Dear Susan Cooper,

The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper – 232 pages

“When Will Stanton wakes up on the morning of his birthday, he discovers an unbelievable gift — he is immortal. Bemused and terrified, he finds he is the last of the Old Ones, magical men and women sworn to protect the world from the source of evil, the Dark.

At once Will is plunged into a quest to find six magical Signs to aid the powers of the Light. Six medallions — iron, bronze, wood, water, fire, and stone — created and hidden by the Old Ones centuries ago. But the Dark has sent out the Rider: evil cloaked in black, mounted upon a midnight stallion, and on the hunt for this youngest Old One, Will. He must find the six great Signs before the Dark can rise, for an epic battle between good and evil approaches.”  –from Books.SimonandSchuster.com

Greenwitch – Susan Cooper – 148 pages

“The Dark has stolen an object of great power — a golden grail that holds a vital secret. Will embarks on a new quest to reclaim the grail, and to drive back the Dark once again. But first he will need the help of three former grail seekers: Jane, Simon, and Barney Drew.

Learning to work together, they must take back the grail and retrieve the missing manuscript that unlocks its mystical secret. But the manuscript is located at the bottom of the sea, and their only hope of obtaining both grail and script is entangled in the mysterious ritual of the Greenwitch….”  –from Books.SimonandSchuster.com

The Grey King – Susan Cooper – 224 pages

“With the final battle between the Light and the Dark soon approaching, Will sets out on a quest to call for aid. Hidden within the Welsh hills is a magical harp that he must use to wake the Sleepers – six noble riders who have slept for centuries.

But an illness has robbed Will of nearly all his knowledge of the Old Ones, and he is left only with a broken riddle to guide him in his task. As Will travels blindly through the hills, his journey will bring him face-to-face with the most powerful Lord of the Dark – the Grey King. The King holds the harp and Sleepers within his lands, and there has yet to be a force strong enough to tear them from his grasp…”  –from Books.SimonandSchuster.com

Though it might be a little overwhelming to read, I thought it might be more logical to write about these three installations in The Dark is Rising Sequence all at once (since I read them mostly in a row).

After Over Sea, Under Stone, I was intrigued but still not entirely certain I was going to love this series as much as people said I should.  Still, I tried to keep an open mind, and was rewarded reading The Dark is Rising.  I found I liked Will much more than I liked the Drew children–he had more of a mind of his own, was a little less childlike and, being an Old One, was rather more precocious than the Drews.  I always enjoy that in protagonists, and Will was very endearing.  I liked his spunk, and this book kept me on the edge of my seat much more than the first.  I also found that I didn’t mind the sensation that I was reading well-used fantasy tropes; again, perhaps at the time this was written, they weren’t so well-used, but in any case Will’s strength as a character cast the whole plot in a more enjoyable light.  Five stars for this one, yay Will!!

Greenwitch was something of a mix for me.  The presence of Will in the story again was delightful, though I found myself wishing it were told from his perspective; still, from a writing standpoint I understand why it was told instead through the eyes of the Drew children.  I liked them better in this one–perhaps because they got smarter, got used to danger and the mysteries surrounding them, and perhaps because I found the plot of this book to be especially intriguing.  The Greenwitch itself was fascinating; the bit about its construction reminded me a bit of the sort of sacred, nature-oriented magic and mystery of The Mists of Avalon and its many companion books, and the parts that happened underwater brought to mind Diane Duane’s Deep Wizardry.  Overall,  think that since the Drews finally started to grow on me in this book, it gets five stars.

Of course, I should have known that a series this famous and well-loved would only keep getting better, and The Grey King proved it to me.  I mean, wow!  Talk about suspense.  And Will is fantastic in this book, I love him even more than before.  You’ve succeeded in creating danger that felt really real to me, too, which is sometimes hard to accomplish.  Sure, I can get invested in fantasy danger, but it takes a special kind of threat to make me actually get nervous and rush through pages because I have to know if the protagonist makes it out okay.  That’s what this book did to me.  I’m actually sort of putting off reading the final book, because this one was so enjoyable, and it’ll be nice to go back to this series after reading some other stuff to draw the experience out a little!  Five stars once again, and I look forward to reviewing the final book!

Love,

Wanna check out this title for yourself?  Try the Indie Bound or ABC bookstore finders!

