SHOCKTOBER You Know What You Have to Do by Bonnie Shimko YP FIC SHIMKO

Mary-Magdalene (Maggie to her friends) Feigenbaum seems like your average 15 year old.  Sure she has a weird name and her step-dad is the local mortician. Sure her mom dresses like a trashy teenager from the 80s (coincidentally when she had Maggie) and acts more like her sister, but relatively normal. Except for the voice.  The one that tells her she has to kill and how to get away with it.  The one that's already had her kill once and wants her to kill again. 

This is an engrossing thriller that will garb ahold of you and keep you reading as fast as you can to the very end.  It's a sick sort of thrill to be in the mind of a teenage serial killer.    Since we get the entire story from her perspective, we share in her fear of getting caught instead of rooting for it.  It's also really creepy that she spends so much time worrying about her relatively mundane boy problems and issues with her once-dorky friend joining the Cool Kids Table. The focus of this, distracts from the fact that we're being told the story from a cold blooded killer until the voice comes back and brings us back to sobering reality. Maggie's drive for murder is just one aspect of her life.  It's normality to her is genuinely unnerving and way more unsettling then if she was more conflicted outwardly. Maggie is also genuinely funny, with a dry sense of humor she shares with the reader and hides form the rest of the world.  This makes her both weirdly likable and made me feel complicit, like I was keeping her secrets. 

Unfortunately, the book has some notable flaws that keep it from being as good as it could have been.  Most the characters seem sort of thinly fleshed out, without much deep personality.  However, we are getting the viewpoint of a cold blooded murderer, so that could be partially why we don't get to know them very well.  Also, there's some occasional clunky dialogue and the book sometimes feels sanitized for your protection.  This is clearly a deliberate choice to make the book less graphic and bleak, but it will seem unrealistic to some readers.  however, it really worked for me.  Maggie is a bit shy and her best friend is woefully naive, so that fit their characters relatively well.  Also, keeping a lot of cursing and gory details made the book more medium dark than out and out bleak.  It reminded em of Lois Duncan, R L Stine, and Christopher Pike.  Always creepy and dark but usually not very explicit, but I think Shimko has the potential to out-write them all.  However, I think many readers will dislike the ending.  Without spoiling anything the book ends pretty abruptly and some people you expect to get the bloody justice they deserve don't.  Personally, I found the ending sort of ambiguous.  It definitely did end a bit too quickly and neatly for my tastes, but Maggie isn't the most reliable of narrators, so I'm not convinced as she is that her troubles are really over. Instead of feeling cheated by an anticlimax, I found it clever.  It made me realize that I was looking for more violence!  I was getting as bad as Maggie! I will admit that not getting more real answers about Maggie's condition was galling, but the faults are never enough to keep the book from being seriously gripping.  I highly recommend it to thriller fans. 

You can find You Know What You Have to Do in our catalog here.

SHOCKTOBER The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman YP FIC WASSERMAN

In Oleander they call it the Killing Night.  One night, five murderers, no motives.  Only one of the five lived and she's locked away. Locked away like the memories.  Until the storm.  The storm that rips the city wide open. The town is surrounded by troops, quarantined. Something dark has woken up in Oleander.  Something that can make anyone a killer. And it's inside everyone.

The story is told from the perspcetives of Ellie: a girl that thinks God is speaking to her, West: a popular jock with a secret, Daniel: son of the local crazy man, Jule: unwilling part of the town's infamous meth family, and Cass: the only killer to survive Killing Night.  The jumps in perspective help keep thing interesting and help build a sense of closeness to the book's characters.  It also helps us see lots of the town slowly unraveling from different points and builds the tension to a fever pitch.  Wasserman does a good job of developing the characters, so that even if you won't be crazy for all of them, at least one will speak to you.  Then she starts the slaughter and no one is safe, so the fear gets ratcheted up fast and furious.  I've read several reviews that compare this book to early Steven King and I think that is accurate and very intentional.  It has a secluded small town going crazy, authority figures turning into mad despots, and several other classic King touches.  It is bleak, depressing, terrifying, and totally riveting.  It is definitely a long read and after some early mayhem goes for a long slow build, but it truly pays off.  Wasserman handles the emotional moments and the building relationships with a deft hand.  This makes the first deaths all the more shocking and the later violence almost numbing, with jolts of terror.  It's quite effective as horror and also a clever look at the idea of the violence within our society.  I'd definitely only recommend it to people that can stomach dark and violent reads, but for fans of serious horror this is one of the best books in a long while. 

