SHOCKTOBER Undercurrent by Paul Blackwell YP FIC BLACKWELL

Callum Harris has no idea how or why he went down Crystal Falls. All he remembers is the sensation of being puled down, down, down into total blackness.  When he wakes up he can't see, move, or talk, which is a big problem while his best friend tries to kill him. Aster, he finally is able to communicate he notices everyone is treating him different, hostilely.  He tries to blow it off, but there are other changes.  The town has shut up building which used to be stores only Callum remembers.  Everyone is treating him like he's a completely different person.  His home, his family, even his own dog are all different, all wrong.  either everything in town has changed or he's losing his mind.  Either way he needs to figure out which fast, because it isn't just his former best friend that wants him dead and reality itself seems to be pulling him under.

This book is so creeeeeepy! It's like a really awesome episode of the Twilight Zone. It will keep you spinning and wondering which way is up.  It starts with a very tense and harrowing description of slowly coming out of a coma and not being able to communicate.  These opening chapters totally hooked me.  Blackwell perfectly conveys the panic and powerlessness of the situation and will have you feeling as trapped as poor Callum.  Then the next chapters have him awake, but deeply paranoid as to why people suspect him in the disappearance of someone he never met and who is trying to kill him. It really draws out the eeriness of hospitals late at night.  After that you feel like you can finally get a breather, but you're hit left and right with impossible changes to Callum's reality. He's constantly bouncing from situations that are both familiar and horribly foreign while trying to act 'normal' to people that see him as an almost totally different Cal. It will keep you totally off balance and as unsure as Callum if he's losing his mind or reality itself has shifted.  Either way it makes for a unsettling experience. I especially liked how Callum reacts to the changes.  He behaves totally realistically and is in a near panic that he has to do his best to hide. This is a lot more interesting than if he accepted his situation straight away or immediately went to theorizing and trying to 'fix' his problem. Undercurrent is the rare example of a great idea for a unique plot paired with great execution.  If you want your mind bended, definitely check it out.

You can find Undercurrent in our catalog here.

Crap Kingdom by D.C. Pierson YP FIC PIERSON

Tom Parking has a boring normal life.  Nothing horrible or tragic had ever happened to him and that's part of the problem.  Chosen Ones always have tragic lives!  Tom knows thinking about being plucked from his world and brought to another is a ridiculous dorky fantasy and has the good sense not to mention it to his one friend or the girl he likes and is terrified of, but then he is magically transported to another world after all!  Okay, so the messenger, Gark seems weird and it is kind of lame that the portal is a donation box in a Kmart parking lot, but he's the Chosen One, this is going to be awesome, right?  Unfortunately, he's the chosen one of a kingdom so lame they didn't even bother naming it.  Their philosophy is based around the idea that being miserable and expecting more misery to come is the best thing, because you'll never be disappointed, the King despises Tom, and every one lives in filth.  Tom decides ruining and risking his life is not worth being Chosen One and chooses not to be Chosen.  However, when they choose his best friend to be Chosen One, Tom is torn.  He's really great at it and Tom is left feeling like more of a loser than ever.  Tom has to find a way to reclaim his stolen destiny, but in doing so he may doom Grrjhrhh (they just use any random noise) and Earth and a bunch of worlds he doesn't even know about!

This is a very good book that frustratingly shies away from greatness.  On the very good side the book is funny and has an amazing premise.  It skewers the Chosen One cliche incredibly well and the first visit to Ghhghast is hilarious.  Unfortunately the book sort of lags between visits to Frhasaghafs and Earth.  Also, the book introduces very few characters overall and misses an opportunity by using the characters it has pretty sparingly.  Basically it's a real Tomfest.  Fortunately, Tom is funny and Pierson really draws on his inner nerd to really nail the feelings of resentment, awkwardness, and confusion that come with high school nerdom (So I've been told. I mean, I wasn't a big huge nerdo. REALLY!). The central arc of Tom becoming a better person and facing his insecurities works pretty darn well, but the final third of the book is rushed and there isn't enough world building of the world Tom travels to or the enemy that wants to control it.  This sounds like it would be a pretty serious dealbreaker, but Pierson really nails the humor and brings a lot of heart and feeling to the book, so much like Tom it succeeds in the end. If you like fantasy, but enjoy a good satire of it OR if you hate fantasy and wish to see it mocked OR if you're on the fence about fantasy and just like laughing in general, give this one a chance.

You can look in our catalog for Crap Kingdom here.

Doglands by Tim Willocks YP FIC WILLOCKS

Furgul is born into the harsh life of a greyhound puppy mill, but his birth marks him for death.  He’s a half breed, his father a stray that snuck in and out of the seemingly inescapable mill.  Furgul is slated to be killed in vicious the dog fighting ring and his only hope is to try and find his father in the fabled Doglands.

