Poison

by Chris Wooding

Poison is the happy result of wandering the aisles of Powell's books. I bought it because it sounding interesting and different, because it was a used paperback and therefore cheap, and because it is so purple it will not be denied.

Poison is the story of a young girl of the same name. Poison lives in the Black Marshes, with her father, baby sister and stepmother. Poison and her stepmother do not get along, although Snapdragon is not necessarily a bad person. Poison always dreams of one day escaping the Marshes and seeing the world. That day comes all too soon when Poison's sister Azalea is kidnapped by the phaeries and a changeling is left in her place. It is then that Poison sets out to find the Phaerie King and demand her sister's return.

I'd have to say that Poison is one of the most compelling stories I've read in a quite a while. The characters are interesting and the narration is stunning. I found myself frequently re-reading paragraphs simply because they were so beautifully written. The last time I did that was when reading one of N.D. Wilson's books (another of my favorite story-tellers).

Poison is pure delight from the very first chapter, and I was eager to share details about it with every new twist. I will say however, that towards the second half, the book looses a little steam as the story is set on a new path. Poison is now not only seeking her sister, but also unravelling a plot to overthrow the Hieriophant - the ruler of all the Realms. It is because of this that the original story goes partially unresolved, and therefore left me yearning for a sequel. I do not care for loose ends, or ambiguous resolutions that depend on the reader to make their own conclusion.

However, because the beginning was so amazing, and some of the adversaries Poison meets on her way so terrifying, that I simply have to give it 5 stars. The Lady of Cobwebs alone warrants it.

I really do wish for a sequel though. Perhaps Azalea's story??

The Nightmarys

by Dan Poblocki

Well I've done it again! I've let a month go by before I actually write this review and I can not remember much of what I had to say about this book.

I can't actually remember it much at all. Which, is one reason I only gave it two stars. The story is kind of interesting at the time, but it's not memorable.

I actually liked this book less than Poblocki's other book The Stone Child. Where The Stone Child had a nice creepy vibe to it, I felt like The Nightmarys was trying too hard. The creepy parts sometimes just came off a goofy to me (a graffiti dragon with swirling eyes peeling itself off the wall and chasing the boy is a good example.)

It just didn't grab me. Maybe middle-grade 'scary' books are not my genre.

Missing You

by Meg Cabot

It really bugs me that this book came out with new cover art that does not match the cover art on my other books.

However, I love the book itself. Jess annoys the heck out of me a couple times for being so dense about Rob, but I was very satisfied with the ending of the book and the series - this is a well-concluded series.

Missing You takes place a few years after the previous books. Jess has used her powers to find missing people in the war. She has found countless terrorists in her time overseas, before the trauma of it all caused Jess to lose her powers. Now Jess is back in the US, living in New York City with Ruth and going to Juilliard. She and Rob have falling apart and Jess is struggling with what she wants to do. So when Rob shows up at her door in NYC asking for her help to find his sister Hannah, she is upset with him. She can't find people anymore, she insists. But Rob begs her to try. So she does, and discovers that at some point her powers have returned. Jess goes back to Indiana with Rob, and while there she discovers more secrets than just where Hannah is hiding.

Sanctuary

by Meg Cabot

I have been blazing through these books so fast I can barely remember what I was going to write. Let's just say I loved it, and was glad that I am reading these years after they were published so I didn't have to wait 4 years before the 5th book came out. This book is great, but is not a satisfying ending to the series - it definitely needed one more.

In Sanctuary a new family moved in across from Jess's. However, shortly after the family's teenage soon turns up dead in a cornfield. There are rumors of gang activity, despite the family denying it. A few days later and young Jewish boy disappears, and a few days after that the Jewish synagogue is burned down. Jess and Rob discover that there is a white supremacist militia group living in the backwoods that is responsible for the recent events. Jess knows where to find the missing boy, but the problem is getting to him. Jess and Rob believe they can find a way to get in, but how will they get out with the boy and put this group to a stop?

Safe House

by Meg Cabot

Third book - darker and more mysterious than the first two. This time, Jess is searching for someone she knows.

