The League of Beastly Dreadfuls by Holly Grant (Juvenile,
Fiction)
This is the first book in a planned series and I remember very
little about it – not a good sign. A young girl is kidnapped because of special
abilities she might have and there is some shape changing involved. I think.
The special abilities part isn’t really clear yet. It’s not a scary story in
any way, even with the kidnapping, and, if I remember correctly, there’s lots
of humor. But it’s not a very good story. I’m always hopeful that I will find a
new fantasy series that I love; this one wasn’t it. I gave it three stars
because I did like the two main children characters, but I won’t read the rest
of the series.
The Dogs of Littlefield by Suzanne Berne (Adult, Fiction)
Someone is killing the dogs in a quaint Massachusetts town
where everybody knows your name and nearly everyone has a dog. This novel is
billed as a “comedy of manners,” so one might imagine that it’s a tale Jane
Austen would write if she were alive today. But I think Austen would have made
it funnier. And given us a plot.
Instead, the novel takes a “year in the life” approach to the town. Most
of the inhabitants are sad and discontented. And so the novel becomes just a
sad commentary on life today. I wanted more. I gave it just three stars. (Note that the dog-death total actually is small, but even one dog death is too many.)
Leave Me by Gayle Forman (Adult, Fiction)
Leave Me may be a difficult novel for some. It was for me.* Maribeth,
a young harried wife and mother, has a heart attack, though she’s so busy she
doesn’t even realize it. While recuperating she comes to feel that she’s not
appreciated or helped enough, so she leaves her family. She winds up being
pulled, in a sense, to Pittsburgh, where she tries to piece together parts of her life that
have been missing. Forman is a well-known young adult writer (I
loved her novel If I Stay) and actually a very good writer period. This story
has an interesting plot, though it does feel slow-moving at times, realistic
characters, and a mostly satisfying ending. I gave it four stars. *I had a hard
time with a mom leaving her child.
Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier (Juvenile, Fiction, Graphic
Novel)
The fun thing about many juvenile graphic novels is you can
read them in an hour or so. I read Ghosts one afternoon then gave it to my
niece to read and she read it that evening. No overdue books for us! In this heartfelt story, a family moves to a
coastal town in northern California where the clean salt air will be better for
their young daughter Maya, who is suffering from cystic fibrosis. Older sister
Cat is upset about the move and doesn’t adapt well at first. It doesn’t help
that the town is really into celebrating The Day of the Dead and Cat is afraid
of ghosts (and of losing her sister, something she can’t bear to think about). By
the end of the story, though, Cat not only befriends many non-scary ghosts but
also comes to better terms with her sister’s disease. I enjoy everything
Telgemeier writes, but only gave this four stars because the story made it seem
like Maya was at death’s door (she even meets a young ghost who tells her dying
isn’t so bad!). I think the lifespan for cystic fibrosis is closer to 40 or 50
years, rather than 10, and losing one’s sister won’t be as easy as the ghosts make
it seem. I’m probably being too picky.
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