The Summoning (Darkest Powers, Book 1) by Kelley Armstrong

         Ok, I have been on a bit of a YA binge here and I can see it continuing in the future, but a few years ago I went through this really creepy book phase and read a ton of books about ghosts and zombies and murderers and stuff and I read the Summoning then, but then I went through this phase where I got really scared of everything and could only read happy books after that. But! I gave it another try and I don't know how I could stop reading this series

          My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

         All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost - and the ghost saw me.

         Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? it's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House...before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

Click to view the book on Amazon: The Summoning

         The story starts with Chloe as a normal, if slightly underdeveloped, high school but on the day she gets her period she gets bombarded by a ghost at school, and this ghost being particularly gruesome sent her into hysterics, and so the school restrained and sedated her and sent her off to the hospital where they tested her and then sent her off to Lyle House. Lyle house has 2 other girls and three boys living there and all have problems.

         I thought it was a bit boring leading up to Chloe getting to Lyle House. I understand the importance of those first chapters, showing her life before, setting up the fact that the powers occur at the onset of puberty and all that, but I just wanted to get to the part where she meets the other crazy kids. I also didn't like Chloe as a character in the beginning, I thought she was a bit judgmental but as the book (and series) continue I started to like her more and more. As for the other characters, I liked Simon and Liz from the start and, of course, I really didn't like Tori, I thought she was a total bitch. As for Derek, I had mixed feelings about him but it is such a good book, and it is really interesting how she sees and interacts with the dead, especially when she raises them.

          Read the book, then come back and read the rest of this!

         Favorite character would have to be Derek, because as mean as he can be, he still has the best at heart for those people he considers as a part of his pack. Like how he tricks Simon into escaping by using Chloe as an excuse. It was kind of a dick move on his part to manipulate them like that but they both did need to get out of Lyle House and as you find out they were going to be moved to possibly be terminated when they didn't prove as obedient as the scientists who are experimenting on them want them to be. What really changed my mind about Derek was when it was obvious that he knew what all the girls in the house thought about him and that he was embarrassed by it. And then when he went through his first partial transformation, the poor guy. It just seemed like such a horrible thing to go through, but I am happy that he did because I really like a lot of the traits that his werewolf genes give him, but I am glad it happened because it allowed Chloe and him to bond in a way that they hadn't done before.

         Rae kind of annoyed me. I thought she was nice and I liked how close she and Chloe became, but she seemed kind of fake. And I really didn't like how she bad talked almost all of the other characters, and for some reason it really rubbed me the wrong way when she was all "I have the power of fire." I know she actually did, but it seemed like she was jumping on the bandwagon and I feel like as a character she didn't really deserve a power.

         I really liked Simon. Maybe that was why Rae bothered me so much, because she kept saying that Simon was really stuck up, but he didn't seem that way and when I read about him. He seemed like a nice guy who just happened to fall into the wrong situation and because he was out of his element and alone he stuck by his foster brother. If I was in that situation I would cling to my brother too.

         I thought this was really interesting and a great start to a series. After finishing this I went to amazon and bought the other two in the series right away and finished them that same night. I am scared of zombies and dead people and death, but Chloe was too and that made me more comfortable with the subject matter. It was really good. I gave it 5 out of 5 stars!

Abarat by Clive Barker

        I am in a fiction writing class, and like all the past writing classes I have ever taken we are asked to bring in first lines from books that we really love. I always pick a line from this book because for some reason the teachers love the image of a storm crawling on lightening legs. They don't really like the rest of the books I read... oh well. But as I was reading the opening line to this book in class I realized that I keep using this book over and over but it has been at least 7 years since I have read it, and that didn't seem very fair to the story. So I decided to dust it off and take a shot. I felt that I passed through the YA reading phase of my life very quickly, but this book always seems so cool to me, it is so crazy!

         Candy Quackenbush is a troubled yet good-natured Minnesotan girl, but when she ventures into an empty field one day and meets John Mischief, a creature with seven extra talking heads on his antlers, she's rendered awestruck and knows she's bound for a heap of adventure.

         Soon the two are narrowly escaping a dark hunter sent by the evil Lord Carrion and diving into the Sea of Izabella, a vast ocean containing 25 islands that stand for each hour of the day, plus a mystical Twenty-Fifth Hour.

         As Candy embarks on her adventure throughout this mind-bending archipelago, she visits the average citizens of Yebba Dim Day, joins a clan of tarrie-cats and slothlike Malingo to battle the dastardly Kaspar Wolfswinkel, and even gets a horrific taste of the Twenty-Fifth Hour itself.

Click to view the book on Amazon: Abarat

          Before we start I just want to state that any pictures I put in this post belong to Clive Barker. Ok, I don't even know how to start with this one. I knew I had a reason to love this book so much. It. Is. Amazing.

          I've always loved fantasy, but this book takes fantasy to a whole new level. And I think out of all the adventures I have read over the years, if I got to live one, this is the one I would pick. Half of the stuff is totally absurd. I am not sure how is does it but Clive Barker must go to strange beautiful places when he write because the things he comes up with blows my mind. Like, just the idea of The Abarat itself: An archipelago of islands where each island represents an hour of the day, except for the 25th hour which is like a mystery hour. And when I say that the islands represent their hours, they really do! They have the lighting and the weather of that island.