Jess returns from her summer working at camp to learn that one of the cheerleaders has been found dead in the quarry. Not only that, but her classmates blame Jess for not finding the girl - even though Jess wasn't in town and knew nothing about it. When a second girl goes missing everyone turns to Jess to find her. How can she say no? But also, how can she keep the FBI away if she says yes?

This series is reminding me more and more of the Mediator series with the darker turn. I love the mystery and suspense and trying to figure out just who the culprit is. I was fooled. Love that even more.

Dark Life

by Kat Falls

I am shamefully slow with this update, but here it is finally: my review!

And now I am remembering why I try to be good about writing this right after I finish the book...because now I don't remember as many details!

I will say I enjoyed Dark Life a lot. The world (or rather, ocean) it takes place in is unlike any other book I've read. Kat Falls creates many new technologies to enable the characters of Dark Life to live beneath the surface of the ocean. Things such as "liquigen", bubble fences, and underwater jellyfish-style houses may seem fanciful at times, but are a unique solution to the problem of how exactly a group of humans would live and farm under the sea.

The villains are creepy, and certainly surprising, while the main characters are varied and interesting. I'm not sure if this book is a series, but I wouldn't mind reading more about this underwater world.

The Reckoning

by Kelley Armstrong

I've really enjoyed the unique story of this trilogy, but I have to say, the last book was a bit of a disappointment.

Chloe, Tori, Derek and Simon have just escaped the Edison Group again and are hiding out with the group fighting against the Edison Group. Once again, a large part of the beginning of this book is spend doing very little. The action comes all at once, at the end, and involves a lot of twists, turns, and constantly flipping allegiances (Are these people really on our side? No! Let's run away! Wait, maybe they are. Let's stick around. Wait! We have to run away!)

Mostly, this book did not feel like it should be the end. The ending is pretty ambiguous as far as endings go, and many, many aspects of the plot were left unexplained. Some things were brought up in the storyline of this book only to be dropped casually a few chapters later. If this series was slated to continue in additional books, I would assume these things would come up in the next book, but as this is the final book, it seemed like the plot wasn't as well thought-out as it should have been.

On the positive side, Armstrong does a pretty good job of subtly reminding the reader what has happened previously. I didn't remember many details from the previous books, but whenever I'd start to be confused, there were some helpful hints placed into the narrative that reminded me of what I was supposed to know. Still, this is the 3rd book, and doesn't stand alone. If you're gonna read the series, start with The Summoning.

The Devouring

by Simon Holt

The first half of The Devouring was creepy in a good way. Lots of slightly sinister, psychological stuff happening. The second half, however, was icky. Way too many gross-out, gory events. I was not intending to read a horror novel when I picked this up!

The Devouring is the story of Reggie, a teen girl who loves horror books and movies (as does her best friend Aaron). Reggie's mom left her family last year, and since then Reggie has had to take care of her little brother Henry a lot of the time. One day Reggie finds a mysterious hand-written book called "The Devouring". It tells the tale of the Vours - mysterious beings that feed on fear, and possess the bodies of people on Sorry Night - when that are at their most afraid. Reggie thinks it's an odd, but interesting tale, made up by some crazy person. However, for fearful Henry (whom she reads the story to), the Vours are real, and something to be very afraid of. Unfortunately for them all, it's Sorry Night; and Henry's right.

As I mentioned before, the first half of this book is a psychological thriller. The spooks are all from the dark, or flickering lights, or strange voices, or cold mysterious places. However, at the halfway turning point we are taken into an alternate world - a fearscape, as the book calls it - a world that is filled creepy clowns, swarms of spiders, all sorts of gruesome weapons and their resulting damage. Ick.

