Another Dead White Girl

A review of “Missing Clarissa” by Ripley Jones

First, thanks to St. Martin Press and NetGalley for the chance to read this YA mystery book.

Guilty secret here: I do love to read YA books, although I am far from that age group. This one features two high school juniors who decide to make a podcast about a twenty- year- old unsolved murder of a young woman from their town for a school project. They learn more about their town, their parents, and themselves, in this mostly engaging murder mystery.

I did appreciate the author tidied up the loose ends and gave us an answer to the question of what happened to Clarissa, the murdered young woman, by the end of the novel. I had figured out the murderer as soon as the character was introduced, only because this has been done many times before in the multitude of mysteries I have read, but perhaps YA readers, with less experience reading this type of book, will not hone in on the character immediately. There are red herrings, some humor, relatable characters and a clear story line although the author did the one thing I hate when reading fiction and that is throwing in political statements and preachy types of dialogue to hammer a point of view of the author, but not necessarily something a high school junior would talk about.

I rate this novel 3/5.

“The Invited” – a Book Review

  Last week, I reviewed an excellent book titled “The Uninvited” a great ghost story set in England. This week, I read and will review a new book called “The Invited” by Jennifer McMahon.

The Invited is a modern day ghost/witch/paranormal tale set in the woods of Vermont. Helen and Nate are two millennial types who decide to escape the city in Connecticut and build their dream house in the woods of Vermont, where they vaguely have an idea they can live off the land and off the grid. They are teachers and techno-geeks who research how to build a house and live rustically and buy a plot of land for cheap in Vermont.

As the reader, I yell at Helen and Nate and say, “Of course the land is cheap! It’s haunted! Land is expensive in Vermont! What were you thinking!!” And what makes them think they can build a house by themselves! Damn Millennial’s!

Quickly, the two discover building your own house and living in a trailer in the woods isn’t as romantic as they thought. The locals are hostile and weird noises come from the woods. Animals are chewing on the old trailer from underneath. Strange things show up on their doorstep. Is someone trying to scare them away?

There is another narrative in the tale of young Olive, a teenager with a troubled home and a missing mother. Helen and Nate and Olive delve into the history of the area especially the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who was hanged for being a witch.

As Helen becomes obsessed with Hattie she traces Hattie’s descendants through time and starts to buy things with a connection to Hattie and her cursed relatives: all objects with a dark history that seem to bring the ghosts of the past into their new house.

Basically, Helen is building her own haunted house!

Meanwhile, Olive is searching for what happened to her mother who supposedly ran off with another man. Nate is obsessed with finding an elusive all white deer. Everyone is looking for the treasure Hattie may or may not have buried on the land when she fled.

I enjoyed reading this book. I read it in a weekend and even snuck in some chapters at work on my iPhone. It is atmospheric and moody with great details about building a house from scratch. The book does move slowly in the beginning but it picks up speed towards the middle and never lost my interest. I did wonder about having Hattie being born in the early 1900’s though and being hanged in the 1920’s, because I didn’t think that would happen in such a relatively modern time period, but maybe it could in the backwoods.

I recommend this book to readers who love haunted house stories. It is suitable for YA also with the protagonist of Olive being a strong character. I rate it 4 out of 5 stars.

Dark Disappointment: “The Hazel Wood” book review

  I wanted to love this book. First, look at the cover. It is eerily beautiful. It is also one of my favorite genres lately, dark stories based on fairy tales. This one I started as an audio book, then switched to the e-book version when it was offered at my library.

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert is a dark urban fairy tale then turns pure fantasy story two-thirds in. I loved the parts that took place in modern times but found the fantasy parts not to my fantasy!

Alice is a teen with anger management issues, an abduction when she was a kid, a famous remote grandmother who (naturally) is a reclusive author of an elusively dark book of fairy tales set in the fantasy world of “The Hinterland”, and lives with  a single mother who is always on the run from what they call “bad luck”. Alice’s mother receives a letter announcing the death of Althea Proserpine, Alice’s grandmother,  at her palatial home, The Hazel Wood. Alice’s mother seems relieved, states they no longer need to be on the run, marries a rich, boring, man and settles down because the ‘bad luck’ is just New York au natural. Or is it?

