Active Voice

By Michael Buckley [LibraryThing - Amazon]

Since returning to Ferryport Landing, now under the control of Mayor (Queen of) Heart(s) and Sheriff Nottingham, Sabrina has thrown herself into the business of being a Grimm with a will. But when their latest case causes rips in time to start opening up over town, that business seems even more dangerous than usual. Sabrina and Daphne find themselves on the other side of one of those rips, in a dystopian future where their very survival is in question. Can they get back to their own time and solve the case before they’re left with no future at all?

I found that I couldn’t really discuss my reactions to this book without talking about the various twists and turns the plot makes in some depth, so beware: there are major spoilers behind the cut, and they are not hidden behind a spoiler tag. You have been warned.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Brandon Sanderson [LibraryThing — Amazon]

Aside from being an orphan raised in a string of foster homes, and aside from his unnerving tendency to break everything he touched, and aside from his ridiculous name, Alcatraz Smedry was a more-or-less normal kid. At least, until the inheritance his parents left him finally got delivered. It turned out to be a bag of sand, which was weird enough; weirder still, that bag of sand was immediately stolen by an evil librarian, and Alcatraz learned that, if he didn’t get his sand back, the consequences would be dire.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Justine Larbalestier [ Librarything - Amazon]

Hi. So. Jess and I aren’t dead, we’ve just been exceptionally busy. But we have been reading! So here’s a review to prove it!

Reason Cansino has never been normal: she’s spent her entire life on the run with her mother, hiding from her grandmother. Reason’s grandmother believes magic is real—and that belief has turned her into an unstable criminal. But now Reason’s mum is in the hospital, and it’s up to her to escape from her grandmother, rescue her mum, and figure out what the real secret of the Cansino family is.

At least, that’s her goal… Until a fateful trip leads her to the revelation that not only is magic real, and her grandmother can indeed control it, but that she can, too. Now Reason has to figure out who’s been telling her the truth and who’s been lying—and she has to figure out how magic works, or else she’ll never be able to save her mother or herself.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Michael Buckley [The Sisters Grimm at Librarything - The Sisters Grimm at Amazon]

Jess and I decided that our co-written review for HP7 was so much fun, we wanted to do it again! And since this series was, at least in part, the inspiration to start this site, it seemed like a great series to co-review. So here we go!

Since their parents disappeared a year and a half ago, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm have been shuffled from foster home to foster home. That is, until their grandmother, a woman they thought was dead, comes out of the woodwork to claim them. Granny Relda tells them that they are descended from the famous Brothers Grimm - and what’s more, that all of the characters their ancestors wrote about are real, and living in the girls’ new home of Ferryport Landing. Soon Sabrina and Daphne are running from giants, eating dinner with the Big Bad Wolf, and matching wits with Puck, the Pied Piper, and Prince Charming. Granny Relda is eager to train the girls to follow in her footsteps as fairy tale detectives, but for Sabrina and Daphne there’s one mystery that’s the most important of all: can they rescue their parents from the fairy tale conspirators who kidnapped them - without falling into the bad guys’ clutches themselves?

Read the rest of this entry »

By Jason Lethcoe [Librarything - Amazon]

Ever since his parents died and he was dumped into the world’s most miserable orphanage, nothing’s gone right for Ben. So he never really thought his birthday wish for unlimited wishes would come true, but it did – and caused major problems by doing so. Now he has to team up with Thomas Candlewick, brand-new president of the Wishworks Factory, and lead a small army of fairies, leprechauns, and Jinn into battle. Because not only has Ben’s wish upset the delicate balance of children’s birthday wishes worldwide, it’s delivered the unstoppable power of endless wishes into the hands of the president of the dreadful Curseworks Factory, where it’s become a weapon that may just destroy all wishing…forever.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi [Series at LibraryThing - Series at Amazon]

