Goshen Public Library & Historical Society | 203 Main St Goshen, NY 10924 | Phone: 845.294.6606 | Fax: 845.294.7158 | RCLS Member
Reviews on this Page: Are we There Yet? | Thou Shalt Not Dump the Skater Dude | Tithe | Dragon | Sweetblood | Boy Proof | Storky
The Dark Ground | Witch's Boy | Blue Gold
Reviews on Page 4: The Foretelling | Freeglader | Marly's Ghost | Forever Odd | Sir Thursday | Magyk | Last of the Sky Pirates
Inexcusable | Vox | Valiant | The Face
| Though Shalt not Dump the Skater Dude, Rosemary Graham | |
 | Kelsey is less than pleased when her mother informs her they'll be moving to California prior to her eighth grade year. On top of this, she'll be enrolled in Susan B. Anthony---a high profile, exclusive private school for girls. Which, as Kelsey will soon inform you, is not at all what it's cracked up to be. Despite it's pleasant PR promises, Kelsey's only friend that first year comes from outside the school. And if not for shared family events, she and Amy might never have hit it off either. When her parents start pushing for a Private High School as well, Kelsey knows she has to take action. Making a compelling argument, she gets them to agree to consider EBH, the Public High School, as long as she will at least tour Scholastic---the most prestigious of the private schools. In the end, with the promise to enroll in extracurricular activities, Kelsey wins the argument, and life seems to be looking up. Until she's informed she'll be spending her summer babysitting her little brother at the Skate Park. The idea enthralls neither of the siblings, who strike a deal. Josh will skate, Kelsey will sit off in the park reading, and they will only communicate when necessary. Things run along smoothly until the day Kelsey decides to take a go at the skating bowl herself. Not having skated in some time, she quickly proceeds to take a face plant. Not only that, when the famous C.J. Logan comes to lend her a hand, she elbows him in the jaw. But none of it seems to matter. He becomes her brother's personal mentor, and she becomes his girl. And so goes Freshman year. Watching skate practice in the afternoons, going to competitions on the weekends. Her family loves C.J., and his family, but wants to know what's happened to the activities she was excited about. Realizing she may lose her right to public school, Kelsey signs up for yearbook, where almost nothing is expected of her. When the end of the school year hits, after betraying Amy when she was in need, losing half of her special day with C.J. to skating yet again, and realizing she's not much more to him than a Fan with benefits, Kelsey calls it quits. C.J. took it hard. Worried about him, Kelsey logged on to his blog on summer day to see if he was alright, only to discover herself being bashed. When she attempts to defend herself, she only makes it worse, as he responds with even more lies. Sophomore year looms, and Kelsey feels only dread. Amy assures her that it will have blown over by then. That other people have their own drama, and won't be obsessing over hers. Still, now forced with dealing with the big questions of who she is and where she's going with her life, Kelsey approaches the year with mild trepidation. This is actually a really enjoyable book to read, for all that it centers around so many unhappy topics. The narration is so blunt and straightforward, it's hard not to laugh. Because looking back, even Kelsey knows she should have known better. And at some time, haven't we all? |
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| Tithe, Holly Black | |
 | Faye has always felt different. Being asian and blonde already set her apart, but throughout her childhood she has friends no one can see and experiences no one can understand. But her friends aren't imaginary--they're faeries. When Faye suddenly has to move back from Philadelphia to her hometown, she feels alone. Though she tries to contact her old childhood friends, she gets no response, and believes they've abandoned or forgotten her. So instead she tries to reconnect with old best friend, Janet. Sadly, her first night out proves to be disastrous. In an old abandoner warehouse, they meet up with the crew. Kaye, feeling uncomfortable, takes off to explore. On an upper floor she finds an old carousel horse. Its legs are missing, but she loves it just the same. When she props it up to ride, Janet's boyfriend Kenny spots her. He says he saw it stand up. When he moves from questions to hitting on her, Faye takes off. Walking home through the rain, she hears a noise in some woods off the road. It sounds like someone in pain, so she heads off to investigate. What she finds is a man with a branch through his chest. In actuality, he's a gentry faery, who's been shot with an arrow. Though he is suspicious of her, she manages to help him pull the arrow out, then, following his instructions, calls a Kelpie to aid him on his journey back home. He becomes all she thinks about. The next day she receives a message in an acorn from her old friends, telling her to stay away from the Dark Knight, and that they need to see her. That night, they come to her room, and take her to see the Thistlewitch. While they explain to her that they need her help, the truth of her strangeness is finally revealed. She isn't an odd human at all---she's a pixie. Of course, being a curious teenager at heart, Faye does exactly what her friends recommend against, and removes the glamour that's been passing her off for human her whole life. The new sights and sounds, smells and taste, the green skin, are all too much for her. She turns to Janet's brother Corny, who helps her to remove the rest of her glamour, and then to try to research the new things she's leard of. The Unseelie Court, pixies, the Tithe. None of it bodes well. And as they seek to learn more, things only become more entangled. Again, Black's blend of fantasy and reality remind me of Francesca Lia Block. A powerful style, a compelling story. |
