The Telling by Alexandra Sirowy

Series: Standalone

Genera(s): Horror/Mystery/Thriller

Subjects: murder, death, islands, summer

Setting: Gant Island in Washington state

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, present tense: Lana

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 387 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers

Summary/ product description: “Lana used to know what was real.

That was before when her life was small and quiet.

Her golden step-brother, Ben, was alive, she could only dream about bonfiring with the populars, their wooded island home was idyllic, she could tell the truth from lies, and Ben’s childhood stories were firmly in her imagination.

Then came after.

After has Lana boldly kissing her crush, jumping into the water from too high up, and living with nerve and mischief. But after also has horrors, deaths that only make sense in fairy tales, and terrors from a past Lana thought long forgotten: Love, blood, and murder.”

My Review: The Telling is a standalone murder-mystery thriller set on an island in Washington State, called Gant. Lana’s step-brother was possibly or probably murdered two month ago in June. His ex-girlfriend was suspected in helping a car jacking that led to his dead. Ben had stopped the car for a stranger and was attacked and stabbed and then dragged away. Lana spent about a month after his death moping at home until a note Ben left jolts her out of her grief. She starts hanging out with the popular kids, who she’d never thought would include her in anything.

These kids made fun of her in middle school and some of high school. Now it’s August and soon school starts. These popular kids known around town as the Core (Becca, Carolynn, Rusty, Duncan and Josh) are with Lana and Willa (Lana’s only previous friend) at a spring in the woods hanging out and drinking. They dare each other to jump off a cliff into the lake and when they do they find a body stuck under the water: Ben’s ex-girlfriend, Maggie. And when they report the body they suddenly become suspects. But this murder is only the beginning and Lana and the Core have to find the murderer before they become victims.

Ben, Lana’s stepbrother, has a mysterious past. He arrives with his mother Diane, when he was twelve. Diane became Lana’s father’s new wife. Lana’s mother died when Lana was four. Ben’s been telling Lana fantastical stories of good vs. evil since he came. In these stories, Lana and Ben are always the heroes and Lana’s a brave warrior. These stories are sometimes disturbing a violent. They’re not the sort of thing out of a kid’s imagination. Lana was addicted to those stories. They made her feel strong. She wanted to be brave like that Lana. Ben was obsessed with adventure and getting out of Gant. He wanted to do something important with his life, so he spent some time in Guatemala helping to build wells. Gant is a place full of rich people who have excess and Ben found it disgusting, yet his life was full of riches too. He considered himself a hypocrite, and said he wanted to leave Gant after high school.

I really enjoyed the book. I usually only read sci-fi, fantasy and paranormal stuff, but because this had a ghost-story horror feel to it, I didn’t care. It’s a very atmospheric book. The misty setting of Washington in late summer became a character itself. I recently watched the TV series Dead of Summer and even though that was paranormal and not contemporary, it had the same kind of creepy summer feel. I read The Creeping last year by this author and enjoyed it. 

Also, I really am amazed that I was right about the twist. I had this epiphany when I was maybe a third of the way into the book that if I was the author, I would totally make the killer someone so unsuspected, so I went off on a limb on this idea, was pulled away from it by some possibilities, but inevitably came back to the this conclusion which turned out to be right. I sure it was just foreshadowing or maybe a cliché in classic horror and not actually as clever a twist I thought, or maybe I have a psychic superpower for guessing plot twists, because I right maybe half the time or more. It’s really hard to talk about it because it’s too big of a spoiler, but I saw it coming somehow. I WAS RIGHT!!!!

Cover Art Review: I love the opalline paper this is printed on. The cover itself is creepy and definitely gives you a sense of the story inside.

The Epidemic by Suzanne Young

Series: The Program (bk. 0.6) Prequel Duology

Genera(s): Near-future Dystopian Sci-fi/Romance/Thriller/Realistic

Subjects: death, love, mental disorders, suicide, mystery

Setting: Oregon

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, present tense: Sloane

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 378 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary/ product description: “Can one girl help others find closure by slipping into the identities of their loved ones? Find out in this riveting sequel to The Remedy and companion to the New York Times bestselling The Treatment and The Program.

In a world before The Program…

Quinlan McKee has spent her life acting as other people. She was a closer—a person hired to play the role of the recently deceased in order to give their families closure. Through this process, Quinn learned to read people and situations, even losing a bit of herself to do so. But she couldn’t have guessed how her last case would bring down her entire world.

The only person Quinn trusts is Deacon, her best friend and the love of her life. Except Deacon’s been keeping secrets of his one, so Quinn must set out alone to find Arthur Pritchard, the doctor who’s been trying to control her life. The journey brings Quinn to Arthur’s daughter, Virginia, who tells Quinn the truth about Pritchard’s motives. The former closer will start to see that she is the first step in fighting an epidemic.

But Quinlan doesn’t want to be a cure. And with all the lies surrounding her, she realizes she has no one left to rely on but herself—even if she doesn’t know who that is anymore.”

My Review:  The Epidemic if the sequel-finale to The Remedy in a prequel-duology to the The Program duology. It takes place in Oregon, not far from the other book’s setting. Quinlan McKee was a closer, a person that pretend to be the deceased person to help family members move on. Now she’s discovered her life is a lie. That she was the closer for the real Quinlin when she was six.