*Spoilers* I have a few other complaints that can't be explained without spoiling things, so be warned. When Reggie and Aaron first go to Eben and show him the book and mention that Henry is acting strange, he chastises them for fooling around with the book, but also shrugs off Henry's weird behavior. At the end of the book we learn that Eben knows all about the Vours and has been fighting them for years. Didn't he realize Henry was a Vour? And why didn't he tell them? If there is a reason for this - the author should have explained it, because left unexplained it just seems like a mistake. Also, Aaron just deduces all the answers to the puzzle of what the Vours are, where Henry is, how to get him back, etc. really suddenly! Reggie falls asleep and when she wakes up, he's found no info in his Internet search, but concludes that Henry is trapped in his own fearscape and Reggie went there because she ate the Vour and is now partially Vour, so she can go there by touching Henry. Ta-da! And "fearscape"? - just a little hokey. *End Spoilers*

In short, interesting premise, gross end of the book, annoying non-concluded ending.

The Stone Child

by Dan Poblocki

I'm really debating between 3 and 4 stars on this one. I enjoyed the book, thought it was inventive, captivating, sufficiently creepy, and satisfyingly ended. Maybe it deserves 4, but I'm just not overwhelmingly amazed by it, or left thinking about it for long after the end, although I can't put my finger on why.

The Stone Child is the story of a young boy named Eddie who moves to the mysterious small town of Gatesweed with his mother and father. His mom is an aspiring author and his dad deals in antiques. Upon their arrival to town Eddie learns that the author of his favorite scary books, Nathanial Olmstead, lived in the very same town. However, he also hears rumors of strange creatures and the "Olmstead Curse" that might have something to do with the author's disappearance 13 years ago. As Eddie makes friends and begins to try to find out more about the curse, things start getting creepier, and Eddie and his friends begin to be afraid that the creatures from Olmstead's books are real. The group must work together to solve the mystery of Olmstead's disappearance before it's too late to save him, or the town.

As I mentioned, this book does have a nice creepy vibe to it. It's written for kids, and if I was a kid I would be thoroughly scared. As an adult, only slightly. I loved the history to the curse and Olmstead's disappearance. I would have liked a little more puzzle-solving than there was, I also would have liked a little more length to the story. I think a few more pages of suspense during the scary creature sightings would have added a lot - but I guess what I'm wishing for is for this book to be geared more to young adults than to children. Some portions were very predictable and the characters were pretty simplistic and flat. However, the ending was different then I imagined (I had 2 scenarios worked out in my head), so that was a nice surprise.

Still debating that 4th star, but for now I'm sticking with 3.

Fade

by Lisa McMann

The sequel to Wake, this book is much darker than it's predecessor. In Fade Janie and Cabel start working a new case - one involving a possible sexual predator at their high school. And guess who's acting as bait?

I liked this book. It's was interesting and engrossing, however it was just a bit too creepy/disturbing for me to love it.

There were a few instances where McMann's sentence fragment style of writing or her intentional vagueness was annoying, but most of the time you don't even notice. Once you get used to it, it reads much the same way our brains think. "Vanessa's at her computer. Typing. Her blog. Running out of things to say." - It's a lot like that. And it makes the book read really fast.

A few complaints:

- I realize Janie's mom is so pitiful to suit the story and to make it easier for Janie to basically do anything, but really? She doesn't even come to the graduation?

- Lots of drugs mentioned in the case. A few more descriptions might have been beneficial. We learn that Janie has researched them, but what exactly has she learned? (There's that intentional vagueness!)

- *spoiler* Why oh why wasn't Janie bugged with a camera or a mic when she was undercover at the party? They could have gotten their evidence a LOT sooner, Janie would have been in less danger and perhaps some of the other students could have been rescued sooner as well. The one "panic button" tool they did give her was too risky. It very nearly wasn't helpful at all! Why in the world would they put her in such a dangerous situation with out extra precautions? Heck, even Drew Barrymore has better undercover tools in "Never Been Kissed" and she wasn't ever in danger! *end spoilers*

So, in summary: It's an interesting book. For mature readers. The ending is mostly satisfying despite some odd turns throughout the story. And I'm still planning on reading part three.

The Maze Runner

by James Dashner

Ah I'm having mixed feelings on this book too! I love the premise: mysterious maze, kids who've lost their memories, creepy creatures lurking in the dark, cryptic messages, etc. However, there were just a few things about it that I didn't love as much.

