A Young Adult novel that speaks to adults

Turtles All the Way Down

John Green

 

 Dutton Books for Young Reader

October 10, 2017

Five Stars

John Green"s first novel that is explicitly labeled "Young Adult" starts with an interesting but ultimately deceptive premise. At least it does, if you read and believe promo and dust jacket descriptions. Teenager Asa and her best friend Daisy decides to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the shady billionaire Russell Pickett. The catalyst for this investigation is the reward of one hundred thousand dollars for any information that leads to finding the man. That starting premise is not deceptive in itself for it is indeed the motivation for what eventually transpires in this fascinating introvert of a novel. But it really isn't what the book is about. To use an old Hitchcockian term, the billionaire's disappearance is a McGuffin. it could well have been missing goldfish, or a tuatara which actually is something that is related to the story. But it doesn't really matter that much because the author has bigger fish to fry and...Boy! Does he elevate the entree!

Turtles All the Way Down is primarily about Asa. It is Asa who is our first person narrator and it is her complex thought processes and insecurities that the story is really about. Asa has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She sees a psychiatristt and is prescribed medication that she doesn't take. She has only one real friend, Daisy, who has her own issues and writes fan fiction that in some ways seems to mirror how she feels about Asa. When they decide to go for the reward Daisy convinces Asa to contact Pickett's son Davis who she had a past acquaintance with. The relationship that develop challenges Daisy in ways that adds on to what she describe as her "spirals."

And this is where Turtles All the Way Down becomes so uniquely satisfying. Asa is real and she is flawed. But despite the gimmick of the investigation as a motive for her involvement, she is as typical as any teenager dealing with the runaway thought and emotions that comes with the territories of a mental illness. What we discover is that this territory is not much different from the problems of most teens. All of the teens in John Greene's novel, has crises and they all must deal with them for better or worse. Davis finds himself having to take on the role of big brother/father to his sibling and not being prepared for it. Daisy has her own lack of brakes and uses her fan fiction to deal with what she should be addressing in real life. This is a YA novel that eschews the usual trappings of fantasy, Sci-Fi, and suspense It gets right down to the reality and emotional conflict of modern adolescent life. In fact, I would say the only thing really YA about this book is the fact that the main characters are teenagers. The book will speak to adults just as eloquently.

The plot in Turtles All the Way Downis a thin one but it makes everything else work. It gives us a bait when the actual hook is the emotions we have in our own life. Maybe the reader cannot identify personally with OCD or Asa's imaginary but real illness . Yet the conflict, the fears, and the insecurities still speaks to us. John Green's little book may be for teenagers but it will resonate far beyond that.

Young Adult attacks again!

Stranger Things Have Happened

Jeff Strand

 

Publisher: Sourcebook Fire

Pub. Date: April 4, 2017

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

If you are preoccupied with categories and labels. Jeff Strand is hard to pin down since he has written in many genres. Yet there is one label that fits practically everything he has written. Humorist. His humor and wit are evident in practically everything he has released and even more so in his most recent books. At the present, he seems to be writing mostly in the Young Adult market and his novels all feature young teenagers struggling with the normal challenges of adolescence in unusual ways. Stranger Things Have Happened is no exception.

Marcus Millian III is a 15 year old boy who is obsessed with magic tricks. His great grandfather Zachary the Stupendous was a professional magician and encourages Marcus to be a magician to the point of betting a local theater manager that Marcus will perform an amazing illusion. Unfortunately, Zachary passes away before the trick is created by them. That leaves Markus on his own to create an illusion that will be the greatest ever performed. He will make a killer shark vanish on stage! There are a few problems though. He doesn't have a shark or a shark tank , has no idea how he will pull off the stunt if he did, and he has a tendency to get stage fright.

So maybe the challenge of making a shark vanish in front of your eyes isn't a normal adolescent fear. However, anxiety in public venues is, living up to the expectations of your elders is, and certainly being the magic nerd , or any kind of nerd, in high school subject to bullies is. Marcus takes all this in stride and, graced by the author's wit and imagination, may actually get through it all somehow.

