“On The Smugglers’ Radar” is a new feature for books that have caught our eye: books we heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. This is how the Smugglers’ Radar was born, and because there are far too many books that we want than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?) we thought we could make it into a weekly feature – so YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!

On Ana’s Radar:

Let me start with a Squee! and a yay! Demon Blood, the next instalment in the Guardian series by Meljean Brook has a cover! And it is awesome because it fits well with the overall feel of the series and because it features the HEROINE which is one of Brook’s strengths (her awesome female characters). In other words: another win for this series!

Long before she was transformed into a Guardian and trained to fight demons, Rosalia knew darkness all too well. Raised by a demon, Rosalia learned to guard her heart—and her soul—until she found a man worthy of her love. Once, she thought that man would be the powerful vampire, Deacon…until he betrayed the Guardians.

After losing everything to the lies of a demon, Deacon lives only for revenge—and is taken aback when Rosalia offers to help. A vampire who has nothing—who is nothing—isn’t worthy of her attention. But Rosalia wants to do more than just look, and the explosive need between them can’t be held in check. And when Deacon’s vengeful quest creates a dangerous alliance of their enemies, she will be his only hope…

I am also looking forward to reading Meljean Brook’s story in this anthology:

It is the first story in her upcoming Steampunk series, The Iron Seas. The story is called Here There Be Monsters:

Two years ago, blacksmith Ivy, desperate to flee London, purchased her overseas passage by agreeing to spend the voyage in the bed of the pirate captain, Mad Machen. Saved at the last minute by his rival, Ivy scraped out a new life in Fool’s Cove…until Mad Machen finds her, forces her to accept a job that will create a monster, and reminds her that she still owes him the price of a journey…

I saw the trailer for this YA book over at CJ’s Thrillionth Page and I am keen on reading it (The UK has a different cover):

Incarceron — a futuristic prison, sealed from view, where the descendants of the original prisoners live in a dark world torn by rivalry and savagery. It is a terrifying mix of high technology — a living building which pervades the novel as an ever-watchful, ever-vengeful character, and a typical medieval torture chamber — chains, great halls, dungeons. A young prisoner, Finn, has haunting visions of an earlier life, and cannot believe he was born here and has always been here. In the outer world, Claudia, daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, is trapped in her own form of prison — a futuristic world constructed beautifully to look like a past era, an imminent marriage she dreads. She knows nothing of Incarceron, except that it exists. But there comes a moment when Finn, inside Incarceron, and Claudia, outside, simultaneously find a device — a crystal key, through which they can talk to each other. And so the plan for Finn’s escape is born !

Everwild, the second book in the Skinjacker Trilogy series By Neil Shusterman is out and given how much I loved Everlost, I am getting it ASAP.

Nick, ‘the Chocolate Ogre’ and Mary Hightower battle for the fate of Everlost in the thrilling second book in Neal Shusterman’s Skinjacker Trilogy.

And finally, I was recommended this book by Kaz Mahoney and I think it looks great:

What does you in—brain or heart? Frannie asks herself this question when, a week before she turns fifteen, her dad dies, leaving her suddenly deprived of the only human being on planet Earth she feels understands her. Frannie struggles to make sense of a world that no longer seems safe. She discovers an elegant wooden box with an inscription: Frances Anne 1000. Inside, Frannie finds one thousand hand-carved and -painted puzzle pieces. She wonders if her father had a premonition of his death and finished her birthday present early. Feeling broken into pieces herself, Frannie slowly puts the puzzle together. But as she works, something remarkable begins to happen: She is catapulted into a foreign landscape suspended in time where she can discover her father as he was B.F.—before Frannie.

On Thea’s Radar:

I feel so vindicated, having basically twisted Ana’s arm to read Everlost, and lo and behold, she loves it. Heh. Anyways! This was a pretty big book release week, with Stephen King’s newest, Under the Dome out in stores finally!!! I cannot WAIT to get my hands on a copy, as expensive as the damn tome is. And, I saw this air on SyFy the other day:

There aren’t enough hours in the day, dammit! Another release this week, that looks fabulous:

Joseph has succeeded in rescuing his sister, Chelo, from a pitched battle on the colony planet Fremont. Now he and Chelo and the love of his life, Alicia, and all of their extended family, are finally returning home. Halfway there, a probe intercepts them, sending them new coordinates and a message from Joseph’s enigmatic supporter and teacher, Marcus.

War is brewing.

Joseph is wanted for escaping to save Chelo. To stay safe, Joseph must bring his family and friends to the renowned planet of Lopali, where men and women can fly, and peace and freedom abound. Or do they? Alicia has always wanted to fly, but the modifications that give humans wings kill as often as they work.

Joseph must learn to actually change humans, to free the fliers of a tyranny that has enslaved them, since their species was born. If he can do this, the fliers have agreed to help him stop the war. But it’s not as easy as it seems.

Also this week, I experienced a major ARC FAIL. See, I received an ARC for In Great Waters by Kit Whitefield, and i was excited to get crackin’ on it. So, I open the ARC and what do I find? The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory. No joke. The ARC was a massive misprint – but I’m not complaining! I’ve been drooling over The Devil’s Alphabet for a while. And I’ll get In Great Waters somehow…

During a time of great upheaval, the citizens of Venice make a pact that will change the world. The landsmen of the city broker a treaty with a water-dwelling tribe of deepsmen, cementing the alliance through marriage. The mingling of the two races produces a fresh, peerless strain of royal blood. To protect their shores, other nations make their own partnerships with this new breed–and then, jealous of their power, ban any further unions between the two peoples. Dalliance with a deepswoman becomes punishable by death. Any “bastard” child must be destroyed.

This is an Earth where the legends of the deep are true–where the people of the ocean are as real and as dangerous as the people of the land. This is the world of intrigue and betrayal that Kit Whitfield brings to life in an unforgettable alternate history: the tale of Anne, the youngest princess of a faltering England, struggling to survive in a troubled court, and Henry, a bastard abandoned on the shore to face his bewildering destiny, finding himself a pawn in a game he does not understand.

Yet even a pawn may checkmate a king.

Switchcreek was a normal town in eastern Tennessee until a mysterious disease killed a third of its residents and mutated most of the rest into monstrous oddities. Then, as quickly and inexplicably as it had struck, the disease–dubbed Transcription Divergence Syndrome (TDS)–vanished, leaving behind a population divided into three new branches of humanity: giant gray-skinned argos, hairless seal-like betas, and grotesquely obese charlies.

Paxton Abel Martin was fourteen when TDS struck, killing his mother, transforming his preacher father into a charlie, and changing one of his best friends, Jo Lynn, into a beta. But Pax was one of the few who didn’t change. He remained as normal as ever. At least on the outside.

Having fled shortly after the pandemic, Pax now returns to Switchcreek fifteen years later, following the suicide of Jo Lynn. What he finds is a town seething with secrets, among which murder may well be numbered. But there are even darker–and far weirder–mysteries hiding below the surface that will threaten not only Pax’s future but the future of the whole human race.

And finally, this upcoming book from Guy Gavriel Kay looks awesome (thanks to Aidan of A Dribble of Ink for the heads up).

In the novel, Shen Tai is the son of a general who led the forces of imperial Kitai in the empire’s last great war against its western enemies, twenty years before. Forty thousand men, on both sides, were slain by a remote mountain lake. General Shen Gao himself has died recently, having spoken to his son in later years about his sadness in the matter of this terrible battle.

To honour his father’s memory, Tai spends two years in official mourning alone at the battle site by the blue waters of Kuala Nor. Each day he digs graves in hard ground to bury the bones of the dead. At night he can hear the ghosts moan and stir, terrifying voices of anger and lament. Sometimes he realizes that a given voice has ceased its crying, and he knows that is one he has laid to rest.
The dead by the lake are equally Kitan and their Taguran foes; there is no way to tell the bones apart, and he buries them all with honour.

It is during a routine supply visit led by a Taguran officer who has reluctantly come to befriend him that Tai learns that others, much more powerful, have taken note of his vigil. The White Jade Princess Cheng-wan, 17th daughter of the Emperor of Kitai, presents him with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses. They are being given in royal recognition of his courage and piety, and the honour he has done the dead.

You gave a man one of the famed Sardian horses to reward him greatly. You gave him four or five to exalt him above his fellows, propel him towards rank, and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal jealousy. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor.
Tai is in deep waters. He needs to get himself back to court and his own emperor, alive. Riding the first of the Sardian horses, and bringing news of the rest, he starts east towards the glittering, dangerous capital of Kitai, and the Ta-Ming Palace – and gathers his wits for a return from solitude by a mountain lake to his own forever-altered life.

And that’s it from us! What books are you looking forward to?

For our next stop on Halloween Week, we have the fabulous paranormal romance/urban fantasy author Meljean Brook over for a guest post!

We are unabashed Meljean fangirls – so when we were inviting folks over for Halloween, she was one of the first names that came to mind. And, we were ecstatic when she agreed to put something together for our Halloween Celebration! Today, Meljean will be talking about Silver Bullet – the ’80s horror flick, starring Corey Haim and Gary Busey.

Without futher ado, please give it up for Meljean Brook!

Silver Bullet

Thanks to Ana and Thea for inviting me over for Halloween week! This is one of my favorite events at The Book Smugglers, so I’m thrilled to take part.

When Thea asked me what I wanted to do, the first thing that came to mind was writing a pseudo-review of Stephen King’s Silver Bullet, a 1985 werewolf movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis (Flash Gordon, Conan the Barbarian, Army of Darkness, and a bunch of other Stephen King-based movies) and directed by Daniel Attias (usually a TV director, including Buffy, Alias, House, and a gazillion other episodes of various shows.) I’d been thinking about Silver Bullet a lot lately, and how, when I was nine years old, I used to scare the crap out of myself walking home. We lived out in the boonies, and the driveway from the main road where the school bus dropped me off to our house wound through the woods (the Oregon kind, which are tons of tall fir trees surrounded by leafy underbrush that is very, very easy to hide in (I know this, because I used to hide in it and scare the crap out of my sisters and cousins when they had to walk the road at night)).

Anyway, I used to sprint down that drive in record time, certain that either a wendigo or the werewolf from Silver Bullet would leap out and kill me. Maybe I shouldn’t have watched it that young. But the truth is, there wasn’t any way I couldn’t watch it. If a movie was scary and I could sneak it past my parents, there was no holding me back.

The Basic Premise: Over the course of a summer, a werewolf terrorizes a small town in Maine (this is Stephen King, so of course it is.) One eleven-year-old boy, Marty Coslaw (played by the Corey of the Haim variety) and his sister, Jane (played by Megan Follows, best known for Anne of Green Gables) discover who the werewolf is and, with the help of their Uncle Red (Gary Busey, in what might be the perfect role), plan to kill it.

And I loved the movie. Sure, it scared the crap out of me, but I loved it. When I was 13, I read the novella it was based on – Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King – and aside from being intrigued by the structure of that novella, I don’t remember a single thing about it … but I remembered (quite fondly) many, many elements of the movie.