Alice comes home one day to find her entire home empty. Her mother is gone-and strange portents are in the rooms. Where is her mother? A clue is a title page from Tales from The Hinterland-the book her grandmother wrote- called “Alice, Three Times Gone”. Who left the page there? Why? What connection is there between the book and her mother’s disappearance? Alice figures something is going on and nothing good. She gets the help of Ellery Finch, a young man with endless wealth and an Althea Proserpine ultimate fan, to help her figure out where her mother is and where the Hazel Wood really is.

The backstory of Alice and her mother Ella, along with short bits of the actual fairy tales (which are dark, disturbing and twisted) take up the first two-thirds of the book. Once Alice and Ellery actually find The Hazel Wood, the book turns into a fantasy story.

The book lost me once it got to the Hazel Wood. The explanations to what was going on was to me, convoluted and confusing. It was also too long and probably could have been cut back quite a bit and tightened. The writing wasn’t as clear or compelling. I hated the ending and felt it was a cop-out.

Maybe my quota of YA fantasy/fairy tale books had come to an end. I rate this one two of out five stars. One star for the cover, one for the idea. Sorry, Alice.

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YA Saturday! Reviews of “A Curious Beginning” and “The Wicked Deep”

 

My eight-year old Tibetan Spaniel, Tessa, had several teeth removed and the remaining ones scaled and cleaned this week at the vet, which means I was nervous and unable to really concentrate much so I did what I love to do to distract myself : YA fiction. Specifically, YA fiction with beautiful covers like the ones above. Aren’t they gorgeous? Don’t you just have to read what is inside? I know the dark blues and golds called to me. One I loved, and will be reading the sequels. The other was just OK for my adult brain, but at least it let me forget about worrying about my poor pup for a couple of hours.

First, A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn, the first book in the Veronica Speedwell Mystery Series.  I read this book the day and night of Tessa’s surgery and recovery. I already read the second book in the series, A Perilous Undertaking, because it was available in the library but the first book wasn’t. I didn’t need the first book to love that one, but now I had the chance to go back in time and read the beginnings of Miss Speedwell’s adventures.

Veronica Speedwell is a twenty-something year old woman who is unlike most other well-bred ladies of her time period-Victorian England. She is smart, educated (self-educated), a scientist by nature, and self-directed. She’s like a 21st century woman stuck back in more inhibitive times. She also is a foundling-and finding out who her parents were is really the goal for this book. She is a strong character and unlike any I have read before in a book written about this time period. Because of her age and the casual mention of sex along with some violence, this book is probably meant for older readers, but I think mature YA readers will also love it. I would have, when I was sixteen.

Miss Speedwell is a lepidopterist- a collector and scientist of butterflies. Being an acceptable ladylike hobby in Victorian times, Veronica is able to use her hobby to her advantage and travels the world over, looking for specimens and going on adventures-along with collecting lovers (never a fellow Englishman, however). Her biggest adventure, however, takes place back home in England, where she is almost abducted, almost killed and almost in love with a fellow scientist with the nickname of Stoker, a man with his own host of secrets.

A rollicking story with compelling prose and never boring, I highly recommend this book for all readers 16+ and up, especially if you love historical fiction and mysteries.  I rate it 5 out of 5 stars. I have the third book on hold at the library.

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Photo by GEORGE DESIPRIS on Pexels.com

Next is The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw. This is definitely a YA book. It has fantasy, young love, a mysterious island, a curse and witches. I was drawn to this book by its beautiful cover and the promise of a cursed town. I love curses. I use them daily.

The story takes place in current day Sparrow, a town with a curse. Hundreds of years ago, three sisters from ‘outside’ arrived in town on a ship and enthralled all the men of the town-some as lovers, many as admirers. This did not go well with the ladies of the town, who proceeded to declare the sisters witches. So, the good town did what all jealous people did back then-drown the girls as witches at sea. Every year since, on the date of their murders, the sisters come back to town for revenge by taking over the bodies of three girls and drowning the local boys.

This is one weird town. The town actually celebrates the event every year and has tourists come-some of who are drowned especially if they are hot young men. The narrator of the story is a young woman named Penny who lives with her crazed mother on an island off the coast of the town. Penny meets an ‘outsider’ young man right before the Swan sisters come back. What will happen? Will he drown too? What happened to Penny’s father? Can Penny stop the annual drowning of young, hot, boys?

