Shadowy YA

Thrillers, chillers, and sci-fi, oh my! I am happy to announce that you can buy something other than a paranormal romance about vampires, werewolves, or angels at the bookstore these days. Here is a sampler of some of the latest YA.

Cold Fury by T.M. Goeglein

This book builds in such great ways. Interesting, because the first eight chapters are merely leading up to what screenwriters fondly refer to as “the inciting incident.” Essentially, we get eight chapters of backstory. But those chapters dole out so many clues and character interactions and odd moments that it all comes together to begin to explain what Sara Jane has already told us will happen: her parents and her little brother disappear.

What do we need to know? Sara Jane is a boxer. Sara Jane adored her Uncle Buddy, but he wound up betraying her. Sara Jane’s grandfather and father are more than just bakers. Um, mafia? But that’s not actually the weirdest part. The weirdest part is that when Sara Jane gets a certain kind of angry, there’s a blue light and she has extra strength. Superpower? Kind of. It’s one of the family secrets. More secrets are hidden in a notebook that both Sara Jane and Uncle Buddy are after once her family disappears.

Unfortunately, Uncle Buddy and some dirty cops aren’t even the worst of her enemies. Fortunately, Sara Jane has friends, including a boy named Max that she wishes were more of a boyfriend, her boxing trainer Willy, and a thuggish dog named Harry.

Eventually we get a Sara Jane who is on the run with “a steel briefcase, and inside that briefcase is ninety-six thousand dollars in cash, an AmEx Black Card in [her] name, a SigSauer .45 conceal-and-carry, and an old leather notebook….” That’s about where the story starts, but only because the rest of the book turns out to be one long flashback.

The blue light thing almost seems extraneous because Sara Jane and her story are already so tough and surprising. But I’ll take it. And I’ll take the sequel about five minutes after it comes out.

First Line: “My name is Sara Jane Rispoli. Several short weeks ago, I turned sixteen. So far there has been nothing sweet about it.”

Don’t Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon

This book got four starred reviews, as well it should have. Don’t Turn Around is a wild and breathless ride. I’ve heard that YA editors are looking for thrillers these days, and this book unquestionably qualifies. For example, it begins with a street kid waking up to find herself on an operating table in an abandoned warehouse. What has been done to her, and how will she get away? The stuff of nightmares. Nice.

Noa barely manages to escape, and now she is being hunted. Meanwhile, a boy named Peter Gregory uncovers secrets on the computer that get his front door kicked in. The bad guys also shut down his underground website, ALLIANCE. Peter makes a deal with one of the vigilante hackers from his site—who turns out to be Noa, AKA Rain. With some help from his almost-ex-girlfriend, Amanda, and his other hacker buddies, Peter begins following the clues. They lead him back to Noa. Meanwhile, the people chasing Noa are getting closer and closer. A secret friend on the Internet gives Noa some support, but she’s afraid to trust him. Then things get really bad.

As the initial scenario implies, this suspense story has a medical issue at its core. You will find that the book is set in the future, though probably only 20 or 30 years from now.

Gagnon keeps the pace going relentlessly, which is just right for this book. And Noa, who has been in and out of foster homes and juvie, makes the perfect streetwise heroine. Peter is a little more white bread, but then, he’s supposed to be. His growing realization that, in the middle of all this drama, his girlfriend has moved on adds humor and pathos. It’s a relatively minor subplot, but it’s a good example of the complexity of the human interactions in a book that could have simply been one long chase scene. Well, it is that, but there’s a lot more going on here than cookie-cutter villains on black motorcycles.

I really liked Don't Turn Around. I think you will, too.

First Line: “When Noa Torson woke up, the first thing she noticed was that her feet were cold.”

The Dead and the Buried by Kim Harrington

This book begins with an excerpt from the diary of one Kayla Sloane. But Kayla is more the antagonist than the protagonist here. Our main character is a girl named Jade. Unbeknownst to her, the girl who used to live in her new home was murdered. Jade starts to get a clue when the kids at school act really weird, whispering about her as soon as she gets there. Then Kayla, who isn’t nearly as gone as one might hope, begins to haunt Jade and especially her little brother, Colby. Kayla makes it clear that if Jade doesn’t find out who murdered her, she will do something terrible to Colby.

