The cover says it all: A snarling, snow-white werewolf with razor sharp teeth leaps over the frosty rooftops of a medieval town. This sums up the novel in my opinion - startling, dark and intense. I'll start by saying that the artwork by David Roberts, which is sprinkled throughout Tinder, is very effective. Every drawing seems to emerge from the mist. They sneak up on you and before you realise what is happening, they've got their bony fingers around your throat. The story begins with 18 year-old Otto Hundebiss, he's a deserter of the Thirty Years War (1618 - 1648). His decision to flee comes after seeing a vision of Death cross his path. Lost in a dense forest, wounded and wrestling with a series of fever-dreams, Otto is rescued and nursed back to health by a mysterious shaman. Before releasing him, the shaman gives Otto a set of dice. As you'd assume, the dice aren't for the occasional game of Yahtzee, they are magic, and Otto relies on them to guide him through the entire novel. Traveling through Mitteleuropa, he stumbles upon Safire, a beautiful redhead who's also on the run from a group of dastardly soldiers. They meet and fall in love, but, as good stories go, Safire is taken away and Otto finds himself on a quest of madness and self-destruction in order to get her back. This is where things get really interesting. In his quest to find Safire, Otto is put through the gauntlet. He must outwit the deliciously evil Lady of the Nail, a woman that makes Eva Braun look like Mother Theresa. He must also survive werewolves, haunted castles, his own execution and so on. During his journey he acquires a magical tinderbox. The tinderbox not only grants him any wish he wants, it also puts him in control of a series of werewolves. It is also safe to say that even though Otto is the "master" of these werewolves, subtlety is not in their vocabulary. Otto, now bound to the tinderbox, begins to cave under the pressure of finding Safire without destroying himself in the process. Tinder is a beautifully illustrated book with very dark undertones. That said, it is a teen book, Otto displays all of the frustrations, stubbornness and bad decision making that a typical teen would make in 2015. The only difference of course is that it's the 17th century and Otto doesn't have access to ye olde iPhone to assist him. Tinder is a book that's meant to be read aloud, late at night by a roaring fire during a ferocious rainstorm with the branches of an ancient tree tapping against your window. Loved it.
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The good news: Scientists have discovered a way to travel inter-dimensionally, forever changing science and the world that we know. The bad news: Most of the things that live in those other dimensions want us all dead. That is the conundrum facing Grant McKay and his team of researchers, who get stranded "Lost in Space" style within multiple dimensions, most of them extremely dangerous. McKay is a broken man, struggling with the fact that he's put his family in danger, he's cheating on his wife, and yes, he probably takes too many drugs. He has to put all of that behind him, however, if he's going to get them all home alive. Most of the dialogue is through Mckay's inner thoughts, and it is here that we experience his fears, his hopes and his brilliant mind. It is an effective way to keep the reader confused yet ravenously interested in figuring out what's going on. The action in Black Science #1 is non-stop, Scalera has achieved greatness in his ability to disturb and entrance readers at the same time. The desperation that courses through McKay and his team is palpable, the people that inhabit the other dimensions are frightening and the monsters, well, they're absolutely terrifying. I can't really say enough about the artwork in Black Science, it's unlike anything I've ever come across. It is so vivid and real and crackling with energy that I defy anyone to say that they don't feel like they are in these worlds, living out this unbelievable nightmare. I cannot wait to get my hands on the next volume of this mind-bending action-adventure. I highly recommend it. Marcus Lopez is going to assassinate the President of the United States. That's the plan, at least. In the meantime, he's on the run from a home for wayward teenagers, has no money, no family and no friends. It's safe to say that Marcus has a lot of issues. Why is he on the run, you ask? Let's just say it involves a lot of pent-up anger, a nail bomb and the aforementioned plan to off the commander in chief. It's San Francisco, 1987, and Marcus has indirectly lost his parents to Ronald Reagan's cuts to national mental health funding. Consumed with a desire for revenge, Marcus lives under bridges, freeways and anywhere he can in order to hide from the authorities while he tries to figure out a way to make his assassination plan come to life. Marcus' seemingly complete lack of empathy, razor-thin sanity and suicidal nature make him the ideal candidate for the "Kings Dominion School of the Deadly Arts" - an academy that trains the youth of 1987 to be the best assassins in the world. It's like if Saved By the Bell had an episode where they cut the brake lines to Mr. Belding's car. He's recruited to join the school while simultaneously