Torn: M.P. Haddix Has Done It Again!

A short note from your reviewer:

Greetings, readers of The Bookshelf! I know earlier I posted a list of reviews that would be published throughout this month, but with the start of school, my personal vacation to Ocean City, Maryland, multiple orientations, and . . . oh, yeah, the EARTHQUAKE, I've fallen a wee bit behind.

Below is a short "mini review" of Torn by Margaret Peterson Haddix. This is a syndicated review from my Amazon account. While this review is shorter and more informal than most, I believe it provides much insight, explanation, and opinion of a fourth book in a historical, mystery, sci fi, thriller time traveling series.

Look for a few more posts before the end of August. Thank you!

And by "done it again", I mean "created another great history/mystery time travel tale".

The fourth installment in The Missing series, Torn by Margaret Peterson Haddix, follows Jonah and Katherine as they travel back in time to the year 1611. The missing child that they must return to history in order to correct time? John Hudson, son of the famous (famously crazy, that is) Henry Hudson. The only problem: JB, Jonah and Katherine's time travel...supervisor, you could say, is unable to find the 21st century boy who is actually John Hudson to send him back to the past. A truly missing child!

But, of course, there are more problems than just a missing (missing) historical figure. Jonah must pretend to be John, mask, wigs, clothing, and all, in hopes of setting history straight. However, after an hour or so aboard the Discovery, Henry Hudson's ship, all time is thrown out of balance. Tracers, ghost-like figures that show what is supposed to happen in history, go missing, Jonah and Katherine lose all connections with JB, and an evil Mr. Prickett threatens the safety of the ship's crew, most significantly Jonah.

Taking matters into their own hands, Jonah (still disguised as John Hudson) and Katherine (who is invisible thanks to the time traveling device, the Elucidator) try to make sense of the odd mishaps in time that keep occurring and attempt to save history and rescue their friends who are still stuck in the year 1600.

Captivating and well-paced, Torn provides a set of loveable characters and rich historical settings to create an enjoyable read. Fans of the previous books in the Missing series will not be disappointed.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

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Michael Vey, The Prisoner of Cell 25: Positively Electrifying

Recommended to me by Amazon (my new bookseller since the tragic death of Borders), Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25, by Richard Paul Evans, is the latest book to receive the coveted title of “the next new Harry Potter”. Despite that being a cliché saying in the bookselling universe, I couldn’t resist what could possibly be the next multibillion dollar franchise.

Michael Vey has always been a little different. He’s a little short by fourteen-year-old standards, has Tourette’s syndrome, which forces him to blink and twitch excessively, and. . .oh, yeah, has electrical superpowers. Living with his mother in a small apartment in Idaho, Michael finally finds a way to blend into the high school crowd. He’s figuratively invisible. Ostin, his only friend and straight A+ nerd, is the only person outside of Michael’s family that knows of his powers. One day, after being constantly tortured by older classmates who never receive consequences for their wrongdoings, Michael takes a stand. And does something dangerous. He uses his powers to, lightly, shock three bullies that are about to beat him.

Michael’s mom, an understanding, hard-working, caring person, refuses to let Michael to use his powers of electricity. The last few times that Michael used his powers, all times where he was in a situation of being seriously hurt, Michael and his mom packed their bags and moved to another unknown town in another unknown state. But Michael begs his mother to not make them move. He insists that only the three bullies were there to see what happened, and that they would be too scared of being called “crazy” to rat him out. Except, someone else did see Michael use his power of electricity through touch. A girl, named Taylor.

Taylor confronts Michael and asks him how he shocked the three menaces. When Michael doesn’t supply a response, she makes him a deal. Taylor reveals to Michael that she, too, has powers. She has the abilities to essentially “reboot” someone’s mind. Using electricity, Taylor can make a person disoriented and confused; forget what they were doing.

Constructing an investigation, Taylor, Michael, and sidekick Ostin, the self-proclaimed “Electroclan,” discover that both Taylor and Michael were born within one day of each other at a hospital in Pasadena, California. Searching for birth records on the hospital website, Taylor finds a gap of missing records around the time of their birthdays. After more internet research, Taylor, Ostin, and Michael discover that a new electric imaging machine was introduced around the same time as the births of seventeen children in Pasadena.

Unbeknownst to her, Taylor accidentally alerts an internet spider, a hidden internet scanner, which notifies its home base that someone is looking into the missing birth records. The spider was put into place by an agency in Pasadena, an agency that is searching for the two remaining children of the original seventeen: Michael and Taylor. And when Taylor and Michael’s mom go missing one day, Michael must take the investigation into his own hands, with the help of his best friend, of course.

Ostin and Michael take an undesirable road trip to Pasadena to get to the bottom of what this agency does, why they’re capturing these children, who may or may not be electric, and, most importantly, where they’re keeping Taylor and Michael’s mom.

Creating an unlikely group, Michael, Ostin, and Taylor are all loveable, relatable characters. A flowing, quick, read, Michael Vey is a book to be enjoyed by people of all ages. Its settings are rich with vivid descriptions and quirky expressions and its story is carefully plotted, allowing sequels galore.  While, I’m not sure if it’s the next Harry Potter, Michael Vey is certainly a refreshing, funny, mysterious, clean, new addition to a world of wonderful books.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Ninth Ward: A Poignant Scene of Survival

Lanesha, a twelve-year-old, lives in New Orleans’s Ninth Ward. She’s lived with Mama Ya-Ya, the midwife that helped deliver her, her entire life. Inquisitive and quiet, Lanesha always does her best at school, and teaches herself extra information from her encyclopedia set.  Teased at school for her freaky eyes, Lanesha makes relationships not with people, but, rather, ghosts. Born with the ability to see beyond what is present, Lanesha frequently runs into ghosts, including her mother who died minutes after her birth.

