R.I.P. X: It's About to get Spoopy, Y'all!

My favorite time of the year - fall - is quickly approaching, and alongside cooler weather, changing leaves, and pumpkin spice everything, comes the best holiday to ever holiday: Halloween.

Dance, magical pumpkin man

During this wonderful season, I want nothing more than to invest my time consuming all the spine-tingling pop culture I can get my hands on. Thankfully for me, there's a fantastic reading challenge that does just that, R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril, or R.I.P. started by Carl V. Anderson and hosted this year by the Estella Society's Andi and Heather!

Image: Abigail Larson

The R.I.P. challenge is all about embracing the wonderful world of eerie Gothic and horror literature in the world. There are many levels of participation, but I'm going with the top challenge, Peril the first. between September 1st and October 31st, I will read at least 4 books that I feel fit with the R.I.P. themes.

My tentative reading list is:

Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

American Gothic Tales edited by Joyce Carol Oates

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

This list is just a start - I'll most likely be adding to it as I go, along with watching spooky movies/TV throughout the next two months. Ack! I can't believe fall starts tomorrow (I know that it technically doesn't start until the back half of September, but I can dream!). If you're participating in the R.I.P. challenge let me know what you plan on reading in the comments!

My crew from now until Oct. 31

 

The Diviners by Libba Bray

Summary (from Goodreads): Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult--also known as "The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies."

When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer--if he doesn't catch her first.

 

Review: The Diviners was fantastic. Fantastic. Ok, now that I've established the awesomeness of this book, let's look at why it's fantastic.

 

1) The setting: 1920s New York City. Full of speakeasies, flappers and jazz clubs, the world of The Diviners is very Gatsby-esque.

 

2) The characters: There are a lot of them, but they're all fantastic. There's Evie, our main protagonist; her Uncle Will; Will's assistant Jericho; mysterious con-man Sam; Evie's best friend Mabel; Ziegfeld dancer Theta and her pianist friend Henry; and, last but not least, Memphis and his brother Isaiah. All of these characters are fleshed out by Bray and they all have interesting dynamics with each other.

 

3) Did I mention that most of these characters have special powers?: Because they do. They're like 1920s X-Men.

 

4) Extremely scary villains: Naughty John = legitimately terrifying. In fact, the whole Brotherhood is creepy. Read the book, you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

5) Satisfying conclusions, but enough open mysteries to leave you craving the next book: Which unfortunately won't be out until Spring of next year. Until then, I'll probably just sit here in a puddle of feels.

 

Bottom Line: Read The Diviners. It's historical/paranormal fiction by the amazing Libba Bray. If that doesn't make you want to buy this book, I don't know what will.

 

Summer TBR

Summer is officially upon us! I know that because all the traditional signs are here. My classes are done, it's ridiculously hot outside, and I've got my serious reading time face on. Summer is the time where I can laze around and get through the biggest chunk in my reading list. With that being said, here are the books I would like to get through this year:

Winger by Andrew Smith: This sounds like a humorous, thoughtful coming of age story set in a prep school. Think Looking for Alaska, but with rugby!

 



In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters: This is set in the early nineteenth century, when the Spanish flu and the first World War were having a major impact on people's lives. This novel seems to focus on the séance culture that rose up from all of the tragedy of that time.

 



 



The Diviners by Libba Bray: Continuing with my summer theme of YA historical fiction with a paranormal twist, this novel is set in the Roaring 20s, so I'm sure it's full of speakeasies, flappers, and GHOSTS. At least I'm assuming there are GHOSTS. That's what it seems like. This one is a bit of a chunkster (it's 578 pages to be exact), but longer reads tend to be perfect for the summer. Plus Libba Bray wrote it, so it must be amazing. Also GHOSTS.

 



The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson: We have now entered the YA futuristic/dystopian/science fictiony section of the TBR. This book has been on my TBR for a while. I can't wait to get to it. I've heard great things. I also have a copy of The Fox Inheritance, so if I like this book, I can immediately get into its sequel.

 



Wither by Lauren DeStefano: Again, an awesome dystopian trilogy that everyone has been raving about but I am late to the party for. I feel a definite need to get on this one in particular, and I don't know why. Is it the amazing cover? The intriguing premise? I don't know but it's burning a hole in my bookshelf so this will be read. Pinky promise.

 



Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl: I really enjoyed Beautiful Creatures, so it would be nice to read the second book. I'm terrible with follow through, so actually finishing a series would be awesome, and if I like Beautiful Darkness enough, maybe I'll get the other books and actually finish the series this year!

 



Nightshade by Andrea Cremer: Werewolves. They always spice up the summer months. I also have a copy of Wolfsbane, so I can continue this series if I like it as well.

 



So those are my big reading goals for the summer. I plan on reading more than these seven books of course, but these are the definites. What on your summer TBR? Let me know in the comments!

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Summary (from Goodreads): And their doom comes swiftly.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

Review: Oh, Gretchen McNeil. You know how to mess with my mind. I thought I had Ten all figured out. I thought I was ready for every single twist and turn that you would throw my way. I had read And Then There Were None, the Agatha Christie novel that inspired Ten. I came into this prepared to do some serious sleuthing and thought I had the killer pegged by chapter 5. I thought I was right until the last few chapters, which I spent freaking out because the plot twists were just so ingenious.