about to commit suicide and while being chased by government officials - tough day. Classes at "The School" range from learning how to properly behead someone to understanding the psychological framework of a killer. Things don't get truly interesting, though, until Marcus and a handful of his new friends sneak off of school grounds to go on a road trip. As expected, things get way out of hand, people get hurt and Marcus' past comes hurtling back to devour him. Visually, this graphic novel can be compared to Frank Miller's Sin City, it's clean and bold at the same time. They have packed a lot of story into this volume, and its conclusion leaves us realizing that there is still a ton that needs to be told, and that's a great thing. In "No Feelings," the Sex Pistols sing I look around your house, you got nothing to steal / I kick you in the brains when you get down to kneel. I can't help but feel the aimlessness, melancholy and violence embodied in these lyrics screaming off of the pages in Deadly Class. Great stuff. Black Helicopters is about choices, the ones that come automatically, like scratching an itch and the ones that were made for us. It's also about tension, reading it feels like being caught in an ever-tightening vice. Valkyrie (Valley) lives with her father, referred to as Da, and her brother Bo. To say that Da “enjoys” nature would be like saying Charles Manson “enjoyed” the Beatles. Valley and her family are off the grid. Way off the grid. It’s safe to assume that they are living in the wilds of Montana but it could be anywhere, really. Da teaches Valley & Bo how to survive in the wild. The only trouble is that he isn’t just prepping them for a Camper Activity badge from the Scouts, he’s teaching them paramilitary and bomb-making skills. Together they make that Ruby Ridge family look like the Brady Bunch. The bombs are for Da’s customers, people who want to send judges, lawyers, abortion doctors and anyone else who pisses them off, a message. In addition to having them make weapons, Da fills his children’s heads with a steady helping of paranoia and fear. He tells them that government-controlled Black Helicopters are everywhere and that they will kill them on sight. He tells them that their mother was murdered by the helicopters eleven years before and that they must be prepared for “Those People” to burst through their door at any moment. Black Helicopters is short, (166 pages) so it’s hard to write about it and not spoil it a little bit. I would stop reading now unless you want to know at least part of the ending. It doesn’t take long for tragedy to strike, Valley’s father dies and she and Bo are forced to flee their home. They survive by following his instructions left to them on a laptop. Eventually they end up in the hands of a man known as the Colonel. The Colonel also lives off the grid and shares their father’s hatred for the government. He is initially thought to be a friend of the family but very rapidly turns out to be worse than the love child between Hitler and Ma Barker. Valley and Bo flee from the Colonel, only to fall into the crutches of another group that is affiliated with their Da. Fortunately, this group treats them with kindness and respect. The only catch is, they’re a bunch of Neo-Nazis. Well, Woolston doesn’t come right out and say they’re Neo-Nazis but with names like Wolf, Dolph & Eva and the fact that they all sport shaved heads, it’s easy to put two and two together. After living with these people for a while, Valley decides to strap on a vest loaded with explosives and do what she’s been trained to do her whole life. Once in the outside world she encounters two innocent brothers, Eric & Corbin. Valley manipulates them to do her bidding so that she can get to where she’s going. It is with the brothers that we see Valley’s ruthlessness come to the surface; she views them like pieces on the chessboard that she used to play with her Da and nothing more. It’s a dark tale, and it’s a troubling one because it involves the warping of children’s minds so that they subscribe to the delusions of people who are supposed to be taking care of them, not moulding them into an extension of a radical ideal. Although I didn’t like Valley, I did feel a few twangs of pity for her because it's made clear almost from the start there is no redirecting the path she’s on. I said at the beginning of this review that this novel was about choices, and the more I read the more I thought about the choices Da made. It made me want to know more about him and what sent him on the path he went on. Black Helicopters reminded me of that line from The Talented Mr. Ripley: “Whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense, doesn't it, in your head. You never meet anybody that thinks they're a bad person.” I would highly recommend this book to anyone aged 14 and up. When I was in the fifth grade my friends and I watched Commando starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In that film, Jenny Matrix (Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by a South American crime syndicate. Luckily, her father, Ahhnold, happens to be the human equivalent of Voltron and spends three quarters of the movie blowing basketball-sized holes through the afore-mentioned kidnappers. When