REVIEW: Fractured Innocence, by Julia Crane

Kaitlyn and Erik are sent on a mission to track down Vance Dasvoik, a ruthless monster. His latest thrill—abducting and selling young women.Vance's current victim: Aaliyah, a seventeen-year-old who never imagined walking her brother home from school one evening would change her life forever.The mission quickly turns personal for Kaitlyn when she finds Aaliyah beaten, her mind and soul fractured from abuse of the worst kind. Kaitlyn knows firsthand what it's like to be haunted by the past and resolves to bring justice to the elusive Dasvoik.

**This is book 2 in the IFICS series. The first book, Freak of Nature was reviewed on January 9, 2014.

Again, cover art that's actually relevant. It's a pretty miraculous thing, sometimes.

Crane delivers, again. I LOVED Freak of Nature (Who wouldn't?) and Fractured Innocence is a sequel that stands up well. Readers need to understand, though, that this story is very different from Freak.


Kaitlyn is on her first mission, and it's a tough one. Gone is the search for self-awareness story line, the struggle to balance cyborg and human. Understand, the struggles are still there, but that's not the story anymore.

It's pretty gritty. Pretty darn gritty. Aaliyah is abducted by a human sex-trafficking ring. That fact is not glossed over. You know what's happening to her even if it isn't described in specific detail. In other words, you can paint a picture in your mind very easily of the sex scenes and even more easily of the torture scenes (Dasvoik--the ringleader--is sadistic, to say the least). Nothing in those scenes is sugar-coated. Crane has done an amazing job portraying the fear and seriousness of this in the world today. She's made a connection for YAs.

I think the best part of this story is the way Kaitlyn and Aaliyah wind up relating. Don't want to give it away, but their relationship couldn't have been written any other way. I'm looking forward to more in this series, to see how this friendship plays out.

I was hooked in this story from the get go, and not simply because I enjoyed the first book so much. The romance between Kaitlyn and Lucas is still there, just played down some, as it's not central to the story. All of the characters deepen and develop (except Quess, who has a minute role in this book). It's really some masterful characterization. 

My only "cons"--- First, I can't hand this to my 9th and 10th graders. I've got some "young" 11th graders I can't hand this to. Second, the first 70% of the book (according to my e-reader) was build up--which is great. But the last of the story, from the climax to the end just went too quickly, and wrapped up a little too neatly, even knowing that there's more to come. It moved so quickly I re-read it this morning to make sure I hadn't missed something.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I purchased this book for my personal collection. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

REVIEW: This House is Haunted, by John Boyne

Set in Norfolk in 1867, Eliza Caine responds to an ad for a governess position at Gaudlin Hall. When she arrives at the hall, shaken by an unsettling disturbance that occurred during her travels, she is greeted by the two children now in her care, Isabella and Eustace. There is no adult present to represent her mysterious employer, and the children offer no explanation. Later that night in her room, another terrifying experience further reinforces the sense that something is very wrong.
 From the moment Eliza rises the following morning, her every step seems dogged by a malign presence that lives within Gaudlin’s walls. Eliza realizes that if she and the children are to survive its violent attentions, she must first uncover the hall’s long-buried secrets and confront the demons of its past.

Touted as being a Dickensian ghost story. And I'll admit it had a certain Tell-Tale Heart feel to it. The setting, the creepy children, and the village's secrecy about what's really going on at Gaudlin Hall definitely put you in the mind of a Dickens story. 

I like the characters. I feel like I got to know those who had stand-out personalities. All except Isabella, that is, but I feel like not getting to know her made her character more realistic.

There were several anachronistic things...the language and interactions between characters wasn't in keeping with the Dickens time period. It's kind of predictable, but I still found myself immersed in it enough to keep going. Not the greatest Gothic supernatural novel, but worth the read if you like the very specific genre.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I purchased this book for my own collection. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

REVIEW: Skin and Bones, by Sherry Shahan

Sixteen-year-old Jack, nicknamed "Bones," won't eat. His roommate in the eating disorder ward has the opposite problem and proudly goes by the nickname "Lard." They become friends despite Bones's initial reluctance. When Bones meets Alice, a dangerously thin dancer who loves to break the rules, he lets his guard down even more. Soon Bones is so obsessed with Alice that he's willing to risk everything–even his recovery.