Would it hold up after twenty-three years, though? When I was nine, I didn’t make jokes about Corey Haim. When I was nine, the image of Gary Busey’s teeth weren’t yet burned in my brain. The two main characters – Marty and Uncle Red – are both played by actors whose Hollywood history and pop culture status is much, much bigger than their roles here. So, watching it now, would it just be crackalicious fun with one of the Coreys and crazy Gary Busey, but not worth watching for the movie itself?

The answer? Yes, it is crackalicious fun with Corey and Gary. And I still love it. There’s a lot that just works in this movie, and it thankfully outweighs the stuff that doesn’t.

(Everything until the end involves minor spoilers.)

The characters are hands-down the best part of this movie. Wheelchair-bound Marty is at the center of the action, and his disability plays an enormous part in the both the suspense and illuminating the other characters, yet the movie avoids making him precious, avoids making statements, or falling into any cloying sentiments that could have easily bogged down both the plot and characters.

Gary Busey just might have been made to play Uncle Red. He’s a twice-divorced alcoholic who dotes on Marty and whose sister (Marty’s mother, in a small but well-played role by Robin Groves) disapproves of his lifestyle. He’s the uncle who comes over to his sister’s house, gets drunk and plays poker with Marty, tells the naughty jokes, shouts obscenities, and builds Marty’s motorized wheelchair-bike (the Silver Bullet).

Early on, there’s this great conversation between Red and Marty’s mother, Nan, after Red has come over for one of those drinking nights. She asks him not to drink in front of Marty, Red yells at her not to boss him around (ah, those big sisters.)

NAN: Red, I don’t care how you live. But he is a very impressionable little boy.
RED: You know, you think your only responsibility is getting his butt out of the chair and into the tub and out of the chair and onto the toilet. And you oughta realize there’s more to Marty than him not being able to walk.
NAN: It’s so easy for you, isn’t it?
RED: Yeah, it is!
NAN: You blow in here once a month, and you tell a few jokes, and you have a few beers, and you want to lecture me about how to raise my son. Well, I am the one responsible for how he feels when he sees you like this, and how he feels when you leave! Red, Marty has enough strikes against him as it is—
RED: (interrupting) He doesn’t have any strikes against him!
NAN: —that I am scared to death that some day he is just going to give up.
RED: He’s not going to give up!
NAN: Well he doesn’t need you showing him how to do it!

And this is the kind of dynamic that I really love in this movie. Yes, the mother is over-protective, and yes, Red is a bad role model. But both of them are understandable and believable, and yes, both of them are right. What I also find impressive is that, despite this blowup and the echoes of it in their later conversations, Red and Nan still get along later. There’s no making either one of them into the bad guy or the good guy. And Red, whose view of Marty seems to sit somewhere in the realm between Denial and Eternal Optimism, is the one who eventually puts Marty in a position where he’s in the most danger – yet even that action isn’t ever given a ‘bad’ label (because the ‘bad’ is obviously the werewolf, no matter how recklessly-indulgent-cuz-he-loves-Marty Red can be.)

Then there’s Jane, who is perfect (and more importantly, also believable) as the sensible older sister who is resentful of the burden Marty’s disability places on her and of how much slack their mother gives Marty, but who isn’t Teh Eveeel. She forgives him when he’s a twerp without martyring herself, and apologizes when she’s been overly impatient with him. She also plays the necessary straight man against Marty and Uncle Red. Her mixture of practicality and acceptance becomes essential to the plot – as close as Uncle Red and Marty are, it is Jane who is able to convince the skeptical Uncle Red that a) Marty is in danger, and b) the killer might be more than just a psycho human.

Silver Bullet isn’t a character-driven movie, though – it’s werewolf-driven. Between the scenes where we get to know Marty and family, we get to see the werewolf killing people: the drunk railroad maintenance man who he beheads with a swipe of his paw (when I was nine, that flying head was the most awesome shot ever), the pregnant single woman who is about to kill herself.

The first two murders only touch Marty peripherally, but the third victim is his almost-girlfriend’s drunk slob of a father, and the fourth victim is Marty’s best friend (and kind of a jerk) Brady.

Are you sensing a theme about the victims here?

The small town is essentially another character in this movie, and is described at the beginning (before the terror) as “A town where people cared about each other as much as they cared about themselves.” Which is, I think, a fantastic description – it first gives the impression that everything is on-the-surface perfect, but really … how many people care about themselves and take care of themselves as well as they should?

The townspeople aren’t as nicely drawn as the Coslaw family – they definitely run more to stereotypes: The hunter at the bar with the loud mouth, the gentle giant bartender who carries a baseball bat called ‘The Peacemaker,’ the in-over-his-head but competent sheriff, and the minister who tries to comfort everyone when everything starts going apeshit and the bodies start piling up.

And this is another point where I love this movie. Horror so often takes an apparently-perfect situation and peels back the layers to reveal the rot hidden underneath: the drunks, the molestations, the secret pregnancies. Silver Bullet doesn’t do that. Those things aren’t hidden in this town; everyone knows that the first victim was a drunk, and Jane sees the pregnant woman being rejected by the father of the baby. At one of the early gatherings of the townspeople in their favorite bar, we learn that everyone knows who is behind on their taxes. This isn’t a town of secrets; it’s a town where people are just people, for good or bad, and everyone recognizes that.

So when even the ‘bad’ people in the town are shown to be normal, it highlights the werewolf’s wrongness even more. A town that has a few drunks? That’s normal. Ripping them apart? It’s unnatural.

This is another point where the movie really works: It doesn’t try to explain the werewolf. There’s no mystic force behind it, no ancient curse, we don’t know how [spoiler] became a werewolf, and it’s even suggested that he doesn’t even know how he became one.

One thing that often kills horror movies is digging too deep into the reasons WHY? and then coming up with a crappy explanation. How many times have you sat in a movie (or read a book) that, although it was going along great, suddenly became really, really stupid as soon as you found out why it was all happening?

Silver Bullet avoids that by … well, avoiding it. I imagine that some viewers will be disappointed that there’s not more explanation behind the werewolf, but it really worked for me.

Was the werewolf scary, though? … hmm, maybe not so much. Although some of the suspenseful parts where the werewolf is stalking someone out of sight were well done, Silver Bullet suffers from the same problems that many similar movies do: Once you show the monster, he’s not quite as scary. (This is also the scene that I’m talking about when I say that Uncle Red, though acting out of love, doesn’t exactly help Marty and is reckless – he gives Marty some fireworks to go shoot at night, even though there’s a mass murderer on the loose that has already killed his best friend. In romance, we call that TSTL, and I’m not sure who is dumber here: Marty or his uncle.)

There is a transformation scene, too – though not bad by 1985 standards, it’s also not An American Werewolf in London or The Howling.

Then there are a couple of missteps, and the biggest one comes right in the middle of the movie. A little humor is all well and good in horror (and I think necessary), but there is a scene after Brady has been killed when the townspeople form a mob to go after the killer. There’s some great tension between the people, the sheriff, and the boy’s father. There’s a lovely setting in the woods where the fog is thick and creeping over the ground, and visibility is low, and the townspeople realize they are being hunted beneath the fog.

And it all becomes a joke. I’ll admit I laughed out loud when the werewolf started beating the people with The Peacemaker (the bartender’s bat) because it was campy and funny … but it also throws off the tone of the movie, and it doesn’t make sense. The whole point of the werewolf is that he’s ripping people apart, he’s unnatural, he’s terrifying … he shouldn’t be funny. And yet that scene skews him in that direction. And even though it’s only for a short time, it makes everything feel off, and something that should have been horrifying (Brady’s death, and the townspeople’s mob-like reaction) is played for a laugh.

But despite that misstep, and a few other “Oh, come on!” moments, this is a fun, solid little film, perfect for Halloween (or any other time when you have friends over, and shouting OMG, IT’S ONE OF THE COREYS! seems like it might be just as entertaining as the movie itself).

Or, you know, just play this fan-made tribute to Corey Haim.

Thank you Meljean for the fabulous post! And holy crap, that Corey Haim tribute video is something else.

For the past few months, we have been including an “On our Radar” section in our weekly stash for books that have caught our eye; books we heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. This is how the Smugglers’ Radar was born, and because there are far too many books that we want than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?) we thought we could make it into a weekly feature on its own – this way YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!

On Ana’s Radar:

I have seen this around this week and I am SO excited about this book like you wouldn’t know! I love the cover and I love the blurb: it sounds cool in a totally silly way. Yay! (out May 2010)

Sixteen-year-old Damien Locke has a plan: major in messing with people at the local supervillain university and become a professional evil genius, just like his supervillain mom. But when he discovers the shameful secret she’s been hiding all these years, that the one night stand that spawned him was actually with a superhero, everything gets messed up. His father’s too moral for his own good, so when he finds out Damien exists, he actually wants him to come live with him and his goody-goody superhero family. Damien gets shipped off to stay with them in their suburban hellhole, and he only has six weeks to prove he’s not a hero in any way, or else he’s stuck living with them for the rest of his life, or until he turns eighteen, whichever comes first.

To get out of this mess, Damien has to survive his dad’s “flying lessons” that involve throwing him off the tallest building in the city—despite his nearly debilitating fear of heights—thwart the eccentric teen scientist who insists she’s his sidekick, and keep his supervillain girlfriend from finding out the truth. But when Damien uncovers a dastardly plot to turn all the superheroes into mindless zombie slaves, a plan hatched by his own mom, he discovers he cares about his new family more than he thought. Now he has to choose: go back to his life of villainy and let his family become zombies, or stand up to his mom and become a real hero.

I recently read Liar by Justine Larbalestier and was so in love with it, I went back to check her other books and foundt this one:

Welcome to New Avalon, where everyone has a personal fairy. Though invisible to the naked eye, a personal fairy, like a specialized good luck charm, is vital to success. And in the case of the students at New Avalon Sports High, it might just determine whether you make the team, pass a class, or find that perfect outfit. But for 14-year-old Charlie, having a Parking Fairy is worse than having nothing at all – especially when the school bully carts her around like his own personal parking pass. Enter: The Plan. At first, teaming up with arch-enemy Fiorenza (who has an All-The-Boys-Like-You Fairy) seems like a great idea. But when Charlie unexpectedly gets her heart’s desire, it isn’t at all what she thought it would be like, and she’ll have resort to extraordinary measures to ditch her fairy. The question is: will Charlie herself survive the fairy ditching experiment? From the author of the acclaimed Magic or Madness trilogy, this is a delightful story of fairies, friendships, and figuring out how to make your own magic.

Yeah, I bought it!

Similarly, after reading the AWESOME Going too Far by Jennifer Echols, I had to go and buy her new book, a romantic YA comedy:

Hayden and Nick used to be a hot item, but their brief affair ended with a highly publicized break-up. Now the two are “just friends,” excluding the occasional flirtation.
When Hayden wins the girls’ division of a local snowboarding competition, Nick is unimpressed, claiming that Hayden wouldn’t have a chance against a guy. Hayden calls Nick’s bluff and challenges him to a head-to-head boarding contest. Their mutual friends quickly take sides, the girls on Hayden’s and the boys on Nick’s, making for an all-out battle of the sexes. This friendly competition is bound to get heated–and if they’re not careful, they might end up igniting some old flames.

