Spirit and Dust

Spirit and Dust  by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Teen psychic Daisy Goodnight works with local police and the FBI to solve murder cases.  Her talent for speaking with the dead is deemed "useful" even if the evidence she uncovers is not admissible in court.  But when the dead bodyguard she interviews gives her more questions and no answers, and the trail to a kidnapped girl leads to the Egyptology exhibit Chicago's Field Museum, Daisy learns that being a kick-ass psychic detective might be a lot more dangerous than she originally thought.

Ghosts, witches, magic, a jackel-headed god, and a tyrannosaurus rex, plus a hot young FBI agent and a good-looking son of the Mob, combined with fast-talking, smirky dialogue. Think "The Mummy" meets "Indiana Jones" and you won't be far off.

Action, adventure, some bloodshed, some death, and a few steamy kisses.  Although this is a sequel to Texas Gothic, the story stands alone well--and begs for a sequel!

Recommended for readers ages 14 to adult.

Boston Jacky

Boston Jacky: being an account of the further adventures of Jacky Faber, taking care of business   by L.A. Meyer

audiobook read by Katherine Kellgren

That rascal Jacky Faber is back in town--Boston-town, that is.  Her shipping business is nearly broke, her Irish friends are unwelcome, and her true love Jaimy still hasn't returned from an extended stay in the Orient.  Undeterred, Jacky buys the Pig and Whistle Inn to save it from bankruptcy and this raises the ire of the Women's Temperance Union...and her own dearest friend.  

Can Jacky's impulsive nature be tamed before she ends up back in Judge Thwackham's court?

Maybe.  Maybe not.

I'll only give one spoiler: the thing with Jaimy is definitely not untangled in this book.  For more details, you'll have to read it yourself.

Recommended for fans of the series, ages 14 to adult.  Some cussing, some violence (mostly off-page).  As always, the audiobook edition read by Katherine Kellgren is superb.

Lexicon

Lexicon  by Max Barry

audiobook narrated by Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman

Are you a cat person, or a dog person?

Choose a number between 1 and 100.

What is your favorite color?

Do you love your family?

Why did you do it?

For reasons he (and the reader) do not understand, Wil Parke has been attacked in an airport restroom, asked several nonsensical questions, and then kidnapped at gunpoint by an enigmatic man who calls himself Tom Eliot.

In a time shift, street hustler Emily Ruff is asked the same nonsensical questions and eventually recruited to a mysterious organization that promises to teach her to be more persuasive.

How do these things come together?  

Explosively.

Using a volatile combination of action sequences interspersed with scientific (but never boring!) explanations about brain research and neuro-linguistic programming, the author drags the reader deeply into this deeply violent, disturbing story of modern life and the power of words as weapons.  

This book was included on the 2013 School Library Journal "Best Adult Books 4 Teens" list. It will definitely thrill some teens, but readers are warned that violence and cussing completely saturate the story.

Recommended for readers who can survive the cussing and who enjoy action, suspense, and contemporary dystopic fiction.

Losing It

Losing It.  (short stories)  Keith Gray, ed.

“It hurt.  A lot.  There was a lot of blood too.”   Of course, Keith Gray is talking about being hurt in soccer practice…

With this quick start, Losing it is about just that.  Ten short stories of losing your virginity from some vary famous British authors, including Melvin Burgess, A.S. King, and Patrick Ness.  Jase wants to lose his virginity even if he loses the soccer championship as a result; Emma wonders why she did it;  Finn’s grandmother gives some great advice; Charlie and Ant are just fooling around until the right girl comes along- aren’t they?

At times, the British slang gets in the way, but more often the stories themselves talk around the sex part of the story that teens might well lose interest.  Teens won’t learn anything new here, nor will they gain any new insights, although some stories are quite poignant: The White Towel (Bali Rai,)  a story of not-too-distant India, and Finding It (Anne Fine) from the sex ed teacher’s point of view that teens will shrug off.

In reality, there is very little actual feeling here.  While some stories actually deal with emotion, (Different for Boys, Patrick Ness and Age of Consent,  Jenny Valentine) most are simple stories of wanting sex.  The stories are more “feel good, sweet” stories.  In only two of the stories the act of losing one’s virginity is observable.  In one of those stories, the actual references to sex are black boxed out, creating more in your imagination than there would be if left in the narrative.  The reality of being protected during sex is never taken seriously.  This would have been a stellar opportunity!

Kissing, gay friends, gltbq, masturbation, Star-Trek sex, violence

Of Beast and Beauty

Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

Princess Isra is a “smooth skin.”  One of those living in the city under the dome, away from the desert and the “monstrous: those reptilian-skinned creatures.  Isra is also hiding a secret- she knows she has scaly skin and her royal family is hiding it from the population, because even in the royal domed city, those who are part “monstrous” are kept in a partition.  What is also known is that Isra will someday be the blood sacrifice her people need to feed the magic roses that keep the city intact.

Then Gem, a monstrous, is captured inside the city, trying to capture the magic roses to help the desert people.  As their friendship builds, Isra is challenged to find whether everything she knows is actually true. 

Beautifully told from Isra’s and Gem’s points of view, the reader is left wondering just who the “beast” of the story really is. This unique Beauty and the Beast story is marred only by the Biblical reference that tries to incorporate the Adam and Eve story.

Kissing, religious views, strong female character, violence

Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain

Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain  (ARC)  by Andrea Young

14-year-old Finny loves horses, and works at an elite show-jumping stable in exchange for riding lessons.  When she sees an emaciated horse by the side of the road, she arranges to adopt him (without telling her parents or the stable manager), and dreams of their success together.  However, the horse is huge, untrained, and potentially dangerous.  Can they ever find happiness together?