Stranger Things has Happened is a fun read. Marcus is likeable and just smart enough, even if he seems to have a bad habit of getting into bad situations. The rest of the characters serve their purpose. There is not much development here except for the main protagonist. But while Strand's other recent YA novels stayed in the realm of reality for the most part, this one seems to stretch the boundaries. A little too many weird situations happens. There is a ridiculously evil magician who is probably a close cousin to Count Olaf or Snidely Whiplash. Marcus' new friend Peter has a secret that he doesn't always use to the best advantage. Most annoying to me were three bullies who probably talked more than any bullies I've ever encountered. Finally, there is a climax that seems a bit over the top even for Strand. It is all in the best of fun but I preferred Strand's other YA novels., especially The Greatest Zombie Movie ever, where the fun and wit is centered on a more believable scenario.

Overall though, this is a fun and fast read and should have teenagers and slightly younger kids giggling on every page. There is no real violence aside from some bully payback of the mild kind. and no sex going farther than the first kiss so parents can choose this book with having any discomfort and feel comfortable reading it themselves.It is a good novel for younger teenagers and even adults will give some laughs out of it.

A young adult ghost story

Sarah

By Teri Polen

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Pub. Date: December 1, 2016

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

 In Teri Polen's Young Adult horror novel Sarah we have the type of horror that is steeped in the emotions of teens yet interestingly stretches into adult horror often. Sarah is a ghost story and of course ghost stories are popular with all ages. Yet this one deftly merges mature topics with a tight horror tale and more than a taste of violence.

Cain is what most would consider a good guy . He is the captain of the soccer team and his head is on fairly straight, partially thanks to his BFF Finn who has no problem telling him when he is screwing up. The latest problem is with Cain's girl friend who is clearly using him and Finn doesn't waste words in telling Cain that. That may be why Cain doesn't pay much attention to strange things like cold breezes and creaking doors in his family's new house. At least not at first. He discovers a girl named Sarah was killed in the house while it was being built. Sarah is angry over her death and Cain wants to help her resolve it and move on. But when that help include taking possession of his body and planning gruesome deaths of her killers , Cain tries to stop it which only puts his friends and family at risk too.

From there on, it gets pretty scary. I would think this book might be too intense for younger children. 12 and up would be OK...I think. But regardless of the quibbling on the age level, Teri Polen has written one of the better YA horror novels in the past few years. Cain is totally likeable and believable. His hesitation on the number of things feels quite right as does his friend Finn who is the best advice giver even if he doesn't take it that well himself. There is a new girl friend and a cute little sister that add more dimension to the story. Cain's mother seems a bit thin. She is just there because he needs a mother. But the main characters are perfect for tangling with the spirit of Sarah as her true intentions starts to show.

Actually, Sarah is the real highlight of the story. we feels for her because of the circumstances of her death,. Yet the author reveal her growing evilness so nicely that she truly become a figure of horror. As her powers grow, so does the terror. This is one book to keep the lights on while reading, especially if you are a teen.

Sarah is well worth reading for both teens and adults. In a way it is a fairly common ghost story with possession throw in. Yet the combination of teen issues with the constant twists and turns raises it above the usual. This is a good book for your teen who think Goosebumps is old-fashioned. And if you really want to have fun wait until night when he or she is about two-thirds done than flip the main power switch off. Mean maybe but ...

Gothic horror for young adults

The Women in the Walls

By Amy Lukavics

 

Publisher:  Harlequin Teen 

Pub Date: September 27, 2016

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

 

There is always room for a good Gothic horror novel. The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics fits the bill and has the plus of being a horror novel for teens that doesn't run from the rough stuff. It's main protagonist is Lucy Acosta, a girl whose mother died when she was three. She lives in a large Victorian mansion (is there any other kind of house in a Gothic horror novel?) with her cold and unemotionalt father, her cousin Margaret. and her Aunt Penelope. Her father, an Acosta by marriage not blood, seems to be more interested in maintaining the property in his name and pleasing the upper class country club members that have their own mysterious interest in the mansion and the Acosta name. Shortly after Lucy's aunt disappears in the woods, Margaret begins listening to voices in the walls and acting strange. It isn't long before tragedy strikes the Acosta household again and Lucy starts hearing voices.

Oh, the things that Gothic horror is made of! At first, the reader is not sure if we are dealing with the supernatural or a queer form of madness but it isn't long before the scales are tipped and we are in for the hunt. Lucy is not the most sympathetic person for a story like this. She seems as strange as her family and not always the most perceptive. At times, it seems like she strayed out of a Shirley Jackson book. Her teen attributes, which include a tendency to self-mutilate, makes her an odd but appropriately vulnerable choice for a heroine of a young adult horror novel. Yet it alk works and we find ourselves on her side as she attempts to unravel the mysteries in the house.

