A few of my favorite witchy reads...

It is almost Halloween - the night where ghosts, goblins, and witches come out to celebrate their night. I thought I would share a few of my favorite witchy teen reads, after all, there is nothing I enjoy reading more than witchy tales. 

I have grouped my reads by category of why I recommend that you add them to your reading mound. Enjoy!

Before Harry Potter, there was...

Beatrice Bailey and The Chrestomanci series are both worth your time.

Looking for a fun witchy read?

These three series are so much fun. They would make great TV. If you've never seen The Worst Witch, Netflix it today!

If you enjoy historical fiction...

All four of these capture the historical frenzy around accusations of witchcraft

Of course, the Mecca of witchy reads...

What would a witch reading list be without the master of witchy storytelling?

 Original Witchy Reads...

These three tales are quite original in the way they bring witches to the page. Worth every moment!

 Favorite Odds and Ends of Witchy Tales...

These are great reads, but they don't fit into one category...except maybe AWESOMENESS!

Are there any above that you read and loved? Are there any suggestions you have for me to add to my collection?

In My Mailbox (15)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme sponsored by The Story Siren.  This is a great way for bloggers to network and share what books they are reviewing, borrowing, and/or buying.

My mailbox this week is quite small. I have been busy grading, so I have had little time to read and book shop. It is the price I pay for taking a week to relax during fall break, but it was worth it! 

Purchased from B&N

Beautiful Creatures 

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Purchased for my classroom library

How to Rock Braces and Glasses

Meg Haston

It had me at the title!

Cupcake Diaries: Alexis and the Perfect Recipe

Coco Simon 

This is such a cute series!

Won from Goodreads

Drama: An Actor's Education

 John Lithgow 

   

That's what is in my mailbox - what's in yours? Have you read any of the above?

Happy reading!

 

Victoria Schwab's Giveaway of Witchy Epicness

Victoria Schwab, author of the amazing The Near Witch, is having a giveaway to celebrate Halloween.

If you have not yet read The Near Witch, you should. It is such a great read, especially for this time of year.

Visit her blog here and enter.

Good luck to you all!

In My Mailbox (14)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme sponsored by The Story Siren.  It is a way for bloggers to network and share what books they are reviewing, borrowing, and/or buying.

 

This week's load is quite large because I spent a bit of money on my classroom library. Most of them are books I have previously read and have waited for them to come into paperback.

 

I'm excited for the new reads I have added for myself. I have already read a couple of them (I love fall break) and cannot wait to dive into the others.

Purchased from B&N

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

 I've already read and loved it 

 

Fury by Elizabeth Miles

I fell in love with the cover and with the plot idea

 

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

It's Maureen; do I need to say more?

 

 

Received as an ARC

 

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

LOVE the cover on this one; I have already read and reviewed it

 

Received from The Compulsive Reader

 

Emily the Strange: Piece of Mind by Jessica Gruner, etc.

Black Boy White School by Brian F. Walker

 

 

Purchased for my classroom

 

Life As We Knew It, The Dead & Gone, and This World We Live In by Susan B. Pfeffer

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson 

The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

The Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray
Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Matched by Ally Condie
Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles
I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend by Cora Harrison
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Beastly by Alex Flinn
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Tyrell by Coe Booth
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
Heist Society by Ally Carter
Jane by April Lindner

 

Any thoughts on the books above? Happy reading to all!

Happy ShatterDay!

You can read a chapter every hour on the hour for 24 hours here.

I read the ARC on Friday and loved it!

Unforgettable

amazing illustrations

This book was receiving quite a bit of Internet buzz, so I decided that I would give it a shot. I was not prepared for what was between the cover - a heartbreaking, unforgettable read.

Summary (from Goodreads):

This is an extraordinarily moving novel about coming to terms with loss. The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming. . . .

This monster, though, is something different. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.

Patrick Ness spins a tale from the final story idea of Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. Darkly mischievous and painfully funny, A Monster Calls is an extraordinarily moving novel about coming to terms with loss from two of our finest writers for young adults.

My thoughts: 
 

"Stories are the wildest things of all," the monster mumbled. "Stories chase and bite and hunt."

First, let me say this - wow! I knew this was going to be an emotional read, but I was not at all prepared by how emotional I would become. If you are an empathetic reader, have a box of tissues on hand.

The storytelling in this book is absolutely solid. The entire book is a metaphor for pain that humans experience when trying to cope with the loss of a loved one. 

Connor's character presents readers with a real, raw truth. Many try to ignore the reality that surrounds them because it is too painful to even acknowledge. Readers will experience this through the bullying that occurs in the novel as well as the monster's character. 

For me, the monster was the most powerful character because of what it represents, the many elements of grief. Its representation made my heart break early in the novel.

The illustrations in the novel helped solidify the pain and chaos in Connor's life. This would have been a solid novel without them, but they do enhance the novel as a whole piece. 

There is not much more I can say about this novel. I recommend it for all readers of all ages, but I especially think it is a powerful piece for any youth experiencing loss, pain, suffering. 

"You do not write your life with words," the monster said. "You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do."

The Hunger Games + Divergent + The Incredibles = Shatter Me

I received this as an ARC from my husband's work. The cover was quite intriguing, and since I am participating in a readathon this weekend, I thought I would let this be my first read. I was not prepared for the ride.

Summary (from Goodreads):
 
Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

My thoughts:

"In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived loved and lost through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction." - Juliette

 

When I first started reading this novel, I was not sure what to think. The style was different from most novels - she flips between straight prose and lyrical - but as the story progressed, I found myself sucked in. 