Dear Lisa McMann,

Fade – Lisa McMann – 256 pages

Janie is a dream catcher, and can enter the dreams of others (mostly) at will.  She puts her rare talent to good use working undercover alongside her fellow investigator and secret boyfriend, Cabe.  When she’s called upon to be the bait in a trap to catch a sexual predator at the high school they both attend, Cabe’s overprotectiveness begins to strain their already tense relationship; meanwhile, Janie’s lessons in dream-catching from the notes of a dead woman begin to reveal the truth about her ability–and what it will cost her to continue using it.

Fade, like Wake, was not quite what I expected it to be.  I’m not sure what I expected, really, but you went subtly in some other direction, and I’m left feeling a little confused as to what I think.

I really enjoyed your prose, and the premise of the book is pretty intriguing, but it seemed like you were skirting the edge of cliché.  Janie’s undercover act going so predictably wrong…the terrible price of using her power…Cabe’s excessive protectiveness…these are all things that could be okay, and were okay by virtue of your writing style, which I really like, but you’re coming awfully close to the perilous land of Melodrama.  I liked the book overall, but it didn’t feel quite as unique as Wake did, and I’m hoping that Gone, when it comes out, will even things out a little.  I like to give the middle book in a trilogy a little slack, because it’s a weird place to be plot-wise, and sometimes it’s hard to make something have a beginning and end and an emotional arc when the whole thing is neither the beginning nor the end of a larger story.  It was more than worth the read, though, and it gets four stars, along with high hopes for the third book to tie things up in some wonderful and exciting way.

Love,

Wanna check out this title for yourself?  Try the Indie Bound or ABC bookstore finders!

Dear S.E. Hinton,

Some of Tim’s Stories – S.E. Hinton – 160 pages

“…a profound and wry compilation of fourteen short stories. Terry and Mike are cousins whose families are almost seamlessly intertwined. Raised as close as brothers and living happy childhoods, neither one thinks of what can go wrong. But the unexpected deaths of both their fathers catapult their lives in two very different directions. Terry finds trouble with the law, while Mike lives his life racked with guilt and sadness. In her first book in four years… S. E. Hinton gives readers a gritty view of how one incident, one tragedy, affects two boys very differently, and changes their lives forever.”  –from US.PenguinGroup.com

I’ve always loved The Outsiders, and in fact I treasure a distinct memory of reading the whole book in one sitting for school in 6th grade, even though we’d been strenuously instructed not to read ahead of the single chapter we were assigned.  I did that a lot, but I was pretty good at playing dumb about the content of the rest of the books.  Anyway, though The Outsiders is dear to me, I’ve never read any of your other work.  Out of the blue I decided to change that, and picked up Some of Tim’s Stories.  I’m extremely glad I did.

What a captivating little book!  I’m a sucker for connected-but-separate short stories, like the ones in this collection, and was drawn in at once by your plain, stark prose and by Mike and Terry’s personalities.  I mean, talk about craftsmanship. You really know how to spin a tale, weaving all the threads together and making it look easy, while still keeping it so blessedly simple.  Though the subject matter was sometimes poignant or saddening, these stories were really a treat.  You have a deft touch, and reading your work now was just as satisfying as when I read rebelliously ahead in The Outsiders some fifteen years ago.  Five stars.

Love,

Wanna check out this title for yourself?  Try the Indie Bound or ABC bookstore finders!

Dear Nahoko Uehashi, Cathy Hirano and Yuko Shimizu,

Moribito II:  Guardian of the Darkness – Nahoko Uehashi, trans. Cathy Hirano, illust. Yuko Shimizu – 272 pages

“For many years, through countless fights, Balsa has survived. The evil King Rogsam tried to kill her when she was only six. Eight assassins pursued her in the long flight that followed. But her mentor, Jiguro, protected her until his death, and then Balsa became a bodyguard herself, helping other people survive the challenges they face. When she returns to her native country of Kanbal, she hopes to see Jiguro’s family and her own for the first time in many years. But what should be a simple visit of truth and reconciliation becomes a fight for her life when she learns that King Rogsam framed Jiguro for the deaths of the eight assassins—as well as a crime that threatens the very existence of Kanbal. With the help of two Kanbalese children, Balsa must unwind the conspiracy surrounding Jiguro and the mystery of the Guardians of the Darkness, before it’s too late.”  –from ArthurALevineBooks.com