Jade uses her growing friendship with one of Kayla’s exes, Kane, to find out more about what happened to Kayla. But she’s already made enemies, and things don’t go quite how she had planned. Jade finds herself attracted to another of Kayla’s exes, troubled emo/geek Donovan. Half the kids in the high school think Donovan murdered Kayla, though apparently the cops don’t. Since Kayla fell down the stairs, it’s not entirely certain whether it was an accident or murder. Except that ghost Kayla says she was pushed. (I found myself wondering whether Kayla was making that up just to be cruel, since she was obviously a Mean Girl with a capital M-G. But no, it appears someone really did push her.) One problem for Jade is that a lot of people had reason to hate Kayla. And ghost Kayla is getting more and more scary.

Yep, this is a ghost story, though it’s also a murder mystery. Plus it's a romance and a bit of a stepdaughter-and-stepmother-work-out-their-differences tale. Harrington has a lot going on here, but she pulls it off. I did figure out who the murderer was about a third of the way through the book, but it was just a good guess: the author keeps the mystery mysterious till nearly the climactic moment. This is a satisfying story both because of the buildup of suspense and because Donovan and Jade make a sweet almost-couple who have a lot to deal with before they can settle in and enjoy their new relationship.

First Line: “I’m not stupid. I know half of them only worship me because they fear me.”

The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski

Darcy Jones is a high school student with three good friends: Lily, Jims, and Raphael. Abandoned when she was five, Darcy lives with a foster mother who cares about her and treats her well. Darcy loves art, and she’s talented at it. Life isn’t so bad until Conn McCrea shows up. Darcy is unwillingly attracted to Conn, who most of the time looks at her like she’s a poisonous snake. But why?

The answer is far more complex than Darcy—or readers—could have imagined. It involves an alternate world peopled by two very different groups. It involves betrayal, secret societies, random acts of kindness, and a Romeo-and-Juliet romance. I really enjoyed this fresh new sci-fi/thriller/romance, which didn’t surprise me because Marie Rutkowski is also the author of a very cool, dark, steampunk-in-Hungary trilogy, the Kronos Chronicles.

Besides, you gotta love a book that uses T.S. Elliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” as a thematic element. I’ve always liked that poem.

Of course, some of the plot points are a little more predictable than others. For instance, there’s a vertex on a romantic triangle that breaks apart before it even gets started. What really holds true throughout the book is the troubled relationship between Darcy and Conn. How do you trust someone whose entire purpose is to distrust you? Rutkoski takes this idea through some nice twists and turns. And no, her Romeo and Juliet do not wind up dead. This is the kind of story where the title is a play on words even though it doesn't seem like it at first. A shadowy and engaging read.

First Line: “Knowing what I know now, I’d say my foster mother had her reasons for throwing a kitchen knife at me.”

Super Middle Grade

All four of these books are about legacies. Three of them are about secret societies to which the kids’ parents belong—two of those societies being questionable—and one is about the unlikely inheritor of super powers. It feels kind of like Harry Potter, only with adventure instead of magic. The winds of children’s fiction seem to be blowing in the direction of suspense, conspiracies, and secret societies. I think you’ll like riding this next gust.

Capture the Flag by Kate Messner

I’m catching up on Messner's book, which came out in July. It’s a locked-room mystery in the sense that a bunch of people is trapped in an airport because of a snowstorm. Among those people are four kids who, after initial disinterest, team up to solve a mystery: someone has stolen the historic American flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Each of the kids has some sort of connection to the flag. To start with, all four of them were at a museum reception for the flag exhibit the evening before—and the flag was stolen that night. Anna’s mother is a newscaster and her father is a Senator. She sees herself as a budding news reporter. José’s mother worked on restoring the flag. Henry’s aunt is a history buff, though Henry would far rather play video games. Sinan is the son of two members of an orchestra from Pakistan that performed at the exhibit—an orchestra that is eventually accused of stealing the flag. Sinan is the owner of a rambunctious poodle named Hammurabi, too.

Anna tries to get an interview with Senator Snickerbottom, who is also in the airport. He’s leading up to a campaign for president. Then there’s Snake Eye, a man with an odd tattoo who acts suspiciously. Throw in a couple of thugs while you're at it. Pretty soon Anna and her friends are sliding and hiding in the luggage area, where a lot of chase scenes in the book take place. The secret society thing comes up later.

The four kids are likable, each with his or her quirks. For example, as he learns English, Sinan keeps a notebook in which he draws pictures to help him remember expressions like “full of beans” and “killing time.” These pictures are included in the book. Anna is intrepid, José is sweet but sturdy, and Henry is sucked into things against his will but proves helpful in the end.

Quite a few characters in the book are not what they seem.

This is a very kid-friendly book, with exciting yet ultimately non-perilous peril. I can easily see it being turned into a movie. I'll just end by saying that the book's title deserves to be in the Clever Title Hall of Fame.