But there are a few things that did not quite move along the scares. I was not sure of the time frame. The era of the story sometimes felt as Victorian as the house. Even the dialogue was rather stilted toward that era. it wasn't until Lucy mentions search engines and computers that I realized it was meant to be contemporary. I would have liked a better grasp of the time period from the beginning. Also, sometimes the Acosta family felt too off and distant. Although there were ample attempts at a backstory, they never really gelled enough to bring the family's odd behavior together until the very end. It finally led to a somewhat shocking climax but I wished I had just a little more info earlier to bring the family's strange reactions into the reality of the plot.

Nonetheless, The Women in the Walls is an interesting and brave work of horror for the young adult set. it doesn't flinch at sensitive issues and doesn't back away from the horrors especially at the end. Gothic horror is here to stay.

Coming of age...with demons

My Best Friend's Exorcism

 By Grady Hendrix

Publisher: Quirk Books 

Pub Date: May 17, 2016

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

 

A coming of age novel with demons.

That is My Best Friend's Exorcism in a nutshell. It's the 1980s. Abigail Rivers at turning 10 in 1982 become friends with the slightly odd Gretchen Lang who is the only person to attend her birthday party.. Both slightly nerdy and very intelligent, they bond together as best friends, helping each other get through those awkward years as teenagers. But it starts to fall apart after a night of experimentation with LSD in the late 80s. Gretchen begin to act strange, sometimes acting terrified and other times being cruel. She plays mean tricks on her friends often setting up Abby as the scapegoat. Abby know there is something very wrong with Gretchen but no one believes her. Until she meets a bodybuilding evangelist who is willing to believe that Gretchen is possessed.

Grady Hendrix's alternately snarky and scary novel is drenched in the 80s. There are lots of references to the era and the more you are familiar with the times, the more you will feel at home with our two teen protagonists. However the bond between Abby and Gretchen even at its most tenuous times is what most readers will connect to. It takes a long time in the novel for the exorcism topic to take center stage. For the longer part of the tale, Abby simply does not understand what is going on with her friend and when she tries to tell others about what is happening, she is the one that becomes the pariah. It is this threat to their friendship and the challenge it entails where the real meat of the story is.

Yet when the signs of possession happen, they happen with a bang. While much of the novel seems mild and sweet, those sudden shocks brings us back. Either Gretchen is a incredibly viscous and evil person or she is truly possessed. The scenes of possession and the eventual exorcism are quite explicit, especially for a book that veers on Young Adult.

It is a fine line the novel follows between light and dark. However there are points in which the authors stretches for credibility. While the teens are believable most of the adults, especially hte parents, are too stereotypical in character or just too callous in their reactions. Despite a crackerjack climax, things fall together a bit too quickly and easily when the fireworks are over. And as mentioned before, I was never really sure if this was meant to be YA or adult. The song titles for chapters is cute but adds very little to the mix except to become annoying. Some of the scenes seem too intense for teenagers and some others seems too youth focused for adults. Yet it is the way the author portrays the friendship between the two teens that keeps the book centered. Over all , it is a very different coming-of-age epic that will appeal to young adult and older adults alike.

 

How not to make a zombie movie

The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever

By Jeff Strand

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire 

Pub. Date: March 1, 2016

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

 

I would have liked to have made a movie when I was a teenager. The closest thing I ever came to making a movie was being the junior high projectionist. Today's kids have it easy. They have digital video cameras the weight of a Tea-Cup Chihuahua rather than those monstrous elephants of the 60s. You can distribute on the internet rather than bribe a small theater owner to show it in the morning to a handful of friends and family. And you don't have to lug the reels 10 miles in the snow to the not-so-local development lab.

Jeff Strand's very funny The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever is about some teenagers who want to make the Greatest...you get the idea. Justin has made a couple 10 minutes horror videos and got a few likes on YouTube but he and this friends are ready to made their Citizen Kane of zombie films. Unfortunately for them, they have not yet ran into Edison's famous admonishment that genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. What starts out as an epic idea turns into a disaster fueled by teenage reality and inertia. Justin and his friends run into all types of distraction and mistakes, like casting Justin's dream girl in the leading role and borrowing money from a grandma who must be related to Donald Trump. But through all the tribulations, they learn a valuable...who am I kidding? This is a Jeff Strand Novel!

