MIDDLEWORLD by Jon and Pamela Voelkel

Voekel, Jon, Pamela Voelkel. Middleworld. EgmontUSA, 2010. ISBN-13: 9781606840719. $8.99.

Special Feature: Review by an elementary school student.

I looked through bookshelves and ran my fingers along various bindings, when something caught my eye. The title read Middleworld, by J & P Voekel.

From the moment I saw it till the moment I began it, I knew I wouldn’t let it out of my sight. With all the unexpected journeys and unidentified characters, I was mesmerized, but more than anything it was the mystery of the Maya that attracted me to Middleworld. The two main characters, Max the video game expert and Monkey Girl (aka Lola), come from two opposite worlds; it was an exciting voyage to see how they reacted to each other’s different lifestyles. I liked Lola the most. She’s daring and brave, loves the jungle, and is thankful for everything she has (not including Max). I relate to Lola because I love Norway as much as she loves the jungle. The jungle is her birthplace and home like Norway is mine.

The book is mostly about how the Maya culture is literally coming back from the past. This is both good and bad. One of the important events is when the ancient Maya King, Lord 6-Dog, and his mother, Lady Coco, possess the bodies of two howler monkeys, which results in a series of unfortunate events. This made me feel very strange. The book also made me feel curious to find out the mysteries that lurk around every corner.

My favorite part is when Max and Lola meet. It is like a dog and a cat. They are complete opposites, but despite their differences, they have much in common. I connected to the book because like Lady Coco, I love to be free. When she takes over a monkey, it is like a bird is taken out of a cage. She is swinging and laughing -- she is free at last!

The lasting impression that I’ll take away from reading this book is to make sacrifices. It’s difficult to explain why, but the characters made a lot of sacrifices in their lives that will inspire me to make more in my life.

People who love adventure, electrifying moments and the mystery of the Maya will enjoy this book. You’ll understand why once you read it.

Review by Madeleine Denison, 5th grade

STARTERS by Lissa Price

Price, Lissa. Starters. New York: Delacorte Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780385742375. $17.99.

One of the latest offerings in the dystopian young adult fiction field, Starters features Callie, a 16-year-old orphan living in a post-biological-warfare Los Angeles, where the Spore Wars have wiped out every living soul between the ages of 20 and 60. Living on the streets of LA, where she fights “unfriendlies” and allies with “friendlies,” Callie is in dire need of money for permanent shelter for herself and her sickly brother, Tyler. This desperation pushes her to Prime Destinations, an organization that uses teenagers’ bodies as vessels for elderly people who want to feel young again (in this dystopian society, Enders, as they’re called, live to be well over 100 years old). In return for a hefty sum of money, Callie must simply allow a chip to be implanted in her brain and essentially go to sleep for days at a time while a 150-year-old Ender gads about and enjoys the blessings of youth and beauty.

Callie is understandably hesitant at first, but when a fire takes away her and Tyler’s only remaining belongings and they are forced on the run yet again, with Tyler coughing all the way, Callie determines that the money she’ll get from Prime Destinations is worth relinquishing control of her body. She gets control back, though, when she wakes up in the middle of her renter’s borrowing period. While Callie tries to figure out what went wrong, she enjoys the opulent lifestyle led by her renter, Helena, and starts a romance with Blake, a rather wooden love interest. As her feelings for Blake (inexplicably) grow, Callie also hears from Helena, who reveals that Prime Destinations is not as legitimate as it appears. The pressure builds as Callie races to stop the government from supporting Prime Destinations' nefarious plans. The plot races through its romance and reveals, ending with a cliffhanger that paves the way for book #2 in this trilogy.