First line: They never should have unlocked the door.

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities by Mike Jung

We begin the book at ground level, where the members of fan clubs and the public in general rush outside to watch whenever their hero, Captain Stupendous, battles a villain in the skies overhead or even in the streets out front. As our boy Vincent tells us, “So when a giant robot came to town and picked a fight right outside Spud’s Pizza, you can guess how psyched I was.”

But something goes wrong, and Captain Stupendous goes silent. Then when he does show up, he doesn’t fight the way he normally does. Vincent and his buddies Max and George wind up being the only ones to find out the truth: their hero has been replaced by someone’s who’s not only inept, but who really doesn’t want the job. It’s up to Captain Stupendous experts Vincent, Max, and George to train the new hero and come up with strategies for defeating the new super villain in town.

Of course, I’m avoiding some intriguing spoilers having to do with Vincent’s friends and family.

The best thing about this book is the awesome geekdom of Vincent and his buddies, who throw themselves into their new challenge with verve and reckless abandon. Frequent moments of humor give the book a dimensionality that would be lacking if it were just straight suspense.

Villainous activities in the book range from mild taunting by the irritatingly studly members of another fan club to the evil machinations of the super villain—who ends up being something of a geek himself, along the evil inventor line.

Jung is a talented writer whose storytelling never falters. Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities thoroughly holds its own in this crop of suspense and secret identity books for middle grade.

First line: There are four Captain Stupendous fan clubs in Copperplate City, but ours is the only one that doesn’t suck.

Mike Jung wrote a funny and yes, geeky song about the book and being an author. Here’s a video of him singing it.

The Cloak Society by Jeremy Kraatz

This book reminds me a little of Mark Walden’s H.I.V.E. (Higher Institute of Villainous Education) and sequels as well as Catherine Jinks’ Evil Genius and sequels. It starts out with an explication about how super villains get their start and how tough it can be to be one. Normally I don’t like books to start with explication, but this riff is genuinely funny in a straight-faced, tongue-in-cheek way.

Alex was born into a family of super villains, members of a group known as the Cloak Society. He has been training all his life to ensure world domination and defeat the society’s archenemies: superheroes called the Rangers of Justice.

It’s time for Alex’s first mission, stealing a diamond called the Excelsior from an impregnable bank. He’s one of the young crew, Beta Team, assisting the older members of the society. All of them have super powers. Alex can create a blue light that he uses for telekinesis, but it doesn’t always work quite the way he wants it to. On this mission, Alex makes a nearly unforgivable mistake when he impulsively saves a young member of the Rangers of Justice from being killed.

Alex is punished, his loyalty is questioned, and he is put on probation for the forseeable future. Then he runs into the girl whose life he saved and begins meeting her secretly, telling himself he will recruit her and/or kidnap her in time. Only Alex is being tempted by the dark side, AKA the light side, depending how you look at it. And that’s not going to turn out well.

After reading the other two books I mentioned, I thought I might not get hooked in by a new one with a similar premise. However, Kraatz makes us care about Alex—about his sneaking around, his unacceptable soft heart, and his giant dilemma.

Secondary characters such as Alex’s sneery rival and a younger girl who follows Alex around like a lost puppy add to the mix, as do his tower-of-evil-power parents, especially his mother.

Join Alex on his coming-of-age journey as the scion of a family of super villains.

First line: You don’t just fall into supervillainy.

In this video, Kraatz talks about the book, growing up a comic book fan, and his internship at Marvel Comics.

The Secret Prophecy by Herbie Brennan

This one caught my attention because it’s by Herbie Brennan, who wrote an excellent series called the Faerie Wars.

Em (E.M. for Edward Michael) loses his father, a scholarly geek who has been trying to find a lost prophecy of Nostradamus. At the funeral, Em sees strangers, including men with guns who begin to follow him. Then his mother is tossed in an insane asylum for no real reason, and his uncle Harold starts acting like he might be a traitor.

Em figures out that people are looking for his father’s notes on the lost prophecy. Together with a friend named Charlotte and the mysterious Victor, Em tries to find answers and evade his followers. He ends up going on the run, aided by Charlotte and Victor.

There’s a lot of chasing here, sometimes reminiscent of the Alex Rider books (the first one also starts with a death and strangers at the funeral). Trust me when I tell you that double and triple crosses are the name of the game in The Secret Prophecy.

I mean, why exactly does Victor want Em to break into a dangerous secret facility in the United States? Is Victor a good guy or a bad guy? Why should Em keep trusting him?