Seriously though, this is quite different from most of the author's novels. Being Young Adult, it is closer to Strand's excellent YA novel, I Have a Bad Feeling about This than his many dark comedy thrillers and horror novels. There are no supernatural elements, no killings except for the imaginary ones on film, and no real zombies in it. The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever reads a bit more Y than A and it is actually about adversity . It is also about friendships, the kind that gets one through all the obstacle that teens encounter as they struggle with their identity and their aspirations. Strand may be a decade or two or ? removed from the adolescent years but he still has a fine ear for the subtleties. Justin and his friends are obsessed and ambitious but still kids. It is the challenges and the chaos that make this such a clever and funny novel. Strand is renowned for his sharp and witty dialog and the trade-off between Justin and his partners in crime Bobby and Gabe is some of the best dialog I have read by him. Finally there is the resolution but it is not the type that anyone may expect. I sort of got an idea where it was going when Spork arrived to the scene (A nickname derived not from the Spock character but from the plastic spoon-fork) but it was a twist that was delightful and fitting to the nature of the tale.

The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever is a great choice for young teens and maybe even a little younger. It is especially good for those who like zombie movies or have daydreams about making their own movies. I have seen a few criticisms about how Strand's movie obsessed teens are not realistic with "real" movie making teens, but I think that is bit of zombie bull. Besides, the author was not writing a how-to. Maybe a how-not-to. He was writing about ordinary kids who have dreams, have those dreams tested and still manage to come out of it not just as dreamers but doers. Comparing it to Strand's other works, I personally lean more for the gore and very dark humor of his horror novels. But keeping the audience in mind, this is a solidly funny effort perfectly suited for teens and pre-teens. So I give it an equally solid 4 stars.

To BEE or not to BEE

Night of the ZomBEEs

By Kevin David Anderson.

 

Publisher: Ronin Books

Date: November 8, 2015

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Shaun and Toby live in Honeywell Springs, the “Honey Bee Capital of the World”, which is something 13 year old Shaun is not delighted about, having this “thing” about the buzzers. It is Founders Day where everyone dresses up like bees and wear black and gold. But before the festival starts, Shaun must make a grocery delivery to Dr. Romero (get it?) who is doing secret experiments with bees. Dr. Romero’s genetically altered bees, being the size of chihuahuas, have escaped and are headed to the town’s festival. It is up to Toby and the melissophobic Shaun to warn the town. Did I mention that the sting of these dog sized bees turn people into zombies? Did I need to mention that considering the title of the novel?

Geared at the young adult and maybe slighter younger crowd, Night of the ZomBEEs by Kevin David Anderson is one of the funniest zombie novels I have read in a while. Anderson is no stranger to the satiric sci-fi/horror comedy having previously written Night of the Living Trekkies. In his major protagonists, he gives us two smart but picked-on nerds in Shaun and Toby and teams them with Samantha aka Sam. She is usually a bully to the two “Dweebs” but Shaun has a secret crush on her. Shaun and Toby provides the very smart dialogue while Sam gives the team its tension. The dialogue is one of the best things about the book. It is sharp but still sounds early teen. The adults are a different matter. Like many YA books of this variety, the adults are there as fodder for the disaster and a sounding board for the kids’ eventual one-upsmanship. It is no spoiler in a YA book like this to say the kids save the day. How they save the day is where the fun is.

Yet as an adult, I found it quite amusing as long as I let my inner child wander a bit. There are plenty of references to chuckle at for both the adult and teen zombie movie fan. Remember Dr. Romero? I also learned how to play “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock. (Spock vaporizes rock but lizard poisons Spock). Since Shaun and Toby are James Bond fans, we also get plenty of references to the secret agent as they argue if they are really brave enough, or stupid enough, to try what they are thinking of doing.

I can’t say that Night of the ZomBEEs explores any new territory. It follows the tried and true zombie format fairly closely. Yet there is a large measure of FUN in capital letters that makes this story work. There is violence of the B-Movie zombie variety but it never goes into what I consider gore. Actually I would have no trouble recommending this to the Tween category which I suspect it was written for rather than the broader “12-18” age range. Night of the ZomBEEs is an imaginative romp through both the zombie and mutated animal genres that succeeds on wit and imagination. Recommended for all zombie fans, adult and teens alike.

