Notes from an Accidental Band Geek by Erin Dionne is a book I wanted to read because, I'm not going to lie, I was a band geek. Even after I quit band and wasn't in it anymore I was still a band geek. That's where all my friends were. It's like the mafia. Once you're in, death is the only way out.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Elsie Wyatt is a born French horn player, just like her father and her grandfather before her. In order to qualify for the prestigious summer music camp of her dreams, she must expand her musical horizons and join - gasp! - the marching band. There are no French horns in marching band (what the heck is a mellophone??), but there are some cute boys. And marching band is very different from orchestra: they march, they chant, they . . . cluck? Elsie is not so sure she'll survive, but the new friends she's making and the actual fun she's having will force her to question her dad's expectations and her own musical priorities.

If you aren't or weren't in band much of this novel will be meaningless to you. You will wonder why these people do what they do. Why on earth would you do something that makes you pass out (band camp-she locked her knees) and come back the next day? What is a drill formation? What does any of it matter? There was also a lot of time spent on the tension between Elsie's marching playing and her concert playing. Having been a person who played in a band that did both competitively there is a big difference.  There is a totally different mindset and technique and when you are a perfectionist like Elsie is who wants to impress her Boston Symphony Orchestra father it's a big deal. People who don't get musical performance might not understand why-you play the instrument standing, you play it sitting-so much time is spent on Elsie's obsession over time to practice her concert and classical pieces.

I enjoyed it lots. It was a fun quick read and I liked how Elsie was a very flawed character. She is incredibly self absorbed and manages to alienate people a lot. But she is also vulnerable and terrified of failure making her sympathetic. 

This book reads a lot like Dionne's earlier novel The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet (my review). It has many of the same elements but I believe they were better executed here. If you know young people who enjoyed that they should enjoy this as well. 

Note on Age: Elsie is a freshman in high school but this is most definitely a middle grade level book. There is a dance, a first crush and a first kiss but nothing that makes this YA. Some teens may enjoy it simply for the band experience so I'm labeling it as both.

Originally posted here.

Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King is a bizarre book. It is in fact one of those books I normally don't finish. Or if I do I'm annoyed that I did. Not this time. Nope. Despite the highly bizarre and inexplicable weirdness that sometimes doesn't make any sense I ate it up as if it were made of dark chocolate with flecks of hot peppers inside. I can't say I was completely satisfied at the end but the experience was delightfully strange.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Lucky Linderman didn’t ask for his life. He didn’t ask his grandfather not to come home from the Vietnam War. He didn’t ask for a father who never got over it. He didn’t ask for a mother who keeps pretending their dysfunctional family is fine. And he didn’t ask to be the target of Nader McMillan’s relentless bullying, which has finally gone too far. But Lucky has a secret—one that helps him wade through the daily mundane torture of his life. In his dreams, Lucky escapes to the war-ridden jungles of Laos—the prison his grandfather couldn’t escape—where Lucky can be a real man, an adventurer, and a hero. It’s dangerous and wild, and it’s a place where his life just might be worth living. But how long can Lucky keep hiding in his dreams before reality forces its way inside?

The line between dreams and reality in this book is incredibly vague. Lucky can fall asleep anywhere, particularly if he is stressed, and go into the dream world in which he experiences all kind of adventures with is POW MIA grandfather in Vietnam. He awakes and is always left with some memento from the dream. He has a box under his bed full of them. Then there are the ants. They show up when Lucky is having his face smashed into concrete by Nader at the pool. They then follow him everywhere. The Greek chorus in the play of Lucky's life. They comment. They pantomime. They amuse. So bizarre. This sort of surrealism is usually too much for me. What made the difference this time?

Lucky did.

And  his mom, Ginny, Jodie, Charlotte, his dad, even his uncle. This book has characters. Oh does it ever.

Through these characters there are many themes being explored. Suicide, bullying, exploitation, the idea of a dysfunctional family, mental illness, the crimes of war, the crimes of high school. The characters are what make the book though and every single theme is funneled through their lives in such a way that they are never what the book about. The book is about Lucky. One teenage boy who is trying to survive high school long enough to experience his first kiss. A boy who has been pushed to the edge but is learning how to pull himself back from it. To keep his balance. He won my heart in every way. Even with all the strange.

Originally posted here.

I love when authors take old fairy tales and spin them around in new and inventive ways. I was so very excited about The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy. Four disgruntled Princes Charming going out to make their names important. It is most excellent fun.