I liked Em, who acts from his gut, which often turns out to be right. Sure, he thinks through certain problems, but when action is required, he's already in motion.

The meaning and importance of the prophecy is also constantly in question. This is an old-fashioned chase-and-suspense book in a lot of ways, but it takes some new-fangled twists and turns that readers will appreciate. It’s clear that Brennan is a pro.

First line: The stairs were narrow, but Em was used to carrying the tray by now, so he managed not to spill the orange juice.

Note: Thanks to HarperCollins for sending me review copies of The Cloak Society and The Secret Prophecy. The latter will be available on October 30^th; the other three books are already out.

A Review of Shelter by Harlan Coben

Yet another writer for adults crosses over into the lucrative YA market, this one an Edgar-award winning mystery/thriller author who's been writing books about Myron Bolitar, our new MC's uncle. In fact, Mickey Bolitar was apparently introduced in Coben's latest adult novel, Live Wire, but here the focus is on him—and we're clearly talking series starter. Coben doesn't pull any punches: he starts off with a white slavery/sex trade plot in his very first book. No middle grade fiction for him!

Mickey watched his father die in a car accident, and now his grieving mom is in rehab. He's not crazy about his new school, either, at least until he meets an odd but lovely classmate who becomes his girlfriend. Then Ashley disappears, and Mickey is determined to find her.

Along the way, he'll run into some seriously scary characters, as well as "Bat Lady," an old woman who gives him some clues about his father's secret life, things Mickey never knew before. The trail of his father's secrets extends back to other people's stories, events from the World War II era.

Meanwhile, Ashley is linked to a strip club owned by some real thugs. Mickey gets in and out once without any real damage, but he won't be so lucky twice.

At school, Mickey finds more clues about what happened to Ashley; he also has run-ins with a bully and a pretty girl who knows more than she should. But my favorite characters are goofy Spooner and sour Ema. Spooner is a bit of a cliché, the over-talkative geek—still, he's rather appealing. Ema is sort of goth, a hostile fat girl who's bright and loyal and willing to break the rules for her friends. Though it seems obvious Ema could never be a romantic figure to Mickey, whether due to her weight or because she makes such a great friend, she is nevertheless a powerful character who really adds to the story. This is from the scene where Mickey meets Ema. He saves her from participating in an unpleasant school activity, but she's not exactly grateful:

"Is it mandatory?" I asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Is participating in this particular exercise mandatory?"

"Well, no, it's not manda—"

"Then I'm sitting out." I looked over at Ema/Emma. "Would you mind keeping me company?"

We walked away then. Behind me I could hear the world go silent. Then Ms. Owens blew a whistle, stopping the exercise and calling for lunch.

When we were a few more feet away, Ema/Emma said, "Wow."

"What?"

She looked me straight in the eye. "You saved the fat girl. I bet you're really proud of yourself."

Then she shook her head and walked away.

One amusing plot component is that Mickey doesn't trust Uncle Myron, though many readers will come to the book thinking Myron is a pretty great guy thanks to the author's adult series. Mickey sneaks around quite a bit trying to solve the mystery of Ashley and of his father's death, rarely turning to his uncle for help.

Neither Coben's prose nor his storytelling is extraordinary in this book, but it's not a bad series start. Shelter is a pretty solid adventure which should appeal to fans of Alex Rider and the like. Of course, while the Ashley story wraps up, the author leaves the door open for a sequel that will continue to pursue the mystery of Mickey's father.

There's definite reluctant reader appeal here, with an easy style, plenty of action and suspense, and a likable main character. I suspect Book 2 will take hold even more successfully. And I look forward to seeing more of Ema and Spooner!

Note for Worried Parents: This is a book for teens, with some peril and violence, as well as a mature plot about the sex trade—though it is handled fairly tastefully and the good guys win. Also: Take a look at Harlan Coben's website, where you can find a book trailer for Shelter.

A Review of Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low

I have to thank Amy (RockinLibrarian) for recommending this one! The title completely grabbed me, and I felt compelled to get my hands on this Victorian-era farce, apparently the first in a series titled The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival.

Petronella's come-out party is nearly ruined when her guardian, Uncle Augustus, swallows a strange beetle that gives him a compulsion to eat bugs. The party is further marred when two important guests go missing.

Now Petronella must solve both mysteries with the help of her dear friend Jane and Jane's handsome brother James, while trying to keep her uncle's new proclivities satisfied and a secret from Petronella's rude, greedy relatives, who would love to take over the guardianship and her late parents' fortune.

Dene Low's story is thoroughly giddy, or as Caroline Stevermer, author of Sorcery and Cecilia, puts it in a back cover quote, "Definitely frothy and categorically a romp."

