The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff

Hardcover, 343 pages

Published September 21st 2010 by Razorbill/Penguin Group

There's something not right about the town of Gentry. Parents tell their children bedtime stories about a man who stole children. They hang small metal scissors over their infants' crib to keep them safe. But, inevitably, every 7 years a child goes missing. A replacement child is put in their crib in its place. The replacement child usually doesn't live long when the parents realize it isn't their real child. This has been going on in Gentry for years, but people don't talk about it, but they know it's a part of life and they know it's the reason their town is successful.

Mackie has always been different than his peers. He can't touch or go near anything with iron in it, including blood. His schoolmates think he's a wimp because he throws up everytime someone gets a bloody nose. His best friend Roswell is the only person who understands him. But Mackie is getting really sick, he's dying. He finds out what really lives underneath the city and that they're willing to help him, at a price. But what will Mackie do when he realizes that the last child who was taken is still alive and he's the only one who can save her?

The Replacement is a unique novel on good and evil and the grey that exists in between. Yet again I'm blown away by how Brenna Yovanoff weaves such an exquisitely beautiful yet dark world. I am still extremely impressed with her writing and this book may be her best, imo. 5 stars all the way. Read it :)

Come Sit By Me - Thomas Hoobler

ebook, 218 pages

Published July 15th 2015 by Booktrope

Paul and his father move to a quiet country town from New York City after Paul's mom died. The houses are big and cheap, the downside? Last year a high school student shot and killed 7 people. Now Paul is attending Hamilton High and is assigned the killer's old locker. After joining the school newspaper, Paul is assigned to write a memorial piece about the deceased, minus the killer, Cale, and he becomes obsessed. Nobody seems to know why Cale would kill kids he didn't even know, and more, they don't seem interested in finding out. Paul becomes determined to understand Cale and his motives even when it becomes dangerous. 

This is a promising story, but not all that original. The writing shows promise and with a little more substance I think this book could have been so much better. But my one big (well huge) problem with this book is Paul's obsession with breasts. Almost every chapter includes an in depth examination of some girls chest. The librarian, the cheerleaders, etc. "I did manage to sneak a look at her boobs, and was a little surprised to see that they didn't appear quite as big as before. Or perky. Or something. Well, they were still in the high percentile of breasts is observed up close, so I wasn't feeling buyer's remorse." Umm.. wow. Extremely degrading and stereotyped. 

Then there's Caleb's Book. The whole story was building up to this moment: the usb drive. If Paul just found the usb drive he would know why Caleb did what he did. And when he did... oh my. I get what the author was trying to do, really I do. Caleb isn't supposed to be the smartest kid ever, but really? The spelling is bad, yah ok. That would be fine and everything if it was just CONSISTENT. 

And that ending. Improbable to say the least. I really wanted to like this book, like really bad. It had promise, it started off going somewhere and then it got lost. This author has serious potential and I think that with some help this book could really be great. 2 stars. 

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

The Space Between - Brenna Yovanoff

Hardcover, 363 pages

Published November 14th 2011 by Razorbill

Brenna Yovanoff is one of my new favorite authors. Her books are all completely different than any other YA books I have read, and when you read you become immersed in her beautiful and terrifying worlds. Her characters are deep and thought provoking, they make me think about what I would do in their situation. The Space Between is her version of Hell, Heaven, demons, Angels and religion. While normally I wouldn't be interested in a book about religion (like at all), Brenna makes the characters relatable and utterly human in an amazingly beautiful yet terrible world. 

Our main character, Daphne is the daughter of Lilith and Lucifer and has spent her entire life in the world of Pandemonium (AKA Hell). When her brother Obie (the son of Lilith and Adam) tells Daphne that he will leave Pandemonium for good to live on Earth with his true love Elizabeth, Daphne feels sad for the first time. On his way to the station, they come across Truman, a "lost one" (someone who is unaware that they are part angel) who is about to be torn apart by the demons of Pandemonium. Obie takes him home and nurses him back to health while Daphne stays in Pandemonium, sad and alone. Lilith, trapped in her metal garden, sees Obie in a vision, blood spraying across white snow, and orders Daphne to go up to Earth and save him. Daphne and Truman set out to find her brother and find that this fight is much larger and complex than they thought it was. Every demon and angel is in danger, especially Daphne and Truman. Can she find her brother and keep Truman safe while demons are being murdered everywhere she turns?

I don't like writing too much about plot because I believe that's something for the reader to discover on their own, and honestly there is a lot more I could say about this book but I won't. This book was fantastic, I highly recommend it. 4 1/2 stars. 

