The Ruining by Anna Collomore : A review

*** Spoiler Alert

The Ruining is a psychological thriller with some mystery and romance thrown in.  The main character Annie takes a job in San Francisco as a Nanny and find out that it’s not what it’s cracked up to be.   She tries to go to school and thinks this is the best opportunity in the world but it ends up being disastrous.  The woman who hires her is psychotic and manipulative.  She is very controlling and drives Annie insane.  Annie ends up locked in a mental institution.  This was a great read.  Annie was a strong character who just wanted to do what was right but she was young, naive and able to be taken advantage of easily.  This is a good example of how easily an abuser can take control and ruin someone’s life without them even realizing what’s going on because it happens so gradually that by the time they get an inkling of what’s happening it’s too late.  I felt so sorry for the children in this story, being a mom, my heart hurt every time the little girl was left alone or hurting.  All in all, a great read.  4 stars.

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, Reviewed

Maggot Moon is an alternate history of the world.  It is well written, and heartbreaking.  The characters are strong and realistic.   In Maggot Moon, those who do not agree with the current regime, are sick, make the wrong people mad, don’t do what they are told, or for just about any other reason are put into slums and starved.  Some are immediately put to death.  Others are beaten and starved until they wish they were dead.   The location of the novel is never mentioned, so it could be any place.  It mentions the current leader of the country but only briefly.  The name of that leader is never given.    The government is requiring scientists in Maggot Moon to put a fake moon landing on TV to intimidate the rest of the world.  In the minds of the characters, if those in power are able to pull off this great hoax, the rest of the world will give up and stop fighting, thinking that this country is so much more advanced than them.   In Maggot Moon, there has never been a moon landing, from what I can tell, it is set sometime in the 50’s.   The story follows a boy who is handicapped named Standish Treadwell.  Instead of giving him up at birth, his parents kept him and later pay for that mistake.  He grows up with his grandfather and they try not to anger those in charge, but don’t usually succeed.  Standish ends up being the hero of the story and one of the bravest characters I’ve ever read about.  The end is sad but hopeful. 

Hysteria by Megan Miranda, a review

Loved this one!  There were a few confusing parts, but all in all it was very good.  Hysteria is about a 16 year old girl who killed her boyfriend.  You don’t really find out the whole story until the end so I’m not going to go into details here.  She was acquitted of murder by claiming it was self-defense.    The main character Mallory is haunted by the events of that night and by the deceased boyfriend’s mother who seems to have been driven insane by the murder/death of her son.   Mallory is sent to a prep school to get away from the problems she’s encountering at home but she feels like everyone has given up on her and thinks she’s terrible.  The school ends up being almost as bad, but at least she finds a friend.  Mallory ends up having nightmares at night that leave marks on her, and she can’t sleep without a sleeping aid so she takes sleeping pills every night.  The first night she is at the new school she dreams of her dead boyfriend, as usual but this time she feels something grab her shoulder.  The next morning when she wakes there are red marks there.  Someone breaks into her room a couple of times and she just generally has a bad time at school, and then there’s another murder, and it’s someone Mallory despises.  Did she murder again?  You’ll have to read the book to find out!  4 stars.

Model Spy by Shannon Greenland

Model Spy by Shannon Greenland: A review

I really wanted to like this book.  It had some pretty good parts in it but it fell flat for me.  I was barely able to finish it.  The main character was quirky and sweet, but didn’t have a lot of depth and wasn’t really well written.  The supporting characters were also pretty bad, for example the reader never learned anything at all about one of the team members, just that he was peaceful.  It was unrealistic, poorly written and unoriginal.  1 star.

What We Saw At Night by Jaquelyn Mitchard: A review

What We Saw At Night is a thriller/mystery about three teens who have a rare allergy to the sun and most other light as well called Xeroderma Pigmentosum.  These teens, Juliet the daredevil, Rob the sweet clueless guy, and Allie the narrator of the story, explore their town at night while everyone else is sleeping, since it’s the only safe time they can be outside.  All three are surprisingly athletic, with Juliet being a previous ski star.  One night they learn to do a new trick, Parkour, which is jumping and gymnastics on public buildings with no safety nets.  It’s dangerous and thrilling.  They begin to do Parkour all over town at night and at one apartment they see something they shouldn’t.  They see a man with a very distinctive white blonde stripe in his hair murdering a young girl, or at least Allie does.  The other two teens aren’t sure what they see.  In the beginning they try to pretend it didn’t happen and go on with their lives.  The truth of what she saw begins to eat away at Allie and starts to cause problems with her friendships.  One night Allie wants to make sure what she saw was real so she goes back to the same apartment and sees the same man and a different girl, also dead.  The man in the apartment sees Allie this time and begins to stalk Allie, almost hitting her with his car at one point.

What We Saw At Night is a very interesting read, not only because the characters are very unique but because the reader is kept on edge throughout the entire book. The author must have done her research into the sun allergy disease; it was very real and heartbreaking in places just from that angle of the story.   I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it to anyone who likes a mystery.    There isn’t a nice tidy ending and there will be a sequel.  I was a little aggravated with the ending, or lack of ending but it didn’t take away from the book itself.  I’m looking forward to the next book, I want to see where Allie ends up! 

The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington – A Review

   

The Dead and Buried is a great ghost story.  It begins with a new girl in town who has a little brother, a dad and a step-mom.  There are the usual whispers as Jade, the new girl, starts school but then the whispers get worse.  Jade finds out that one of the students that went to the school died in her house just a year before.   The girl, Kayla, was miss popularity at the local high school and rumor has it that she was murdered, in Jade’s house.  Colby, the little brother tells Jade he sees a girl around the house with long hair but everyone just thinks he’s seeing things that aren’t there.  Then Jade sees her to, and Kayla isn’t happy.  Kayla wants to know who killed her, and will stop at nothing to find out.  Was it the dark and brooding boyfriend?  The jealous ex-boyfriend?  Was it an accident?  Jade has to find out what happened and soon because Kayla has taken over Colby’s little body and is threatening to kill him if she doesn’t find out who murdered her. 

 This one is a nonstop thriller, and the mystery of who did it is great.  I didn’t figure it out until the end right before the big reveal.   The Dead and Buried is a fast read, partially because the reader never wants to stop reading.  The characters are very well done, very realistic.  The struggles between Jade and her step-mother, and the other students at the school are very realistic.  The ending is satisfying but a little sad.  A very spooky ghost story!