Midwinter Blood by Marcus Sedgwick YP FIC SEDGWICK

A reporter in 2073 investigates a remote island said to have discovered the secret to immortality, an archeologist in 2011 tries to dig the island's secrets from the ground, a downed pilot in WW II trying to go home, further back a painter, further back a ghost, further still a vampire, and last or first a Viking king.  Throughout it all a love that lives and dies again and again.  Seven stories that all make on tale of Midwinter Blood.

I can see very easily why this won the prestigious Printz Award. It is dark, lyrical, haunting, and stays with you every time you put the book down. It is a sad, beautiful, and frightening look at lives interconnected by love, loss, and violence. This isn't a ghastly and gory look-out-it's-right-behind-you!!! kind of book, it's a much creepier slow building tension. The feeling of inevitable and inescapable doom. The very first chapters introduce you to a strange, seemingly perfect island. Since, we've all seen the movies and read the books about perfect small towns, that alone puts the reader on edge. Sedgwick ratchets up the tension quickly but vaguely. You know something is very wrong, but not what. This will be a recurring theme!  

Sedgwick jumps each story further back in time repeating images, phrases, and similar characters. This can be maddening at first, because you get so little to go on to solve the ever weirder mystery. Even when you finish the book entirely you may feel like you have more questions than answers. I'd like to go on record as calling that a good thing. It's so refreshing to read a book that respects teen readers enough to let them come up with their own answers.

What's so great about this book, is that it's deep and simple.  Sedgwick relies on as few words as necessary making it a stark and spare style that fits his story and themes perfectly. It also makes it so much easier to be swept quickly again and again on the currents of time. This is a rare and unique novel that should be read by anyone that loves a good story, especially a dark and haunting one

You can find Midwinter Blood in our catalog here.

 

Thor, God of thunder : The God Butcher by Jason Aaron art by Esad Ribic YP FIC AARON

Thor is a brash young god (just a few 100 years old!) in the age of vikings who lives for adventure and conquest, but is not yet ready to wield Mjolnir*, on of the mightiest weapons of all gods.  Thor is the God of Thunder, possessor of Mjolnir, Avenger, protector of Earth.  Thor is king of all of Asgard and the last living God in the universe thousands of years into the future.  In all these times Thor must face an enemy like he has never conceived of: the God Butcher.  A being that is so powerful he searches the cosmos to methodically, slowly, ruthlessly torture and kill entire pantheons of gods.  If he fails in this task then all of creation is threatened.

This comic is absolutely epic.  It tells three unique stories in Thor's youth, maturity, and old age and all three work to build the tension and make the story larger than life.  The three separate arcs all meet up in very interesting ways, so it isn't just pointless flashbacks to convey character. It also harkens back to good ole' Jack Kirby Thor comics that often had back up stories of young Thor.  In this case it makes the story one beyond the limits of time itself, which makes it seem a tale fit for mythology and the gods!  Plotting, dialogue, and character are all top notch, but it's the absolutely gorgeous
painted art that makes it's something really special.  Esad Ribic is a true talent and his full and beautiful images make this seem like an instant classic.  He can convey beauty and grisly horror equally well, and really brings back the awe in reading about gods and monsters. This is easily the best new book in the Marvel Comics line and a great place for new fans to start. So if you are a long time super hero fan or just want to know who the blond dude in The Avengers was, check out Thor, God of Thunder: The God Butcher!


You can find Thor, God of Thunder: The God Butcher in our catalog here.




*Which translates to "That which smashes".  AWESOME!

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross YP FIC CROSS

Mira has lived her whole life with secrets. How did her parents die? Why is she prohibited from returning to her birthplace? `Why does she get the feeling everyone she knows is lying to her?  When she finally breaks away and makes it to her home town of Beau Rivage she discovers that more secrets than ever.  She falls quickly for Blue, a man everyone says is dangerous, but she feels like she can’t pull away from him.  Life in Beau Rivage is strange, just like a fairy tale…literally. She soon finds that all the residents of Beau Rivage are fated, cursed to live out legendary fairy tales, and she is beginning think hers has a Grimm ending.

Reimagined fairy tales are the new dystopias, vampires, fallen angels, whatever the big thing this month is!  They are in loads of movies, TV shows, and books, so it can be tough knowing which of the 3,486,794 fairy tale retellings released a month to give your precious time to. Fortunately, Kill Me Softly is something rather special.  It takes the fairy tales before Disney cleaned them up, finds the odd fascination with love and death and blends it into a modern romance. I think the novels twists work pretty well, but if you are familiar with old fairy tales, you’ll know some of the major ones fairly early on.  However, once the book is all about the strangling hand of inexorable fate, then that actually adds its own level of enjoyment.  The main fun is seeing the skewed fairy tales and trying to guess how everything will turn out. Underneath the romance and mystery is a look at the dark and dangerous side of fairy tale love.  I think Cross does a really good job at looking at te relationship between real life abusive relationships and the fairy tale like logic that people trapped in them often use.  This is a great, twisted, dark romance.  I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something unique. 

You can check our catalog for Kill Me Softly here.

The Odyssey by Homer Adapted and Illustrated by Gareth Hinds YP FIC HOMER

Odysseus fought for years in the Trojan War, helping to win it with his cunning strategies, but he did not receive a hero’s welcome. Instead he is opposed by the God of the sea, Poseidon and sent through many strange and perilous adventures, while his kingdom and very home are supplanted by suitors attempting to marry his wife and take his throne. He must defy terrifying creatures on land and sea, witches, Gods, fate, and the sea to make it home and win back his life.

This is EPIC! Not just because it is an Epic Poem, but also because it is Epic as a visual translation of an epic poem. Hinds does a perfect job of bringing the language of Homer to the page and making it relatable. His art is excellent. I found myself reading several chapters multiple times just to savor the art. He makes you truly care about the characters with how well he captures faces and emotions. He is just as skilled at rendering believable monsters and showing fast and bloody action. I read the final climactic battle scenes five times to really appreciate all the carnage and bloodshed (poetically described, of course)! Any and every person should also read the original The Odyssey (883.01 HOMER), but any one that enjoys the Odyssey or wants help in understanding it should absolutely read Gareth Hinds’ adaptation.

Num8ers by Rachel Ward YP FIC WARD

Jem has seen the numbers since she was born, projected on her brain whenever she looks into someone’s eyes. But it wasn’t until the day her mom died of an overdose that she figured out what the numbers mean: the day the person will die. Knowing this, Jem tries to avoid meeting anyone’s gaze or forming any attachment, but a strange boy named Spider is slowly growing on her, which makes the fact he has only one month to live a constant pain for Jem. When spider and Jem are both near a horrible crime, they have to flee and Jem is determined to find a way to save Spider. But can anything beat the numbers?

This book is rough and tough stuff. Jem and Spider live in poverty in England and are surrounded by crime, drugs, and hopelessness. The novel works so well because Ward really brings these characters to life and lets the reader get to know their world without judging them or writing them off. Because the the novel feels so gritty and real it doesn’t really seem like Sci Fi even though Jem has a unique power. The fact that Jem tries so hard not to use it makes it all the more interesting when she does. I think this is a great read for fans of Ellen Hopkins (YP FIC HOPKINS) and Kevin Brooks (YP FIC BROOKS) or other authors that write stories about seriously troubled teens. This is not a super fun action read, but if you want something a little more serious and unique, give Num8ers a chance.