More Than This by Patrick Ness YP FIC NESS

"Here is the boy, drowning.
In these last moments, it's not the water that's finally done for him; it's the cold.
It is too late for him.
He will die.
And he will die alone.

He dies."

He wakes up.  He's covered in weird bandages. Well, partially covered.  He's in a strange, desolate, dried up town that seems totally empty and totally dead.  Then he finds something that cannot be. His childhood home.  The one in England. The one an ocean away from where he died. The one he left years ago after the tragedy that no one in his family will talk about.  The tragedy that is all. his. fault.  It is a dusty dead, burnt out world. A world in which he doesn't dream, so much as relive his past life in painful, frustrating detail. Since he can't really be alive and he can't really be in England. He realizes that he must be in his own personal, private Hell.  But even in Hell, there has to be more than this!  Doesn't there?

This is a tough book to review, because so much of what I love about it would reveal plot twists that should go unspoiled!  I can say that Ness has hit it out of the park once again with his deft use of realistic reaction and emotion in fantastic and seemingly impossible situations. The boy, Seth is a scared and scarred teen trying to survive and looking for a reason to survive. His doubts and frustration in the dead world he wakes up in and in his reliving his past are so well conveyed they feel universal.  I found myself rooting for Seth whether he was gripped by loneliness and despair or searching anywhere for a glimmer of hope.  Ness is able to wring drama and action aplenty with Seth just wandering around his new wasteland home, before he ever begins to reveal any of the books mysteries. For the price of one book (free because we are a library) you get a weird sci-fi (maybe) apocalytpic adventure, a devastating and harrowing look at living (and dying) with grief, a TOTAL brain twisting look at the very nature of reality itself, a beautiful and painful contemporary romance (as told in flashback), and several other wonderful surprises I won't spoil!

Young Adult fiction definitely has a lot of books where the main character has a painful past that is revealed bit by bit every few chapters until the final cathartic reveal. What makes More Than This stand apart is that the structure isn't just used to string the plot out, it becomes a part of the plot and the deeper themes of the book itself. Also, unlike some books that use this device, you never want to yell "HURRY UP ALREADY!!!", because BOTH worlds Seth is living in are fascinating in their own way.  I highly recommend this to anyone taht wants to read something truly unique.  It is going SUPER high on my Best Of list this year, and I think it will top yours too.

Check our catalog for More Than This here.

Batman VS Superman: Batman: Year One by Frank Miller art by David Mazzuchelli YP FIC MILLER

In celebration of our Batman VS Superman election, I'll be reviewing MY favorite Superman and Batman books Of All Time! I'll try not to reveal any Bat-Bias or Super-Subjectiveness that could unduly influence this election. 

One night changed Bruce Wayne's life forever. A random act of violence took away his parents and gave him something new: a mission.  Now, after year of training his body and mind he is ready to com home.  He is ready to take back Gotham.  A city of crime, sin, and corruption at the highest levels.  Can one man save a city? No, but maybe a bat can.

This one book, even more than Miller's also excellent the Dark Knight Returns, changed the course of Batman forever.  It is as if Miller completely rewrote his DNA and brought Batman in all his dark glory into the real world. This is a young and inexperienced Bruce Wayne, that barely survives his first disastrous outings. It allows the reader to see the Batman form over time and have a real understanding and investment in what makes Bruce into Batman. In starting Batman over from scratch, Miler gets to the core of what makes Batman so fascinating: an obsessive drive to make sure that no one else has to watch their loved ones die by crime and a fanatical devotion to a code of honor.  

Miller also greatly enlarges the importance of characters that were underutilized at the time, like Catwoman and Jim Gordon. Placing a young and principled Jim Gordon on the incredibly corrupt Gotham police force made Gordon into a whole new character as vital to the Batman story as any character.  

Mazzuchelli's art is perfect for the book.  He has Batman as a menacing figure using shadows and his cape to look larger than life, but gives Bruce the realistic body of a superb athlete.  This isn't the highly muscled Batman that is seen in most comics and this makes the Batman even more impressive, because he seems so much more human.  The reality makes the idea of a man taking on crime single handed all the more impressive.

Miller is able to make Batman's war with the mob that owns the city as compelling as any Two-Face or Joker story ever written.  If you are a fan of the Christopher Nolan Batman films, then you owe a debt of thanks to Year One.  This is a perfect book for both those that are already batty for Batman or total Bat-beginners.

You can find Batman: Year One in our catalog here.

Batman VS Superman: All Star Superman by Grant Morrison Art by Frank Quitely YP FIC MORRISON

In celebration of our Batman VS Superman election, I'll be reviewing MY favorite Superman and Batman books Of All Time! I'll try not to reveal any Bat-Bias or Super-Subjectiveness that could unduly influence this election. A coin flip decided that this time Superman goes first (but YOU will decide who laughs last!)

