The Society of S

Author: Susan Hubbard

Publisher (In Great Britain): Walker Books Ltd

Publication Year (In Great Britain): 2008

Most of the readers will be: Middle school and early high school girls.

Reader's Advisory: If you like vampires, you should probably read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. It's so hot right now. Or, you could read my favorite vampire book, Sisters of the Night, edited by Barbara Hambly and Martin Harry Greenberg (this is a collection of short stories).

Summary:
Ariella has grown up with her father in a large Victorian house in Sarasota Springs, New York. She is home schooled and very sheltered. The housekeeper, Mrs. McGarritt, convinces Ari's father to let her spend time with her children. Ari becomes close with Mrs. McG's daughter, Kathleen, and her son, Michael.
Once Ari sees how other people live she realizes how strange her own life is. She has many new questions for her father during their afternoon classes. Most of them are questions he doesn't want to answer.
After Kathleen is murdered, Ari's father begins to tell her the truth about who they both are and what has happened to Ari's mother. In a deep depression, Ari hitchhikes south in search of her mother and the missing pieces she needs to complete the puzzle.

My favorite passage:

I forced myself to read a collection of poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, and it was tough going. I'd suffered through The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, which seemed to me painfully overwritten. But the poetry was even worse. In an hour my father would be upstairs, expecting me to have insights into meter and rhyme, and all I could think about was that Michael (and Kathleen) were out shopping, and that I wouldn't see them at all that day.
Mrs. McG had made me an omelet for lunch, so watery and tasteless that I couldn't make myself eat more than a few bites of it. I wondered why her cooking tasted so much better at her house.
When I met my father in the library at one, I said, "You know, I don't think much of Poe's poetry."
He was sitting at the desk, and one of his eyebrows lifted. "And how much of it have you read, Ariella?"
"Enough to know that I don't like it." I talked quickly, to hide the truth: I'd read the first and last stanzas and skimmed the rest. I tried to explain. "The words are just ... words on the page."
"Which one were you reading?" How like him, to know I'd read only one.
I opened the book and handed it to him. "'Annabel Lee,'" he said, his voice caressing the name. "Oh, Ari. I don't think you've read it at all."
And he read the poem aloud to me, barely glancing at the book, never pausing between the lines or stanzas, and the words were like music, the saddest song in the world. When he read the final lines ("And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side / Of my darling–my darling–my life and my bride / In her sepulchre there by the sea– / In her tomb by the sounding sea."), I was crying. And when he looked up from the book, I saw tears in his eyes.
He recovered quickly. "I'm sorry," he said. "Poe was a bad choice."
But I couldn't stop crying. Embarrassed, I left him and went upstairs, lines of the poem still sounding in my head: "For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams / Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE; / And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes / Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE."
I fell onto my bed and cried as I'd never cried before–for my mother and father and me, and all that we'd been and might have been, and all that had been lost. (pg 54-55)

What I really think:
After reading a book which so heavily features Whitman (not my favorite poet) you can imagine what a pleasant surprise it was to find that this book features Poe (quite possibly my favorite poet).
I like Ari's voice. She sounds like a very intelligent child. Not too intelligent to be believable. It's just right. The way she sometimes talks directly to the reader reminds me of Jane Eyre.
So, Poe references and a strong voice, what's not to love? Um, I wasn't crazy about the vampire business. It's not that I don't like vampires, it's just that I like to see an individual author's "world that contains vampires" be really unique. Tell me something I don't already know. Make me feel something about vampires I don't already feel. Yeah, Hubbard's rules for vampires are a little different from the traditional, but I wasn't totally sold. It felt kind of like a regualr coming of age story with vampirism thrown in to get teens to read it. (Because vampires are so hot right now.)
I remained interested throughout the book, but was well and truly disappointed by the Epilogue. It reminds me of the ending of Stacy (this movie is the reason I'm no longer allowed to pick movies when hanging out with friends). Ari hopes for a future in which humans and vampires openly share the world with one another. Gag.

Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Publisher: Dutton Books

Publication Year: 2008

Most of the readers will be: High school boys and girls.

Reader's Advisory: If you like looking for missing girls, help Adam find his sister in Graham Marks's novel Missing in Tokyo.

Summary:
Quentin thinks his dreams are coming true when his neighbor and long-time crush, Margo Roth Spiegelman not only notices him but invites him on a night of adventure. Together they drive around Orlando "bringing the rain" down on people who have wronged Margo (and even one person who has wronged Quentin). Q can't help but wonder what the next day will bring. And what it brings isn't Margo. She has disappeared.
Soon Q starts finding clues that are just for him. For the second time she has chosen him. He is the only one who can find her (maybe with the help of some friends and the Omnictionary), and he isn't going to let her down.