Ever since I picked up the first Moribito, Balsa has been a personal heroine who remains very close to my heart.  I think part of it is that though Moribito and now Moribito II are definitely YA, Balsa herself is very close to me in age.  She’s a young woman who isn’t old enough to settle down with the childhood friend who loves her, and who still has a lot of journeying to do before she figures out what she’s doing with herself, but she also isn’t young enough to be carefree.  In the first book, she started as a bodyguard to a runaway child prince, and wound up a little more maternal than I think she might have planned; in Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness, she must face her past and shoulder the responsibility of redeeming her family and her dead sensei and guardian.  She walks the line between typical YA heroine and grown-up really nicely, in a way I can really identify with.

Anyway, I love Balsa, and I think by writing through a nearing-30-year-old protagonist, you’re capturing a kind of story that wouldn’t necessarily happen otherwise.  I read YA partly because I love stories of teens saving the day and doing things on their own and being capable, but this has a different (and entirely pleasant) feel.  That said, I wonder how Balsa comes off to a teen audience–do they care that she’s almost thirty?  Would someone who isn’t 27 herself not find it different?  I wonder.

This is turning into a very long ramble, but it’s because I really like this book, I love Balsa, and I find the translation really interesting.  I’m sure I’ve said this before, but there’s a certain quality of storytelling in YA I’ve read translated from Japanese that I find different from American YA lit, and I don’t know if it’s just the way any Japanese prose is when translated to English, or if it’s specific to what I’ve read…but it’s always a really different experience, sort of distant but still totally engaging at the same time.  Also, let’s not forget, the art was just as breathtaking in this volume as it was in the first–the whole design of the book is beautiful, and I want to shove it in the faces of everyone who owns a Kindle and say “here, look at this, can you get this on a machine?”

So, without a doubt, five stars again for you three and for Balsa!

Love,

Wanna check out this title for yourself?  Try the Indie Bound or ABC bookstore finders!

Dear L. K. Madigan,

Flash Burnout – L. K. Madigan – 336 pages

“Fifteen-year-old Blake has a girlfriend and a friend who’s a girl.  One of them loves him; the other one needs him.  When he snapped a picture of a street person for his photography homework, Blake never dreamed that the woman in the photo was his friend Marissa’s long-lost meth addicted mom.  Blake’s participation in the ensuing drama opens up a world of trouble, both for him and for Marissa.  He spends the next few months trying to reconcile the conflicting roles of Boyfriend and Friend.  His experiences range from the comic (surviving his dad’s birth control talk) to the tragic (a harrowing after-hours visit to the morgue).  In a tangle of life and death, love and loyalty, Blake will emerge with a more sharply defined snapshot of himself.”  –from HoughtonMifflinBooks.com

Flash Burnout sticks out in my mind as a book I can’t quite decide about.  I picked it up because something about it caught my eye, but then put off reading it for a while because the blurb on the back wasn’t capturing me as much as other things in my pile.  I think I felt the same push and pull while I was reading, too.  There were definitely great moments of humor, and a plotline that took a lot of really exciting turns, but sometimes the prose seemed to drag for me a little.  Still, my overall impression of it was a good one–you captured the dynamic of teens and friends and more-than-friends really well.  Sometimes I felt like the narrator was less a real teenage boy and more a cobbling-together of what a teenage boy is expected to be, but that’s forgivable, and I think what Flash Burnout really needed was just a little bit of sharpening to make a really thrilling plot into a more memorable reading experience.  Still, I read it through, and enjoyed it, so three stars for this one!

Love,

Wanna check out this title for yourself?  Try the Indie Bound or ABC bookstore finders!

Dear Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean and Todd Klein,

Black Orchid – Neil Gaiman, art by Dave McKean, lettering by Todd Klein – 144 pages

“After being viciously murdered, Susan is reborn fully grown as the Black Orchid, a hybrid of plant and human, in order to avenge her own death. Now as this demigoddess attempts to reconcile her human memories and botanical origins, she must also untangle the webs of deception and secrets that led to her murder. Beginning in the cold streets of a heartless metropolis and ending in the lavish heartland of the thriving Amazon, this book takes the reader through a journey of secrets, suffering, and self-rediscovery.”  –from DCComics.com/Vertigo

I picked up a Black Orchid comic quite some time ago because I love female crimefighters, and I find orchids to be both visually pleasing and symbolically appealing, so the combination seemed like the kind of thing I’d enjoy.  When I discovered the Gaiman/McKean version of Black Orchid, I knew I’d hit paydirt.