Starters is fast-paced and simply written, sometimes to its own detriment. The hurried pacing overshadows the development of Callie's character, motivations, and history. The Spore Wars are not explained in depth, and we learn that they only wreaked their havoc a year prior. I would have liked to see more explanation of their destructive properties and more specifics about how Callie went from having a home to being a street urchin in a matter of months. Such a rough transition could have offered a great deal of personal exploration for Callie, but her emotions are explored only shallowly. We get the occasional comment on how nice it is to sleep in a comfortable bed again, and of course Callie is in awe of Helena's wealth and gorgeous home, but there is no emotional impact or self-reflection in Callie’s experiences. Tyler, Callie's sick brother, is her motivating force in life, but we don't really get any backstory to their relationship or why she feels so compelled to take care of him beyond older-sibling obligation. Additionally, the author, Lissa Price, suffers from a case of telling, not showing, as she uses her secondary characters as vehicles for exposition and not as well-rounded people that enhance Callie’s story. Finally, the flat romance between Callie and Blake calls to mind YA insta-love, wherein two characters are suddenly transfixed by each other for no apparent reason. On Callie and Blake's first date, Price again tells us instead of shows us what's happening. Apparently whatever conversation Blake and Callie had was killer, but we don't get to know what they talked about.

Despite its shortcomings, Starters delivers a fantastic concept and raises interesting ethical questions. I see echoes of Robin Wasserman's Skinned, with the idea of the brain inhabiting another body, and Marie Lu’s Legend, with a bleak, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles cityscape. Like both of those novels, Starters features an urgent desire for survival and a contemplative look at the lengths to which governments will go to maintain control. With its fascinating premise and the promise of further character development in the rest of trilogy, Starters will surely be a commercial hit.

Reviewed by Jill Coste

THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins

Collins, Suzanne. Hunger Games. NY: Scholastic Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-439-02352-8. $8.99. 14 & up.

The first book in Suzanne Collins’ post-apocalyptic dystopian trilogy is compelling, suspenseful, and thought-provoking.

Collins presents readers with a strong female protagonist and narrator: sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen. As the head of her household, Katniss cares for her mother and younger sister by illegally hunting in their hometown of District 12, just one of the dozen impoverished districts that surround, and support, a lavish capitol city. Every year, to remind the districts of their failed attempt at rebellion 75 years prior, the nation’s oppressive President Snow requires that each district send two tributes, one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen, to the “Hunger Games.” When Katniss and her friend Peeta find themselves representing District 12 in the 74th annual Games, they are whisked away to the lavish Capitol, and forced into an arena where they must fight their fellow tributes, and one another, to the death on live television.

Readers are immediately intrigued by the strange world, and unjust circumstances, that Collins puts forth. They are hooked by Katniss’ plight, and are quickly impressed with her maturity, self-sacrificing nature, and the remarkable talents that she exposes in the arena. Collins uses a large portion of the text to successfully develop her characters. Instead of feeling fake or two-dimensional, each member of Collins’ cast of realistic and relatable individuals possesses a great amount of depth. Readers feel intensely attached to Collins’ complex characters, thus they relish every suspenseful twist and turn; however, the dark themes and graphic nature of the text should not be overlooked.

Because the Games are broadcasted live to “entertain” citizens, Katniss faces not only physical torment, but great psychological distress as well. Indeed, Katniss must wrestle with the thought of killing her young peers; and yet, what is almost more damaging is that she must also set her own personality and character aside to portray a different version of herself. If wealthy viewers in the Capitol like what they see on television they can become her sponsors, and send her medicine, food, water, and supplies. Therefore, in order to garner favor with the audience that is watching her every move, Katniss must abandon herself and pretend to be someone she is not. Collins does a wonderful job conveying to the reader Katniss’ inner turmoil as she is incessantly haunted by the requirement to kill or be killed, and continually torn between who she really is and who she must present herself to be.

Part of this inner turmoil and uncertainty is drawn from a love triangle between Katniss, Peeta (her fellow District 12 tribute), and Gale (her best friend, and hunting companion, from home). However, though the appearance of a love-story plays a great role in Katniss’ time in the arena, Collins clearly does not want this love triangle to be the forefront concern of the trilogy. Unlike the Twilight series, which divided readers into clear-cut “teams” that were built upon the protagonist’s two love interests, Collins clearly has more important subjects that she hopes to highlight. As the series continues, it is evident that though the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale is present it is often pushed aside to expound upon greater concerns like tyranny, materialism, conformity, politics, propaganda, starvation, and rebellion.

The Hunger Games does not simply establish a thought-provoking perspective of a dystopian society, or a cast of captivating and complex young characters. Most importantly, the text creates a wonderfully detailed foundation for the rest of Collins’ series.