I thought the story developed a little too slowly over the pages of the book. The author revels very little of what's actually going on until the end, and even then many things are left unanswered (since this will be a series). However, I felt like the story developed too quickly over the time span of the novel. The entire book only encompasses a little over a week for the characters and it just seemed a little rushed.

My other complaint has to do with all the made-up words of the Gladers. They use a lot of words almost as if they are swear words, and some of them sound very close to actual swear words, with just the first letter different.

However, the ending was just chilling enough to make me really want to see where the next book goes. So I'll probably stick around for at least the next entry to this series.

The Maze Runner is the story of Thomas. He wakes up to find himself in an elevator going up, and that he remembers nothing of his past. All he can remember is his name. When the elevator stops, the top opens and Thomas is greeted by the faces of dozens of young boys, none much older than himself. He is in the Glade - a mysterious open area surrounded by giant stone walls. Outside the walls lies the maze, and as far as any of the Glades know, there is no way out.

Betrayals

by Lili St. Crow

This book is the sequel to Strange Angels, a book whose story I enjoyed but I had some reservations over the method of telling.

I have largely the same complaints for the sequel.

Again, Lili St. Crow seems to have a small vocabulary when it comes to words to expresses anger or shock. The only ones she can think of would get bleeped out on cable television. This is frustrating because these aren't words I enjoy hearing - even in my own head, and also because I think it shows a real lack of creativity. Seriously, not EVERYONE in the world uses those words in every sentence. It's crude, and sounds uneducated. I realize these are teenage characters, but I have a hard time believing that all teenagers have such a foul mouth as Dru and Graves do.

Second - the smells! Ms. St. Crow focuses way too much on the way things smell and not enough on other senses. Many sequences are hard to understand and picture in your head because the only information you have is what things smell like. (And yes, Christophe STILL smells like apple pie!) Oh, and by the way, it's mentioned quite a few times that Graves smells like cigarette smoke, as if this is supposed to be a nice thing - um, ew!

Unfortunately, I'm giving this book one less star than it's predecessor. I just didn't find the story as interesting, and it was often confusing! There were a few chapters that I wasn't really sure what was going on and it felt like the author was being intentionally vague.

Will I read the third installment? Probably only if Dani assures me that it's better than this one!

Leepike Ridge

N. D. Wilson


I love N.D. Wilson! This is the third book of his that I've read, and each one is a treasure. Not only are the stories original and interesting, but the way he tells the story is lovely and lyrical and engrossing.

Leepike Ridge is actually Wilson's first book, and one I've been wanting to read for a while. However, I've never bought it because I didn't like the cover art of the paperback version and could never find the hardback version which I did like the art for (the art pictured). Finally found a copy at an outlet book store though, so it was finally time to buy it and read it.

While I do think I like the 100 Cupboards series better (mostly because it's fantasy and this is realistic fiction), Leepike Ridge was a fun story.

It starts off with this boy, Tom, who sails off down the river on a piece of Styrofoam from a refrigerator box and before he knows what's happening, the river dives under the mountain and Tom is sucked along with it. Once the current stops, Tom finds himself stuck in the pitch-dark and he can't find a way out. He also finds a body, a dog, a flashlight and eventually, a stream traveling farther into the mountain. Meanwhile Tom's mother is desperately searching for her son, and trying to determine who she can trust and who is keeping things from her. Will Tom ever find his way back above ground, and if he does, will he find his mom is safe or in danger?

Catching Fire

by Suzanne Collins

Despite this book annoying the heck out of me - it still must receive 5 stars. Why you ask? Well, the book is amazing. (We'll get to that in a bit.) However, the end is a total cliff-hanger (seems that's been a common problem for me lately.) We are left with a few characters in mortal peril by the book's end. And that's just annoying, because I now have to wait another year to read the conclusion to this amazing story!

