Long Lankin

Title: Long Lankin
Author: Lindsey Barraclough
Pub: 2011; Bodley Head
Pages: 448
Genre: Mystery, Paranormal, Ghost Story

Worst. Book. Ever.

And I chugged through it. Yes, all 450 pages, because I kept hoping for more.  Because the cover said there should have been more.  Because the back cover summary SAID it should be more.

But it never lived up to my self-imposed expectations.  Oh how I wanted a ghostly gothic read. Also, I must obviously be missing something because this was handsdown a one star rating for me, but on Goodreads it averages nearly four?  Did I read the same book?

Did anyone else read this? If so, where did I go wrong?  What did I miss????

Shattered Souls

Title: Shattered Souls
Author: Mary Lindsey
Pub: 2011; Penguin
Pages: 336
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal

I think that the only reason why I picked up this book was for the cover.  Absolutely gorgeous, yes?

And thank god it's a beautiful cover because the book itself was pretty forgetful.  Sure, I've been going through this YA fiction thing the latter part of this year, and I've definitely found that it's easy to forget what you've read if you move from one book to the next without jotting down ideas BUT it still seems to me that if a book has a lot to offer there will be some vague feelings associated with it, right?

Weeeelllll, I'm coming up with zilch.

Lenzi is somewhat of a ghost whisperer, although she doesn't realize it at first.  In fact, she believes she just might be going crazy like her father who recently committed suicide because he could no longer hear the voices in his head.

But it turns out that she's more than crazy and it takes Alden showing up to reveal what her true destiny is - to send lost souls to their other world by assisting them in unresolved concerns.   Alden knows this because he is her Protector and they have been working together for centuries.

Now, y'know how I said that this book was pretty forgetful in the ocean of YA that I've been devouring?  And that part is true, I mean, heck, the writing was fairly uneventful even...BUT if I was a legit tween I'm sure this book would have been listed on my top ten faves because it has desperation and reincarnation and tragic love and everything that would make me all kiddy-swoon.  Of course, now, being an adult reading YA, I need a little bit more than that.

Best bonus?  This is a first in a series (or trilogy, who knows) but it ends perfectly.  I feel no compulsion to pick up the second book, scheduled for 2014 because it ends subtlety.

A bit of confusion though?  I went to the author's page on Goodreads to see if there was going to be a second book and Mary Lindsey answers the question What is taking so long?  Her response: That’s a great question. It should not take two years to write this kind of book.  And then she goes on sharing when the book will come out.  But what got me was the statement THIS KIND OF BOOK.  I don't get it, is she talking about the YA genre? Like, obviously it's lesser than adult fiction so she should be able to write YA quicker? (Evidently, Lindsey writes adult fiction under another name as well).  I'm not quite sure how else to take that statement and if she didn't mean it like how it sounds then that doesn't make her very eloquent does it?

The Diviner's Tale

Title: The Diviner's Tale
Author: Bradford Marrow
Pub: 2011; Houghton Miffilin Harcourt
Pages: 309
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Mystery

Oh how I wished that you were more than what you were.  How's that for an opening?  Kinda makes you want to rush out and read this book, huh?  Yeah right.

So obviously this isn't going to be a glorifying review, which means, in the very least, let me tell you why I even bothered to read it.

1.  The title.  Simple. Implies spookiness, but potentially realistic spookiness.
2. The cover. I love me some trees.  Like I could stare at trees all the livelong day.
3.  There IS an unusual gift.  Cassandra is a diviner.  And it runs in the family.
4. There's a vision of a dead girl hanging from a tree...
5.  ...which leads to a mystery about this dead girl and Cassandra finding her.
6. Cassandra is trying to hide from her past.
7. There's a potential love interest.  I feel like my romance selection has been more YA driven and wanted to read what how adults interact in dating stages. Heh.

Pretty stellar list, eh?

Except I was so freakin' bored the whole way through.  In fact, I'd probably put the darn thing aside except we were on a road trip and it was the only book in grabs reach.

What was nifty about it though? I liked reading about diviners in general, like those for water?  That was an interesting take.

On a dullness level though? Man, I can't even remember if Cassandra gets together with her love interest.  THAT'S how far removed I was from the blasted book.

