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Seleste reviews: Zombie Tag by Hannah Moskowitz

January 15, 2012 in Young Adult Reviews

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Price: $15.99
  • Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (December 20, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1596437200
  • ISBN-13: 978-1596437203
  • Hannah Moskowitz’s Website
Buy Zombie Tag at:

 

Thirteen year old Wil Lowenstein can’t help wishing his parents would stop ignoring him and go back to the way they were before. Before, like before his older brother Graham died in a recent accidental fire.

Wil copes with Graham’s death by focusing on Zombie Tag, a mafia/capture the flag hybrid game he created for his friends. He, his best friend Anthony, and their other friends fight off brain-eating zombies with their mother’s spatulas. What Wil doesn’t tell anybody is that if he could bring his dead brother back as a zombie, he would. In a heartbeat.

In fact, when he finds a bell that can summon all the dead within five miles, he seizes the chance. Graham returns from the dead, but he’s not the same. None of the returned are. At first they’re just emotionless, apathetic — lifeless. But then some of the zombies slowly start to get one emotion back — anger. And Wil is going to have to find a way to fix zombie-Graham and turn him back into the angsty teenager he?s supposed to be before it’s too late. Because some of the zombies are banding together and plotting something. And Wil isn’t sure his mom’s spatulas are really going to do the trick if the zombies really do want to eat his brains.

There aren’t a lot of authors whose work I run to the bookstore in order to buy on release day—especially when release day falls the week before Christmas and the bookstore is in the heart of the shopping district. I did it to get Zombie Tag though, and I don’t regret the time spent in traffic or the two near accidents (might have regretted an actual accident, but near accidents are okay). I’ve read and loved/liked Hannah Moskowitz’s other books, but those were both YA contemporary. Zombie Tag is her first foray into both middle grade and the paranormal.

She needs to write more of it.

Rather than the typical goofy and/or action-adventure middle grade that dominates the market, Zombie Tag takes the family trauma and drama that permeates Moskowitz’s YA work and makes it accessible to a younger audience. Zombie Tag isn’t just about raising the dead or a silly game; it’s about the pain of letting go and one child’s desperation to fix his family when they fall apart after his older brother’s death. It alternates between touching, funny, and heart-wrenching. If you haven’t read any of her work, you might not understand quite how masterfully she weaves those emotions into her work. (And I highly recommend this book to any young person struggling with loss.)

Wil is a pretty typical middle school boy. He likes to play with his friends, has a crush on the one girl in their group, and doesn’t really want to grow up. His emotions jump around, and though that might bother some people, it’s very realistic for a young teen—especially one dealing with the aftermath of losing his brother and best friend.

The story revolves around what it means to die, what that does to the people left behind, and whether or not bringing someone back would be the best thing for anyone. In that regard, it’s a little like The Monkey’s Paw (for those who remember that story), but without the scare factor. Yes, zombie junkies need a warning here: these aren’t your typical zombies.

However, I can tell you that this is the first book I’ve ever brought into the house that my son and my husband are fighting over who gets to read it next (and both tried to take it from me while I was still reading it). The other grownup has to wait though. The Boy gets this one first.

Favorite line:

I guess the broken bell could end up being a problem, but only if I wanted to be some kind of crusader going around the world waking up dead people. And that sounds like a time-suck anyway.

 

I have a special guest today as well. Since this is a middle grade book, I felt it was only right to have a reader of the target audience do a small review as well. So without further ado, I give you my ten-year-old son, known on the internet as The Boy…

Well, the book was pretty short, which is kind of good because I could finish it quick, but kind of bad since sometimes people don’t want the story to end. And it does have a few bad words in it (“oh my God” &, I think, “stupid.” Mom interjection here, these aren’t bad words at home in and of themselves, but apparently they are at school *shrug*), which kind of sets the whole thing off for being a book for my age group.

They did have some funny parts and some cool parts in the book. Like it was funny that the zombies were scared of the kids playing Zombie Tag. (SPOILER ALERT) Also, at first I thought they were going to kill everybody but they were really trying to find a way to kill themselves again. (END SPOILER) 

I’m going to ask him a few questions since this is his first review.

Did you think the family was realistic? Yes, well no. I don’t know actually.