Eloisa James, writer of the most fabulous Historical Romance series (The Desperate Duchesses one) next book will be a take on the Cinderella story. Entitled A Kiss At Midnight, the story is “a skewed, funny version of Cinderella with a sulky prince and a snappy Cinderella named Kate”. Here is a a tidbit about the nasty evil stepmother:

“Talking to her stepmother, to Kate’s mind, was like peeing into a pitch-black outhouse. You had no idea what would come back up, but you knew you wouldn’t like it.”

I can’t wait!

On Thea’s Radar:

I just found out from Kristen of Fantasy Cafe that a reprint of an old favorite, Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons is being reprinted next month! With Lord Voldemort on the cover! (Ok, not really the last part, but it looks like the Dark Lord):

THE PAST… Caught behind the lines of Hitler’s Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazi’s themselves…

THE PRESENT… Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul has spanned decades and crossed continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who throughout the ages have hidden in our midst and may often exist behind the world’s most horrible and violent events. Killing from a distance, and by darkly manipulative proxy, they are people with the psychic ability to ‘use’ humans: read their minds, subjugatethem to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable violence. Each year, three of them, Melanie, Willi and Nina, meet to discuss their ongoing campaign of induced bloodshed and slaughter. But this reunion, something will go terribly wrong. Saul’s quest is about to reach its elusive object, drawing hunter and hunted alike into a struggle that will plumb the darkest depths of mankind’s attraction to violence, and determine the future of the world itself…

And the new cover of Stephen King’s upcoming novel, Under the Dome has FINALLY been released! WOOHOO!

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when — or if — it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens — town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing — even murder — to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

And, check out the awesome wraparound art for the book:

Keeping in the sort of horror/Halloween theme, this looks deliciously good too:

Kara’s afraid to go to sleep—until the nightmares come when she’s awake . . . .

Sixteen-year-old Kara Foster is an outsider in Japan, but is doing her best to fit at the private school where her father is teaching English for the year. Fortunately she’s befriended by Sakura, a fellow outsider struggling to make sense of her sister’s unsolved murder some months ago. No one seems to care about the beautiful girl who was so brutally murdered, and the other students go on as if nothing has happened. Unfortunately, the calm doesn’t last for long. Kara begins to have nightmares, and soon other students in the school turn up dead, viciously attacked by someone . . . or something. Is Sakura getting back at those she thinks are responsible for her sister’s death? Or has her dead sister come back to take revenge for herself?

Aaaaaand a new cover!

Woohoo!

Recent & Upcoming Books:

In the Blood by Adrian Phoenix
Release Date: August 25, 2009

DANTE LIVES.

Vampire. Rock star. Begotten son of the fallen angel Lucien. Dante Baptiste still struggles with nightmares and seizures, searching for the truth about his past. It is a quest as seductive as his kiss, as uncontrollable as his thirst, and as unforgiving as his determination to protect one mortal woman at any cost.

KNOWLEDGE KILLS.

FBI Special Agent Heather Wallace now knows the extent of the Bureau corruption that surrounds her, but worries she is losing the battle. And when Dante and his band Inferno come to Seattle on tour, Heather can’t help but be drawn back to the beautiful, dangerous nightkind. But what Heather and Dante don’t know is that new enemies lurk in the shadows, closer than they think…and even deadlier than they fear.

DESTINY UNFOLDS.

Shadowy government forces have pledged to eliminate all loose ends from Project Bad Seed — and Heather and Dante are at the top of the list. Elsewhere, the Fallen gather in Gehenna, intent on finding their long-awaited savior, the True Blood nightkind whom Lucien DeNoir would die to protect. And a damaged and desperate adversary, with powers as strange and perilous as Dante’s own, plots to use Dante as a pawn in a violent scheme for revenge. But only one of these lethal forces holds the key to Dante’s past — a key that could finally unlock the secret of his birth and the truth of his existence…or destroy him completely.

Unclean Spirits (Book 1 of the Black Sun’s Daughter) by M.L.N. Hanover
Release Date: July 28, 2009

In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can’t always play by the rules.

Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn’t quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayné travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it’s all hers — and vaster than she ever imagined. And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisible College.

Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayné finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric’s heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means — magical or mundane — so Jayné had better start believing in something to save her own life.

Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions — Aubrey, Eric’s devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities — Jayné finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable. And if she hopes to survive, she’ll have to learn the new rules fast — or break them completely….

Darker Angels (Book 2 of the Black Sun’s Daughter) by M.L.N. Hanover
Release Date: September 29, 2009

In the battle between good and evil, there’s no such thing as a fair fight.

When Jayné Heller’s uncle Eric died, she inherited a fortune beyond all her expectations — and a dangerous mission in a world she never knew existed. Reining in demons and supernatural foes is a formidable task, but thankfully Jayné has vast resources and loyal allies to rely on. She’ll need both to tackle a bodyswitching serial killer who’s taken up residence in New Orleans, a city rich in voodoo lore and dark magic.

Working alongside Karen Black, a highly confident and enigmatic ex-FBI agent, Jayné races to track down the demon’s next intended host. But the closer she gets, the more convinced she becomes that nothing in this beautiful, wounded city is exactly as it seems. When shocking secrets come to light, and jealousy and betrayal turn trusted friends into adversaries, Jayné will soon come face-to-face with an enemy that knows her all too well, and won’t rest until it has destroyed everything she loves most….

Click here to read an Excerpt

Seduce Me In Shadow (The Doomsday Bretheren Book 2) by Shayla Black
Release Date: September 29, 2009

When a villainous wizard escapes from exile, the devastatingly sexy Doomsday Brethren must defend all magickind in the spellbinding second book in bestselling author Shayla Black’s seductive new paranormal series.

Ex-marine Caden MacTavish has shunned his magical heritage all his life, but he will do anything to heal his desperately ill brother, a Doomsday Brethren warrior in mourning for his missing mate. Posing as a photographer, Caden must convince firecracker tabloid reporter Sydney Blair to reveal the source of her recent exposé on a supernatural power clash. Unfortunately, keeping his hands off the sizzling redhead proves as hard as getting them onto the potent and mystical Doomsday Diary he discovers at her bedside. A bloody rebellion led by an evil, power-hungry wizard is imminent. If Sydney divulges the book’s existence, she will jeopardize magickind’s most deeply guarded secrets and become the ruthless wizard’s number one target. Caden has never trusted magic’s cruel and dangerous powers, but he will protect Sydney with his life and magic — even if it means risking his heart.

Click here to read an Excerpt and know more about the Author!

Title: The Drawing of the Three

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Fantasy/Horror

Publisher: New English Library
Publishing Date: New Edition – 2003
Paperback: 496 pages

Stand alone or series: book 2 in the Dark Tower series

Summary:Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger, encounters three doors which open to 1980s America, where he joins forces with the defiant Eddie Dean and courageous, volatile Odetta Holmes. And confronts deadly serial killer Jack Mort.

As the titanic forces gather, a savage struggle between underworld evil and otherworldly enemies conspire to bring an end to Roland’s quest for the Dark Tower.

Why did I read the book: Thea dared me. Gaah.

Review:

Stephen King and I have a…complicated history. I have watched plently of movies based on his books but I had never actually read any of his novels. Then Thea made me read The Gunslinger, for our Western Appreciation Week last year, the opening of The Dark Tower, a seven-book series and I really did like it. I finished The Gunslinger and bought book 2, The Drawing of Three straight away but for a myriad of reasons I never actually got around to reading it.

Then, Thea asked me to read another Stephen King book for our Halloween celebration in 2008– It – which I had huge problems with (you can read about the It debacle here) and vowed, yes, I truly did vow never to read Stephen King again. But because I am a weak soul, and Thea is totally a miss bossypants, she actually dared me to read yet another one for our Smugglivus’ Feats of Strength. I then read The Talisman and well. It was a good book but it didn’t wow me. To that point, I could still not see the Stephen King allure.

The intro above is a disclaimer for you to understand my reaction when it was time for another dare and Thea asked me to read The Drawing of the Three. I actually groaned, then rolled my eyes, attempted to postpone the dare at least 4 times, but ultimately couldn’t get away with it (please refer to the miss bossypants part above). Now, here I am. And you know what? I take it back. Curse my feeble mind, I actually really liked The Drawing of the Three.

At the end of book one, our hero Roland of Gilead finally catches up with the Man in Black, the person he had been chasing forever in his search for the elusive, mysterious, Dark Tower. They have a parley and he learns that his Quest effectively starts now. The Man in Black, using a deck of Tarot cards, tells Roland that he will meet three people to join him in his journey and each of then is represented by a card: The Prisoner, The Lady of the Shadows and Death. This is what lies ahead of him and what The Drawing of the Three is all about.

Book 2 starts with a bang, only a few hours after the events at the end of The Gunslinger. The book opens with Roland being alone in a deserted beach and waking up to find that he is having his hands being chewed off by a Lobster Creature – a lobstrosity. He loses his index and middle fingers before he kills the thing. This is really, REALLY bad news because, as his title says he is a Gunslinger. The last one. He needs these fingers to shoot his gun! This means that he kicks-off the last leg of his life-time journey to find the Dark Tower with a deficiency. That my friends, is kick-ass right there.

But never mind, because like any and all good heroes, he carries on. NOTHING will keep him from finding the Dark Tower. The reason behind his journey is still very much a mystery. We still don’t know what drives him, why he wants to reach the Dark Tower so freaking much. It is clear that he will stop at nothing. In book 1, he let a kid, Jake, die. He sacrificed someone he cared for, for his feverish, obsessive pursuit. It was an agonising choice he made, but he made it nonetheless. He is still being haunted by this in The Drawing of the Three which is good – that gives Roland a more human side. That is not to say that he wouldn’t do it again. He would and I think he will. In any case, the sacrifice of Jake was necessary to open the doors from which he draws his three.

These doors, in a very surreal way, appear in the middle of the beach – the first one opens to a different dimension – to a new New York in the mid-eighties. As soon as he opens the door, Roland realises he is inside someone’s mind: that of young guy Eddie Dean, who is a Prisoner of his heroin addiction. After a series of events in dealing with Eddie’s problems with a Mafia boss, Roland draws his first comrade and brings him to his side of the door. Door two opens inside the mind of one Odetta Holmes , the Lady of Shadows, thus named for her dissociative identity disorder. She shares her mind, without knowing it, with a violent, alternate persona called Detta Walker. The third door opens to the mind of the serial killed The Pusher and this third door is what brings all the doors together.

Both Eddie and Odetta/Detta are great characters and Stephen King’s knack for characterisation is present in this series as well. This talent of his is probably what made me dislike It so much – because I adored the characters in that book and hated to see what was made of them. From Eddie’ struggles with his two additions, heroin and taking care of people. To Odetta cool demeanour and Detta’s craziness, each of these people are essential to Roland’s journey for many reasons. They are his companions and will probably help him out but at the heart of it, is the necessary humanisation of a hard-boiled character. His connection with the two characters shows that he is still very much able to love – even if he is willing to sacrifice them all for a greater purpose. He is The anti-hero. Plus, he spends the book, crippled, starving, nearly dying of infection and yet, he manages to capture your attention, to command and demand respect from his companions and from the reader. I am at Roland’s feet in the end, even if I am unable to understand what exactly, drives him.

