The Raising by Laura Kasischke: A Review

Kasischke has written a paranormal mystery that will keep you guessing even after the last page.  Beautiful, sweet, smart, Nicole Werner was killed in a tragic automobile accident, or was she.  This is the central situation of The Raising.  The impact of Nicole’s death on her boyfriend Craig, who was driving; her childhood friend, Perry; Shelly, who was first on the scene; and Mira, a professor is the focus of the novel.  Nicole’s sorority sisters are always a sinister presence interacting with the four main characters.  This gothic mystery examines how we handle death, as a society, a community, and an individual.

Some rather graphic sex scenes, including lesbian sex, make this novel appropriate only for mature readers in the school library.  However, adult readers who enjoy mystery and suspense with a twist of the supernatural will enjoy this novel. 

Haint Misbehavin' by Maureen Hardegree

It’s tough being 14.  It’s even tougher if you’re 14, you have hyper-sensitive skin that breaks out in rashes and hives when you’re stressed, and you have an obnoxious older sister with evil friends who harass you endlessly.  It could be worse though, as Heather Tildy discovers in Haint Misbehavin, you could have a mischievous ghost to deal with.  Heather discovers her ghost, Amy Malcolm, in the back yard one day.  Heather accepts having her own ghost, since her Aunt Geneva has one herself, but she is not pleased by the proposition.  Heather has set a goal of being normal before she enters high school the following year and, just maybe, winning the love of hunky lifeguard Drew.  Amy is putting a major kink in those plans.

Haint Misbehavin’ will be a major hit with girls.  It offers humor, a bit of mystery, and romance.  Heather is a likeable and believable protagonist, and her family provides some comic relief as well.  Female readers will identify with trying to fit in and catch the perfect guy.  This is book one in the Ghost Handler series.  If the other titles are as humorous and fun, the series should be a big hit.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Revolution is a riveting page turner of a book.  Andi has never recovered from the death of her little brother, although the reader doesn't really understand her guilt over the event.  Her parents have also been unable to deal with the tragedy, each retreating in a different way.  When Andi discovers the diary of a young woman who lived during the French revolution, she becomes obsessed with the girl and her deeds.  The lives of the two young women parallel in many ways.

Modern fiction, historical fiction, romance, and mystery all play a part in this book.  I highly recommend it!

A Confession about The Confession by John Grisham

I really did not like The Confession by John Grisham.  All of the trade reviewers raved about it, calling it face-paced and a page turner.  The basic story involves an innocent man on death row who is about to be executed.  Can the execution be stropped in time?  It does keep you reading.

The problem with this book, as with so many of Grisham's recent legal thrillers, is that there is not a single truly likeable character.  In Grisham's early books, the protagonist was often flawed, but you could still pull for him.  In this book, the death row inmate, Donte, has given up on life.  His attorney, who one would expect to be the hero, is so deeply flawed that it's impossible to really care about him.  The minister who gets sucked into this crisis is also impossible to really like.

This book reads more as a diatribe against the death penalty in general and the Texas criminal system in specific.  It is perfectly acceptable for a fiction work to have a message, but it should have more to offer than that!

But It's OK to Be a Vampire

The Peninsula Daily News reports that a number of students at Forks High School (Washington) recently suspended a number of students for wearing T shirts featuring the Sex Pistols.   Since Bella and Edward (Twilight series) seem to have no problem with whole vampire thing at Forks High, maybe the district needs to reconsider its policies.   They might also want to check out the Supreme Court ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines!

http://peninsuladailynews.com/article/20101110/news/311109991/t-shirts-prompt-forks-high-school-students-suspensions

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Review

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender is a coming of age story with a twist.  Rose Edelstein lives in what appears to be a picture-perfect family.  Her father comes home each night from his law practice, and her mother takes care of Rose and her older brother.  The picture is not, however, a true representation of Rose’s family.  Dad is withdrawn.  Mom is unhappy and unfulfilled.  Rose’s older brother lives in a world of his own and is rarely seen by the rest of the family except when he silently joins them at dinner.  On her ninth birthday, Rose discovers she has developed an odd malady.  In her lemon birthday cake, baked by her mother, she can taste desperation.  This new “talent” leaves her frightened of food, and more isolated than ever.

Although beautifully written, this is basically a sad book.  We follow Rose and her family for a number of years, but their lives remain rather sad and disheartening.  No one seems to be substantially better off at the end of the novel than at the beginning.  I found this to be a particularly sad book.

The Postcard Killers: A Review

The Postcard Killers by James Patterson and Liza Marklund is an action-packed thriller with a likeable pair of protagonists.  Jacob Kanon is a NYPD homicide detective who has taken a leave of absence from his job to track down a pair of serial killers who are roaming Europe’s major cities and killing tourists.  He is determined to catch the killers since one of their first victims was his only daughter, Kimmy.  Dessie Larsson is a journalist with a distinct lack of ambition.  She seems to be unable to finish her doctoral dissertation, and she has little interest in covering high-profile crimes.  She is dragged into the limelight and into the path of Jacob Kanon when the postcard killers select her as their media contact. 

This is one of those mysteries where the reader knows who the killers are from the beginning of the novel.  The question is will the psychopathic killers win, or will our hero and heroine, Jacob and Dessie.  A little romance is also thrown into the mix.  The violence was a bit graphic for my tastes, but overall, this was a satisfying mystery thriller.