Mr. Gaiman, anybody who reads this blog knows I’m a huge fan, but for some reason I’ve never gotten around to reading Sandman–so my experience of your writing in comics is limited to graphic novels or guest writing of single arcs in continuous series.  I’ve liked all the graphia of yours that I’ve read, though, and this trade is no exception.  Somehow you managed to write something that captures and keeps my attention, but is so dreamlike that I’ve forgotten what it was about almost as soon as I’ve finished reading it–I’m just left with this really pleasant sense that some kind of fascinating journey has occurred, and I got to go along for the ride.  Maybe that doesn’t sound like a compliment, but it’s meant as one.

Part of the dreaminess, though, is the incredible art.  Mr. McKean, I love your work no matter what style you’re using, but this gritty-yet-ethereal sort of photorealism works so well with the strange story, and you do such a lovely job making the orchids seem so alien without being frightening.  The juxtaposition of color palettes, of gray city and red violence versus the orchids and verdant jungles and things…well, it was fantastic.

Also, I don’t know if the excellent placement and coloration of the text boxes and speech bubbles were part of the art or went with the lettering work, but either way, it was brilliant.  Mr. Klein, never let it be said that I don’t appreciate excellent lettering–you make the whole thing readable, and yet it never looked out of place with the art style.  Awesome.

Four enthusiastic stars for Black Orchid!

Love,

Wanna check out this title for yourself?  Try the Indie Bound or ABC bookstore finders!

Dear Blog Readers,

Happy 2010!  It’s a new year, and that means it’s time for some year-end summation here at Let(t)’er Rip.  Holiday craziness has kept me from catching up with reviews of everything I read in 2009, but this post is a way for me to round up the year’s best, total some statistics, and give you readers a sneak peak at upcoming reviews.

So let’s get started!

First, a round up of my top 9 of ’09 (meaning books that were new in ’09, though I had lots of backlist faves this year too), in no particular order:

Two Parties, One Tux by Steven Goldman (reviewed here)

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The Goblin and the Empty Chair by Mem Fox, illust. Leo & Diane Dillon (reviewed here)

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The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (reviewed here and here, and I know having two books of a series listed as one entry in my top 9 is sort of cheating, but I don’t care)

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Ash by Malinda Lo (reviewed here)

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When the Moon Forgot by Jimmy Liao (reviewed here)

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Life Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya, Toyofumi Fukuda, Makiko Oku and Kristin Earhart (reviewed here)

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The Snow Day by Komako Sakai (reviewed here)

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American Jesus vol. 1: Chosen by Mark Millar & Peter Gross (review to come)

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Big Frog Can’t Fit In by Mo Willems (review to come)

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Now, a little (or big, actually) preview of 2009 reviews to come in the new year:
–That Book Woman by Heather Henson, illust. David Small – 32 pages
–Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman, art by Dave McKean – 144 pages
–Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan – 336 pages
–There’s Another Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone, illust. Michael Smollin – 32 pages
–Moribito II:  Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Uehashi, trans. Cathy Hirano – 272 pages
–Some of Tim’s Stories by S.E. Hinton – 160 pages
–Fade by Lisa McMann – 256 pages
–Greenwitch (The Dark is Rising Sequence #3) by Susan Cooper – 148 pages
–The Grey King (The Dark is Rising Sequence #4) by Susan Cooper – 224 pages
–The Blind Colt by Glen Rounds – 80 pages
–The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa – 208 pages
–Cat Burglar Black by Richard Sala – 128 pages
–American Jesus Vol. 1:  Chosen by Mark Millar & Peter Gross – 72 pages
–Adventure of Meno Book 2: Wet Friend! by Tony and Angela DiTerlizzi – 48 pages
–Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott – 176 pages
–Big Frog Can’t Fit In by Mo Willems – 16 pages
–Death Note:  L:  Change The World by M – 174 pages
–The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – 384 pages
–Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins – 400 pages
–Blood Song: A Silent Ballad by Eric Drooker – 312 pages
–The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne – 240 pages
–Birches by Robert Frost, illust. Ed Young – 32 pages
–The Pet Dragon:  A Story About Adventure, Friendship, and Chinese Characters by Christoph Niemann – 40 pages
–The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger – 40 pages
–Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman, illust. Charles Vess – 32 pages
–A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na – 24 pages
–Let’s Go to the Capitol by Bernard Rosenfield, illust. Gustav Schrotter – 45 pages
–Prayers from the Ark by Carmen Bernos de Gasztold, trans. Rumer Godden, illust. Jean Primrose – 75 pages
–Totty by Paola Opal – 24 pages
–The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, illust. Michael Martchenko – 26 pages
–Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert – 16 pages
–Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats – 32 pages
–Fullmetal Alchemist novels 1-5 by Makoto Inoue – 1084 pages total

