Plot Summary:  Aging rocker Judas Coyne is a collector of the odd, the strange, and the macabre–a cannibal cookbook, a snuff film.  He also collects girlfriends, calling each after the state where they are from.  When his assistant tells him about a ghost for sale on an internet auction site, Coyne is mildly interested and tells him to buy it.  When an old man’s black suit is delivered shortly thereafter in a black heart shaped box,  the ghost that accompanies it is not a friendly Casper type.  He and current girlfriend Georgia travel cross country to try and find a way to escape the ghost.  Judas cannot escape his past, and will need to come to terms with himself, with Georgia, with past girlfriend Florida if he has any hope of staying alive.

Critical Analysis:  I should preface this by saying that I don’t usually choose horror when I pick out what to read.  I also don’t like most horror movies.  I think, for me, it has to do with suspension of disbelief.  If the situations, characters are too unrealistic, I find it jarring (and in the case of some horror movies, silly.)

But Hill, he hooks you and reels you in before you have time to think about the details.  The pace of the story is unrelenting, and awful and horrible things follow one after the other.  But somehow, in between, we see Judas’ past, vignettes of his time with Florida.  We see Georgia’s compassion and strength of will, and most of all, a kind of horror that stems from a diabolical plot for revenge and that you feel deep in your chest.

I don’t want to say too much, I don’t want to spoil the details.  I will say that the audio book was especially creepy (to actually hear the ghost speak…) and not to belabor the Stephen King connection, but teens who love King’s early work will love this too.  (Thanks Dia Reeves for suggesting titles outside my normal reading range…you haven’t steered me wrong yet.)

Review Excerpts:  ”Much will be made of the kinship of Hill and his superstar father, Stephen King, but Hill can stand on his own two feet. He’s got horror down pat, and his debut is hair-raising fun.” –Kirkus Reviews

“…a fast-paced plot that crackles with expertly planted surprises and revelations….believably complex emotional lives that help to anchor the supernatural in psychological reality….His subtle and skillful treatment of horrors that could easily have exploded over the top and out of control helps make this a truly memorable debut.”–Publisher’s Weekly

“Predictable at times, the book has genuinely touching emotional moments as well as action-packed confrontations with the dead.”  -Library Journal

Reviewed from public library audio book.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Plot Summary:  Seventeen year old Emma Vaile is living every teenager’s dream–her parents gone on a trip, her older brother away, she can do whatever she wants.  Except she worries about her family, is ignored by her best friend and has these strange, scary visions.  When her brother’s old friend Bennett rescues her from Social Services, she is whisked away to Boston to live in a historical home and attend a proper prep school and have more visions.  Bennett reveals that she shares with him and a small group of others, the gift of ghostkeeping, communicating with ghosts.  And someone or something is murdering ghostkeepers and leaving behind a symbol: the design on Emma’s mother’s unique pendant.

Critical Analysis:  This book is very much like Mary Poppins–practically perfect in every way.  Not great literature but a great balance of compelling characters, suspense, mystery, romance, humor, frenemies and the paranormal.  At over 300 pages, the book feels short, and readers will be clamoring for the sequel.  Kudos to Nichols for avoiding the trap of overlong overserious paranormals that seems to have taken over young adult fiction recently.

Emma is the girl next door and everyone’s best friend, and Bennett is every girl’s crush–their brother’s older friend who they both like and hate simultaneously.  I was reminded of another recent paranormal, The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller, but Deception is both faster moving and more fun all around.  Talk this up to your female teen readers.

