Afterlife by Merrie Destefano.

Title/Author: Afterlife by Merrie Destefano.

Genre: Urban Fantasy/Sci-Fi.

Publisher: Eos (September 28, 2010).

Source: Purchased.

Favorite character: Chaz.

Favorite quote:

All in all: AMAZING and EXCEPTIONAL!

Synopsis: Welcome to your next chance.

Chaz Dominguez is a professional Babysitter in New Orleans, helping to integrate the recently deceased into their new and improved lives. Though Fresh Start has always been the only game in town, resurrection isn't all it's cracked up to be. Nine lives are all a person can get—and a powerful group of desperate, high-level Nine-Timers will stop at nothing to possess the keys to true immortality.

Now the only hope for Chaz and his family—and the human race—lies in the secrets locked away in the mind of Angelique, the beautiful, mysterious Newbie he must protect. ~Amazon.com.

What I didn’t like/reservations: I want to preface this with a disclaimer that it’s not so much I didn’t like it, but there was one scene that made me question the underlying theme in the book and I wanted to discuss it.  ***HUGE ENORMOUS SPOILER ALERT: (I hid as best as I could.  Just highlight to read clearly.) I felt that the concept of life after death in this book was an unknown and that is why people wanted to live for more than one life and why others were searching for immortality. When Chaz sees Heaven and Hell, it took the mystery out of it. Now maybe he only thought he saw it, but it was enough to convince me as the reader and that sort of took away the questioning element of an afterlife. But maybe Merrie’s point wasn’t to make the reader question whether there was an afterlife or not, but to make the reader question what their choices would be. Heaven? Living again? Immortality? I suppose that not all people really knew there was a heaven/hell like Chaz did and therein lay their questions. Does it mean that people do not have faith because they want to keep living?  I would not have thought of putting that element in the story.  I thought it was an interesting choice. :END HUGE ENORMOUS SPOILER ALERT***

What I liked:  This book blew me away. I feel that Destefano said, “What if?” and then really thought about the ramifications one or two steps further. The way that she envisioned the future and the consequences of “jumping” (when you are finished with one life your soul goes to another body that is waiting for you) in society is fascinating and worthy of economic, religious and spiritual discussions.

One of the reasons I picked up this book was because it took place in New Orleans. The other reason was the premise. By looking at the cover, I really thought it was going to be focused solely on a heroine, sort of like an Anita Blake or Mercy Thompson type of story. It even took me almost to the end of the first chapter to realize that Chaz was a male because of my pre-conceived notion. Then when the POV switched to Angelique, I realized that she is the character depicted on the cover. Chaz is the main protagonist but I loved the cast of supporting and just as important players and their differing point of views. It gave a lot of depth to the plot, and made the story exciting and the mystery more compelling.

The language is exceptional, and the story is distinctive. They both flowed in and around each other. Reading Afterlife was like peeling back the layers of an onion. Things weren’t explained, they were hinted at, then revealed slowly and the reveal was like finding a missing puzzle piece. Not one part of this book was boring, not one paragraph, not one sentence.

Afterlife is sort of like watching a dream. It can get complicated, but it is fascinating, intriguing and very satisfying to follow. I loved the dark, moody and sometimes desperate feel of the future. I think that even the slang that Destefano created for the future is clever. The conflict in this story seems impossible to overcome. It is a maze that I never could have guessed could have been resolved successfully, but the author thought of a way to do it.

You know when you watch one of those talent shows and someone steps onto the stage and belts out a song that leaves your mouth hanging open? This is what this book did to me.

I usually do a 5 star rating. This book earns 6 stars out of 5 for me.

Book Blogger Hop (November 26-29, 2010)

Book Blogger Hop time again!  

This meme is hosted by Crazy For Books.  Please check out her blog for complete rules.

Although I am still recovering from Thanksgiving, when I saw this week's question, I knew I had to participate.  

This week's question is:  "What is your favorite book cover?"

Answer:  I have so many, but the first ones that came to mind are some of the covers that grace Patricia McKillip's books.  (I couldn't find an official website, but click HERE for a fansite.)  McKillip writes Fantasy and she is one of my favorite authors.  Her writing is exquisite and surreal.  Kinuko Craft is the artist who has a brought several of her titles to life.  Kinuko's artwork brings me into another realm just as McKillip's writing does.  It is a perfect pairing.  Would you be able to pass up these books once you held them in your hand?  The images here don't really do Kinuko's talent justice.  Check out her website for more!

