Book Reviews by Today, I Read…

Recent Arrivals chronicles the books that have made their way onto the Today, I Read… bookshelf. Here’s the latest arrival: Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters

First line: Phoebe.

Beautiful Phoebe.

Through the glass watch Phoebe leave bus walk to house phoebe green skirt green eyes skirt trailing hair flowing black and shiny in the sun.

Initial thoughts: OK, so reading the first line (or few lines really) to create this post nearly made me cry. For those of you who haven’t read Generation Dead, this is a spoiler.

Adam died at the end of that book and came back as a differently biotic person (aka zombie). This book, obviously, opens with what’s actually going through his mind and seeing his loose, choppy train of thought hit me like a sledgehammer.

In Generation Dead, the characters were so well developed that I actually cared what happened to them and I was a bit distraught when Adam died, especially under the circumstances and before he could say the three little words that he carried around in his heart for the special girl next door.

I can’t deny that I’m looking forward to reading Kiss of Life, even if it’s bittersweet.

Book description:

The phenomenon that’s been sweeping the country seems to be here to stay. Not only are the teenagers who have come back from their graves still here, but newlydeads are being unearthed all the time. While scientists look for answers and politicians take their stands, the undead population of Oakvale have banded together in a group they’re calling the Sons of Romero, hoping to find solidarity in segregation.

Phoebe Kendall may be alive, but she feels just as lost and alone as her dead friends. Just when she reconciled herself to having feelings for a zombie — her Homecoming date Tommy Williams — her friend Adam is murdered taking a bullet that was meant for her. Things get even more confusing when Adam comes back from the grave. Now she has romantic interest in two dead boys; one who saved her life, and one she can’t seem to live without.

From the back cover:

"You didn’t move, Tommy! He pointed the gun right at me, and you didn’t do anything!"

"I…"

"All you had…had to do was…move," she said; "it wouldn’t have hurt if he shot you. But you just stood there, and…and Adam’s dead! He’s dead, Tommy!"

She looked at him, her eyes blurry with tears. He’d stopped trying to talk, and the mask of concern had fallen away from his face as he stood there.

Just stood there.

"He’d be alive if it wasn’t for you, Tommy," she said, whispering so all of the gawkers wouldn’t hear.

He’d be alive, she thought, and you and I would be together.

Book Details: 416 pages; Hyperion Book CH; Pub. May 12, 2009

Learn more:

• Daniel Waters’s Website
• Thomas Williams’s blog
• Reviews
  • Karin Librarian
  • Readergirl Reviews
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Recent Arrivals chronicles the books that have made their way onto the Today, I Read… bookshelf. Here’s the latest arrival: Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

First line: Phoebe and her friends held their breath as the dead girl in the plaid skirt walked past their table in the lunchroom.

Initial thoughts: I learned about Generation Dead when I found Karin Librarian’s Say It Again Saturday post. After going back to read her review, I fell in love with the idea and simply had to have the book. With phrases like “differently biotic” or “living impaired”, how could I not? The description alone promised this book would be a hoot.

Book description:

Phoebe Kendall is just your typical Goth girl with a crush. He’s strong and silent…and dead.

All over the country, a strange phenomenon is occurring. Some teenagers who die aren’t staying dead. But when they come back to life, they are no longer the same. Feared and misunderstood, they are doing their best to blend into a society that doesn’t want them.

The administration at Oakvale High attempts to be more welcoming of the “differently biotic.” But the students don’t want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn’t breathing. And there are no laws that exist to protect the “living impaired” from the people who want them to disappear–for good.

When Phoebe falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids, no one can believe it; not her best friend, Margi, and especially not her neighbor, Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has feelings for Phoebe that run much deeper than just friendship; he would do anything for her. But what if protecting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy?

Book Details: 416 pages; Hyperion Book CH; Pub. May 2008

Learn more:

• Daniel Waters’s website
• Tommy Williams’s blog
• Read an excerpt
• Reviews
  • Karin Librarian
  • Teen Book Review
  • Confessions of a Bibliovore
  • The Compulsive Reader

Recent Arrivals chronicles the books that have made their way onto the Today, I Read… bookshelf. Here’s the latest arrival: The Night Monster by James Swain

First line: Cops weren’t supposed to get frightened.

Initial thoughts: It’s about time I read a nice suspenseful thriller. Lately, I’ve been reading more supernatural, horror, and romance. It’s time to change it up a bit. And The Night Monster seemed like an excellent way to do just that.

