Afterworlds

Young Adult Fiction

G/A  Westerfeld, Scott.  Afterworlds.  Simon Pulse, 2014.  608p. 978-1-48142-234-5.  19.99.

Darcy Patel just graduated from high school and instead of going to college, she’s taking a year off to move to New York City to finish her debut YA novel and work on the sequel. In alternating chapters, we, the reader, get to read her novel, titled Afterworlds, giving us essentially two novels in one book. As Darcy navigates NYC and changes and grows as an individual, her novel’s main character, Lizzie, experiences a change in life as well, when she is the sole survivor of a terrorist attack and becomes a living escort for newly deceased souls to the afterlife. While both “novels” are interesting, the chapters seem to alternate just when you want more of the current story. Switching back and forth takes the reader out of each story too abruptly. Setting the formatting aside, the two novels were fun reads, one realistic (and really geared towards book lovers) and the other a new twist on the paranormal. Loren Spector, LAPL, Memorial Branch Library

Life After Theft

General YA Fiction
 

G/A. Pike, Aprilynne. Life After Theft. HarperCollins, 2013. 9780061999000 $17.99

When Jeff moves to Santa Monica from Phoenix, the last thing he expects is to make friends with a ghost much less a kleptomaniac ghost. Enter Kimberlee who has been haunting her prep school for the last year trying to get someone to see her. When Jeff finally does, she enlists him to return all the things she stole hoping this will be the penance she needs for her soul to move on and Jeff just doesn't want to be haunted forever.
There is some humor and a budding romance between Jeff and Kimberlee's sworn enemy complicates things

Sarah Mae Harper, CoLAPL- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

General YA Fiction

E/A. Winters, Cat. In the Shadow of Blackbirds. Amulet Books, 2013. 387 p. 9781419705304 $16.95

Mary Shelley Black has just been sent to San Diego live with her aunt. Besides widespread panic about the flu epidemic, she has to contend with spiritualists making money of off people’s misery and trying to use her image to do it. She is devastated when her best friend dies in the war and confused when he comes back as ghost. Will she be able to help his spirit find peace?
This book will appeal to historical fiction readers as well as those interested in the paranormal. The oppressive atmosphere of the war and the flu epidemic are almost palpable.

Sarah Mae Harper, CoLAPL- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Shadow and Bone

VG/A  Bardugo, Leigh.  Shadow and Bone.  Henry Holt, 2012.  358p.  9780805094596.  $17.99.

Alina and Mal have known each other since they were children together in the Duke’s orphanage. On a military excursion through the dark Shadow Fold to get to the sea, everyone is surprised to discover that Alina has special powers. She is a Grisha, part of a community of people with special abilities under the leadership of the Darkling. At once Alina is sent away from Mal so that she can perfect her magic, because only she has the ability to destroy the Shadow Fold. But the Darkling’s motives may be much darker than he lets on. Fans of fantasy and the paranormal will love the start of this new series by debut author, Leigh Bardugo. Loren Spector, LAPL, Felipe de Neve

The Diviners

High School Fiction, Historical, Paranormal

VG/M (Very Good, Mature Reading Level)

Bray, Libba. The Diviners. Little, Brown and Company, 2012. 578p. 978-0-316-12611-3. $19.99.


Small town teen Evie O'Neill is something. Something drunk, something scandalous, something odd and something dangerously close to the truth.  When Evie's something is too much for her tiny town in Ohio, she's sent to live with her Uncle Will in New York.  What better place for Evie to celebrate 1926 and find out what the bright lights of the big city have in store for her?

While New York has speakeasies, Ziegfield girls, independence, freedom and excitement, it also hides mysteries, murder, mayhem and a dangerous religious fervor. Does Evie have what it takes to survive when the city reveals its deadly secrets?

While lengthy, fan favorite Libba Bray's latest novel does not disappoint. The slower pacing throughout most of the book accentuates its creepy, troubling atmosphere and the interwoven narratives give hints as to what will certainly be important in future volumes.   These details balance out Evie's occasionally annoying vivaciousness and burgeoning problematic romances.

-Candice Mack, Richard J. Riordan Central Library, Los Angeles Public Library

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

High School Fiction

G/A. McBride, Lish. Hold me closer, necromancer. Henry Holt, 2010. 342p. 978-0-8050-9098-7 $16.99.

Sam is a college dropout working at a fast food hamburger restaurant. He appears to be an ordinary guy with an ordinary life, but all that soon changes. Usually during break times, he and his friends like to challenge each other to a game of potato hockey. Unfortunately, one night the potato gets away from them and ends up hitting someone’s taillight. The owner of the car turns out to be no ordinary man, but a powerful necromancer and he can sense the power that Sam too has a necromancer. He issues Sam an ultimatum—join him or else. To demonstrate the seriousness of his message, he kills Sam’s friend, Brooke and sends him her head – alive and talking. Sam has one week to become Douglas’s apprentice or Douglas will go after him, his family and anyone else he cares about. Sam finds out that his mom is really a witch and he comes from a family of necromancers. His power was bound when he was born to keep him safe. However, before the week is up he finds himself a prisoner in Douglas’s home and in a cage with a beautiful were-hound named Brid. The two quickly become friends as they work together to escape Douglas’s clutches. Sam must learn to harness his latent powers to help them all before it’s too late. -C. Campos, LAPL, Angeles Mesa