Did you think the book was unique? Yes, because it’s the only book where the main star was a spatula.

How did it make you feel? Pretty scared but happy at the same time.

If you were faced with the possibility of bringing someone back from the dead would you? If it was someone related to me, I would, but if they were trying to eat me, no. 

If Hannah Moskowitz wrote another book for kids, would you read it? Well, yes, because it was pretty much a good book, except for the bad words part. 

(Yeah, I need to have a talk with him about what constitutes bad words.)

The Boy’s Rating (I told him to take the “bad words” thing out of the equation):

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Seleste reviews: Don’t Bite the Messenger by Regan Summers

January 10, 2012 in Reviews

  • Format: ebook
  • File Size: 251 KB
  • Price: $3.99
  • Publisher: Carina Press (January 16, 2012)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00699QQ8G
  • Regan Summer’s Website

Buy Don’t Bite the Messenger at:

Anchorage, Alaska

The vampire population may have created an economic boom in Alaska, but their altered energy field fries most technology. They rely on hard-living—and short-lived—couriers to get business done…couriers like Sydney Kildare.

Sydney has survived to the ripe old age of twenty-six by being careful. She’s careful when navigating her tempestuous clients, outrunning hijackers and avoiding anyone who might distract her from her plan of retiring young to a tropical, vampire-free island.

Her attitude—and immunity to vampires’ allure—have made her the target of a faction of vampires trying to reclaim their territory. Her only ally is Malcolm Kelly, a secretive charmer with the uncanny habit of showing up whenever she’s in trouble. Caught in the middle of a vampire turf war, Sydney has to count on Malcolm to help her survive, or the only place she’ll retire is her grave…

 

Creating a twist on vampires is an interesting proposition these days. Sometimes they work really well. Sometimes they don’t. And what works for one person might not work for someone else. So, when I saw the premise of Don’t Bite the Messenger with the whole tech-issue, I was more than a little intrigued.

The messengers was really effective for me, the way they evaded vamps and had to work to stay alive in a business where they’re considered chess pieces (and likely to get in horrible accidents if they aren’t killed by the enemy). Except… I would have liked a much better understanding of exactly how the technology difficulties worked. For example, as best as I can tell, they can travel (guessing via cars and planes) and don’t blow out light fixtures, but they can’t use technological means of communication or such. Basically, the lack of clarity there meant it took me a while to sink into the story because I kept trying to figure out how the rules operated.

However, I really enjoyed the characters of Sydney and Malcolm. Even though the relationship moved very fast, the attraction–both physical and emotional–felt genuine. I wanted them to be together from the very first time they met, which is rare for me. And the sex was hot, which is always a bonus. Individually, Malcolm wasn’t quite the wounded hero, more of the trapped hero, the screw-up who’s stuck paying a price, which was a pleasant change from alpha-alphas. And while she’s a risk-taker, Sydney was more bold than bad-ass–also a nice change.

I liked the set-up of the plot as well with rival vampire “families” vying for control of Alaska of all places. But… Don’t Bite the Messenger didn’t round out that plot. It was really about getting Sydney and Malcolm in place for what seems set up to be a series. So while it was an enjoyable read, it felt unfinished. It’s rare I say I want a novella to be longer, but I think this story could have done with about twenty more pages to pull all the pieces together.

***Disclaimer: Seleste also writes for Carina Press.***

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Seleste reviews: A Clockwork Christmas by JK Coi, PG Forte, Stacy Gail, and Jenny Schwartz

December 11, 2011 in Reviews

  • E-Book: 479 pages
  • Publisher: Carina Press (December 5, 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B005Z1C47Q
Buy A Clockwork Christmas at:

Changed forever after tragedy, a woman must draw strength from her husband’s love. A man learns that love isn’t always what you expect. A thief steals the heart of a vengeful professor. And an American inventor finds love Down Under. Enjoy Victorian Christmas with a clockwork twist in these four steampunk novellas.

Anthology includes:

Crime Wave in a Corset by Stacy Gail
This Winter Heart by PG Forte
Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz
Far From Broken by JK Coi

I love steampunk, and I love novellas, so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to read A Clockwork Christmas. Just as a note, all of the titles are also available for purchase individually.