Quinlan feels betrayed by her boyfriend Deacon, and her father (who’s not her real father). Quinn does her best to ditch Deacon and hide. She ends up taking on the identity of Elizabeth Major and enrolls at the school that Arther Pritchard’s daughter Virginia attends. Pritchard runs the Department of Grief, so she hopes to gain Virginia trust to get information about her real identity. Also, at Virginia’s school, there’s been a bunch of suicides. This is the beginning of an epidemic of copy-cat behavior. A suicide cluster, and the deaths are only rising.

This book was definitely better than the previous one. It was much more thrilling and it definitely kept my attention. The twist at the end of the previous book set up for a great sequel. The romance was also enjoyable and the dialogue was pretty fun. I like Deacon, even if he hid some of his life from Quinn. I also liked the other closer Reed, who seemed a little narcissistic, but he had some experiences that really affected him emotionally.  

This series has been a unique experience. It’s not quite dystopian, but it’s still considered dystopian because it’s about a shift in society to something unethical. It takes the tough subject of suicide and turns it into a dystopian. This Department of Grief is trying to wipe memories and control emotions. If you enjoyed the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver, them you might enjoy this series too.

Cover Art Review: Nothing special looking. Pretty basic.

Shades of Darkness by A. R. Kahler

Series: Ravenborn (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Mystery/Paranormal

Subjects: boarding schools, artists, death, supernatural, mythology

Setting: At a boarding school called Islington Arts Academy in northern Michigan, based off Interlochen Arts Academy outside Traverse City

POV/Tense:

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 294 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover 

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Simon & Schuster: Simon Pulse

Summary/ product description: “Islington Arts Academy is not an average high school. Nestled in the forests of Michigan, surrounded by trees and nature and virtually no evidence of civilization, it is an oasis for those looking to get away. Perfect for a student like Kaira Winters, who wants nothing more than to put her past behind her and focus on the present…and her looming graduation, just a few months away.

But the past has a way of returning when least expected.

Kaira knows that what happened before, at her old school, wasn’t normal. She knows that what happened to her ex-boyfriend wasn’t natural. But she refuses to believe that the recent death on campus, the one that left everyone on edge, has anything to do with her. She refuses to believe that she could be at fault again.

But just as the past always returns, the truth can never stay hidden for long.

Even if Kaira didn’t cause the first death at Islington, or the second, or the third, she has the ability to find out who did. She has the obligation to stop whatever is coming to campus. To end the darkness that is falling with the same snow that once blanketed the woods in beauty.

But to embrace this power—to relinquish herself to the ancient entity that has been lurking in the corners of her mind–is to let go of her humanity…and Kaira doesn’t know how far she can go before she loses herself completely.”

My Review:  Shades of Darkness is a pretty interesting read, but super exciting. I think the best part of it is the setting. It set at an art boarding school called Islington Arts Academy in northern Michigan, based off Interlochen Arts Academy outside Traverse City, an art school that the author attended. I actually camped at a KOA campground not to far from it, and of course I’ve been to Traverse City a few times. While I was reading the book I though maybe it was supposed to be in the Upper Peninsula, near Houghton, off Lake Superior. The specific location is never specified in the book, just “in the wood of northern Michigan, beside a lake.” It’s almost always snowing in the book. It’s true they get lots of snow up there.

I think it would be cool to attend a boarding school that’s art focus. I myself an in the school of art at NIU, getting my degree in Visual Communications (Graphic Design). I’ve taking some studio classes. I love painting, be I only use watercolor, gouache and sometimes acrylic. Kaira, the book’s main character, is an oil painter. She’s taking other studio classes, like silver-smithing too. She’s working on her senior thesis, which consists of paintings of tarot cards. Kaira is kind of quirky and dresses kind of strange, has magenta highlights, talks weird. She’s of Native American descent, but she was adopted. Her best friend is a gay guy named Ethan. He’s very sweet and funny and also an artist. He’s dating a bass player named Oliver. Ethan is the character that I believe the author based off himself.

There’s this guy named Chris, who likes Kaira, but she refuses to date since something bad happened to the last guy she dated. Chris is also a painter and is a truly nice guy. Kaira keeps seeing crow flocking around campus. She sees them a an omen for bad things. A student dies, and she believes something supernatural is going on. There’s a touch of Norse mythology woven in to the story that doesn’t become important till the end.

The story is kind of slow and repetitive. The word “gay” is over-used and I feel like we don’t need to be reminded of a character’s sexual identity constantly. Also, Kaira keeps saying she’s going to get a complex from something, or talking about how she came to the school to escape and that she’s used the workload as a distraction. It just gets so repetitive. There is a lot of humor and interesting dialogue though.

I recommend this series to fans of the House of Night series, Hex Hall, Vampire Academy, The Dark Elite series and any other boarding school books with supernatural elements of mystery.

Cover Art Review: I love this cover! I love any cover with the watercolor look. I tried painting like this before, but could never get this style of water color/ink down. The type treatment of the title is lovely too.