Bonechiller by Graham McNamee.

Title/Author: Bonechiller by Graham McNamee.

Genre: Horror/YA.

Publisher: Laurel Leaf.

Source: Library.

Favorite character: All four of the kids. (Danny, Ash, Howie and Pike).

Favorite quote: “Evil takes different shapes…But it’s as real as rain.” Nick (Ash’s father).

All in all:  A page turner with depth.

Synopsis: In this supernatural thriller set in a remote Canadian town in the dead of winter, four friends encounter a cannibalistic creature that is hunting and killing teens. Out late at night, Danny, the narrator, is stung by the terrible monster and it begins to stalk his nightmares. As he becomes increasingly and mysteriously ill, he realizes that his life is in danger. The foursome, after a failed attempt to involve law enforcement, decide to take on the behemoth with stolen dynamite and guns "borrowed" from their fathers. In addition to the main story line, the novel has Danny coming to terms with his mother's recent death and reconnecting with his father. Each of the friends comes across as an individual...The unrelenting pace, short chapters, and the idea of teenagers taking on a monster with a large amount of weaponry will certainly appeal to fans of horror novels.  ~Amazon.com.

What I didn’t like: !!!! The exclamation marks. I felt there were too many at certain points. Yes very nitpicky of me.

What I liked: The characters and the writing.

This is a plot that you could technically say has been done before. Two kids are facing certain doom and it takes them and their friends working together to succeed. However, this novel works on many levels. The characters were interesting, believable and it was easy to care about them. In turn this made me vested in their story.  Every scene is there for a reason, to either move the story along or reveal something about the character.  The writing is unique and fresh and I love the descriptions. Fireworks in the sky are “silver waterfalls.” Danny talks about Ash before a fight, “If I touched her right now, it would be like kissing lightning” and shows the monster's roar as "...the growl shivers through my ribs.”

Bonechiller is told via first person by Danny after he moves to a small town in the middle of nowhere because his father is running from the pain of losing his wife to illness. Much of the population is military families and Danny meets his love interest Ash, and brothers Howie and Pike.

Danny is a likeable, average kid. He is funny, astute and I sympathize with him, not just because his mother passed away, but by the way he expresses that loss.  Danny shows his emotions through memories and by comparing his past life to his present.  Ash is his love interest, the girl in the group who is into boxing and has a sassy, take-no-crap attitude, but clearly cares about her friends.  Howie is the brain and Pike the “psycho,” but he won me over due to his devotion to his brother. These characters aren’t stereotypes, but multi layered and reveal themselves and their best qualities as the story progresses.

I also liked Danny’s father, the fragile widower and I enjoyed the easy going teasing between them. There is sadness in their home and I feel that if they connected with each other more, they would be able to get past some of their grief. It seems that Danny won't show his own hurt in order to spare his father further pain.  I thought it was cute how Danny messes with his dad when it comes to an interested female in the neighborhood and tries to push them together in small ways.  So, even though Danny's father was a peripheral character there is a lot of depth to him and in his and Danny's relationship.  

Nick, Ash’s father is another great character.  He is a tough as nails Native American in the military and Ash’s boxing coach.  He and Ash have a great relationship and he also cares about Danny.  It was refreshing to see children and parents getting along, not always at odds and loving each other.

Danny and Howie get “marked” by a monster who is haunting their dreams and causing them to physically change.  The book isn't over the top terrifying or gory but it is thrilling and frightening as they first deal with these changes and then find out what the fate is of others who have gone through this.  They enlist their friends to help them and together they come up with a dangerous plan to kill the beast. The setting of Harvest Cove in northern Canada, the winter climate and bleak setting is a character in itself.  The harsh conditions cause hardship and contribute to the way of life in the town.  The isolated location serves to bring the friends much closer together.

Danny has to make a choice. He could run far away from the threat or stay and fight. He ultimately decides to stay because he feels he got left behind by his mother and he doesn’t want to leave Howie behind. He also wants to stay because he finally made friends and he wants to see where his relationship with Ash may lead. He is tired of moving around and wants to stay in one spot. He realizes that you can’t outrun memories but maybe you can make new ones.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (audio).

