book review of Whitaker Ringwald's the Secret Box

This book is the first in a series.  It is set primarily for middle-school students.  For anyone that just likes to pick up a fast to read book it is highly recommended.  It is funny with interesting characters that are at the perfect ages to keep everything uncomplicated amongst the relationships.  The children do seem to be in a different world than the adults and that is obviously because the adults choose it to be that way.  The leading protagininsts are a pair of male and female cousins who could not be more opposite.  They adore each other and start to come into their own during the course of the book.  This book deals with mystery and mythology and whether it really is better to not answer a child’s questions in the long run.  It is fast paced and fun along with quite a bit of mystery and comedy to keep the reader going all the way into the end which leaves room for more story.

Review of The Snowmelt River by Frank P. Ryan

This book is a modern fantasy that shifts.  At first, it is a story with surreal elements to it.  It then becomes something of full high end fantasy when the four protagonists’ step into another land.  It is a place that is like a sister planet of Earth and is so well constructed with its own people in lore; I could not help but think of it reflecting the struggle and beauty within Middle-Earth.

All of the characters are separate from each other and easy to differentiate even with such a large cast of them.  They are all interesting with character arcs that come at the appropriate times.  There is a sense of underlying mystery to the children and the death of all of their parents that is hinted at later.

The book is the beginning of series and is a long adventure.  It has the feeling of one of the Young Adult books that you just don’t want to put down.  In this case, the size of it is an advantage because the reader gets days of reading from it.  I would recommend it to any Young Adult who like a well-constructed book and anybody looking for a beautiful beginning to an epic fantasy.

Donna Andrew's Murder with Peacocks book review

This book reads like a comedy at first.  It slowly unfolds into a story of a woman being the maid of honor in three different weddings all in the same summer (days apart).  The comedy is not only found in the ridiculousness of the small town (woman especially), but in the situations themselves.  It is a comedy that mixes with mystery and a touch of horror with the lengths that the killer is going to in order to cover their tracks.  This being a comedy means that something that should end in the leading protagonist or her father dying becomes something where the father drives into a bale of hay to brake his car or another man flying off of a lawnmower with the brakes cut.  It reads quickly and intimately due to the facts that the characters are quirky and hilarious and that the chapters are set up as dates (so, it reads as if the lead, Meg, is keeping a diary).  It is a cozy mystery because all of the suspects and police know each other and the victims.  It is insulated in that respect and allows the reader to ‘get to know’ all of the suspects.  This strange tale of ‘who done it’ even allows for good character development that is usually ignored in mystery novels and deemed insignificant.  I would highly recommend it to anyone with a dark sense of humor and an appreciation of the peculiar.

book review of Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s book of the Doctor Frankenstein and his creature is considered to be a classic for many reasons.  This is something that is studied in classes and gone back to constantly because of the exploration of humanity.  The ideas of what it is to be human and alive are continually sought out by Frankenstein and his Creature. 

Frankenstein is someone that has always been looking for more.  There must be more to life and death and they must be something to be overcome.  He is a dramatic and serious character who sees the world as black and white, but fancies to see it in grey. On page 92 Victor states towards his feeling of the Creature, “For the first time, also, I felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were, and that I ought to render him happy before I complain of his wickedness.”  He begins to see himself as a father which would imply that he saw what he did as a bad thing in the same regard that any parent who bears a serial killer would feel.  His humanity is confirmed in his love for the monstrosity that he should have never created. 

The Creature, who is never named, is the most human character.  His arc is one that is inevitable.  There was only one way that a creature such as himself would be perceived in the world and of that time.  He starts much like Frankenstein, someone who wants knowledge. On page 108 the Creature speaks of the family and what he learned from their conversations, “To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious, as many on record had been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm.”  He later craves companionship once he learns more of the world by family within the cottage.  The feeling of love is awakened with them, especially when the old man plays his violin. 

The good feelings are overshadowed by the bad eventually when he is rejected.  Like all children he must find his way and react according to his true nature.  It is revealed that his nature is to be wrathful.  The Creature like a fallen angel begins to embrace the darkness that he sees all around him and that has been hiding within himself on page 129, “I too can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him.”  The Creature knows only wrath and scorn the same as his depressed father/creator.

Two Towers book review

The middle of the Lord of the Ring series shows much for the characters of the series and introduces new ones who are just as important.  The bravery and guilt of Boromir is what the reader is first met with along with his death.  He does seek and achieve redemption in his death.  He represented the modern man because he believed in the tangible and not in the potential of a thing (the Ring).

Sauron is a true being of evil to Gandalf and Elrond because they have been intimately associated with his doings.  They were there for the destruction that he had wrought, so he is very real to them.  To the others he is a fairy tale figure.   He is a boogeyman coming to get you.  They only know what they have been told of him and have not personally experienced the desolation that he gave out in his time.

