The Writer Diaries

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SYNOPSIS

Something haunts Miranda Barnes. It’s in the distant pleading voice that wakes her from sleep, the lingering smell of roses, and the shadows that seem to follow her everywhere. Miranda begins to understand that she has a special gift for communicating with spirits of the dead. But this “gift” feels more like a curse, and Miranda has no one to confide in. When Etienne, the mysterious boy from her class, offers to help, Miranda is initially skeptical, but can’t help feeling drawn to him. As paranormal activity escalates, passion grows, and soon Miranda is caught up in both romance…and tragedy.

MY REVIEW. BEWARE, POSSIBLE SPOILERS.

After a hurricane demolishes her home, Miranda Barnes and her mother pack up whats left of their life and move to St. Yvette, Louisiana to live with Miranda’s grandfather and aunt. Miranda has never met her grandfather, even after days of living in the same vicinity as him. So when Miranda’s new group of friends question how its like to live with the Town Crazy, Miranda is thrust into a world filled with ghosts and spirits. Like her supposed crazy grandpa, Miranda is able to communicate with ghosts and spirits that need her help to move on.

It doesn’t help that there’s many spirits in St. Yvette, home to a vicious battle during the Civil War, where hundreds of spirits are at unrest. While worming on a school project, Miranda and her group of misfits team up to help some of these lost souls, particularly a soldier, Nathan, a soldier that was tortured and murdered during the Civil War, and his love, the actress Ellena Rose, who was a spy spilling Confederate secrets.

I really loved Cusick’s The Unseen series, because those were so chilling and we’re just as in the dark as the characters. Spirit Walk, however, lacks the suspense and the luster of The Unseen. A lot of it is slow, and much of the first book was just working on the school project Spirit Walk where Miranda and her friends put together a history of death and mayhem that has happened in buildings around town, and have a sort of ghost walk. If you’ve ever been to towns like Savannah, Georgia, these are fun little experiences to learn about the history of an old city.

In the second book of this two-parter tome, we find a whole new adventure with Miranda and her friends, especially Etienne. I usually don’t care much for minor characters, usually just one or two at most, but I loved all of Miranda’s friends. The typical Southern Belle, Ashley, whose voice is described as melted honey. Roo, the snarky goth chick whose entirely different from Ashley, but the two step-sisters are thicker than maple syrup. Parker, Ashley’s boyfriend and sarcastic rich boy. Gage, cute and shy, and his cousin Etienne, the drool worthy boy every YA book seems to have.

While it didn’t have the same zest as other books by Cusick, it had spirit all on it’s own.

by Lillian Verlaine on August 9, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Book Reviews

Posted by Lillian Verlaine on August 9, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/spirit-walk-richie-tankersley-cusick/

Truly, Madly, Deadly – Hannah Jayne

Author: Hannah Jayne

Rating: 4/5

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SYNOPSIS

Sawyer Dodd has it all. She’s a star track athlete, choir soloist, and A-student. And her boyfriend is the handsome all-star Kevin Anderson. But behind the medals, prom pictures, and perfect smiles, Sawyer finds herself trapped in a controlling, abusive relationship with Kevin. When he dies in a drunk-driving accident, Sawyer is secretly relieved. She’s free. Until she opens her locker and finds a mysterious letter signed by “an admirer” and printed with two simple words: “You’re welcome.”

MY REVIEW. BEWARE, POSSIBLE SPOILERS.

I have been waiting for this book to come out for the past month and a half and was so excited to read it that I tore through it in a matter of hours.

After the death of her abusive boyfriend, Sawyer Dodd is slowly trying to get her life back on track. Until a mysterious note appears in her locker, wtih a newspaper clipping on Kevin’s death, and a note that simply exclaims, “You’re Welcome.” Could someone know about Kevin’s abuse and took it upon themselves to get rid of him… permanently?