A dark science fiction novel for young adults

Alive (The Generations Trilogy #1)

By Scott Sigler

Publisher: Del Rey

Pub. Date: July 14, 2015

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Alive, the first book in what author Scott Sigler calls The Generations Trilogy, seems at first to be well traveled territory. A young girl, who thinks she is 12 but discovers quickly she looks much older, wakes up from a "coffin". She is joined by others her age and all are also waking up and questioning the bleak abandoned facility they appear to be in. Having few memories and knowing nothing about their environment, they wander through seemingly endless corridors looking for answers and struggling to survive. It is somewhat easy to compare their dilemma to other popular young adults books like The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games,and even Lord of the Flies. It is impossible to not think of Lord of the Flies if the writer throws in a segment involving teenagers and wild pigs. So Alive seems to be revisiting old haunts in the YA market and it does just that for a while. But eventually it breaks through and becomes its own creative tale.

How it breaks through plot-wise will not be revealed. This is a novel with lots of turns and surprises. It would be wrong to spoil it for the prospective reader. Yet much of how it differentiates itself from the YA pack has to do with the author's style. Scott Sigler has a dark streak. While the violence level is equal to that of The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games, it seems to me darker and more intense. So intense that I would question the book's suitability for preteens. Yet the young adult/teen audience it is geared for is the perfect audience and well suited for the themes and dilemmas that are developed. The author takes his time revealing what is going on even though most readers will probably figure out where the young protagonists are located before they do. What I like is that with every reveal and clue of the plot, we discover something about the characters. "Em" is the main character, a young girl whose container she wakes up in is labeled "M. Savage". At the beginning, this is her only clue to her identity. She becomes the leader rather reluctantly and each obstacle becomes another hint to her purpose and existence. That also rings true in a minor version for the other teens. In fact their thoughts, behavior and particular markings on them hints of reveals to come in later installments. One of the nice themes going on when I read it is that even though the teens wake up with few rules and in a societal chaos, class and status still seems to haunt them as a irreversible part of the human condition. As for the plot in Alive, it is standalone in the sense we get an adequate explanation to what is going on but, like the good writer he is, Sigler leaves a few mysteries unexplained and an ending that prepares you for more to come.

So what Alive gives us is an entertaining dystopic science fiction novel with maybe a little more horror elements than some young readers are used to. Yet the way Sigler merges these elements should please these very readers. He creates an attractive dystopic world and manages to throw in a lot of thrills along with some involving coming-of-age themes. What I look for in a new series is a first book that stands on its own and gives me the satisfaction that I have read a novel rather than a introduction. But I also want it to leave just enough to make me want to see what happens in the next installment. Sigler's Alive does both.

Of twins and dystopias

The Fire Sermon

By Francesca Haig

 

Publisher:  Gallery Books

Pub. Date: March 10, 2015

Rating: 2 and 1/2 out of 5 stars.

It is hundreds of years after a final apocalypse on Earth. The remnants of civilization is now basically agricultural with most technology banned. The cities of the past are ruins where no one is allowed to go partially due to fear of radiation even though there is no sign that it is still active but also due to the fear of the past and the distant memories of what occurred. But there is one physical effect from the holocaust that remains. When a child is born there are always twins, one boy and one girl. One is physically intact (the Alpha) and the other has some congenial effect usually outwardly noticeable (the Omega). When the Omega is identified, she or he is exiled form the community and sentenced to their own communities and a second class existence. The Alphas rule everything, usually with an iron hand. But there is one major hitch. None of the twins can live without the existence of the other. If one twin dies, so does the other.

This is the basic premise of The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig, a arguably YA novel with a glance at social, racial and class issues and a frontward stare into the lucrative YA dystopic science-fiction genre. The PR campaign for the book likens it to "The Hunger Games meets Cormac McCarthy’s The Road". The similarities to The Hunger Games is unmistakable. We have a female heroine who reluctantly takes on the role of leader, or might in the first book of a series, and an oppressive government who conspires to enslave the Omegas or worse. It is all exciting but the author misses The Road comparison by adhering to the rules of a commercial and mainstream YA universe. There is none of the existenial desperation and the urgency of survival that The Road burned into our brain.

