"The Stolen Child," by Keith Donohue

In The Stolen Child, 7-year-old Henry Day runs out into the woods after an argument with his mother. He climbs into the hollow of a tree, determined not to be found. While his family and the townspeople search desperately for him, Henry is abducted by hobgoblins. A changeling takes his place, transforming himself to look like the real Henry Day, as Henry is forced to live out his days with the hobgoblins.

Two narrators give life to this book. The new Henry gets a second chance at a human life and all the sorrows and conflicts that come with it. The old Henry, now called Aniday by his fellow changelings, has a very difficult time forgetting his former life.

I loved, loved, loved this story of loss and heartbreak. The Stolen Child is Donohue's first novel. It weaves magic and fairy tales into a profound look at our inner child and how the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Here's one of my favorite passages from the novel, where Aniday is contemplating all he's lost:

The most merciless thing in the world is love. When love flees, all that remains is memory to compensate. Our friends were either going or gone, their ghosts the best our poor minds could conjure to fill love's absence.

5 stars

"Autobiography of Red," by Anne Carson

This book was recommened to me by the lovely Metamorphose over at Anything Fun is Wrong. I finished it a couple of weeks ago, but I've held off reviewing it because I'm not sure how I felt about it.

Autobiography of Red is loosely based on the myth "Geryoneis," but Carson has made it contemporary. In this disturbing novel in verse, Geryon has red skin and wings. His childhood is marred by the painful learning of even the most elementary things. He is sexually abused by his older brother. Geryon's refuge is behind a camera lens and creating his own autobiography. Then as a young man, Geryon comes to love Herakles, an older boy who briefly shares the affection and passion, only to leave at the height of Geryon's love.

Years later, their paths cross again in Buenos Aires, along with Herakles' new lover, Ancash. The trio venture through South America together, tension brewing until violence erupts between Ancash and Geryon.

Here is a sad yet beautiful story that leaves more questions than answers. If nothing else, the freestyle verse is amazing.

4 stars

P.S. If possible, familiarize yourself with the myth before reading. Or just read the reviews on Amazon.

"You Suck," by Christopher Moore

Sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends.

This time around, Jody turns Tommy into a vampire against his wishes. Now they're both vulnerable to attacks that may happen during the daytime. To safeguard themselves, they enlist the help of 16-year-old goth girl Abby Normal.

Look for lots of return characters, including the Emperor and his dog companions, the two homicide dectectives, ancient vampire creator Elijah, and the Animals. New to the book is a blue (literally) whore named, duh, Blue.

This book was definitely funnier than the first, but it's all due to journal entries by Abby. She writes vicious insults and bemoans her earthly life, then ends most entries with an update on her sister's lice. Though Abby is merely a vampire minion, she steals every scene.

4 stars

"Five Men Who Broke My Heart," by Susan Shapiro

This is another example of the benefits I receive from working at the library. I get to see all the books other people are reading. Someone ordered this book, which I promptly ordered for myself.

Journalist Susan Shapiro's memoir is an account of a midlife crisis due to her approaching 40th birthday and infertility. When her ex-boyfriend Brad shows up, Shapiro begins reliving old memories and feelings. My favorite line as she's meeting Brad for lunch is, "Damn. I still love him." Then later she thinks, "Damn. I still hate him." So true.

Though happily married, Shapiro begins digging into her past, locating her top five biggest heartbreakers to interview them about their relationship, to find out their version of what went wrong. Yes, it's a little self-indulgent, but wouldn't we all like to confront and analyze at least one of our past relationships? We'd only hope to be this honest and funny about it.

4.5 stars

"Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story," by Christopher Moore

After being attacked in an alley, Jody awakens two days later to find she has been turned into a vampire. She has to get used to her new lust for blood, incredible strength, and aversion to sunlight. Enter C. Thomas Flood, a small town boy in the big city for the first time. Tommy is a wannabe writer who gets a job on the night crew of a supermarket, where he and the other members bowl with frozen turkeys, drink beer, and shoot at pigeons.