Sawyer takes it upon herself to solve some of the mystery on her own. But it’s obvious someone is out there watching her every move. Who can she trust when people she loves are being attacked?

What I really enjoyed was that we never knew the identity of the killer stalking Sawyer until it’s revealed. I should’ve known, too, because of the circumstances and the fact you never consider this character to have any knowledge of it.

I would normally give this five stars, but there was some things that irked me (of course). If I were getting notes from a psycho, I’d be taking them to the cops and whatnot and taking pictures of stuff and not thinking the cops will go by my word.

Overall, Truly, Madly, Deadly is a good read. Not what I was hoping for in terms of gore and suspense, but it was good enough to read in one sitting.

by Lillian Verlaine on July 9, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged book, book review, fatal attraction, hannah jayne, killer, review, stalker, suspense, thriller, truly madly deadly, ya, ya fiction, ya lit, ya review

Posted by Lillian Verlaine on July 9, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/truly-madly-deadly-hannah-jayne/

Impostor (Variants, #1) – Susanne Winnacker

Author: Susanne Winnacker

Rating: 4/5

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SYNOPSIS

Can Tessa pose as Madison . . . and stop a killer before it’s too late?

Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years training with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again.

Tessa hates everything about being an impostor—the stress, the danger, the deceit—but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she’d do anything to keep. Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.

MY REVIEW. BEWARE, POSSIBLE SPOILERS.

We’ve always wanted to be someone else at one point, right? We see people on television and magazines and whatnot. They’re pretty and graceful and seemingly perfect, as if the world bows to their feet and everything is sunshine and rainbows.

Tessa is a variant. With a single touch, she can absorb their DNA and replicate their appearance down to the last genetic strand. The ultimate disguise. The ultimate gift, in some ways, a chance to start over whenever and whomever you want.

Tessa hates it.

She never knew her father, and when her mother saw what she could do – she was shunned and basically forked over to the FBI. Since then, Tess has been training to use her ability and two years later in the beginning of the book, she is assigned the task of catching a serial killer.

Madison managed to survive her killer, but ultimately, she never wakes up and ends up dying of her injuries. Fortunately, Tessa has replicated her DNA and is prepared to become Madison. We all know what we see in movies, a killer of this degree usually always will come looking for his or her victim that escaped them and survived.

And this doesn’t disappoint. Throughout the book, Tessa is torn every which way trying to decide against her gut feeling, fact, and who the FBI counts as a suspect.

Overall, Impostor is a great book, full of likeable characters, some romance, and a really awesome ability.

by Lillian Verlaine on June 10, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged book, book review, fiction, goodreads, impostor, review, serial killer, silence of the lambs, susanne winnacker, thriller, variant, xmen, ya, young adult

Posted by Lillian Verlaine on June 10, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/impostor-variants-1-susanne-winnacker/

Impostor (Slide, #2) – Jill Hathaway

Author: Jill Hathaway

Rating: 3/5

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SYNOPSIS

What if a killer took control of you?

Vee Bell’s gift (or curse) of “sliding”—slipping into the mind of another person and experiencing life, briefly, through his or her eyes—has been somewhat under control since she unwillingly witnessed the horrific deaths of her classmates six months ago.

But just as things are getting back to normal, Vee has a very bizarre experience: she loses consciousness and finds herself in a deserted area, at the edge of a cliff, with the broken body of the boy who took advantage of her on the rocks below.

As Vee finds herself in stranger and stranger situations with no memory of getting there, she begins to suspect that someone she knows has the ability to slide—and that this “slider” is using Vee to exact revenge on his or her enemies.

MY REVIEW. BEWARE, POSSIBLE SPOILERS.

Warning – this may contain some spoilers from book one, which I have reviewed in my previous post.

Sylvia “Vee” Bell can “slide” into other people’s minds. As far as she knows, she is the only person alive who can do this. Her mother exhibited all the same symptoms but when Vee finally realized that her mother had the same affliction as she, she’s already long dead.