There just aren't that many YA novels about eating disorders with male characters.

And this one isn't "about" eating disorders. Yes, it takes place in a hospital ward that is a residential treatment program for eating disorders. Yes, Bones has anorexia. Yes, his roommate has the opposite problem (overeating to the detriment of his precarious diabetes state). And yes, everyone else on the ward has one or another disorder. But this story really doesn't focus on it. Not to say that the eating disorders were just a vehicle for getting to the rest of the YA story...it's just the focus to me seemed to be that teenage issues don't stop just because you have an eating disorder.

And that's okay.Bones is a teenage boy, with all the usual teenage boy issues and thoughts. He just also has anorexia. He wants a girlfriend who gets him, and he finds a possible love interest in Alice, who is more obsessed with perfection than he is.

Here's what I liked...

• I liked that that there was a wide spectrum of eating disorders portrayed. Any unhealthy relationship with food (or the lack of it) is an eating disorder.
• I liked that, in what to me seems very realistic, Bones didn't come to the ward with any desire to "get better." He had to grow into the mindset that he had a problem.
• I liked that Shahan explained how Bones and Alice both started down the roads they did. I would've liked more about why Lard and the others were there.
• I liked the interactions in the family therapy scenes. Again, seemed very realistic to me.

My only real "problem" with the book is that it felt disjointed at times. Here and there I felt like there were scenes missing. Clearly, the characters were supposed to get from point A to point C, but B was skipped. Sometimes the shortest distance between 2 points IS a straight line, but it's not always the best way to travel, you know?

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Albert Whitman & Company (Albert Whitman Teen) through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

REVIEW: The Twin's Daughter, by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Lucy Sexton is stunned when her mother’s identical twin sister shows up at the family’s front door one day. Separated at birth, the two women have had dramatically different upbringings, and Lucy’s mother, Aliese, will do anything to make it up to Helen-including taking Helen into their home and turning her into a lady that all of society will admire. Aunt Helen’s transformation is remarkable. But is it just Lucy’s imagination, or does Helen seem to enjoy being mistaken for Lucy’s mother? 

Then, on New Year’s Day, Lucy is horrified to find her aunt and mother tied to chairs in the parlor. One of them has been brutally murdered-but which twin has died? Surely her daughter will know...

What an awesome book! It's a Gothic thriller that just doesn't disappoint. With multiple climactic points, this book keeps you guessing to the very end...just like Lucy is. You spend the story puzzling out the truth right along with Lucy. Truly, I didn't "know" the final outcome until the end. It's not predictable.

Lucy starts out as young, pre-teen, though it's hard to capture that because she seems so grown-up. But, she's an only child in the early 19th century...kids just weren't like kids these days. She grows up in the story, which takes place over several years, and this is written beautifully and fairly seamlessly.

I could see this as a movie..with Nicole Kidman as the mother and aunt.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I purchased this title as an ebook for my personal collection. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

REVIEW: Crash, by Lisa McMann

Jules lives with her family above their restaurant, which means she smells like pizza most of the time and drives their double-meatball-shaped food truck to school. It’s not a recipe for popularity, but she can handle that.

What she can’t handle is the recurring vision that haunts her. Over and over, Jules sees a careening truck hit a building and explode...and nine body bags in the snow.

The vision is everywhere—on billboards, television screens, windows—and she’s the only one who sees it. And the more she sees it, the more she sees. The vision is giving her clues, and soon Jules knows what she has to do. Because now she can see the face in one of the body bags, and it’s someone she knows. Someone she has been in love with for as long as she can remember.

After thoroughly enjoying the Wake trilogy a few years ago, I was looking forward to reading Crash. It was....okay. Not great. I may have been reading with my analytical-reader hat on, though. Instead of my YA librarian hat (which is a different hat, I swear.)

The story is supposed to be about the recurring vision Jules has, and how she's trying to prevent it from coming true. It's a honest to goodness mystery, what with trying to figure the who, what, when, and where--and then how to stop it. The premise works.

However, McMann's execution of it doesn't work. Jules practically stalks her long-time crush (who isn't allowed to speak to her because their families own rival pizza parlors). The angst is dripping heavily in this book. And it could've been laid on less heavily and made for a better story. The supernatural bit felt like an excuse for telling about the romance.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I purchased this book for my own pleasure reading. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.