Jody meets Tommy and convinces him to be her daytime protector. As if learning her new powers and needing security from sunlight weren't enough, Jody's creator, an 800-year-old vamp named Elijah, is playing a sick game. He's leaving dead bodies for the police to find, all seeming to lead back to Jody and Tommy.

It's not the most clever plotline, but I'm telling you...funny. I laughed a lot while reading this book. It's definitely a quick read (done in 2 days), and I know I'll be picking up the sequel soon.

4.5 stars (extra points for making me laugh)

"Fangland," by John Marks

Fangland is unlike any book I've ever read, though it has been called a new take on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Forget the romantic vampire who seduces his victim before plunging his fangs into her neck. This book's dark villain uses a bucket and knife for his bloodletting, but it's his song of whispered places of the slain that drives to madness.

Evangeline Harker is an associate producer at the news show The Hour (think 60 Minutes). She is sent to Romania to scout the location and meet with crime lord Ion Torgu for a possible interview. Once there, she meets fellow American Clementine Spence, who travels with Evangeline to Transylvania, where she is scheduled to meet Torgu. After they part ways, Evangeline is abducted, not to be heard from again for months.

Now, the first third of the story was all Evangeline's to tell. And it was a creepy one, let me tell you. I could visualize it as a movie. I'm not usually scared by books, but this one was giving me goosebumps.

Then the rest of the book went back and forth between journal entries, emails, and so on. A virus infects the staff of The Hour, making editors and producers start losing their minds and, for a few, even their own lives.

I don't know how much I liked this book. It was definitely different and clever. There were some very spooky parts, which I liked. I think maybe if I had written this book, I would have stuck to one narrator. Possibly two. And I'm not sure exactly what thoughts the author wanted to leave the readers with, a sense of media as an outlet for the evils of the world? Or is it that we've become immune to the horrors out there, and by ignoring it, we're creating a greater injustice? Hmm... Deep thoughts.

4 stars

"May Day: A Murder-by-Month Mystery," by Jess Lourey

May Day follows former English major Mira James to a Minnesota small town when she agrees to house-sit during a friend's extended vacation. Newly employed at the local library and newspaper, Mira tries to acclimate to her surroundings. She's soon hot on the trail for truth after her new romance with a handsome archeologist abruptly ends with his murder.


Lourey writes with an amusing intimacy about this midwestern small town and its kooky inhabitants. Mira is a very likeable and hilarious character. How can I not relate to an English major turned part-time librarian stuck in a small town? Thank goodness I haven't found any hot dead guys in my reference section. But I thoroughly enjoyed this quick, very funny book.


4 stars

"Running with the Demon," by Terry Brooks

For some strange reason, I gave my dear blog readers the opportunity to suggest one book each for me to read this year. Tusk was the first to eagerly suggest a favorite, I assume, of his. So his was the first book I chose to read. And, incidentally, Running With the Demon is the first book in a trilogy.

Now, I'd like to start off by saying that, while I don't normally go for the fantasy novels, I have enjoyed a few. Unfortunately for me, this was not to be one of those few.

Nest Freemark is an adolescent girl who is by no means ordinary. She has magical powers (that she's not allowed to use), can see creatures no one else can, and is unaware that she's the rope in a crucial battle of tug-of-war between good (the Word) and evil (the Void). She's stalked by a Demon with a personal interest at stake. John Ross is a Knight of the Word who has come to protect her.

The story has everything you can think of: creepy shadow people called Feeders, an ancient evil monster, teenage love, magic, dysfunctional families, a steel mill strike. I guess there's a pretty good foundation for a decent story, but I was unmoved. Maybe if I hadn't been a Tolkien fan, I'd have liked it more. However, there were too many similarities to Lord of the Rings for me to appreciate Brooks' novel. Need some examples?