The strength of this novel is that it is character driven, a staple in true dystopian writing. Readers must care about the characters and their strife in order to truly care that the world has collapsed around them, must be fixed by them. For me, I cared because I wanted to know the cause of Juliette's affliction; the cause of the collapse of society; the cause of the entire package.

Juliette spends seventeen years of her life without strength, without acceptance, without peace. That is until Adam is thrown into her cell. He brings into her life a possibility of all things - even if it costs him his own life. 

There are so many tense situations in the novel brought upon by the character of Warner. His role in the greater picture is clearly laid out in this novel. There seems to be no doubt to his intentions, but I am curious to see if Mafi will take him in a slightly different direction in the next novel.

Since readers are treated to so many tense situations, Mafi treats us to the character of Kenji. His character provides the same level of charm as that of the Weasley brothers in Harry Potter. Exactly! Combine Fred and George and you've got an idea of Kenji. I encountered several laugh-out-loud moments with his character.

The pattern I noticed is that the lyrical style is used during times of Juliette's duress. As readers move deeper into the pages, the lyrical style fades as Juliette's character strengthens, finds acceptance, finds peace. It is as if the prose becomes stronger because Juliette's character does.

I feel that the author takes a risk with the style of the novel. I have read many reviews that were turned off by her switching between lyrical and prose and her over-use of metaphors. For me, this made the novel stronger. I feel that this intentional switch in style is a message from Juliette - she is unsure of herself, so instead of sharing her thoughts through dialogue readers are thrust into her mind, a greater place of uncertainty than what is happening in society. 

The novel is heavy on symbolism as well - blushing, bleeding, touching. While these may seem overplayed to some, I felt that were a necessity to remind us that these characters are living in a broken society, but they themselves are alive. Blood is such a strong symbol in literature, and I feel it serves the same purpose in this novel. The touching steeps from the fact that Juliette was never able to touch, it was the one thing she craved the most. Thus, Mafi gives it to us. A reminder that we all need one another, that touching is as important to life as breathing air. Without giving too much more away, I will leave it there. 

The novel's conclusion was a risk. The author introduces us to another element, to new characters, to a new Juliette. This seemed to upset some readers, but I feel it was her way of throwing us a bone. I felt satisfied at the conclusion. 

As a side note, this novel is heavy on romance. This is the reason I compared it to an element of Divergent. For me, the chemistry between Juliette and Adam mirrors that of Tris and Four.   

Basically, if you love The Hunger Games, Divergent, Awaken, Delirium, etc. you should read this book.  

I am ready to see where Mafi will take us next.



*Note: The quote above is from an ARC - the style you see (the lack of commas) is a small example of how Mafi plays with style in the novel. I thought it was an interesting stylistic choice. The quote itself may be altered in the final copy.

Hauntingly delicious...

I'll admit - there are three reasons I purchased this book: (1) I was going to meet Jackson Pearce at the Decatur Book Festival; (2) the cover of awesomesauce; (3) the witch. 

I hate meeting authors when I have not yet read their books. I feel like it is almost a betrayal because I cannot let them know how much I enjoyed getting lost in their story. With my hectic school schedule, that was not an option this year. So I decided to save it for fall break when it would be October, my favorite month of the year. 

Let me just say that it was the right decision - the creep factor in this novel makes it worthy of an October read.

Summary (from Goodreads):

As a child, Gretchen's twin sister was taken by a witch-like monster in the woods. Ever since, Gretchen and her brother, Ansel, have felt the long branches of the witch's forest threatening to make them disappear, too.

When their stepmother casts Gretchen and Ansel out as teens, they stumble upon a sleepy Southern town and are invited to stay with Sophia Kelly at her sweet shop. Sophia molds candied magic: coveted treats that create confidence, bravery, and passion.

Life seems idyllic and Gretchen and Ansel finally start to forget their haunted past - until Gretchen meets handsome local outcast Samuel, who gives Gretchen a reason to fear Sophia: girls have been vanishing at Sophia's annual chocolate festival, taken by the insatiable 'witch' of Gretchen's nightmares. Can Gretchen save herself, the girls of Live Oak, and Sophia?

Of one thing, Gretchen is certain: a monster is coming, and it will never go away hungry.

My thoughts:

"There it is - the fear, crawling up through me from somewhere deep in my chest. 

It's darkly comforting and familiar, a friend I despise. I've never known myself 

without the fear - as much as I want it gone, I'm not even sure who I'd be 

if I woke up without it." - Gretchen

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Again, I saved it for October because it seemed like the appropriate time to help me celebrate the creepiest month of the year. There were times when I was reading this and had to put it down and step away. Not because it was bad. Because it was that good. 

Pearce thrusts readers into a retelling of an age-old fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, and delivers a solid story. As the story begins she uses repetition and alliteration, two strategies often found in children's stories. They helped ease me into the story, providing a rhythm that seemed to calm me as I read the heart-pumping "Prologue." As the story progresses, Pearce abandons the repetition and alliteration because it is no longer a children's tale. This is a tale of survival - a tale of finding one's true self - a tale of facing one's fears.

The development of Gretchen and Ansel as characters is right on target. Pearce leaves nothing to the imagination with these two - except what happened to their sister. Instead, she creates a clout of mystery and intrigue around Sophia and the town of Live Oak, leaving the reader to question what is the true story of the disappearance of eight young girls as well as Gretchen and Ansel's sister.

The story's conclusion is rife with action - making this a unisex read. This is not a story just for girls; it is a story for all readers of all ages.

Readers will feel satisfied long after the story is finished - maybe even question walking next to the woods for a wee bit of time. This is what makes Sweetly worth the read.