Title/Author: The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke. (Audio)

Genre: Fantasy.

Publisher: MacMillan Audio.

Source: Library.

Favorite character: Venetia from “Mrs. Mabb.”

Favorite quote:

All in all: Lovely.

Synopsis: Fans of Clarke's bestselling Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell should be pleased with this book, as the stories collected here are very much cut from the same cloth. The stories (seven previously published and one original tale, "John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner") deal with fairies and the history of English magic, and are told in the same Victorian style that made JS&MN so distinct. Prebble (who also narrated JS&MN) returns and once again triumphantly brings Clarke's richly imagined world to life. Sharing narrative duties this time around is Porter, who is equally skilled at playing prim and high-born ladies as she is using more folksy tones in "On Lickerish Hill." The footnotes that bogged down the audio edition of JS&MN are mostly absent, and the narrators' very different styles work well to give each story its own distinct feel. A lyrical and thoroughly enjoyable collection from a burgeoning master of fantasy literature. ~Amazon.com

What I didn’t like:   A few of the stories were long and had so many characters that I got confused and had trouble following what happened.  I’m not sure if this would have been the case if I had read the book.

What I liked: The narrators! They had the best English accents ever! Davina Porter and Simon Prebble did a great job of "reading to me" and they differentiated between the characters successfully. 

Some of the stories I liked more than others. I thought it was interesting that one mentioned the Raven King as a mythical figure. I read Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead and the Raven King is very prominent so I wonder if this is a British legend and I would love to learn more. “On Likerish Hill” was a re-telling of Rumpelstilskin but the book said it was a re-telling of “Tom-Tit-Tot,” so that is another story I would like to research more.

My favorite story was “Mrs. Mabb.” It is about a young woman, Venetia who is in love with a soldier, Mr. Fox. Venetia went away for a short time to visit a sick friend and when she came back Mr. Fox was apparently living with the mysterious Mrs. Mabb. Venetia tries very hard to find where Mrs. Mabb lives but finds herself glamoured each time she does. Finally, her tenaciousness pays off and Mr. Fox is released from Mrs. Mabb’s spell and the two are reunited. It is not overly dramatic but it is still engaging and enchanting. Maybe it was the characters or the way the story is told, but there was something about it that I really enjoyed.

I also liked “The Duke of Wellington Misplaces his Horse.” The author borrows the town of Wall from Neil Gamain and the Duke wanders into fairy and has to embroider his way out of it.  I thought it was cute because he isn't handy at needlework and ultimately fashions stick figure drawings.  Another story which concerned embroidery was “Antikes and Frets” which was about Mary Queen of Scots when she was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth. She tries to use magic in embroidery to bring down Queen Elizabeth, but we all know how that turned out in the end.

I didn’t read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, but apparently these stories refer to footnotes in that book. The stories were very sweet and reminded me of Jane Austen’s world but with faeries. I think this would be a nice book to curl up with a nice hot cup of tea...and maybe some scones.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Teaser Tuesday (November 16, 2010).

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  To participate go directly to her Teaser Tuesday post.  The rules are:


•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:
"All I could see were cinder-black bodies, sixteen scars on the bedroom floor." 
"The end of everything was about to begin."
~page 184.  Afterlife by Merrie Destefano.

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry.

Title/Author: Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry.

Genre: Horror/Speculative Fiction.

Publisher: Philomel Books.

Source: BEA.

Favorite character: Joe Ledger, the main protagonist. Church the uber military leader in charge of super, secret organization DMS. Toys, the right hand man to the bad guy.

Favorite quote: “Anytime something is too easy, it isn’t.” Joe Ledger.

All in all: Intricate and exciting.

Synopsis: When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there's either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills... and there's nothing wrong with Joe Ledger's skills.  And that's both a good, and a bad thing.  It's good because he's a Baltimore detective that has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new taskforce created to deal with the problems that Homeland Security can't handle. This rapid response group is called the Department of Military Sciences or the DMS for short. It's bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bio-weapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies. The fate of the world hangs in the balance.... ~From Amazon.com.

What I didn’t like: It’s not so much I didn’t like it, I’m just a person who questions everything and I wondered how certain people managed to survive at the end.