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Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You've never head of them, have you? These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, respectively, and yet, thanks to those lousy bards who wrote the tales, you likely know them only as "Prince Charming." But all of this is about to change...

Rejected by their princesses and cast out of their castles, Liam, Frederic, Duncan, and Guztav stumble upon an evil plot that could endanger each of their kingdoms. Now it's up to them to triumph over their various shortcomings, take on trolls, bandits, dragons, witches, and other associated terrors to becom the heroes no one ever thought they could be.

The princes are all suffering from different types of problems. Liam is less than happy about having to marry the spoiled petulant Briar Rose. Gustav is trying to prove his worth to his family, most especially his 16 older brothers, and having to be rescued by Rapunzel didn't do his ego any favors. Duncan and Snow White truly love each other, but are having difficulties adjusting to married life together. Probably because they are both exceedingly odd. Frederic truly wants to marry Ella, but Ella thinks he is boring and goes off adventuring on her own. It is this particular problem that sets the story in motion. Frederic wants Ella back and so ventures into the unknown himself for the first time in his life. Along the way he meets up with the other three princes and they form an alliance to save their kingdoms from the evil witch. With a healthy dose of help from Ella. And Liam's sister Lila shows herself to be fairly capable and awesome as well.

This is a large cast of characters and every single one of them is wonderful. I thought I would have a difficult time remembering which prince was which but I didn't. Their personalities are so very different it was not at all difficult to keep them straight. The story does have a touch of the absurd in it, but that is what makes it so utterly delightful. There is a lot going on too: a bandit king with an early bed time, dragons, surly dwarves, missing bards, and a witch with a diabolical plan that must be thwarted. It is great good fun.

I really enjoyed how the princesses were portrayed as well. (Other than Briar Rose, but every story has to have at least one mean girl right?) Ella and Liam's sister Lila were my favorites of the girls and I hope both of them continue to be important to the story as it continues in the next volume. 

I can not tell you how thankful I am to live in a place where the library has such a prevalent role in the community. I sometimes complain about the slowness in the availability of some titles (particularly in the Teen section) but most of the time I know that for a city this size the library is phenomenal. The Children's Festival of Reading reminds me of this every year. It is our annual kick off to the summer reading program. There are several tents with events going on all day. Storytellers, musicians, authors. The zoo does a presentation. There is a quartet from our orchestra who comes and plays.

And it is all free.

My kids LOVE it.

Here is a recap of some of the fun we had this year:

 That is Bit and the Little Man looking at a tarantula. It eats birds. Shudder. One of the animals brought by the zoo. Like always the presentation was fresh and informative. A horrifying story about what a spider wasp would do to the tarantula was reshared by Bit at dinner. Because hearing it once wasn't enough for all of us. Also learned: frogs swallow with their eyes; there are mini boas slithering around North America. (They brought one of those too. It was cute. For a snake.)

Gail Carson Levine, one of this year's featured authors, doing a talk and Q and A session. This was really interesting. She read some from her poetry book Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems. She also had a lot of interesting things to say about the writing process I'm glad Bit was able to hear from someone else. (She is complaining about editing and rewriting an awful lot. She kept looking at me during the presentation and sighing as if I had conspired with Gail Carson Levine to have the subject addressed. Yet she also indicated in our conversation afterward that she found the information useful.) My favorite part of this was when one of the young audience members asked if she thought the movie for Ella Enchanted did the book justice. (Those were the exact words she used. She looked to be middle school age.)  I also found it interesting that she uses a baby name book for character names at times.

Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm were also there as a featured author and a featured illustrator. Bit was particularly excited about this as she is a huge Baby Mouse fan. Notice how she has parked herself right in front of them. (That being where the only available shade was probably had something to do with her location as well.) Jennifer and Matthew are as dynamic a team presenting as they are creating graphic novels. Matthew drew Baby Mouse and Squish right up there on the stage. Bit was really impressed by him and the quickness of his Baby Mouse drawing abilities. She had been taking for days about how she was excited about seeing Jennifer in person but it was Matthew she talked about all afternoon after that. She asked them during the Q and A where they got all the Baby Mouse ideas from. Jennifer answered that it would be wise to remember every bad thing that ever happens to you in elementary school. Hopefully traumatic school experiences won't be giving Bit too many future story ideas as she is homeschooled.

And here she is having her Baby Mouse book signed by them. Note the color of the shirt she chose to wear today:

That book was read three times before we returned home. With many pauses for her to stare at the place where they signed it and Matthew drew in Baby Mouse with a marker.