When Jared Grace’s mother decides to move Jared, his identical twin Simon, and their older sister Mallory out of the city, their Great-Aunt Lucinda’s house seems like the perfect place. After all, it’s lain dormant since Lucinda Spiderwick was carted off to a mental institution for claiming to talk to faeries. But soon the Grace children start to notice strange things happening on the Spiderwick estate. Faeries, it seems, are real…and not all of them are nice. Armed only with their Great-Great-Uncle Arthur’s handwritten guide to the faerie world, they must protect their home, themselves…and the entire human race.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Suzanne Collins [Collins at LibraryThing - Collins a Amazon]

Gregor is more or less an average kid growing up in New York City, though he does miss his father, who disappeared over two years ago…But everything changes one day when he and his toddler sister, Boots, fall down an airshaft from their building’s laundry room and land in a strange realm called the Underland, where giant creatures—cockroaches, rats, and bats, among others—can talk.

There are humans in the Underland, too, a colony that was led there by Bartholomew of Sandwich four hundred years ago. But it’s a hard life: resources are scarce, and the humans and rats are constantly at war. Gregor, of course, wants nothing to do with war or the strange civilization, but he discovers that his falling was foretold in a prophecy Sandwich wrote…and the prophecy also tells of a quest he must undertake to find his father, who has now been a prisoner of the rats for over two years.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Ahmet Zappa [Librarything - Amazon]

Minerva McFearless and her younger brother Max come from a long line of monster hunters (or “monsterminators”), but their widowed father has forbidden them to study something so dangerous. The two young McFearlesses practice in secret, though, which comes in handy when their father is kidnapped and brought before the king of all evil, the Zarmaglorg. Now, with the help of the talking encyclopedia Ms. Monstranomicon, and Mr. Devilstone, a mysterious one-eyed coyote with plans of his own, Max and Minerva must rescue their father before the Zarmaglorg uses his knowledge to flood the world with monsters.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Anne Ursu [Book One: Librarything - Amazon / Book Two: Libarything - Amazon]

When Charlotte’s cousin Zee comes over from England to live with Charlotte for a semester, she hopes the novelty will inject a little excitement into her relentlessly boring life. Unfortunately, Zee may have brought a little too much excitement with him, for a few days after his arrival, Charlotte’s classmates begin to fall prey to a mysterious illness – the same illness that caused Zee’s parents to send him to America. But this is not just any old plague. Philonecron - half-god, half-demon, and Assistant Manager of the Department of Sanitation for the Greek Underworld – is stealing kids’ shadows, and he plans to use Zee to lead his new shadow army to overthrow Hades. Can Charlotte save her cousin and stop Philonecron before every dead person who has ever and will ever be is doomed to an eternity of torment?

Even though they’ve just saved the Underworld, Charlotte and Zee have been feeling pretty helpless. After all, the Dead are still drifting in eternal ennui, and Philonecron is out there somewhere, undoubtedly plotting revenge. And when Poseidon’s grandson is plotting revenge against you, the last place you want to be is out at sea on a cruise ship. But, of course, that’s just where Charlotte finds herself. Now she’s got to save Zee again, plus a cruise ship full of people, and go head to head with Poseidon himself. At least she’s got the cute new boy Jason Hart on her side…or does she?

Read the rest of this entry »

By Suzanne Harper [Librarything - Amazon]

All Sparrow wants is to live a normal life. That’s why her mother, grandmother, and six older sisters, all of whom are psychics, don’t know that Sparrow has been talking to ghosts since she was five years old. That’s why her classmates at her new school, including her friend Fiona and her cute-but-surly history partner Jack, don’t know that she lives in Lily Dale, a town so full of mediums it’s been nicknamed “Spookyville.” And that’s why she’s determined not to help Luke, the dreamy teenaged ghost who’s been haunting her, put his unfinished business to rest.

Unfortunately for Sparrow, Luke doesn’t give up very easily. Even more unfortunately, Jack insists on doing their joint history project on Spookyville. But it’s not until she discovers a connection between Luke and Jack that Sparrow realizes she may just have to give up her dreams of a normal life – and give in to her destiny.

Read the rest of this entry »