Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best books in its genre. So many YA romance novels like to over-dramatize stuff with their boyfriends and friends and family, but the issues discussed in this book are things that really happen to people.

Although trivial teenage problems really happen to teenagers too, in this case, all the teenage characters; Payton, Sean, her best friend Jac... Grady might be an exception, aren't prone to drama. I thought the author did a really great job with character development, and all the characters really came to life for me.

This book shows a sensitive and uplifting, though somewhat bittersweet, picture of how people cope with loss and disease, and also fear, because in some cases, the fear of the situation is actually worse than the situation itself. What Payton and Jac does for Miss Marietta was very moving too, and I'm glad for Miss Marietta's mini-story in the book.

I especially loved the whole Focus Object concept and how it helped Payton get through her fears for her father. I also loved that it was thought up by her guidance counsellor, Ms. Callahan, when she was going through a hard time. I thought it was a very real portrayal of real problems of real people. =)

The Curiosity by Stephen P. Kiernan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an incredibly great read, I enjoyed it immensely. I liked that the author made the whole scientific part of the story entirely plausible.

The whole premise is just intriguing; bringing back a man who has frozen in hard ice for over a hundred years. Bringing a frozen body back to life is not all that unbelievable, because it has happened in real life. In fact, many times, though I can't account for the accuracy of the articles.

However, bringing back a person who has been frozen for a hundred years... now that's interesting! It's like Sleeping Beauty, but after the kiss. You know how the story ends after "...and they lived happily ever after"? This is the story of what happens after. Well, not really.

Jeremiah Rice's story is as far from Sleeping Beauty as you can get, and he was brought back by science, not a kiss. Obviously though, we can't help but be curious about how people who lived in the 20th century would think about our technology-filled lives now. All the cars, airplanes, computers, iPhones, wide-screen TV... it would be overwhelming to take in all at once.

Not to mention, of course, the huge culture shock itself; the immodest fashion nowadays compared to way back when, the vulgar everyday language a lot of us speak in without thinking twice, the fact that there's actually a black president now when a hundred years ago, blacks were seen as slaves.

Seeing these things through Jeremiah's eyes are interesting, sure, but there's more to the story than that. The story is told in a few other POVs, one which was told in a second-person narrative and influenced my feelings of the character very much, and there are other characters who I really feel for as well.

This is definitely one of my favorite books in 2013. I thought it was very well-written, and honestly, I can't praise the whole second-person narrative POV enough. It just made me take a step back and really look at the person who was "speaking". It looks like this might be made into a movie as well, and I look forward to watching it on screen.

The Light Bearer by Donna Gillespie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I first read this book in 1994, and I've loved it ever since. Initially, I re-read this book every year, but in the last five years, I've only read this book twice.

I've had so many new books to read that I don't need to re-read as much as I used to, but once in a while I would miss Auriane and Marcus, and want to read about them again. This time, I wanted to savor the story and read it slowly, I wanted to study Donna Gillespie's writing and maybe learn something from her.

But as I read, I forgot about the writing and got engrossed in the story. When I remembered, I would try to concentrate on the writing again, but then forget again as the story pulled me in. Eventually, I just gave up trying to study anything and just enjoyed reading the book.

That's how good Gillespie's writing is, that's how good the story is. It makes you forget everything else except the story. Everything else fades away.

The Light Bearer has been a favorite book ever since I was just 11 years old. There are many things I love about it, but among what I love most is that it features a very strong female protagonist, Auriane, who was a huge influence for me as I was growing up. I also love Marcus, and I love how wise they both were. I love how they outsmarted their enemies, how they solved their problems, and I love how exciting the whole thing was.

This is one of the most underrated books I know, and I wish more people would know about this book and read it. It's amazing.

Escape Theory by Margaux Froley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. I felt that it was real and honest, and I really liked how Devon and Hutch was portrayed. Devon was doing very well as a peer counselor, I thought, even though she didn't completely follow the guidelines set by her teacher. She was emphatic and sensitive, sharp and smart.

