The Battle of Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Many series tend to go downhill after the first book; maybe the novelty of the premise has worn off, maybe the author is scrounging for material as they try to stretch the series out or maybe the author has to rush to meet deadlines. At any rate, there are a few new series that I'm really enjoying these days and Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, just might be my favorite. I mean, come on, each book gets better and better!

The Battle of Labyrinth is the fourth book in the series, and it did not disappoint. I won't go into the plot here because if you've started the series I'm sure you're already addicted (everyone I can get to pick it up loves it, even if they are sure they won't). The books really do need to be read in order so if you haven't been reading the series yet, run out and pick up the Lightening Thief. Hey, why are you still reading this? I mean it! Go pick up the book!

Tunnels by Roderick Gordon & Brian Williams

To enjoy this book, I think you have to know that it does not have much of an ending. It sort of reminds me when my husband saw the first Lord of The Rings movie; he knew nothing about the books and was shocked and dismayed when the movie ended. If it wasn't for the credits rolling, he would have been sure the film broke or something because he could not believe they would end the movie right in the middle of the plot with zero closure for any of the characters. While fans of the books left the theater excited, my husband was ticked. I can't help but think some readers are going to feel the same way about Tunnels. I can even imagine a few of them examining the binding to make sure they aren't missing a few chapters in the end because the ending is so abrupt. Maybe that tidbit will help you enjoy the book a little more than I did in the end.

It all starts out with 14 year-old Will. Will's father is an archaeologist working is a tiny museum by day, scouring the city by night, hoping to make a big discovery. Will himself has a hobby of digging holes so he assists his dad on digs around the city. Just as Will and his dad start making discoveries in one of Will's tunnels, his dad disappears. No one has heard from him and the police have no clues. After looking in on Will's couch potato mom, the police hint to Will and his sister that maybe his dad wanted to leave. Will doesn't believe a word of it, but doesn't tell anyone about his latest cave because in the past other archaeologists have swept in and claimed the dig and all of the glory and will and his father don't want to be scooped.

Instead, Will recruits his friend Chester to help with the dig to look for more clues. Just as they are making headway, someone fills a huge section of Will's tunnel with backfill, hoping to disguise it as a cave-in. Will becomes really worried about what's going on with his dad's disappearance when mysterious men start following Will and Chester around town. They persevere and discover Will's dad had his own hidden tunnel that leads to a mysterious underground world. Will gets excited and drags Chester along woefully under prepared in a search for Will's dad. Of course all sorts of craziness ensues.

It was a really interesting plot and I can see why they're making a movie of it, but it was so long!!! I think every review I've read mentions that it should have been cut to about half the length. It also had a lot of violence and was just all around creepy and dark. That said, there were some MAJOR plots twists I did not expect in the slightest that kept things exciting. I wish I could say more, but I really don't want to spoil it. If this peaked your curiosity, you'll just have to check it out yourself, and if you enjoy it, the sequel, Deeper, is due out in March of 2009.

Ever by Gail Carson Levine

I know you can't judge a book by it's cover, but I did, and I was way off on this one. I saw the latest novel by Gail Carson Levine, Ever, and I assumed that it was another fairy tale version by Gail Carson Levine (not that that's bad, I was really excited about it). I mean, look at the covers of her fairy tale adaptations; the covers are deliberately designed to match. This is probably not a problem for the average reader, but I have this weird habit of avoiding the publisher's summary because I hate having any of the plot spoiled.

At any rate, just so you don't make the same mistake, Ever is not a fairy tale adaptation, it is an original mythological story. It seemed to be vaguely middle eastern, but as far as I know it has a set of totally made up Gods and Goddesses that remind me a little of the Greek Gods. The novel starts out following the youngest God, Olus, the 17 year-old Akkan God of the winds. Olus is lonely because he's so much younger than all of the other Gods. His parents hesitantly agree to let him temporarily live among Humans but warn him that he will not fit in and find happiness among them. Of course, Olus has to learn that the hard way when he makes a new friend and decides he can confide in his friend that he is actually a God, which terrifies the human and his family. Olus learns to hide who he truly is in order to live among mortals.



