The Price Guide to the Occult, by Leslye Walton ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

Child Abuse, Contemporary Fictio, LGBT, Self-harm, Supernatural, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Candlewick for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 13th, 2018

288 Pages

Synopsis: The Blackburn women are cursed. Ever since the extraordinary witch Rona Blackburn landed on Anathema Island centuries ago and was shunned by the eight “original” settlers, Blackburn witches have been doomed to carry out a brief whirlwind affair with a descendant of the Original Eight. The vengeful curse, however, had unintended side effects: it diluted the Blackburns’ supernatural powers. That’s perfectly all right with seventeen-year-old Nor Blackburn. All she wants is a quiet, unremarkable life—-her powers are blissfully unexceptional, her love life pretty much nonexistent. Nor hopes the curse has played itself out through enough generations that she’ll finally be spared the drama. But when a mysterious book comes out promising to cast any spell for the right price, Nor senses a dark storm headed straight for Anathema—-and straight for her.

I loved Leslye Walton’s glorious debut, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, so I’ve been looking forward to The Price Guide to the Occult for the last year. While I didn’t think it was quite as magical, I think it’s a solid sophomore book.

What I loved about the previous book was the author’s exquisite and lush style of writing and storytelling and that’s definitely on display here. The protagonist, Nor, is someone many readers will relate to with her mix of vulnerability and steely determination. A word of warning, though it’s handled with care and sensitivity, self-harm is part of her story, so this could be a trigger for some. It’s an understandable outcome to a trauma in her past, and it’s written very realistically.

Some of the secondary characters aren’t quite as well-rounded. I loved Nor’s gruff yet loving grandmother, and her quirky best friend Savvy. The others, though, I just got to know enough, to want more, especially Nor’s sweet love interest.

The setting of the rainy Pacific Northwest is the perfect backdrop in terms of atmosphere, and the mythology behind Nor’s family as well as the plot is well written, albeit a little slow at times. To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with the ending and found it a little vague, but after reading the epilogue, I’m hopeful there may be a sequel.

Despite a few issues, I thoroughly enjoyed The Price Guide to the Occult and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there will be a second book.

 

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Autonomous, by Andy Marino ~ 1.0 Stars

Tags

Contemporary Fiction, Self-harm, Sexual Situation, Substance Abuse, Suicidal Thoughts, Technology, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: April 3rd, 2018

368 Pages

Synopsis: William Mackler is about to go on the road trip of a lifetime. After winning a contest—and nearly dying in the process—he becomes the proud owner of Autonomous, a driverless car that knows where you want to go before you do. #Worthit! To sweeten the deal he gets to pick three friends to go with him on a cross-country trip to see their favorite band. For William, a reckless adrenaline junkie, this is the perfect last hurrah before he and his friends go their separate ways after graduation. But Autonomous is more than just a car without a steering wheel. It’s capable of downloading all of the passengers’ digital history—from the good, to the bad, to the humiliating. The information is customized into an itinerary that will expose a few well-kept secrets, but it will also force William to face some inner demons of his own. Think you know Autonomous? The real question is, how much does Autonomous know about you?

“The real question is, how much does Autonomous know about you?” Noooo. The real question is, how do I get back the seven hours I wasted on this? I was expecting snarky teenage humor with maybe a lighter shade of Stephen King’s Christine mixed in. Instead, Autonomous is a red hot mess that doesn’t seem to know what exactly it wants to be.

Disney is marketing this to 14-year-olds and up, and I absolutely disagree with them on this. Even if I had liked this, there is no way I’d recommend this to anyone under the age of sixteen for the following reasons:

1. There is so much swearing in this that it doesn’t even come across as realistic. Almost every sentence has some sort of curse word in it and this made the dialogue extremely awkward.

2. Sexual scenes which include one, where two of the characters decide they want to lose their virginity to each other. Granted these teens have graduated from high school, but there is no way I’d want anyone under the age of sixteen reading this.

3. Drinking and drug use is prevalent throughout the story. There are drinking games like “Never Have I Ever”, and one drunken scene involving a water tower which had me horrified. The character who’s addicted to cocaine defends himself by saying Sherlock Holmes used it. Just…ugh. There’s also a little side trip to a meth lab because of the bad decisions of a different character, which I just did not understand at all.

4. The contemplation of suicide, and self-harm are brought up but never discussed in a responsible way, and worse, there’s no resolution.

The only thing I liked in this book was the car, “Otto”, who I felt actually felt sorry for in the end. There are too many social issues thrown in together during this road trip and then adding in a cautionary tale of social media and our over-reliance on it, is a bridge too far.

When I first requested Autonomous the release date was set for 11/14/17. It’s now been moved up to April 2018, for reasons unknown. I’m hoping it’s so the author can do some much needed editing and rewriting. While I liked the premise, this book in the end, was a huge letdown. This is where I usually say, make sure you check out other reviews, but to be honest, there are very few positive ones out there. It’ll be interesting to see now that the book has a new publishing date, if once it’s released, the reviews improve. As of right now though, I would not recommend this to anyone, especially teens.

