Waukegan Public Library - young adult

Have You Heard About... Born Wicked

Fran J — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 06:33:01 +0000

… America being settled by witches? Born Wicked, the first book of Jessica Spotswood’s Cahill Witch Chronicles, is set at the end of the nineteenth century in an alternate history where America was founded by an organization of witches instead of pilgrims. The witches grew in power until they were overthrown by the Brotherhood, a group of misogynists who control every aspect of a woman’s life. When a young woman turns sixteen, she must either declare her intention to obey her husband forever or she must join the Sisterhood, the female arm of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood preaches the evils of womanhood in general and witches in particular.

Cate is the eldest of three sisters, all of whom are witches. Girls all over Cate’s town are being accused of witchcraft and hanged or sent to insane asylums, a fate considered worse than death. When Cate discovers that the three of them may fulfill a prophecy that promises to end the tyrannous reign of the Brotherhood, she must choose between keeping their secret or joining the secret band of witches bent on rebellion.

The plot is complicated by Cate’s inner struggle (she isn’t convinced that witchcraft isn’t wicked after all), the urgency of keeping family secrets, and the fact that the witch resistance doesn’t have the best interest of the Cahill sisters at heart. The next book in the series doesn’t release until June – I can’t wait!

Reviewed by Sara (staff)

Have You Heard About... Paper Valentine

Fran J — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 07:06:08 +0000

…Brenna Yovanoff’s fantastic new spine-tingler? First of all, I love Brenna Yovanoff’s writing. Her first two books, The Replacement and The Space Between, are wonderfully creepy and beautifully sad. Yovanoff writes about teens, but not the way we adults think about teenagers. We think of adolescence as a time of irresponsibility and freedom, but from the perspective of a teen, it’s a time of insecurity, a loss of innocence, and a deep fear of the unknown. Yovanoff captures that sadness like no other writer.

Paper Valentine is Yovanoff’s most poignant work to date. It follows Hannah and her best friend Lillian during a brutally hot summer when a serial killer is striking at the heart of their sleepy town. The complication? Lillian has been dead for six months.

The beauty of Yovanoff’s writing is that as a reader, you hardly notice that Lillian is a ghost. The dialogue is so strikingly honest, I became absorbed in the unique relationship that Hannah and Lillian share. Her characters use the language we really use, and feel emotions that we really feel. Most writers avoid feelings of ambivalence and confusion, but Yovanoff embraces them.

I highly recommend Paper Valentine to teens and adults who are interested in breaking into young adult fiction.

Reviewed by Sara (staff)

Have You Heard About... Kill Me Softly

Fran J — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 07:43:37 +0000

… the people blessed (and cursed) by fairies? Kill Me Softly, by Sarah Cross, tells the story of Mirabelle, raised by her godmothers because her parents were killed when she was an infant. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, Mira becomes increasingly obsessed with her parents’ death and the town where she was born. She plots to go there without her godmothers’ knowledge, needing to find answers about her heritage. However, what she finds will endanger her life and change everything she thought she knew about herself and the world around her.

Ms Cross creates an intriguing world where some people catch the attention of fairies. They become fated to play out roles from various folktales — one girl lives with her stepmother, wondering when the woman will decide she is too beautiful and must be killed, a charming young man waits for the day when he will meet (and save) his princess, and the brothers with blue hair cannot be trusted by the women they love. The stories are varied, although they generally have European roots. More interesting is the question of how much free will an individual has to affect his or her personal version of a traditional role. The reader learns everything along with Mira, who is in more danger than her peers, due to her ignorance, but also has the opportunity to make her own fate.

Reviewed by Fran (staff)

Have You Heard About... Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Fran J — Thu, 03 May 2012 06:27:08 +0000

…the stuck-in-a-time-loop orphanage that serves as a home for some very peculiar orphans? Jacob learns the truth about it in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. When Jacob’s grandfather is brutally murdered by monsters only Jacob can see, he is determined to find answers. Jacob hunts through his grandfather’s old photographs and finds some very peculiar snapshots of children. His hunt leads him to a remote island off the coast of Wales filled with tight-lipped locals. While roaming the moors, Jacob stumbles into a time loop and into the very orphanage where his grandfather took refuge from the Nazis 60 years ago.

The book is punctuated by the unsettling photos Jacob found among his grandfather’s possessions. I enjoyed reading the story from Jacob’s perspective, an antihero filled with fear and self-doubt, struggling to come to terms with his family’s past and his own future.

Reviewed by Sara (staff)

Have You Heard About... Rose Daughter

Fran J — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:49:27 +0000

… the Beauty who fell in love with a Beast as she worked to resurrect his precious rose garden? This is the third in our series of reviews of novels based on “Beauty and the Beast.”

Robin McKinley wrote Rose Daughter as well, which also focuses on Beauty but manages to tell the story in a completely different way. In this version, Beauty is given the task of resurrecting the Beast’s dying rose garden. As the Beast says, “It is the heart of this place, and it is dying.” McKinley fills the story with details, from the people who live in the town near Beauty’s family, to the ever-changing decorations in the Beast’s home.

Reviewed by Fran (staff)

Have You Heard About... Beauty

Fran J — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:54:32 +0000

… Beauty and her courtly Beast? The second review in this set looks at very different style of novel based on “Beauty and the Beast.”

Robin McKinley’s Beauty is an elegant version of the classic tale, with a more conventional focus on Beauty. The story follows the familiar outline, with a kind-hearted and book-loving Beauty gradually falling in love with the Beast. In this story, Beauty is a bit of a tom-boy who loves spending time with horses and digging in the garden, and she grew up feeling shy and awkward next to her sisters. The rich descriptions in this story and Beauty’s strength of character make this a delightful read.

Reviewed by Fran (staff)

Have You Heard About... Beastly

Fran J — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 06:41:12 +0000

… the Beauty who fell in love with a Beast? Some form of “Beauty and the Beast” is found in cultures throughout the world, and you can find many wonderful versions from picture books to movies. Over the next week, we will feature three great novels based on this classic tale, all filled with roses and romance.

Alex Flinn’s Beastly is the most modern of the three adaptations. It features a handsome, spoiled, self-centered high school student who is turned into a beast for his cruel, thoughtless treatment of a witch (and everyone else). Because he did one kind thing the day she cursed him, the witch gives him two years to learn how to love a woman and to earn her love in return. If he can’t, he will stay a beast forever. This version focuses more on the “beast” than the “beauty,” showing how he changes from being one of the pretty people and leading a charmed life to being rejected by his father and having to hide from his former friends.

Reviewed by Fran (staff)