I suppose I could have done without Petronella noticing James's muscles quite so often, but I decided that it was a running joke, a mockery of regency romance conventions. And really, Low doesn't let Petronella's interest in James slow her down one bit as our girl takes on any number of villains and difficult situations, including another kidnapping, this time of Jane. The word "intrepid" comes to mind, not to mention "plucky," when speaking of Petronella.

Along the way, Uncle Augustus cavorts delightfully, consuming numerous insects in a clever counterpoint to the rest of the plot. His new diet agrees with him so well that Petronella begins to wonder if she really should give her uncle the antidote, after all.

The kidnappings turn out to be related to political machinations in Panama relative to the building of the canal, and a lot of the strangeness can be attributed to insects from a remote island in that part of the world. In particular, we are repeatedly given an odd butterfly named the Tou-eh-mah-mah that becomes the villains' calling card.

There's such a farcically melodramatic tone here that at times I half-expected to hear an old-fashioned movie theater piano playing chase music and otherwise illuminating the plot. I was even reminded of Shakespeare's comedies as various characters ran here and there in multiple types of confusion.

Low takes liberal advantage of clichés in the pursuit of satire, giving us bumbling police inspectors and mustache-twirling villains along with some well-placed lines of dialogue. When she has James say solemnly, "There, I fear, is your motive. We are dealing with a tangled web of international intrigue," you can practically see the author grinning. Petronella's despicable aunts and cousins are another colorful addition to this tongue-in-cheek offering. And, considering the gentlemanly pursuit of scientific knowledge among well-to-do Victorians, Low's twist on Uncle August and his entomological studies is both bizarre and satisfying. I had a very good time following Petronella on her madcap journey, and I look forward to her further adventures in the next installment of The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival.

A Review of The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

Earlier this week, I read the new book in Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series, Only the Good Spy Young, about a girls' boarding school that trains young spies. (Carter's series is a lot of fun!) Turn back the clock to Victorian-era London and you'll find Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls, which has a similar mission. There bright lower-class girls are taught to be proper maids and ladies' companions, little knowing that the best of them will be recruited to act as spies while they're at it.

Orphan Mary Quinn is headed to the gallows for stealing bread at the age of 12 when she is abruptly rescued by a woman posing as a prison matron. Four years of study later, she finds out the secret of Scrimshaw Academy when she is invited to become a spy. An adventurous soul at heart, Mary accepts the invitation—and her first mission.

Mary is sent to be a lady's companion to an unpleasant merchant's daughter named Angelica, but her true purpose is to spy on the household, since Mr. Therold is suspected of buying and selling stolen artifacts in the Far East, crimes that technically occur outside of Scotland Yard's jurisdiction.

Mary soon chaffs at the feeling that she isn't getting much spying done, although she has been assigned merely to assist the primary agent on the case, whose identity she does not know. She wonders why the invalid Mrs. Therold goes to the doctor every afternoon, deals with the difficult Angelica as best she can, and tries to decide why a family acquaintance, James Easton, appears to be spying on the family, as well. (Um, could he be the agent? Or is he up to something else?) Although Mrs. Therold is encouraging Angelica to win the heart of James's besotted older brother, George, Angelica seems to be more interested in James herself. For his part, James seems attracted to Mary. Of course, at first he merely acts suspicious and cranky towards Mary, as well he might, considering she dresses up as a boy and sneaks out in the middle of the night to search Mr. Therold's warehouse.

While the touch of romance is fun, A Spy in the House is really focused on the mystery of the stolen artifacts and Mary's efforts to solve it, efforts that quickly outpace the scope of her original assignment. Along the way, Mary also manages to help the prickly Angelica, who has troubles of her own. Lee does an interesting job of making readers hate Angelica early in the book, then come to feel sorry for her later on.

A visit to a Lascars' refuge (an old folks home for Asian sailors) not only has a bearing on the case, but turns up surprising information about Mary's own past. Then the bodies start to pile up, and James begins to worry about Mary's safety, which irritates her no end. The boy really should worry about his own safety, and hope that Mary will be around to rescue him!

Fun (and impressive!) fact: The author has a Ph.D. in Victorian literature and culture.

This fresh take on the spy genre promises us more adventures with its supertitle, "A Mary Quinn Mystery." The narrative moves along briskly, and the power of Mary's longing to make more of herself—her longing for a challenge, really—makes her a heroine worth caring about. I'll be watching for Book 2.