You can find The Waking Dark in our catalog here.

Mojo by Tim Tharp YP FIC THARP

Dylan Jones wants 'it'.  Charisma, the x factor, that undefinable something: mojo. With mojo, you have power, respect, without mojo you have Dylan, a practical non entity with just enough friends to count on two fingers.  After he (literally) stumbles upon a dead body in a dumpster, and the richest girl in town go missing, Dylan figures his knack of being in the wrong place at the right time might just lead him to solve the case and maybe finding some mojo along the way.

Full disclosure: I picked this book up hoping it would be a memoir by Mojo JoJo.It wasn't, but dag-nab-it I ended up reading it anyways! It is one of a group of mysteries that takes the hard boiled style of the detective stories of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett and transports them to a high school near you.  As a avid reader of those two-fisted who-dun-its I am a sucker for the gab and grit of those books thrown into a new setting.  Mojo does not disappoint.  It get's plenty hard boiled when our hapless hero happens upon some seriously out of his league criminality. Drug dealers, murder, kidnapping, private school gangsters, and class warfare all stand in the way of Dylan and his big scoop (and chance at some elusive coooool).  The book also has a serious humorous side as Dylan and his friends often crack wise (or crack stupid in his best bud's Randy's case) and find the funny side of crime and punishment.  It's like a bit darker version of the Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin (YP FIC BERK), which I loved. I will say that some of the close shaves Dylan gets out of are a bit fa fetched, but the book was so fun and fast paced I never really minded.  A great summer read for the mystery humor fans.

You can find Mojo in our catalog here.

Becoming Holmes by Shane Peacock YP FIC PEACOCK

Sherlock Holmes is at a crossroads. At 17 is seems his life may be over before it has begun. He has lost or is losing all the people that tied him to his past, the only chances of love he ever dared imagine for himself, and his future is the darkest mystery he has ever faced.  There is only one thing that can, pull him for the darkness of despair, a case! And it is the case of his young career, the evil mastermind Malefactor has finally tipped his hand.  Now Holmes and Malefactor begin a deadly battle of wits.  If Holmes survives this he may yet seize his destiny as the world’s greatest detective.

This is in many ways a perfect ending to Peacock’s excellent series.  It finally brings Holmes to the position to become THE Sherlock Holmes we know from the original mysteries. It even very cleverly accounts for differences in the original stories and this series in a dramatically satisfying manner.  One of the things that works best about this series is the mix of the very real London of the time (complete with real historical figures) and the classic mystery style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The dark and dreary streets of London are one of the greatest characters in the series.  The greatest triumph is crafting a believable young Holmes and giving his story enough weight that it feels like an important addition to the Holmes legend. Which is why the surprise ending of this book may be a betrayal to fans of Sherlock Holmes.  Peacock has Holmes do something many fans would never accept.  I would say that Doyle’s Sherlock would not have done what Peacock’s Sherlock does, but I think Peacock has built his Holmes in a way that it is believable and works with the original Holmes’ stories too.  Some readers may feel this is cheapening Holmes, but I loved the alternate view of Holmes that Peacock crafted and feel like it is one of the finest Sherlock series besides the original books.  I highly recommend you start this series from the very first book and read until this final chapter.  

You can check our catalog for Becoming Holmes here.

 

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman YP FIC NEWMAN

Then and Now -Lesléa Newman

Then I was a son

Now I am a symbol

Then I was a brother

Now I am an absence

Then I was a friend

Now I am a memory

Then I was a person

Now I am a headline

Then I was a guy

Now I am a ghost

Then I was a student

Now I am a lesson

On October 6, 1998 a 21 year old young man was brutally beaten, tied to a fence, and left for dead. Matthew Shepard became a symbol of victims of hate crimes everywhere and his case drew worldwide attention.  This book of poems from Lesléa Newman looks back at the crime, its aftermath, and the person behind the symbol.  Poems from the perspective of Matthew, the killers, the community, and the silent witnesses of the fence and other inanimate objects paint a chilling and heartbreaking picture of a life tragically lost.