Yes, of course they can.  

All it will take is a handsome boy who happens to be a horse trainer, a kindly horse rescue lady who happens to be a retired world-class show jumping trainer, and a competent veterinarian who happens to enjoy under-billing kids for treatment and services

Of course there are other impediments to happiness, like the Snobby Rich Girl, the Loving but Neglectful Mom, and the Greedy Uncle straight out of Central Casting.

The first third of the book was fraught with plot and terminology errors.  However, the final two-thirds of the story rose up a bit from the mundane, ending with sweet romance and a thrilling horse race.  Horse-loving readers may roll their eyes at some of the goofs, but they will read to the end and cheer at the finish line.

No cussing, no sex.  Some bullying, some violence, some kissing.  Grades 6 and up.

Teen Spirit

Teen Spirit  by Francesca Lia Block

Julie feels bereft after the death of her beloved grandmother Miriam.  Soon after, she and her mom have to move from their beautiful home in the hills to a benighted apartment on the wrong side of Beverly Hills.  Then, her mom meets a loser guy and seems to forget about Julie.  Then Julie meets Clark...who is haunted by issues of his own.

Usually, Francesca Lia Block can easily pull off a complex plot like this, and fill the story with lush, nuanced details and sensuous descriptions of life and love and death.  

But not this time.  The writing is stilted, the characters lack depth and purpose. The plot is twisty for no apparent reason, the ethnic details seem tacked on, and poorly edited elements (an answering machine?  in 2013?) yank the reader out of the story too often.  A near-miss sexual situation is awkward.

Not particularly recommended.

Just Between Us

Just Between Us  by J. H. Trumble

 

Luke Chesser is a high school junior and band member.  We met him as a character from Trumble’s book, Don’t Let Me Go.    This is not really a sequel, although the story is richer if you read the earlier book.  In that book, Luke “came out” because of Nate, a senior who was his first relationship and subject of a hate crime.  Luke is still looking for a good relationship and thinks he might find it in Curtis, a college sophomore who is helping the band this summer.  The two are strongly attracted to each other, and Luke is hurt and at a loss when Curtis suddenly rejects him.  

The reader knows (but Luke doesn't know) that Curtis has just been told by a former boyfriend that he has been exposed to the AIDS virus.

 

Curtis keeps his secret, even after a verifying test, and we all would like to shake some sense into him, because while this is huge and possibly fatal information, we also see that Curtis has a very supportive family who would help if he would let them.  It is true that Curtis has just spent the last year exploring many sexual avenues and now feels guilty, self-destructive, and depressed.  Luke is just too sweet, he thinks.  Curtis needs to face that year again if he is to face the AIDS.  He is also not getting treated.

 

Luke is meanwhile facing problems with his own family.  His father is not supportive, and in fact cannot seem to fight his homophobic reactions.  In one instance, he hits Luke.  Luke has romanticized his relationships since Don’t Let Me Go.  He is now a year older, and more mature, but still emotionally naïve.

 

There are very few books that cover the fallout and repercussions of HIV, but Trumble does it beautifully, creatively interspersing the story with updated facts you all wanted to ask.  We truly care about Curtis and Luke; when they hurt each other, we hurt too.  That too is done well in only a few YA books.  Certainly in this one.

Recommended ages 15 up.

Picture Me Gone

Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff

Mila and her father are on their way from London to New York to see her father’s best friend, Matthew.  They had not seen each other for many years.  A phone call from Matthew’s wife alerts them to the fact that he has disappeared.  They decide to go anyway, and show up at the house to see if they can help.

Mila is a rather unusual girl who deeply notices her surroundings.  She sees the picture frame and notices the stance people take and where their arms are placed; she sees the shoes in the corner, not cleaned in years since their son’s death; she notices the items left un-dusted and ponders the reasons why.  

Mila uncovers the love, loss, and deception felt deeply by each of the characters, eventually facing each of these herself.  The relationships of all the other characters weave through the novel in a delightful way.

Mila also texts her best friend in London, whose parents are going through a divorce, and whose relationship with Mila has been a little shaky and distant: very similar to Mila’s father’s relationship to Matthew.

The lack of punctuation is disconcerting.  Rather than enhance the story or character development, it serves to disorient the reader.  Perhaps that was intended. 

Recommended 10 up. 

Butter

Butter by Erin Jade Lange

Butter is obese, a boy who expects to be bullied, lonely, and ignored , especially by his father. 

How the “Butter” nickname evolved is a sick story on its own, but at 429 pounds, Butter is now just done. He decides that he is going to eat himself to death- on New Year’s Eve- videoed live on the internet.  

When he posts this idea online, he (and we) are unprepared for the reaction from his classmates:  cheering!  

In an awful twist, Butter becomes the hero of an idea increasingly difficult to stop.  He now has social standing with all the popular kids, invited to parties, sits at their table at lunch, and one step closer to Annie, the girl of his dreams.

Of course, as we understand the real Butter, we become increasingly alarmed and appalled as we watch the train wreck.   Butter began an online relationship with Annie, posing as an anonymous, handsome football player from another school.  What could go wrong there?  

He is an amazing saxophone player, whose sound, according to his teacher, is “smooth as butter.”  He is not alone in the world, either.  He has a great doctor, his mom, and a friend from “fat camp.”  But those are not the kids in his school.

This is a complex look at eating issues, relationships, and high school culture.  There are few two dimensional characters in this book, so the problems are not going to be simple, or even have straightforward solutions. Expect to get involved in Butter’s life.

And if you have read the book- can you remember Butter’s real name?  Did you get sucked into the group that continues/enables/excuses the bullying behavior?  

Or do you remember his name?