We don't really get to see much of Hutch except what the other characters tell us about him, and of course, this whole story is based on the tragedy of his death. It breaks my heart a little. I wish I could've known Hutch. I wish Devon and Hutch could've had a chance.

Reading about their connection was wonderful, but I can't help wondering what happened after that. Why did they never get together after their special moment? This was never really answered in the book, and we're left to wonder about it.

The story itself is more about people than anything else. I thought most of the characters were really well thought-out, Froley does very well making them come to life for me. I'm excited to see what's next in this series and what Froley will come up with next!

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I haven't read such an enjoyable book in a long time. It was fresh and unique, and I really like all the different elements of the story.

It feels like some kind of historical novel when you first start the story and enter the old bookstore, a mystery with the puzzle solving and members of a secret society, then it becomes somewhat sci-fi with all the talk about Google and immortality, and then comes fantasy with the heroes trying to save the mission; the rogue, the wizard, and the warrior. I loved how the author put them all together.

Clay was a great protagonist, an anti-hero of sorts because he didn't really set out to do much except try to impress the girl, but in the end, he really rose to the occasion and saved the day.

I loved that the other characters were portrayed like characters in an RPG, each one playing an important role in a quest. They were real people living in the 21st century, don't get me wrong, but they all had their RPG roles to play in this mission, and I loved that.

This book is so quaint and modern at the same time, I loved the whole adventure. I love how different this book is, and how fun, mysterious, and smart it is. It's pretty much one of my favorite books this year. =)

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting book and very well-written and well-thought out.

The beginning was a little slow, but it picked up fast in the middle, and I got sucked in. Both the protagonists, Nick and Amy are unlikable people, but you have to admire them for the mind games they had to play.

I liked how the author tells the story in the beginning with Nick's POV and then Amy's POV from her diary. She leads you in one direction and then when you find out the truth, it really does turn into the metaphorical car crash that you just can't look away from.

You never end up liking either character, and it's pretty hard to decide who to root for, but of course, I end up rooting for the one who was a little less crazy. Weak and selfish people, though unlikable, are still understandable. Psychos are just a little harder to relate to.

The ending was a little anti-climatic though, and unresolved. I would've liked something a little more definite. Not because I need resolved endings, I sometimes enjoy unresolved stories, but because this particular story just calls for it.

All those mind games, all that ego... something had to give, someone had to lose. But...nothing. So yes, I'm a little disappointed with the ending, but otherwise a great read.

Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually liked this book a lot! It is a very interesting book, based on something that actually did happen, and yes, I'm sorry, but I really think that people who don't believe in evolution are seriously brainwashed or in serious denial.

It's scientifically proven fact! I believe in God (but not in Christianity), and I really don't see why you can't believe in both, they're not mutually exclusive!

In my not-so-humble opinion, I think that people who can't believe in evolution, are the ones who have the least faith in their belief in God. If you really have as much faith as you pretend to have, you wouldn't feel threatened by the *fact* of evolution.

Anyway, back to the book, I really liked it, and I liked pretty much all the main characters, though I thought Mena was a little annoying and cowardly, not saying all the things she should've said, even though she thought them. Obviously, I liked disliking the Back-Turners and the pastor, but to me, the real villains were Mena's parents.

What horrible, HORRIBLE parents! I mean, they didn't support their daughter at all for doing the right thing! Regardless of the consequences to their business, she did the right thing, and even if they were mad at her, the least they could do was *talk* to her and tell her what she did wrong and how to handle things better next time. Not ignore her completely!

A boy attempted suicide, and all they cared about was what the other church members thought about them?! I could say so much about what terrible parents they are, but it's just getting me riled up. Terrible, terrible parents! OMG! So many things!!

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really good book in the way it explored a person's humanity. Who hasn't entertain thoughts of killing someone they hated at one time or another? We all have, except we also know (most of the time) that we wouldn't actually do it, that we're just venting on our frustrations.

