Pick 6: Ghosts

Culturally, we have something of an obsession with ghosts. Sometimes it's a malicious haunting. Others, it's a spirit imparting wisdom to the living. These stories run the gamut from scary to funny and appeal to a wide ranging audience. Here are six books featuring ghosts published in the past six months.

Six new books featuring ghosts:

1. Monsters in the Mist by Juliane Brandt
2. The Clackity by Lora Senf
3. Raising the Horseman by Serena Valentino
4. Ghostlight by Kenneth Oppell
5. Boo! Hiss! by Cyndi Marko
6. Spooky Sleuths: The Ghost Tree by Natasha Deen
   

Book review - The Stars Did Wander Darkling

 Title: The Stars Did Wander Darkling

Author: Colin Meloy

Genre: horror

Similar books: Monsters in the Mist by Juliana Brandt

                      Dead Flip by Sara Farizan

Rating:

 

a good level of tension

 

Summary (provided by publisher): Maybe Archie Coomes has been watching too many horror movies.
All of a sudden, the most ordinary things have taken on a sinister edge: a penny on a doormat. An odd man in a brown suit under a streetlamp. The persistent sound of an ax chopping in the middle of the night.
He keeps telling himself that this is Seaham, a sleepy seaside town where nothing ever happens. Or at least nothing did, until his dad’s construction company opened up the cliff beneath the old—some say cursed—Langdon place.
Soon, though, he and his friends can’t deny it: more and more of the adults in town are acting strangely. An ancient, long-buried evil has been unleashed upon the community, and it’s up to the kids to stop it before it’s too late. . . .

My opinion: This book is being compared to "Stranger Things" and with good reason. Not only does it share a time period and a cast of middle school kids banding together, it shares the same sort of atmosphere. We have a deep, ancient evil, reminiscent of Lovecraft. The town is an increasingly unsettling place, the kids the only ones who seem to be aware that something is wrong. It's pretty standard middle grade horror stuff. There are a number of rather strange details and the characters are not as well developed as I might have preferred. But the set up is a decent one and makes for good reading, especially for a kid interested in details off the beaten path.

Upcycled basket

 Like a lot of people who knit or crochet, I have a lot of scraps of yarn too small to make a whole project. It seems like a shame to throw these odds and ends away so I end up tucking them away in hopes that I will find a use for them. I'd built up a large enough stash that I tied them together into what I've learned some people call Franken-yarn. I crocheted a three-strand chain of these mismatched yarns and sewed that chain into a coil basket. It's large and a little floppy, perfect for storing mending or other in-progress projects.

Book review - The Weight of Blood

 

Title: The Weight of Blood

Author: Tiffany D. Jackson

Genre: horror

Similar books: Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams

                     Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide

Rating: 

 

offers more than simple scares

Summary (provided by publisher): When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation . . . Maddy did it.
An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.
After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life.
But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives.

My opinion: Let's get the obvious out of the way first - this is clearly inspired by Carrie. The book even acknowledges the parallels. It just goes far beyond the idea of a cowed girl pushed past her breaking point. It asks us to consider if there is any understandable excuse for an act of violence. It asks us to consider all forms of racism and the ways that they destroy. It asks us to consider how expectations are different based on gender, all forms of privilege and oppression. The things we fear and the freedom that comes with giving them a platform. And ultimately, what true justice looks like. This is not a comfortable read. There is stark violence and truly gruesome imagery. And the level of introspection it asks of us can make a person uneasy. But it's absolutely worth it.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Graphic novel spotlight - The Adventures of Superhero Girl

 

The Adventures of Superhero Girl by Faith Erin Hicks

Maybe you're like me. Maybe you really like superheroes but find Marvel and DC a bit intimidating what with all of the interwoven stories built on decades of backstory. And maybe you like a little bit of humor in your reading instead of pathos all the time. If so, Superhero Girl might be for you. In this series of vignettes, we see the titular hero trying to balance being a hero with her everyday life. She battles evil, sure, but she also has to do her laundry, try to have a social life, and deal with her relationship with her much more well-liked and successful older brother. It's not just silliness, of course. It's just that the depth comes more from the "girl" side of things than the "superhero". At turns fun and serious, this is a great book to read and re-read. 