He flits from one job to the next until he settles on being a goat-herd and spies Kezi, the beautiful daughter of his wealthy landlord. Altough he only watches Kezi from afar he quickly falls in love with her and he watches her dance and artfully weave her rugs. Tragedy strikes when Kezi's mother falls ill and her father Pleads to Admat (the only God Kezi's family believes in). He pledges that if Admat will heal his wife, he will sacrifice the first human who congratulates him on his wife's recovery. Kezi mother does indeed recover, and Kezi is horror struck when her beloved aunt tries to congratulate her father. She quickly intervenes and congratulates him before her aunt has a chance. Of course both parents are full of sorrow, but they fear Admat too much to betray their promise. Kezi submits herself to her destiny to be sacrficed, but she prays to Admat to let her live for 30 more days.



In the meantime Kezi, meets Olus and begins to fall in love with him. She suspects he's a magician, and has a hard time believing he is a God because she only believes in one God, Admat. Olus doesn't know if Admat is real because none of the Gods he knows have even heard of Admat, but he joins Kezi on a quest to help her overcome her parents' pledge to sacrifice her without angering Admat.



See, that was not the fairytale that I was expecting, although Kezi's father did remind me of King Midas losing his beloved daughter when he got his wish. Overall, I found the setup and plot interesting (parts of it were admittedly a little hard for me to buy into (warkis, people who slowly become covered with knitted feathers and eat dirt, etc.), but what I really struggled with was trying to figure out what Levine was trying to say about faith and religion. It really bothered me that the Gods showed no interest in humans, and Kezi's reasons for doubting her faith kept growing. In the end I'm still not sure what the point of it all was. Did anyone else feel that way?



All in all I'd rate this an interesting book, but Ella Enchanted remains my favorite Gail Carson Levine book by far!

Waiting For Normal by Leslie Connor

I knew from the publisher's one sentence summary that this novel would be sad/depressing. Since becoming a mom, I have a particularly hard time with stories of child abuse or neglect, but I repeatedly heard such great things about this book that I had to pick it up, and I'm very glad that I did!

Sixth-grader Addie and her mom, Denise, are left in dire circumstances after Denise failed to make her mortgage payments with the money her Ex gave her and lost custody of Addie's two half-sisters. Ex-husband Dwight has the little girls and wants nothing to do with Denise, but offers up a trailer home he has parked downtown so that Addie (who is not his daughter) will still have a place to call home. He has his reservations about leaving Addie alone with her mom, but is left with no choice because he is not Addie's blood relation and he has no claim to custody. While Addie struggles to keep track of her mom, make new friends, and overcome her learning disabilities, Dwight and the little girls find a new family and a welcoming home.

See, sounds depressing, huh? But oddly enough, Addie carries an optimism that keeps the reader hopeful. Her mom is terribly neglectful, but Addie still has a network of people who love her and watch out for her. The book covers some heavy issues; that abuse isn't always physical, that kids shouldn't be the ones responsible for taking care of their parents, that having a learning disability doesn't mean you're not smart, and that sickness can be mental, not just physical. Yet somehow the story isn't too depressing. It has it's heartbreaking moments, but I was still able to close it with a smile.

Found: The Missing Book 1 - by Margaret Peterson Haddix

So I admit that I'm a fan of the Shadow Children series even though it dragged out a bit. As a reader, I've been spoiled by many clearly laid out series lately; I knew Harry would be at Hogwarts for seven years and there would be a novel for each year, I knew there would be 13 unfortunate novels about the Baudelaire orphans; so it drove me nuts to read a series in the making that would obviously have a big event that would end the series (The shadow children would revolt/be discovered and either be accepted or destroyed) but I had no idea how many books would be in the series so with each new release I wondered if that book would finally end it all or leave it hanging.

Well, maybe Haddix got tired of people asking her if each new book in the Shadow Children Series would end it all because I think of Found less as a complete novel and more of an intro to the entire series. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, and I wasn't disappointed by the ending, but I'm more excited about what Haddix has mapped out next.

It begins with 13 year-old Jonah getting a mysterious letter in the mail that says, "You are one of the missing." Jonah has always known that he was adopted so he thinks the letter must be a prank from kids at school who also know Jonah's adopted. That is until his friend Chip gets an identical letter and discovers he was also adopted and his parents kept his adoption a secret. Neither boy can find any information about their birth parents except that an FBI agent's name and number is posted as a contact in each of their adoption files. By the time they each get a letter stating, "Beware! They're coming back to get you." they are both worried about what the truth might reveal and the plot only thickens as Jonah's 12 year-old sister, Katherine, helps them discover that their story involved an FBI cover up, a plane that appeared out of nowhere, 35 other kids, and people who appear and disappear.

How does Margaret Peterson Haddix do it? she can write mysterious sci-fi, historical fiction, fairy tales, even early-readers, and here she is with another series that's sure to be a another hit.