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| Dragon, Clive Cussler | |
 | Pacific Ocean, 1993. A Norwegian vessel heading out to sea comes upon a seemingly abandoned Japanese Cargo ship. Before searching for the crew, they send a party aboard to check for anyone remaining on board, thinking to lay claim to the cargo. Slightly further along, a British vessel floats, the launch-point for an underwater exploration. Aboard the Japanese ship, the Norwegians find one man on the bridge, who looks as if he was boiled. In the engine room, doors have been propped open in order to sink the ship. In the cargo hold, all the automobiles are intact, one with its hood open. All seems ordinary. Until they begin to feel sick. The head of the group heads to the hold to check on a teammate who contacted him there, and find him dead next to the car with the open hood. Knowing he's soon for death too, he takes out his gun and shoots the vehicle, vaporizing the ship, the Norwegian vessel, and the British one too. Beneath the surface, the crew in the underwater explorer hear the bang and feel some shockwaves but cannot raise their surface contact to find out what's gone wrong. Eventually their systems begin to fail, and it seems that death is imminent. At the last moment, help arrives in the face of Dirk Pitt, who with his partner Al Giordino, drove along the bottom of the ocean in their secreat DSMV to see what the disturbance was about. After a harried escape from the ocean, the survivors of the explosion are left only with questions and disbelief. The Government quickly forms a MAIT team, including members from many intelligence angencies, and the NUMA trio of Sandecker, Pitt and Giordino. The threat: Japanese underworld powers have devised a systematic plan to render most of the Western world helpless. How? Bomb cars. Why? They believe in the superiority of their race, and their economic tactics, and do not agree with the way melting pot countries are run. And yet the Japanese government and people at large have no knowledge of this scheme. At nearly every turn it seems hopeless. The odds are pretty much insurmountable. And yet Dirk Pitt doesn't seem to believe in impossibility. Even though he and his partner are over their heads and out of their realm of expertise, the duo still manages to save the day at every turn, including managing to rescue two kidnapped senators and the mastermind behind the entire Japanese plot. Another interesting and somewhat frightening look at what the world would be like if extremism ruled the day. Definitely recommended for anyone who loves action. |
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| Boy Proof, Cecil Castelluci | |
 | Egg is a geek. Preferring the life of a loner to that of the typical teen, Victoria Jergen has named and styled herself after the heroin of her favorite sci-fi movie, Terminal Earth. With multiple peircings, painted eyebrows, a shaved head, and a wardrobe that always includes a white cloak, Egg is definitely not run-of-the-mill. Her AP schedule, excellent grades, actress mother, special effects designing father, and phenomenal photographic eye make up the rest of the equation. She always does her homework, she always has an answer, she never says hello, and she likes to eat alone. Until Max. When Max Carter shows up in AP History suddenly, and smelly, has the answers, and proves to be more than her match, Egg's world begins to slide. Suddenly she isn't "the one" anymore, and suddenly she's acquiring interest in something beyond her self-imposed reality. At first she takes the same cool attitude towards Max as everyone else, with some minor deviations. When her wishes work too well, she finds herself suddenly questioning what she truly wants. As more and more aspects of her every day routine begin to crumble, Egg begins to re-evaluate who she is, and why. Slowly she takes steps to become who she knows she ought to be. Victoria. Human. Flawed. A dreamer, with a lot of talent. An observer and an activist. A friend. Some painful truths are stumbled upon, some harsh lessons are learned, but through it all Egg/Victoria remains strong. She's a lovable, unique girl---definitely geeky---and will probably find a place in the hearts of readers world-wide. |
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| The Dark Ground Trilogy, Book 1: The Dark Ground, Gillian Cross | |
