Room

"Room" by Emma Donoghue
Hardcover: 321 pages
Published: Little, Brown and Company (September 13, 2010)

Book Description:
To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

This book is a big "WOW" from me.  To have the complete perspective of a 5 year-old boy and be so compelling is truly amazing.  I could really imagine what this boy's (and mother's) situation would be like.  The author was gifted in the way that she could dream up such a nightmare, but in a realistic sense. You are given both sides of the story, really.  The boy only knows his world, the room, since birth.  He doesn't know what the outside is or feels like.  It's unknown to him other than TV.  His mother lied to him over the years as a protective measure and said that outside wasn't real.  When he turns five, she decides that she can't take it any longer and begins telling him the truth.  You only find out about half-way through the book that the mother was stolen 7 years before and forced to live in an 11x11 room that has been her world and her son's.


The book takes a turn when they are finally free of their prison, but Jack (her son) has to learn all about the real world he didn't know existed.  One can imagine what it must be like to not know something, and then having to learn about everything all at once.  They each learn to live in the world outside the room as only they can.  A very good book.  I really recommend this book to everyone.

Desires of the Dead

"Desires of the Dead" (Body Finder Series #2)
by Kimberly Derting
Hardcover: 368 pages
Published: HarperCollins (February 15, 2011)

Description:
The missing dead call to Violet.  They want to be found.


Violet can sense the echoes of those who've been murdered--and the matching imprint that clings to their killers.  Only those closest to her know what she is capable of, but when she discovers the body of a young boy she also draws the attention of the FBI, threatening her entire way of life.


As Violet works to keep her morbid ability a secret, she unwittingly becomes the object of a dangerous obsession.  Normally she'd turn to her best friend, Jay, except now that they are officially a couple, the rules of their relationship seem to have changed.  And with Jay spending more and more time with this new friend Mike, Violet is left with too much time on her hands as she wonders where things went wrong.  But when she fills the void by digging into Mike's tragic family history, she stumbles upon a dark truth that could put everyone in danger.

This book is the second in the Body Finder series.  The first book, "Body Finder" introduces us to Violet and her ability to find dead bodies and their killers.  She can find dead animals as well as dead people, so she never knows what she'll find when their pull calls her to them.  The first book also puts her in the path of a serial killer and almost gets herself and Jay killed in the process.

This second book, "Desires of the Dead" picks up where the first one left off.  Jay and Violet are now a romantic couple instead of just friends and they enjoy spending every free moment together.  As with any teen relationships there are ups and downs and arguments between them.  Violet continues to explore her ability in finding bodies, and finds a little boy that had been missing for weeks.  Video surveillance caught her at the scene, and tipped off the FBI.  They try and discover her secret just as she's entangled in a mess of her own (again).  She's still trying to figure out all the aspects of her body finding ability, but decides to let others in on her secret.  She wants to help others get the closure they need.

This book is a really enjoyable read and moves along quickly.  I like her writing style and hope that there are more in this series.  I'm not sure if there will be as this one has a good ending.  I'll have to wait and see, I guess.

Throat

"Throat" by R.A. Nelson
Hardcover: 464 pages
Published: Knopf Books for Young Readers (January 25, 2011)

Book Description:
R.A. Nelson takes us on a supernatural thrill ride, a modern day vampire story set on a NASA base and filled with space-and-science intrigue.  Seventeen-year-old Emma feels cursed by her epilepsy-until the lost night.  She's shocked to wake up in the hospital one morning, weak from blood loss.  When her memories begin to return, she pieces together that it was a man-a monster-who attacked her: a vampire named Wirtz.  And it was her very condition that saved her: a grand mal seizure interrupted Wirtz and left Emma with all the amazing powers of a vampire-heightened senses, rapid speed-but no need to drink blood.  Is Emma now a half-vampire girl?  One thing soon becomes clear: the vampire Wirtz is fierce and merciless, feared even by his own kind, and won't leave a job undone.

I, unfortunately, didn't finish this book.  I only read about 212 pages and had to stop.  I was bored by the lack of intrigue and thought the storyline was cheesy.  After having read many other vampire books, this one, although different, was not as good as it could have been.  I really wanted to like it, too.  It started out good, but then dragged on and on.  Her love story with Sagan was dumb and made me feel like she was just using him.  She would blow off his comments about work and science saying how stupid and boring she found them.  Boyfriend material this does not make.  Also, how can a seventeen-year-old girl just suddenly leave home and know how to take care of herself without any help?  She suddenly had vast knowledge overnight?  These kinds of things made the book cheesy.  Oh, well.  On to the next book.

If You Are Tired of Vampires...

If you are tired of vampire books, then try this one out:

"Firelight" by Sophie Jordan
Hardcover: 323 pages
Published: Harper Teen (September 7, 2010)

I give this one 5 stars!

The next book in this series is "Vanish" (due out in September 2011)

My Favorite Vampire Books

"House of Night" series by P.C. Cast (lots of magic along with vampires in a high school setting...series starts out strong, but fizzles with the latest books)

"Blue Blood" series by Melissa de la Cruz (preppy and wealthy high school vampires with the odd girl out setting)

"Evernight Academy" series by Claudia Gray (a love story in a special high school mixed with vampires and humans)

"Twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer (you should all know this one by now)