 The fellowship has broken into three groups which merges and separates again within the book.  Each of their stories connects and contributes to the others in a fundamental way.  Merry and Pippin evolve from sweet and home loving Hobbits to those that understand the need for war and even urge for it in the case of the Ents.  Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli pursued the young Hobbits and ended up meeting Gandalf the White.  He helps the King of Rohan to be free of the power of Saruman through the sly Wormtongue.  Saruman sends his Orcs and Urak-hai to battle with the Rohans.   The Ents attack Saruman’s tower when his army is attacking in Rohan.

430, “There are some things that it is better to begin than refuse, even though the end may be dark,” Aragorn.

590, “It’s my doom, I think, to go to that Shadow yonder, so that a way will be found.  But will good or evil show it to me?  What hope we had was in speed.  Delay plays into the Enemy’s hands-and here I am: delayed,” Frodo.

book review of David Almond's the True tale of the monster Billie Dean telt by hisself

This book is hard to read at first.  It is worth the effort as is all good literature.  I do believe that this book should become a piece of great and classic literature when time has gone by.  It tells a tale of a child who grows before the reader.  His mind develops in a fascinating manner.  He is a child of nature who understands light and dark so perfectly because he only knows what it is.  He does not know everything, but he is capable of almost anything.  His mind and body are taken over by and possessed by the dead and his hands can heal.  He does not pray as others do, but his view of the world is beautiful in its childish qualities and simplicities.

Susan Vaught’s Insanity book review

This is the rare type of book that pulls the reader in instantly.  It starts with a snap of mystery that morphs into suspense.  It abruptly shifts to another character’s perspective (sever times within it) and brings something new with each person.  They are all good people who are Unforgiven for the crimes/sins done by their ancestors.  They must atone or at least that seems to be why they are cursed to see ghosts and have odd abilities.  There is a touch of romance without becoming soppy which is a relief.  The romance adds to the character developments without changing them into fools.  It is a realistic approach that is much appreciated and incredibly rare, especially in a Young Adult book.

 This book mixes genres from the paranormal, fantastical, mysterious, suspenseful, and even a dash of the thriller.  I would highly recommend it to the reader who loves to fall into a world that takes time to put together completely.  

The Lost Planet by Rachel Searles book review

The book starts with a bang.  The reader is thrust into the world in the same manner as the protagonist.  He has amnesia which means that he learns along with the reader of the world around him, so no one is left out.  Everything has to be explained which means that like all good high science fiction; it all has a purpose.  There is a sense of discovery and I would openly say that this is a coming of age mystery thrown into a futuristic setting.  The reader has to see through Chase’s eyes, but still be empathetic enough to understand other people at least on a basic level as he would. 

The author is very good at not excluding anyone.  She is detailed without bogging everything down and making the reading denser than it has to be.  The pace of the story is astoundingly achieved.  There is suspense, mystery, adventure, and a strong sense of seeking and finding that is never lost.  It is left open for more, yet the ending is realistic in its complexity.  It does have a clear ending that implicates that what transpired in the book is only the beginning.

review of Andrew Lane’s Rebel Fire/ Red Leech

Sherlock spends a third of the book, the middle of it, trying to get back his kidnapped friend Matty with the help of Mr. Crowe and his daughter Virginia.  The reader learns more about Mr. Crowe as Sherlock does himself.  It turns out that Sherlock’s tutor was a man of importance who worked alongside the Pinkerton’s in America in order to take in war criminals.  The war criminals of the time would have been men of the Confederate Army.

Sherlock unmasks another plot to cause havoc to Britain.  He stops it in a manner that even the “bad guys” would not even have to lose any men.  The baddie of this book, Duke, does not understand or appreciate the sentiment.

This book is advisable to read because it has Sherlock Holmes coming into his own.  He kills and comes to terms with what that means for the first time.  He puts others before himself and yet, never stops being who he is while discovering what that is simultaneously. 

Review of Lane’s Death Cloud

A young Sherlock Holmes must stay with his Uncle Sherrinford and Aunt Anna instead of going home.  He is assigned a tutor by Mycroft and befriends a young homeless boy in Farnham.  His tutor is a big American who is a stickler about information and making every experience into a lesson.  Mr. Crowe, his tutor, is obviously the influence on Sherlock that makes him into a person capable of solving mysteries by the most mundane details.  He even shows Sherlock how to evade attention and question without anyone being the wiser.  He makes the young man into the consulting detective that we all know.

The mystery of Death Cloud is not something that even as a reader is presented in a frivolous way.  There is nothing more frustrating and condescending than an author that lets the reader know what is happening behind a mystery and yet, the protagonists are left in the dark.

The solution is not only plausible and eloquent; it allows for Sherlock to develop a lifelong fascination of his.  His obsession with bees is born within this book and a hint of the future drug addict is even hinted at, in the end of the book.

This book is good to read because it allows the readers of Sherlock Holmes to theorize about how he became the man he was in a valid format.