Going back to the classics:
Two books came across my desk that I thought were fascinating. I admit, I picked them up because the covers were fantastically done, but then I realized I picked up two that were re-mixes of great classics!
This book, although not quite up to Christie's literary standards, has the potential to steal the reader's attention and try to figure out if there is such a thing as true coincidences. In true mystery style, the twist isn't revealed until the very end, so don't cheat! book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fzOuyfcijw
Even though the prose may not quite match that of a teenage guy, the letters are a great vehicle to tell the story. The sign of a good re-telling? Now I want to read the original!
And then there's the great supernatural read:
Zom-B by Darren Shan (Little Brown, 2012) Tired of zombies yet? You shouldn't be only because the best of the dead is still to come! B's parents think it's a joke. Yeah right...a zombie outbreak in Ireland. Even though there is video showing the destruction, B's father (part racist, part wife-beater, all around bad person) thinks i'st all a hoax by the government. So B continues to lead her tough-girl life of beating up the weaker ones, taking money, and causing trouble. She's never been shaken up before, but one day her father has a visitor...a very strange visitor, who predicts B be able to make it alive. And the zombie apocalypse begins....
Leave it to Darren Shan to write a action-packed, bloody zombie novel complete with pictures. Move over Demonata series...Shan is beginning another great one! booktrailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtNEo9dH9R4
Let's wrap up these quick reviews with a little survival fiction, why don't we?The Raft by S.A. Bodeen (Fiewel and Friends, 2012). Robie is the unfortunate daughter of two environmental scientists, whose latest job keeps them on a remote island not far from the mainland of Hawaii but far enough. In order to ensure her life as a teenager, Robie often goes there via a supply plane to visit her aunt. But her last visit is cut short, when her aunt needs to go out of town. Robie begs to stay alone, and for once, she's granted this extravagance and her aunt won't even let her parents know. It's only for a week...no harm no foul. Robie loves her independence until it's shatterred by a violent incident, which leads Robie back to the supply plane and home. But she never makes it...the supply plane has crashed in the ocean and only she and the co-pilot survive. The hardest part is yet to come. No one knows where Robie is, and time is running out...
Bodeen creates a psychological survival novel that fans will enjoy. Quite like her previous book, the Compound, the psychology of the event is more in the forefront that the plot itself. It was a quick read, with some predictability, but one that readers won't put down until they find out what happens to the main character.