Jasper Dent however, has to second guess himself all the time. Whenever he gets mad enough to feel rage, he thinks that he must be a bad person because he's thinking of killing the other person. I felt for him, and I thought he was a very well-adjusted person despite his upbringing and all the bad things he's had to go through.

Even the manipulation that he does to other people when he's trying to get something he wants, which he thinks is a bad thing, is actually pretty normal. Most people do it, consciously or not, and some are just better at it than others.

This book gives a very interesting glimpse into the psyche of a regular human being who's normal but worries about every little nuance of his thoughts and character, just because of his genes. We all are mad, in our own ways, some more than others, but worrying about being mad can actually drive you mad, don't you think?

The story itself is pretty thrilling and suspenseful. The stakes get pretty high as the body count rises, and we want Jasper to catch the bad guy before more people die. I've always loved stories about teenage sleuths, and I love the extra dark element that Jasper's character has. I can't wait to read the next book in the series!

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I watched part of the TV series then got bored and stopped. I figured the books were better and I'd read them instead.

I finally picked up the first book, and well, I didn't like it much. There was too much female brutality, sexism, and lack of respect for the women in the story. Even Sookie was portrayed as a woman who couldn't live without her man, who would do anything for him, to protect him.

He's portrayed as an old fashioned man, since he was born a loooooooong time ago, and he tells her he's used to woman being damsels and men being the heroes, and that she better get used to it. He protects her by killing for her, against her wishes, and yet she still wants him, despite his lack of respect towards her.

Now I can take brutality and sexism in books, I have read many much more gruesome stories, but I don't like it when being a weak woman is glorified like this. So no, I'm not going to waste my time with these books anymore.

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ok, first of all, I really loved this book, but I read it, or rather, listened to it as an audiobook. So to be honest, I don't know if it was the book itself I loved, or the way the reader read it. There were lots of vocal effects when he read all the different characters' dialogue, and while I didn't exactly imagine the affectations the way he did, it was interesting to listened to the book in this way.

This is only the third audiobook I've listened to in my life, and I have never had anyone read to me when I was younger, so I've had limited experience. The reader was very animated, and I loved that about the whole book. It wasn't monotonous, and the reader kept me interested in all that was happening.

It's hard to say if I would've liked this book if I'd read it instead of listening to it on audiobook, though I'm sure I wouldn't have disliked it. It was a fun enough book, made funner with the vocal affectations of the reader, but it might not have been as enjoyable if I only focused on the story rather than the telling of the story also.

I especially loved when at the end of the book, there was a song about Alice in Wonderland, I can't find the title or artist yet, but it's a great ending credit song. I felt like I had just watched an epic movie, instead of just reading a book.

Sorry I'm not much help with reviewing the actual book, but for the curious, you might like to try getting your hands on the audiobook, read by Gerard Doyle, and see how you like the experience.

ETA: Found out the song title and artist: Looking Glass by Hypnogaja!!

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s really hard for me to write a review of this book without getting angry. Suicide makes me angry, and there’s just too much to say about it that I can’t put the whole thing into a review of this book.

I might one day take the time to talk about my feelings about suicide, but for now, I’ll just give everyone a break and focus on the book.

So, I really like the book, even though I have issues with Hannah “blaming” her suicide on other people. She can blame them for their stupid and thoughtless, and even criminal, actions, but it’s completely unfair to put the blame of her suicide on those actions.

Teenagers make mistakes all the time, and I have both treated my peers badly and had been treated badly as a teen. I have had my closest friends turned against me, and had things get so bad to the point that I had to change schools. I got over it, we all got over it, we grew up and we’re all friends again now. Maybe my case wasn’t as bad as Hannah’s, but there are many other people who had it worse, and they got through it too. Two different people can go through the exact same thing, but they will react differently because of who they are.

Bottom line, people don’t contemplate suicide because of what other people do to them. They do it because they can’t handle it. Does it make what those other people did right? No. But they are in no way responsible for the suicide. Responsible for being jerks, maybe, making people miserable, sure, but suicide? No.