Full disclosure: I can NOT read the minds of dogs.  However, if I could, I feel confident that it would be very similar to Doglands.  That is the real hook of Doglands: getting inside the heads of pooches in peril.  I really found myself believing in and caring about the characters, which is hard enough to find with humans. The book looks at the choice between the safety of being a pet and the risk of being free.  It’s a very clever allegory about human existence as well as an exciting read.  I think this book has a huge amount of crossover appeal to fans of YA of all stripes.

The Painted Boy by Charles De Lint YP FIC DELINT

Jay Li has known he was different when a dragon tattoo magically appeared on his back on his 11^th birthday. Now 17, Jay is headed from the mean streets of Chicago to the desert of an Arizona border town. Jay discovers that not only is he part of an ancient society called the Yellow Dragon clan, but he is also a dragon himself. He has to navigate the criminal gangs that run the town, avoid run ins with other mystical animal clans, and form new friendships if he is to learn about his new powers and survive the quest he is destined to undertake.

This is a great read for contemporary fantasy fans. It has a well developed lead character, cool powers, and a great setting. The mix of the beauty of the American Southwest with mystical elements is a brilliant choice by De Lint. The mix of criminal gangs and ancient clans of animal shapeshifters also works really well, because the more magical elements are grounded by the real world problems. I especially enjoyed having a cast of Asians and Latinos that are well developed and can show readers a look into other cultures. Like most, Child of Destiny discovers new powers, learns to use them, undertakes a grave and perilous quest books Painted Boy starts a little slow and occasionally covers ground that is too familiar, but the unique setting and cast and De Lint’s skill at writing make this one well worth reading. Fans of the Percy Jackson books (YP FIC RIORDAN) really need to give Painted Boy a look.

The Replacement by Brenn Yovanoff YP FIC YOVANOFF

Mackie Doyle is not Mackie Doyle. He’s a replacement. Left in exchange for the real Mackie Doyle sixteen years ago, he’s lived with humans his whole life knowing he was different, but not fully knowing why. All he knows is that the mere presence of iron makes him deathly ill and he can’t go onto consecrated ground, but no one is willing to talk about what he really is. When another child is taken and Mackie finds himself becoming friends with the child’s sister Mackie decides to go with her into an underworld known as Mayhem and face the creatures that left him in the first place and his own destiny.

This is a confidently written first novel from Yovanoff. It’s got well developed characters an unusual plot, and great descriptive language. It draws very well from the darker of Irish folk tales and keeps things gross and ghoulish like the classic Grimm fairy tales that usually ended with children dying horribly for misbehaving. If you like heroic journeys with lots of strange creatures in fantastic lands then you should really like this one. It reminded me some of Goto’s Half World (YP FIC GOTO), which I also quite enjoyed.

Afterschool Charisma by Kumiko Suekane YP FIC SUEKANE

St Kleio Academy is not your average boarding school. Every student is a clone of a famous historical figure. Motzart, Joan of Ark, Elzaibeth I, Sigmund Freud, and even Hitler all go to class together and learn how to live up to their awesome potential. But there is a single non-clone student: shiro Kamiya, son of the principal and desperately trying to fit in with a school filled with madmen, geniuses, and genius madmen. But there is something behind the scenes that threatens the lives of all the clones and it may just be that their protectors are as bad as the unseen enemy.

This is a wonderfully weird little manga. When I read that Hitler was going to be a character I was really wary, because he’s not the ideal guy I want to read a manga about. But the way they introduce him is pretty perfect and he’s a well thought out character (after all as a teen Hitler wasn’t a genocidal monster yet). You won’t have to worry about knowing much history because the characters all get explained as they go along, but of you like history then it does add another layer of fun to the whole book. The story is just getting started but this seems like a great manga to watch.

The Returners by Gemma Malley YP FIC MALLEY

Will doesn’t know if he has a future. His mom died when he was a boy and his father is a raging bigot that wants to keep England for the English. To make matter worse at night he has horrible dreams of death and carnage. Will just wants to be left alone and ignored. Unfortunately wherever he goes he is watched by strangers, all with the same sad, doomed eyes. No one believes him, and he isn’t sure what he believes himself, but then they make contact. They are the Returners, immortal souls that exist to witness the great atrocities of humanity, only to die horribly and be reborn just in time for new horrors. Will says he isn’t one of them, but how do they know about his nightmares of past genocides? As he runs from them and starts to question his reality he starts remembering things he had blacked out in his own life. And when he learns his destiny as a Returner is different than those who follow them he decides he will reject his fate, but can anyone escape fate? Or is history really doomed to repeat itself forever?

This is a dark and thrilling ride into the mind of a troubled teen with some pretty special problems. What works best about the story though is that many of Will’s problems are very real. His mother died in front of him at a young age, his bouts of rage scare and excite him, and his father’s bigotry repels him but also is somehow appealing. These are all things that happen in the world every day. It shows that history’s monsters and madmen were once just confused spiteful young men and women. It is a much more compelling view of how evil is born than most novels usually take. The novel is set only 7 years in the future in England and the idea that a recession in 2009 could lead to a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment is chillingly realistic. This is a scary and tense read that looks at how evil is formed and what can be done (if anything) to prevent it.