This is an absolutely stunning work of poetry.  Lesléa Newman uses different voices, styles, and structures to approach the crime and tragedy form many different angles.  This works to make the story about more than a crime, but also to bring the person of Matthew to the forefront.  The poem above is an excellent example of her sparse language and use of pounding repetition to hammer hard truths home.  In other poems she uses a completely different style and structure.  She also uses poems taken from almost random inspirations like Now Showing, a list of film titles that appeared in theaters in 1998 formed into a poem. The variation is key to capturing different feelings, ideas, voices, and moods.  She does a wonderful job of giving voice to not just many people, but also things like the fence Matthew was tied to, the rope that tied him, the gun of his killers, their truck, the road they drove on, and more.  I think this should be read by just about everyone, because regardless of your feelings on homosexuality we can all come together to agree that no one should be murdered for who they are, what they believe, or how they love. This is a slender volume that you could easily read in a few hours, but will stay with you long after.  

You can check our catalog for October Mourning here.

The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison YP FIC ELLISON

Lo (short for Penelope) collects things, well everything actually.  Is started as a hobby, it became an obsession. Ever since she couldn’t save Oren.  Shouldn’t have thought about him! Can’t breathe. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, banana, banana, banana. Better. But she can make it right, maybe.  She finally found something important.  A butterfly necklace that belonged to a dead girl named Sapphire. A girl killed when she was moments away.  It has to mean something. The girl that was killed was also deemed damaged and unimportant, as was her runaway brother, as is Flynt the young man that lives in the shadows of the streets and tells her she’s beautiful. Now she can’t stop thinking about Sapphire and has to find out who killed her.  But this obsession could prove fatal.

This book made my brain itch. It is a strange, dark, and twisty thriller.  Lo is a unique voice, because she is very disturbed and using Obsessive and Compulsive tics to try to push away her pain and sadness. Not the Nancy Drew type, clearly.  But that’s what makes the mystery so thrilling.  Lo is drawn to venture into in underworld of Neverland (the homeless kid shanty town) and Sapphire’s dark past, because she knows what it’s like to feel discarded and deemed a freak.  Also her obsessive nature means she notices things other people don’t, but fortunately it isn’t turned into gimmicky gift ability either. Ellison does a great job at getting into Lo’s scary psyche.  Her ticks and obsessions and overwhelming anxiety are very compelling and got deep under my skin.  That underlying unease and tension elevated the murder mystery element and made me feel that the danger was real and palpable in a way most thrillers never do.  I kept worrying for Lo in every dark corner she went down and jumping at every shadow with her. I won’t say I enjoyed being in Lo’s mind, but I certainly was affected by it.  That’s hard to do for someone that reads as many books as I do! The central mystery is complicated by the slow reveal of what happened to Lo’s brother and by the developing relationship with Flynt.  Which means Butterfly Clues is always working on multiple levels at the same time.  This book won me over in spite of myself and I found myself caring about Lo even as she drove me crazy.  If you like dark lit like Ellen Hopkins and want a creepy mystery with a twisted twist, definitely grab this one.  

You can check our catalog for The Butterfly Clues here.

Severed by Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft Illustrated by Attila Futaki YP FIC SNYDER

When twelve year old Jack Garron ran away to meet the father he never knew he didn’t just hit the road, he entered the food chain.  The year is 1916 and it is a hard time for the country and a dangerous time to be a boy on his own.  More dangerous than Jack could ever imagine. An old man with razor sharp teeth and a hunger for the flesh of children is hunting Jack and Jack has no idea he’s fallen into his clutches.  Jack will learn that evil walks the roads, all dreams have a cost, and nightmares are real.  

This is a truly chilling and twisted comic.  Snyder has been writing some of the darkest and grittiest Batman stories ever of late (see my review of The Black Mirror here) and he clearly knows how to look into the dark spots of the human psyche, but gee willikers! He’s really outdone himself with this look at the death of the American Dream.  His central villain is cunning, soulless, and seemingly unstoppable.  Seeing him slowly close in and circle Jack provides tension like a tightly wound string. 

 

Snyder and Tuft recreate the early 20^th century America and all its dangers very well.  The realistic setting helps ground the elements of the fantastic and make them feel all too real.  The use of string supporting characters that you grow to like is only a way to make it all the more terrifying when they are in mortal danger.  The art has a realistic quality that separates it from super hero fare and Futaki’s skill at expressing emotion on faces makes all the characters come to life quite vividly.  It makes all the difference, because a razor toothed old man could have ended up being a very silly image.  Instead he is a malevolent force of violence and death personified and a great addition to the annals of villainy.  This is an excellent comic book and a great bloody piece of intelligent horror fiction.  A great read for fans of either and so good that it could make converts of readers that think that horror or comics are beneath them. Just read it with the lights on…during the day…with someone else at home.

You can check our catalog for Severed here.