Morning Glories Volume 1 by Nick Spencer art by Joe Eisma by Ian McDonald YP FIC SPENCER

Morning Glory Academy is the most prestigious and secretive prep school in the country.  Students are dying to get in, but the students at Morning Glory are just plain dying. The newest crop of students soon discovers that the school has dark secrets, murderous teachers, and tests that are pass/die.  

This is an intriguing new mystery.  Spencer does an excellent job of putting a slew of twists and turns to confound the reader ate every turn.  Every couple of pages we are introduced to a new freaky character, someone is brutally murdered, characters hint at mysterious unrevealed secrets, or other insanity pops up.  There are mysterious artifacts with unexplained power, doppelgangers (Clones? Evil twins? We don’t know yet!), psychic ghost like murderers, and secrets galore.  The plot moves fast and furiously and keeps the reader off balance through each page.  My only real complaint is that a lot of the dialogue sounds like Joss Whedon (Writer/Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse, etc.) light.  Modern teenagers do not make super detailed Star Wars jokes.  Sorry, they just plain don’t and they won’t and your nerd fixations are not his generation’s nerd fixations, Mr. Spencer.  That being said, there is loads of humor that does not feel like it was written by 30-somethings for teenagers and the book is one of the genuinely surprising comics I have read in years. 

You can check our catalog for Morning Glories here.

Draw the Dark by Ilsa J. Bick YP FIC BICK

The people of Winter, Wisconsin want to forget the past. That’s why they hate Christian Cage. Christian draws their memories, thoughts, secrets and even deaths. One drawing he made as a child led his teacher to suicide, another so upset his aunt she had a fatal car accident, and every since his mother and father disappeared into what Christian calls ‘the dark place’, the things he draws are even worse. Finally, Christian has decided he wants to stop hiding from the past and find out what secrets his drawings hide, but secrets have a life of their own and can be deadly.

This is a very suspenseful read that will keep you guessing and wondering. Christian is an interesting character and his torment and doubt always seem real and raw. The book is also full of strong supporting characters with their own secrets and grief. The main focus is on an unsolved murder, so the book has a great central mystery to go along with the paranormal aspects of the story. It is creepy, dark, and fascinating and shows a surprising and little known side of American history: POW camps for Nazis on American soil! This is a really good read for fans of mysteries with a paranormal twist or fans of dark thrillers.