 

Blackbird Season, by Kate Moretti ~ 3.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Autism, Bullying, Drug Abuse, Mystery, Poverty, Rape, Self-harm, Small Towns, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Release Date: September 26th, 2017

304 Pages

Synopsis:

Where did they come from? Why did they fall? The question would be asked a thousand times…

Until, of course, more important questions arose, at which time everyone promptly forgot that a thousand birds fell on the town of Mount Oanoke at all.

In a quiet Pennsylvania town, a thousand dead starlings fall onto a high school baseball field, unleashing a horrifying and unexpected chain of events that will rock the close-knit community.

Beloved baseball coach and teacher Nate Winters and his wife, Alecia, are well respected throughout town. That is, until one of the many reporters investigating the bizarre bird phenomenon catches Nate embracing a wayward student, Lucia Hamm, in front of a sleazy motel. Lucia soon buoys the scandal by claiming she and Nate are engaged in an affair, throwing the town into an uproar…and leaving Alecia to wonder if her husband has a second life.

And when Lucia suddenly disappears, the police only have one suspect: Nate.

Nate’s coworker and sole supporter, Bridget Harris, Lucia’s creative writing teacher, is determined to prove his innocence. She has Lucia’s class journal, and while some of the entries appear particularly damning to Nate’s case, others just don’t add up. Bridget knows the key to Nate’s exoneration and the truth of Lucia’s disappearance lie within the walls of the school and the pages of that journal.

The Blackbird Season has one of the creepiest openings I’ve ever come across, and while there were some slow periods and I thought the mystery was a bit predictable, it’s a great look at small town life and an interesting character study.

Please be warned there’s a lot of social issues examined that could be triggers for some readers including bullying, self-harm, drug abuse, poverty and rape. These are not gratuitously written in, but instead are layered in to the complicated tapestry that makes up this town.

Mount Oanoke, a small Pennsylvania mill town is your typical small town Americana, and depicts both the best and worst of living in rural areas. On the one hand, there’s less crime and people look out for one another. On the other, residents are gossipy, judgemental, and they’re losing their young people who flee to greener pastures as soon as they graduate. 

The story is told from the perspective of the four main characters: Nate, Alecia, Bridget and Lucia. Except for Bridget, none of these characters are one-hundred percent likable, although in the end I did wind up feeling sympathetic towards them, especially Lucia.

Nate is an ex-jock who at best shows some truly atrocious judgement and at worst is a neglectful father and husband. While I felt a modicum of sympathy for his predicament, his complete and utter cluelessness in regards to both his family and Lucia had me wanting to slap him more than once.

I initially disliked Nate’s wife, Alecia and frankly, found her to be kind of a witch. However, seeing her struggles trying to raise her five-year-old autistic son basically by herself, is heart wrenching and as the story unfolded I found myself appreciating what she was going through more.

Bridget is struggling herself having lost her husband to cancer the year before. She’s a loyal friend to both Nate and Alecia, and is one of the few adults who are truly concerned about Lucia.

And there’s eighteen-year-old Lucia. Just thinking of her even now, two days after I finished the book, brings me to tears. There’s no doubt she’s a prickly personality, and there are times that she certainly doesn’t do herself any favors, but she’s someone who from the beginning is never given a chance and watching what she goes through is heartbreaking.

The story itself is interesting and while I found the pace lagged at times, I still for the most part stayed engaged. While I wasn’t initially sure how the deaths of the blackbirds was related to the main plot, I liked the way the author managed to tie them in. I have mixed feelings regarding the ending though. While it answered the central mystery, there’s some side plots that I think could have been tied up a little more smoothly.

It probably sounds like I didn’t enjoy The Blackbird Season, But I actually did despite the issues I had with it. I would recommend this for not only fans of Kate Moretti’s previous books, but also readers who enjoy dark, multi-layered, slow-burning suspense.

Secrets Of Skin And Stone, by Wendy Laine ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Gargoyles, Self-harm, Supernatural, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Teen for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

290 Pages

Synopsis: Something is wrong in Hidden Creek. The sleepy Alabama town is more haunted than any place fiend hunter Grisham Caso has ever seen. Unearthed graves, curse bags, and spilled blood all point to an evil that could destroy his gargoyle birthright. The town isn’t safe for anyone, and everyone say fiery Piper Devon knows why.

Piper wants to leave Hidden Creek behind. She’s had enough of secrets–they hide in the shadows of her room and tell her terrible things are coming. Too-charming city boy Grisham might be her only chance to save herself. 

To survive, Piper and Grisham have to shed their secrets and depend only on each other. But what lurks in Hidden Creek still might take everything away from them, including each other.