Superman is dying.  A fiendish plot by the archest of fiends, Lex Luthor has overdosed Superman on solar radiation.  Superman has to decide how to best spend his last days while also uncovering Lex's final plan to Take over the World!  Will Superman be able to save the day one last time? Or will the Last Son of Krypton fizzle out too soon?

This is my all time favorite Superman story by miles and miles.  It is a two volume masterwork that pays homage to over 70 years of Superman comics.  Morrison is a huge fan of the entire run of Superman, including the often wacky and bizarre storylines of the 1940s and 50s that saw Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen getting weird powers as well as all sorts of other zaniness.  Morrison melds these wacky plots with a serious and at times sad and uplifting story of a dying Superman.  By taking silliness seriously he is able to look at Superman as a man and a myth at the same time.  There is an overabundance of big ideas that Morrison explores and the plot careens between one odd adventure to the next leaving the reader reeling.  There is a mix of science fiction, comedy, two-fisted combat, horror, philosophy, and loads of other influences. Fortunately, the books many plots all end up making sense together and pay off incredibly well.  

The art by Frank Quitely is quite breathtaking in places.  It has a fine level of detail, but remains unrealistic enough to have the garish costumes of superheroes not look silly. The beautiful art and daring design work make reading and rereading a consummate pleasure even when the plot threatens to go (way) over the reader's head.  

This is a treasure trove for long time Superfans with an almost uncountable in-continuity references to the entire Superhistory and a wonderful place for new fans to jump in and learn everything that makes Superman so super.


You can find All Star Superman in our catalog here

Extremities: Stories of Death, Murder, and Revenge by David Lubar YP FIC LUBAR

A group of girls give their gym teacher a dose of her own medicine, a boy plots the perfect murder of his 'perfect' parent, a boy falls for a girl so beautiful she's to die for, and ten more tales of doom from David Lubar.

David Lubar opens by saying "This is not a book for children," but honestly I think this would be a pretty good read for horror fans of many ages.  Sure it has a good amount of death, dismemberment, and murderous teens, but the carnage and gore is kept to a nice minimum.  It makes for a nice alternative to the likes of Charlie Higson and Darren Shan's hyper-gory scare fests.  I love all the guts and grime of their books, but its nice to have creepy alternatives that don't get so vivid about viscera.  It reminds me of a modern update to the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series (J 398.25 SCHWARTZ), which is my gold standard for creepy!  The stories are almost all very quick.  Just long enough to set a mood and pull off a fun or sick or shocking (or a combination of the three) twist and end strong.  But he's really good at pacing the longer stories, so they are just as compelling as the quick ones.  His writing is super simple and very easy to read, which works very well for the type of page turning, look over your shoulder, goosebump raising stories he's writing.  A really fun and classically creepy read for the horror fans from casual to serious.
You can find Extremities in our catalog here.

The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand by Gregory Galloway YP FIC GALLOWAY

Adam Strand is bored.  So bored.  So bored that he wants to die. So he does. 39 times.  Each time he wakes up “good” as new.  Each time the people around him feel more and more devastated and he feels more and more drawn to die.  Only when another person needs him does he start to question his place in the world and what his absence would mean.

Fair warning: this is a frank and unapologetic look at the urge to die.  This is one of the least sentimental looks at suicide and suicidal thought I’v ever read, which makes it seem all too real. Adam pulls no punches and makes no apologies for wanting to die.  Thusly, he isn’t always the most likable or relatable protagonist.  However, he is clever and intelligent and his feeling of utter alienation and emptiness has been felt by a full 100% of the human population at least once during their lifetimes, so perhaps he’s so unsettling because in a dark and scary way he IS relatable. Galloway’s writing is excellent for the subject matter.  He is excellent at drawing the reader in then pushing the reader away.  This seesaw between interest and anger at Adam’s clearly selfish and devastating actions make for tough but fascinating reading.  Since we are stuck with Adam as our Point of View we have to deal with his apathy and lack of understanding.  This makes the book a character study of sadness and isolation that is hard to beat in YA literature.  I was very happy that Galloway introduced elements of self-awareness and growth slowly and organically.  You can’t have a kid kill himself 39 times and then meet a great gal or a true friend and then turn everything around.  At the same time, it would be irresponsible if the book didn’t address the harm in Adam’s actions and just reveled in bleakness and edginess. Fortunately, Galloway excels at avoiding either extreme. I think anyone that wants to read a incredibly well written book should pick this up, especially if they know someone that has or has had problems with wanting to die.  However, I don’t think anyone entertaining the thought of suicide should read this book until they’ve sought help first, because books like this can be triggering for people facing such thoughts.

As Galloway does at the end of this book I urge anyone considering harming themselves, or anyone that worries someone they know may harm themselves, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-784-2433 or visit www.suicidehotlines.com.   

You can check our catalog for The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand here.