Caitlin Kennedy

CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. NY: Scholastic Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-439-02349-8. $17.99. 14 & up.

Catching Fire, the second book in Suzanne Collins’ popular dystopian trilogy, will certainly satisfy a reader’s taste for suspense; however, this action-packed follow-up to The Hunger Games has a very political core.

Katniss must pay for the actions she took to save both Peeta and herself during the 74th Hunger Games. Some citizens have interpreted her overall success in the arena as an aggressive act of defiance towards the Capitol. The districts are buzzing with rumors of unrest and rebellion. As the “faces” of the supposed revolution, President Snow forces Katniss and Peeta to put a stop to it. The Capitol does not like to be made a fool, it demands revenge; thus, it threatens everything that Katniss and Peeta hold dear in order to salvage control of the nation. And President Snow hopes to regain the Capitol’s grasp on the districts through the conveniently timed “Quarter Quell,” an event that occurs every 25th year of the Games and allows the Capitol to introduce a twist in the way the Games are executed. As the 75th Hunger Games are set before her, Katniss must decide her role. Is she to be the face of the rebellion? What will she do to spare her family? To shelter Peeta? To protect Gale?

Once again, Katniss is faced with tremendous psychological distress, as she never feels completely safe from President Snow’s pervading threats and nearly omnipresent scrutiny. Readers witness the previously strong protagonist practically wither, due to the pressure of knowing that she might not be able to protect her loved ones. Katniss almost looses her sense of self-reliance, as it seems that President Snow is so set on her demise that she believes she is doomed before she can even attempt to make things right. However, what seems to wear on her the most is the heavy guilt she feels from the awareness that she is ultimately responsible for the needless deaths that have occurred, and will continue to occur, due to the “rebellion” she incited.

Readers adopt Katniss’ despair, and experience her same feelings of anxiety and near-paranoia throughout the entire book as she frantically attempts to attain some sort of clarity concerning the constant threats, and utter turmoil, that surround her. And yet, at the very end of the text, the author uncovers the truths that have been purposefully kept from Katniss (and the reader) throughout the entire novel. Collins sets up the next, and final, book in the trilogy by leaving Catching Fire in a complete state of questioning. Katniss does not know whom to trust, after she learns that her previous allies, like her mentor Haymitch, have kept such great secrets from her.

Collins presents a compelling and suspenseful narrative that ensnares her readers all over again. However, it is evident by the end of Catching Fire that Collins is clearly shifting the focus of her writing from character development to political and social commentary.

Caitlin Kennedy

MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins

Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. NY: Scholastic Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-439-02351-1. $17.99. 14 & up.

The Hunger Games series has become extremely popular in the last few years. Its books have been stationed at the top of various bestseller lists for months on end, and the first two books in the series have been nominated for, and won, a number of awards and honors (including the California Young Reader Medal Award for Young Adult Fiction and the Publisher’s Weekly Best Book Award for 2009). And if that weren’t enough, the trailer was just released for the first Hunger Games movie, which will be in theaters Spring of 2012. And yet, in spite of all of the excitement and anticipation surrounding this series, author Suzanne Collins’ presented fans with a rather lackluster final book to tie up her trilogy.

Unlike the first two books in the series that establish rich character development and interaction, Mockingjay deals almost exclusively with the social and political issues that wreck havoc on Katniss’ world.

After Katniss is rescued from the arena of the 75th Hunger Games, a full-on war begins between the districts and the Capitol. She learns that her home, District 12, has been incinerated, and that her mother, sister, and best friend Gale have made it safety to the rebellion’s headquarters, located in District 13. District 13 is a militant, yet thriving, underground community, which is virtually unknown to the Capitol because it was presumably destroyed during the last uprising-attempt. While she is essentially jailed in District 13, Katniss learns that her time in the arena was completely planned, without her acknowledgement or consent. She was to distract the Capitol, while the rebels worked to make a strong first stand against President Snow. Katniss was to be protected in the arena at all costs because she is so important to the rebellion, while others, including Peeta, were to be sacrificed. Unable to return to District 12, Katniss is forced to take on the role of the Mockingjay (the face of the rebellion), participate in various propaganda videos, and take orders from the president of District 13, Alma Coin, who Katniss believes to be just as power-hungry as the evil President Snow.