*LOTR had Ents, giant trees who can talk and walk and are crucial to the battle.
*Running had Pick, a 6-inch magical character made of twigs who can talk and walk and is crucial (at least in the first novel) to one of the battles.

*LOTR had the Elven Lady Galadriel, who showed Frodo visions of the past, present, and future.
*Running had the Lady, who chose John Ross to become a Knight of Word, and gave him the gift (or curse) of dreaming the future.

*LOTR had, obviously, the ring, which Frodo had to bear despite the toll it took upon him.
*Running had a sword that John Ross had to use as a staff or cane because becoming a Knight inflicted a limp upon him, so that he was never without his sword.

There were other things, but you get the idea. I read Amazon's review, along with those of readers, and they all seemed to love the book. Good for them, I guess. But once you've read Tolkien, nothing much compares.

3 stars

"Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood," by Julie Gregory

I stayed up late last night just to finish this book. I couldn't put it down. It's the true life story of a child growing up being deliberately sickened by her own mother. Julie Gregory's childhood was a series of doctor's visits, tests, unnecessary surgeries, and gross mistreatment at the hands of her parents.

Interspersed in the book are Gregory's real medical records, with only the names of physicians and hospital officials blacked out.

While it was Gregory's mother who insisted Julie was sick, always in pursuit of some "answer" to her mysterious medical conditions, both parents physically abused their child. But they always presented a united front in public, able to convince the world of a close-knit, loving family. Julie Gregory's love for her family and desperate need to please her mother ensured that no one would ever know about the abuse. In fact, the family eventually came to take in elderly veterans and foster children, all destined to suffer at the hands of Julie's mother.

Not since reading A Child Called It have I been so appalled and horrified at the living conditions and mistreatment of a child. But Gregory's story doesn't end tragically. This book is well worth the read, not only for the content, but for impeccable writing. I had to keep reminding myself that the book wasn't a work of fiction.

5 stars

"Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel," by Diana Peterfreund

"Think The Da Vinci Code meets Bridget Jones."

Need I say more? Okay, if you insist.

Amy Haskel is a junior in a prestigious college, Eli University. She works as an editor at a literary magazine and assumes she'll be joining a not-so-secret literary club. To her immense surprise, she gets "tapped" to join the ultimate boys club, Rose and Grave, the oldest and most powerful secret society on campus. Amy is part of the very first class to have women tapped to join, and soon she's hanging out with senators and CEOs. What could be better? Unfortunately, there are some members who are outraged at women joining, which leads to threats.

Mostly the book was fun and enjoyable. I was a little annoyed with the main character's commitment phobia. It didn't really ring true to me. It felt more like the author was trying to fit more in the novel than just cloak-and-daggers. There is a sequel on its way. I don't know if I'll read it, but for the most part, I did like this book.

4 stars

"Dead Until Dark," by Charlaine Harris

I've been lazy about updating, haven't I? So sorry.

Dead Until Dark is the first in a series of Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. It's the story of a barmaid named Sookie Stackhouse, who has the unusual ability to read minds. The world Harris creates is filled with vampires, who have recently made their presence known to the rest of the world and become legal citizens. They can now exist on artificial blood, so humans have nothing to fear. Or do they?

There are some sort-of good vampires and really evil ones, too. And the first vampire Sookie ever meets becomes her first boyfriend. (It's a little hard to date regular guys since Sookie can read their minds and know exactly what they think about her body and such. Vampires are like a blank canvas.) But being with a vampire has more than the obvious drawbacks (he's dead and drinks blood), such as violence following in his wake. And soon the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana is spotted with the deaths of women who have all been with vampires.

Sookie is an extremely likeable character. She's only high school educated, but uses things like a word-a-day calendar to educate herself. She's a little back-woods, but she's also sweet and funny and unforgettable.

I have read all of the other books in this series currently out, but I won't be reviewing all of them. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed each one. If you care to check them out as well, I'll leave you with a list of the titles in order.