In The Hunger Games - the first book of the trilogy - Katniss Everdeen finds herself competing in the Capital's annual Hunger Games. Katniss lives in a country called Panem - which used to be the United States. After a destructive war the country was restructured int0 13 districts surrounding the controlling government stationed in The Capital. Years ago, district 13 revolted, but The Capital prevailed. District 13 is no more, and as punishment for the district's uprising, The Capital has set in place an annual games as a reminder that all are under The Capital's power. Each year, a set of teenagers (one boy and one girl) from each of the districts are selected, and sent to compete - to the death - in the Hunger Games. One will prevail and win fame and fortune. The rest will never come home.

Katniss's sister is chosen, but Katniss takes her place. The boy selected from her district is the baker's son - Peeta. The two form a tenuous friendship as they are prepped for the game despite fearing the other may simply be planning a way to kill the other. However, partially as a plot to survive the games and partially due to Peeta's true feelings, the two develop a romantic relationship. And, against all odds, survive the games together. Both refuse to kill the other, and when the gamemakers attempt to force their hand, they threaten to both kill themselves - thus leaving no winner. And so, for the first time ever there are two winners.

However, in Catching Fire, Katniss's troubles are not over. Her desperate act in the arena is viewed by the President as an act of defiance against the capital, and her life and the lives of all she holds dear are threatened by the powerful government. Katniss must try to quell the rebellion she has inadvertently started before it's too late. The question is, does she really want to stop the rebellion? And if she doesn't, where will she hide?

This book is so absorbing it is incredibly difficult to put it down. The characters are endearing. The government is frightening and believable. The descriptions of the outfits and accessories of those in the Capital are outrageous, but funny. And despite the terrible make-me-wait-forever ending, I just adore this series and will keep recommending it to anyone who will listen!

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

by Carrie Ryan

Sigh. This book had such potential, and I was so primed to love it after the first 3 chapters and then it was just sort of a victim of itself.

The biggest problem was that it seemed the author couldn't quite decide what kind of book she was writing. Is it horror? Romance? Mystery? Suspense? It tried to be all of these things and then failed to be any of them well.

Initially, this book reminded me of The Village - a group of people live in a pioneer style village surrounded by an intimidating forest filled with disturbing creatures. In The Forest of Hands and Teeth those creatures are basically zombies: a horde of the undead - mindless and hungry for flesh. They are called "The Unconsecrated". Young Mary has recently lost her father to the forest (we never actually find out how he got into the forest in the first place). Then, at the very beginning of the book, she loses her mother as well. Mary is orphaned, and her older brother kicks her out of the house. Mary is then forced to join the Sisterhood - a type of nunnery.

At this point the story becomes a mix of romance and mystery. Mary tends to the sick Travis and begins to develop feelings for him. At the same time, she uncovers mysterious happenings at the church that begin to suggest that there is life outside the Forest and that the Sisters are trying to hide it. Honestly, this is the kind of story I was hoping for. Soon though, our genre shifts.

The Unconsecrated breach the village and Mary manages to escape with her friends Travis, Harry and Cass, as well as her brother Jed, his wife Beth, and a small boy named Jacob. The group has no choice but to set off down the narrow fenced-in path through the forest in hopes of finding civilization on the other side. Now our book becomes more of a horror/suspense novel and mostly stays that way til the end. I'm disappointed.

But more than just the author switching genres partway through - she also drops multiple story lines! At the Cathedral, Mary finds mysterious rooms, overhears whispered conversations, finds a girl from outside the village, and NONE of that gets explained. Ever. Mary doesn't even seem to speculate or wonder about it again.

Also, the romance falls flat because you're not ever quite sure who you should wish she ends up with. She loves Travis, but then she likes Harry after all and is mad at Travis, then she loves Travis again. Then Travis makes her mad, and she misses Harry. I think we were ultimately supposed to like Travis the best, but I liked Harry!

(*SPOILERS*) And then, the end! The end of this book was just terrible! I refuse to call it and end. It felt as if surely the last 10 chapters of the book had been misplaced! We find out the outcome for 3 of the 7 characters (2 because they die). The rest are either just assumed dead or left sitting helplessly in the forest with virtually no food, water or hope for making it out. What is up with that?!