Throughout the text, Collins continually illustrates the harrowing effects of war, goes into lengthy descriptions of different battles and, overall, completely drags out the rebel’s attempt at taking the Capitol and capturing President Snow.

It is as though, all at once, Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and the rest of Collins’ characters lose their depth, complexities, and even emotions. Their personalities become thin, weak, unrealistic, and unrecognizable shadows of their former selves. Perhaps this is an intentional decision on the author’s part, to show the numbing effects of war. But what is far more likely is that Collins’ characters suddenly become stiff and artificial simply because they are neglected throughout the majority of the novel, while the author rants about the dystopian world’s political problems.

Of course, had the trilogy ended seamlessly, critics would have been just as displeased. Katniss’ world was far too damaged and convoluted to present a convincing ending in which everything is resolved. However, Collins’ flagrant disregard for her characters, literally tying up their loose ends in a one-page epilogue, cannot be excused. It is as though the author got so caught up in the descriptions of war and the social and political flaws of Katniss’ world, that she reached her page limit and went, “Oh, I forgot, I have to wrap this up.”

After establishing such richly complex yet relatable characters in her first two books, Collins fails to do those characters any justice in her final text. Throughout The Hunger Games, and even Catching Fire, Collins writes about her characters so descriptively and intentionally that readers cannot help but form strong attachments to them. Having built a relationship with these characters, it is heartbreaking for readers to finish Mockingjay with the sense that their fictional friends were not treated with the respect they deserved. Readers finish the trilogy without answers, without closure, and with the haunting feeling that their favorite characters’ stories were not really given the ending they were worthy of. These characters deserved better.

Interestingly enough, most readers do not disagree with how Collins tied up her loose ends but rather the vague, pithy way in which she did so. For the final twenty-five pages, though Katniss is still narrating the text, readers are not given any insight to what she is really thinking, or feeling, about the big events that are transpiring around her.

By the end of Mockingjay, Katniss and the rest of Collins’ characters have become a shadow of what they once were in the first two books of the Hunger Games series. However, this is not the result of a harrowing war, or due to a damaged dystopian society, but rather, the characters are weak and artificial simply because of poor writing.

Caitlin Kennedy

TOKEN OF DARKNESS by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Token of Darkness. New York: Delacorte Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-385-73750-0. $16.99

The main theme of Token of Darkness is constructed around Cooper Blake, his traumatic accident and its consequences. Due to a car crash, Cooper has to readjust his life and cope with the multiple facets of scars which now dominate his life. Not only did he miraculously survive, but since then, he is accompanied by Samantha, whom solely he can see.

Samantha becomes the center of his life, while he draws back from his friends, including his football team. Although she has no memory of her former existence, she helps him to come to terms with his new situation. Since the accident, Cooper is able to not only see Samantha, but also the shadowy demons which lurk in the dark to feed on weak humans and which threaten him and his surrounding again and again.

Cooper tries to return her kindness and support, but does not know where to start. He gets unexpected help from Brent, Delilah, and their mentor Ryan. All three have experiences when it comes to paranormal incidents: Brent is a telepath, Delilah is the manipulative captain of the cheerleading squad and a witch, and Ryan belongs to a long line of sorcerers. None of these three trust Samantha, and want to save Cooper from the potential threat she poses.

Token of Darkness is dominated by a dark and thrilling atmosphere. Amelia Atwater-Rhodes manages to tell a fast-paced story about growing up, trusting ones instinct, seeking help in times of need, and looking behind the mere façade of a person. In order to move forward in life, all of the characters need to face their problems, even traumatic experiences. Friends are paramount in achieving this aim; only with their support, Cooper is able to break his social isolation, and to become a happier person.

Karin Kakorski

Review: BLEEDING VIOLET by Dia Reeves

Reeves, Dia. Bleeding Violet. New York: Simon Pulse, 2010. ISBN: 978-1416986195. 464 pages. $16.99.  

Dia Reeves’ Bleeding Violet is set in the fictional town of Portero, Texas. Like any other sleepy supernatural town, there is certainly more to this one than meets the eye. The inhabitants are divided between some locals who are well aware of the dangerous, hidden, supernatural portals that populate the town, while others live in ignorance. 