So I don’t like Hannah, I don’t think she should’ve committed suicide, the things that happened to her aren’t even that bad, and she did have good things happen which she by choice pushed away. The part about how her parents weren’t there for her was also weak. It’s also not like she didn’t have the strength to fight back, the fact that she did what she did before she committed suicide, showed that she had the anger, the will to stand up for herself.

The fact that she shared all those thoughts and emotions *after* she killed herself is such a cop out. Suicide was her choice, she had many choices and she chose to kill herself, yet in the end, she wouldn’t even take responsibility for that one final action.

However, while I don’t like Hannah, at all, I loved the way the story was told. I loved how intense and emotional it was. I always say that I like books that make me think, but the best books are the ones that make you feel. I felt deeply with this one. Anger. Frustration. It doesn’t have to be good feelings all the time.

I could’ve given this book only 4 stars instead of 5, because I felt that all the reasons for Hannah’s suicide were really weak, but instead of blaming the author for not being able to come up with convincing reasons for Hannah’s actions, I choose to believe that he made Hannah’s reasons weak on purpose, because, let’s be honest, there’s no reason good enough for suicide.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So after I finished reading Rachel Cohn’s Beta, I realized that she had also written this book, which had been sitting on my shelves for a while.

I was interested in reading this book because I had watched Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and then found out that it was from a book of the same name that these authors wrote together.

I haven’t read that book, but I read this book and it’s so much fun and so different than the young adult romance you usually find out there.

I love the Book of Dares, and I love how Dash and Lily have fun with each other, being playful, and yet also honest and raw at the same time. I like how it’s not a sappy romance, but it’s real and awkward, and so funny!

Thank goodness there are two other books written by Cohn and Levithan; Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List. I’ll have to get my hands on them asap!

Beta by Rachel Cohn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Elysia is a Beta, that is, she is a test clone. Created to serve, the Governor’s wife bought her to act as her surrogate daughter and to please her children as their sister and playmate.

Clones are not meant to be able to feel or to want, but Elysia feels and wants more than she should. There are people who want to destroy Defects like her, so she has to keep her feelings a secret.

Inevitably, things happen that forces her secret out, and she has to run for her life.

This is the first book in the Annex series, and it’s been a really exciting read. The backstory about clones and how things came to be is smoothly woven into the story and is really quite interesting. The mystery of Elysia’s First, the person she was cloned from, is intriguing as well, and leaves us wanting to know more.

I finished the book in one sitting, and let me just warn you, this book ends with a really exciting cliff-hanger, and I’m cursing the fact that the second book isn’t out yet! I want to know what’s going on and what happens next! A great read!

The Postman by David Brin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Postman movie starring Kevin Costner was one of my favourite Kevin Costner movies. I don’t like a lot of movies he acted in, but I thought The Postman was really inspiring and hopeful.

I never knew it was based on a book, and even when I came across this book, I wasn’t sure if it was just another book with the same name as the movie. I was curious to find out though, and sure enough, it was the same story as the movie.

Well, not the same exactly, movies based on books are always different because there’s no way you can fit everything in the book into a 2-hour, or in this case, a 3-hour movie.

There were enough similarities in the book and the movie that I was sure the movie was based on the book, but mostly, it was a completely different story. There were more complications in the book, for one, and some techno stuff thrown in, like modified human beings and the concept of “living computers”. It was also bleaker and slower-paced than the movie.

This is an unusual case where I liked the movie better than the book, but still, it was really interesting to see where the story came from and how it was originally written.

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, this will be my first review in months, and I’m glad that it’s this book, because it’s one of the better books I’ve read recently.

In brief, this book tells the story about Nora, who one days finds one of her best friend, Chris, dead, and her other best friend, Adriane, who is also Chris’ girlfriend, catatonic. Her own boyfriend, Max, is missing, and is a suspect for the murder of Chris. Nora has to track Max down and find out what happened that night, and who really killed Chris.

The story is more complicated than that, however, as Nora, Chris, and Max were all working with a professor to decipher a 400-year-old book, and apparently there were some secrets in that book that some secret society would do anything to possess.