 

Book review - Dead Flip

 

Title: Dead Flip

Author: Sara Farizan

Genre: horror

Similar books: Fearbook Club by Richard Hamilton

                      The Dollhouse by Charis Cotter

Rating:

 

not as scary as we might like

Summary (provided by publisher): Growing up, Cori, Maz, and Sam were inseparable best friends, sharing their love for Halloween, arcade games, and one another. Now it’s 1992, Sam has been missing for five years, and Cori and Maz aren’t speaking anymore. How could they be, when Cori is sure Sam is dead and Maz thinks he may have been kidnapped by a supernatural pinball machine?
These days, all Maz wants to do is party, buy CDs at Sam Goody, and run away from his past. Meanwhile, Cori is a homecoming queen, hiding her abiding love of horror movies and her queer self under the bubblegum veneer of a high school queen bee. But when Sam returns—still twelve years old while his best friends are now seventeen—Maz and Cori are thrown back together to solve the mystery of what really happened to Sam the night he went missing. Beneath the surface of that mystery lurk secrets the friends never told one another, then and now. And Sam’s is the darkest of all . . .

My opinion: This book is being compared to "Stranger Things", largely on the basis of it's horror set up and 80s/90s setting. That comparison is, frankly, a bit overblown. While they share some elements, this book is lacking the pathos and complexity of the show. It's a pretty standard horror story, a missing kid the result of a seemingly normal object. It's reminiscent of movies like "Big" or "Flight of the Navigator" as much as it is "Stranger Things". While the interplay between characters is interesting at first, it isn't enough to drive the whole book. There are some solid creepy images but it's not especially scary. The conclusion gets a bit muddled which also damages the scare factor.

Firefly plaque

 I've bought quite a few decorative plaques with the idea of repainting them. Usually, when I'm buying them I'm looking at the general shape and have no clear picture of how I will use them. This plaque was different. As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what it could look like. 

After peeling off that piece of burlap styled paper, I painted the whole things very dark blue. With white paint outlines and pale yellow fireflies I am much happier with this version.

Listen with me

 

Don't Let in the Cold by Keely Parrack

Similar books - I don't usually do this with audio books but the whole time I was listening I was reminded of these two books:

I am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall - A tale of a girl surviving the Canadian wilderness alone with her dog after a violent attack

Snow Bound by Harry Mazer - A story of cold weather survival that I read in my early teen years that had belonged to my mother at a similar age

As I suspected, this book is action focused. There is a constant threat of danger from some menacing strangers compounded by the perils of nature and extreme weather. At every turn the characters make a bad decision, ignore warning signs, and are subject to just plain bad luck. Towards the end the string of bad luck takes some increasingly hard to believe turns but the pacing is tight enough and the tension constant so we are compelled to see it through. There is an underlying emotional arc that pays off in a satisfying way but doesn't convey true depth. It's entertaining but not something you're going to be reflecting on later. 

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Non-fiction book review - World of Weird

 

World of Weird by Dr McCreebor

Most kids go through a phase where they have a fascination with this sort of thing. It's the age where we become obsessed with the Guinness Book of Records, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and is probably adjacent to a love of horror. So this book fits neatly into that field of interest. It's a collection of historical oddities, either proven or rumored, with an emphasis on the macabre. The author includes what is known to be true and what is only rumor. The tone is almost gleeful, so this is more of an amusement than a truly informative text. Still it's bound to scratch an itch for young readers.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Book review - Lord of the Fly Fest

 

Title: Lord of the Fly Fest

Author: Goldy Moldavsky

Genre: humor/retelling

Similar books: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

                     The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Tiffany Brooks

Rating:

 

didn't especially work for me

Summary (provided by publisher): Rafi Francisco needs a splashy case to put her true-crime podcast on the map. Her plan? Land an interview with Fly Fest headliner River Stone, who rocketed to stardom after his girlfriend's mysterious disappearance—and expose him as the killer she's sure he is.
But when Rafi—and the hordes of influencers—arrive at Fly Fest, the dreamy Caribbean getaway they were promised turns out to be a nightmare. Soon, Rafi is fighting for her life against power-hungry beauty gurus and spotty WiFi. And, as she gets closer to River, she discovers that his secrets might have even bigger consequences than she suspected.