My favorite passage:

I kept going through the A's and then the B's - making my way through the Beatles and the Blind Boys of Alabama and Blondie - and I started to rifle through them more quickly, so quickly that I didn't even see the back cover of Billy Bragg's Mermaid Avenue until I was looking at the Buzzcocks. I stopped, went back, and pulled out the Billy Bragg record. The front was a photograph of urban row houses. But on the back, Woody Guthrie was staring at me, a cigarette hanging out of his lips, holding a guitar that said THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS.
"Hey," I said. Ben looked over.
"Holy shitstickers" he said. "Nice find." Radar spun around the chair and said, "Impressive. Wonder what's inside."
Unfortunately, only a record was inside. The record looked exactly like a record. I put it on Margo's record player and eventually figured out how to turn it on and put down the needle. It was some guy singing Woody Guthrie songs. He sang better than Woody Guthrie.
"What is it, just a crazy coincidence?"
Ben was holding the album cover. "Look," he said. He was pointing at the song list. In thin black pen, the song title "Walt Whitman's Niece" had been circled.
"Interesting," I said. Margo's mom had said that Margo's clues never led anywhere, but I knew now that Margo had created a chain of clues - and she had seemingly made them for me. I immediately thought of her in the SunTrust Building, telling me I was better when I showed confidence. (pg 113)

What I really think:
Once Margo went missing I found myself thinking "Please don't let this be another Looking for Alaska." Don't get me wrong, I love Looking for Alaska, but Green did that already, and since he seems to be pretty much amazing, he ought to have more stories in him.
There are some similarities: Boy obsesses over unatainable girl who is made even more unatainable by the fact that she disappears. He strives to understand her and ultimately understands more about life and himself.
By the end I decided it was different enough from Alaska to make me happy.
The mystery aspect is fun, but there are enough serious moments to remind you how important it is to Q that he solve the mystery. I actually like the meditations on "Song of Myself." As a teenager I often looked for answers in poetry and literature, and sometimes you can find answers there.
Green may be the only person who could make me enjoy Whitman, but I still don't like "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." Do you hear me, Green? I like knowing the science behind stars!

The Roar

Author: Emma Clayton

Publisher: Chicken House

Publication Year: 2008

Most of the readers will be: Middle school and early high school girls and boys.

Reader's Advisory: Readers who are ready for a more advanced book might enjoy reading about Aldous Huxley's view of the future in Brave New World.

Summary:
Mika and Ellie are twins living in the London of the future. The animal plague that took place a generation ago has forced all of humanity to live behind The Wall. Families are crammed into dark, damp flats. Only the rich live in the shining upper layer.
Ellie has been kidnapped. She has been missing for two years and her family has been told that she is dead. But Mika knows she isn't. He has been looking for a way to get to Ellie, and the Youth Development Foundation may have given him the opportunity he needs.
The YDF is making all the children drink Fit Mix so that they'll grow big and strong. They have built arcades with a fun Pod Fighter game. And, they are having a Pod Fighter competition. Although Mika does not trust the Youth Development Foundation, he believes that winning the competition will somehow reunite him with Ellie. The problem is that the prizes are so irresistable, all the children are desperate to win.
He is playing a very dangerous game.

My favorite passage:

Mika took the lead and pushed forward with Audrey holding on to his coat. They hit solid knots in the crowd and had to work their way round them, and by the time they reached the edge of the platform, the overcrowding was so dangerous, Mika had to hang on to Audrey to stop her being pushed on to the track. A Silver Bullet hissed to a halt on the platform like a glass-eyed snake and the crowd surged forward, crushing them against the train. The doors opened and everyone pushed at once. Mika felt someone grab him from behind and yank him back and suddenly his grip on Audrey was gone and he was drowning in a sea of fists and elbows.
The others managed to force their way on to the train.
'Where's Mika?' Audrey shouted, looking back for him. 'Oh no! Look! He can't get on!'
Tom leaned out of the train and grabbed Mika's hand. He was hit hard in the face by someone's bag and the doors were trying to close on his arms. Mika heard a ripping sound as the sleeve on his coat tore, but still Tom didn't let go of his hand and with brute force he dragged Mika on board the train.
'Thanks,' Mika said, so grateful that the word sounded pathetically inadequate. 'That must have hurt.'
'Doesn't matter,' Tom replied. 'You almost got left behind.'
'I wish I'd stayed in bed,' Kobi said, inspecting a new rip in his black coat.
'That was scary,' Audrey said. 'I thought we'd lost you, and they almost pushed me off the platform.'
Mika put his arm behind her to stop a group of boys pushing into her, then he closed his eyes and sighed with relief.
'I hope the competition is easier than getting there,' Tom said, looking worried. 'That was awful.' (pg 156-157)

What I really think:
In my opinion, what makes a great anit-utopian novel is a believable demonstration of how a few people could control everyone else. In 1984, people are controlled by force; in Brave New World, they are controled by over-indulgance. And in The Roar, the masses are controled through the television. The people in charge create a lie and make everyone believe it by putting it on the news. I am satisfied that The Roar passes this test.
Clayton's book is fast paced and difficult to put down. She includes detailed descriptions of each stage of the Pod Fighter competition and leaves you wondering until the very end what the big secret is.