This book was categorized under the Young Adult genre, but I felt that it is a lot more sophisticated than most YA novels. There’s a lot more depth to the novel and the characters too, and I found myself really liking and sympathizing with most of them. The plot was really interesting, though a little bit slow at times.

There were some parts that were kind of unrealistic, like the fact that they were on a wanted list, but yet no one recognized them and turned them in even though they were moving about in public so much, and the fact that two different secret societies were looking for them, yet they always could go back to the same hotel and relax without worrying about anyone finding them.

The story did explain that the secret society wanted Nora and her friends to move about freely and “solve the puzzles” for them, so if we suspend our belief a little further, this explanations kind of works. It didn’t bother me too much though, and I still enjoyed the rest of the story. It was a great read, overall!

Article first published as Book Review: Shine by Lauren Myracle on Blogcritics.

I know that it’s been said over and over again never to judge a book by its cover, but I have to admit that I picked up Shine by Lauren Myracle only because I was attracted by its cover.

I have never heard of the author and I had no idea what this book was about. I read the synopsis, and gathered from it that a boy named Patrick is a victim of what looks like a hate crime and is now in a coma, and sixteen-year-old Cat, his former best friend, is investigating what really happened.

It sounds pretty clear-cut, but it’s more complicated than that. There’s all sorts of relationship dynamics between the inhabitants of this small town, and of course, there’s the small-town mentality that Cat needs to overcome, especially considering that Patrick was supposedly attacked because he’s a homosexual.

Cat is threatened when she asks too many questions, but the threats only make her angrier and more determined to find the answers. In the process of digging up information about Patrick’s attack, Cat also has to dig up her own past and the emotions she buried a long time ago.

This is the town that Cat grew up in; these are people that she knows and have relationships with. Some of them she’s had bad experiences with; some were her former best friends. What do you do when you suspect that one of your friends have hurt another?

I was very impressed with how well-written Shine was. It’s kind of like a Nancy Drew crime/mystery novel in the sense that it has a teenaged sleuth who’s solving a crime by asking questions and piecing the answers together, except it’s so much more subtle than a Nancy Drew novel, and yet so much more intense and emotionally involved.

You get to know the characters well, and then you see a different side of them. I think that’s one of my favorite things about this book. Nothing and no one is really what they seem. It’s ironic that I was drawn to this book because of its cover, and then when reading it, find that the prevalent theme in this book is about not taking things at face value.

Shine is one of the most engrossing books I’ve read so far this year, and I’m so impressed by Myracle’s writing that I’ve added her other books to my To-Be-Read list.

Article first published as Book Review: Wither (The Chemical Garden Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano on Blogcritics.

I had been seeing Wither by Lauren DeStefano a lot in bookstores and was intrigued by the premise. A genetic experiment gone wrong has given all newborns a fixed lifespan of 25 years for males and 20 years for females. How could I not get hooked?

Apparently, it happened when scientists were trying to discover a cure of cancer and other degenerative diseases. They found a way to genetically engineer fetuses so that all the babies would be born strong and healthy and immune to any disease. It worked great, and the first generation all grew up and grew old and never got sick.

Unfortunately, their children and their children’s children all started dying at the age of 20 and 25, and they’ve been looking for a cure since. In the meantime, it was important not to let the human race die out, so they started kidnapping girls in their teens to become child-brides and produce babies.

Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is one of the child-brides, but although her husband Linden loves her and she gets along well with her sister wives, she longs for her freedom and the love of a servant, Gabriel, who is as much a prisoner as she is. It’s a bittersweet story, and I can’t help but root for Rhine and Gabriel even as I’m rooting for her husband, Linden.

Reading this book makes me think of all the reasons people are against cloning, genetically modified foods, genetic engineering, and anything that interferes with the natural order of things.

It’s hard to say where I stand on this issue, because on the one hand, I can see all the benefits that could be achieved, but on the other, who knows what kind of effects all these experiments could have on us in the long run?

