Teen Read Week, 2012

October 14th-20th

Teen Read Art provided by Bob Freeman

This year the theme of Teen Read Week is It Came from the Library.   A library is a fantastic place to find a good scare, whether it is ghost, goblins, ghouls, vampires, or werewolves they can all be found lurking in the stacks of your local library or school media center.   The Monster Librarian and staff will be building a list of books that have all sorts of creatures for your reading pleasure. 

Guest Blog post:

Teen Read Week: It Came From The (Classroom) Library! Teen Nicholas Harris on the Unwind Trilogy

Teen Read Week: It Came From The Library! Kenneth Oppel on Frankenstein

It Came From the Library: Haunting the Library

Reviews of some newly released horror for 2012:

Such Wicked Intent by Kenneth Oppel*New Review

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1442403185

Available: New and e-book

        This is the second book in a trilogy about the youth of Victor Frankenstein, the title character of the classic novel by Mary Shelley.  In the first book, His Dark Endeavor, Victor, an only child in the original book, has a twin brother, Konrad.  Their cousin Elizabeth and friend Henry Clerval, also characters in the original book, also have major roles in the story. Victor has conflicted feelings for his twin, which are complicated by Victor’s passion for Elizabeth, as Elizabeth and Konrad fall in love with each other.  When Konrad falls ill, Victor’s discovery of a forbidden library leads him to seek an alchemical cure requiring ingredients that put Victor, Elizabeth, and Henry in mortal danger. Unfortunately, the cure fails, and Konrad dies, leading Victor to reject alchemy.  His Dark Endeavor was a terrifying book— my hands shook,  my heartbeat sped up, and I could barely breathe as the book reached its climax. The version I read was published in an ebook as a prelude to Shelley’s Frankenstein, and if any book could grip a teenager with enough force for them to make it through the epistolary beginnings of the original novel, it would be His Dark Endeavor.  It seemed to me that the sequel was obvious.

        Such Wicked Intent follows the events of His Dark Endeavor, beginning with the burning of the library that tempted Victor to experiment with alchemy.  Guilt and grief possess him. His hopes that Elizabeth will show interest in him are disappointed when she declares her intent to enter a convent. By chance, Victor discovers a volume on the occult in the ashes of the library, and determines to use it to communicate with Konrad and enter the spirit world in hopes of finding a way to bring him back to life.  Using spirit forces, Victor, Elizabeth, and Henry use instructions they have found in the spirit world to create a mud body for Konrad’s soul to enter into. Victor’s obsession with occult knowledge is disrupted by unsettling discoveries about the mud body both in newly discovered caves under Chateau Frankenstein, in the spirit world, and through observations of the creature he has created.

        While still compelling, Such Wicked Intent is not as convincing as His Dark Endeavor.  Elizabeth’s desire to become a nun and objections to traveling in the spirit world seem perfunctory, and her personality becomes less dynamic and more of a cipher.  Henry’s character becomes stronger, but his growth is all off screen, and we rarely see it emerge.  Victor’s offer to sacrifice himself to bring Konrad back is less believable, as well. Finally, the resolution of the book suggests that even though he has rejected alchemy he has sustained a belief in the occult, which is at odds with what we know about the adult Victor Frankenstein.  While this is still a very good read, it can’t stand alone, and feels to me like a sequel that didn’t need to be written. Still, readers of the first book will definitely enjoy the second, and I highly recommend it. It takes courage to enter into the dangerous obsessiveness of the mind of Victor Frankenstein, and Kenneth Oppell  does a fantastic job of drawing the reader in to the complexity of a character often  presented  in a one dimensional way.

Review by Kirsten Kowalewski

34 Pieces of You by Carmen Rodrigues*New Review

Simon Pulse, 2012
ISBN: 978-1442439061

Available:New and Kindle

The back cover of this book says it’s in the tradition of Thirteen Reasons Why. Except that both books are about damaged teens who die tragically, I don’t see much that they have in common.  Hannah, in Thirteen Reasons Why, kept it all inside; Ellie acts out. Hannah deliberately plans her suicide to let the people who played a part in her decision know they are to blame; Ellie’s destructive behavior is so random it’s hard to tell if her death is an accident or deliberate. Ellie’s friend Sarah’s part in Ellie’s death, and her grief, has echoes from Wintergirls, but 34 Pieces just doesn’t have the emotional power of either book.

Sarah becomes friends with Ellie and her older brother Jake as Sarah and Ellie enter middle school. Sarah is adopted, and even though that doesn’t make any difference to her family, it makes a difference to her. Sarah is caught up in Ellie’s destructive behaviors—especially cutting and drugs and doesn’t seem to understand where this behavior is taking her, or care much. Jessie, Sarah’s younger sister, falls in love with Ellie, and they become physically involved. Rodrigues writes this part with sensitivity, as it threads through the drama and trauma of Ellie’s life.  Jessie tries to slow Ellie down, but Ellie shuts her out. Eventually, Ellie and Sarah overdose on drugs. Sarah survives, but Ellie does not. All this is told as a flashback, while Jessie sorts though a shoebox of paper scraps Ellie had saved in a special place, hoping to uncover more of Ellie’s story and motivations. Sarah and Jake, each of whom are dealing with survivor guilt and grief alone in different places, tell their own stories as well.