 | This is one of the most unique Fantasy books I think I've ever read. Which isn't to say that the rest are all cookie cutter books, but I do read a lot about magic, and as different as the books are, the stories share similar genes. Dark Ground enters a new realm of real versus the unimaginable. On a flight with his family, Robert Doherty takes a trip to the restroom, where he happens to look at himself in the mirror, and feels he sees someone looking back out at him. That's the last thing he remembers. When he wakes up in the woods, bruised and alone, he's sure the plane must have crashed, and that if he searches long enough, he'll find other survivors. After some time passes, Robert realizes he needs food, water, clothes. While searching for these, day after day, he comes to realize he has even bigger issues---he could die, easily. The woods are huge, the creatures are gigantic, and no one is to be found. But there are others. And unbenknownst to him, one of them has taken a liking to him. After a few surprise gifst, he catches on, and sets a trap to find out who else is out there with him. To his surprise, he catches a frail girl. But she moves like lightning. Eventually, he gets her to let him tail her back to where she's come from. Only at the end of the journey he loses her, and ends up being taken by an ogre bird. Dizzy with pain, Robert manages to climb up and out of his prison, only to arrive on a large branch, from which he can see his own home. So close. And yet so far. Eventually he makes it back down to the ground, and a party of the others finds and rescues him. Little does he know that the journey is just beginning. Anyone who appreciates fantasy, sci-fi, or serious challenges to consciousness, should be taken in by this story. I'll be eagerly awaiting the second installment. |
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| Witch's Boy, Michael Gruber | |
 | This is the story of a very unlikely family, and what happens when best intentions aren't quite enough. Returning home one day, a witch finds a boy left in a basket with a note. Though it is against her nature, she decides to take it home, and once she gets him there, she decides to keep him, despite the advice from her familiar Falance not to do so. She calls the bear Ysul to be his nurse, and the afreet Bagordax to build his nursery and be his teacher. And so Lump grows up with the ability to speak to animals, with imaginary friends in far off lands he can see through his windows, and without any real human contact. When settlements start encroaching into the forest, disaster strikes. Lump thinks to make friends with the children he has spied on his walks. He sneaks off to watch them, and eventually works up the courage to approach one. Believing himself normal, and these other children not, he doesn't understand when they scream and run and attack. When he is caught and chained and put on show, only then does he realize his understanding of the world is flawed. Rescued by Ysul, he demands vengeance from his mother, who will not grant it. Instead, he turns to Bagordax, who convinces Lump to free him, which he does, and then rains down death and destruction on the family who held Lump prisoner. Combined with the destrcution of a large part of their own house, Lump and the witch have no choice but to flee. With some quick magic, Falance is turned from cat to man, and carriage much like Cinderella's is conjured. The trio rides hard and non-stop until they reach a clearing. Beyond it lies the realm of magic. Within, the witch is stripped of her powers, Lump watches the Faeries dance, and both are forever changed. Back in the world of men, the new family takes up the life of Mountebanks, with Falance and the witch turning tricks. With the assisstance of a retired artiste, they learn how to make their show prosper, and head for the Cold Fair in a nearby Kingdom. Things go well for a time. But when the father of the girl Lump has fallen in love with is stricked down in a fencing practice, and he runs for his mother to save him, the man's son, who had plotted his demise, turns Mrs. Forest in for a witch for saving him. She and Falance must run, and Lump is meant to find them through a message to be sent through friends. Only the friends also have been captured, by the time he returns, and he himself must flee as he is recognized as being the Witch's Boy. Eventually he makes a life for himself with the help of an honest jeweler, who pays Lump fairly for all of the "stones" he found in his underground travels. After a couple of years spent brewing a story of himself, Lump returns to the Kingdom under the name Lum-po, claiming to be a Prince of Cathay. He hopes to win the hand of Aude, with all his riches and jewels. But while she revels in his gifts, she cares naught for him, and her father plans for her to wed the King, which she does. Lump then appears to her as himself, coming through the wall upon spying her crying, and helps her through her predicament in trade for her first born child. He then spends a year preparing for this child, only to make a new deal when the year comes, and end up losing the child instead. Lost, uncovered, and no longer wealthy, Lump doesn't know what to do. His magic betrays him, and he spends 10 years buried undear the earth, neither alive nor dead. Only when he comes to grips with who he is and what has happened to him, and allows himself to feel, is he set free. Unsure where he is, Lump follows the sounds of singing and finds himself in a garden, admiring a beautiful girl. And here his true path begins. |
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