I have to be honest and admit the main reason why I requested Secrets of Skin and Stone was the mention of gargoyles. I have a fondness for them and personally feel there aren’t enough books featuring them. The premise was intriguing, but I didn’t expect to be so completely charmed by the story and Piper and Gris. Piper is a cutter and has OCD so please be aware of this trigger. A week or so ago I gave another YA novel, The Suffering Tree, a poor review primarily because of a main character who also self-harmed, and not only was there no advance trigger warning, but I felt the issue was poorly handled in the story itself. This was definitely not the case here. On the page directly before the beginning of the first chapter, there’s this warning:

Trigger Warning: 

This book contains fictional descriptions of self-harm. All attempts were made by the author, who has a personal history of self-harm, to portray cutting as realistic, but not gratuitous. These scenes are crucial to the characterization of the mental disorder represented.

Yes! That is what I want to see when an issue like this is a major part of the story. And true to this warning, the reasons for Piper’s cutting herself are thoroughly explored and her actions are not ignored, at least by Gris who understands the stress and despair behind her cutting and helps her discover that she doesn’t need to do this to herself in order to gain relief. Her OCD is also addressed although in a somewhat more limited fashion. While you would think these two issues would make Piper seem weak and vulnerable, let me assure you she’s anything but. She’s feisty, determined, and ignores the cruel words thrown at her by many of the other residents of Hidden Creek. What does haunt her is that she believes there’s a hidden darkness in her. This is heartbreakingly illustrated when after her dog is brutally killed, she decides to make a list of possible suspects and puts her own name on it. This is just one of the many times I wanted to reach in and hug her. And then there’s Gris. He is without a doubt Piper’s soulmate. As a gargoyle, or “Watcher” he’s in a perfect position to help her given that a mysterious villain is sending fiends after her. While his feelings of love for her develop pretty quickly, Piper is extremely distrustful of him in the beginning and it takes a little while for her to warm up to him. Once she does though, they’re the type of couple that give you the warm fuzzies. The secondary characters are okay, but because I was so invested in Piper and Gris, they didn’t really stand out as much to me. The identity of the villain wasn’t a huge shock, but that didn’t take anything away from the climax. The other thing I wanted to be sure to mention was how much I loved the setting. Although this story is contemporary, the description of Hidden Creek almost reads like a Southern Gothic. The dialogue between the characters that features that deep southern drawl helps bring this to life. Overall, while Secrets of Skin and Stone isn’t action-packed from beginning to end, I was still completely captivated. Starting with two main characters that I think readers will fall in love with and an original and creative mythology featuring gargoyles, this book should have wide appeal for fans of YA supernatural fiction. While this may be a standalone novel, I’m hoping it’s not because I’d love to see more of Piper and Gris.

 

The Suffering Tree, by Elle Cosimano ~ 2.0 Stars

Tags

Historical Fiction, Mental Illness, Mystery, Self-harm, Supernatural, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: June 13th, 2017

368 Pages

Synopsis: Tori Burns and her family left D.C. for claustrophobic Chaptico, Maryland, after suddenly inheriting a house under mysterious circumstances. That inheritance puts her at odds with the entire town, especially Jesse Slaughter and his family–it’s their generations-old land that the Burns have “stolen”. But none of that seems to matter after Tori witnesses a young man claw his way out of a grand v e under the gnarled oak in her new backyard.

Nathaniel Bishop may not understand what brought him back, but it’s clear to Tori t h at he hates the Slaughters for what they did to him centuries ago. Wary yet drawn to him by a shared sense of loss, she gives him shelter. But in the wake of his arrival comes a string of troubling events–including the disappearance of Jesse Slaughter’s cousin–that seem to point to back to Nathaniel.

As Tori digs for the truth–and slowly begins to fall for Nathaniel–she uncovers something much darker in the tangled branches of the Slaughter family tree. In order to break the centuries-old curse that binds Nathaniel there and discover the true nature of her inheritance, Tori must unravel the Slaughter family’s oldest and most guarded secrets. But the Slaughters want to keep them buried…at any cost.

The Suffering Tree is a tough book to review. There are some good things about it, but it also has many weaknesses. First, it should definitely come with a trigger warning concerning self-harm. Tori is a cutter, and this is brought up repeatedly, yet there’s nothing in the book’s summary about this. Making matters worse is the way in which Cosimano uses Tori’s illness as the way Nathaniel is brought back to life. So, right from the beginning I was frankly appalled. In addition, no one in Tori’s life ever makes a serious effort to stop her harmful behavior. There’s no resolution and it seems to me that the only reason why it’s included in the story is to bring in Nathaniel. The book is told from three perspectives: the present, the past through Tori’s visions, and the past from Nathaniel’s POV and it was jarring to move back and forth between them. While I found Nathaniel and his historical ties to the Slaughters to be the most interesting part of the story, the rest of the characters including Tori, come across as being generally under-developed which makes it difficult to become emotionally invested in them. The mystery is interesting, and the writing itself is beautiful and at times almost poetic but these aren’t enough to save the story. To be honest, even without the issue of cutting being magically glorified, The Suffering Tree would have been just an okay read for me, but the cavalier way Cosimano treats the issue of depression, anxiety and self-harm has left me concerned for the teens that will be reading this.