4.5 stars

Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead (to be released May 1, 2007)

"Blind Submission," by Debra Ginsberg

Angel Robinson, in need of a job after the bookstore she works at closes, is pushed into applying at a literary agency by her (unpublished) boyfriend, Malcolm. She lands the job and dives right into a hellish workplace with a demanding boss, snoopy co-workers, and a never-ending pile of work. She quickly proves herself to be quite invaluable, working with authors to better their manuscripts. Then an anonymous author begins submitting pages of a story that sounds incredibly like Angel's own life. The story soon takes a scary turn when intimate details of Angel's life are revealed.

I have to say that I really liked this book. While I would love to work on authors' manuscripts, the manic pace of the agency and the high demands of the boss genuinely made me nervous. I think Angel was a pretty well developed character, as well as most of the other characters. It would have been nice if she's been a little stronger, but I guess that was rectified in the end.

4 stars

"Rise and Shine," by Anna Quindlen

Bridget is a social worker in New York who has always felt in the shadow of her older sister, Meghan, a morning talk show host. Then Meghan swears at a guest on her show when she thinks her microphone is off, and suddenly her world is falling apart. The FCC launches an investigation, tabloids disregard all of her charity work and focus on the mistake, and Meghan is forced to take a suspended "vacation" from work. And her husband leaves her. She flits away to Jamaica to regain sense of her self, or some crap like that.

Okay, now let me scrape away all the "prose" that critics are harping about and lay it all out the way it really is.

Bridget: I'm a social worker, and I help women who've been abused and mistreated find help and stand up for themselves. I help families in crises. But poor me, my big sister is so popular and beautiful, I can't stand up for myself when she treats me like crap. I'm also dating an old man.

Meghan: Oh, no one understands the pressure I'm under! I'm expected to be beautiful and elegant all the time. My husband doesn't realize that everything I've done has been for him and our son. My mistake is so tragic! I must run away and ignore my son, the one sane person in this crazy world.

Yuck. The only, and I do mean only, sympathetic character in this book is Meghan's son Leo. He's bright, caring, kind, and unselfish. And because the plot is lame, and all the other characters are lousy, what does the author decide to do? Yup. Let's allow Leo to get shot by an inner city thug and become a paraplegic. Even then, the drama is all about the two sisters. It's crap. Also, for every line of dialogue, there are five paragraphs of back story or flashbacks that have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the plot. Where the hell was this woman's editor???

2 stars, and that's only because of Leo. Poor, crippled Leo.

"Grave Surprise," by Charlaine Harris

Yes, I read the sequel. It did get better, though the sexual current between Harper and Tolliver continues to flow.

In this book, Harper is hired by an anthropology professor to demonstrate her dead body-finding abilities to his class. Confident that he'll prove her to be a phony, the prof is amazed to find Harper can identify every body in an old graveyard. With one shocking discovery. One grave contains an extra body, that of a young missing girl whom Harper had tried to find two years previously. You guessed it, Harper and Tolliver are forced to stick around to be hassled by police and locals until the whodunnit case is solved.

It's an entertaining read. Kind of on the dark side, which is how I like 'em.

4.5 stars

"The Thirteenth Tale," by Diane Setterfield

The Thirteenth Tale is the story of Margaret Lea, a young biographer hired to tell the true life story of Vida Winter, England's most famous writer. Up until this point, Vida had made up nineteen different versions of her past. Margaret is less than enthusiastic and demands the facts.

Frankly, I don't care to tell you anymore about the plot. It bored me to tears. I don't understand all the hype about this book. It was excruciatingly slow, and then finally, finally, when I thought I'd reached the end, there were two more chapters. I turn the page, and it's the final details wrapped up. I think I'm done. I turn the page, and it's like, "Oh, I know how when I finish reading a book, I wonder what happens to the characters afterwards. So I'm going to tell you what happens next." Seriously.