I’ve also been tearing through tons and tons of manga in the last few months, and since reviewing them volume by volume would take me into 2011, I plan to tackle whole series at once.  Here’s a list of upcoming manga reviews (because you know you love them, or at least, I hope you do, because manga is a misunderstood little piece of amazingness):

–Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa – 22 volumes thus far, 4256 pages
–Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya – 23 volumes, 4850 pages
–Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori – 13 volumes thus far, 2536 pages
–Hero Tales by Huang Jin Zhou, illust. Hiromu Arakawa – 1 volume thus far, 176 pages
–Love Hina by Ken Akamatsu – 14 volumes, 2724 pages
–Negima! Magister Negi Magi by Ken Akamatsu – 24 volumes thus far, 4744 pages
–Fushigi Yuugi:  Genbu Kaiden by Yuu Watase – 9 volumes thus far, 1752 pages
–Absolute Boyfriend by Yuu Watase – 6 volumes, 1192 pages
–Otomen by Aya Kanno – 4 volumes thus far, 800 pages

And now, more for my curiosity than anything else, some statistics:

Books read in 2009: 254

Pages read in 2009: 48,672

That’s an average of one book every 34 hours or so.  Geez, when I look at it like that, it sounds crazy.  Some of those are picturebooks, true, which take much less time to read than a novel, and some of them are manga and other graphic stuff, which takes a little less reading time than plain text for me, but even so that’s damn impressive.  Not that it’s any kind of contest.  (Becky, any chance you were keeping track of how many books you read this year?  Though I suspect you’d best me no matter what I do.)

Anyway, stay tuned for some more (and hopefully more frequent) reviews this month, and keep your eyes peeled for a post about the results of mock Caldecott discussion with the book group I frequently talk about.  I’ve got to record our picks before the actual awards are announced, just in case we turn out to have gotten it right!

Love,

Dear Steven Goldman,

Two Parties, One Tux (and a very short film about The Grapes of Wrath) – Steven Goldman – 320 pages

“Mitchell Wells may not survive eleventh grade. He really only has one friend, his best friend, David. His normally decent grade point average is in limbo due to a slightly violent, somewhat inappropriate Claymation film. And girls…well, does hanging out with his sister count? When David tells Mitchell he’s gay, Mitchell’s okay with it—but it still seems to change things. Since David’s not out to anyone else, the guys agree to be set up with prom dates. But then one of the most popular girls in school decides she must date Mitchell, and he goes from zero to two girlfriends in sixty seconds. From his pending English grade to his floundering friendship to his love life (the one thing that’s taken a bizarre turn for the better), Mitchell is so confused, he’ll be lucky if he lasts another week in high school. And then there’s the prom….” – from BloomsburyKids.com

As much as I try not to, I find that I do judge books by their covers, which is why I didn’t pick up Two Parties, One Tux until it came out in paperback.  The silly-looking hardcover that I hadn’t glanced twice at suddenly seemed moderately interesting–then I read the back, and decided it sounded like a fun time.  Lucky thing I did, or I would have missed out on one of my favorite books of the year!

It’s hard to make a slice-of-life school story like this one stick out among all the other school stories out there, but your prose is light and has great flow, your characters are both witty and adorably awkward by turns, and your portrayal of the way high school can either squelch the will to learn out of a kid or drive them to sudden bouts of possibly-rule-breaking creativity (or sometimes both at once) reminds me so much of my own experience that I found myself picturing these scenes happening at my old alma mater. (Katie, if you’re reading this post, I hope you’re thinking of the bridge of ronk right now, and maybe also Wheel of Jeopardopaly.)