the movie was finished, my friends walked away feeling smug that they had just seen something their parents wouldn't let them watch in a million years. I on the other hand, had nightmares for weeks about being kidnapped. Never mind that the only thing I owned that could even remotely be used for ransom were my Star Wars bed sheets, the fear remained. Today, I'm a little older, a little wiser, and little less scared of being kidnapped. That said, The Bunker Diary made the skin crawl off my bones. The story opens with Linus, a sixteen year-old dropout living on the streets, busking and scouring train stations for spare change and food. One day, he comes across a man he believes to be blind. Offering to assist the man with his luggage, Linus is knocked unconscious and thrown into the back of a van. Hours later he wakes up in what appears to be an abandoned bunker. The first thing Linus notices is that there are no windows or doors. He is alone, but sees that there are six rooms in the bunker. There is also a kitchen, a bathroom and an elevator. The catch is he can't operate the elevator from his end. It goes up and down as if on a timer, usually it comes back down empty. Usually. The Bunker Diary is a disturbing albeit (for me) frustrating account of what happens when you throw a group of random strangers into an underground prison. It's like taking The Real Word and Saw and throwing them into a wood chipper. None of the victims can properly describe the person who abducted them; they don't know why they have been targeted or where they are. Linus soon realizes that there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason why they've been chosen. The bunker is covered with security cameras and any attempt to disable them is met with harsh punishment. There is little to no communication with their abductor; there are no demands, yet they know they are being watched and closely monitored. What is going on? Who is this guy? What does he want? Where the hell are they? Why am I shouting at my laptop? These are the questions that make The Bunker Diary almost impossible to put down. Kevin Brooks hits the ground running and doesn't stop until you have been properly beaten into submission. So effective is the tension that I had to read this novel in one sitting. Sure, I was given flack at the jazzercise session I was leading but that's the price you pay for loving literature. You know the old saying: Books Before Looks. I was completely obsessed with getting to the end and finding out who it was lurking above them, which of the victims would snap first (and man, do they snap) and how they would try to escape. I won't give away the ending. I'll let you get there on your own, but I'd love to hear your take on it. Good luck! This is one of those books that comes on soft like a feather but as you flip through the pages it starts to carry the weight of a sledgehammer. Charlie is someone who'd rather avoid contact with other humans in his school. He walks home instead of taking the bus, he doesn't know how to interact with girls or jocks or any of the other cliched crap that gets thrown at you when you're sixteen. Worst of all, he's about to start high school, and the dread of that new beginning hangs over his head like a black zeppelin filled with manure. The story itself is written in a series of letters from Charlie to an anonymous person he simply calls "friend." Through these letters we slowly begin to learn about Charlie's life, how he really likes one of his teachers, a guy named Bill that gives him extra reading. Charlie writes essays about these books and gives them to Bill to read because Charlie would like to be a writer, it's the one thing he knows he is good at. Other than that, we don't know very much about him. We know that his best friend committed suicide and that Charlie gets angry, very angry, and has trouble breathing and even passes out when things get too rough. There is, however, a much darker reason for the mental problems that he is suffering from. Eventually, Charlie meets people of his own ilk, a guy named Patrick, who is gay and introduces Charlie to cool music, parties and drugs. He also meets Sam, Patrick's stepsister, and immediately falls in love with her. It is his love for both Sam and Patrick that propels Charlie through his remarkable journey. With them he learns that it doesn't matter that he's not popular, that all of that is just an illusion created by people and that people are flawed and that it's okay to be flawed. Through Sam and Patrick's trials and tribulations, Charlie also learns what it means to have real friends. I loved this book. I couldn't believe it took me so long to read it. It brought back memories of high school for me that were vivid, funny and sad. I wished this book had existed when I was a teenager because it would've been one that laid curled up, half-bent and ragged in my jacket pocket everywhere I went. As a librarian I feel it's my responsibility to get this into as many hands as possible, couldn't get enough of it. I've got a bone to pick with Tim Johnston. I read the last 100 pages of Descent in a flurry, staying up to 1:00 am and then going back and re-reading the last 10 pages just to make sure I didn't miss anything. It's that good. The problem is, I've