You know, maybe if this book had kept a better pace, and the main character wasn't so annoying, it would really be decent. There are some good elements to the story. The background and secrets that are revealed are sound. So I guess it's the writing that's to blame for this miss.

3 stars

By a Spider's Thread, by Laura Lippman

Apparently this is Lippman's eighth installment of a crime series. Had no idea before I started the book, but it makes no difference, really. I didn't feel left out. Anything that referred to the past was explained in short detail.

I really liked the first line of the book, which is why I decided to read it. "They were in one of the 'I' states when Zeke told Isaac he had to ride in the trunk for a little while." Sounds interesting, right?

Meh.

Tess Monaghan is a P.I. hired to help an Orthodox Jewish furrier, Mark Ruben, find his wife, who has just disappeared with their three children. It's all, "Oh, I'm super Jewish." "Oh, yeah? Well, I'm Jewish, but I don't care about religion...until someone puts Jews down, then I'm super pissed off and hypocritical." Blah, blah, blah.

Don't bother.

2 stars

"Severance: Stories," by Robert Olen Butler

The human head is believed to remain in a state of consciousness for 1.5 minutes after decapitation. In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at the rate of 160 words per minute. So Butler took this information and created stories narrated by the beheaded. Narrators include historical figures, such as John the Baptist, and the imagined, like a dragon beheaded by a knight. My favorite story was that of Nicole Brown Simpson.

I read it in under 2 hours. Definitely worth it.

4.5 stars

"Grave Sight," by Charlaine Harris

Apparently Harris has written many novels, and I've just never heard of them. Anyway, Grave Sight is the first novel in Harris' new series. It features Harper Connelly, who is a lightning-strike survivor. A gift (or curse?) left from the bolt is that she can now sense the dead. In other words, she can find dead bodies, know how they died, and actually see their last moments. She uses this skill as her only source of income, getting paid to travel the country with her step-brother Tolliver.

It was an okay book. Nothing spectacular. But what weirded me out was all this sexual tension between Harper and Tolliver. I wondered if I was crazy. But no, Amazon's review mentions it, too. There were a couple readers who reviewed the book also and claimed that there wasn't any sexual tension. But then, I can't expect everyone who reads to fully comprehend nuances. There'd be fewer people to make fun of.

Oh, and here's a quick quote from Publisher's Weekly. "A nifty puzzle toward the end will challenge the most jaded mystery buffs." Challenge? Dude, I solved it in a minute.

By the way, even though this wasn't the greatest book, I picked up the sequel already. Maybe it's the kind of story that gets better the longer it goes on. Or maybe I'll be wasting my time.

3 stars

"The Shadow Catchers," by Thomas Lakeman

This is a debut novel by Lakeman, and I couldn't put it down. I really have to be in the mood to read thrillers or mysteries, and this one gripped me from the opening pages to the very last paragraph.

FBI Agent Michael Yeager is on suspension after a child kidnapping case goes very, very wrong. He winds up in the Nevada desert (was that redundant?) brawling with a man who attempts to shove a handicapped kid in his truck. When that same man is later found murdered, and his daughter missing, Yeager is the prime suspect. The local sheriff clears him and asks him to unofficially assist in the missing girl's case. So begins a wild ride filled with psychological trauma, buried town secrets, and gore...lots and lots of gore. It was fantastic.

4.5 stars

The Guy Not Taken, by Jennifer Weiner

I liked all of JW's previous work, so it was a no-brainer to try this one out. Plus, I'm a huge fan of short stories. Unfortunately, this read like Intro to Creative Writing. Pretty much every lead character is damaged goods because of her father leaving when she was young. Wah. Oh, and most of them featured swimming in one form another. I know that we're taught, "Write what you know," but don't beat it to death. Not every bad thing in life can be traced back to your father being a bastard. It's time to grow up.

1.5 stars, and I'm being generous.