Review: Shimmer

Shimmer by Alyson Noel

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Book Blurb: "Having solved the matter of the Radiant Boy, Riley, Buttercup, and Bodhi are enjoying a well-deserved vacation. When Riley comes across a vicious black dog, against Bodhi’s advice, she decides to cross him over. While following the dog, she runs into a young ghost named Rebecca. Despite Rebecca’s sweet appearance, Riley soon learns she’s not at all what she seems. As the daughter of a former plantation owner, she is furious about being murdered during a slave revolt in 1733. Mired in her own anger, Rebecca is lashing out by keeping the ghosts who died along with her trapped in their worst memories. Can Riley help Rebecca forgive and forget without losing herself to her own nightmarish memories?"

I suppose this book is all right for younger teens, which is probably good since that's the audience for this book. But I found Riley Bloom extremely annoying. This girl definitely leads with her mouth and is slow in the reasoning department. This is one of the protagonists who are so dumb you want to hit their head against a brick wall. Despite being with a character who has been around longer than she, knows the situation better, and is obviously wiser, Riley continues to mouth off and generally mess everything up. Even AFTER this character proves himself repeatedly correct, she still insists on treating his advice as if he were "obviously crazy" (variations of this phrase are used several times in reference to him). The fact that Riley has obviously never even been taught history is evident when she asks why an African prince would go from a life of luxury to being whipped and tortured. Hello?The writing gets a little monotonous, with a lot of "Even though (reason pointing against what Riley thinks), even though (another reason), even though (another reason)...Despite all that, (Riley goes ahead and thinks what she wants anyway)." It's also bogged down with a lot of description. The climax nearly pulls the book out of its slump, which is why I give it 3 stars, but it doesn't quite pull it off all the way.

I would have liked to like this book, but due to the annoying nature of its heroine I simply couldn't enjoy it. A side note: the audiobook version of this has a wonderful voice actress, and I enjoyed listening to her even though the book was making me grit my teeth with annoyance.



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Book Review: Bad Girls Don't Die

Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

2 book reviews in one day! I couldn't put this one down, just HAD to finish it!

Alexis looks like a 'typical' dysfunctional teen with a 'typical' dysfunctional family, Pink hair, don't care 'tude, hangs with goths: Check. Mom who works too much: check. Dad who spends more time with sports than at home: Check. Little sis who talks to her dolls: Check. Psycho ghost in haunted house....Check.


When Alexis' little sister starts behaving strangely and a series of harmful accidents occurs, Alexis is left to solve the mystery on her own. Who can she trust to help her? The goth 'friend?' The preppy boy with a disturbed past? The head cheerleader who has a secret? Alexis is determined to get her sister back...or die trying.

Review: This book was great! Read half in one sitting, paused to eat dinner, then read the rest. Really, think Wait Till Helen Comes for a YA audience, and you've got this book. Not so creepy that you want to run screaming from the room or have to sleep with the lights on for a week, but not so sappily predictable that you are bored and don't want to finish the book. Some of the 'twists' and things were a little obvious, but the writing style is good so I forgive that. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a good ghost story (like me), who liked Wait Till Helen Comes and wants something slightly more grown up (no really mature themes or passages, don't worry).



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Book Review: Sweet Venom

Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Summary from Amazon.com:

"Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster.


Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though.


Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they’re triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters.


These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful Gorgon maligned in myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight."

This book was pretty good! Slow going at first, because the author is more interested in describing the girls' lives before they meet than in getting the story started. Descriptions of the monster fights are pretty neat, as are the girls abilities. I took off one star out of five because the book doesn't end. It does that thing so many 'trilogy' authors are doing (doesn't it seem like EVERYTHING is a trilogy nowadays?) where they leave a whole lot of loose ends to get you to read the sequel. This book left a LOT of loose ends. Pretty much, every mystery except when these three girls are finally going to meet and accept their fate is left unanswered. The girls only meet in the last few chapters of this 400-page book! They only accept who they are and become a team in the LAST chapter. That frustrates me.

Despite that fact, the book was pretty easy reading. I was through a hundred pages or so before I stopped and checked page numbers, so I know it got me pretty involved. I always love things stemming from Greek mythology ('Starcrossed,' anyone?) so the sequel is definitely on my to-read list.



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