This is how it should have ended - Travis doesn't get bitten. Jed sacrifices himself to the Unconsecrated to help them escape instead of Travis. Travis, Mary, Harry, Cass and Jacob find the path out of the forest and to the ocean. (And the path actually goes all the way to the coast - none of this lame running through the forest and down the cliffs aimlessly in the dark to escape the Unconsecrated). The village has better defences against the Unconsecrated, or perhaps they find that the Unconsecrated are confined to the forest by some ancient spell, or maybe the village has found a cure for the Unconsecrated. Any of those would be better than the non-ending the author came up with. (*END SPOILERS*)

Disappointing. It could have been great. As is, it's just mediocre.

Hunger

by Michael Grant

After reading Gone I was upset by the cliff-hanger ending - then I realized that it was not a stand-alone book as I'd thought, but rather the start to a series. Hunger in the second book.

There were a lot of things that happened in Gone, and at the start of Hunger I was afraid I'd forgotten too many of them. And while the author used practically the whole length of the book in reminding readers of the back story, I did feel it was pretty effective, without feeling like I was reading something redundant.

One of the reviews on the back of this book states, "If Stephen King had written Lord of the Flies, it might have been a little like this." (VOYA (starred review)). I think this is actually a pretty good way to describe the feel of the series. It has a dark, menacing creature that taunts its victims mercilessly - all set into the back story of an entire town of kids who suddenly find themselves living in a world without adults. Everyone over 15 has simply vanished. The kids who are left have to find a way to survive and coexist. Food is scarce, arguments erupt, and soon they are the brink of war with each other.

My biggest complaint for this book was that you were never quite sure who was dead and who was alive. Sometimes a kid would die and it would almost be glossed over as if the author was afraid to say it. Pages later I'd find myself thinking, "Wait. They're dead?" On the opposite side of the problem though was that many characters were pronounced dead in the narration, and then only pages later it's proclaimed that they were not QUITE dead after all. Cue Lana: magic healer girl who can fix all sorts of mortal injuries! I half expected Magical Max from the Princess Bride to pop out and tell us that they were "not all dead, only mostly dead". Not that I wish for lots of deaths, but don't tell me they're dead if they're not!

I do love the concept of this book though. I'm excited to see how the creation of the FAYZ will be explained. I also am looking forward to reading how the kids create order in their town. Will Sam continue to lead? Will they finally set up some sort of monetary system? Can they ever find a way to work with each other? I'm looking forward to seeing where the rest of this story leads!

Stange Angels

by Lili St. Crow

Zombies and Djamphirs and Werwolfen, oh my!

Dru Anderson is alone and scared. The book jacket, however, proclaims her to be a "Night Hunter. Knife Thrower. Heart Breaker." as well as "not afraid of the dark." But she never goes hunting at night, she never throws a knife (although she does wield one at times as well as an assortment of guns), she doesn't break anyone's heart, and she is very scared of the dark! She should be - her dad leaves her behind most evenings while he's out hunting the things that "go bump in the night". One evening he doesn't return home. The next night, he does - as a zombie. Dru must muster up all of her courage to dodge the zombie that used to be her father, and kill him before he can kill her. She's left traumatized and utterly, completely alone.

Thankfully, Dru soon makes a loyal friend in Graves. He helps her the best he can, not knowing the true danger that Dru is in, because someone - something - wants Dru dead, and he's still searching for her.

I liked Dru despite her not being as tough as the book packaging portrayed her to be. She could handle a weapon, and she knew how to defend herself to an extent, but she was still scared out of her wits and desperate for someone to help her. She gets that help through Graves as well as the mysterious djamphir Christophe.

One aspect of the book that started to bug me near the end was how the smell of EVERYTHING had to be described. I learned that Graves smelled like deodorant and smoke. Christophe smells like apple pie (that's weird). Dru's mom used to smell like "perfume and goodness." Zombies smell like a whole host of nasty rotting things. Christophe smells like apple pie. When something bad is about to happen, Dru can smells (and taste) oranges. When something REALLY bad is about to happen, it smells(/tastes) of WAX oranges. Christophe smells like apple pie. Did I mention that Christophe smells like apple pie? Yeah, the author did too - a lot! I wish I'd counted.