As always we loved the Festival and now the kids have their reading logs for the summer reading program. Bit as an independent reader has to read for fifteen hours. Which means she will be done with the challenge by Wednesday.

Much thanks to Knoxville, the Knox County Library for organizing, and all the librarians and volunteers  I saw working there tirelessly all day while keeping smiles on their faces (you can see some of them in the background of that last picture with the blue shirts on).

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller is a book that intrigued me since I first heard of it. I liked the idea of a book that shows soldiers returning from war dealing with the aftermath. Then I read Trish Doller's post during Marchetta Madness and became even more interested.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.

I have to say that for the first half of the book I was nervous I wasn't going to like it as much as everyone else has so far. I was loving the themes and setting, but something was keeping me from completely loving the characters. I felt distant from Harper and flat out didn't like Travis. I felt sorry for Travis and wanted him to get help for his obvious PTSD, but I didn't like him. Or so I thought. Upon reflection I have decided what I was really worried about was where the plot was going. I distanced myself from the characters because I was worried all of the plot elements were going to culminate in one of those overly dramatic YA novel Misunderstandings where the two main characters end up in some fight that could have been avoided if they had been honest and not acted like toddlers . I could have done a dance when the plot resolved itself in the exact opposite way. Yay for characters who act their age! Travis makes some seriously bad decisions at times, but the way he responds to the knowledge of those mistakes makes his character. And he is wonderful in all his messed up glory.

My favorite thing about this book is that it tells a story of many real people that needs telling simply by focusing on one individual and all the complexities of his life. By letting us into Travis's head, Doller has given us a sense of what many young men we come in contact with regularly are going through. The mindset of soldiers returning home from war is one that needs to be addressed. This country is not serving well in so many ways those who serve us so well by risking their lives in our armed services. Travis's story is one that is playing out in cities and towns all across our nation. Travis's unwillingness to admit he needed help for fear of what acknowledging such a weakness would do to his career is such a real concern for these guys. I confess my favorite parts of this book weren't the scenes between Travis and Harper, as lovely as those are, but between Travis and his fellow Marines. It was a snap shot into a world I have never been and will never be a part of, and I was grateful for the view of it I was given.

Note on Content: I also should say that despite the sexiness of the cover this is not one of those books. If that is a concern that might keep you from reading it know that while it is clear sex is being had it is not described. The language in the book is reflective of the mc being a 19 year old Marine. 

I read a copy of this made available via NetGalley. It will be in stores on June 19th.

Originally posted here.

The Cabinet of Earths by Anne Nesbet is one of those books that begs to be read. Just look at the cover. It is one of those fantasies that surprises in how grounded in reality it is. There are no journeys to other magical places to fight evil. There is plenty of evil to fight right here.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

On their first day in Paris, Maya and her little brother, James, find themselves caught up in some very old magic. Houses with bronze salamanders for door handles, statues that look too much like Mayas own worried face, a man wearing sunglasses to hide his radiant purple eyes . . . nothing is what it seems. And what does all that magic want from Maya?

With the help of a friendly boy named Valko, Maya discovers surprises hidden in her family trees brother. And now the shimmering glass Cabinet of Earths, at the heart of all these secrets, has chosen Maya to be its new Keeper.
As she untangles the ties between the Salamander House, the purple-eyed man, and the Cabinet of Earths, Maya realizes that her own brother may be in terrible danger. To save him, Maya must take on the magical underworld of Paris . . . before it is too late.

This book is mostly a book about fear. Fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of  letting go of the comfortable. It's themes are perfect for a middle grade novel and Maya's character displays them well. She is a character easy to relate to as she is completely average in every way. Maya longs for her mother to be permanently well, to go back home to where things are familiar, to not have to be such a good sport all the time. The temptations she faces to stray for what is right are realistic without dulling the fast actin of the story. It is love for her brother that propels her actions in the end and as I always love a good sibling story this made be particularly happy. (On a personal note the dynamic between Maya and James reminded me much of the dynamic between my own children so I was particularly concerned for their outcome. My son has the same sort of effect on people as James, and I've seen in my daughter's trying to reconcile always being in her younger brother's shadow the feelings Maya displays in the book. But she loves him ferociously and would go to any lengths to defend him. And he thinks there is no greater person on the planet.) I was quite happy to see how well Maya and James's relationship demonstrated how complicated and devoted sibling relationships can be merely by showing their interactions.