What I liked: This was the first book that I have read that used first person and third person (that I can remember anyway) and it broke up the novel in a unique way.  This style drew me into Joe’s mind and let me get to know him yet kept me at arm’s length with the bad guys.  Almost like I was next to Joe but was watching the other parts in a movie theater.  I loved Maberry's descriptions, the way he kept me at the edge of my seat and the pacing of the story. Each scene moves the action along and everything fell into place.

I liked Joe Ledger right away because of his humor, sarcasm and clever banter.  This part of Joe's personality was apparent right away due to the initial interview between him and Mr. Church. (I also learned that Joe would think I was evil because I prefer Vanilla Wafers over Oreos.) I kept thinking, “Should I really be giggling when reading a zombie novel?”  So I learned fairly early that Joe is funny, but then I learned other traits throughout the novel.  He is trustworthy, dependable and has a conscience, although he sometimes has to put it aside in order to keep the public at large safe.  Joe worked for me as a semi reluctant hero.  He is confident and knows his strengths without being fearless because he knows he could die at any moment.  He also acknowledges his darkness. He talks of the Mark of Cain (marked with the awareness of the beast that lives in all of us) and sometimes struggles with keeping all the pieces of his personality separate. The Warrior vs. the Man.

In this novel, the strains of the zombie infection are likened to strains of the flu and are developed by religious militant terrorists backed by a greedy entrepeneur who owns several pharmaceutical companies. So, theoretically the Americans (the targets of the strain) wouldn’t be able to keep up with the “disease.” One of the characters explained the way the zombie virus worked. It was unpretentious, yet complicated enough. Although I didn’t fully comprehend how the virus worked I was able to believe that it did work. 

This was by far not a typical girlie novel; there were lots of descriptions about guns and weapons, so if you’re not into that you may not appreciate the level of detail Maberry put into this story.  I loved the fight scenes though and I couldn’t help but feel that Joe Ledger and his team could probably teach Buffy a thing or two. Sad but true. For those of you who absolutely need romance in all your stories, there is some here between Joe and Grace, another agent. It was realistic but didn't distract from the story.

Joe’s special ops team (Top, Bunny, Skip and Ollie) were sometimes hard for me to keep straight, I had to keep checking back to see who was who, but by the end of the novel I had it. I loved the camaraderie between them and the humor.  The potential threat of mistrust among them was intriguing.

**SPOILER ALERT: Not many books make me cry, but there was one scene that did. It was when the First Lady’s secret service bodyguard was dying and all he cared about was if she was okay or not. A scene like this could easily have been cliche, but it was touching. We see this happen through the eyes of Joe and it also serves to bring his own humanity and tenderness to the surface. :END SPOILER ALERT**.

This is probably not a book I would have normally picked up. However, I took a workshop with Jonathan Maberry at a conference and I liked what he had to say about his writing process enough that I was curious about his work. I’m glad I tried Patient Zero and I look forward to more of Maberry’s books.

5 out of 5 stars.

Childhood Thrills (November 2010)

Childhood Thrills is a feature that recalls books I read in my childhood or adolescence that were special to me or "haunt" me in some way. I don't intend to re-read & review them, just simply share my memories and the feelings they evoke.


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Mousekin's Golden House by Edna Miller.

On November 1, I usually come down with a case of PHD, also known as Post Halloween Depression. I’ve always had this tragic condition and it returns every year.  While other kids rejoiced over their candy and the approaching holidays, I lamented that my favorite holiday was over and I had to wait another year for it to come around again.

Mousekin had a several books recounting his various adventures.   However, this is the only one I remember.  (Can you guess why?)  In elementary school, the librarian always read Mousekin's Golden House at the first story time after Halloween. I remember being seated on that rug surrounded by shelves of books like it was yesterday.  I loved being read to!

In this book, Mousekin finds a discarded Jack O‘Lantern and decides it would be a good place to take up residence.  It’s wonderful at first, nice and safe, cozy, with windows to look out of.  However, as the pumpkin begins to rot and close in on itself, Mousekin has to escape before he is trapped! Even though this story is about the end of cycles (Halloween, the gourd's life, the season), I remember I liked it because it had a Jack O'Lantern, a symbol of my favorite holiday and therefore, it helped with my Halloween fix.