Sixteen year-old heroine Hanna attempts to reconnect with the mother she has never met and to navigate teenage existence in this odd town filled with secret doors to different dimensions. Her story is complicated by a host of psychological conditions for which she is medicated, and by the supernatural monsters that she encounters. Hanna struggles to merge her primarily Finnish (Anglo/Caucasian) upbringing with her physical resemblance to her absent African-American mother. She is forced to balance this racial and cultural uncertainty with the discrimination she faces as a supposed non-supernatural outsider in Portero.

Once Hanna learns that her psychoses are a result of her supernatural heritage rather than an actual psychological condition, she embraces her gifts in the hope of saving her mother from the evil spirit that has possessed her corporeal form. Helping Hanna is the brooding Wyatt. He is a member of the Mortmaine, a militia-esque group that protects the residents of Portero from the unsavory entities that dwell on the other side of the town’s many doors. 

The writing is rich and the story psychologically complex. There is some sexual content, and the violence, while beautifully described, is graphically intense, and perhaps better suited for a more mature adolescent reader.

Heather Tylock

Review: FURY OF THE PHOENIX by Cindy Pon

Pon, Cindy. Fury of the Phoenix. New York: Greenwillow Books, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-06-173025-2. 362 pages. $17.99. Young Adult.

Cindy Pon continues the adventures of Ai Ling in Fury of the Phoenix, the 2009 sequel to her debut novel, Silver Phoenix. Chapters alternate between two complementary story lines. In one, Ai Ling joins her friend Chen Yong as he seeks his father. The (unlikely) second story line occurs in the distant past, following the rise to power of Zhong Ye, our heroine’s immortal adversary from the first novel in the series.

The story begins with Ai Ling attempting to stow away on the Gliding Dragon. A dream has told her she must get aboard; Chen Yong’s life depends on it. Once Ai Ling is aboard and Chen Yong is safe, they decide it is best for them to pose as siblings. The perilous voyage, combining pirates and sea monsters, is complicated because the young duo must share a cabin. And, as if dealing with palpable sexual tension weren’t dangerous enough, both hero and heroine must navigate the customs and politics of a foreign land. The storylines merge when Ai Ling battles Zhong Ye for Chen Yong’s soul.

The second narrative takes place three hundred years in the past and follows the young Zhong Ye as he chooses castration to enter the service of the emperor in the Palace of Fragrant Dreams. The ambitious eunuch gains the favor of the emperor by saving his life and providing him with a fertile concubine to give him an heir. In the process, Zhong Ye begins a love affair with the concubine’s handmaid, Silver Phoenix. As the story unfolds, Zhong Ye must choose between his love for Silver Phoenix and his desire for immortality.

Pon braids both narratives beautifully with fast paced action scenes and detailed descriptions. It’s not often, well, perhaps ever, that an author creates a story with a truly sympathetic villain, much less an emasculated protagonist. Fury of the Phoenix navigates a sexual, political, and racial politic so as to challenge the stereotypical themes in most of the novels in the genre.

Heather Tylock

Review: SILVER PHOENIX by Cindy Pon

Pon, Cindy. Silver Phoenix. New York: Greenwillow Books, 2009. ISBN: 978-0061730214. 352 pages. $17.99. Young Adult. Grade 9 and Up.

Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia is the debut novel by author Cindy Pon. Set in the fictional land of Xia, the story follows seventeen year-old Ai Ling hopes on a quest to find her father, who is being held captive at the kingdom’s imperial Palace of Fragrant Dreams. In turn, she hopes to save herself from a forced marriage to a despicable local merchant. Her journey includes supernatural powers, mythical lands, magical monsters, and the realization that her destiny is controlled in part by an incarnation from a past life.

We learn Ai Ling can read minds and control the actions of others; we discover that her past and present are inextricably bound to the Silver Phoenix, consort of the immortal Zhong Ye, advisor to the imperial line. Of course, this is the reason that Zhong Ye holds her father captive at the imperial place. Master Zhong wishes to return the full spirit of his heart’s desire to Ai Ling’s corporeal form, and knows the only way to draw her to the palace is by using her father as bait!

