Review of Strings Attached

Title: Strings Attached
Author: Judy Blundell
Genre: Young Adult historical fiction/mystery
Release date: Available now in hardcover
Publisher: Scholastic

Lately I've been immersing myself in the history of the early 20th century: reading Moon Over Manifest and American Rose, watching Downton Abbey. When I picked up Strings Attached, I knew that this would be a very different take on the same time period, and I was excited about that.

It's 1950, and Kit Corrigan has dropped out of high school and moved to New York to be a Broadway star. So far that's meant playing a chorus girl in a show that no one likes, but she knows that when the show closes there will be another one opening. Then the father of her ex-boyfriend appears and makes her an offer that's hard to refuse. Even knowing that he has connections to the mob, it seems innocent enough. Besides, she owes him a favor from five years ago, and he's calling it in.

Immediately, Kit is caught up in a world she doesn't quite understand, so she looks to the past for answers. As the pieces begin to fit together, Kit's story only becomes more tangled and complicated.

Judy Blundell has written another unique coming-of-age story that combines rich historical detail, a dark underworld, and a naive protagonist who is forced to grow up in a hurry. The chapters dance around each other like chorus girls: each flashback answers one question and raises five more. This is not a book to be read slowly.

Review of The Dark and Hollow Places

The Dark and Hollow Places

by Carrie Ryan

Young Adult zombie fiction

Pub date March 22nd

Yesterday one of my students, who is in sixth grade, asked me, "If you don't like zombies, then why did you start reading those zombie books?"

She was referring, of course, to the Forest of Hands and Teeth novels by Carrie Ryan.

I didn't have an honest answer for her, because even I am not quite sure why I started reading the series. I know why I continued beyond the first few pages, though. The books are good. They're not your usual run-of-the-mill zombie apocalypse story, since the apocalypse happens over a hundred years before the first book starts. Instead they're about the relationships between people who are struggling to make sense of a world in which humanity is a severely endangered species.

The Dark and Hollow Places is the third novel in the series. In the second, we met Gabry, a girl who grew up in the relative safety of Vista. Annah, the protagonist of book three, was not so lucky. She's been on her own in the Dark City for three years, waiting in vain for her brother to return from his service with the Recruiters. She has finally decided to move on with her life and leave the city, but before she can go she is stopped by the sight of someone she never thought she'd see again--her twin sister.

Like Ryan's other novels, this one is not a light and happy tale of triumph. It's dark, it's tortured, and it's a pretty realistic picture of what humanity will have to do to survive a zombie horde of several million undead. At least I imagine so. For all the dreariness, though, Ryan has once again managed to write a heartwarming romance into the fast-paced, action-packed plot. I hope there will be a fourth book. I love to hear about the world of Mary, Gabry, Annah, and the zombies.

Review of The Agency: A Spy in the House

The Agency: A Spy in the House

by Y. S. Lee

Young adult historical mystery

Available now in paperback

As you know, I rarely read books after they come out, mainly because as a bookseller I have to stay ahead of the game (and I prefer to read books that are free). But every so often a book will slip through the cracks and I'll spend a few days staring at it on the new release table. Usually, if I haven't heard any buzz about it from other booksellers, I won't read it--but sometimes I'm just too intrigued to pass it by.

A Spy in the House was one of these.

I just moved into a 133-year-old Victorian house, so I've been reading a lot of Victorian mysteries. It's interesting to read about families like the one that built my house in 1878. In A Spy in the House, young thief Mary Lang is rescued from a death sentence at the age of twelve and brought up in a finishing school. By the time she's sixteen, she's teaching there--but she's bored with life. She asks the headmasters if they can help her find a more exciting job, and is promptly inducted into The Agency, a network of female spies that does private investigation and works for Scotland Yard.

Mary finds herself posing as the paid companion of a spoiled young woman, trying to listen for information about a smuggling operation. Soon she gets bored and takes it upon herself to investigate more rigorously, which, as you might imagine, doesn't go exactly as planned.

Mary Lang is a sassy, badass heroine with a past that is shrouded in mystery. Her witty retorts and reckless decisions make this a typical Victorian mystery in some ways, while the social and ethnic questions (and the romance) are unique. I can't stop thinking about A Spy in the House, and I'm waiting extremely impatiently for my copy of the sequel to arrive tomorrow.

Review of Shine

Shine
by Lauren Myracle
Young adult mystery
Pub date May 2011

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it wasn't a coming-of-age/mystery/social commentary/love story. Myracle has continued to branch out into different styles and genres over the course of her writing career, and this is by far my favorite of her voices.

Years ago, Cat withdrew from her own life after a traumatic event took place. Now, in the wake of a hate crime perpetrated on her former best friend, she is trying to get to the bottom of what happened. It means re-entering her old life, investigating those she once considered friends, and facing down her past.

This book has a lot of different things going on: a mystery, hate crimes, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, tensions caused by community history and socioeconomic differences. In spite of the heavy topics, Lauren Myracle manages to write a book that is touching and uplifting. You'll love Cat. I can't wait to see where Myracle goes next.

Review of Divergent

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

Young Adult Dystopian

Pub date May 3rd, 2011

Do you ever read a book that's so awesome that it ruins the next five books for you? Divergent is that kind of book. Every book I've picked up this week was just not what I wanted to be reading. I wanted to be reading more Divergent.

It's sometime in the future, and Chicago is in ruins. The city is divided among the five factions: Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity, and Dauntless. Beatrice has grown up in Abnegation, wearing gray clothes and trying to make sure her every action is selfless. But every morning before classes she watches the Dauntless leap from a moving train and wonders what it would be like to be one of them.

After her aptitude test, the day before she must choose a faction, Beatrice has an opportunity to find out. Her choice sets in motion a chain of events that no one, especially Beatrice, could have predicted.

I loved this book. At first I was a little wary, because the dystopian world is one that I had a hard time believing, but within a few pages I was swept up in the story. Beatrice is the kind of character that I really like: strong, different, and struggling with an identity change. There is plenty of face-punching, awesome tests of daring and skill, a delicious romance, and a surprising twist that makes the book impossible to put down. In short, reading Divergent is like jumping onto a speeding train and holding on for dear life. (And then being cruelly pushed off before you're ready. I hope book 2 is forthcoming.)