People have been saying for a while now that our lives are getting longer, but they haven’t considered the fact that these statistics include a lot of terminally sick people whose suffering are being prolonged by drugs and surgery. In contrast, the inhabitants in the world of Wither are all healthy and strong until they reach their curtailed life expectancy, then they get sick and die quickly.

In my opinion, if our lives were limited to 20-plus years, we wouldn’t be spending so much of our childhood learning lessons we’re never going to use, playing video games, and wasting time. We’d probably be living hedonistically and we’d definitely be having children as soon as we’re able to - we wouldn’t have time to read or do anything that didn’t contribute to our survival. We’d basically be living like animals.

The only thing that keeps the inhabitants of Wither from living like animals is the fact that the first generation of genetically engineered humans are still alive, although the youngest of them are already seventy years old. They are the ones that try to keep a semblance of a normal society intact, but what’s going to happen in a few more decades when the first generation dies and they still haven’t found a cure for the younger generation?

I’m interested in seeing what happens next with Rhine, Gabriel, and Linden and I want to know more about what happens to the people in Wither. Will they ever find a cure? What will happen when the first generation dies out? Wither is the first book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy, and I’m looking forward to reading the next books in the trilogy.

Article first published as Book Review: Wild Roses by Deb Caletti on Blogcritics.

Wild Roses tells the story of 17-year old Cassie Morgan, and the way she and her mother handle living with a temperamental and, at times, almost insane musician.

Dino Cavalli is a world-renowned violinist, and he’s also Cassie’s stepfather. At first, he seems like only a bully and an egomaniac, but when he goes off his medication because it blocks his creativity, he becomes manic, paranoid, and destructive.

While Dino never actually hurts Cassie or her mother physically, there are times in the book where the scene is so intense and frightening that I tense my muscles in expectation that he might. Fortunately, he never crosses that line, but unsurprisingly, he does finally hit someone towards the end of the book.

The more interesting story in the book though, is the romance between Cassie and Ian Waters, who happens to be Dino’s student. Ian is an extremely talented violinist who might have a chance to get a full scholarship into the most prestigious school for musicians.

Of course, his romance with Cassie gets in the way of his music, or you could say that his music gets in the way of his romance with Cassie. Either way, Dino isn’t happy, and the situation is full of difficult choices for Ian and Cassie.

It’s interesting to note how the book portrays how difficult it can be living with and loving talented musicians. Both Cassie and her mother have to cater to the needs and the moods of the musicians they love, letting go of what they want in deference to what talent and genius need.

I relate to this on a personal level because I married a very talented musician after making a promise to myself a long time ago that I would never get involved with musicians! I had dated musicians before my husband, and I always felt like I wasn’t important and that their needs always came first.

To be fair, it wasn’t so much that they treated me badly, but more that they were oversensitive and I always had to be careful what I said and did so that I wouldn’t hurt their feelings inadvertently. It got so tiring that I gave up dating musicians until my husband came along.

What drew me to him and what made me forget my promise of not ever getting involved with a musician again is the fact that he’s the most amazing musician I’ve ever met, and he’s still as down to earth as anyone with his measure of talent can get. He’s sensitive but not overly so, and a lot of the time, he puts my needs before his.

Obviously, living with my husband is nowhere near as dramatic as Cassie and her mother living with Dino, but what I relate to is the deference to genius. My husband never expects this accommodation, and in fact, sometimes will cancel a gig for my convenience instead, but always to my disapproval.

There’s this feeling that I, as a mere mortal, get about not getting in the way of genius. I think my husband is amazing, and I think he’s got potential for huge success, and because of that, I always insist that his music comes first.

So reading this book, while I feel that Dino is too volatile and definitely not someone I’d like to live with no matter how talented he is, I started wondering about my own life with a musical genius and why I so naturally defer to his music.

Wild Roses mentions many times how everyone is moved to tears when they listen to Dino’s music. No matter how horrible Dino is as a person, and no matter how much people may dislike him, all is forgiven when they hear his music.

I think that’s the key; we yield to talented musicians because their work touches us and makes us feel things we otherwise would never feel, and somehow our instinct is to do whatever we can to make sure that the music survives.