But there are some really good things about The Fire Sermon mixed in with the inexplicable. Cass is an Omega born with no outward deformities. It is not until the age of 13 does her parents and community find she is an Omega. Her gift, or burden, is that she is a seer, having visions and premonitions. She and her brother, Zach, have bonded yet he betrays her and eventually become a leading figure known as "The Reformer" who may bring down all Omegas. One of the things I liked was the uncertainty Cass has toward her brother. She despises what he is doing but cannot break the emotional bond. Haig is quite a good writer and can really bring together important scenes, melding the actions and the emotions together flawlessly. She has a poet's heart in an action writers' body.

Yet overall, there are too many head shakers to make this believable. I can accept the far fetched oddities of the birth of the twins and the fact that if one dies, the other dies. I go by Arthur C.Clarke's rule that every novel can have one impossible thing. Yet Cass' seer ability is too pat. It comes when needed and fades when it isn't. The talent dictates the story, not the other way around. Also a character named Kip doesn't quite end up believable in character which is important for the conclusion. The fact is that with the important exception of Cass, Zach and another seer called "the Confessor", most characters do not take on that three dimensional push required to move the story. But the most troubling aspect is the gnawing YA feel. Cass is followed from her birth to the mid twenties. Yet she and the other characters never seem to advance in emotions and character past their teens. They seem written for the audience. It is an important distinction in that a story like this needs believable development, our protagonists do not seem to come of age in a story that is part coming-of-age. A dystopic novel needs that development and it is a common error of the YA variety. It is too bad it exists here since The Fire Sermon teases us with the expectation of being more than another YA dystopic soap opera.

But there is still a desire to find out what happens. I cant really recommend it based on this initial novel. I must say though, the young reader, probably female, that loves this stuff will be entranced. The discerning reader...not so much.

A young adult novel with an edge

Dark Art

By Tim Waggoner

 

Publisher:  Past Curfew Press

Pub. Date: December 7, 2014

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Sarah Pennington has the misfortune of being paired with the local weird kid, Ben Phelps, in her high school drawing class. Ben turns out to be a talented artist and he shows her a drawing of a sinister man with knifes that he calls Shrike. Sarah is at first leery of Ben but drawn to him even when she discovered he has anger issues and may be hiding some dark secrets. But when Shrike starts appearing in her dreams, and is attacking people she knows in real life, she and Ben has to comfort the evil to find out where it came from and how to destroy it.

It should be mentioned up front that the plot of Dark Art may sound a little too close to that of Nightmare on Elm Street and Shrike to that horror icon Freddy Kruger. Yet the similarities leave quickly as you read Tim Waggoner's exciting young adult horror novel. The big difference is that, unlike Freddy, Shrike is a product of young Ben's own emotions and difficulties in dealing with his anger. In this, the author has create a YA novel that is not only fun to read but deals with a essential part of growing up into adulthood; understanding and expressing your emotions. Waggoner does this without one ounce of preaching, expressing the issues through the action and tribulations of the two main protagonists.

The strength of the book lies with the characterizations of Sarah, Ben and Shrike. Ben and Sarah comes off real and mired in teenage angst, the good kind and the bad kind. Young readers will find themselves able to identify with them. Shrike is the boogeyman but he is a monster created of real and normal fears resulting from trauma and coming-of-age stress. The three main characters being so deftly drawn heightens a minor problem that the rest of the characters seem much like bit players simply there to serve the plot. It is not that big of an issue though, as we are caught up with Sarah and Ben's own dilemma so much that we can forgive the two dimensional backup. However when it comes to the action, Waggoner has it moving like a train on fire causing the reader only a little time to catch his breath before moving on.

So Dark Art is a sturdy contender in the YA horror/fantasy genre giving the readers a harrowing tale while adding a little insight into their own emotional makeup. There is violence in the story. It's a real live horror story not some Meyers hack job, but the violence is well done with relevance to the tale. However, the audience for this book should be considered. Dark Arts may be a fantasy but it deals with reality and real life issues. Its themes, which involve both death and suicide, may be too much for the Pre-teens and Tweens but should be fine for the mid-teens which I think it was meant for. Come to think of it. many of those tweens and teens are already gulping down King novels. So who knows?

A Young Adult salute to the nerd.

I Have a Bad Feeling About This

By Jeff Strand

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Pub. Date: March 1, 2014

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Nerds have been treated the same for centuries. None of it good. I can only personally vouch for half of my own current century. However, I feel reasonably certain that Archimedes was familiar with the wedgie. I also feel a little less reasonably sure that Jeff Strand knows something about wedgies. How else could he put so much humor that feels like "I've been there" in his main character Henry Lambert of the very funny Young Adult novel, I Have a Bad Feeling About This?