As a whole, the anthology was an enjoyable read with great writing and plenty of romance. My biggest beef was that for a Christmas anthology, I felt like Christmas was just the time the stories were set rather than having a real part to play in them. This was true in varying degrees through the different stories, but I wish one of them would have felt like it really needed to be a Christmas story (if that makes sense). Also, overall, I wanted more steampunkery and action to balance the romance, but that’s me personally.

As for each story individually…

Crime Wave in a Corset: I really enjoyed this one. I liked casting the heroine as the “villain”, and I felt Cornelia and Roderick’s attraction right off. Both of their experiments lent a very steampunk air to the story and all the trappings (so to speak) of the genre were there. Some people would see Cornelia as wishy-washy with her affections, but considering the situation, I completely bought into her developing love-hate with Roderick

This Winter Heart: I wanted to love this story more, but when I read steampunk, I want an air of action and adventure to it. This story lacked that. It had an automaton/human hybrid for a heroine, which was cool, but beyond that, it felt like a standard romance of a wrecked marriage and a secret baby. I liked Ophelia and Dario fine, but I just wanted more meat to the story, or more connection to the characters.

Wanted: One Scoundrel: I adored the idea of steampunk in Australia (and actually told Jenny Schwartz so on Twitter). The steampunk aspects were woven in well, but again, I wanted more action. I adored both Esme and Jed, so from a romance standpoint it was a win, as well as all the Australian history worked into the story, but the action that was built into the end felt a bit forced to me, so I didn’t get lost in that the way I wanted to.

Far From Broken: This was another story where the heroine is part mechanical. Still love that, and in this case, I believed the anger and animosity between Jasper and Callie. She had every reason to hate him, and it showed, but so did their complete affection for each other. There was more action here, but it was disrupted by the antagonist being (for me) obvious from early on.

If you prefer more romance than action in your steampunk, I think you could do far worse than A Clockwork Christmas. However, in the end, the balance between steampunk, action, Christmas, and romance just wasn’t as strong as I wanted it to be for the anthology as a whole.

*Disclaimer: Seleste also writes for Carina Press*

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Seleste reviews Heist Society by Ally Carter

November 2, 2011 in Young Adult Reviews

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion Book CH; Reprint edition (May 17, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1423116615
  • ISBN-13: 978-1423116615
  • Ally Carter’s Website
Buy Heist Society at:
  • Amazon
  • Book Depository (Unavailable)

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat’s friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s history–and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll sometimes see me talk about my love for Leverage and White Collar. Yes, I am a fan of criminals (particularly thieves) as heroes. It may be a sickness, I’m not sure. Either way, I don’t know why it took so long for me to finally get my hands on a copy of Heist Society since it’s right up my alley. Plus, I actually met the author at a convention. I really should have had this book when the hardcover came out in 2010, but I didn’t. I can assure you I’ll be snagging a copy of the sequel soon though. (Heist Society 2: Uncommon Criminals was released in hardcover in June.)

Where to start with this book? First, it did catch me off guard by relegating Kat’s “normal life” to only the first chapter. While I understand Katarina at boarding school (Colgan) wasn’t the point of the story, I would have liked to have seen more of that, more of her trying to get away from the life (by living a con itself). For me, that would have given her assertions throughout the book that she’d left the family business more weight. As it was, I felt like she was annoyed more than anything. However, then the story moved forward at a nice pace, setting up not only the stakes, the crew and the con, but giving a real sense of how family often means more than blood.

Favorite Line:

She just analyzed all the angles and came to the conclusion that Uncle Vinnie was exactly right, and she essentially had two options: Colgan now or jail later.

Colgan had cuter uniforms.

I really enjoyed the caper part of the story. One of my favorite things about this type of scenario is watching the team overcome all the obstacles in their way. How are they going to find the art? Now that they found it, how are they going to get it back? This was both my favorite part of the book and one of my frustrations. I really enjoyed the interplay between the characters, but a lot of it felt convenient. For instance, there is a scene where they go to meet this old man that Kat had met when she was little. But it was presented in this fashion of Kat dreaming about a red door (the door to his shop), and that’s how she knew to go there. It was all well and good, but the way the dream was presented, it felt like the reader should know what the red door signified. And then, only later, do we realize that isn’t the case. Things like that happened a few times in the narrative and it irritated me a little.