Bird Box - Josh Malerman

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published May 13th 2014 by Ecco

Omg omg omg! This book is absolutely fantastic. I literally could have read the whole thing in one night, but I restrained myself. This is definitely a book for adults who aren't squeamish because it WILL give you nightmares. 

Bird Box is an apocalyptic story with an unknown predator. They call them the creatures, but nobody for sure knows what they are. Once someone sees a creature they go insane, they become hostile and murderous before killing themselves. Those who have kept their eyes shut, the survivors, live in houses with covered windows in fear of looking outside. Our main character, Malorie, just lost her sister and has lost contact to her parents. Remembering an advertisement in the paper about a safe house, Malorie puts her life and the life of her unborn child at risk to drive there, keeping her eyes closed as much as possible. 

The story jumps from the future, when Malorie is caring for two four year old children to almost 5 years earlier in the same house with other survivors. The jumps between past and present create a sense of foreboding. Why is Malorie alone in the future, raising two children? What happens to the other housemates? And when she decides to leave, what is out there with her that her children keep hearing?

This is one of the best apocalyptic type books I have ever read. This review is very short because I don't want to spoil anything. Josh Malerman is an exceptional writer and I cannot recommend this book highly enough. 

In the Arms of Stone Angels - Jordan Dane

Paperback, 320 pages

Published March 22nd 2011 by Harlequin Teen

     We start our journey with Brenna, a 16 year old girl with a deeply troubled past. Brenna enjoys long walks in the cemetery at night and sleeping on graves. The author wastes hardly no time at all and shares Brenna's backstory, her best friend and first crush, White Bird. A year of friendship had brought the two close and Brenna felt like she knew everything about White Bird, until he started pushing her away and, soon after, found him knelt over the dead body of one of the most popular girls in school, muttering incoherently and clutching a bloody knife. Brenna was the one to turn White Bird over to the Sheriff who believed Brenna had something to do with the murder. After being questioned, with no incriminating evidence, Brenna was let go. All of Brenna's "friends" believed she helped White Bird murder the girl and ostracized her. Her mother's real estate business goes to shit shortly after, and blames Brenna. With nothing to lose, they moved to North Carolina.       
     Now with the death of her grandmother, Brenna and her mother must return to Oklahoma to empty the house and sell it, confronting the endless barrage of harassment and hatred from those who still believe Brenna is partly to blame.  

   
     With her mother's insistence, Brenna attends a party at an old "friend's" house, and to say the least, does not have a good time. Between the teenagers from her past terrorizing her, and having visions from White Bird, Brenna is determined to find out what really happened and help her friend. 

I absolutely loved the relationship between Brenna and her mother. They started out at odds, and when Brenna starts getting in trouble again, her mother reaches out to her and they begin to mend their broken relationship. In most YA novels, parents are MIA, the better to date a werewolf vampire zombie dude, or whatever, and get eaten.

     Brenna's mother tries to understand what Brenna is going through and tries to support her beliefs. She allows her to follow her instincts (maybe a little too readily, maybe she's trying really had to gain her daughters trust back?) and uncover what really happened that horrible morning two years ago. 

     I can't tell you how much I loved this book. Jordan Dane incorporated so much background knowledge about Native American tribes and beliefs. She also was not afraid to incorporate the racism that White Bird experienced, which I feel many authors would have left alone. This book is amazing, amazing, amazing. 5 stars all the way, and I highly recommend this book. I can't believe it's 4 years old! This book deserves much more attention and I fully intend on reading more by this author. 

Paper Valentine - Brenna Yovanoff

"The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.

For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.

With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life—and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again."

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published January 8th 2013 by Razorbill

     Hannah lives in a peaceful suburban town, but is haunted by the past. Literally, haunted. Her best friend died 6 months earlier to anorexia, and is hangin' around haunting Hannah. As if this isn't enough for poor Hannah, there's an avian disease killing off the birds and small children, the town is in the middle of a huge heat wave and there's a serial killer murdering young girls. Wait, what?

     I had to stop here and think a while. On one hand I love me some serial killers, on the other, why write about killing kids? If Brenna Yovanoff hadn't hooked me already I would have quit reading here, but my curiosity won. Hesitantly, I read on...