The Unbecoming of Mara Deyer

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Pub: 2011; Simon & Schuster
Pages: 452
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Series

I'm probably one of the last to have read this book, so I won't say ohemgee that ending?! Because that's what EVERYONE said and if EVERYONE said it then we all know bout that ending.

Yah hear me?

But YOU GUYS there's something I have to admit to and I might be on my own lil' biblio-island but I have completely forgotten EVERYTHING about this book.

For realz.

Like, I was reading the summary from Goodreads and NOTHING was coming back to me.  So then I started googling spoilers and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and still naaahsiiing.  Are you kidding me?  I know that I've been on a reading rampage but something should jog my memory.

Zilch.

Then, I began questioning whether or not I actually read the book.  But sho' enough, I have a start and finish date on Goodreads.

So what gives.  How is it that this novel has impressed so many individuals and I seriously could read it over again a week later with nada recollection.

*shrug*

After struggling with this for some time I have a bit of vague wispy memories of closing the book thinking oh yeah, I'll read the second one.  But that's about all I can come up with. 

Shiver (Audio)

Title: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Narrator: Jenna Lamia & David Ledoux
Pub: Scholastic Press;2009
Pages: 392
Audio Length: 9 hours and 44 minutes
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Series, Young Adult

I am not a big werewolf fan.  I can totally get into the vamp scene.  After all THEY'RE sparkly.  But werewolves are right up there with zombies.  ESPECIALLY if we're talking romance.  I mean...animals or the undead?  No thank you.

So. I had no desire whatsoever to read the Shiver trilogy.  (1) It's about wolves and (2) it's a trilogy.  But then I listened to The Scorpio Races which moved me from a horse-hating fool who ended up eating her own words and adoring it and I figured if there was anyone out there who would convince me that werewolves don't suck, it would be Ms. Stiefvater.

And I guess she sorta did.  There is a huge truth in the fact that Stiefvater researches her folklore and then takes those amazing stories and turns them into her own.  Because of THAT, I utterly dig the 'behind the scenes' of these weres, their mythos was pretty okay.

Still.  She didn't sell me enough to necessarily want to finish the trilogy.  I'm pretty okay with how the story ended in the first book and although it's not as though life is resolved, I can walk away from it peacefully.

And the narration? Definitely a winner.  I enjoy the two narrators for alternating chapters. I don't think it would have been as fantastic without that element.

Picture The Dead

Title: Picture the Dead
Author: Adele Griffin
Illustrator: Lisa Brown
Pub: Sourcebook Fire, 2010
Pages: 262
Genre: Historical, Ghost, Spooky, Mystery, Paranormal

And it's about?
 
Jennie is orphaned and living with her Aunt and Uncle.  Her fiance and his brother are off to war and times are pretty wretched.  Eventually there's a return, but it's only one of the brothers.  Not Jennie's fiance.  Instead, she is told that Will was killed honorably in battle.

Quinn (Will's brother) has become quite sullen, which is expected considering all that he had probably seen and all that he had lost.  His injuries leave him in bed for the first few weeks and Jennie nurses him back to health all the while trying to find out more details about Will's death.

Because there is a secret there.  Jennie believes that Will is still around.  His spirit at least.  Things in the dark house move and symbolic artifacts of their love randomly show up.  Quinn wants Jennie to move on and marry him, but it doesn't look like Will wants that at all.

And my thoughts?

Ooookay.  I have to admit when I picked this book up it was just because I was at the Walmart skimming through the selection and the pictures were so cool (they're done in a scrapbook sorta way) that I had to impulsively buy it.  That and I had a vague recollection that Adele Griffin was a pretty cool middle grades author and although I read A LOT of young adult fiction, I sorta lack in the middle grades.

Then, I grabbed it recently for DEAR and got suckered in.  This book was not what I was expecting.  *shakes head* Nope. It was SO much more.

It's hard to surprise me but this book did.  And no, I don't mean in the "hey it really is a good read" but moreso in the "I'm a smart cookie and can usually figure things out but this one? Yeah, totally left field."

Fabulous middle grade mystery.  With love.  And sadness.  And pictures.  Oh my.  I can't wait to reread this book.