Until one day, she has a strange experience and she discovers that someone may be sliding into her.

As with the first novel, I started this and finished it in one day. In this novel, Hathaway introduces you to a few new characters, as well as delve into other characters we see in Slide, but have not much interaction with.

As the story progresses, you’re left switching back and forth, wondering who could be this killer taking over Vee’s body. Who is sliding into her? Is he or she making her kill people in her body while she is lost, unable to remember?

From the summary, I should’ve loved this book. I had initially read the summary for this long before I noticed it was the second book, and read the first to get to the second. Unfortunately, like it’s predecessor, did not live up to the expectations the summary gave me. As with book one – which I loved, but now not as much now that I realize the author did the same thing with this – starting a book with false expectations and wrapping it up in a little bow trying to emphasize our shock factor and severely falling short.

The tagline, “What if a killer were in control of you?” There’s also a piece in summary, “this “slider” is using Vee to exact revenge on his or her enemies.” Which makes me annoyed, because this feels like false advertising. There was no killer in control of her, and when you find out who was in control of her and their reasoning “I thought I was dreaming!” everything feels boring and out of place for a novel that was supposed to be this fun thriller.

Another thing…

The worst part of the book that left me annoyed and pissed off was how Hathaway depicts sexual assault. Vee was almost raped as you can see by her memories, but she never did anything about it, never told anyone about it. But she knew Samantha knew and she never hated Sam for letting Scotch carry her off and – if he had not been stopped by Rollins – Vee would’ve been raped. Seriously, where is the female camaraderie? Even if I hated someone to the depths of the earth, I wouldn’t let such a thing happen to anyone regardless how I felt about them. Then in book two, Samantha let herself get drunk with Scotch driving her home knowing what mightve progressed with her ex-best friend? And when she’s assaulted, does she tell anyone? Nope. Instead of filing a report or telling a teacher or parent or anyone, she and Vee team up to play a stupid prank on the guy. Hathaway clearly doesn’t understand what a big deal a rape is, how much their world is affected to victim.

Overall, this gets a 3/5 because of the assault issue and for trying to do the exact same thing she did in book one.

by Lillian Verlaine on June 2, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged book, goodreads, impostor, jill hathaway, novel, review, slide, teenage, thriller, ya, ya fiction, young adult

Posted by Lillian Verlaine on June 2, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/impostor-slide-2-jill-hathaway/

Slide – Jill Hathaway

Author: Jill Hathaway

Rating: 5/5

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SYNOPSIS

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth–her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting distant lately, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

MY REVIEW. BEWARE, POSSIBLE SPOILERS.

The concept of this novel sounded beyond awesome. I mean, how insane would it be to be able to “slide” into another person for a few minutes? I’d totally want that power, life would be so much simpler (coPASSINGTESTSugh).

Vee Bell hates this ability of hers, so much that she consumes around 30 caffiene pills a day just to try and stop her ability. But it comes, whether she wants too or not, and Vee finds herself slipping into the mind of a killer, just as he/she is forging a suicide note and standing over the body of Vee’s sister Mattie’s friend, Sophie.

It was then, admittedly, I realized having this ability could have it’s sucky moments, as well as touching something that someone has left an imprint on and passing out on the spot. Vee, trying to solve Sophie’s murder, eventually realizes her curse can be a gift, when she can see what people are up to in order to either implicate or clear their name when it comes to trying to find Sophie’s killer. There’s a few moments here and there that foreshadow, and leave clues as to who killed her. I kept going back and forth just like Vee trying to figure out who did it. It wasn’t until a scene that I was suspicious, and my suspicions were confirmed about the same time that Vee’s was.