My main gripe with the book, which is my main gripe with most of Stephen King’s works (expect for The Gunslinger which was short and to the point hence being my favourite so far), is that everything above, this whole story could have been condensed in a much shorter book – I believe that would make all the difference. Stephen King, I said that before and I repeat it here, is a word-waster. There were many, many parts completely irrelevant to the story, shifting point of views to en passant characters that appeared out of nowhere whom I did.not.care one iota. That dragged the book for me quite a lot in the middle (and I admit I skimmed!).

From the very trippy manner in which not only the doors appear and function to the surprising revelation of the final door (one word for you: Susannah), this book was a hell of a journey. There were highs and lows but when the third door opens, it opened up a whole new world to me. It was, for lack of a better word: fantastic. The third, final part of the book was completely, utterly remarkable and it was right then that I saw it. I saw how The Dark Tower is not only Thea’s favourite series of all time but also what is considered to be Stephen King’s Magnum Opus. I put the book down and immediately went online and bought book 3.

Notable Quotes/ parts: Roland’s endurance:

Very well. I am now a man with no food, with two less fingers and one less toe than I was born with; I am a gunslinger with shells which may not fire; I am sickening from a monster’s bite and have no medicine; I have a day’s water if I’m lucky; I may be able to walk perhaps, a dozen miles if I press myself to the last extremity. I am, in short, a man on the edge of everything.
Which was should he walk? He had come from the east; he could not walk west without the powers of a saint or a saviour. That left north and south.
North.
That was the answer his heart told. There was no question in it.
North.
The gunslinger began to walk.

Verdict: With these great characters, Stephen King has a solid band of brothers and sisters to tell his story. A bit uneven but still very good. I will definitely read the next one.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading next: Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas

Hello there! Are we ready for another stash? Here we go!

Oh, oopsie. How did this happen? (And how could we forget Dean in our Bad Boy Weekend Poll yesterday??? Jaysus. Bad Smugglers, Bad Smugglers ).

Ok, ok, let’s get to work!

This Week On The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, we have a joint review of a new YA book: Give Up The Ghost by Megan Crewe.

On Tuesday, Thea reviews Forest Born by Shannon Hale, the fourth book in the Books of Bayern series…

On Wednesday we will have a mini Neil Gaiman special! Woohoo! We have been shortlisted for Best Graphic Novel for the BBAW so we decided to celebrate with a joint review of Murder Mysteries, a graphic novel we both have on our TBRs since like, forever. Also, on Wednesday, we will be giving away two copies of The Graveyard Book one of our favourite reads of 2008, in celebration of the upcoming release of the paperback edition. Stay tuned!

On Thursday, Thea reviews Cape Storm by Rachel Caine, book 8 in the Weather Warden series.

On Friday Ana reviews another upcoming YA book: Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Finally, on Saturday, it’s the Return of THE DARE! It’s been a while since we dared each other to read anything so we decided: no more. We are not going to chicken out! So, Ana gets to read The Drawing of the Three , book 2 in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King,Thea’s all-time favourite series; and Thea has to read Perfume by Patrick Suskind – one of Ana’s favourites. Bring.It.On.

Plus, throughout the week, we will be doing short posts (and some giveaways) connected to the Book Blogger Appreciation Week, as per the suggested daily blogging topics. Check them out and take part: we are all invited to the party!

Other news:

Our Catching Fire giveaway is still open! It runs till September 15th and it’s open to residents of Canada and US only – go here to enter and good luck!

Mary Pearson, author of The Adoration of Jenna Fox,a book that Thea read and loved (reviewed here) wrote an absolutely fantastic article for the Tor.com blog on Young Adult novels addressing questions such as: YA: Who writes it? Why do they write it? Who should read it? Who shouldn’t? What are the author’s responsibilities? What should their responsibilities be? What is YA lit? What is it not? Is it “safe” literature, and she basically voiced everything we think about the genre. Here is an excerpt:

“Recently I’ve heard some discussion about the “responsibility” of YA books and YA authors. Oh, I hate that word when it comes to books. I’ve heard complaints at both ends of the spectrum, far left and far right, wanting books to “guide” readers one way or the other. Their way, I imagine. Or not include sex or language or whatever, and sometimes the whatever is pretty ridiculous, under the guise that we must “protect” young minds. I have to say, I have seen just as much harm come to children who are over-protected as those who are not paid any mind at all. I have seen parents who sequester their children away from the world in order to protect them, but hey, the world is there, and one day the kid will be out in it. Do they really want to spring it on them cold turkey? Often the results aren’t pretty. Or wouldn’t they rather have their child test the waters while they are still under their wings and can come to them with questions?”

The article is here – make sure to read it because it is pretty damn good.

Also, we stumbled across these awesome Steampunk-ified Star Wars figurines from Sillof’s Workshop (via Aidan at A Dribble of Ink) and were immediately smitten. (Thea: I love Leia’s dress and Artoo’s awesome new look! And Vader’s lightsaber! And BOBA FETT’S HELMET! EEEE! I want them all.) Click to enlarge all images.

And look at how awesome Wedge Antilles looks! And Ewoks get NASTY!

This guy’s work is pretty awesome. Check out his Star Wars circa 1942 figurines too, or his Victorian Avengers while you’re at it!

On our Radar:

Contemporary Romance: (no one does it better than Julie James – BEST repartee in the style of old screwball comedies)

Of all the hotel rooms rented by all the adulterous politicians in Chicago, female Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde had to choose the one next to 1308, where some hot-and-heavy lovemaking ends in bloodshed. And of all the FBI agents in Illinois, it had to be Special Agent Jack Pallas who gets assigned to this high-profile homicide. The same Jack Pallas who still blames Cameron for a botched crackdown three years ago—and nearly ruining his career…

Work with Cameron Lynde? Are they kidding? Maybe, Jack thinks, this is some kind of welcome-back prank after his stint away from Chicago. But it’s no joke: the pair is going to have to put their rocky past behind them and focus on the case at hand. That is, if they can cut back on the razor-sharp jibes—and smother the flame of their sizzling-hot sexual tension…

YA: Cinderella retold

In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

YA: contemporary

At Fairfield High, everyone knows that south siders and north siders aren’t exactly compatible elements. So when cheerleader Brittany Ellis and gang member Alex Fuentes are forced to be lab partners, the results are bound to be explosive.

Neither teen is prepared for the most surprising chemical reaction of all – love. Can they break through the stereotypes and misconceptions that threaten to keep them apart?

YA: contemporary

For months, Cass Meyer has heard her best friend Julia, a wannabe Broadway composer, whispering about a top-secret project. Then Julia is killed in a sudden car accident, and while Cass is still reeling from her death, Julia’s boyfriend and her other drama friends make it their mission to bring to fruition the nearly-completed secret project: a musical about an orphaned ninja princess entitled Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.

Cass isn’t one of the drama people. She doesn’t feel at home with Julia’s drama friends, and she doesn’t see a place for her in the play. Things only get worse when she finds out that Heather Galloway, the girl who made her miserable all through middle school, has been cast as the ninja princess.

Cass can’t take a summer of swallowing her pride and painting sets, so she decides to follow her original plan for a cross-country road trip with Julia. Even if she has a touring bicycle instead of a driver’s license, and even if Julia’s ashes are coming along in Tupperware.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend is a story about friendship. About love. About traveling a thousand miles just to find yourself. About making peace with the past, and making sense of it. And it’s a story about the bloodiest high school musical one quiet suburb has ever seen.

Fantasy

Once, all power in the Vin Lands was held by the prince-mages, who alone could craft spellwines, and selfishly used them to increase their own wealth and influence. But their abuse of power caused a demigod to break the Vine, shattering the power of the mages. Now, fourteen centuries later, it is the humble Vinearts who hold the secret of crafting spells from wines, the source of magic, and they are prohibited from holding power.

But now rumors come of a new darkness rising in the vineyards. Strange, terrifying creatures, sudden plagues, and mysterious disappearances threaten the land. Only one Vineart senses the danger, and he has only one weapon to use against it: a young slave. His name is Jerzy, and his origins are unknown, even to him. Yet his uncanny sense of the Vinearts’ craft offers a hint of greater magics within — magics that his Master, the Vineart Malech, must cultivate and grow. But time is running out. If Malech cannot teach his new apprentice the secrets of the spellwines, and if Jerzy cannot master his own untapped powers, the Vin Lands shall surely be destroyed.

In Flesh and Fire, first in a spellbinding new trilogy, Laura Anne Gilman conjures a story as powerful as magic itself, as intoxicating as the finest of wines, and as timeless as the greatest legends ever told.

Fantasy

With their forces gathered, the revolutionary leaders within Lescar begin their bid to win the minds and hearts of the people, as well as the lands of the rival dukedoms.

Fantasy

Hoping for a better life, five war veterans colonize an abandoned island. They take with them everything they could possibly need – food, clothes, tools, weapons, even wives.

But an unanticipated discovery shatters their dream and replaces it with a very different one. The colonists feel sure that their friendship will keep them together. Only then do they begin to realize that they’ve brought with them rather more than they bargained for.

For one of them, it seems, has been hiding a terrible secret from the rest of the company. And when the truth begins to emerge, it soon becomes clear that the war is far from over.

With masterful storytelling, irresistible wit, and extraordinary insight into human nature, K.J. Parker is widely acknowledged as one of the most original and exciting fantasy writers of modern times. THE COMPANY, K.J. Parker’s first stand-alone novel, is a tour de force from an author who is changing the face of the fantasy genre.

And that’s it from us today, have a great week!
~ Your Friendly Neigborhood Book Smugglers

Title: Gone and Hunger

Author: Michael Grant

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Speculative Fiction

Publisher: Harper TEEN
Publication Dates: Gone – June 2008; Hunger – May 2009
Hardcover: Gone – 576 pages; Hunger – 608 pages

Stand alone or series: Books 1 and 2 in the Gone series by Michael Grant.

Why did I read these books: I’d had my eye on Gone for a while last year – the premise sounded phenomenal, a sort of modern day Lord of the Flies with a supernatural twist. Finally I decided to pick it up a few months back…and I couldn’t put it down. And when I got an ARC of Hunger, book 2, I was ecstatic.

Summary: (from Amazon.com)

Gone
In the blink of an eye.

The Darkness has awakened. And it is hungry.

Review:

GONE

Gone introduces us to the world of the FAYZ – the Fallout Alley Youth Zone. In the blink of an eye, everyone in the small seaside town of Perdido Beach over the age of 15 has disappeared. Poofed. Gone. A strange, shimmering barrier separates the residents of the FAYZ from the outside world; a dome-like structure that distorts even sunlight and stifles waves on the ocean. Frightened and alone, the children look for leadership and turn to 14 year old Sam, known throughout town for his single act of heroism a couple of years back, having calmly steered a school bus to safety when the driver had a sudden heart attack. As one of those marked by nature as a leader, Sam is still reluctant to claim responsibility for every living person in the FAYZ – and he’s spared from having to take control when kids from Coates Academy, the private school a few miles north of the beach, show up in town. Led by the handsome and charismatic Caine, the Coates kids take control of the beach, designating jobs for the other children. Though Caine initially seems smoothly benevolent, it becomes clear to Sam and a few others that Caine and his lackeys are more interested in power than the well-being of any of the children, especially after his makeshift “police force” (comprised of former bullies) beat a young girl to death. And soon, Sam discovers that something is very strange about the FAYZ – certain children, including Sam and Caine, have developed superhuman powers, and animals begin displaying shocking new characteristics. Snakes can fly, coyotes can talk, and something lurks in the darkness, hungry and ancient. Meanwhile a war is brewing between the Perdido Beach kids and the Coates kids, as Sam and Caine race for control of the FAYZ before they turn 15 – for at 15 years old, they too will disappear.