     Hannah and her ghostly friend become obsessed with the murders. Between research on the deceased girls and contacting them in the afterlife, Hannah begins a small (but adorable) relationship with the local bad boy, Finny Boone. Finny is an interesting character, in my opinion. He is quiet and relatable, yet mysterious. Hannah begins to question how well she really knows this boy and why are the police so interested in him? I'm hate to leave you hangin' here, but trust me, you won't know what's coming next, so you'll just need to read it for yourself!

     This was actually my first novel from Brenna Yovanoff but it took me a while to figure out how I felt about this story. Usually I can't stand to read about children dying, but the classic murder mystery combined with ghosts and a sweet, little romance was a perfect combination and she did a wonderful job. I look forward to reading more novels by this author in the future. I actually have one in line to read next :). Highly, highly recommended, 4 1/2 stars. 

Fiendish - Brenna Yovanoff

"Why don't they like me?" I whispered, getting my arms up, feeling around for his shoulder. "What's wrong with me? I never did anything to anyone."

Fisher was quiet for a second and when he answered, he sounded strange. 

"It's not your fault," he said. "They're just nervous about how your eyes are sewed shut."

Hardcover, 341 pages

Published August 14th 2014 by Razorbill

     A girl trapped in a canning cellar for 10 years, wrapped down by willow roots with her eyes sewn shut? Hell yes this is my kind of book. When the reckoning started, Clementine was trapped down here for an unknown reason. Was it to keep her craft buried? Or to keep her away from someone else? Was she the reason the reckoning started? Clementine re-enters the world where only her cousin Shiny seems to remember her, while everyone else seems indifferent or downright frightened of her. Shiny instantly takes Clementine under her wing and dresses her, cleans her, gives her a place to stay and how does Clementine repay her? She goes and stalks this Fisher guy. Eric (AKA Fisher) saves her like some kind of badass hero and then treats her like shit until he decides he finally likes her, after she's pined after him and followed him around and, oh yah, sucked the poison out of his body with her BARE HANDS after a fight with some hell hounds in the hollow. Basically, Fisher is going out there, for some unknown reason, and little lovelorn Clementine follows her pretty little selfish knight out there, where creepy things full of witchcraft and evil live. This is where the fiends are, the people so full of craft that they just live in the hollow and turn into creepy evil animal people. So much potential. 

     See, Clementine, Shiny, Fisher and Mae (Shiny's adorable friend) all have the craft. They each have a type of "humor" (?) like fire, dirt, air and light. But they're missing the fifth point to their star, water. And crazy stuff starts happening again. The reckoning is coming back to their little town. But then the story loses its steam. 

     I don't wanna ruin the ending for you guys because, yeah I enjoyed it and I want you guys to read it, but it could have been SO much better. But Brenna Yovanoff is great author and I am falling in love with her books. This one, though, I'd have to give 3 1/2 stars. With just a tiny bit more character development it would have been downright fantastic. I recommend it :)

A Head Full of Ghosts - Paul Tremblay

"The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.

To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts' plight. With John, Marjorie's father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface--and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil."

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published June 2nd 2015 by William Morrow

          The novel begins with an adult Merry attempting to recount her sister's "possession" for an author eager to write a nonfiction book about the event from Merry's memories. She tells the author about her younger self who thrives to grow up and be exactly like her older sister Marjorie. The sisters have a very close relationship, with Merry seeming to get a majority of her needs met by her sister. Merry has a story book in which Marjorie rewrites the original stories with Merry as the main character. Soon, though, Marjorie's stories become dark, scary and a little too real. Marjorie begins to scare Merry with her dark stories and Merry begins to keep to herself. In her cardboard playhouse, items begin to rearrange themselves just as things are in Marjorie's room. Their father, John, begins to become increasingly religious, forcing his beliefs on the family who are unaccepting and refuse to pray at dinner or go to church on Sunday. Between John being unemployed and the medical bills for Marjorie's ailment, the family is quickly running out of money. In desperation, their mother accepts John's plan of allowing a T.V. crew into their home to film a reality show portraying their life with a possessed teenager and her upcoming exorcism.
     Here the book starts to become uncannily reminiscent of The Exorcism, complete with the vomit, minus the 360 head turn. The exorcism in this book, well, I was disappointed. I won't ruin it for you, but I expected more with the HUGE buildup and up to this point I truly started to believe that Marjorie was possessed. But, I'll leave that for you to decide. Is she really possessed? (did she really hover in mid air??) Or is Marjorie just a sick girl who needs medical attention. 
I give this novel 4 stars. I got hooked from the beginning and it kept me until the end, even if it didn't go out with a bang. My advise - read it if you want a fast, chilling read. What do you think? Let me know.