A Review of Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham

Some adult writers make the transition to writing for children smoothly; others don't. Having read a few Grisham novels in my time, I was curious to see how well this author crossed over. I sat down to read Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, only to find myself asking: John Grisham is basically a decent writer, so why didn't his new book for kids turn out better?

But first, an introduction to the plot: Theo Boone is not only the child of two lawyers, he is an aspiring lawyer (or maybe judge) whose friends come to him Encyclopedia Brown-style for legal advice. Theo spends his free time in his own little section of his parents' law office or hanging around down at the courthouse, where he has befriended at least one judge, among various other personnel. Not a bad premise.

This is a small- to medium-sized suburban town, which is meant to explain why it's only had one murder since the 1950s. Now a murder trial is taking place, and Theo unexpectedly gets some inside scoop through his kid connections. The question is, how can he get that information to the right people before a murderer walks, especially since he's been asked not to reveal the identity of the frightened witness?

Troubles with this book:

1. Some of the exposition about legal matters is worked in smoothly, but other times it seems lecturish.

2. Theo, speaking of lectures, is thirteen going on fifty, which doesn't make him the most appealing main character in the world. His love of the law seems beyond nerdy, and he comes across far too often as a dry kind of guy.

3. The cases the kids in the Encyclopedia Brown books bring to the boy detective are generally plausible, but I'm less convinced by the legal questions Theo's peers bring to him.

4. Since the murder case is being tried by and for grown-ups, Theo's involvement is necessarily peripheral, and he must eventually take his troubles to adults for help. (One of the first rules of children's books is that young characters must solve their own problems, or mostly solve them, without adult interference.) This difficulty is due to the basic setup, but it's nevertheless an issue.

5. The bad guy's evil bodyguard eyeballs Theo too often, and too early in the book. Theo really wouldn't draw that much attention till later in the story, and then for specific reasons.

6. Like many adult writers who cross over to writing for younger readers, Grisham sounds a bit stilted—and occasionally condescending—as he tries to write at a level he imagines is more appropriate for this audience.

7. Biggest complaint? A huge cliffhanger, in which Grisham refuses to wrap up the plot we've been following for 250-plus pages. I don't mind some loose threads leading to another story, but I really resent it when an author doesn't deliver on the promise of the main plot, especially when the story clearly could have fit in a book of this size in its entirety. (Add another fifty pages if you need to, Dutton!) I find myself wondering whether the writer couldn't be bothered to come up with a tightly constructed story, or whether he didn't trust us to read the sequel without said cliffhanging. Either way, I was Not Happy when I got to the last few pages and realized what Mr. Grisham had done. (A lawyer might say Trial 1 = Book 1 and Retrial = Book 2, but if you read this, you'll see what I mean from a character-and-plot perspective. The whole book ends up feeling like a setup for the actual story.)

So, good points? Old hand that he is, Grisham tells a decent tale. And some of the secondary characters are intriguing, especially Theo's pseudo-hippy uncle, Ike. I also like Theo's braces and the fact that he named his dog Judge. Details such as these lighten the heaviness of the whole "love of law" theme. Not to mention, Grisham has set up a very cute website for his legal eaglet.

I imagine there are plenty of people who will enjoy this book, but I found myself distracted from the storytelling far too often to recommend Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer. Perhaps Grisham will get more comfortable with the shift to writing for a younger audience in Book Two. (And I will be shocked—shocked, I say—if they don't make this into a movie!)

A Review of The Boneshaker by Kate Milford

Natalie loves machines. She helps her mechanic father in his shop, repairing motorcars and bicycles and trying to build clockwork machines like a small flyer. It's 1914, and Arcane isn't an ordinary small town. The crossroads is a place of power, where the devil once battled an old musician for his soul and lost.

At least, that's the story Natalie's mother tells her, but is it true? As The Boneshaker progresses, we learn not only that the story is true, but that the uncanny Doctor Jake Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show has something to do with demons, as well.

Natalie, whose biggest concern up till now has been her inability to ride the odd bicycle her father has rebuilt for her, the titular boneshaker, now has a whole new set of worries. With her friends, she begins to explore the eerie doctor's medicine show. What she discovers frightens her, but things get even worse when her brother and father decide to bring her ailing mother to the medicine show for treatment.

The author builds her story—and the suspense—beautifully, pulling readers deeper into Natalie's all-too-appropriate fears about Dr. Limberleg and the "paragons" who accompany him. Meanwhile, Natalie's continuing efforts to ride the boneshaker lead us to a final chase scene in which she must ride the bike on a wild night-time journey to save her town and everyone she loves.