Book description:

The shadowy side of the Sunshine State, where blood runs cold even in the tropical heat, is the tantalizing, terrifying territory few know better than James Swain. His razor-sharp tales of criminals, cops, and South Florida—style suspense bite like a hungry gator and never let go.

The past has come back to haunt P.I. Jack Carpenter, former head of the Broward County Missing Persons Unit. As a young cop he failed to stop the kidnapping of a college coed by a shockingly large assailant–and neither of them was ever seen again. The abduction has remained Carpenter’s most chilling cold case, and even now the mystery of the missing girl lurks in his darkest dreams. But after eighteen years, it’s about to become terrifying reality once more.

When his daughter, Jessie, asks him to bird-dog a camera-toting creep who’s been shadowing her college basketball team, Carpenter’s hot pursuit of the video voyeur leads him smack into another run-in with his old hulking nemesis, who abducts one of Jessie’s teammates. While the Broward County cops are determined to pin the rap on a convenient suspect, Carpenter isn’t about to let grim history repeat itself–especially when he discovers a pattern of unsolved kidnappings involving the same massive perp.

With the eager assistance of the kidnap victim’s high-powered tycoon father, the uneasy cooperation of his old unit’s new commander, and precious little time before the trail goes cold, Jack and his trusty dog, Buster, hit the ground running. And they’ll need all the help they can get–including backup from an FBI man with a personal stake in the hunt–as they follow a twisted trail from the ruins of a shuttered mental asylum with an infamous past to the streets of a sinister small town with a ghastly secret.

Book Details: 336 pages; Ballantine Books; Pub. September 15, 2009

Learn more:

• Official website
• Read an excerpt

Back Cover of The Well

If Hamlet thought he had issues, he should have talked to Cooper Warner.

His mother’s normally sunny demeanor has turned into something—homicidal.

And what’s worse, she has help in her hunt for Cooper: A ravenous monster living at the bottom of the old well in the woods behind their house. She’s determined to deliver her 14-year-old son straight into the creature’s eager clutches. Cooper turns to his girlfriend, Megan, for help, but then, to his horror, the creature takes her prisoner.

Now, it’s up to Cooper to fend off his murderous mother, finish his Hamlet paper, and enter the putrid lair at the bottom of the well to rescue Megan. And when he confronts the creature, Cooper must make the toughest decision of his life: kill, or be killed.

This horrific tale, inspired by Hamlet, puts a modern, terrifying twist on the Shakespearean classic.

Three Quick Points About The Well

• Point 1: This book needs a hacksaw—a big one. And to stop trying to sound cool. Most of the words contained within The Well’s two covers is effluvium. The repetition, the analogies, and the random references to every celebrity or HPotM (Hot Product of the Moment) wears a bit thin.
• Point 2: Why hasn’t Cooper been eaten yet? By chapter 11, that was the question I asked. I figured if he was eaten, it would put everyone (including Cooper) out of their misery.
• Point 3: Hamlet? Really?!? The only tenuous connection I saw between this story and Hamlet was the shoe-wedged storyline about Cooper and his classmates studying the play and hating every minute of it.

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Recent Arrivals chronicles the books that have made their way onto the Today, I Read… bookshelf. Here’s the latest arrival: Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

First line: Elizabeth Bennet’s wedding morning was one of soft mists and mellow sunshine.*

Initial thoughts: After discovering the awesomeness that is Pride & Prejudice, I was hooked. Since reading it that first time, I went back and read it again.

Noticing the early signs of an addict, I decided to set Austen aside and read other books, mainly with supernatural characters such as vampires and werewolves and such.

But then I see this title–Mr. Darcy, Vampyre–how could I possibly deny myself such pleasure? I’m not completely falling off the wagon, am I? Even if I am, I fully intend to enjoy myself on the way down.

Book description:

A married man in possession of a dark fortune must be in want of an eternal wife…

December 1802

My hand is trembling as I write this letter. My nerves are in tatters and I am so altered that I believe you would not recognize me. The past two months have been a nightmarish whirl of strange and disturbing circumstances, and the future…

I am afraid.

If anything happens to me, remember that I love you and that my spirit will always be with you, though we may never see each other again. The world is a cold and frightening place where nothing is as it seems.

Book Details: 320 pages; Sourcebooks Landmark; Pub. August 1, 2009

Learn more:

• Mr. Darcy, Vampyre blog
• Reviews
  • Romance B(u)y the Book review
  • Becky’s Book Reviews
  • Sia McKye’s thoughts…

* First line taken from Chapter 1, not the prologue.