Gruesome Transformations

Nightstruck by Jenna Black
New York : Tor Teen, a Tom Doherty associates book, 2016.
302 p. ; 22 cm.

This was an exciting, creative, and very readable paranormal, horror novel. The hero of this tale, Becket, unwittingly becomes the bridge to a portal to evil forces, allowing them to enter the regular world and wreak havoc in Philadelphia.  At sunset inanimate objects come to life inflicting injury and death on anyone caught outside. People are safe from these terrifying "constructs" as long as they are indoors, but some of the people caught outside become Nightstrucks - accomplices to the forces violence and mayhem taking over the city at night - and they can enter homes and do violence.

The novel builds in horror and suspense as it goes on, claiming surprising victims and pitting the hero of the novel against her best friend who has become one of the Nightstruck.  The hero also gets to find romance in this terrible time, so all is not bad...

However, the novel has a few problems, that remain unanswered.  The above mentioned best friend is unlikable before her transformation, and absolutely horrid afterward - and yet the hero of the novel just can't seem to fully reject her.  Also one has to wonder why the supernatural horror is limited to the boundaries of Philadelphia?

Problems aside, the novel is exciting and keeps one's attention.  Its ending is pretty surprising and clearly invites a sequel.  The reviews of the sequel are not very good, and I started it and had to agree that the first few pages were pretty bad.  Maybe the author should have let it end at one installment, but my guess is that she was under pressure to drag it out into at least a trilogy and maybe more, which is too bad.

     

A Hell of a Read

Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen
Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2014.
343 p. ; 22 cm.

This was just what the doctor ordered.  A fun, excitingly plotted high school adventure and romance featuring the drama crowd and - unexpectedly - a very handsome young male librarian who just happens to be a demon wreaking havoc on the school for his nefarious plot to take over the underworld throne...

Sounds crazy, right?  Yes.  The best part is that the book just rolls with the nonsense and if your roll with it you get caught up in the main character's heroic quest to save her best friend from an eternity of being a demon's consort, to save her school from a pending massacre, and to - create the best stage props ever for the school production of Sweeney Todd.

It's a really enjoyable mix of the supernatural plus high school friendships/romance plus thrills and danger.  If you've been lost in following the hellish news of the world, this fun romp with a strong female hero is a welcome break.

    

Still Strong

Speak: the graphic novel by Laurie Halse Anderson (artwork by Emily Carroll)
New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 2018.
371 p. : chiefly ill. ; 22 cm. 

I am very pleased that a graphic novel adaptation of Anderson's groundbreaking YA novel, Speak, is now out.  It's hard to believe that it has been almost 20 years since Speak came out.  It is a powerful story of a freshman girl who is shamed and shunned for calling the police during a summer party. Melinda, the hero of the novel, also silences herself until she is finally able to speak her truth - she called the police because she was raped by a popular senior boy.

In the powerful introduction to this graphic novel, Anderson states that she first wrote Speak to "deal with the depression and anxiety that had shadowed me since I was raped when I was thirteen years old." She also notes that graphic novels were not the popular and available format for literature that they are now and that most of the social media now so prevalent did not exist back then.  That made her story perfect for updating.

Sadly, her story's as necessary as ever.  Even as I write this, the President of the US (admitted sexual predator ) has just mocked a rape survivor .

Speak has remained a novel that still circulates widely, and hopefully this graphic novel will expand the number of people who read it.

X + U = SLAM

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
New York, NY : HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2018.   
361 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm not even going to pretend to be objective about this book.  After seeing and hearing Acevedo read at our local library last week, while I was about half way through this book, all I can say is "Yes, read this book and recommend it to students you know." 

She is a great performer and a strong writer, too.  When I handed a copy of this book to a student recently, I said, "Be sure and look her up on YouTube."

The book is a fine telling of Xiomara, a girl coming of age in contemporary Harlem, NYC.  She is a sensitive, but bold, young woman who is being raised by a very strict and very religious mother, and a somewhat distant and checked-out father - both who are immigrants from the Dominican Republic. She is also a twin of a brother she loves, and they both are struggling to become the adults they want to be - while under the restraints of their loving, but oppressive family.