I really enjoyed how the author was dealing with some complex concepts of trust and betrayal, mortality and immortality, inner beauty and outer beauty, science and magic and managed to make it all work on exactly the right level for this story. She never condescends and she only gives as many details as needed to tell the story in this book.

My only one small complaint was that I feel like I still didn't know Valko well by the end of the book. He is Maya's best friend (possibly more?) but their relationship isn't nearly fleshed out as well as the sibling relationship. That may be corrected in the sequel, Box of Gargoyles, due out in 2013.

I was actually quite surprised to discover there would be  a sequel as this reads as a stand alone story. Surprised, but very happy indeed.

Originally posted here.

Who out there knew there was a race riot in Wilmington, NC in 1898? If you did not know this and you have never set foot in NC then that is understandable. I however lived in NC for 10 years and didn't know. I took a class on NC history in college and IT NEVER CAME UP. I want my money back. My husband was born and raised in NC and he didn't know either. Thankfully Barbara Writght wrote Crow so hopefully more people will be aware of this interesting event in the history of our country. It also has the bonus of being all around awesome.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

The summer of 1898 is filled with ups and downs for 11-year-old Moses. He's growing apart from his best friend, his superstitious Boo-Nanny butts heads constantly with his pragmatic, educated father, and his mother is reeling from the discovery of a family secret. Yet there are good times, too. He's teaching his grandmother how to read. For the first time she's sharing stories about her life as a slave. And his father and his friends are finally getting the respect and positions of power they've earned in the Wilmington, North Carolina, community. But not everyone is happy with the political changes at play and some will do anything, including a violent plot against the government, to maintain the status quo. One generation away from slavery, a thriving African American community—enfranchised and emancipated—suddenly and violently loses its freedom in turn of the century North Carolina when a group of local politicians stages the only successful coup d'etat in US history.

Yes, this book is about important things and I will get to that, but for me what made it were the characters. Some might think this book starts out slow. If plot is what drives a story for you the episodic nature of the beginning could be frustrating. Character is what drives a story for me and all those episodes were brilliantly revealing all the layers of the main characters. Moses is such an 11 year old boy. His thoughts, the things he says, the things he does all demonstrate this. I loved the way he wanted to be all his family wanted him to be, but also struggled with remorse when he thought he wasn't. I loved that he made some terrible decisions that are realistically reflective of the mindset of someone his age. Boo-Nanny is oh so wonderful too. Wright wrote everything about her pitch perfect from the way she spoke to her cynicism about the white community to her love for her family. Moses's parents, Jack and Sadie, are also fully realized characters. Jack is college educated, a writer, and in politics. He is idealistic and wants the world for his son. Sadie is a housekeeper for a wealthy white family. She was born into slavery, loves to play the piano, and desires to learn as much as she can. The dynamics in this family are as much a story as the historical context. My favorite scenes in the book are when they are interacting over the dinner table, whether they are talking about music or the threatening times. Wright made me love them all which made the historical events that much more real and threatening.

The episodic nature of the beginning also did an incredible job of giving the story a specific sense of time and place. The Wilmington I was once so familiar with was overtaken by the Wilmington of 1898. Wright's descriptions and the scenes playing out from the story put the reader right there where everything is happening. 

We don't get a whole lot of African American historical fiction that doesn't focus on Civil War era slavery or the Civil Rights movement. That Crow focuses on Reconstruction and Jim Crow make it  unique enough, however this also stands out as being historical fiction the way it should always be done. Wright depicts the time period realistically and no one acts or thinks anachronistically. The realism of the book is what sucks the reader into the story and holds them until the end. Unfortunately there are probably some people who aren't going to appreciate that aspect. Wright didn't pull any punches and tells it like it is. The vocabulary is exceedingly accurate and wince inducing. Yes, the "n" word is used, as are other derogatory terms. Lynching is talked about and allusions to rape are made (though neither is fully explained-much to Moses's frustration). I take my hat off to all the people involved in the creation of the book, Wright and her editors, for having the courage to tell it like it was. The events depicted in the last half of the book blew me away. That synopsis exaggerates not at all when it says there was a coup d'etat, and that every law this nation holds sacred and dear was toppled over in the name of white supremacy.  This is something that all Americans should know about. Barbara Wright has posted some interesting photographs of the time on her website.

