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.