Wild Roses is an engrossing book and I like that it made me think about my own relationship with a musician and how we all need music in our lives. Deb Caletti is an excellent writer and I will definitely be reading more of her books.

Article first published as Book Review: Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan on Blogcritics.

One of my all-time favorite books is The Third Eye by Lois Duncan. I’ve read this book at least half a dozen times since I first read it in high school. Funnily enough, I haven’t read any of Duncan’s better known books, like Stranger with My Face, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Killing Mr. Griffin.

I finally got a hold of a copy of Stranger with My Face, and it was so exciting that I finished reading it in one day. At first glance, the plot sounds like a cliché; Laurie Stratton is a sixteen-year-old girl with an evil twin who wants to take over her life.

It's an overdone plot, but consider the fact that this evil twin can astral travel and is strong enough in astral form that she can cause harm to others, and factor in that it was written in 1981, and you can’t help feeling really impressed with Duncan’s vision. As far as I know, no one else has ever told this story with a paranormal twist, and again, remember that it was written thirty years ago.

I’ve loved her writing ever since I read The Third Eye, and now I can add Stranger with My Face to my ever growing list of favorite books.

This new edition of Stranger with My Face also features a Q&A with the author that, to be quite honest, was my favorite part of the book. I never knew before that she had a teenage daughter who was murdered in 1989, and that psychic detectives played a big role in discovering information about her murder.

It must have been devastating to Duncan and her family, but it sheds a new light on her books and their subject matter. She has also written a book about her daughter’s murder, Who Killed My Daughter?, which I am definitely going to read.

Article first published as Book Review: Thirteen Days To Midnight by Patrick Carman on Blogcritics.

If you could have only one superpower…what would it be?

This question is asked over and over again in the book, and I have to admit, I still don’t know what my answer would be.

In the beginning of the book, the protagonist, Jacob Fielding, ponders the possible answers to this question and he discusses the pros and cons of a couple. Flying would be dangerous, for example, and invisibility seems to be the best superpower, except that it would lead to all sorts of temptation since you’d basically be able to do almost anything without consequence. So he decides that invisibility isn’t a superpower, it’s a “lose-your-soul-to-the-devil power”.

He has a point. With great power comes great responsibility, famous words from another superhero story, and true, because power can be used for good but it can also be abused. Jacob, his girlfriend Oh, short for Ophelia, and his best friend Milo, find out the hard way what happens when they abuse a power that they don’t understand.

Jacob and his friends discover that he has the power of indestructibility, and that he can pass on that power to others and use it to save lives. It would be a really cool power to have, except how do you decide who gets to live and who dies?

They experiment with it, get into fights with it, save a few people with it, and let some others die because the power can only be given to one person at a time. Unfortunately, all those deaths that didn’t happen, have to go somewhere, and so Oh becomes home to all that darkness. Jacob and Milo have to kill her to save her, but how do you kill someone you love?

I enjoyed the story itself because it was well-written and has an interesting plot, but what I really liked about it is that it makes you think. Obviously, there’s a moral to this story and it’s telling us not to abuse power because there are always a consequences. But here’s the thing, what if there are no consequences?

There Jacob is, telling us about invisibility being a temptation at the beginning of the book, because nothing would stop you from doing anything you want with it if you were never caught. Then he tells us the story of what happens with his own superpower, of how he and his friends abused it, only to find out that there is a consequence, and when they realized it, they stop abusing the power.

My question is, if there was no consequence, would they have gone on abusing the power forever? Are we all “good” citizens because we’re afraid of the consequences, of getting caught, or are we good because we want to be, because we believe it’s the right thing to do?

It really makes me wonder; if you knew you would never ever have to face any consequence of your actions, would you lie, steal, cheat, murder? How far would you go and where would you draw the line? Or would you still be a “good” person simply because you choose to?

Now, I’m not sure if the author intended for his readers to ask these questions, but it was written for the young adult audience and most young adults are naturally inquisitive and imaginative. I’m sure they will enjoy this book on many levels.