The Monstrumologist, by Rick Yancey. Simon & Schuster 2009 Set in 1888 New England, orphaned Will Henry lives with his late father’s employer, Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, and acts as his assistant. Warthrop is the Monstrumologist of the title, a scientist who studies monsters. The story opens with the night time delivery of a body stolen from the ( Read more... )

City of a Thousand Dolls, by Miriam Forster. HarperTeen 2013 Sixteen year old Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City as a toddler. She has only the vaguest memories of life before she came there. Unlike the other girls in the City, who are assigned to one of the seven houses that specialize in certain types of education (medicine, music, ( Read more... )

Morpheus Road: The Blood, by D.J. MacHale. Aladdin 2012This is the conclusion of the Morpheus Road trilogy, and I’ve been waiting for it eagerly. The author built up an incredible sense of suspense with the first two books. The first book, ‘The Light’, was told from the POV of teenaged Marshall Seaver. The next book, ‘The Black’, the same events ( Read more... )

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs. Quirk Books, 2011
This is a magical little book, a tale of unusually talented children, time travel and monsters, illustrated with black and white photographs. Sixteen year old Jacob is devastated when his grandfather, Abe Portman, dies in his arms, killed by.. something. Everyone says ( Read more... )

Incantation, by Alice Hoffman. Little, Brown & Co., 2006 This young adult novel is small but the subject matter really packs a punch. It took me only two hours to read, but I suspect it will stay with me a good while ( Read more... )

The Orphan of Awkward Falls, by Keith Graves. Chronicle Books, 2011 This book, aimed at kids between 8 and 12, is one of those that I wish had been around when I was a kid. The main character is a 12 year old girl who is smart and independent. The parents, unlike those in so many kids books, *aren’t* clueless idiots who need to be saved by the kids ( Read more... )

My Favorite Band Does Not Exist, by Robert T. Jeschonek. Clarion Books, 2011 The author of ‘My Favorite Band Does Not Exist’ set himself a very complex task: weaving three different, but very related, plot lines together. One reality has Idea Deity (the names are all Very Symbolic, symbolic to the point of beating you over the head with them) ( Read more... )

Morpheus Road: The Black, by D.J. MacHale. Aladdin, 2011 This is the second volume in the Morpheus Road trilogy. The first one, The Light, is told from the POV of Marshall Seaver. In this one, the POV is that of his best friend, Cooper Foley, who is dead but still quite active ( Read more... )

Always a Witch, by Carolyn MacCullough. Clarion Books, 2011 ‘Always a Witch’ is the sequel to ‘Once a Witch’, but despite having not read that book I had no problem understanding what this volume was about. MacCullough weaves the backstory deftly into this story in small bits and pieces, never hitting the reader over the head with it. ‘Always a ( Read more... )

The Painted Boy, by Charles de Lint. Viking, 2010 The southwestern US desert seemed like an unusual setting for a de Lint novel at first, but the magic that is characteristic of his stories quickly made itself apparent. Those who have read his work before will recognize the animal spirits before they are explained ( Read more... )