Here is a scene that encompasses all I loved about this book. the history, the family dynamics, Moses himself (he thinks exactly like a kid in the scene):
Daddy took a deep breath. "Well, Mrs Felton thought that white men needed to do a better job of protecting their women in the countryside from the, um, unwanted attentions of black men."
"That doesn't sound so bad," I said.
"She was talking about violent attentions."
"You mean rape?" I asked.
Mama gasped
"Do you know what that word means?" Daddy asked.
I shook my head no.
"Well, it involves unwanted sex..."
"Hush up. That ain't no thing for young ears," Mama said.
"He deserves to have his questions answered." Daddy said.
"Jackson..." When Mama gave Daddy that dark look and drew out the syllables in his name I knew she would not be refused. She turned to me and said, "Run along now, Moses. You be excused."
There was no reason to treat me like a child. I knew about sex; Lewis had told me. Men and women got together and had sex and made babies. Lewis's next-door neighbor, a white woman named Mrs. Roberts was a sex maniac, because she had six children and had done it six times.

I do think it fits best in a middle school due to the  maturity of the humor and the prose. I am ecstatic that I have found the perfect book to help teach this time period when my kids are studying it as 6th graders. 

Originally posted here.

The myth of the labyrinth and the minotaur has always been a favorite of mine, which is why it is embarrassing to admit that I have never read The King Must Die by Mary Renault. It is, after all, supposed to be the quintessential novelization of Theseus. I think I have built my expectations of it so high I'm afraid to read it in case it doesn't live up. I did intend to read it before I  read Dark of the Moon by Tracy Barrett., but then I saw Dark of the Moon sitting so enticingly on the new arrival shelf at my library and I couldn't resist it.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Ariadne is destined to become a goddess of the moon. She leads a lonely life, filled with hours of rigorous training by stern priestesses. Her former friends no longer dare to look at her, much less speak to her. All that she has left are her mother and her beloved, misshapen brother Asterion, who must be held captive below the palace for his own safety.

So when a ship arrives one spring day, bearing a tribute of slaves from Athens, Ariadne sneaks out to meet it. These newcomers don’t know the ways of Krete; perhaps they won’t be afraid of a girl who will someday be a powerful goddess. And indeed she meets Theseus, the son of the king of Athens. Ariadne finds herself drawn to the newcomer, and soon they form a friendship—one that could perhaps become something more.

Yet Theseus is doomed to die as an offering to the Minotaur, that monster beneath the palace—unless he can kill the beast first. And that "monster" is Ariadne’s brother . . .

This is an excellent novelization of the minotaur myth. I loved how Barrett took the familiar and changed it just enough to give it depth and believability.  For those who are familiar with the myth, you will find all the essential elements of the original story: the tribute, the yarn, the maze, the "monster", Minos. Daedalus and Icarus are both mentioned. I enjoyed the glimpses we had of Medea as well.  All readers will find in Barrett's Krete a world fully realized and developed. A very intricate religious system governs the lives of Krete's inhabitants ruled by She-Who-Is-Goddess, the human manifestation of the moon goddess. This system involves yearly human sacrifice to ensure the harvest. Ariadne is She-Who-Will-Be-Goddess, daughter of the current goddess and one of the yearly sacrifices.

The story is told in alternating viewpoints between Theseus and Ariadne. This is all Ariadne's story though. Theseus, while starting off interesting, is not well developed and seemed to only serve to further Ariadne's character. Ariadne is realistically torn about her role in Krete. She is confused and lonely. Through her interactions with Asterion we see her as loving and strong. Her loneliness makes her an easy target for those who want the ways of Krete to change and she leaves herself vulnerable in ways that cause her much distress. In this version her actions take on new meaning and understanding. She has what the Ariadne from the myth was lacking, power to determine her own actions and end. She is not the girl who has her head turned by a charming hero and betrays her people only to be abandoned by said hero to fend for herself. This Ariadne grows in strength, power and knowledge of who she is. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel for what it did with her character.

If you are a fan of mythological retellings this is definitely a must read.

Originally posted here.

Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby is a book I have had my eye on for a while. It is excellent historical fiction full of mystery, treachery, and deceit with Vikings and berserkers. I love when books are set in different times and places we don't have an overabundance of books about. So much the better when they are as well written as this one.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Trapped in a hidden fortress tucked between towering mountains and a frozen sea, Solveig, along with her brother the crown prince, their older sister, and an army of restless warriors, anxiously awaits news of her father's victory at battle. But as winter stretches on, and the unending ice refuses to break, terrible acts of treachery soon make it clear that a traitor lurks in their midst. A malevolent air begins to seep through the fortress walls, and a smothering claustrophobia slowly turns these prisoners of winter against one another.

