Midnight (W)rite ~ Book reviews and other curiosities

  Published October 20, 2014 5/5 Stars Devon Greer’s world is shattered when a tragic car accident takes her best friend, Rachael. Miserable with grief, Devon attempts to adjust to this new, hostile reality, in which the kids at school (and most of Rachael’s family) blame Devon for Rachael’s death, since Devon was driving the car that fateful night. Not long after the accident, Devon has reason to question her own sanity when she sees Rachael running through the woods next to the road near the accident site. Upon investigating, Devon finds there are more creatures living in the woods than just wildlife, and she begins to believe there’s a chance to rescue Rachael from them and bring her back. Will Devon and Jonah – Rachael’s cousin who has discovered the secret in the woods as well, and who is developing tender feelings for Devon – be able to rescue Rachael before it’s too late? Allen-Riley has taken the wild and beautiful forests and waters of Michig...

A fantastic winter folktale, bleak and beautiful   The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey Reagan Arthur / Back Bay Books The Snow Child is a beautifully written story inspired by a Russian fairy tale. In a rare moment of playfulness, a childless couple named Jack and Mabel lovingly create a little girl made of snow. The next day, the snow person is gone but Jack and Mabel begin seeing glimpses and finding evidence of a young girl in the woods near their homesteading cabin. Jack and Mabel have come to Alaska in the 1920s with hopes of a new start. They’re barely surviving on the return from their crops, farmed exclusively by Jack, while Mabel makes baked goods for a little extra money. They’re considering admitting defeat and leaving Alaska behind when new connections with others in the area, including the mysterious snow child, give them new hope. The atmospheric differences in the writing between the spare, exhausting, isolated despair of Jack and Mabel at the beginning ...

Atmospheric suspense featuring one of NYs first "copper starred" policemen The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye Published March 2012 by Putnam Set in 1845 in New York City, The Gods of Gotham weaves the first-person account of Timothy Wilde, an astute bartender saving his hard-earned dollars so he can ask the woman he loves to share a life of promise with him. After a raging fire and an explosion that reduces much of Manhattan to cinders and disfigures him, Tim reluctantly takes on a job as a "copper star" -- a member of the first government funded police force in NYC. His first big case involves multiple child murders, and as Tim gets involved, his skills of observation and his moral compass become important factors in uncovering the truth. The Gods of Gotham is an exquisitely written and deeply researched historical mystery novel that turns mid-1800s NYC into a character as vibrant as Tim, his mentally unstable brother Val, Tim's unrequited lo...

Spunky, magic amplifying teen girl meets boarding school bad boys The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater Published September 2012 by Scholastic Press This is the first I've read by Stiefvater, upon recommendation by a trusted friend, and the trust was warranted! The Raven Boys is a young adult fantasy novel with a new and fresh premise that involves Celtic mythology, psychics, spellcasting, the spirit world, and other paranormal aspects that perhaps haven't been fully fleshed out yet (it's a series). The main characters are Blue, a 16 year old girl who has the gift of amplifying the paranormal gifts of others and paranormal energy in general, and The Raven Boys: Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah, all very different and with their own developed backstories. It's been prophesied that if Blue kisses her first true love, he will die. Gansey's on a quest to find a mythical king whose legend says the one who wakes him from his very long slumber will get a wish gran...

Intense murder mystery starring anti-hero P.I. Theo Tate   Cemetery Lake by Paul Cleave Great story with a grim and urgent tone that seems a cross between a funeral eulogy and a runaway train. Theo Tate is a former cop and current rogue P.I. who is working on a multiple murder case despite warnings from his former colleagues on the police force to stay away. He is compelled to act, weaving in and outside of the law, by his feeling of responsibility for having possibly missed an opportunity a few years previous that may have brought the killer to an earlier justice, thereby saving lives. Tate is not an especially likable character. Although the reader can sympathize with his grief and pain, it's difficult to decide whether or not his unpredictable moral compass is leading him down the right path. With such heavy happenings at such a fast pace, this reader wanted to cry uncle on Tate's behalf at least once or twice. The story has the structure of a police procedural, b...

Dark and disturbing story, beautifully told   Drowning House By Elizabeth Black Knopf Doubleday Publishing When professional photographer Clare Porterfield receives an invitation to return to her home town of Galveston, Texas, to coordinate a historical photo exhibit, she accepts it. Her marriage is crumbling beneath the weight of a family tragedy, and Clare takes the opportunity to return to her roots, despite the cloud of scandal under which she left some years previous, and the shaky bonds she’s barely maintained with the surviving members of her family. Clare begins to examine the community’s oldest photos and poke into her own family history, and that of one of the most powerful families in Galveston. But the deeper the story goes, and the further back in history, the darker the secrets get, until Clare uncovers the most shocking secret of all. A lot of first novels ramble along like a clumsy puppy, mechanically uneven and stilted, tripping a b...

Heart-filled stories describe the landscape and spirit of Michigan The River Swimmer by Jim Harrison Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Available 1/8/2013 Harrison’s latest consists of two novellas, The Land of Unlikeness and the title story. In The Land of Unlikeness , Clive, a sixty-something, cultured art appraiser who resides in a condo in New York when he isn’t rubbing elbows and taking the measure of the art of the rich and famous, is summoned home to a small farming community in Northern Michigan in order to care for his elderly mother while his sheltered younger sister goes on her first European vacation. The secluded community of Reed City hasn’t changed much, and Clive is flooded with memories and a feeling of warped time. Clive’s mother still seasons bland meals with salt and pepper only (any further seasoning is a sign of weakness), the small-town ‘girl next door’ who broke Clive’s heart while they were in their teens is still around when she’s not working her Grand Rapids gro...