Deadly Little Lies by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Book summary from Deadly Little Lies bookjacket

Last fall, sixteen-year-old Camelia fell for Ben, a new boy at school who had a very mysterious gift – psychometry, the ability to sense the future through touch. But just as Camelia and Ben's romance began to heat up, he abruptly left town. Brokenhearted, Camelia has spent the last few months studying everything she can about psychometry and experiencing strange brushes with premonition. Camelia wonders if Ben's abilities have somehow been transferred to her.

Ben returns to school, but he remains aloof, and Camelia can't get close enough to share her secret with him. Camelia makes the painful decision to let him go and move on. Adam, the hot new guy at Knead, seems good for her in ways Ben wasn't. But when Camelia and Adam start dating, a surprising love triangle results. A chilling sequence of events uncovers secrets from Ben’s past – and Adam's. Someone is lying, and it's up to Camelia to figure out who – before it's too late.

I was anxious to read Laurie Faria Stolarz’s second book in her Touch novel,  Deadly Little Lies because I enjoyed her first book, Deadly Little Secrets (see review). However, I was disappointed with with the book’s pace and with the story in general. The first book grabbed me within the first two sentences and kept me edgy throughout.  It also kept me guessing, trying to predict, who would turn out to be the antagonist. In Deadly Little Lies, Stolarz once again uses diary entries allegorically to create suspense, and like the first book, the diary entries kept me actively reading and predicting; however, this time the clues were a tad too obvious. Another problem I had with this book was the on again off again romance between Camelia and Ben became tedious. The introduction of Adam, “the hot new guy at Knead,” the pottery shop where Camelia and sculpts, seemed transparently staged. One thing I will say that made this book palatable is that Stolarz peaked my curiosity about the connection between Camelia’s aunt and Camelia’s ability to sculpt ominous objects. It is for this reason that when the third Touch novel comes out I will read it simply because I feel Stolarz has the ability to sustain a heighten mood of apprehension. I just hope that the conclusion to book number three is more satisfying than Deadly Little Lies turned out to be.

Rating: 3 Cherries

Shadowland by Alyson Noel

I just finished the third installment of the Alyson Noel’s Immortal series, Shadowland and after several attempts to concisely summarize the story, I have to say that I am not invested enough to continue. While many fans of the series have expressed their continuing loyalty to Ever and Damen’s epic star crossed lover’s saga, I am afraid that Shadowland left me annoyed.

Ever is one reason I was aggravated with Shadowland. In the first two books, Ever managed to earn my respect for dealing with her adversities. After all, she lost her entire family, discovered she had psychic powers, and found the love of her life only to have him almost die too. However, in Shadowland, Ever is self-absorbed with getting even and ignores everything even Damen to reach her end game. I did not see any growth in Ever’s character, instead she remained static throughout the 339 pages, and once again makes an emotional choice that is sure to consume the next book as did her choice at the end of Blue Moon consume Shadowland.

Another factor that became a huge distraction for me was Noel’s use of the word gaze. This word appears on almost every page of the book and sometimes three to four times a page. I actually began counting how many times Noel used it until I was too irritated to bother. Noel also used the word gape way too much.

While I did finish the book, and will probably read Noel’s fourth installment Dark Flame due out in next summer, I can only hope that in the next book Ever grows as an immortal. I believe that Noel’s creation has more to offer, and with more concentration on her characterization,  Ever can become a stronger character worthy of fan loyalty. I also hope that Jude, a new character introduced in Shadowland, will be back. I actually found myself liking him more than I like Damen. 

Rating: 3 Cherries 

The Seer of Shadows by Avi

Avi has been writing young adult books for many years. Two of my favorites The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, and Nothing But the Truth are inventive and present very realistic characters. AVI often writes in first person, which allows the reader to identify and closely bond with the story’s narrator. I now have added The Seer of Shadows, which has recently been nominated for the Mark Twain Award, to my list. This historical fiction merges authentic details about early photography, a historical setting, and a compelling mystery to create an innovation and spine tingling ghost story.

Horace Carpetine is an apprentice to an opportunistic photographer in 1872 New York. When a wealthy woman comes to the photography studio to request a picture to place on the grave of her recently departed daughter Eleanora, the photographer enlists Horace’s aid to deceive the woman. Even though Horace questions the ethics of his employer’s request, he agrees and takes his first pictures with eerie results: an angry spectral image of Eleanora. At first, Horace convinces himself that the image is a fluke, but when every picture he takes shows similar images of the dead girl, he turns to the Pegg, a black servant girl, who claims that Eleanora’s death was the direct result of greed. With Pegg’s help, Horace realizes that his photographs have somehow brought Eleanor back, and her spirit is determined to punish those responsible for her death.