Those charged with protecting the king's children are all suspect, and the siblings must choose their allies wisely. But who can be trusted so far from their father's watchful eye? Can Solveig and her siblings survive the long winter months and expose the traitor before he succeeds in destroying a kingdom?

 Solveig suffers from middle child syndrome in the worst kind of way. Her older sister is beautiful and valuable to their father in the marriage she may make. Her younger brother is the heir. She is plain, unhelpful, and unnoticed. As the story moves on Solveig comes to see she has valuable strengths that she can use to carve a place in the world for herself. I love stories like this, where the character embraces who they are and uses that rather than trying to become something they are not. I loved how Solveig came to see herself as worthy and began to care less about how others saw her. She is brave, smart, and talented and uses all of these to save her companions from the treachery they are facing. I enjoyed the sibling dynamic of the story as well and thought it played out very realistically.

I particularly enjoyed the way the setting reflected Solvieg's feelings and mood. The frozen cold of winter, the thawing, the breaking, and renewal. This parallel was subtle and done very well. The language is wonderfully descriptive:
"I sit down. I don't want t o cry anymore, so I keep my thoughts away from Hilda and listen to the ice. It speaks to me of scouring winds, of cloudless nights, of endless cold. It measures its loneliness by the weight of its layers, the years and years of snow falling unobserved. I've been told its lament is the loudest at the beginning of winter and the coming of summer, as if it knows that is the closest it will ever come to warmth and thaw. As if it yearns for its own demise. But it can will be only what it is, bleak and alone, until the breaking of the world."

This language could have been too much and overdone but Kirby uses it sparingly. The result is that when he does it packs a punch and drives a point home. 

The mystery was not a terribly difficult one to unravel (though it will be harder for a young reader) but I did enjoy watching the interactions between the people as it all unfolded. 

Icefall was a finalist for this year's Cybil Awards in the category of MG science fiction and fantasy. I feel like calling this a fantasy is a bit of false advertising. It is fantasy in the same type of way one might classify Holes by Lois Sachar or Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta as fantasy. Which is to say I wouldn't. I'm clearly in the minority on this but I believe it is more accurately labeled as simple historical fiction. Of course it is also a mystery as its recent Edgar Award  proves.

Nitpicky genre discussions aside, this is a book that will appeal to any who like stories with brave protagonists,  mystery, action, and adventure.

Originally posted here.

Sometimes a book's praises are sung so loudly before it reaches my hands I wonder if it will have any impact on me at all. How could it possibly when my expectations for it are so high? Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein was such a book. I don't care how many reviews and bloggers say how amazing, how beautiful, how shattering it is. It is near impossible for it to not meet your expectations. I dare you to read it and not be gobsmacked by its brilliance.

You'll shoot me at the end no  matter what I do, because that's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. After I write the confession, if you don't shoot me and I ever make it home, I'll be tried and shot as a collaborator anyway. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and this is the easy one the obvious one. What's in my future-a tin  of kerosene poured down my throat and a match held to my lips? Scalpel and acid, like the Resistance boy who won't talk? My living skeleton packed up in a cattle wagon with two hundred desperate others, carted off God knows where to die of thirst before we get there? No. I'm not traveling those roads. This is the easiest. The others are too frightening even to look down.

I have so much I would like to say about this book, but so little I can say. It is a book one needs to experience. So go. Buy. Read. Experience. Bite your nails. Sit on the edge of your seat. Laugh. Cry. Let it break your heart and put it back together. That's what the best books do after all. And this most definitely falls into the best books category.

And if you still aren't convinced, also know:

This is a story about friendship, the true steadfast kind that can change people and the world around them.

It is a story about ordinary people who do extraordinary things in an exceptional time.

It is a story that captures the reality of war and the perseverance of the human spirit in remarkable ways.

It is a story that can be funny and sarcastic one minute and then slice open your gut with its razor sharpness the next.

This is a story that's characters become real. They will take up residence in your head. They will haunt you.

It is a story full of suspense, intrigue, and danger.

It is a story that simultaneously devastates and is hopeful.

It is surprising, shattering, brilliant in every way. And nothing I say about it is going to do it justice.

I read a copy received via NetGalley. The US release (with the top cover) is Tuesday, May 15. It is currently available in the UK (with bottom cover).

Originally posted here.