Book Review: I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

Title: I Hunt Killers
Author: Barry Lyga
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publisher: Little, Brown
Hardcover, 361 pages
Date Published: April 3, 2012
Source: Publisher

Description (Taken from Goodreads):
What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?

Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.

But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could--from the criminal's point of view.

And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.

In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret--could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

Omgomgomg…that is how felt right after finishing I Hunt Killers. That’s because Barry Lyga’s psychological serial killer slasher is incredible! Jasper “Jazz” Dent is screwed up and maybe a killer to be and maybe a killer already, but he’s a teenager that is so amazingly likable. He knows how to play people, thanks to Dear Old Dad – a notorious serial a killer – and he knows that he’s manipulative. Jazz sees his own faults and they scare even him.

But Jazz is grounded by his fragile, but awesome, best friend Howie, and his more than understanding girlfriend Connie. Both of these secondary characters are fleshed out and have some very pivotal scenes. They, along with the local sheriff G. William round out the cast of characters well. Lyga employs Jazz’s narrative and intersperses the killer’s as well, making for a messed up, but thrilling reading experience.

Every chapter, every page offers something new and opens up the story just a little bit more. I had no clue who the killer was the entire time. I had ideas, I had suspicions, but I was so off on all of them. That’s the beauty of Lyga’s story: he writes this compelling, no holds barred story, but he writes it in a smart way. The killer isn’t plain as day and the characters aren’t without fault. Poor Jazz is far more damaged than anyone could imagine. He did grow up with a serial killer for a father though. And that serial killer taught him everything he knew…

I Hunt Killers is a surprisingly gripping and taut thriller, with characters to love and story that refuses to let up. It’s being touted as a Dexter-like read for a younger audience, but having never seen Dexter, I just like to think of I Hunt Killers as a phenomenally engaging and intense read. And the ending is the most screwed up, thrilling, I-want-to-scream-expletives-at-its-perfectness, and an insanely good way to wrap up the book that I’m sitting astonished at Barry Lyga’s genius. MUST. READ. BOOK. 2. NOW.

Opening line: By the time Jazz got to the field outside town, yellow police tape was everywhere, strung from state to stake in a sort of drunken, off-kilter hexagon. ~ pg. 3

Favorite lines/passages: Sometimes hope could be the most frightening thing in the world. ~ pg. 92
“This is why I forgive, but I don’t forget. When you forget someone, the forgiveness doesn’t mean anything anymore. So, let’s say she left. Fine. You forgive her for that. Good. But you’ll never, ever forget her.” ~ pg. 144

And this one:

He easily gathered her in his arms; Gramma was made up of skin and bones and hate and crazy – and hate and crazy don’t weigh anything. ~ pg. 183

*This review is my honest opinion and I received no monetary compensation from it.

Find Barry Lyga online:

Website | Blog | Twitter

Buy it online:

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BEA 2012 BABY!!

It's Sunday and as you read this I'm on my way to NYC and BEA. I'm wicked excited!!

I also had every intention to post more this past week, but work and pre-BEA planning has really eaten into my reading time. In fact, I had planned on posting an IMM today, but because I'm the world's biggest procrastinator, I put off packing - no, I put off even buying a bag to use to pack - until late Saturday.

This post was typed up at 3:30AM on Sunday...because I suck at planning ahead and I'm a total night owl and don't sleep.

So, yeah. BEA. Driving. Probably exhausted.

Peace, hugs, and bookish love <3

Cover Reveal: Entice (Embrace, #2) by Jessica Shirvington

Do you remember when I read and absolutely LOVED Embrace by Jessica Shirvington? And do you remember how I mentioned how ecstatic I was that the books were coming out just six months apart from one another?

Well they are...and I'm thrilled to be able to share the cover for ENTICE, book two in the Violet Eden Chapters.

This cover is much darker than the cover for Embrace and this is what Leah Hultenschmidt (Sourcebooks Fire editor) had to say about it: “For Entice, we really wanted to have the cover reflect the darker edge of the story and Violet’s toughness.”

So there you go! A darker cover for a darker story...I can say that, no matter what, I NEED to read it.

About Entice:
Seventeen-year-old Violet Eden’s is back! With a destiny is to protect humans from the vengeance of exiled angels it becomes clear that it won’t be easy as even her partner, Lincoln, is hiding something. And now she has to learn to live with her feelings for him while they work together to stay alive and stop the exiles from discovering the key to destroy all Grigori. It isn’t easy. Especially when the electricity between her and Phoenix ignites and she discovers his hold over her has become more dangerous than ever. Violet's power will be pushed to the extreme with a race halfway across the world to find the one artifact that could tilt the balance of power between Angels and Exiles. And the ultimate betrayal will be exposed.