Fortunately for Xiomara, her salvation is in nurturing her gift for poetry and spoken word performance.  Will it be enough to overcome the binds of family and religion?  Will she be able to find romantic love when her mother doesn't even want her talking to boys?  Can she help her brother as he struggles to own his gay identity?

Well, you'll have to read the book to find out.  There are unexpected plot twists and scenes of great emotion - and you won't be disappointed. I swear!

Almost Out of the Cage

A List of Cages by Robin Roe
Los Angeles : Hyperion, 2017.
310 p. ; 21 cm.

There are a lot of good things to say about A List of Cages.  It tells a good story - a likeable kid, Adam, who reconnects with, and befriends, a younger marginalized kid (Julian, who was briefly his foster brother) and eventually helps save him from the terrible cruelties of an uncle who adopted him. 

Roe unravels the story in chapters alternately told from one of the two main characters perspectives. 

What I liked about the book are its portrayals of the difficult world of high school - especially for a student struggling with social and academic challenges.  It does this without the cardboard villains of bullies and horrid teachers that often people such novels.  Instead several characters are a times unlikeable, while not being terrible people.  I also like that even Adam, the hero of the novel, struggles with his own behavioral issues and emotional ups and downs. 

I also like that this novel deals with some pretty outrageous and terrible child abuse, but feels way less heartfelt than the supposedly true Child Called It books.  Ultimately though, the severity of the abuse is, I think, its undoing.  The novel ends with a far too rapid, and too rosy resolution of the plot.  Despite this, I still would suggest it to a student since its overall arc is one of compassion, love and the healing power of kindness and friendship.

The Whole Nine Yards

Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett
Chicago, Ill. : Haymarket Books, 2018.
xxxviii, 220 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

Seattle Seahawks defensive star (until 2018), Michael Bennett, has a lot to say about injustices in the United States in this remarkable book from Haymarket Books.

It is a great read, revealing Bennett's passion for social justice - especially around issues of racism and police violence.  But Bennett is not a single issue crusader; he is also a feminist, food justice activist and workers' rights advocate. 

Though called Things that Make White People Uncomfortable, the first half of the book could as easily have been called Things to Make Football Fans Uncomfortable as he exposes the heartless, predatory "business" of college football and the tough exploitation to be found in the actual business of professional football.

Whatever you end up thinking of the positions that Bennett takes on issues, you have to admire him as a man of integrity and heart.  I would definitely recommend his book.

Bloody Chicago

A Few Drops of Red: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 by Claire Hartfield

Boston : Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2018]

198 p. : ill., map ; 27 cm. 

Books like this make me glad (and proud) to be a young adult librarian.  This is great book of history in that it is accessible, compelling, and succinct without simplifying the complicated forces of labor, war, immigration, race and economics that led to murderous attacks on African Americans in Chicago in 1919.      

Hartfield's book takes the reader into the cauldron of race relations and economic warfare that was Chicago at the turn of the century.   The city was the slaughterhouse/meat packing center of the world, a major destination for European immigrants, and was rife with robber baron exploitation (for this book, especially Gustavus Swift).  The owners of the meat industry sought to crush any worker attempts at unionization and used any differences they could to divide workers - skilled vs. unskilled, Polish v. Irish, and of course - white vs. black.  When they needed strikebreakers, they brought in African American workers under guard - a move that further inflamed racial hatreds and tensions especially in the breaking of a strike in 1904.  

With the onset of WWI and labor shortages, the draw for southern African Americans led to mass migrations of African Americans to Chicago.  The jobs were there, but housing was strictly limited to the boundaries of "The Black Belt" and conditions became overcrowded and poorly maintained.  Then when WWI ended, returning white workers were given the industrial jobs and the blacks were fired.
It was a powder keg waiting to explode and the spark came on a hot, hot day in July 1919, at the lakefront when an African American teen was killed by a white man and nothing was done about it. The violence lasted days and only ended with the intervention of national guard troops.
This is definitely a book to recommend for history buffs, and especially local Illinois history buffs.