          Another cool thing is that the books are illustrated by Clive barker with these amazing paintings. Ok, but basically in this book Candy Quackenbush lives a boring tedious life in Chickentown, and she can't stand it. Then one day a doodle gets stuck in her head and leads her into the fields on the outskirts of town where she notices that there are sea shells and the remains of fish and drift wood laying in the grass. Upon realizing this she sees the Johns, who are 8 brothers that share one body, the main brother John Mischief has antlers on his head that his other brothers live on. Well, he talks Candy into helping him escape an assassin, and in doing so she calls in the Sea of Izabella, which is this mysterious (possibly sentient?) ocean that is the mother of the Abarat. Well Candy dives into the sea and is swept off into this brand new world where there are creatures that people only dream of. There she is pursued by Lord Carrion, the prince of midnight, who rules over Gorgossium: the hour of midnight. She makes friends with a geshrat and starts to learn magic. And she feels as if she belongs in the Abarat.

    Carrion       (left)

Malingo the Geshrat  (Right)

         This book and its characters have a sneaky way of popping up in my head throughout the day. I can't stop thinking about them. When I first started the book I was kinda like, what is going on. I read some of it out loud to my boyfriend and he told me it didn't make sense. And I think that is one of the things I like most about Abarat. They do have rules, but to me it seems The Abarat thrive on chaos and things that don't make sense. 

        I love the characters too. I like Candy and how nothing really phases her and while the John brothers kind of freak me out I think they are extremely entertaining. Malingo is the sweetest being. Now as far as bad guys go it is set up for Carrion to be the bad guy, but as the story goes on and you see more of his life it is hard to see him as truly a bad guy, there are bigger powers at play and he has been a victim of them as well. (As the books go on I find I like him more and more). The absurdity of the story is what keeps you going, obviously the writing is amazing, otherwise this one be an extremely hard book to read, but I couldn't put it down and I feel like you guys will feel the same.

         Go read the book, then come back and read this! May contain spoilers!

         The 25th hour totally freaks me out. If women there are so important why are they being held like prisoners and what is up with those freaky clown brothers? That freaked me out more than anything Carrion did.  Though Carrion's nightmares are scary. People die from them, it gives me chills but i love it so much. This first book is more of an introduction into this world and the story really picks up in the next two books. This book lays a lot of the ground work.

        There was also some beautiful "Abaratian" poetry in the book that I just loved reading. I am not a big poetry person, I like it and I can write it, but I usually pick to read other things, but I stopped to read the poetry in this book and I loved it. Gosh, I really wish there was a portal or something that could take me into this world. I give this book a 5 out of 5. I will definitely be reading it again. I love it!

I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Book Review Blogs.

Snow Walker by Catherine Fisher

         Now, this isn't normally the type of book that I have been reading recently but in an effort to save money I have been going back and rereading my old books. I do like Fantasy books though so this fits right in with that.

             Since Gudrun came from the frozen mists beyond the edge of the world,  the Jarl's people have obeyed her in hatred and terror. But the enchantress has one weakness: a son, Kari, banished to a forbidding fortress in the north, never seen by the Jarl's people. In secret they wonder: Are the rumors true? Was he born a monster? Now Jessa and her cousin Thorkil have been exiled to the north, and if they survive the journey, they will find the truth: Is Kari a beast? Or the means to stop the sorceress?

Click to view on Amazon: Snow-walker (The Snow-Walker Trilogy)

           Now, this book is filled with strange names and places and I know that it is YA, which I usually don't read. But this book really grabbed me.

           Gudrun is this creepy witch who seizes peoples minds and controls them. She has taken control of the kingdom and as her husband dies she will have total control. She only has one weakness: her reflection. It is the reason there are no mirrors in the hold. Now, Jessa and Thorkil end up as traitors and she exiles them blah blah blah. You already know all that from the synopsis so here is important stuff that you don't learn from those handful of sentences. Kari is basically awesome! He is shy but super powerful and has these ravens that follow him everywhere. It's pretty basic in the way that he has to save the day and face off against his mom. but this book has three books in it. One where he confronts his mom, another where a monster attacks and he has to save the day and the last where he travels to the land where his mom is from and tries to save the day.

           Now, the things that bothered me: Jessa. The story basically follows where she is, which is fine. But she doesn't have much personality in the first book, she just kinda went along with everyone, but then all of a sudden in the second book everyone is saying how sassy and smart she is and it's like What The Hell??? She has never been either of those things. that just pissed me off a bit.

           I also hate it when people doubt Kari. I mean come on he ha saved you guys and you think he is trying to kill you? I mean come on.

           Now, let me just say again, I love Kari... I love how he is so serious and quiet but also so curious about the world. His mom kept him locked in a dungeon for all of his childhood so he just loves new things. I don't know. I'm not explaining this very well. I'll just leave you with this:
This is a great YA book that has a great male protagonist. It has magic and suspense. It's great... or at least I think it is.