That might have been because it was in third person. Much of YA is written in first and more or less requires that you know everything the narrator knows when they know it. Third allows more distance, but it also allows for more characters to have their moment in the sun. Which, when you’re dealing with a team situation like this, I really like. But, rather than changing point-of-view characters at scene breaks and the like, this didn’t. I don’t read much that’s in third person omniscient, and I’m going to guess that’s what this was, but it felt like head-hopping, and that I definitely didn’t like.

On the plus side, I liked the interaction between the majority of the characters. In particular the back-and-forth love-hate between cousins Kat and Gabrielle felt really authentic. The romantic subplot was there (as it is in most YA), but it was subtle and not overdone. It’s definitely something that can be carried through the series without feeling rushed.

Scoring this is wonky because the story, characterizations and fun lean toward a 4.5-5, but sadly the point-of-view hopping took away from the story for me.

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Seleste reviews My Third-World Girlfriend by RJ Silver

October 27, 2011 in Reviews


  • Ebook: 64 pages
  • List price: $0.99
  • Publisher: Self-published (September 27, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B005SUBI6W
  • RJ Silver’s website
To purchase My Third-World Girlfriend:

Gerry Lankin has a problem. All his life, women have been hitting him over the head, usually for good reason. Recognizing he’s at fault, he’s about to make big changes in his life, when three older men convince him that the key to romantic happiness isn’t self-improvement; it’s finding a woman with low expectations. Gerry’s about to discover just how wrong three old men can be.

 

I made no bones about my love for RJ Silver’s The Princess and the Penis. It was laugh-out-loud funny for me, and I love stuff that cracks me up, and it was one of my favorite reads since I’ve started reviewing for Nat. The reason I’m prefacing with that is to give you an idea of what his next story had to live up to.

One of the hardest things with satire is that it is, kind of by its nature, going to offend some people. Social commentary is tough enough, but when you try to make it funny, stereotypes have to be drawn upon. I’m not a person who disbelieves in stereotypes. As far as I’m concerned, traits become stereotypical because of the fact that they are common enough to be noticeable. That doesn’t mean I like seeing stereotypes perpetuated. If you’re going to do it, it has to be really funny (like the innocent virgin in TPatP).

The horn-dog men in My Third-World Girlfriend were stereotypes too: the big, burly Texan, the beer-swigging German, and the English gentleman. But they, and our intrepid hero, all were the worst stereotype of men–the guys in it for the booze and the babes and want nothing to do with settling down. They’re so bad, they travel around the world taking advantage of “bar girls” and drinking themselves to oblivion then moving on when things get tough. I’d have been okay with the men being stereotypes (sort of like I was with the Princess), but it carried over to the women too.

At a certain point, I stopped noticing funny lines and started noticing the stereotypes. That’s not to say there weren’t funny bits, because there were. Here’s a few examples:

We men, on the other hand, are only casual nesters. For us, any old nest will do. In fact, we’re happy flyin’ from one nest to another so long as we have one by the time nightfall rolls around. And even if we do settle in one nest, we’re perfectly content to leave it the way we found it for the rest of our lives.

 

Here I was, my mind simultaneously racing with caffeine yet still a little woozy from all the booze, and I was stuck in the back of a cab with a Thai Perry Mason.

 

…the next thing I knew, my lips pressed down on hers, sending an electrical charge through me far more intense than any of the times I’d been tasered.

And the story did come full circle and effectively deliver its message. So, it wasn’t a bad story by any stretch. It did what a good satire should, just for me, it did it with a lot fewer laughs and a bit more teeth-grinding than The Princess and the Penis. 

The problem with rating this piece is that good satire (well, what I consider good) is hard to find, and this is still pretty good satire, ruined only by my irritation at what I found to be offensive stereotyping (which might not bother other people). Had I found it funnier, maybe I would have moved past that and been able to love it as much as I did his previous work, but I didn’t do much laughing after the first couple chapters. Like I said though, good satire is hard to find, and this is still pretty good…and a tale worth telling I think.

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