Book Review: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Sometimes there is a right time or a wrong time to read a book. Am I saying that you shouldn't read a book under the covers with a flashlight? Or that you shouldn't sneak it into your math book so you can read the last chapter? Nope!

But here is the truth. I tried to read this book several months ago. I just couldn't. It didn't feel real to me, just a bit much for my senses. I couldn't handle teen angst. I had enough of our day-to-day realism and a bit of painful mythology was too much. I put Cemetery Boys down and walked away.

It kept calling me to read it. No, not in a spooky sense, but several students recommended it. I saw it on lists of books that others had enjoyed. I heard about if from other librarians and read an inticing review. AND I finally had to give in and read it - I am glad that I did. 

This story is a romp through culture and family and community. It is a coming-of-age novel with a serious plot twist - surprising but it doesn't leave you hanging. Here you will find an urban landscape, characters of many stripes and personalities and energy levels. This story is deeply embeded in Latino culture and centers around Day of the Dead celebrations, but there is a trans main character. The story honors family including extended family. But mostly, this book is about finding one's self. 

Favorite quote: "You don't need anyone's permission to be you."

Found on the shelves of the South Library. Also you will find it in audio, ebook, and print editions through the Nashua Public Library. 
 

Book Review: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

My Book reading fail: I started reading this book three times. I had read postive books reviews and wanted to like it, but it just felt awkward to me. I hate the cover (It looks cold and snowy but it is set in the summer in Texas), and I just felt disconnected to it in some way. 

I started wondering why I couldn't get started. Because it is set in Texas, I wondered if the language was messing me up. Maybe I wasn't getting the patterns of a Southern drawl. So I borrowed an audio copy. Well that didn't work, the narrator was terrible - whiney and Northern US sounding. But I heard enough of the story through the audio that I was invested in the book and managed to read through to the end. 

Ellie is a Lipan Apache in an alternate United States, a place where magic and monsters live in the same place as cell phones and pistacio ice cream. Ellie's (Elatsoe) magical power is that she can bring ghosts up from below. She enjoys her dog, Kirby, as much dead as alive - and there are some advantages to having an invisible dog (If I had one, it would always accompany me to school!) But with her connection to the dead, some strange things can happen. The night that her cousin died he came to her in a dream and told her that he had been murdered and asked that she protect his family. And here we go into the pages of a magical murder mystery.

Where can you find this book of ghosts and monsters and magic? Try the shelves of our library. You can also read in through SORA if you connect your account to NPL, and Hoopla (through NPL, but skip the audio - trust me when I tell you it was terrible.)

 

Book Review: The House in the Cerulean Sea / TJ Klune

I must share that this fantasy story is one of my favorite reads of this year. Here you will find a story about kindness, about magical beings, about hope, personal growth and moving beyond. AND it is LOL funny.

The characters are beautifully drawn - Linus, basically an orphanage investigator / Department in Charge of Magical Youth caseworker who is rule centered and thorough. Arthur - the father figure. And then there are the kids - each a magical being. The really cool thing about this book is that each character is more than the sum of their parts. Both individually and as part of the story. For example, one of the children is Lucy, the Antichrist (but we do NOT use that word) who is six years old and speaks in dark words and thoughts. BUT he loves to help in the kitchen and go on adventures. Arthur truly believes that nurture can overcome nature and is working with Lucy to overcome his evils. Linus want to protect the children.

This book has met with some controversy. Klune had the threads of this story running through his mind but then learned of the Sixties Scoop, in which Canadian indigenous children were placed into government sponsored facilities with the goal of adopting them out to white families - and this story gelled for him. (You can read his interview here.) Some people are angry believing that Klune co-opted a story that was not his to tell. But I do not fell that to be the case.  Note that the sixties scoop is not that only time that children have been torn from their homes and placed in government facilities, this has happened in other times and places. Note The House in the Cerulean Sea is not about that experience. Note that it isn't even hinted at. And note that this book is about kindness and hope. Finally note the words of Mark Twain, 

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

This book gathers the threads of various ideas and weaves them into a new and different story that is fun, funny, and heart warming. AND a little bit Harry Potterish as it weaves realistic fiction and fantasy together. 

There are lessons in this book about how we treat each other and how we treat ourselves. Here is one of my favorite quotes, 

"Humanity is so weird. If we're not laughing, we're crying or running for our lives because monsters are trying to eat us. And they don't even have to be REAL monsters. They could be the one we make up in our heads."

If you want a treat, if you want a reality check steeped in fantasy, if you want to laugh - read this story.

(It is available through the Nashua Public Library in both print and as an ebook) 

 

Book Review: These Rebel Waves

Just finished this book, and while I have to say that I feel like I should have loved it - it wasn't my favorite. There is a female child spy, a pirate with an attitude, and the gay son of a nasty king. Each character has baggage. Each character holds the keys to a kingdom in turmoil. There are ships, and magical plants, murders, and misplaced trust. I think that there are many people who would love this book, but it just wasn't "my book".