Henry might best be called a wimpy kid if not a nerd. He is a smart and likeable kid...whatever that gets you in the childhood food chain. He gets picked last in all the playground sports. He is scared of a lot of things including seahorses. "I'm not proud of that one." he says. His father, with clear reluctance from Henry's mother, signs him up in a survival camp to make the proverbial man out of him. What is advertised as a professional boot camp environment is really a barely hanging together camp whose victims include five boys led by a drill sergeant type who,if not the guy from Heavy Metal Jacket, is at least to be trying to emulate him.

I Have a Bad Feeling About This is one of those YA novels that will appeal to children and teens because they can identify with the protagonists. The humor is plenty but grounded in reality and not condescending. The sharp humor is also why this novel will appeal to adults. The first half of the novel deals with the boys' learning, but just barely, the survival skills of the instructor. Some of the funnier moments are derived from these events such as their first time at archery ("That bird shouldn't have been there"). There is also a sweet moment when Henry meets a girl from the Music Camp down the road. As a veteran of teen music camps, I can assure you that we are bad ass! The boys are not placed in danger, which comes from an unexpected chain of events, until the second half of the novel. While is it fun to watch the kids awkwardly defend themselves, I found the real strength of this tale in the first half where we can identify with the teen's reluctance struggles. Yet the entire book is a delightfully fun read. The author also does us a service by adding in helpful survival tips like "Tree bark is not edible, even with peanut butter."

Overall this is one of the funnier and more enjoyable YA novels I have read. I admit I am not an expert in YA books but I have a lifetime of expertise in nerdology, so that has to account for something. It is a truism that in the long run, nerds do better in life than jocks but that is little comfort for the young adults struggling with the fine art of growing up. Books like this are helpful in giving a good perspective. OK. So I may be exaggerating! It is still a funny book!

YA for the real world

The Tyrant's Daughter

By J. C. Carleson

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

When The Tyrant's Daughter was offered to me for review, I was not aware that it was from Random House's Children's Books division, aka a Young Adult novel. If I have known this, I probably wouldn't have accepted it as I rarely review YA books. I glad I did read it because, YA or not, it may be a contender for best fiction in 2014.

Laila is a fifteen year old girl and the daughter of a controversial ruler of a foreign country. Her father is killed in a coup by her more traditional and military-minded uncle leaving Laila, her mother, and her six year old brother, who she describes in the first sentence of the book as "The king of nowhere" in peril. Having escaped with her family and now living in America, she not only has to adjust to a very different lifestyle but is confused by her mother's seemingly indifference to their decline from opulence and importance to rather sparse surroundings as exiles. She is suspicious of the gatherings of expatriates, who her mother would have not associated with in the past, and particularly of a lone American man who she suspects is with the CIA. She is also discovering through her new friends and the much more open media, that her father may have not been who she thought he was.

In telling Laila's story, and in immersing the reader into the thoughts of this smart but sometimes innocent girl, J. C. Carleson makes some wise moves. While there is enough information to clearly place Laila's country in the Mid-East and presumably a Muslim nation, the author never makes it specific. This allows the reader to be less judgmental and accept Laila as she is; a young girl caught in a myriad of cultural and political conflicts. Yet the events that take place in the novel seem all too real to anyone with even a slight knowledge of world events. Carleson has managed to latch on to just the right amount of empathy without the baggage that often accompanies this type of cross-cultural tale. Laila is just a young teenager trying to grow up, but also a victim in a nasty power game and maybe even a unwilling player of the same repressive regime. Her conflicts and dilemmas seem real especially since she essentially comes across as a typical teenager despite how others see her. She is also smart and appropriately cynical, especially when she asks herself things like, "Why am I the only one seems to feel luck like a sunburn?" How she survives her plight is what makes this story mesmerizing. I won't give away anything about the end except to say that it is as emotionally perfect and powerful as endings can be.

While The Tyrant's Daughter is classified as YA, it should be noted that the author does not water down anything. While respecting her audience, she does present some events that can be disturbing to the very young. For the teenage audience that I feel this book is aimed at, it is exactly the right amount of reality that they would respect. But I do not see this as purely a YA novel. I think adults will love and admire it too. Beside, in a YA world where fantasy and science fiction dominates the charts, it is nice to see a quality work that deals with the real world.