MAJOR PLOT SPOILER

I'm warning you, don't read the rest of this if you haven't read this book!

So the kids on the plane are 36 of the most famous kids missing from history and they can't stay in their modern lives with their adoptive families unless they fix the problems in history their disappearances caused. We know the group includes Virginia Dare, who vanished with the Roanoke Colony, the youngest children of Czar Nicholas II (Anastasia and Alexis), the Lindbergh baby, and we're starting off with Princes Edward and Richard, who disappeared from the Tower Of London in 1483. Wow! That is a major undertaking, and I can't even begin to imagine how much research it will take to write each of these books. Fans of this series are going to be learning a lot about history. I can't wait to learn more about each historical figure's life, and it will be interesting to see what goes wrong because of each disappearance and how Haddix will fix it.

Now when does book 2 come out?

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

So, you already know that I like Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, so I was happy to learn that he extended the trilogy and released a fourth book. I thought most people knew about it, but some bookclubbers were surprised when I mentioned it a few months ago, and I've been meaning to mention it here.

Extras takes place a few years after the first three books and is set in a modern version of Japan where citizens are valued by their fame ranking, which means Aya Fuse's rank of 451,369 makes her a complete no-one with no special privileges. The publisher describes it as, "a gigantic game of American Idol where, 'Tech-head' flaunt their latest gadgets, 'kickers' spread gossip and trends, and 'surge monkeys' are hooked on extreme plastic surgery. And it's all monitored on a bazillion different cameras. Whoever is getting the most buzz gets the most votes. Popularity rules."

Aya is convinced that if she can kick an amazing story, her rank will rocket and she'll get the life she dreams of. In a desperate effort she joins the Sly Girls (a group of girls that avoid the media as much as possible leading many people to believe they aren't even real) and sneaks footage of their dangerous fun, and she uncovers a much bigger story than she bargained for.

I know a few teenagers out there were disappointed to learn that this wasn't another novel focused on Tally, the main character in the first three books, but I thought it was so interesting and provided some good discussion points about what makes a person famous, is fame necessarily good, and what's the difference between news and gossip. Things teenagers today should be questioning as they watch Paris Hilton parade across the news, spend time surfing myspace, and tune into TV shows like Gossip Girl.

I really enjoyed this book and after discussion with friends, I have to admit that it probably helped that I speak Japanese so I didn't stumble with any of the names or placing where the story was supposed to take place. I would still start with Uglies and work my way through the series, but don't miss Extras at the end!

Uglies - by Scott Westerfeld

I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I often do, which is why I glanced at a copy of Uglies when it came out a few years ago, and I wasn’t even tempted to pick it up. As the adult Chick-Lit genre has blossomed so has the young adult version. I have no problem with the popularity of the genre, I’m just not particularly interested in it myself. I mistook Uglies to be one of those books with a female main characters obsessing over romantic possibilities and clothing, and while it contained both of those elements, it turned out to be much more.

Uglies is set in a futuristic society where everyone receives plastic surgery at the age of 16 to make them beautiful. The idea behind the transformations is that if everyone was beautiful, no one should feel better than anyone else, no wars would be fought over the color of people’s skin if everyone looks similar.

Tally, the main character, begins the book eagerly awaiting her 16th birthday so she can join the other “pretties” in their carefree lives. The thought that someone might not want to be changed never occurs to her until she meets Shay, another girl in her class about to turn sixteen. At first she doesn’t believe Shay’s stories of a place that people escape to if they don’t want the surgery, but after Shay disappears the authorities show up to question Tally and they confirm Shay’s story. They tell Tally she must help them find Shay and the other runaways or they will never do her surgery and she must remain ugly in a world of beauties forever. Tally is torn between her promise to her friend, her curiosity to know the truth, and her desire to become beautiful.

I found myself thoroughly caught up in Tally’s predicament and my reading became progressively slower as I neared the end of the book because I didn’t want it to be over. Luckily for me, it’s part of a trilogy and I just picked up the next book, Pretties at the library.

Now that I look at the cover, it’s more appropriate than I originally thought. I hesitate to classify this book as science fiction simply because it might discourage chic-lit readers from picking it up too, and I think they would enjoy it. Stephenie Meyer says that Twilight is a vampire novel that she wrote for people who do not like vampire novels and her next project is a science fiction book for people who don’t like science fiction. In the meantime, that’s what I’m calling this novel. Besides, who can resist picking up a book that begins with the line, “The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit”?