You’ve written a real gem here, one that I think is flying a bit under the radar, and I can only hope more people take notice of it soon.  Five stars for you!

Love,

Wanna check out this title for yourself?  Try the Indie Bound or ABC bookstore finders!

Books this year: 100

Pages this year: 20,282

Dear Patrick Ness,

The Ask and the Answer – Patrick Ness – 528 pages

Todd and Viola are at Mayor Prentiss’ mercy.  Forcibly separated, he dangles each one’s life and safety in front of the other to keep them in line, and their paths begin to diverge, one on each end of New Prentisstown’s political extremes.  Trapped and tricked, they must each reconcile their own heinous actions and overcome the seeds of doubt that plague them.  Can their trust and love for each other endure long enough to save themselves and New World?

You did it again.  You’re like the king of the cliffhangers.  I don’t know if I can take it.  The Ask and the Answer was so desolate and horrifying and so nearly triumphant, but it’s the middle of a trilogy, and everybody knows that the middle of a trilogy is all about getting the protagonists into even worse trouble than they were in before.  But really all that matters are Todd and Viola, and their faith, and their phoenix-like ability to rise again and again.

Once again, your ability to manipulate me was infuriating and masterful and brilliant.  You push the envelope of YA in this book, exploring Todd’s weakness and letting him stray farther and farther away from the courage and human decency that made him so appealing in Book 1.  It’s not often that the hero of a novel for teens swings so freely back and forth between righteous and monstrous–it was fascinating and awful at once.  Set at counterpoint with Viola, who made a vicious effort to hold her moral ground in spite of what was going on around her, Todd’s narrative seemed all the more heartbreakingly brutal and their reunion even more intense.  I wish I could hear your Noise, so I could find out what’s going to happen in Book 3.  The wait will be excrutiating, but I look forward to it.  Five stars once again.

Love,

Wanna check out this title for yourself?  Try the Indie Bound or ABC bookstore finders!

Books this year: 98

Pages this year: 19,930

Dear Patrick Ness,

The Knife of Never Letting Go – Patrick Ness – 496 pages

To Todd, life seems simple.  He knows that the Noise germ caused men’s thoughts to be as loud as voices.  He knows that same germ killed all the women on New World, including his mother.  He knows that the Specks who released the germ all died in the war, and that in a month’s time he will turn thirteen and become a man.  Then, when Todd and his dog Manchee stumble upon a spot of silence in the Noise, everything he thought he knew will change forever.

Sometimes a book just pulls you in and eats you up and breaks you into a million pieces and spits you back out again feeling like you’ve been run over by a truck except you really liked being run over by that truck.  The Knife of Never Letting Go is one of those books.  I knew it was going to be something special from the first few pages, and tonight I just barreled through the last three quarters of it like my life depended on finding out what happened next.  And it sort of did.  Once again, I was Bastian sitting in the attic of the school.  I sobbed like the world was ending and had to take the book with me to the bathroom (poo, Todd?) because I couldn’t put it down, and I feel wrung dry and tied in knots and changed.

I’m starting to ramble.  Let me try to reel it in.  Your premise isn’t quite like anything I’ve read before, which is a miracle unto itself.  You’ve crafted something unique and frightening that’s strengthening at the same time, which is how books about such strife should be.  Also, you get automatic points for writing in the present tense–I LOVE present tense writing with more enthusiasm than seems entirely necessary.  On top of all that, your characters (especially Todd and Manchee) are so intensely real to me.  You’ve captured a huge variety of ways in which men could react to such bizarre circumstances–the coldly evil Mayor, the lunatic preacher, the hotheaded Cillian and kindhearted Ben who were ready to die to protect their adopted son from the town’s darkness…it’s a frighteningly plausible world.  I could almost hate you for the cliff you’ve left me hanging over, except that one of my delightful friends is going to loan me an ARC of the sequel, so that I don’t die of waiting.  You’ve done something spectacular, and I thank you for it.  Five effing stars.

Love,

Wanna check out this title for yourself?  Try the Indie Bound or ABC bookstore finders!

Books this year: 97

Pages this year: 19,402