Gone is a forceful, relentless novel. A bit Lord of the Flies, a bit It, a bit X-Men, this was a novel that I could not tear myself away from. Tightly plotted, dark as hell, with a number of surprising twists along the way and a multitude of wonderful characters, Michael Grant won me over with this solid start to a new series. Though the main focus of Mr. Grant’s books isn’t necessarily an explication of man’s animal nature when stripped of its facade of civilization portrayed through the eyes of children (such as Lord of the Flies), there is something haunting and compelling about these sorts of post-apocalyptic/stranded/dystopian novels. Especially those that involve children.

Plot-wise, I couldn’t be more pleased. Michael Grant seems to me to be a Stephen King fan (and in turn, Stephen King is one of Mr. Grant’s), employing a broad scope of different, deeply flawed characters thrown into an impossible situation and letting them grow from there. Upon starting the book, I had absolutely no idea that nuclear radiation induced superpowers would play any role in the novel, nor did I expect the book to be so dark as it ultimately was. Though the writing level is decidedly young adult, the themes within the novel and the level of violence is certainly more mature. Children kill other children; they use guns; they reduce others to starvation and cruel imprisonment. If William Golding let his lost boys use automatic weapons and superpowers, Gone might have been the final product.

The similarities to Stephen King and Lord of the Flies are imbued in every sentence of this novel, as though Grant is paying homage in his own unique version of these dark, coming of age parables. The division between Perdido Beach and Coates, between Sam and Caine is very much the same divide between Ralph and Jack (of LOTF). The characters are similar in their notions of right and wrong, civilization versus survival instinct. And, like King’s It (and somewhat like The Regulators/Desperation for reason’s I won’t disclose for fear of spoiling), something ancient and very hungry waits to devour the young children of the FAYZ; evil, dark, patient. The blend is intoxicating, and it makes Gone something very different from the slew of speculative fiction young adult novels on the market.

Just as the plotting and ideas for the story were wonderfully imagined, the characters were also solid. Sam as the reluctant leader who makes more than his share of missteps is wholly believable, and his complete lack of interest in taking control of Perdido Beach endears him as the obligatory “hero” character. His transformation from someone who chooses to remain average and anonymous – reflected especially in his deteriorating friendship with best friend Quinn – to strong leader is an engaging, resonating read. Sam’s love interest, the brilliant Astrid (nicknamed “Astrid, the Genius” by the Perdido crowd) plays leading lady in Gone; Astrid is Sam’s second in command and though somewhat support-system-esque is a strong character in her own right, especially as a very smart girl caught in a very bad situation, and also as an older sister trying to protect her younger, autistic brother.

However, the most engaging characters in my opinion were the “baddies” (not exactly surprising – “bad” characters are so much more fun than the good guys). While Caine, as Sam’s opposite, is fascinating in his motivations and machinations for power (if somewhat predictable), the two standouts to me were his lieutenants, if you will: the malicious, sadistic Drake, and the manipulative Diana. Drake is every child’s nightmare; a bully, eager to inflict pain in any way he can, practically a serial killer in the making. Drake is bitterly angry at Caine and the other “freaks” who develop superpowers, but a dark twist of fate brings him power of his own late in the novel (a deliciously horrifying twist). Diana, in contrast, is an enigma. She manipulates characters to her own inconceivable ends – including Caine, who is in love with her. She is cold, calculating, and I had no idea what her endgame was…and that is something incredibly refreshing in any novel, let alone a young adult novel. The multitude of secondary characters, on both Sam and Caine’s respective “sides” of the FAYZ are wonderfully drawn and I applaud Mr. Grant’s keen sense of teenage (and younger) children. Very compelling stuff.

Perhaps the most wonderful, shocking thing about Gone was the fact that I was expecting it to be a self-contained (no pun intended) story, with a definitive resolution. More often than not, I’ve found that YA series’ tend to wrap things up in a single book and then later a “companion” novel (same world, different story) will be released as its own stand alone novel. Imagine my shock, then, when I finished the book and the FAYZ was still going strong – no resolution, but many provocative questions had been raised. I eagerly looked for the next entry in Mr. Grant’s Gone universe, and campaigned for an ARC of book two…

HUNGER: A GONE Novel

Hunger begins months after the events of Gone, detailing how life has soured in the FAYZ over the course of a few months. Though Sam has been able to beat turning 15 and has blossomed as the leader of Perdido Beach, he has a number of problems facing him ever day – the most pressing of which is food. In the early days of the FAYZ, the children ran amok, raiding the local Ralphs (a Southern California grocery chain) and homes for cookies, chocolate bars and chips, while the fresh produce sat untouched. Now, months later, the McDonald’s has run out of frozen food, everything perishable has rotted, and there are no more cookies or goodies remaining. Resorting to eating canned artichokes and condiments, the children of Perdido Beach begin to turn on each other – catching vermin, eating neighbors’ pets, and the jokes about cannibalism start to hold an ominous foreboding.

After being beaten by Sam and his crew of superhuman freaks, Caine has visited the mysterious, terrifying entity in the local mine called The Darkness, and has spent weeks in a terror-gripped coma. When he awakens, Caine has a singleminded mission and aims all his strength at taking Perdido Beach down once and for all. Though, Caine’s thoughts aren’t quite his own…the Darkness waits and like the children of the FAYZ, it is very hungry.

As the title suggests, this second novel focuses on the theme of hunger and the continued deterioration of civilization in the FAYZ. There are many deliciously creepy scenes in this installment – one of my favorites has to be the opening chapter, with killer flesh eating worms in the fields. Mutations are becoming more prominent in this book, and the X-Men comparisons are completely warranted. As one would predict, lines begin to be drawn in the sand of the Perdido kids – between the Normals (or, as their Stryker-minded leader calls them, the Human Crew) and the Muties/Freaks/”Moofs”. Kids are frustrated with their hunger, not wanting to work for their food and blaming Sam for their problems. When the Coates kids come back and make a stand for the nuclear power plant, Sam has reached the end of his rapidly fraying rope – which is completely understandable, given that he is just a fifteen year old boy with the weight of a community on his shoulders.

By and large, I think Hunger lived up to its predecessor, and in some aspects surpassed it. There is much more revealed in this installment about the source of the FAYZ, and much more explored with the maleficent Darkness that has its hooks into characters that have been in its presence. The violence is turned up in this book, as is the twisted, gleeful sadism Mr. Grant inflicts on his characters – and I mean that in the best possible way. This is not a series for the weak of heart!

However, there were some drawbacks to Hunger – namely, how boring Sam and Astrid were. I felt a little bit of Jack and Kate (of the TV show LOST) sort of apathy towards these two heroes; Sam is the woebegone leader who just doesn’t want to lead but just can’t help it, and Astrid spends way too much time relegated to a secondary, worried girlfriend role (for a genius, Astrid doesn’t do too much in this book – powers or no powers, I wish she had been given something more interesting to occupy herself with than cry about Sam and her brother Little Pete).

Once again, I found myself infinitely more interested in the Coates kids – namely Drake and Diana. Drake is less formidable in this book, but still remarkably terrifying; and Diana’s motivations are as ambiguous as ever. Her relationship with Caine is dark and twisted – and is it wrong that I am fascinated with them, much more so than boring, vanilla Sam and Astrid?

Back on the “hero” side of the line, Lana (the Healer) gets a whole lot of attention in this book, as do Computer Jack, Brianna “The Breeze”, and Albert. These secondary characters again are far more interesting than Sam and Astrid – particularly Lana’s tortured compulsion to the Darkness, Jack’s spinelessness, Breeze’s superhero fixation, and Albert’s cool calculating personality. Each of these characters are well rounded and fascinating, making for a wonderful ensemble cast.

As for the story, once again I found myself unable to put down this second book, and it was over far too quickly. Luckily for me, and for other fans, Hunger is just book 2 of a planned 6 book series. I cannot wait to read book 3, titled Lies, to see what next will befall the children of the FAYZ.

Notable Quotes/Parts: Harper Teen has a phenomenal LOOK INSIDE feature, where you can check out the first few chapters of many of their titles. Check out the opening of Gone and Hunger below.

Additional Thoughts: In addition to the wonderful Look Inside feature, the Harper Teen website also has a fantastic homepage for the Gone novels.

Also, make sure to check out the author’s blog (which took me forever to find!) HERE.

I also mentioned earlier that Stephen King, the Master of Horror himself, is a fan of these books. If you’re into King, you may know that his next novel coming out in November of this year is titled Under the Dome. It is a rewrite of a novel King began to write in the 1980s, with something of a similar premise:

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mills, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

~ Synopsis from Lilja’s Library

Dan Simmons has already given his stamp of approval. Who else is excited?

Verdict: Gone and Hunger are dark, compulsive reads embodying the best of post-civilization novels and supernatural fiction – for both young adult and adult readers alike. I, for one, cannot wait to return to the FAYZ once more.

Highly recommended…and Hunger just might make it on my list of favorite reads so far in 2009.

Rating:

Reading Next: Jasmyn by Alex Bell

Title: The Talisman

Author: Stephen King and Peter Straub

Genre: Fantasy with a few elements of horror.

Stand Alone/ Series: Stand Alone but there is a sequel of sorts with an adult Jack Sawyer titled Black House

Summary: Jack Sawyer, twelve years old, is about to begin a most fantastic journey – an exalting, terrifying quest for the Talisman. Only the Talisman can save his dying mother and defeat the enemy who is out to destroy them. But to reach his goal, Jack must make his way not only across the breadth of the United States, but through the wondrous and menacing Territories as well.

As Jack makes his way westward towards the redemptive Talisman, a dual array of heart-stopping encounters challenges him every step of the way – from a terrifying period of captivity in an orphanage run by a sadistic religious fanatic, to the sudden and murderous attack on the Territories by the enemies of the Queen.

Why did I read the book: I recently read It and after that debacle, I vowed never to read another Stephen King novel. Thea then proceeded to dare me and it became a Feat of Strength as in true Marty Mcfly fashion, I never back away from a challenge.

Review:

On September 15th, 1981, a boy named Jack Sawyer stood where the water and land come together, hands in the pockets of his jeans, looking out at the steady Atlantic. He was twelve years old and tall for his age.