Review Excerpts: “[T]he ghostkeeper premise, lingering mystery, and Emma/Bennett relationship compel the curious to return. Magical ancestors and passed-down powers…it will appeal to teens craving a quick read.”–School Library Journal

“After a strong start, this fantasy drags until the revelation of Emma’s powers….Romance is one of the main reasons readers will keep turning the pages; the end contains a shocker that will leave them anxious for the next book in the Haunting Emma series.”–Booklist

“While Nichols’s take on the girl-who-sees-ghosts story will satisfy fans of the genre, the characters and plot feel familiar, though Emma has a sense of humor that, if on the silly side, balances the book’s sinister moments with snark. Undemanding paranormal fun.”–Publisher’s Weekly

“Balancing this text’s heavy supernatural vibe and sometimes gruesome details are elements of modern teenage life, including Emma’s crush on Bennett and conventional high-school friendship dramas, making this first installment in the Haunting Emma series light fun with a mildly chilling edge and sense of mystery.”–Kirkus Reviews

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Boston, L. M. (1954). The Children of Green Knowe. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN: 978-0152024680

This is book that started it all–my participation in this informal reading challenge, that is.  You can read about that here, or to see what I said about the book, check out my post on The Literary Wife.

Reviewed from public library copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Bibliography

Plot Summary:  Two teen girls who have never met will be forever connected.  When 16 year old figure skater Eagan misjudges a jump in competition and hits her head on the boards, 14 year old Amelia, dying from congestive heart failure, gets the miracle she needs.  But Eagan is caught somewhere between this world and the next, and Amelia starts to have new thoughts and feelings after her heart transplant.  Could her new heart be making her different somehow?  She seeks out her donor’s family for answers/

Critical Analysis:  In a time when overly long bloated books are the norm, it is nice to read a book whose author has distilled the essence of story and character in to a few hundred pages.  I admire Ellsworth for her ability to show so much about not one but two main characters.  One who is shown only in death, reliving key moments of her short existence, and the other shown getting a second chance at life, but with many scenes taking place in a hospital.  Both main characters are distinctly drawn, and going through the quintessential young adult journey of self-discovery with an added twist.

Secondary characters may seem less fully drawn, but they are as the two girls would see them, and in such a brief and highly focused story I think that is fine.  Hints of mystery (who is Amelia’s donor?  Is her new heart changing her? What is this place where Eagan is stuck?  How can she move on?)  and romance (Eagan leaves behind the perfect popular football player boyfriend, Amelia meets the older brother of another transplant patient) give the story depth.  I even got a little bit weepy at one point in the story.  (To say which part would be to spoil it!)  Well crafted, this title should have wide appeal for teen girls, and has no content issues that would prevent younger teens from reading it as well.

Readalikes: Behind You by Jacqueline Woodson.  After his death, Jerimiah and the people he touched when he was lived can’t seem to move on after sudden loss.

Where I Want to Be by Adele Griffith.  In alternating chapters, teen sisters talk about their relationship.  One sister is dead, and trying to recreate the place she loved while alive, and the other is dealing with the death and trying to more forward but all too aware of her sister and the hole she left in her life.

Review Excerpts: “Ellsworth’s dual narrative explores the large and small ways medical technology forever intertwines the lives of two strangers. Ellsworth’s dramatic story of loss and second chances is deftly tempered by its candid teen narration and light touches of mystery and romance, making it a highly satisfying read, especially for fans of the novels of Lurlene McDaniel and the recent Cold Hands, Warm Heart (2009), by Jill Wolfson.”–Booklist

“In straightforward, stirring prose that alternates between the girls’ perspectives, Ellsworth (In Search of Mockingbird) explores the intimate and mysterious connection between organ donor and recipient…. the emotions of the two protagonists are painstakingly fine-tuned. Readers will likely come away teary eyed and inspired to become organ donors themselves.”–Publisher’s Weekly

“The physical and spiritual connection between the two girls, who narrate in alternating chapters, forms the basis of this sweet but somewhat melodramatic story….It would be touching if it weren’t so absurd.”–School Library Journal

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Bibliography

Plot Summary:   Thirty-something Anna moves from Ann Arbor to New York where she teaches elementary school, hangs out with eccentric Harold and man eater Stacy, dreads visits from her twin brother, eats in the Greek diner, does laundry while reading tabloids and, oh, yeah, talks to ghosts.  Anna is a medium who does readings for clients.  Mostly she can control the ghosts, but when Edward moves in to apartment downstairs and starts practicing for an important piano competition what seems like ALL THE TIME, one impertinent ghost won’t leave her alone.  Anna wants Edward to go away because his playing interferes with her ability to concentrate and talk to ghosts.  But then her opinion changes.  Could she be falling for him?  But what will happen when he finds out about her abilities?