There’s more than just mystery and the classic WHUDUNIT, there’s a story included of Vee’s journey, in being an outsider once near the heart of the popular crowd, and how single, monumental moments have changed her completely. It’s a quick read, and very fun. I read this in one sitting last night and managed to get 20 percent into the sequel before sleep called.

by Lillian Verlaine on May 29, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged book, book review, fiction, goodreads, high school, interesting, jill hathaway, killer, mystery, novel, review, slide, thriller, ya, ya lit, ya review

Posted by Lillian Verlaine on May 29, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/slide-jill-hathaway/

Don’t Turn Around – Michelle Gagnon

Author: Michelle Gagnon

Rating: 4/5

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SYNOPSIS

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her computer-hacking skills to stay safely anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in an empty warehouse with an IV in her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her side.

Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance, Peter needs people with Noa’s talents on his team. Especially after a shady corporation called AMRF threatens his life in no uncertain terms.

But what Noa and Peter don’t realize is that Noa holds the key to a terrible secret, and there are those who’d stop at nothing to silence her for good.

MY REVIEW. BEWARE, POSSIBLE SPOILERS.

From the very first page, Don’t Turn Around is perfect for fans of Lisbeth Salander and Bourne Identity.

This fast paced, nail-biting thriller begins when Noa wakes up in a warehouse with a scar on her chest, having lost a month of her life from when she was taken to when she first comes to. She’s a street kid, an orphan, who has hacked her way into a fake foster family, earning money by working for a company called Rocket Science under the pseudonym of her fake foster father that she has created in order to escape the system.

Noa soon realizes in her escape that she can’t go home, and can’t access her money. While she isn’t as mentally screwed up or fleshed out as Lisbeth Salander, her resourcefulness and ability to overcome could be coined that she is the teeny version of Lisbeth.

Alongside Noa comes hacker Peter, from the right side of town, who just got himself unknowingly involved with the same people who took Noa. These two end up both belonging to a same hacker alliance, called /ALLIANCE/ (brilliantly coined, right?)

Don’t worry, these two don’t call in love, and the moments when they’re might’ve been some romantic feelings were both awkward, so I doubt they’ll hook up anytime soon in future installments.

While the action begins on the first page with Noa’s awakening, it took me about half the book for me to get into it. But it was still good, and once I got through it, I devoured it until it was nearly five in the morning and my eyes couldn’t stay open any longer.

I highly recommend this novel for those who enjoy reading action packed, fast paced thrillers.

by Lillian Verlaine on May 13, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged action, book, book review, dont turn around, girl with the dragon tattoo, goodreads, lisbeth salander, michelle gagnon, noa, novel, persephone, peter, review, story, thriller, writing, ya, ya review, young adult

Posted by Lillian Verlaine on May 13, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/dont-turn-around-michelle-gagnon/

The Madman’s Daughter – Megan Shepherd

Author: Megan Shepherd

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

In the darkest places, even love is deadly.

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father’s gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father’s handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father’s madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island’s inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father’s dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it’s too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father’s genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells’s classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman’s Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we’ll do anything to know and the truths we’ll go to any lengths to protect.

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. IN THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF RIVER SONG, “SPOILERS!”

“Dead flesh and sharpened scalpels didn’t bother me. I was my father’s daughter, after all. My nightmares were made of darker things.”

I loved this book in the beginning. Sassy protagonist Juliet is a surprisingly relatable young girl, for a maid in a historical London era. After her fathers scandalous vivisections were discovered, her mother and her were left to fend for themselves after falling from grace. When her mother died, Juliet believed she was alone in the world. But when she finds out her father is alive, she would stop at nothing to see him and find out of those rumors about him were true.

And they were. Every single one.

We get these glances into Juliet’s brutal side, the madness scientific personality trait she inherited from her father. If it were not for her good heart, I am sure she would’ve succumbed to the same madness as her father did, thinking himself above God.

Juliet sets sail for long months on a dingy ship alongside her family’s childhood servant (and her fathers current assistant), Montgomery. It is on the ship that they meet a castaway, Edward. And the island…. is a horrific place, with its deformed natives and constant stormy weather. But oh, not everything is as it’s seem. Those natives aren’t there by chance. Instead, they are all products of Henri Moreau’s madness, all his creations to use animals to make humans, deeming himself a god on his island in the midst of nowhere.