Although Ellie is gone, the end of 34 Pieces is not nearly as bleak as that of Thirteen Reasons Why.  But the book is also not as successful, and I think much of that has to do with the fact that neither Ellie nor Sarah is a likable or sympathetic character. The thing that kept me reading was that I cared about Jessie, who is on the edge of things throughout almost the entire book. There are many good books out there already that deal with issues this book touches on, so I don’t see it as a necessary addition to library collections. But if all your books by Laurie Halse Anderson and Ellen Hopkins are checked out, 34 Pieces of You might be a decent alternate choice.

Review by Kirsten Kowalewski

Zombie Youth: Book 1: Playground Politics by H.D. Goodhue*New Review

Severed Press, 2012

978-1475253856

Available: New Paperback

          At this point, zombie literature has moved from cool reboot, to bona-fide horror category, to glutted genre. In fact, I’m pretty sure enough nagging doubt has been cleverly addressed by authors that we are convinced that some virus is, in fact, out there, and it’s only a question of when the dead will rise and eat us. 

         Can readers tolerate one more book on the subject? Yes, we can, if it’s a good one. Zombie Youth: Playground Politics is the first in a new Young Adult series that successfully strains the curd from the milk-toast avalanche of zombie lit and makes a nice, stinky cheese from it. Goodhue’s take on his subject twists it just enough to set the work apart. In a super-creepy way, he makes the end of days even more likely--almost logical. All we have to know to enjoy and agree with Goodhue’s view is the established Z-lore--a rampant, mutated virus begins the trouble, the infected will stop at nothing to tear the flesh from the bones of the living, and your group has to fortify and hunker-down. But in this case, additional scary mutations and a bit of biblical history expand the story and significantly change the game.

          Goodhue’s courageous depiction of a hostile faction of live religious zealots adds a bold dimension that engages a whole new set of philosophical and tactical scenarios, and he’s on the right track to convince us. Chances are, we will be fighting each other in the end zone, since we are already fighting each other in the “real” world. Whichever group harnesses the undead will gain a huge advantage over those who merely hide out, brain-smash one monster at a time, and scavenge supplies.

         Goodhue’s voice and style are flawlessly aimed at teen readers, so long as those readers can tolerate graphically described visceral gore. Fortunately, much of the gross stuff is tempered by wry humor that lifts the whole book onto a higher level, nearly to adult cross-over. There is just enough romance to make the story realistic without burdening readers with actual sexual tension or scenario, and thankfully, there are few or no drug references. Also a bonus is that adults are kept right where they should be in a Young Adult work: useful and supportive, but subordinate to the real heroes. The characters are interesting and, though typical, are written with depth and individuality. Zombie Youth promises a strong, likable, and varied group of believable players for horror fans to follow through the adventures of the inevitable post-apocalypse. Highly recommended for ages 14 and up.

Contains: Graphic zombie gore, profanity.

Reviewed by: Sheila Shedd

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Leigh

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1442440753

Available: New and Kindle

        Burn for Burn is about three girls who decide to get even with the people who wronged them, and who discover that revenge is not as clear cut as it seems. Two of the girls, Lillia and Kat, were part of a threesome of friends that was broken up by the third girl, Rennie, who has turned viciously against Kat. Both of the girls are close to popular Alex, who has betrayed Kat romantically and Lillia as a friend. Mary is the X factor: she has returned unobtrusively after an absence of many years to confront star football player Reeve about… something. After minor revenge attacks on Alex turn out to have been misguided, the girls target the homecoming dance as a place to humiliate Rennie and Reeve, but it turns out that Mary has something unexpected and dangerous at her fingertips.

        Many reviews I’ve read say that this reads like a contemporary until the very end when a paranormal aspect is revealed. I disagree-- the paranormal runs like an almost invisible thread through the book, but it isn’t a surprise by any means, and by the time the girls target the dance, it’s pretty evident that there will be a Carrie-style confrontation at the end.  This, Han and Leigh execute beautifully, with a heart-stopping ending that does what Carrie cannot, because the disaster that takes place in Burn for Burn is not fatal, and the revenge was intentional,  even though the execution of the plan went awry. This gives the three girls time to reflect and regret the effects of their actions, which is horrifying in a much different and human sort of way.

        I did not realize when I first read this that it was the first book in a trilogy. As a stand-alone novel, Burn for Burn has serious weaknesses, but with two more volumes to flesh things out, I expect the three books together will ultimately make for a compelling, heart-breaking, and satisfying read.  Recommended.

Review by Kirsen Kowalewski

Here are some older horrifying titles:

Uninvited by Amanda Marrone

Sleepless by Thomas Fahy

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Harlequin Valentine by Neil Gaiman, ill. John Bolton

Carrie by Stephen King

Half-Minute Horrors edited by Susan Rich

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

The Devouring by Simon Holt

Bonechiller by Graham McNamee

Now there will be more titles to come so please visit again soon for more as we prepare for YALSA's Teen Read Week 2012 "It Came from the Library".

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