Through Horace’s thoughts and actions Avi beautifully describes the processes that early photographers followed in order to create photographs in the late 1800’s.  At the same time, Avi establishes a very realistic picture of post Civil War New York City.  Avi’s attention to authentic details also builds suspense because Horace, who has been raised to think rationally has a very difficult time making sense of the strange ghostly images he develops even though he compares the whole chemical process to having a “magical even mystical” quality. It is impossible not to accept Horace’s confusion, agitation, and gradual acceptance that his pictures do indeed reveal Eleanora’s ghost especially after Pegg explains the abuse and the reason behind her death. It is easy to see why The Seer of Shadows has been chosen as A Mark Twain nominee. First, it will appeal to both male and female readers, it provides historically accurate information about race, setting, and education, and it’s a suspenseful ghost story with a very surprising ending. 

Rating: 5 Cherries 

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Aprilynne Pike's, first novel Wings received a lot of praise for its “ingenuity of the mythology”, Stephanie Meyers; and “delicious escapism”, Kirkus Review; when it first debuted this May. Disney is currently filming a movie based on the book, which is slated to open in 2011. The book is the first of four books that follows the life of Laurel Sewell, a fifteen-year-old girl with an unusual destiny. Pike manages to blend realistic characters with fantasy providing her readers with an unexpected twist that is sure to please young adult readers, who enjoy the mythological realms.

Laurel has never been quite like other kids. Left on her parent’s doorstep when she was three, home schooled by her mother, and preferring peaches, veggies and Spite, to chips, meat, and milk, she is worried about fitting in at her new high school. So, when she finally gets what seems to be her first zit in the middle of her back, Laurel “feels strangely normal ... like a rite of passage” has finally taken place. Unfortunately, Laurel’s normality is short lived when the zit blossoms into a giant flower shaped like wings. Panicking, Laurel turns to David, her biology partner and new friend, to seek answers to this strange growth on her back. However, it is not until Laurel accompanies her parents back to her old home in Orick that she discovers she isn’t like other teenagers. In fact, she isn’t even human, but a faerie sent to live with her mom and dad so she could one day inherit their land and fulfill her destiny as the guardian of the faerie world and their long guarded secret.

I have to admit I am behind on reading this book, and until I finished it had no idea when it was first published or that it had been so well received. However, I am glad I happened to pick it up last week at the bookstore. Wings is a lovely story with very realistically drawn characters. My favorite character, however, was not Laurel, but David. David plays a very important role in the story, as Laurel friend and supporter, and without his help, the story might have suffered. The whole idea about the faerie world Pike presents is quite intriguing. Although I would have liked a bit more about the world than Pike provided in this first book. When Pike did reveal how Laurel’s destiny was to help guard the secret gate to Avalon it was both a surprise and to be honest a bit implausible. Never-the-less, in the end I think Pike left me thinking about her unique take on mythology, and I am looking forward to seeing what she has in store for Laurel, and hopefully David in her next book.

Wings is definitely a book I will be talking about to my students. I believe that with all the fantasy books currently on bookshelves, that Wings is one that will stand out as innovative and unique. 

Rating: 5 Cherries

Deadly Little Secrets By Laurie Faria Stolarz

Camelia’s life definitely changes when a mysterious boy named Ben saves her life and then disappears only to reappear as the new kid at Camelia’s high school. Ben’s appearance sets the school’s population talking about the rumor that he killed his ex-girl friend. Despite the rumors and the advice of her friends, Camelia is drawn to Ben and his touch. When Camelia begins receiving strange packages, mysterious phone calls, and a warning from Ben that she is in danger, Camelia doesn’t know if she should trust Ben or give into the rumors. What she does know is that Ben is hiding something. The question is ... is he the only one?

I always enjoy a book that takes off within the first few pages, which is exactly what Deadly Little Secret by Laurie Faria Stolarz does. In fact, the first two sentences were enough to peak my interest, and the story’s pace never faltered until the end. However, Stolarz’s combination of first person point of view combined with the unknown diary entry of another character, kept me actively trying to unravel and predicting who the mysterious writer was. As I read about Camelia’s near death experience and her first encounter with Ben I was intrigued. The diary entries seemed, at first, to coincide with Ben’s first encounter with Camelia. However, as the plot progressed, the diary entry’s tone changes and, like Camelia, I began to question Ben’s motives. Stolarz seamlessly interjects doubt in the reader through these entries while building more and more suspense. I continued to play Sherlock Holmes managing to eliminate all but two of the characters as possible suspects, and I thoroughly enjoyed the mental challenge. If you enjoy fast paced mysteries, then I would recommend you give Deadly Little Secrets a read.