In this manner, Jack Sawyer’s story opens. A young boy, standing by the ocean trying to figure out how come his life has changed so much in the past months not expecting how much it would change even more from that point on. 3 months ago his mother had closed their home in Los Angeles and they moved to New Hampshire’s coast. Living at the Alhambra Inn hotel, where the days would pass with Jack asking himself what was going on, why isn’t he at school, why is his mother doing this, to the point where it became clear to him that the only explanation was that: his mother was running and his mother was dying. Not that she would tell him anything – and with his father being dead and his father’s business partner “uncle” Morgan Sloat clearly being the reason why his mother is running, Jack is all alone do deal.

Then Speedy Parker, an old, mysterious man who befriends Jack tells him that he must go on a journey to the other side of the country to get a Talisman that would cure his mother. This journey would take place between this world and a parallel world called the Territories to which Jack would flip with the help of a magical juice. The Territories are a smaller version of our own world with a time frame that resembles the medieval age.

In a series of short flashbacks we learn that the Territories are not a surprise to Jack – when he was younger, he had ventured into the parallel world, which he called Daydreams, a couple of times. He also knew that his father had visited it and as the story progresses he comes to know how important his father was to the Territories and that he was the one to introduce his partner Morgan to the place which is what ultimately seals Jack’s fate.

Jack also learns that most people in this world have a Twinner in the Territories – with the same date of birth and death and with pretty much the same personality. Jack’s Twinner, a boy named Jason was murdered when he was a child (a parallel attempt occurred in this universe as well, but with a different outcome) and that Jason was the son of the Territories’ Queen, a woman who is also dying. By saving his mother, her twinner, the Queen, will also be saved. All of a sudden, Jack’s search becomes Important with the capital I as not only his own mother’s life is at stake but the whole future of the Territories.

This is a typical Quest plot- in which the young heroe undergoes a perilous journey in search of an object , overcoming many obstacles and going back home.. Jack’s quest is one full of danger, violence, horror and despair. He is for the most part, utterly alone and has to defeat demons – both internal (he is after all, only a boy and shouldn’t a boy be at home, going to school and having his mother tending to HIM?) and external. He is pursued by both Morgan Sloat and his twinner, Morgan of Orris who seek to thwart Jack’s plan in order to seize control of the Territories once the Queen is dead. But Jack also makes friends – there is Wolf (Wolf! Wolf!) , a werewolf from the Territories who Jack brings back to this reality and who helps him in many ways and there is Richard, Morgan’s son and Jack’s best friend. Both add something to Jack’s Quest but this is truly a story of the lonely hero who has to ultimately, fulfil his destiny on his own. And boy, does he. A true hero in the making, self-sacrificing, relentless in his pursuit of what is going to save his mother, strong and vulnerable, Jack Sawyer is an amazing protagonist.

As with other Quest’s stories this one is epic in scope and dispassionately speaking, there is no fault with the premise or with the mechanics of the journey. The Territories is an interesting parallel universe where things are seemingly safer and better. In fact some of the worst things that happen to Jack happen in our world and they are stuff for nightmares. Examples of that are his short stay at the Oatley Tap where he worked basically as a slave for the bar owner or his longer stay at the Sunlight Gardener’s School, a place for “troubled youths” where he learns the true meaning of evil and madness. These passages were heart-wrenching and heart-racing and were a drop of brilliance in a sea of … meh.

My problem with the Talisman lies with the telling. This is something I noticed when I read It and which became clear as day with The Talisman: Stephen King is a word-waster. This book is way overlong. The first chapters failed miserably to capture my attention and the information that was relayed them could have been relayed with less pages. When I finally got into the story –mostly by connection with Jack Sawyer – I kept being pulled back by boring passages. But his word-wasterness is even worse when you realise that even with all the chapters and passages essential things were left OUT. It wasn’t until the very end, that it became clear to the reader the WHY and the HOW of the Jason-Jack dynamic and that was by telling and not by showing.

And at the heart of my disappointment with the novel is the fact that part of me (the emotional part) could not understand at all Jack’s devotion to his mother which is at the core of the story. The first 150 pages of the book, where the story is being set and we get to learn about the Territories, and where we are introduced to characters here and there, very little is spent with Jack’s mother. And this should have been the most important relationship in this whole book. Instead all we see is her complete disregard about her son’s life – keeping him out of school or refusing to discuss his part on his father’s company and therefore his inheritance or even telling him what the hell is going on. She comes across as a most selfish person which contrasts greatly with Jack’s unselfishness. All I wanted was for Jack to get away from harm’s way because in all honesty, his mother was undeserving.

But that other part of me (the objective mind), understands that this is not the point of the Quest – the Quest is for the HERO regardless of any plot devices: Talismans or Mothers. The same part also realises that archetypes will be archetypes and it doesn’t matter that his mother is undeserving, that his mother is selfish. She is after all, HIS MOTHER. And this young man will go to hell and back for his.

Notable Quotes/ Parts: a very poignant, emotional passage.

While searching for socks, his hand encountered something slim and hard. Jack pulled it out and saw it was his toothbrush. At once, images of home and safety and rationality – all the things a toothbrush could represent – rose up and overwhelmed him. There was no way he could beat these emotions down or turn them aside this time. A toothbrush was thing meant to be seen in a well-lighted bathroom, a thing to be used with cotton pajamas on the body and warm slippers on the feet. It was nothing to come upon in the bottom of your knapsack in a cold, dark tool-shed on the edge of a gravel-pit in a deserted rural town whose name you did not even know.

Loneliness raged through him; his realisation of his outcast status was now complete. Jack began to cry. He did not weep hysterically or shriek as people do when they mask rage with tears; he cried in the steady sobs of one who has discovered just how alone he is, and is apt to remain for a long time yet. He cried because all safety and reason seemed to have departed from the world. Loneliness was here, a reality; but in this situation, insanity was also too much of a possibility.

Additional Thoughts: this is way random but somewhat related to The Talisman. A couple of years ago, I was in Egypt. In Aswan , on the West Bank and we hired camels to climb to the ruins of a monastery. On the way back, we were calmly going down the path when a group was coming up, also in camels. Now, when you are riding (?) a camel somehow it entitles you to smile at strangers. Because you are in the same perilous and yet ridiculous position and as the group when by me, I was smiling at them and they were smiling at me and OH MYGOD it was STEVEN SPIELBERG.. Smiling at me. I nearly fell off the camel at that point and I looked back at Dear Partner and I was like, “did you see him, did you see him” and he says: who? He didn’t notice Steve (yes, first name basis ok, riding camels and smiling at each other do that to people). And to this day he won’t believe me. But I swear it was him. As we returned to the hotel, I went online and googled him. It said on IMDB that he was currently producing the Talisman by Stephen King for a tv series if memory serves me right. And I thought: maybe he is here searching for location? Now that I actually read the book, I see no reason why he must be in Egypt for that particular story but still. It WAS Steven Spielberg. Of that I am sure.

Verdict: A good story,not an Excellent story. And who wouldn’t love Jack Sawyer?

Rating: 6. Good

Reading Next: Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier – another Feat of Strength dare!

For this month’s dare we invited Marg from Reading Adventures – we invited Marg because, well, she explain it all in her post. Here it goes:

Title: It

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Horror

Stand alone/Series: Stand Alone

Why Did We Pick This Book For The Dare: This is one of Thea’s top 5 books of all time and one of Ana’s lowest rated reviews ever. Recently we had a heated debate about the book and we wanted to know what Marg would think about it. (basically we wanted to know if she would agree with Ana or with Thea – we are competitive this way).

Marg’s Review:

I have a confession to make. I am writing this post even though I haven’t finished reading the book that I was dared to read. I heard that collective gasp! How can I write a review of a book I haven’t finished yet? Well, I guess that I can’t really, but I can write about my reading experience, and why it has come to this sorry state of affairs!

A little bit of background. Some time ago Thea was posting at DIK about her favourite books, and I was surprised to note that I hadn’t read any of them. Whilst I certainly haven’t read every book going, there is generally one or two books on each person’s list that I have read. Fast forward a few days, and I had been dared to read any one of the books on Thea’s list, and for some reason, that I can’t really fathom, I chose It by Stephen King. I think maybe that it was because it was the book that was farthest away from my comfort zone. I read across a fairly wide range of genres, but horror is not one of these. Most of the others are books that I will likely get to one day.

Did I realise at the time how big this book was? Not at all. I was very surprised when I went to the library and picked up a book that was 1100 pages along, but I wasn’t daunted. I love chunksters – books that tell stories that are huge in scope and in size. Was I expecting to be scared? Not at all – I mean the few slasher movies I had seen had made me laugh, or want to vomit as opposed to scream in fear, and I didn’t expect this experience to be any different.

Now, I know my reading patterns pretty well I think. I always have two books on the go. One that I read on the train every day, and another that I read at night. Whilst the number of pages that I get through at night can vary, I am pretty reliable when it comes to the train books. Depending on the size of print etc, I can generally get through between 200 and 250 pages each day. So, 1100 pages to read, 200 pages a day, means that it should have taken me about 5 days, plus a few last pages at home to read. Plenty of time to finish the book and write up my post. Loads of time.

So here I am 11 days later, and I still have just under 300 pages to go, and I have to say that I struggled to get through the first 500 pages. If it wasn’t for the fact that firstly, I hate not finishing books that I start, and secondly, I was dared to read the book, I would have put it down. Not with the intention of never finishing the book, but certainly with the intention of reading something that caught my imagination a bit more than this book did. So what is it that didn’t work for me, that made the read such hard work. Firstly, I do think that part of the reason is that it is so far away from what I normally read. Secondly the amount of detail. Yes, the details of what happened are necessary, but this book is way too long, with mentions of some memories that really didn’t need to be there. The third thing is the characters. I do feel as though I connected to a couple of the characters, and Richie made me laugh, albeit in a somewhat uncomfortable way but really Big Bill seems too perfect (except for the obvious stutter), and Eddie, Stan and Mike seem are necessary to the plot, but not characters that I could easily relate to.

Part of the reason for choosing to read this book is that it is written by Stephen King, who has a reputation for excellent writing. I have never read anything by him before, and I will say, that now that I have made it through the first half of the book I am enjoying his writing. He is very skilled at using language to make it easy for the reader to differentiate between the events that happen in the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s. His method of moving from the present to the past are seamless, and extremely well done. I don’t remember reading a book where a chapter ends halfway through a sentence, and the next chapter starts with the second half of the sentence. I find myself surprised that as a technique it really works.

I also think that his representation of growing up in small town America seems very good, even if that small town is Derry, where there is definitely something strange going on. I love the technique he is using of only revealing a little bit to each of the characters as it is revealed to the readers – the jigsaw being built slowly but surely heading towards what feels like a crescendo where either the jigsaw is going to be completely destroyed, or the picture so complete that it is like the photos mentioned in the book where you can see the characters moving as you like at the static picture.

Do I get the horror elements in the book? Yes, and no. I get why people are freaked out by clowns after reading this book. I have to say though, the scariest elements in this book have not been the birds, or balloons, or clowns, but have rather been the human interactions. Bev’s confrontation with her husband, the kids fights, both individually and as a group with Henry Bowers and his friends, Eddie’s mother, and others. At this point I am fearing what will happen with both Tom Rogan and Henry Bowers, and I am a bit scared at the thought of what the final showdowns, both in the past and in the present will be like. These kids have already been tormented so much, and as adults are already remembering so much trauma.