got a two year old that has the sleeping habits of a wolverine on Red Bull, which means I'm running on three hours of sleep and about a gallon of coffee this morning as I write this. Speaking of being a father, Descent represents a parent's worst nightmare. There is nothing more terrifying than the thought of someone kidnapping your child, it's the kind of stuff that can drive you insane just by thinking about it. You might say that the kidnapping theme is one that has been done again and again, and you'd be right. However, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that there's a good chance you haven't read one written as powerful as this. This is no run of the mill "literary thriller." The writing in this story is about as good as it gets. Caitlin Courtland is the star of her high school track team. On the verge of entering college, she goes on vacation to Colorado with her family. One morning, her and her brother, 15-year old Sean, go on a run by themselves in the mountains. That's when tragedy strikes. Sean is hit by a car, his leg is shattered and he's dipping in and out of consciousness. The driver suggests that Sean shouldn't be moved out of fear of injuring him further. Since Caitlin can't get a signal on her cell phone, the man kindly offers to drive her down the mountain so she can call 9-11. Caitlin agrees, climbs into the car with the man, and disappears. What follows is a three-year examination of how Caitlin's disappearance tears the family apart. The father turns to booze, his relationship with his wife disintegrates and Sean, the son, becomes full of wanderlust and grief. As surprising and bold as the story is, it's the writing that will keep your fingers clenched to the pages, here's a random example: "...he would take his skull in his hands and clench his teeth until he felt the roots giving way and the world would pitch and he would groan like some aggrieved beast and believe he would retch up his guts, organs and entrails and heart and all, all of it wet and gray and steaming at his feet and go ahead, he would say into this blackness, go ahead god damn you.” See? I don't want to give away any more of the story, once its got its talons in your guts it won't let go. It is beautifully written story and deserves as wide an audience as possible. The Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepared," but trust me, a team of Samurai-Ninja-Swat Team-Green Berets couldn't be prepared for the horror that is unleashed in Nick Cutter's pedal-to-the-metal shock fest that is The Troop. The story takes place on Prince Edward Island, an idyllic province on the east coast of Canada. I've been to Prince Edward Island, I grew up on the province next to it. It's a nice place and I have to say that I'm very glad I didn't read The Troop while I was living anywhere near there because I'd probably never go outside again. The Troop hits the ground running and simply doesn't stop. On the first page we are introduced to a news story about an emaciated man who wanders into a diner and begs to be given as much food as possible. He then goes on to eat everything they've got on the menu. When he is finished he walks outside without paying, steals a truck and disappears into the night. The papers dub him "The Hungry Man," but nobody seems to know who he is or where he came from. At the same time that The Hungry Man is chowing down in front of a shocked small-town audience, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs is blissfully unaware as he prepares to take a troop of five boy scouts on a "survival weekend" to Falstaff, an uninhabited island that sits a few miles off of P.E.I. The boys are: Kent, the most popular kid in school and son of the town sheriff. Max and Ephraim, best friends and also pretty popular in school. Max is cool and collected while Ephraim, well, let's just say he has some anger issues. Then there's Shelley, quiet, strange but mostly harmless and Newton, the token group nerd. Newton is very intelligent, resourceful and polite, therefore he takes the brunt of the troop's insults and charlie-horses. It doesn't take long for the inevitable to happen, The Hungry Man steals a motor boat and makes his way to Falstaff Island and the proverbial poop hits the fan. Honestly, I think this happens on something like page 6. The next 300 pages are probably the most disturbing, disgusting scenes I've read in a long time. I found myself physically squirming in my chair as the "well, it can't get much worse than that" factor is ratcheted up a notch every few pages. I really don't want to spoil any of those great scenes for you because you'll only have that feeling once, that feeling of unbelievable dread and panic mixed with the need to find out how on God's green Earth anyone is going to make it out this mess alive. Cutter's inclusion of newspaper articles, interviews and transcripts of court hearings are a very effective addition to the (in my opinion) timely and interesting backstory, although I found myself flying through these parts in order to get back to Falstaff Island. If you enjoy great horror, the kind that sticks in a corner of your brain and doesn't quite leave for a few weeks or months, then check out The Troop. Just treat it like certain types of antibiotics, only ingest