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield YP FIC ROSENFIE

Amelia Anne is dead but she isn’t gone quite yet.  Becca is ready to get away.  Get away from her small town and everyone that knows her, but the sudden violent death of a stranger keeps Becca stuck as her life seems to spiral out of control over a long summer.  She soon learns that she has more in common with a dead stranger than anyone she thinks she knows and loves, and that the people around her know more about the stranger’s death than they’re letting on.

This book is a weird hybrid between small town coming-of-age tale, gritty murder mystery, and poetic look at the similarities and differences between love, sex, and death. That may seem like an odd combination, and at times it does veer perilously close to melodrama, the end result is an original and powerful look at the perilous period between adolescence and adulthood.  The book occasionally gives chapters from Amelia Anne’s point of view, teasing the reader with knowledge the main character doesn’t have.  This also highlights how much Amelia and Becca have in common and how (and this is sort of a major theme of the book) people that never even meet in life can be connected by death and how violence has ripple effects no one could ever anticipate.  The slow reveal of what REALLY happened to Amelia really builds the tension and having the mystery develop from two points of view makes the story richer and more entertaining. 

Honestly, I had a hard time liking Becca at first because she’s going through a hard time and doesn’t handle it all that well at first.  Also, I immediately liked Amelia Anne and that made the comparison sort of unflattering, but Amelia is several years older than Becca and as I read on I started to see why the death of a total stranger was having such a bizarre effect on Becca. It’s to the author’s credit that she never spells it directly out for the reader and allows you to figure it out for yourself what lies beneath the surface. The prose is truly the shining star of the book.  Rosenfield makes the ordinary seem vital (which is crucial in a book that takes its time to build to any climax) and is able to slowly unfold a moment with her words.  I think Ellen Hopkins fans will appreciate this book (even though it isn’t in verse it’s beautifully written words often feel like poetry), but it moves slower than some of her novels.  It’s dark, sad, and offers no easy answers, but I think honest books about violence ought to be complex.  A very good and very rewarding read that isn’t for everybody, but that will stay with everybody that reads it.

You can check our catalog for Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone here.

The Year of the Beasts by Cecil Castellucci and Nate Powell YP FIC CASTELLU

Tessa and her younger sister Lulu always had a sibling rivalry, but it turns to outright jealousy when Lulu starts seeing Tessa’s secret crush, Charlie.  Tessa starts to feel like an outcast and a monster and finds herself drawn to Jasper, a troubled loner.  Jealously builds resentment and resentment builds to a tragedy that could destroy them all.

Told in alternating chapters with one being a realistic fiction and the other being a graphic novel that shows Tessa and all her friends as mythological creatures, the book starts a tad jolting.  There isn’t an immediate explanation for the difference and it through me for the first few chapters.  “So is she a medusa lady or not!?” I guessed at first that it was all to do with the idea that “we all feel like monsters at one time or another as teens,” or something like that, but it has a deeper meaning that reveals itself as the book goes on.  This is definitely a “not for everyone” title.  It mixes realistic fiction and graphic novel storytelling in a unique way to tell a story in an original way.  It really does pay off for readers that stay with it.  It makes the tale both modern and timeless and explores the nature of tragedy in an utterly believable way.  I found myself really believing Tessa’s’ character and feeling her pain, even though throughout I wished she’d make different choices.  Of course, that’s the very essence of tragedy, Also Nate Powell is one of the most expressive and interesting artists working in graphic novels for teens today.  He does haunting looks at the pain of adolescence like nobody’s business! I highly recommend it to any reader that wants to branch out into more adult and mature graphic novels, or to try books that tell stories in new ways.  

You can check our catalog for The Year of the Beasts here.

Mister Death’s Blue Eyed Girls by Mary Downing Hahn YP FIC HAHN

It was the last day of school. 1956.  Nora’s life was so simple, her biggest worry finding a boyfriend. Mister Death changed all that. BANG. BANG. Cheryl and Bobbi Jo were dead.  All fingers point to Cheryl’s ex-boyfriend, Buddy.  No one knows about Mr. Death.  Nora doesn’t know what to believe any more. Not about the murders, not about Buddy, not about God, life, love, death, or any of the rest of it.  Told through the eyes of the kids left behind, this is the story of the last summer of innocence.

This is a sad and haunting mystery about all that death robs from those left behind.  The violence is left off screen and the shifting focus is on the teenagers that knew the victim. The shifting focus keeps the suspense building and helps underscore how violence has such large ripple effects.  This let’s Hahn explore much more than just a mystery, but also a lot about 1950s society.  This is based on a real event that happened when Hahn was a teenager and she does an amazing job of bringing that to life in a way that feels immediate.  She is able to write as a teenager and also finish with an epilogue written at the age she is now and have both feel totally genuine.  The story is a great look at a different time, but also the way that childhood has to end for everyone.  I recommend this to fans of historical fiction and anyone that wants a well written, suspenseful read.

You can check our catalog for Mister Death’s Blue Eyed Girls here.