finding out that this is only book one and I have to wait to see how it all ends!

The Chosen One: A Novel by Carol Lynch Williams

Kyra is 13 years old and has never known life outside of the compound.  Her family belongs to a strict, polygamous, religious cult where the men take on many wives, and the women are considered property — first of their fathers, and then of their husbands.  Kyra’s father has three wives and 21 children (soon to be 23), and Kyra is of an age where she is about to be promised to a man.  Back when the group first settled in this location, the girls were matched with boys only a few years older.  Now, it seems like all of the girls are being given to the older men — and Kyra is horrified to find out that the Prophet has matched her with her own uncle, who already has six wives.  She has accepted most of what she has been told her whole life, but things are getting less and less palatable by the day.  Will she be able to change the Prophet’s mind?  Will she run away?  Or will she have to marry her uncle, an awful prospect even if he wasn’t so closely related, and obey his every command? If you find this book interesting, you might also want to read Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Set in 1906 in the Adirondack Mountains, and based on the actual murder of a woman named Grace Brown, this book will appeal to fans of both historical fiction and murder mysteries.  Chapters alternate between the past and the present, as narrated by sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey.  In the chapters about the past, we learn about Mattie’s life on her family’s farm and her hope to attend Barnard College in New York City to become a writer.  In the chapters about her present, we learn about Mattie’s work at The Glenmore Hotel on Big Moose Lake and how it brought her into contact with Grace Brown shortly before she was murdered.

I think what I liked best about this story is that it was about so much more than Grace Brown’s murder.  It was also a coming-of-age story about a young woman (Mattie) who was determined to blaze her own path and to fight for her dreams despite the wishes of her father and the lack of women’s rights at the time.  With how seamlessly Jennifer Donnelly wove together the true story of Grace Brown and the fictional story of Mattie Gokey, it’s no wonder this book won the 2003 Carnegie Medal in Literature [under the UK title A Gathering Light].

The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse

After a global economic meltdown, resources were so scarce and people were so scared that violence and crime skyrocketed.  Leaders of Canada, the USA, and Mexico decided that they would be better equipped to rein in the criminals if they worked together, and thus formed the UNA (United Northern Alliance).  Citizens of these countries were angry about the alliance and rebelled, which led to massive riots.  Then Roland Harka came along.  Using both charisma and force, he took over the UNA and appointed himself Prime Minister — for life.  With freedoms and civil liberties taken away, communication restricted, and severe penalties for people who disobeyed, order was restored.  As a result, all 16-year-olds now have to take the GPPT (Government Personality Profile Test).  During the GPPT, teens’ brains are scanned to reveal which teens are predisposed toward a life of violence and crime.  Those who fail, often referred to as Unanchored Souls, are sent to Prison Island Alpha, also known as The Wheel.

Alenna wasn’t really worried about failing the GPPT, so she was completely taken by surprise when she woke up on The Wheel.  She knows she is not crazy, and she has never been prone to violence or crime, so she thinks there must have been a mistake.  But, how does she even begin to contact people back home so she can try to get herself off the island?  Unless she manages to align herself to one of the two “tribes” of teens who already live on the island — and who constantly battle one another — she might not survive long enough to try and escape.  This book, the first of a trilogy, is a worthy addition to our If You Liked the Hunger Games list!

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

As the book opens, Harold Fry, a retired man in a cold, strained marriage with Maureen, receives a letter from Queenie Hennessy, a former work colleague.  She is writing to say goodbye — she is in hospice and dying of cancer.  Harold writes a simple note in reply and sets off by foot to post it.  However, the first postal box doesn’t seem right, nor the second, . . . and Harold finds himself walking six hundred miles from the south of England to Queenie in the north, convinced that somehow his walking will keep her alive.  Harold is completely unprepared for the walk, but he feels that it is something he must do, and so he keeps on.  Along the way he meets a wildly diverse assortment of individuals, and he ponders his life, remembering the good times of so long ago, as well as the tragedies that followed.  Maureen, left at home, also has time to do a lot of thinking.  This is ultimately a very hopeful book with a message that it is never too late to seek healing for life’s hurts or to make ammends.  Recommended.

Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams

London and Zach traveled the world with their missionary parents all throughout their childhood, so it was easy for the siblings to become best friends.  Now that Zach is gone, though, it means that London has a hole in her heart AND her life.  She simply doesn’t know how to exist without her brother and best friend.  [Is it OK to smile or to laugh when your brother has killed himself?]  Even worse is the fact that her mother hasn’t talked to, looked at, or hugged her in the more than six months since Zach died.  London expects that it’s because her mother thinks it’s her fault.  With the help of friends, old and new, London is doing her best to pick up the pieces of her heart and move on with her life.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Andrew “Ender” Wiggin was a third — a child who should not even exist in a society with a strict two children per family limit.  Why did he exist, then?  Because his parents had promised to hand him over to the government if he tested well and showed promise as a potential commander in the fight against the Buggers [an alien race with whom the people of Earth were at war].  Even though military leaders were excited by Ender’s progress at Battle School and thought he might possess the skill-set needed to save humanity, Ender was kept in the dark.  All he knew for sure was that Battle School offered him refuge from his sadistic older brother, Peter, while taking him away from the affections of the only person he has ever truly loved, his sister Valentine.  But ruining one kid’s life to potentially save the human race is worth it, right?

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake: a novel by Jenny Wingfield

Each year, on the first Sunday in June, the Moses family gathers for a reunion on their farm in Arkansas.  For daughter Willadee, with her preacher husband Samuel Lake and their three children, the chance to be with her parents is precious.  This year, however, the entire family must cope with the loss of their father and the Lake family faces additional stress when they learn that Samuel will not have a church to pastor in the coming months.  As the summer unfolds, the children thrive on the farm and become friends with the son of a brutally cruel father on an adjacent farm.  By summer’s end, Samuel and his family will find their faith and family tested as tragedy strikes.

This beautifully told story demonstrates the power of family, faith, and a belief in the possibility of miracles.  Its spirited young heroine, Swan Lake, is a child who captures the reader’s  imagination, alternately making you want to laugh, then cry with her audacity.  A powerful read!