My biggest complaint of this book however, was the language. The story was interesting and different from other books of the genre but it was just littered with profanity! I tried to just read over it, but that would certainly stop me from recommending this book to most people I know - despite the interesting story.

The Awakening

by Kelley Armstrong

I really wasn't sure if I would like this series when I started it, but soon found that the beginning to the trilogy, The Summoning, was very engrossing. So when the sequel came out earlier this year I was eager to read it.

It has been a while since I read the first book, and I could only remember vague details about the plot. I was worried that I would have trouble following the plot of this book. Thankfully though, the author does a wonderful job of placing clues throughout the book to remind you of what occurred previously. Our main character, Chloe will simply mention previous events during the narration when it's important to the current events. It seemed like every time I'd start to think, "Wait, what happened in the last book?", I'd find the very next sentence answered my question.

The characters are interesting and varied. We see less of Rae in this book and more of the annoying Tori, who you can't hate completely because you feel bad for her. Chloe, Tori and the boys Derek and Simon continue to try to piece together what's really going on with the mysterious Edison society and how it will effect their futures. This is where my complaint lies however. The bulk of this book consists of the group running away, almost getting caught, escaping, getting found, nearly getting caught again, and then, again, barely managing to escape. A lot of new questions are posed, but few are answered. I understand that this is the middle of a series, but it really FELT like the middle book - a continuation of a previous story with relatively little resolution. I was finally starting to feel like we were moving out of the run away/just avoid getting caught cycle when the book ended on a cliff-hanger. Frustrating.

That being said though, I'm eagerly awaiting the final book and hoping for all the resolution that this part was missing.

Silvertongue

by Charlie Fletcher

Holding the third book of a trilogy (or the final book of a series of any length actually) in your hands always brings an exciting and sad feeling. On one hand you're anxious to see how the story concludes - sometimes a story that you've absorbed yourself into for quite some time. However, it is also sad to know that once you reach the end of this book it really will be the end of the story (at least in most cases.) And while I hate for a good story to end, I also am annoyed when an author won't let a story end, and it gets stretched out so much that it almost ruins the reasons you liked it in the first place. But that's besides the point here.

Silvertongue is the third and final part to the series by Charlie Fletcher that began with Stoneheart and continued with Ironhand. In the series we meet the young boy, George, who by accident is thrown into a alternate reality of London where statues walk and talk and are constantly on the edge of war with each other. The statues made to represent life are called "spits". The makers who created them are said to have put a bit of their hearts into their work and therefore the spits fight for life and what is good. The statues that are made to provoke fear are called "taints" and they include many fanciful creatures and gargoyles that are bent on destruction and who follow the ancient darkness bound in the London Stone. In the first book George reawakens the war between the two factions of statues when he breaks the head off a dragon statue in front of the museum. In his run for his life he is aided by many spits and a girl named Edie that he meets along the way. George and Edie both think they are simply two kids caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, but throughout the course of the book they (and we) learn that there is more to each than meets the eye.

In Silvertongue we find George and Edie once again working together with the spits of the city to confront a new darkness that has entered London. The new darkness teams with the old and soon the London of spits and taints is thrown out of time. The clock strikes thirteen, snow falls unceasingly, and all other humans vanish. It is a race against time as George must face his final appointed battle, and all must fight to banish the darkness back to where it came from.

Very satisfying conclusion to a unique and enjoyable series. I'm looking forward to see what Fletcher writes next!

Gatekeepers

by Robert Liparulo

I've finally gotten around to reading the next book in the "Dreamhouse Kings" series. This book comes after Watcher in the Woods which comes after House of Dark Shadows. I liked Gatekeepers better than Watcher. The story was more interesting and some questions about the house begin to get answered.

However, my complaints remain the same: more questions are asked than answered, and the book ends right at the climax as each previous book has done. The first half of the book is spent resolving the climax from the previous book while the second half is spent creating a new one. So of course now I'm obligated to read the next book if I wish to know what happens. And while this may be a good book-selling strategy, it does annoy me. It's a good premise - I would have read the whole series even if they had been written the normal way!