Laurie Faria Stolarz next book in the series Deadly Little Lies is currently available in hard copy.

Rating: 4 Cherries

Dead is a State of Mind

Whenever I read a YA book, I am primarily reading it to satisfy my own love of reading; however, I am also wondering if the book will appeal to my middle school students. While I did find Dead is a State of Mind by Marlene Perez a book that will appeal to middle school readers, I was not impress with the story mainly because I found it contrived.

The Giordano family live in Nightshade, California a town filled with shape shifters, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures. The Giordano’s all have psychic abilities, Mom works with the Nightshade police chief and Daisy, and Poppy are in high school and their sister Rose is in college. Rose dates a werewolf, whose father runs the town’s funeral parlor. Poppy falls in love with a ghost, and Daisy, is dating the police chief’s son. The plot revolves around the murder of a teacher, and a new guy in town Duke, a fortune-teller who claims to be from a long line of gypsies.

There are a couple of reasons why I think Dead is a State of Mind will appeal to a middle school audience and more specifically the female population. First, the book is short at only 175 pages. Secondly, the book contains a host of topics that are currently popular among the YA audience: shape shifters, ghosts, high school, cheerleaders, dating and a mystery. Any one of these topics is a kernel for a good story; unfortunately, put together you have a Chinese hot pot where the flavors that are suppose to blend into a tasty broth ends up without substance.

Personally, I think Perez was trying too hard to create a setting and plot that would work. The blending of all the elements seemed too engineered to be believable. The character development was weak essentially because it is just too difficult to fully narrate all the information about the town, and the unusual variety of the Nightshade’s residents given the length of the book. This left her characterization flat. Every time another character with unique abilities was introduced, it raised another red flag for me until I felt myself groaning.  I just kept thinking that there just could not be anything else to throw in when sure enough there was. Had I read the first book of this series, Dead is the New Black, perhaps, I would not have felt so over loaded by the magnitude of all the weird happening is such a small town. Nevertheless, I was overwhelmed by the inordinate amount of abnormal goings on, and I think that any book in a series has the responsibility to help the reader catch up. A writer cannot automatically assume the reader has read his or her first book. While I did not totally dislike the book, and believe that it may appeal to some YA readers, I am not sure that I will pick up the other two books in this series.

The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod

During last year’s book battle, the students were thrilled to meet Heather Brewer, the author of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod.  Her first book in the chronicles, Eighth Grade Bites was one of the books read for the competition and since Mrs. Brewer was once a student at our middle school and her son recently left the middle school, she was kind enough to offer to be a part of the battle’s festivities.  Her presences was a “biting” success, and she has graciously agreed to return this year since her second book in the chronicles, Ninth Grade Slays, is required reading for this year’s competition. Since I have now finished the third book in the chronicles, Tenth Grade Bleeds I decided to discuss the chronicles to date.

Vladimir Tod is half human, half vampire. His father was once a well-respected vampire in the Elysian Council until he fell in love with a human, married her, and sired Vlad. When the Council kills Vlad’s parents, Vlad goes to live with his “Aunt” Nelly, Vlad’s mother’s best friend. Unfortunately, Vlad must deal with his vampiric nature and his adolescent without the help of either his father or mother. Vlad’s existence is an abomination to the Elysian Council, especially the head of the council, D’Ablo, who above all else wants Vlad dead. However, much to D’Ablo’s consternation, killing Vlad is not as easy as it would seem. After two attempts on Vlad’s life, D’Ablo begins to believe an ancient rumor about the existence of a Pravus, an indestructible vampire who will someday rule over the vampire world and enslave the human race.

With the recent popularity of books about vampires, most of which are geared to the female reader, Vladimir is a strong protagonist that will appeal to boys as well as girls. Many of the conflicts he faces are typical problems teenagers face such as school, bullies, and relationships with friends and girls. However, he must also deal with being a vampire, who lives with humans, the Elysian Council, and his battle with his desire to drink human blood.  Brewer provides unique alternatives for Vlad’s procurement and eating blood. For example, Vlad always takes his lunch to school because his sandwiches are filled with blood capsules, and his Aunt Nelly, a nurse, takes outdated blood from the hospital's blood bank. 

Each of the books are fast paced and exciting spanning the course of one full school years.  Vlad is a very likable character and shows growth as he faces each new year filled with new challenges. I especially like that Brewer sets Vlad outside of the mainstream school social setting without making him a total outcast or loser. His best friend Henry, is part of the popular crowd, but is completely loyal to Vlad. The series is certainly a fun escape and one that even struggling readers will be able to read and enjoy. I highly recommend this series.