Critical Analysis:  It really surprises me that this book is not more well known.  I suppose that again I have discovered a title that does not like to be pigeon-holed.  It features a young woman and is witty but is not really in the chick lit vein.  It features a budding romance but that is not the whole story.  It is paranormal, but not in the same way that most paranormal books are these days.  There are details about family and about trying to find your place in the world.  Perhaps it is a little too old fashioned for some tastes,  it does remind me of some of Madeleine L’Engle’s novels such as And Both Were Young, Camilla, and Joys of Love.  (Gay and bisexual characters aside…)

So then perhaps the question becomes, who is this book for?  Well, anyone who enjoys a good story about the human condition I think, for in addition to Anna’s story,  Edward’s take on events are shown through funny letters he writes to his benefactors back home, and glimpses of the lives, loves, and longings of others are seen through the sessions Anna conducts to reach loved ones who have died.  I think some teens might enjoy this story because in the end, it is really about people trying to make connections with other people so that they aren’t alone in the world.  And isn’t that a true teenage condition?

Review Excerpts:  “While this delightful novel has a heavy supernatural presence, it’s also about loneliness and fear, two things that many readers will understand—even if they don’t believe in ghosts.”–Publisher’s Weekly

Plot Summary:
In Kerfol, Edith Wharton tells the story of Anne de Barrigan, a French woman who was accused of murdering her overbearing older husband. She claims to have heard a pack of dogs near his body in the dark, although there were no dogs at Kerfol–no live dogs, anyway. Noyes takes this story as her inspiration and builds on its details, going so far as to incorporate some of Wharton’s wording in her first two tales.  In the first story, Noyes retells the events of Anne and her husband, their relationship and his murder through the eyes of her ladies’ maid. This personalizes the story that Wharton told mostly as Anne’s evidence and testimony given at her trial. In the rest of the stories, Noyes explores what happens to a house, to a place where such horrifying events occurred.

Critical Analysis:
It is interesting to me that this was published as young adult. Most of the characters in the stories are teens or young adults, but this is a very mature set of stories with some grown up themes–sensuality, infidelity, revenge. Noyes takes Wharton’s story and extends it,  imagining what the results of such events would be, on the house and the land, the air itself is charged with the supernatural. In addition to retelling Wharton’s story, Noyes also expands on the underlying sensuality hinted at by Wharton. There are interesting echoes, one girl pregnant with her lover’s child, another who cheated on her boyfriend, an artist so obsessed with capturing and keeping the woman in his mind’s eye that he tries to destory his masterful picture of her.  The necklace that played such a key role in Wharton’s story–Anne took it off her dog and gave it to her lover and when her husband realized it was missing, he somehow knew she had not lost it in the park. All of these details add to the spookiness, the atmosphere that culminates in the final story, where a deaf teen hears dogs barking, sees holes being dug by something he cannot see and runs into ghosts in the garden. The title of the collection is The Ghosts of Kerfol, but what Noyes has done is more than just created a sense of place, she has made Kerfol, the house and the land like another character in the story.  It feels like the house, the garden, the land are reaching out to grab anyone who comes too close, pulling them into the dizzying horror that happened so many years ago.

Review Excerpts:

Kirkus Reviews: “Told from a variety of perspectives, each story builds on the last, drawing the reader deeper into the passion and misery that wind their way through the estate. Beautiful and genuinely frightening.”

Publisher’s Weekly: “Readers will be eager to know how next this house and its ghosts wreak havoc-and even death-on those unlucky enough to darken its doorstep.”

Connections:

• To Edith Wharton and the original short story, Kerfol. There are multiple opportunities for discussion and comparision between the original and these newer tales.
• Especially interesting would be an exploration of the symbols, motifs, colors, and themes running through all of the stories.