Am I going to finish the book – absolutely! There is no way that I am reading 800 pages of an 1100 page book and putting it down. I have a few expectations of where I hope the book goes. As a reader who has a bit of a bias to romance, I know what I am hoping for in the ending. I don’t think I am going to get it, because to be honest Stephen King isn’t known for his romance now is he. I am hoping that Ben gets a chance with Beverly. I think Ben and Bev are the two characters that I connect to most. I wasn’t a fat kid, but I am a fat adult, and there is definitely a common theme in Bev’s story to my own. I am hoping that this group of friends who have reconnected again after so long don’t lose each other again.

I want It to be destroyed. Having said that I have no picture in my mind of what Derry would be like without It being part of it – somewhere boring and mundane probably.

Most of all, I just want to finish the book. You can be sure that I will be sharing my final thoughts.

At this point in time, if I had to rate the book it would be somewhere between a 3.5 or 4 out of 5. I usually give a pretty standard good read a 4 so it is definitely a reasonable grade for a book that has (finally) sucked me into its world.

I love the idea of Book Dares, and would gladly participate in another one at some point in the future, despite the fact that I don’t think I will be in a hurry to read another book from this specific genre, or from Stephen King any time soon. Never say never, but it would most likely be when I have run out of other books to read, which isn’t going to happen any time soon.

Thanks for the dare Ana and Thea!
___________

You are very welcome Marg! We are gagging ourselves here NOT to answer your questions about the book and we hope you will come back to tell us what you thought!

Our next Dare Victim Guest is Graeme from Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review and he will be reading The Sandman, volume 1, Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

But there is a major twist. We dared Graeme and he dared us BACK! So, next month while he reads and reviews Gaiman , we will read and review:

Hasta la vista!

Thea: So, now you’ve read one of my Desert Island Keepers! What was your first impression of the novel?

Ana:

Astonishment.

I started reading it with not a small amount of trepidation. Not only this was my first full length Stephen King novel (not counting The Gunslinger which is so short – I loved it by the way) but hailed as one of the scariest books in the known universe.

But to my surprise, the opening chapter was scary yes, but it was so touching with the relationship between Bill and his younger brother Georgie, who dies right there and then, setting things in motion. I was expecting pure, unabashed horror and all I got was heart. Pure and simple heart. I was hooked as I felt my emotions leaping into the book and connecting with the kids’.

From there on, my amazement only progressed and grew tenfold as we get a glimpse into the adult life of the characters and once again, I was surprised that the writing was so good and in a few pages, Stephen King showed me who these people were.

THEN, the horror starts as each of them starts remembering their forgotten childhood, and there was this sense of mystery about the why or how but also this beautiful flowing back and forth between now and then until all comes into place. It is a tour the force, an ambitious project that pans out until about ¾ of the novel when it all comes crumbling down like a sand castle washed by sea waves.

Thea: Which of the “Losers Club” was your favorite and why?

Ana:

Easy peasy: Ben. You know how much I love romance – so this bias of mine probably account for Ben being my favorite because out of all the kids he was the knight in shinning armour – the one that was always protecting and thinking about Bev. The way he loved her, how he felt about her, it was so sweet and tender. Plus there is the fact that he was so smart and the library was his favorite place. And my heart was swelling with tenderness as this fat, bullied, lonely kid finds solace in the friendship with the others.

I don’t get the overstated special allure of Bill – I mean he was as cool as the other kids but the story and memory I wanted to read the most was always Ben’s.

My second favorite was loud-mouthed Ritchie!

Thea: What was the scariest part of the novel for you (if any parts at all)?

Ana:

The scariest part? It was not all the times “It” showed up. Oh no. Although that was pretty scary, with the clown, the ghosts, the voices * shudder *. ( I haven’t been able to sleep for over a week now)

No, the scariest part of the novel was actually all the showdowns between Bev and her father and between the kids and Henry Bowers. Because these people were so bad and so cruel and mentally unbalanced but also so very real and within the realm of possibility – the abuse and the bullying can happen anywhere, any time, in REAL life and that is such a horrendous thought- that they scared the shit out of me. I felt Henry Bowers could kill and hurt any of them more even than It. But if was even worse because Henry himself was bullied by his own father in a vicious circle that is, unfortunately, so believable.

Thea: What things did you love the most about this book? What did you hate the most?

Ana:

What I loved the most – Of course, the friendship between the kids – it is the heart and soul of the novel. The moments where they are still so innocent playing together or talking, or just making fun of each other. Each scene when they were together was great – and I burst into laughter as much as they did in the book. I connected with them in such a way, I was terrified at the ugly, scary things that kept happening to all of them. I wanted to protect them, to nurse them, to play with them. I was in pins and needles worrying that any of them would die and it was terrible, terrible to feel so.

What I hated the most – The ending. More on that below.

Also I thought some of the interludes were boring and pointless – in fact, I thought the novel was unnecessarily long.

Thea: What do you think is the strongest theme of the novel? What affected you the most?

Ana:

I would say that the strongest theme of the novel is the bond of friendship and the horrors of real life – more so than the loss of innocence, although that is very present as well. But without the friendship they shared nothing would have been possible.

What affected me the most -would you believe if I said it was the relationship between some of the kids and their parents? Like Eddie when he realises that his mother has been giving him placebo medicine to control him? Or how Bill’s parents shut him off after Georgie’s death? Or the worst of all, Bev and her parents? That was terrifying beyond comprehension.

They were alone dude, alone, they could not rely on anyone except themselves and so we are back to the theme of friendship. And how towards the end, Stephen managed to DESTROY every wonderful he created to that point with a turn of events that was stupid beyond belief.

SPOILERS FOLLOW HERE–Ana talks about the ending and why she was so disturbed by the novel.

Thea: So, let’s talk about the ending. You hated it–what exactly turned you off to the book?

Ana:

It started somewhere around the 1000th page – up to that point, I had the clear impression that I was reading one of the best books of my life.

Then, they went into the smoke tent to have the vision and lo an behold, Ritchie and Mike have the vision of what It was – and how It had come…..from outer space or from the macro-universe or whatever as we learn later on. That was the first signal of alert. I rolled my eyes and I was sad that this was the explanation for It – (I had created this theory in mind that It was actually a creation of Derry’s rotten citizens) . But later on it gets worse – because It happens to be a primordial being that exists since the dawn of time and there is a turtle and the turtle is older than It. And we get a glimpse into Its mind and It was SCARED. Of a bunch of kids. The thing that has been terrorising Derry for such a long time and is hands down of the scariest shits I have ever read about, is scared. That killed any terror I have felt up to that point. Talk about absurd.

But that was not the worse, oh no. That first sign of alert was not enough to put be me off.

I trotted on and then GODDAMN IT Bill and Bev have sex. I started to cry, because it felt so so soooo wrong, I wanted Bev and Ben to be together, to have a real adult conversation, to learn about each other , etc. Ok, so this is my romantic self speaking so I still could have lived with it. But in the middle of the sex scene, Bev remembers something else from their first showdown with It when they were kids – that she, as a way of saving them all, decided that: SHE HAD TO HAVE SEX WITH ALL OF THEM.

It was like a jolt of pure electricity. I was like, “I did not just read this”. I read it again, then again, then again. Then I emailed you and asked if what I read was true. But it wasn’t enough, I broke my rule of not looking for spoilers and went to wikipedia and yes, it was true. I was stupefied, shocked, mystified. NO WAY.

The book died for me there and then. I didn’t even need to read the rest because everything I felt for the kids, all of a sudden, is all gone. I didn’t care anymore, I felt like quitting altogether. But I kept on, skipping huge chunks, feeling bereft once more when I read about the freaking spider and then, and then the absurd sex scene.

Thea: Despite the obvious tastelessness of adolescent sex, I felt that it served a place in the story, not only as Beverly’s way of saving her friends, but as more symbolic of their complete loss of innocence and the end of childhood. Is there a point of no return? Did this scene mean an automatic deal-breaker for you?

Ana:

Absolutely, yes. I don’t even know where to start.

First there is the obvious absurdity of the scene itself. So, they are on the run, lost in the underground passages , they are losing the bond with each other (why? Why were they losing the bond with each other AFTER all they have been through?) , then Bev decided the way to brind them together is to have sex with all of them.

Can I reiterate the fact that we are talking about 11 year old children? That is absolutely inappropriate and it irked me out entirely.

Then what REALLY bugs me the most is the very idea that only sex will bind people – not love, not care, not friendship, but sex. But if you have sex with someone, it stops being simple friendship and turns into something else – friendship can still be a part of it, of course.

But the premise is ridiculous and preposterous and sexist. One girl – six boys, all around 11 years old. Come one Stephen King are you freaking kidding me? I am not one to play around with “what ifs” but can we play around with the idea here?

This principle should hold in any scenario – now you tell me if there were six girls and one boy would he have to have sex with all of them? What if two of them were brother and sister? What if there was more than one girl in the group – would the boys have to have sex with both of them? Would the two girls have sex with each other? Furthermore, by having sex with Bev they are all connected to HER, but they are not connected to each other. They should have had sex with each other as well. But no, it is the girl who makes the great sacrifice.

AND, and you can’t tell me that this is not ridiculous – she hardly feels any pain, even though she is an 11 year old virgin, who up to that point didn’t even know that the penis would go into the vagina, even though there are no preliminaries, no lubrication, and Thea, she comes. SHE COMES, TWICE. After having been beaten up, almost raped by her own father, after facing the primordial evil being, after having sex with 4, she orgasms when she has sex with the last 2 boys – I can’t believe this. I am sorry, I just don’t.

The sense of absurdity is so great I can’t even begin to describe my despair. It hurts even more because for 1000 pages I was completely fascinated with this story.

But this ending was a stupid, pathetic, irrelevant, contrived way out and all the sense of wonderment I had with this novel went up like smoke in the air.

Thea: It confronts you and takes on the form of your greatest fear–what is it?

Ana:

You. Coming after me after you read the above.

Thea: How do you rate it?

Ana:

Up to page 1000 I would have easily rated it a 9 missing on a 10 because of the unnecessary length of the novel and some pretty boring passages. After the breaking point – the sex between Bill and Bev – it is a 1. My completely visceral reaction to that one scene of gang bang may seem completely blown out of proportion but this is really, in all honestly, how I feel. Couple that with the fact that the the last third of the book never lives up to the high, impossible expectations created by the first AMAZING 2/3 and there you have it: a 1. Our first ever. It hurts to say so, as I did really really loved most part of it but I felt betrayed in the end, so I want the hours I spent reading this book, back.

I wonder how other people feel about this. Am I the crazy one here?