Milford gives us fun details like the time Natalie tries to sell a single bee to the town's shopkeeper, along with curious details such as the miniature automata inside Dr. Limberleg's trailer or the way the front left wheel pops off of every vehicle that comes into Arcane through the crossroads. And the medicine show, a kind of carnival, is described nightmarishly well.

The characters here are as marvelously strange as the medicine show. We get to know Old Tom Guyot, the elderly black musician who challenged the devil and won; a devious drifter named Jack (whom you might recognize from folklore); a mysterious rich man who isn't quite human; and stalwart townspeople like the pharmacist and Natalie's friends Alfred and Miranda.

You'll find that Kate Milford has a way with words. Here's Natalie's first glimpse of the flame-haired doctor:

Something about this man seemed...out of place in the general store. It was hard to say where a man like that might belong, but he surely didn't belong here.
He was taller than anyone she knew, and he wore an old-fashioned frock coat like her grandfather wore in old pictures: long and flared at the bottom and too heavy for a summer noon. He carried a tall silk hat under one arm, and there was something odd about his hair, too; the way it stood off his scalp was like the way her hair billowed when she dunked her head underwater.

But, evil though he seems, there is more to Dr. Limberleg than readers first suspect. For that matter, Natalie discovers there is more to her own self than she had previously realized. Natalie solves the problems in Arcane in difficult and thoughtful ways, achieving far more than a victory over her uncooperative bicycle.

Milford's work hints of magical realism and Alfred Hitchcock's subtle touch rather than today's scare-a-minute horror stories. A rich and shivery historical fantasy—or what I like to call rural fantasy—The Boneshaker will appeal to kids who are willing to take the time to watch fear unfold in increasingly unnerving detail.

(Listen to the old Charlie Daniels Band song, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," for an earlier take on the American musician's-pact-with-the-devil legend. And here are the Muppets performing the song!)

Note for Worried Parents: In addition to mature themes relating to the serious illness of a parent, The Boneshaker features pacts with the devil and demonic horror elements. It's definitely creepy, which explains the publisher's suggested reading range of 10 and up.

I requested this book from the Amazon Vine program after hearing about it on The Enchanted Inkpot. The Boneshaker will come out on May 24.

A Review of The Pickle King by Rebecca Promitzer

The Pickle King reminds me of a particular group of books, most of them about villainous factory owners, particularly food fabricators, and many of them drizzling with perpetual or near-perpetual rain: Fortune's Magic Farm by Suzanne Selfors, The Secret of Zoom by Lynn Jonell, Canned by Alex Shearer, and The Deep Freeze of Bartholomew Tullock by Alex Williams. More distantly, Pickle King has echoes of Charles Dickens and Joan Aiken. In each book, evil rich people oppress a town, their misdeeds covered up by bribery and/or dark magicks. The awful secrets are eventually brought to light by a kid or a group of kids.

Amazon calls this a YA, although it reads like middle grade fiction much of the time. The publisher's website says "10 and up." The Pickle King includes horror elements such as rats, roaches, and, most important, human body parts. In some ways, the book is simply a mystery about contemporary kids. But psychic powers, hidden histories, and things like a secret community of misfits living beneath a garbage dump make it more of a paranormal/fantasy/horror story, part of a new subgenre inspired by books like Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

This entrant is a little uneven, but there are quite a few things I liked about it. The setting has a nice Twilight Zone vibe, and Bea draws you into her worries as well as her friendships and adventures. I was basically a happy reader for about half the book, after which I felt a slight loss of interest. I ended up being disappointed by the way the story concluded—as much for plot choices as for a heavy-handed cliffhanger after what seemed like four final chapters in a row.

The rain is essentially a character here, and Promitzer describes it really well, bringing it up over and over again. If you get tired of this, recall that main character Bea is just as sick of it as you are! One of her chief goals in life is to escape the rainy town of Elbow and go visit a place like Florida, where the sun shines. Here's a rainy sample from the first chapter:

Anyway, it was summer vacation in Elbow and, of course, it was pouring rain.
I don't know if you've ever been anywhere where it rained for a few days without a break, not even a little one. If you have, you'll know that it makes you feel edgy, kind of jumpy inside. There are shadows, an unnatural kind of light, strange rainy noises, and you start to feel like you can't trust the regular things around you, the things you take for granted. Sometimes it seems like the things you've seen in scary movies or your own nightmares have come alive and are real—and have moved in for good. Other times it's as though you're living underwater and there's no air, and you really start to believe the sun will never ever shine again. It's no good for anybody to spend the summer in Elbow, but it's the kids like me who have to hang around; kids with no money or no parents or a bit of both. Some of us have got green growing between our toes from all the rain. It's a kind of mold. Bertha says it's the start of webbed feet.