I wanted to like this story but I couldn’t connect with it. Maybe I am too old for this sort of story. I found the characters stock and wooden. I didn’t like the main characters at all. I think the mother’s story and what happened to the father were glossed over and not complete. I guessed what the identity of the third sister was from the beginning of the book and could tell which way it was heading. Although it was strangely atmospheric and brooding at times, I didn’t find the chapters with the three sisters at all realistic or interesting. It was almost too modern.

There is reference to drinking and sex along with cursing in this book. I can’t recommend it at rate it at 2 out of 5 stars, mostly for the cover and the bizarre town.

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By the way, Tessa is doing great in her recovery. She sends her doggy love out to all my readers. 

“The Harrowing” – a book review

  The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff is another YA paranormal book I read this week from the library offerings. This one is OK but I wouldn’t bother to buy it. It does have sequels to it I am not going to download. It isn’t for me, but may suit a younger reading group which I think it is what it is intended for.

The story takes place in Baird College’s Mendenhall, an ancient dorm with lots of history and secrets. It is well described and I wonder if the author has spent some time in a dorm similar to this one. It is Thanksgiving break, and a small group of students are not going home, but staying at the dorm for various reasons of their own. Most of them are losers and all are one dimensional stereotypical young adults. There is the suicidal girl. The rocker boy. The jock. The slut. The intellectual. The preppy roommate. None of the characters grow or go beyond the box the author puts them in.

The group finds a Ouija board that is burned. They decide to get high, get drunk, and try the board. They connect with a presence-but is it the ghost of a student who died in the dorm or is it something else, something demonic?

The only part of the book I found interesting was the Jewish myths and religious beliefs woven in to the story. The rest was nothing I haven’t read before or watched on Netflix. It was the author’s first book, so maybe the sequels are better but I have a long list of books to read and this one will be the last for me.

One question for the author: Why is it called “The Harrowing”? Harrowing means to cause pain or distress. So is it “The Pain?” or does she mean “The Harrowing of Hell?” which means “A raid into the underworld by a heroic figure” which would kinda fit better?

I rate it 2 out of 5 stars.

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YA-suited for ages 16 to 21. There is swearing, drinking, drugs and sex with humans and otherwise. Sounds like college to me.

Library Find: Review of “In The Shadow of Blackbirds”

 I was thumbing through my library’s catalog of YA spooky books when I came upon this cover, which sucked me in. Right from the front, I can tell this isn’t going to be the usual ghost and teen book-wait, what is around her neck? Goggles? Why? I clicked it, downloaded it, and was spellbound.

In The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters takes place in 1918, a time I didn’t know too much about since I am hazy on history. A large part of this book depends on the events of that time period: the First World War, boys going into battle while back home the real threat of the Spanish Flu.

We meet Mary Shelley Black, named by her eccentric parents for the author; a young woman who is a budding scientist in a time where girls were supposed to be looking for husbands. Mary Shelley-as she is referred to frequently -is trying to survive with all these world factors aligned against her. Her childhood friend and now boyfriend, Stephen, is off fighting in the war. Her town is ravaged by the flu, with bodies stacked up outside and people taking all the precautions they know how to prevent dying. She is sent to live with her aunt because her father is in prison for protesting the war. Her aunt is infatuated with Stephen’s brother, Julius, who runs a so-called Spiritualist Photography business. Mary Shelley reluctantly poses for Julius and a ghost appears by her side. It’s Stephen! Or is it? What happened to him? Mary Shelley sets out to find the truth and finds out more than she ever imagined.

I loved how the author made Mary Shelley a strong female character in this book. Her aunt is also a unique figure for her time. The author skillfully blends history, the changing roles of men and women during this time, Spiritualism and the Spiritualist movement and a mystery all together in a fast moving book.

This is not a lovey-dovey book. It is direct in its description of flu victims and war victims. It does have some gruesome scenes I found realistic, since I have seen victims of our current war(s) in the hospital where I work. The author includes historical photographs from the time period throughout the book which are fascinating.

I am a 50+ year old woman and I still find some YA books to outshine the ‘adult’ books of today. This one is a keeper and one I will read again. I recommend this book to all ages YA and older, for anyone who loves ‘ghost’ books, and especially historical fiction

Ages: 12+.There is violence and graphic descriptions. It’s like real life and the horror of war.

I rate this one 4 out of 5 stars. One star down for bugging me with calling the MC “Mary Shelley” all the time instead of just Mary. I don’t know why it bugged me, but it did.

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