**THEA’S NOTE: SINCE it is Halloween Week and Thea has assumed control of the blog, she is totally rebutting Ana’s way-harsh comments.**

REBUTTAL: I really can’t let this go undefended (certainly not on ‘my’ week, either!) *straps on Commando vest and puts on war paint*

Ok, I get that the sex part will ick out some readers. Especially readers of the romance persuasion such as dear Ana. BUT, if you have read this far into the novel (we’re talking around pg 1000 here), you will know that Bev’s character is in large part defined by her shitty life at home. Her father beats her, abuses her almost to the point of sexual abuse–he constantly accuses Bevvy of being a bad girl, fooling around/sleeping with ‘those boys’–when nothing could be farther from the truth. How many times do we see this in her little flashbacks? I think then it kind of makes sense that this is her way of saving her friends, in addition to being that very strong–and yes saddening–way of ending her childhood. *Note: As to the whole not hurting and orgasm thing, I don’t know what to say(this is getting to be a weird conversation!)–they are all eleven years old, so theoretically they all wouldn’t be very…big. And she does hurt. Moving on!*

I’m not a fan of the sex, but I don’t see it as being a deal-breaker for the novel. It was important to the story in that it saved them and allowed them to find their way together (as to Ana’s claim that the loss of their bond after everything they had been through together is silly, I say that clearly they hadn’t fully defeated it, and the evil wasn’t over–since they had to return 30 years later!). And I disagree about the sex being meaningless–going past the grossness that these are 11 year olds (that have seen more disgusting things in their lives and have battled an ancient evil), their bond was always based on their love and friendship. It’s not as though Bev just pulled her pants down and said let’s have at it ‘cuz I’m horny! They close their pact with sex and then with a blood oath, to promise to return to fight It should It ever come back.

Regardless, even if the sex part is wrong and gross–is it enough to derail your entire reading experience with the novel? It’s a teeny tiny part of the story that can be skipped or skimmed over. And it’s not even the end of the book, as Ana’s reaction would suggest!!!!

If you keep reading past the ONE SCENE, the book ends on hope. It’s a book about sacrifice as well–not just Beverly, but more importantly with Eddie using his inhaler to stop It once again and dying in the process, with Mike in the hospital near death after stopping Henry Bowers, with Bill finally finishing the ritual of Chud for the second time.

And the final ending!!!!! With Bill riding his bike again, helping Audra, to outride and beat the devil one last time…these all are factors to me that outweigh any misgivings about that one, tiny scene.

And dude, a ONE?!?! Really!??! A ONE!??!! I’ve never even given a book that ultimate low rating. Wow.

So far as to what IT is and where it comes from, the importance of the Turtle, etc–all I can say is, if you read the Dark Tower books, this all makes a whole lot more sense. And again, in my opinion the important thing isn’t where It came from, but the fact that it is there, in the town, fed by fear and awakened by the depravity and horror that resides in people.

So there you have it. Opposite ends of the spectrum. Ana gives It the lowest grade ever given on this blog, while Thea hands out one of her extremely rare 10s. If you’ve read the book, or want to comment, we’d love to hear from you. Where do you stand?

Title: It

Novel by Stephen King

TV Movie directed by Tommy Lee Wallace; teleplay by Lawrence D. Cohen & Tommy Lee Wallace; Starring Tim Curry, Richard Thomas, John Ritter, Annette O’Toole, Jonathan Brandis, Brandon Crane, and Seth Green.

It is one of my all time favorite novels, and remains to this day one of the scariest books I have ever read. When I get stranded on a desert island, It is one of the five books coming with me. Adjectives like graphic, powerful and emotional come to mind when trying to describe this novel. For me, It is King at his finest hour, writing about what he does best–a small Maine town, wracked with ugliness and hate, the endurance and strength of youth, and the loss of innocence, when faced with unspeakable horror.

“The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years–if it ever did end–began, so far as I can know or tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.”

Thus opens the novel, with a story of two brothers–Stuttering Bill Denbrough and his younger brother Georgie. On a rainy afternoon in Derry, Maine, Bill makes his brother Georgie a paper boat. With Bill too sick to go outside and sail the the ship on its maiden voyage, Georgie plays by himself, setting it afloat in the rainwater flooding the street gutters. But, as boats afloat in street gutters are want to do, Georgie’s precious new toy falls into a storm drain, and Georgie is crushed…until a clown appears in the sewer, holding the boat. The figure in the drain introduces himself as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and offers Georgie a balloon, and his boat back. Innocent, curious Georgie accepts, and pays dearly for his brother’s boat with his life.

It follows a group of seven misfits, the members of a self-proclaimed “Losers Club”, as they discover that some thing is very wrong in Derry, terrorizing and killing the town’s children. Bill Denbrough becomes the leader of the group, sharing his strength and determination to stop the murderer of his brother, no longer hidden by his stuttering. Eddie Kaspbrack is best friend to Bill, and by way of his domineering, manipulative mother is an asthmatic hypochondriac. Ben “Haystack” Hanscom, overweight and the new boy in town, joins up with Bill and Eddie after they help him evade local bully Henry Bowers. Richie “Trashmouth” Tozier is the joker of the group, doing impersonations and reeling off wisecracks; he has an impulsive, defiant streak as he mouths off to just about anyone. Beverly Marsh is the darling of the group, a beautiful girl but ostracized by her classmates because her family is poor, and her father works as a school janitor. Stan Uris is a very logical, methodical boy, who is bullied because he is studious, reserved, and Jewish. The last member of the club is Mike Hanlon, singled out by bully Henry Bowers because he is black. When Mike tries to escape their taunts, the seven ‘losers’ come together for the first time, standing down Henry and his gang, throwing rocks and landing blows (one of my favorite scenes of the novel). Mike, cataloguing and photography enthusiast, takes a picture of them that day–and the Losers Club is officially formed.

The seven soon realize that they have more in common than just being outsiders–each of them has had a first-hand encounter with something terrifying, and together they figure out that It is the same being, some kind of shapeshifting monster that feeds on children, assuming the form of their worst fears. It is the same creature that ripped Bill’s brother Georgie’s arm off as Pennywise the Dancing Clown and that devours Patrick Hockstetter as a swarm of leeches…and Bill is determined to fight and kill It.

The book is told in two parallel stories–one that follows the children fighting It back in 1957-1958, and then as adults in 1984-1985. The adult seven find out that they did not end up defeating It back when they were children, and they must return to Derry, to the nightmare reunited, and finish the job they started nearly thirty years before.

It is such a powerful book, not just because of the terrifying and graphic horror sequences with Pennywise (the drain scene, the photographs, the house and the sewers, etc), but because of the characters. Meeting the seven characters, both as adults and as children, learning what they had faced together, seeing them as successful adults, and the numbing horror that they physically could not remember their pasts in Derry–it’s strong stuff. I came to love each of these characters, fearing for them, hoping for them, rooting for them each step of the way. Who says that horror has no soul, no appreciation for intelligent characterizations and and emotions? I dare any one of those critics to read this novel and not be moved by it.

Not to misguide anyone, however, into thinking this is a book without its share of gore and horror–because it is. Pennywise the Dancing Clown, with his silver eyes, multitude of floating balloons and his sanity-stealing deadlights scares the crap out of me. Always has, always will. It isn’t just the monster that scares, though. It awakens only when cataclysmic events, of intense hate or pain or depravity occur–and in 1984, the story begins with the senseless murder of a homosexual man. The people of Derry, from folks like Beverly Marsh’s abusive father to the neighbors that simply look away from the violence and murder before their very eyes, get as good as they give. Racism, homophobia, and self interest drive the small town–as Don Haggarty says at the beginning of the novel, “[Derry's] a lot like a dead strumpet with maggots squirming out of her cooze…It’s a bad place.” Above all else, It is a story about the loss of innocence, and one that I love wholeheartedly.

Years later I would read The Dark Tower series by King and, having amassed quite a few King novels under my belt by this time, be amazed by how many of his different novels were related to the Dark Tower nexus. As Roland would say, all things serve the beam, and It (especially the origins of It and the importance of the Turtle) ties in beautifully.

In 1990, a television movie was produced based on the novel, titled Stephen King’s It. I have to confess, I first saw the movie before reading the novel (I was around 12 years old the first time I saw it, and pretty quickly afterwards I sped off to the library to find the book). Perhaps this makes me slightly partial to the film adaptation–I believe this to be (easily) the best Stephen King small screen adaptation, and one of my favorite television movies, period. Certainly, I think it is the scariest tv movie I have ever seen–as a kid the same age as those in the book and in the film, it held even more meaning for me.

The movie is pretty loyal to the source material, at least, as loyal as it can be given time, budget, and ratings restrictions. The homophobia is cut out, some of the more graphic scenes (Henry cutting Ben’s stomach, for example) are deleted, as are certain portions of the book altogether (the whole Patrick Hocksetter character, the entirety of the scene in the decrepit house, the scene with Beverly after they defeat It for the first time as children). But, where it does stay true is capturing the camaraderie of the seven “losers”, tempering the fear of It with the strength of friendship, balancing horror with the happier aspects of young kids on summer vacation, finding strength and happiness with each other. And, for all that it cuts down on the gore and more graphic nature of some of It’s violence, the film proves that it doesn’t always take buckets of blood to terrify–relying on it’s awesome score and soundtrack, strong acting performances, and more ominous symbolic methods (bloody footprints, a lone balloon that explodes with blood). I’ve always been a proponent of claymation and stopmotion, as well as more hands on make-up and prop methods for special effects (as opposed to a lazy reliance on CGI) so far as horror movies are concerned, and It does this very well, also by relying on atmosphere and acting over costly (and often ineffective) effects. *Although I think the film could use an update, especially for that last battle and the visualization of the deadlights.*

Casting-wise, It strikes solid gold with Tim Curry as Pennywise.

His voice, his maniacal smile, his laugh, his delivery, the way his eyes get all red from the thick layer of makeup…holy crap, Tim Curry scares the shit out of me with his Pennywise! His script also sticks very closely to many of Pennywise’s lines from the book (“They float, Georgie. They all float.”; “You’ll die if you try to fight me. You’ll die if you try…”), and perhaps I have been spoiled by his performance. Certainly I cannot picture Pennywise any differently than Tim Curry in terrifying makeup and costume.

So far as the rest of the cast, I like the child actors they picked, in particular Stuttering Bill, Ben, and Richie (Bill played by Jonathan Brandis–who I used to have a crush on; Richie by a very young Seth Green). I would have chosen a different Beverly, but the young actress who plays her still does a great job. The adult actors for the children, however, are not so great. Annette O’Toole is a fine adult Bev, and the other actors for Mike, Stan, and Eddie I think are well selected. John Ritter as older Ben is fine by me, but not my ideal choice. I think Bill is the biggest miss–not that Richard Thomas (of The Waltons fame) does a bad job, but he’s just not Bill. Still, Tim Curry’s excellence is enough to overshadow any casting shortcomings!

The only other huge notable change from the book to the film is the nature of the battles with It, including the ultimate adult showdown–and if you’ve read the book, you have to admit there really isn’t much you can do to translate that more metaphorical, dream-like confrontation to film. The ritual of Chud is not an easy thing to visualize on screen–especially not in a relatively low budget tv movie. The special effects could use some work, as I mentioned earlier, but for the most part, I am pleased with the way both confrontation scenes are handled.

What else can I say about the book and the film? They are both superb–and I hope that everyone gives It a try.

Verdict:

Movie: 9 Damn Near Perfection, suffering only from some off-kilter casting, dated effects, and PG rating

Stick around as later Ana gives her take on the book–I get to grill her about her opinion! But for now, I leave you with a clip.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!