Of course, what would a high fantasy adventure be without a couple of travel companions? Joining Ai Ling on her quest are brothers Chen Yong and Li Rong. Chen Yong is the illegitimate son of one of the Emperor’s consorts and an emissary from the land across the sea, Jiang Dao. Both brothers are athletic and dashing, but Chen Yong struggles with his orphaned existence and mixed race identity. He’s not just here to help Ai Ling, he’s searching for the truth about his parents and his origins.

Pon weaves Silver Phoenix’s past with Ai Ling’s present and Chen Yong’s search rather neatly. The story is action filled and artfully descriptive. Pon is obviously a foodie-- I can’t remember the last time a story made me feel so hungry!

The narrative does contain mature scenes with graphic violence, including a near rape.

In the current trend of young adult fantasy and science fiction, the high fantasy mode hasn’t been particularly prolific. Pon provides not only highly developed fantasy but also, notably, a much needed non-Caucasian heroine in a non-Western context.


Heather Tylock

Review: HOLD ME CLOSER, NECROMANCER by Lish McBride

McBride, Lish. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2010. ISBN: 978-0805090987. 352 Pages. $16.99. Young Adult.

Lish McBride’s debut novel, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, stars Sam, a young necromancer, as he learns a little bit about life, love, and, of course, raising the dead. It’s touted as a comedy-injected addition to the current wave of YA speculative fiction. The author biography even jokingly declares that McBride was raised by wolves in the Pacific Northwest. 

Meet Sam LaCroix, community college drop-out, Plumpy’s burger joint employee, and necromancer. Sam doesn’t know he can raise the dead until a chance encounter with Douglas, another local necromancer, who calls him out to stop loafing and accept his true nature. Douglas decides Sam’s time is best spent learning to use his newly discovered powers. While Douglas teaches him necromancy, Sam finds himself sharing a cage with a pretty werewolf. And, provided the were-girl doesn’t decide he’s dinner, Sam might learn about more than just his new powers.

McBride’s humorous title is promising, but the disjointed narrative shift between the first and third person dampens the prospect. Also problematic is the temporality of the pop culture references. While these references are sure to be a hit with an adult (crossover) reader, I expect the humor will be lost on any young adult without the Wikipedia app on his or her smart phone.

Heather Tylock  

Review: LIAR by Justine Larbalestier

Larbalestier, Justine. Liar. New York: Bloomsbury, 2009. ISBN: 9781599905198. 384 pages. $16.99. Young Adult. Grade 9 and Up.

Set in New York City and rural upstate New York, Liar follows Micah, a high school senior with a penchant for compulsive lying. She is seeking the truth about her boyfriend’s murder, and she seeks her own peace about being a werewolf. Her attempts to reconcile human and wolf are complicated by race, sexual orientation, and socio-economic stratification in a complex high school and urban environment.

The story opens as Micah deals with her “boyfriend” Zach’s grisly death. When she becomes the prime suspect, she must race to find the real killer. But one side effect of her time in wolf form is memory loss. So, while she suspects that the killer might be another werewolf, she is not altogether sure that she isn’t indeed responsible for Zach’s death herself. As she works through grief and possible guilt, we discover that her need to lie compulsively stems from her parents’ desire to keep the “family illness” a secret. The relationship with her parents is complicated by another mystery, the death of her little brother. Micah hopes to prove her innocence and thus stave off permanent exile to the family’s farm in rural New York. Most importantly, she hopes for the courage to reveal the truth about the “family illness.”

Larbalestier’s story artfully incorporates the supernatural into the complexities of multicultural existence in modern America.

Part psychological thriller, the story is not linear; Micah bounces between telling of present and past events. Sometimes this is confusing. Nonetheless, the writing is smart, fast paced, and beautifully constructed. At its conclusion, we and Micah realize just how inconsequential the truth can be.

Heather Tylock

Review: DARK LIFE by Kat Falls

Falls, Kat.  Dark Life.  New York: Scholastic Press, 2010.  ISBN-13: 978-0-545-17814-3.  297 pages.  $16.99.  Young Adult.