Check out author Jessica Shirvington's idea of the best reading space, in the video below:

Find Jessica Shirvington online 
Website | Blog

Check out Embrace & Entice online:

Embrace Website | Facebook | Entice Excerpt | Add on Goodreads

Pre-order it online:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Indiebound

Alice Bliss Comes to Paperback!!

Several months (just checked my review and it was almost a year ago! wow) ago I gushed about a book. It was a book that I LOVED, that I recommend to family, to friends, that I got my not-very-readerly mother to read...and LOVE; it's a book that I signed up for on Book Crossing, and passed along to a totally random 15 year old girl in South Carolina (I live in New England). It was a book that took me by surprise, that made me laugh, made me cry (more like bawl my eyes out), and that I will always remember.

It was also the most absolutely perfect book to post about today, Memorial Day.

Because the book happens to follow a teen girl dealing with her father being off in the war.

That book was Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington. And it is being released in paperback tomorrow (May 29th), with a gorgeous new cover and hopefully tons of new readers.

Description (Taken from Goodreads):
"Nothing less than a fully realized vision of a young complicated girl." —Entertainment Weekly
Tomboy Alice Bliss is heartbroken when she learns that her father, Matt, is being deployed to Iraq. Matt will miss seeing Alice blossom into a full-blown teenager: she'll learn to drive, join the track team, go to her first dance, and fall in love—all while trying to be strong for her mother, Angie, and her precocious little sister. But the phone calls from her father are never long enough. At once universal and very personal, Alice Bliss is a profoundly moving story about those who are left at home during wartime and a small-town teenage girl bravely facing the future.

MY REVIEW OF ALICE BLISS

MY INTERVIEW WITH LAURA HARRINGTON

Find Laura Harrington online:

Website | Twitter

Buy it online:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Indiebound

Book Review: The List by Siobhan Vivian

Title: The List
Author: Siobhan Vivian
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publisher: Push (Scholastic)
Hardcover, 332 pages
Date Published: April 1, 2012
Source: Friend

Description (Taken from Goodreads):
An intense look at the rules of high school attraction -- and the price that's paid for them.

It happens every year. A list is posted, and one girl from each grade is chosen as the prettiest, and another is chosen as the ugliest. Nobody knows who makes the list. It almost doesn't matter. The damage is done the minute it goes up.

This is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, "pretty" and "ugly." And it's also the story of how we see ourselves, and how other people see us, and the tangled connection of the two.

The collective PEOPLE always say that high school years are the best ones of your life, but I think we’ve all come to the conclusion that that statement is far from true for most people. For a select few, high school is four years of amazingness, but for most, it’s just a set of years that are good, or okay, or bearable. For others, it’s Hell. Siobhan Vivian’s The List explores a week in the life of eight different high school girls – some popular, some not. Their ages range from 14-17/18 and their social groups come to mean nothing. Absolutely nothing when THE LIST is released and four girls are crowned as being gorgeous and four others are ostracized and deemed the pinnacle of ugly at their high school.

Vivian’s take on such a cruel act is told with realistic voices and saddening honesty. It’s in human nature to feel pain, but it should not be human nature to inflict it upon others…but it seems that it is. High school can be beyond cruel and The List highlights how superficial and judgmental it can be. Vivian presents readers with eight girls and eight different perspectives, so, while quite an ambitious undertaking, it does fall short at times.

It’s impossible to adequately flesh out eight main characters in 300 pages, so I was okay with some characters sticking out more than others. I even felt a connection to some of them, but I wish there was more to the plot. I also wish the adult characters had more of a role in the entire situation; especially the principal who was involved from the moment the list went up. Instead, she has a couple of scenes with some stern glares and empty threats.

Despite all that, The List is still a quick read that shows how hard high school life can be and how objectified women, no girls, can be. The ending is a bit abrupt and leaves so many loose ends, but I still enjoyed the overall story. The ugly girls, the pretty girls, the popular girls, they all have something in common: they’re insecure, they’re self-conscious, and they want to be accepted even when they pretend they don’t. It’s a universal story that all young women can relate to.

Opening line: For as long as anyone can remember, the students of Mount Washington High have arrived at school on the last Monday in September to find a list naming the prettiest and the ugliest girl in each grade. ~ pg. 3

Favorite lines/passages: And while she certainly isn’t happy about it, ugly is something people say about each other, and say about themselves, without even thinking. The word is so generic, it’s almost meaningless.
     Almost. ~ pg. 22

 And another one:

“Something terrible happened to all of you girls. Someone took it upon himself or herself to single you out, give you a label, and present you as nothing more than the most superficial, subjective version of yourselves.” ~ pg. 78-79

3.5

*This review is my honest opinion and I received no monetary compensation from it. 
 