Gretchen McNeil has created a fantastic mystery in Ten. Ten teens come to a secluded island, ready to party for the weekend. Unfortunately for them, they were all tricked into coming so they could be picked off one by one by a mysterious killer. The tension in the book is something that contributes to it's scary feel. It's truly terrifying watching these kids try to solve the mystery of why someone is hunting them as they're being hunted. Something you learn very quickly in this novel is that no one is safe. Gretchen McNeil does a great job of building up that sense of hopelessness and dread.

Ten is the type of book that makes your heart race. It's a great read. Just be sure to leave the lights on.

Catching Up and Mini Reviews

Hi there, faithful readers! You all look like you haven't aged a day, even though it's nearly been a month since we last chatted. In my defense, I've had a lot going on recently.

Saying that I've been busy over the month of August would be a huge understatement. I'm still in the process of moving, which has taken much longer than I hoped it would. At the current rate we're going, we'll hopefully be all unpacked and settled in by mid September. On top of the move, I started my second year of college last week. So... yeah. Just call me Jared McBusypants.

All of the stuff that moving and being a student requires aside, I have had time to read, I just haven't had the time to type up my thoughts into a coherent blog post. To make up for it, I have written this trio of mini reviews covering my most recent reads. These aren't my full thoughts; just quick blurbs covering my main points. This should get me all caught up and back on track. Things are settling down, so we should be back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.

Tighter by Adele Griffin (Summary from Goodreads): When 17-year-old Jamie arrives on the idyllic New England island of Little Bly to work as a summer au pair, she is stunned to learn of the horror that precedes her. Seeking the truth surrounding a young couple's tragic deaths, Jamie discovers that she herself looks shockingly like the dead girl—and that she has a disturbing ability to sense the two ghosts. Why is Jamie's connection to the couple so intense? What really happened last summer at Little Bly? As the secrets of the house wrap tighter and tighter around her, Jamie must navigate the increasingly blurred divide between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Brilliantly plotted, with startling twists, here is a thrilling page-turner from the award-winning Adele Griffin. 

My Review: Tighter was a great read. It was very creepy and suspenseful. Experiencing this book through Jamie's eyes was particularly unsettling as she tried to uncover the mysteries of Little Bly. I was certainly creeped out by the end of the novel.

 Monster by Walter Dean Myers (Summary from Goodreads): Young, black, 16-year-old Steve Harmon, an amateur filmmaker, is on trial for the murder of a Harlem drugstore owner. Steve copes by writing a movie script based on his trial. But despite his efforts, reality is blurred until he can no longer tell who he is or what the truth is.

My Review: There were many things that I enjoyed about Monster. I liked the varied typography. The novel flips between handwritten notes and a typed film script. The script format was not only stylistically interesting, it also kept the courtroom details from being confusing. It was a quick, intriguing read.










An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (Summary from Goodreads): When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin's hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.

My Review: This novel in typical John Green fashion, was wonderful. The Characters were great, the story was fun and interesting, and there was a plethora of Green's quirky humor. Unfortunately, I felt that this was Green's weakest novel. It just didn't seem to pack the emotional punch, like Looking for Alaska or The Fault in Our Stars did.     

Waiting on Wednesday # 13 - The Casual Vacancy

Book: The Casual Vacancy

Author: J.K. Rowling

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Expected Release Date: September 27th, 2012  

Summary (From Goodreads): When Barry Fairweather dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

Why I'm Waiting: When it was announced that J.K. Rowling would be releasing a new book in 2012, I happy danced like a lunatic.

Can you blame me? It's J.K. Rowling! The woman could write a refrigerator manual and I would buy like 20 copies! The Casual Vacancy is a very different story than the Harry Potter series, but I don't think that's a bad thing. In fact, I'm really excited to see what Rowling does with this new story.

Also, it's release date is the same week as my birthday, so...



What books are you waiting on? Let me know in the comments!

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

Summary (From Goodreads): The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen.
The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.
And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Review: The Near Witch is a wonderful novel for many reasons, the most important (for me at least) being originality. I'm always excited to see originality in YA novels. Often, the same ideas or themes are used over and over again. Victoria Schwab not only introduces us to a new idea and theme, but she creates an entirely original world for readers to explore in The Near Witch.

The novel is set in the village of Near and the surrounding Moor. Not much more about the setting is explained. We don't know the location of Near (although I pictured England because of the moor) or the time period the novel is set in. As someone who likes to have a clear picture in my head of the setting of a novel, this was frustrating for me at first. However, as I continued reading I realized that the vague setting added to the novel's atmosphere. It made everything a little more mysterious and tense as our protagonist explored the moor.

And while we're on the subject of the protagonist, let me just say that Lexi is a wonderful one. She's very much like Katniss Everdeen, in terms of her resilience and courage. It was a joy to read the book through her eyes. Schwab has a great handle on all of her characters, from the paranoid villagers to the eccentric witches that live on the outskirts of Near.

The lore of The Near Witch was well crafted; at times it felt like reading a Brothers Grimm tale. Schwab did a good job of incorporating The Near Witch into the plot. We learn more about her little by little. It was almost like a dual narrative: The Near Witch's story and Lexi's story. This added a nice layer to the novel.

Bottom Line: The Near Witch was a wonderful read. Perfect for fans of fairy tales/fairy tale retellings!