Mama Ya-Ya is Lanesha’s ultimate role model. She acts as Lanesha’s mother, grandmother, teacher, and friend. Kind and thoughtful, Mama Ya-Ya teaches Lanesha the unseen ways of the world. Claiming that everything is a symbol for something and that there is more to our world than most people see, Mama Ya-Ya encourages Lanesha to respect and take pride in life.

One day, an aging Mama Ya-Ya receives an uncertain dream after a restless night’s sleep. Often feeling premonitions about the future, Mama Ya-Ya sees something, something hazy and unpredictable that she can’t describe, looming in the future. With news that a hurricane is on the way, Lanesha stocks up on food and boards down windows and doors.

The storm, Katrina, arrives. Taking shelter in the bathtub, Lanesha and Mama Ya-Ya survive the terrible storm with their house still standing. But, as Lanesha soon realizes, the pounding rain, howling winds, and blazing lightning were only the beginning of a life-destroying storm. With the accompaniment of neighborhood friend Tashon, Lanesha must fight off the high flood levels that are consuming her house. Moving to the house’s attic, Lanesha horrifyingly realizes that the water will not stop rising. Taking action into her own hands, Lanesha must make a series of rash, terrifying decisions that no child, and even no adult, should ever have to make.

A story of life, death, loss, hope, and, most importantly, rebirth, Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhodes, is a moving tale of one girl’s survival during a time of so much hurt. Complete with rich characters, witty southern traditions, and friendship, Ninth Ward offers an outlet of hope for change, resilience, strength, and love.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 

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Sweetly: Deliciously Mysterious

To start off, let me say that Jackson Pearce is one of my absolute favorite authors. Her books are different, her videos are hilariously entertaining, and she doesn’t seem afraid to take risks in her writing. Sweetly, Pearce’s latest book, is a modern retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ classic fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. Sweetly takes place twelve years after three siblings, Gretchen, her twin sister and Ansel, encounter a horrible beast, a witch-like creature, in the woods near their house. Gretchen and Ansel make it back to their house alive, but the outcome for Gretchen’s twin sister was much more gruesome. Having to live with the horrifying truth that the sister is dead or, at best, lost forever in the menacing woods, the members of the grieving family each take on different roles. Gretchen, who becomes a recluse, and Ansel, who acts as Gretchen’s protective bodyguard, are thrown out of their house by their stepmother, who, needing a scapegoat, blames the family’s loss on Ansel and Gretchen.

Homeless, Ansel and Gretchen hit the road, hoping to discover a place where they can find solitude in their multitude of sorrow. When their car breaks down in a small town called Live Oak in South Carolina, Ansel and Gretchen seek refuge in a chocolatier shop owned by a sweet, but lonely, twenty-something-year-old lady named Sophia. Taking a likeness to Sophia, Ansel becomes her boyfriend and Gretchen becomes her best friend. Mesmerized by her chocolate treats, her caring smile, and her welcoming aura, Ansel and Gretchen seem to have finally a place they can call home.

However, not all is perfect. Gretchen, despite her resistance not to, notices something hidden underneath Sophia’s candy-coated smile and sun-kissed skin. Gretchen notices a sadness that is all too familiar, the same sadness that enslaved her for so many years after her twin sister’s disappearance. After discovering that eight teenage girls have gone missing from Sophia’s annual chocolate festival, Gretchen confronts Samuel Reynolds. Samuel is the town crazy, who claims that Sophia is crazy and spews nonsense about werewolves. Samuel, along with the families of the missing, is sure that Sophia has something to do with the town’s disappearances.

All the talk of disappearances causes many memories to flood Gretchen’s mind – memories of her twin, memories of the woods, memories of the witch. But could sweet, kind, gentle Sophia really be a witch? A witch who kidnaps innocent girls? Realizing that she needs to take control, Gretchen begins an investigation into what really happened to those girls, what secrets Sophia is hiding, and, most importantly, what happened to her twin sister, whose name she cannot even say due to the incredible hurt it brings.

Entrancing, Sweetly chronicles the journey of Gretchen as she finally makes amends with what happened to her many years ago. With the ever-present threat of something just out of reach, Gretchen makes it her mission to uncover the truth, no matter what consequences come with it. Full of realistic, loveable characters, Sweetly creates a flowing, rhythmic story of mystery, resolution, and the truth behind what’s sweet. 

 

Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

Note: I was fortunate to recently receive an Advance Reading Copy (ARC) of Sweetly by Jackson Pearce. Officially, Sweetly will not be released as a hardcover until August 23rd. Since I have finished reading the ARC, I thought it seemed fit that you, the readers of The Bookshelf, should receive an inside look at one of this summer’s most captivating reads.

 

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What's Happening this Month? "A is for..."

A is for...

1. An ARC (Advance Reading Copy) Review: Sweetly by Jackson Pearce
2. Adapting to Severe Change: Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
3. Anthologies, Collections of Short Stories
4. An Alternate WWI: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld 
5. An Abundance of Admirable Books: Great Back-to-School Reads
6. An Announcement
7. Another Announcement
8. An Accompaniment to I Am Number Four: The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore
9. Traveling Back to Ancient Times: A Possible Review of The Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix 
10. Astonishing Heat

A is for...
    11. AUGUST on The Bookshelf!

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