Surprise, surprise. Incoming. Love triangle ahead. Edward has some sort of protectiveness over Juliet for no real reason (and when its explained, falls short in my eyes), and Montgomery’s been madly in love with her since they were children. I guess being the only normal looking female on the island helped Juliet’s chances.

It was creepy in places, but others incredibly slow with Juliet being your typical YA teenage girl. Oh Montgomery, kiss me! and then pondering Edward’s arms around her a moment later. It was a decent and easy read, I got through it in a matter of hours.

by Lillian Verlaine on February 18, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged book, book review, creepy, madman, megan shepherd, novel, review, the madmans daughter, thriller, ya, ya fiction, young adult

Posted by Lillian Verlaine on February 18, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/the-madmans-daughter-megan-shepherd/

Ripped – Shelly Dickson Carr

Author: Shelly Dickson Carr

Rating: 2/5

Synopsis

Katie Lennox wishes her parents were still alive. Having to leave Boston to live with Grandma Cleaves in London was hard, but she’s making new friends, working on her British accent and even learning some Cockney rhyming slang. London’s cool and actually feels like home in some ways, like she’s been here before, belongs here.

When a museum visit with her cousin and his cute friend turns funky, Katie finds herself in a long, uncomfortable dress, wearing a ridiculous hat, wondering what happened to her jeans and high-top sneakers? And where’s her iPhone?… It’s London, 1888. Smart and gutsy, Katie knows she’s here to stop Jack the Ripper. The serial killer didn’t just slash his victims’ throats; he butchered the women. Katie has read about the Ripper, knows the names of his victims and where and when they were killed. She’s watched her fair share of CSI. Can Katie save their lives?

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. IN THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF RIVER SONG, “SPOILERS!”

Ripped – received a free digital copy by requesting on Netgalley.

Let me just say, I love Jack the Ripper stories. The mystery surrounding his reign of terror fascinates me. How he was never captured, and no one ever found out who he was.

Unfortunately, this didn’t live up to my love of the subject. I adored The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, and was hoping this would be a grisly, fun YA horror. However, there was very little horror.

Katie travels back in time to the summer of 1888 when Jack the Ripper terrorized White Chapel London when she touches the London Stone and thinks to herself how she wishes she could solve the mystery of Jack The Ripper and keep him from killing all those poor girls, mainly, her ancestor, Lady Beatrix Twyford.

While the premise is interesting, the story dragged on in places and some things were never explained. Much of the action of Jack the Ripper is all pushed up at the end of the book. It didn’t seen thrilling to me, not as it should. I feel as if most of Kate’s time was spent hanging around with Toby and Colin’s great-great grandfathers (who just happened to be exact replicas, as well as Katie’s sister Courtney looking like Beatrix). I found myself skipping ahead and skimming pages waiting for something interesting to happen.

There were some things in the book that irked me, such as Toby knowing all this info to a T on how the Stone worked. I get it, he traveled in time, but really, half of what he recited to Katie was not something you could monitor in one time traveling adventure, and it only works once for any particular person.

Another was that if Katie was THAT freaked about Madame Toussard’s ripper show, why did she want to go back and experience it for real? And changing the past, doesn’t anyone understand how in every tv-show and movie involving time traveling, it is dangerous? The girls in Britain, hasn’t she ever watched a single episode of Doctor Who? Some things are set in stone.

It really bugged me that she wanted to save Lady Beatrix so badly, but the two basically exchanged a word or two and never came together again really for the rest of the book.

It just wasn’t my cup of tea. Especially when it was revealed who Jack the Ripper was… really? I suppose it was the shock factor, but the shock factor was moreover why HE was this dastardly ripper. I don’t want to ruin the plot for anyone who hasn’t read it, so I shall not name him.