Find Siobhan Vivian online:

Website | Twitter

Buy it online:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Indiebound

AHHHH, It's the Cover for Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

EW's Shelf-Life revealed the freaking incredible cover for The Daughter of Smoke & Bone's sequel, Days of Blood & Starlight, by Laini Taylor.

Did I mention it was incredible? Because it is and I love it and I WANT IT RIGHT NOW!!

 Scheduled for release November 6, 2012


Find Laini Taylor online:

Blog | Daughter of Smoke & Bone Site | Twitter

Pre-order it online:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Indiebound

Book Review: The Right & The Real by Joëlle Anthony

Title: The Right & The Real
Author: Joëlle Anthony
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publisher: Putnam (Penguin)
ARC, 280 pages
Date Published: April 26, 2012
Source: Publisher

Description (Taken from Goodreads):
Kicked out for refusing to join a cult, seventeen-year-old Jamie must find a way to survive on her own.

Jamie should have known something was off about the church of the Right and the Real from the start, especially when the Teacher claimed he wasn’t just an ordinary spiritual leader, but Jesus Christ, himself. But she was too taken by Josh, the eldest son of one of the church’s disciples, and his all-American good looks. Josh is the most popular boy at school too, and the first boy outside the drama geeks to give Jamie a second look. But getting her Dad involved in a cult was not part of the plan when she started dating Josh. Neither was her dad’s marriage to the fanatic Mira, or getting kicked out, or seeing Josh in secret because the church has deemed her persona non grata.

Jamie’s life has completely fallen apart. Finding her way back won’t be easy, but when her Dad gets himself into serious trouble, will Jamie be ready to rescue him, and maybe even forgive him?

Joëlle Anthony’s sophomore novel is a harsh and severe look into the life of struggling teen Jamie, in the aftermath of her refusal to join a cult. The Church of the Right & the Real looks okay from the outside. Members are religious and kind and care for one another, but in reality, they worship a man who claims he is the Jesus and they give up their life at the drop of a hat. When Jamie’s dad gets sucked in, brainwashed, marries another member, and kicks Jamie to the curb, her life falls apart. But with her dreams of NYC and more determination and strength than most others her age, she manages. Barely.

Jamie is easily one of the strongest female heroines I’ve read. Despite losing everything, she soldiers on and fights to follow her dreams. She suffers, sure, but at one point, she realizes she’s just getting by and that’s not enough. Not to make a life. So she changes that. Readers will be completely taken by Jamie; by her will to move on, but also by her need to do something to save her father. Even though she has so many strengths, Anthony is sure to make her vulnerable, because she is vulnerable. A 17 year old girl, all alone for the first time ever cannot have it easy, and Jamie doesn’t.

But that’s where the big, hulking, scary motel neighbor LaVon comes in. He’s incredible and I love him! LaVon and Jamie almost have that parent/child relationship that’s lacking because Jamie’s dad lost his marbles and joined a cult. LaVon's there for Jamie when no one else is. He's not perfect and he's certainly a little terrifying, but he's there.

The story deals with quite a few issues, but there’s also this deliciously sweet and perfect build-up to a relationship for Jamie. She has a boyfriend who’s a member of the Right & the Real and there’s clearly a lot of struggle for them because of it, but Jamie sticks to her guns when it’s the hardest. She stands up for her beliefs and she grows so much throughout the book because of it. The new guy Trent also sneaks into the story and brings a lighthearted edge to an otherwise serious plot. He is fabulous in so many ways and I want him for myself.

The Right & The Real is one of those books that take you by surprise. You pick it up expecting a good story, but then find yourself unable to put it down. I was reading into the late hours of the night/wee hours of the morning because I had to know how Jamie would survive, if her dad would wake up, whether or not the Right & the Real would win, if she’d dump her somewhat douchey boyfriend, and if she could let the harmless flirting with coffee boy Trent turn into something more. Believe me when I say that the love story aspect plays very little into the plot, but the characters, oh the characters, they are phenomenal. Read it for Jamie. Read it every little thing I said here and for every little thing I had to leave out. You won’t be disappointed.

Opening line: The tight collar of the bridesmaid dress didn’t help my bad mood. ~ pg. 1

Favorite lines/passages: “It said You’ll have to leave everything behind. At the end of the dance, walk me to my car and get in.” ~ pg. 228

cryptic, right?

*This is the ARC version and lines, pages, cover art may differ from final copy

*This review is my honest opinion and I received no monetary compensation from it. 
 

Find Joëlle Anthony online:

Website | Blog | Twitter

Buy it online:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Indiebound