on an empty stomach. The story starts innocently enough - Joshua and his friend are kicking a football around in their hometown of Amarias when the ball goes into an abandoned construction site. Chasing after it, Joshua discovers a demolished house and a tunnel hidden in the ground. He knows he shouldn't go in, the site itself is off-limits, but he's unable to resist exploring. Coming into this, I had no idea what The Wall was about or the subject matter it would cover, so please forgive me for thinking that Joshua would emerge from the tunnel into some sort of magical fantasy land full of sugar plum fairies and cheery little gnomes. This is not what happens, you quickly learn that Joshua knows exactly where he is and where the tunnel will lead. He knows that there is a giant wall separating Amarias from the people "on the other side." He also knows that traveling to the other side of the wall is forbidden, not only by his mother and stepfather, but by the authorities. However, all thoughts of the trouble he could get into are wiped from his mind after he emerges from the tunnel and is immediately chased by a group of local street toughs. With the help of an anonymous girl, Joshua is able to escape the boys and make his way back to the tunnel so he can go home. It isn't long before he decides to travel back so that he can repay the girl for her kindness. The more he gets to know the girl and her family, the more he comes to realize that his preconceived notions of good and evil aren't as cut and dry as he thought. Sutcliffe never comes out and says that Joshua is Israeli and that the people living on the other side of the wall are Palestinian, but it doesn't take long to put two and two together. The story itself is split between Joshua's desire to travel through the tunnel to help the girl and her family and thereby inadvertently putting them into danger, and his relationship with his mother and his overbearing, brooding stepfather, Liev. Liev, it turns out, is not a fan of the people on the other side of the wall. The tension Sutcliffe creates between him and Joshua drips from the pages and reaches a climax that will not disappoint. There has been criticism of this book, one reviewer described it as "Israeli propaganda for teens," while others question Sutcliffe's research methods while writing it. I am not going to even pretend to be an expert on the political and social intricacies between Israel and Palestine. What I can say is that Sutcliffe has written a novel that at its base level is about growing up, learning to think for yourself and coming to terms with having a jerk for a stepfather. In my opinion these are all things that a lot of people can connect with regardless of religion or politics. After reading the graphic novel War Brothers, I realized that I’ve never really experienced hardship in my life. The most harrowing moment I’ve experienced lately is seeing the “Temporarily Out of Stock” message on Amazon when trying to buy a pair of slippers. War Brothers is a nightmare on paper. What’s even more troubling is the fact that it’s entirely true. It takes the reader on an exploration of unspeakable violence, torture and the limits that people will go to survive. The year is 2002, Jacob is a 14 year old boy from a wealthy family, living in the Ugandan city of Gulu. Life is good and Jacob is looking forward to returning to school and catching up with his friends. On the periphery of this setting is the now-infamous Joseph Kony and his group The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), who are abducting children, forcing them to fight for his cause or be murdered themselves. His cause being the complete destruction of the Ugandan government and everything it stands for. When Jacob and his friends arrive at school they discover that everything is in lockdown and the grounds are patrolled by machine gun wielding soldiers. This is a percaution against Kony and the LRA, the children are told. Unfortunately the minute the LRA arrives in the middle of the night, the soldiers flee. The teachers are slaughtered and Jacob and his friends are abducted. They are taken into the jungle, starved, beaten, tortured and driven to madness by other soldiers who amazingly appear to be even younger than them. The questions this book poses are: What would you do to survive? How far would you go and how much do you think you could take? The War Brothers graphic novel is based on Sharon E. Mckay’s novel of the same name, and is worth checking out as well as it is based on a massive amount of research and interviews with child soldiers and their families. Lafrance’s beautiful artwork echoes the emotional state of the book, primarily fear, horror and outright panic, but it never delves too far into the bloodshed. Most of it is implied, which gives it an even stronger punch. In the 45 minutes it took me to read I felt like I was getting repeatedly pummeled to the guts by with a battering ram. War Brothers is not an easy book to read, but it is an important book. It opens with a letter from Jacob in which he warns the reader of the content and says “There is no shame in closing this book now.” Please don’t. Read it, and then find someone to recommend it to. |
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