TV screenwriter Promitzer tells a fairly compelling story in The Pickle King, and readers will find themselves going along for the ride with Bea on the bike she has spray-painted purple. The first place Bea brings us is an old house, where her friend Sam shows her a dead body. Aspiring photographer Bea takes pictures of the corpse, only to find when she gets home that the dead man's ghost appears to be haunting her camera.

Bea is accompanied by a nice little cast of characters. First there's Sam, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks who is alternately neglected and abused by his thuggish older brother and his father the drunk. We also get Sam's dog Jellybean, who provides comic relief along with some Lassie-like proclivities in a crisis. Sam and Bea reluctantly seek out other members of "The Summer Club," starting with rich girl Madison, whose initial superficiality and shoe fetish turns out to hide her unhappiness and a bad habit. Next we meet Eric, a young mad scientist who's really not that good at inventing things, and Butterfly, who is endlessly doomed to babysit her younger brother, Nelson.

Throw in some sinister villains, a jar of Herman's Red Devil Relish (also haunted), and you've got quite the summer vacation! Although sometimes the "blech" factor seems a little calculated, young readers will probably get a kick out of it. This book is obviously intended to be followed by a sequel. While I could wish for a slightly stronger plot next time, I do recommend Bea Klednik as your guide to some unusual adventures.

Note for Worried Parents: Sam smokes, and he offers to share his cigarette with the other kids, one of whom accepts. Other than that, just the horror elements mentioned above and a little preteen attraction—one kiss and some hand-holding, for example.

A Review of Jack: Secret Circles by F. Paul Wilson

Here's another Book Two, Jack: Secret Circles, which follows Jack: Secret Histories, published in 2008. Both books are essentially prequels to the author's adult series about a man called Repairman Jack. In fact, after I read the first book about a teenage Jack, I went looking for some of the Repairman Jack books. They are quite bleak, a cross between detective fiction and horror. What I like best about them is the idea of the title character. Jack operates off the grid, solving problems that can't be solved by the law. This makes him something of a vigilante, although Wilson gives him a supernatural mythos, defining him as a dark warrior for the Light, AKA an antihero. The most intriguing thing about Repairman Jack is how creatively he solves problems, although his turn-the-tables approach sometimes backfires.

The books about young Jack aren't quite as successful as the adult series, but they still have plenty to recommend them. Jack lives near Jersey's Pine Barrens, where supernatural creatures roam and a secret society steals powerful magical objects. Jack himself is more of a pragmatist in his initial attempts at troubleshooting. His realism balances out the effect of the supernatural components of the story, in fact.

In Secret Circles, Jack tries to help his friend Weezy retrieve a mystical artifact that was taken from her in the first book, clearly by the secretive Lodge, a group led by creepy Mr. Drexler. Weezy is convinced that people like Mr. Drexler also have access to a book she is sure exists, The Secret History of the World. Jack doesn't believe her, but what if she's right?

Meanwhile, the circus is in town, a five-year-old boy is missing, and a monster is roaming the Pine Barrens, where Jack and Weezy discover an ancient stone structure that seems to have been designed as a cage. And when Jack discovers that a respected citizen beats his wife, he tries to make things right, only to find out that some problems aren't easily solved.

Adult writers who switch to writing for teens and children sometimes have trouble with the transition. Wilson's Jack is occasionally too grown-up in his thinking, and the author's pacing reflects the more leisurely adult novel, dragging in spots. Mostly, though, I suspect that Wilson's grand vision of his Secret History of the World books, which he is filling in little by little as outlined in an elaborate chart at the back of this and every book, sometimes lead him to forget to simply settle down and do some storytelling. So the plot's kind of up and down, too.

But I still like these books. F. Paul Wilson has an interesting mind, and Jack is one of speculative fiction's most original characters. For young conspiracy theorists who like some paranormal with their suspense, the YA Jack stories are a creep-worthy read.

Note for Worried Parents: I looked up the target audience on Amazon, and it's ages 9-12. This is another book that I feel has more of a teen/tween sensibility than a middle grade one. The darkest parts of Secret Circles are probably some horror elements (dead bodies) and the wife-beating, though both are presented in a fairly restrained manner. Some parents may be bothered by the author's attempt to show that the wife who is being beaten resents being rescued, but it's really pretty thought-provoking, illuminating Jack's growing awareness that there are a lot of things he doesn't understand about other people's lives. I would recommend a family discussion about this aspect of the plot.