Dark Life is probably best classified as dystopian science fiction.  Following the catastrophic rise of sea levels, twenty percent of North America is under water. The forty-five remaining states have formed a Commonwealth that functions in a constant state of emergency.  Since the new frontier is now the ocean, where scientists and pioneers work underwater farms to provide the Commonwealth with sustenance,  the setting is underwater off the Eastern seaboard of the former United States. Families live in “subsea” homes made from soft-sided membranes modeled after deep-sea invertebrates, mostly jellyfish.  Children born and raised in these deep ocean settlements are sometimes referred to as Dark Life, and are thought by their Topsider counterparts to have special powers. 

One of these Dark Life adolescents, Ty, is the teenage son of scientist/underwater terra-formers.  Both Ty and his nine year-old sister Zoe, born subsea, possess unique talents suited for underwater living.  In the first chapter, Ty scavenges among the ruins of the now submerged New York City, though doing so violates his parents’ rules.  While investigating an abandoned sub, he discovers Gemma, a teenage Topsider and ward of the Commonwealth, who is searching for her brother.  Ty agrees to help Gemma, but the search proves way more dangerous than either could imagine.  They find themselves caught in an unfolding mystery that involves seagangs, escaped convicts, secret experiments, and the Benthic territory’s struggle for equal representation in the Commonwealth.

Falls’ Dark Life is a neat little gem.  Writing in first person from Ty’s perspective, she re-imagines the American Wild West. Her underwater setting is rife with settlers, outlaws, prospectors, and posses.  She mixes an appropriate amount of action with world building and character development to create an enjoyable read. And while Ty is a well- rounded character, I wished Gemma was a bit more developed. All in all, Falls’ prose is well constructed and pretty evenly paced.

Heather Tylock

Review: JULIET IMMORTAL by Stacey Jay

Jay, Stacey. Juliet Immortal. New York: Delacorte Press, 2011. ISBN: 978-0385740166. $17.99

It’s been a while since I read something so compelling that I took it everywhere I went, just so I could read it whenever I had a spare moment. Stacey’s Jay’s imaginative novel is impossible to put down. The initial concept is outlined in the book jacket, arresting in its so-simple-it’s-amazing hook: “Juliet Capulet didn’t take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most…Romeo Montague.”

Now come on! How brilliant is that? Don’t you wish you had thought of it? And Stacey Jay takes that wonderful premise and runs with it, creating a novel steeped in intrigue, mystery, and the dueling forces of good and evil.

In Jay’s novel, Romeo kills Juliet as a sacrifice to gain immortality. After her death, Juliet becomes an Ambassador of Light, a spirit who can inhabit bodies on earth when her help is needed to unite soul mates, and Romeo becomes a Mercenary, an immortal soul on the side of evil. The erstwhile lovers meet again and again on earth in their respective afterlives, always fighting each other for soul mates. If Juliet unites them, she scores one for her team of Ambassadors. If Romeo can convince one soul mate to kill the other, the Mercenaries’ power grows. But are Romeo and Juliet simply doing what they have to do to keep their immortal bosses happy, or are they pawns in an ancient game? And when Juliet finds her own forbidden love – and it’s not Romeo – will she ruin her chances at a peaceful afterlife?

Stacey Jay takes the common conception of Romeo and Juliet as the ultimate pair of lovers and turns it on its head. Juliet hates Romeo, and Romeo is slick, sadistic, and deceptive. With vivid descriptions of graphic violence and macabre visions, the novel edges into gothic horror territory. The suspense is thrilling, the characters are just mysterious enough, and the sense of “What is going on?” will have you racing through the book’s 300 pages to see what will happen to these formerly fair lovers.

Along with the mysteries and unanswered questions, the characterization of Juliet and her relationship with Romeo contributes to the suspense. Juliet – always on the side of good but carrying a bitterness and resentment that darkens her – ultimately learns what love is for. And because Romeo and Juliet have such an epic history, there’s an element of wistfulness for what they used to be. While you may not root for them to end up together, you do feel sorrow for the tragedy they both went through.

Overall, Juliet Immortal is a tantalizing exploration of a fantastic concept. It does suffer a little from the common YA ailment of instant, all-consuming love between teenagers who have just met, but… so did Romeo and Juliet.

Jill Coste