Night Runner

Night Runner by Max Turner
Associate Links: Amazon/IndieBound

• Why I picked it up: Cool cover, interesting premise (fresh take on vampires), humor
• Disclosure: Checked it out of the library, received no reimbursement from author or publisher

For Zack Thomson, life in the Nicholls Ward wasn't so bad. After his parents died, he developed strange and severe allergies, and the mental institution was the only place where he could be properly looked after.  As strange as it was, it was home.  He could watch as much television as he wanted; his best friend, Charlie, often visited him; and Nurse Ophelia sometimes took him bowling.  Of course, that didn't mean he had it easy.  His allergies restricted his diet to strawberry smoothies, and being the only kid at the hospital could get lonely.  But it never once crosses Zack's mind to leave...until the night someone crashes through the front doors and tells him to run.  Along with Charlie and a girl he may or may not be falling in love with, he does just that: run.  Under cover of night, hiding amongst the shadows, he races for the truth.

Umm.  This is one of those books I just don't know how to review.  I'd almost picked it up several times, because it seemed like one of those vampire novels that's quirky enough to work, like Peeps by Scott Westerfeld, which is my favorite vampire novel ever.  You just know that the strawberry smoothies Zack was referring to aren't really strawberry, don't you?

Unfortunately the promise of zany humor in the blurb never delivered; instead we get a nice dose of overwriting and a whacked plot that gave me whiplash with its constant switches from drama to humor.  I also hate it when blurbs discuss people maybe or maybe not falling in love, it's usually pretty obvious in the story; and in this one it was kind of a DUH.  I did like Luna, though, and I could see why Zack might, too, so I'm willing to let that one slide.  But the plot?  Not so much.

One thing I did like, though, was Zack's voice.  I'll repeat that it was overwritten - actually, I was starting to feel bludgeoned over the head by the end of it - but I still could believe that this was a fifteen-year-old kid who had spent practically his whole life working out, sleeping, and drinking strawberry smoothies in a mental hospital.  He was sweet and intriguing, and despite his not being AT ALL crushworthy in my opinion, still a great character.

I strongly disliked the vampirism in this book, actually.  I felt like the author was ripping off every other vampire novel out there (Peeps included) instead of using his own ideas, and it didn't even have the sexy entertainment value of Vampire Academy.  So, um, no.  Didn't work.  It didn't add anything to the characters or the story, so it started to feel like something thrown in there to make the book sell, which is bad.

The ending is another thing I'll discuss, hopefully without any spoilers: Ummmmm.  Again, I could go either way on this.  In parts of it I felt emotionally manipulated; in others I was taken by complete, enjoyable surprise.  So if you want to read it, I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.  But honestly, after the trust was broken with that horrifically misleading blurb - one of my MAJOR pet peeves - you'd struggle to redeem this book in my eyes.  So in the end, I guess I'd give it a negative review just for sheer either-wayness.  I'd like a book to evoke strong feelings, thank you very much, whether they're negative or preferably positive.  At least it was only a library book.

The Final Verdict: This book manages to be sweet, funny, and horribly annoying all at the same time.  Vampire fans probably won't like it, and I doubt mainstream YA fans will find it particularly memorable, either.  Two and a half out of five stars.

Covers Matter - The Chosen One

Yes, this was originally my Saturday feature, but I'm making it just another fill-in-the-blanks between reviews feature, because I love judging books by their covers. =) Anyway, something I noticed today while simultaneously cleaning out my boxes and boxes of books and reading Shelf Awareness was....

That the covers for The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams and The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff are eerily similar?  Take a look:

Both are blond, Caucasian, contemplative, hair-in-a-braid, shoulders bare.  That sentence was not very grammatically correct, but you get what I'm trying to say.  Both are beautiful, striking covers on their own, but together they start to look like a trend.  Both girls/women have an almost Rapunzel-like quality to them, imprisoned by their circumstances and waiting for someone to save them.  Perhaps that is reading into things, but that's kind of the image I get when I look at both of them.  I've pasted the alternate, paperback cover for The 19th Wife below as well, which I actually like better - I'll let you decide.

Now, let's get this straight - I'm not defending polygamy, especially when it involves young girls like it does in The Chosen One.  But I have a problem with the way it makes books sell.  It promises emotional manipulation, plenty of sexual tension, and the tingly sense of the taboo when you're reading.  I haven't read The 19th Wife, to be fair, so I'm going off of the description:

Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain.
Sweeping and lyrical, spellbinding and unforgettable, David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife combines epic historical fiction with a modern murder mystery to create a brilliant novel of literary suspense.
It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of a family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how a young woman became a plural wife.
Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death.
And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love and faith.

Do you see what I mean?  To me that sounds meant to shock, especially with that first cover.  It might be well-written, but I'm not sure I'd want to pick up a novel that rife with juicy scandal.  (It's also an adult book, so I'd be less likely to pick it up, anyway.)  I'll admit to being intrigued by the entertainment value, but still.  I'd almost feel guilty for reading it.

The Chosen One I have slightly more complicated feelings about for a few reasons.  (That one I've read, and actually own.)  First and foremost, Carol Lynch Williams actually is a graduate of Brigham Young University, so I felt she dealt with the issue of religion and polygamy very sensitively.  And it made less promises to be "historical" or "true":

Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated polygamous community without questioning her father’s three wives and her twenty brothers and sisters. Or at least without questioning them much—if you don’t count her secret visits to the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books, or her meetings with the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her. But when the Prophet decrees that Kyra must marry her 60-year-old uncle—who already has six wives—Kyra must make a desperate choice in the face of violence and her own fears of losing her family.

I finished the whole thing in one sitting, cried multiple times, and had dreams about it for weeks.  The writing is beautiful, and if you take it as fiction, so is the story - you could apply Kyra's situation to the general trials of growing up, as well as those of religious persecution and sexual and emotional abuse.  I loved how Kyra was a fleshed out character who loved to read and play the piano and loved her family.  I loved how she refused to be a victim.

But the idea of it as a "shock story" also lingered in the back of my mind.  After the polygamy scandal in Texas two years ago, I feel like we're hungry for this sort of taboo, and hungry to prove to ourselves that our lives could be worse.  So I guess the questions I'm trying to ask are these.  Do you feel that the covers accurately represented these stories?  Do you feel that these books were written to shock?  And if so, do you feel that that's necessarily a bad thing?  I'm not sure I've got my own feelings straight on these issues, so I'd love input!

White Cat - Preview!

White Cat by Holly Black
Associate Links (preorder): Amazon/IndieBound

• Why I picked it up: Hype, intriguing idea, recognized author, received ARC from publisher
• Disclosure: Received ARC from publisher; no other reimbursement

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.
Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.
Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love -- or death -- and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

I'm not going to publish my review until the day before release, but just so you know?  If you like urban fantasy AT ALL, if you even remotely enjoyed Holly Black's other books, I'd go ahead and pre-order this one!  This book was everything I hoped it would be - a quick read, mysterious, clever, witty, fun, sexy, and hard-hitting.  It didn't exactly keep me guessing - I guessed almost every plot twist at least a couple pages before it happened - but Cassel wasn't stupid, and they were interesting twists, so that didn't bother me too much.  Other than that, the writing was excellent, and the book was just plain enjoyable!

I especially enjoyed the guy's POV and the all-around dark tone of the novel.  Holly Black is excellent at creating a world and making you believe it!  I could go on, but I think you get the picture - this one gets a solid four and a half out of five stars.  And a warning: It will leave you hanging!  I can't wait until the next book is released!

Stay tuned in early May for my full review!