My opinion: I was one of those kids who was really into The Lord of the Flies, the way it tore apart the trappings of society and the idea of being civilized. So I was pretty on board with a book that would do the same for modern influencer culture. And this book certainly achieves that end. Moldavsky absolutely points out all of the flaws and ridiculousness of that subculture. To an extreme degree. And the extremes are part of why this book doesn't work for me. There is a heavy sense of unreality, like the whole thing might just be a fever dream. The characters are not developed in any serious way and it's hard to take the messaging with anything more than a smirk. While I agree Golding's original novel perhaps has not aged well and has been lifted on too high of a pedestal, I'm not sure this book is the answer.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Cat toys

 I had previously made some cat toys shaped like jellyfish for a craft fair. We have another fair quickly approaching so I thought I'd make some more, only to discover that the dowels I bought for the project are in storage ... somewhere. A little quick thinking yielded two new designs: a taco and a piece of bacon.

Listen with me

 

Don't Let In the Cold by Keely Parrack

A pair of teenagers alone in a cabin in the woods with a snow storm on the way and a charming stranger lurking about. What could go wrong? How about everything. This audio promises thrills and constant action. While it isn't likely to be very deep it's probably just the thing to keep me occupied while I'm running. 

Non-fiction book review - How Science Saved the Eiffel Tower

 

How Science Saved the Eiffel Tower by Emma Bland Smith

With that title, we're going to expect this to be a tale of engineering, of some disaster that threatened the physical structure and the ways that scientific knowledge allowed people to shore up the building. Instead, we get a tale of social engineering. This is really more about history and people than it is about science. It's a tale of the plan to tear down the Tower and how Eiffel used scientific exploration to make in indispensable. There's some subtle messaging here about what the public values and how you can twist that to suit your purposes. For the average young reader, though, this is primarily an unknown story in the history of a well known structure. Well illustrated and economical with text.

 Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Book review - Don't Go to Sleep

 

Title: Don't Go to Sleep

Author: Bryce Moore

Genre: historical mystery/horror

Similar books: Of Monsters and Madness by Jessica Verday

                     The Diviners by Libba Bra

Rating:

 

mostly compelling

Summary (provided by publisher): It's 1918, WW1 is in full swing, and a Spanish Influenza outbreak is on the horizon. In the midst of the chaos, families are being terrorized and people are being killed by a lone man with an axe. As Gianna and her friend Jake investigate the heinous crimes, she realizes she's connected to the killer in a way she could have never imagined.
Gianna is the average seventeen-year-old girl living in 1918 New Orleans. She worries about her family's store, the great war, and a mysterious illness that's about to take hold of the city she loves.
It doesn't help that there also appears to be a mad man on the loose in her neighborhood. The attacks started as burglaries but soon escalate to cold blooded murder. There's a killer out there, and the police can't seem to figure out how to stop him.
Gianna enlists the help of her friend Jake to investigate. And as they study the crimes, they see a common link between the victims, and Gianna can't help but wonder if it's the same man who attacked her family years before.
As Gianna gets closer to the killer, she discovers a connection between them that she never would have suspected.

My opinion: The New Orleans axe murderer is a subject most of us know next to nothing about. It makes for compelling reading, especially when you add in the war and the beginnings of a pandemic. Gianna is a solid character, determined and self-possessed. The secondary characters could use a bit more depth but they are enough for a straightforward tale. For the most part, this book is more entertaining than deep. The ending leaves us with nearly as many questions as answers. Even so, it's an atmospheric tale with some basis in history. The pacing is spot-on, drawing us along but still allowing space for reflection.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Banana hangers

 I saw a picture online of a banana hanger and was inspired to make a version of my own. The original image used cotton cord, a metal loop, and spherical wooden beads. I made mine out of t-shirt strips and some barrel beads salvaged from a worksite.