Compulsion by Heidi Ayarbe

Compulsion is the story of Jake Martin, a boy completely obsessed with prime numbers. He has to do the same thing every morning, and when he doesn't, he spends his whole day freaking out about it. He constantly checks the time, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing the digits so he gets a prime. When he can do it, he feels calm and safe. When he can't, he gets a panic attack until the next minute comes and he can try again. It was a little strange, and more than a little annoying when he couldn't get the numbers to work, but I could. And I'm not even the one with the obsession. Another thing that was annoying was that, when it came to manipulating the numbers, he didn't seem to have any rules. He would use some digits once, and others many times. He almost always used the digits, so if the time was 6:38, he could add 6 and 3 and 8, but I found one instance (there could be more that I didn't notice) where he added a 20 instead of a two. While the concept was interesting, and I can almost understand his obsession with numbers (although I greatly prefer composites to primes, the more factors, the better), it was not much fun to read. There was something familiar about it, sitting in the back of my mind, and it suddenly popped out when Jake compared life to a merry-go-round. Ah ha! It is The Catcher in the Rye! A depressed teenage boy who believes that no one can understand him, and who doesn't care about anyone except for his little sister. Both Holden and Jake are haunted by something in their past; Holden by the death of his brother, Jake by the time his little sister broke her arm and his mom wasn't home. They both also end up getting together with a girl they hadn't seen since they were very young. By the end of both books, the boy admits that he needs help. Compulsion had the same overall feel as The Catcher in the Rye; that dreary, shadowy, stuck in someone else's awful world kind of feel.

This book deserves a 2. It was like opening a jar of pistachios, taking one out, and pulling the shell apart only to find that it's one of those empty ones.

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

Well, it turns out that this is the second book in a series, but I didn't know that when I started, so I read it anyway. There is Prodigium, magical beings, and the Eye, magical being hunters. It strongly reminded me of Romeo and Juliet. Sophie is a demon, one of only two known in the world (the other is her father), and Archer is a warlock who works for the Eye. In the previous book, they developed feelings for each other, and I almost expected Sophie to pretend to die so that she could be with Archer. She spends the summer with her father, her friend, and the Prodigium council, and she's struggling with her her demonic powers. She cannot quite control them, and it is very likely they she will accidentally kill someone. The book was pretty good, and the plot was interesting, but I felt distant from the characters, and the emotions did not come across very well. The writing style was good, and it flowed nicely, although the story was slightly confusing, but I'm going to blame that on the fact that I missed the first book.

It can have a 3.4. It was fairly good, but not the best book I've ever read. It was like a good flavored water; it was nice, but had a funny tinge, slightly familiar, but slips away when you're done with it.

Shine by Lauren Myracle

Shine was VERY dark. Cat's former best friend Patrick has been found tied to a gas pump, gas nozzle in his mouth and nasty words on his chest. Cat immediately begins to investigate the crime, even though she hasn't really talked to him for a few years. This mystery was the heart of the plot, and Myracle does a good job of developing it. Possible suspects are set from the start, which gives readers something to think about as they read. The beginning of the book is particularly compelling: it starts with a newspaper article about Patrick's attack. The setting is well developed; I felt as if I knew the whole town by the end of the book. Shine would benefit from some sort of character list, though, as remembering which character was which became a bit difficult. The writing is elegant, and I liked how the whole story was really seen through Cat's eyes. If she thought another character was a good person, that's how I saw them, until her perception changed.

There were a few things that bothered me. For one, there were multiple typos, more than I would expect from a book set to come out in April. Also, because of the large cast of characters, not all of the characters were developed as much as they could have been (I wasn't quite sure about how the ending matched the character as seen earlier in the book). I'm giving it a 4, but am a little iffy on it--I'd like to discuss with someone else who has read it. I would still recommend Shine, though; it would make a good English class or book group discussion book.
Shine was like a piece of very dark chocolate. Good, because it's chocolate, but not sweet, with a slightly bitter edge. Here's Lauren Myracle's website: http://www.laurenmyracle.com/

Book Review: Monster by Walter Dean Myers

The book has a strange way to tell this story.  The main character, Steve Harmon, who wants to be a movie director, tells it. This book is like the screenplay of the movie from what is happening now. But in some points this form stops, and there is a text like if we are looking into the journey of Steve Harmon. It is written with letters like handwriting. First this could be uncomfortable, but then when we get used to it, it is really good. The book is a Literature. It makes you think, while you reading it, and after too. And at the end, you get the big question.

The whole story starts like there is a robbery which includes some people. We don’t know if Steve is included, or not. We hear two sides. One says that Steve was in the shop. He looked around, came out, and gave a sign. So they say he is included, by “checking the place out”. But Steve says, he just went in, looked around and went home. He didn’t know about the robbery or anything else. He is innocent! He got a lawyer, but he has to stay in a cell, like other people, who committed crime. There is a big thing about that the jail is terrible, and of course it is.

I really liked the book, the way it is written seemed strange at first, but I like it now. I started to read it because I love this court stuff, how things work, how they figure out what happened, the arguing. It was a kind of hard to read it because the language was sort of disgusting in some parts. I mean the thing that it described. The book has some thought about black and white people, we can see it from the idea that a 16 year old black boy involved in a murder of a white shop owner and how much they want to suck him in, without almost any reason!

This book deserve every single reward it got, and congratulations to the writer, because this is a really good book, and I was nervous after reading it, and I could hardly catch my breath while I was reading it! I recommend it to everyone to read it.

Review by Andras W.

Nation by Terry Pratchett

"Life is a trick, and you get one chance to learn it." ~Terry Pratchett (Nation)

Nation is the story of Mau, whose island and people were ravaged by a giant wave. He was the only one from his island that survived the wave, and Nation is the story of how Mau managed to keep other refugees from other islands away from Locha, the god of death. Nation is also the story of Ermintrude, also called Daphne, who shipwrecked on Mau's island. She came from a rich life, full of biscuits, science, and 138 people to kill to the throne.

This is the story of how Mau and Daphne uncover the mysteries of the island Mau lives on. Mau faces the truth that his island perhaps isn't the biggest out there, the trouble of whether gods exist, and voices of Grandfathers inside his head. Daphne faces being called the ghost girl, being the 'woman' of her new tribe, and saving Mau from the silver fish and grayness of the land of death in the time of the fall of a drop of water.

Overall, I would give this book a 5 if I had time to read it 8 more times. Nation is a confusing book, very deep and wonderful if given time. It's one of those books that get better every time you read it. You know you love it, but can't quite remember why or how it ends. Since I am still confused and have not had time to read it 8 more times, Nation will have to settle with a 4.5.

"Even our fears make us feel important, because we fear we might not be." ~Terry Pratchett (Nation)

Throat by R.A. Nelson

Emma is a 17 year old girl with a "seizure condition" (as she calls it). One day after having a seizure on the soccer field after being maliciously smacked by one of her teammates, she runs away and is attacked by a vampire: Wirtz. In the middle of his feeding, however, she has another seizure, and when she wakes up a few days later in the hospital, she discovers she has become part vampire. In addition, she has a connection with Wirtz's mind, and she knows he is coming for her, so she runs away again so he won't harm her family.

The beginning of Throat was great, because a lot happened, very quickly. Then the book dragged for a few hundred pages. Yes, Emma did learn some information about vampires, but mostly a large chunk of the book was about her waiting for the vampire that turned her to find her so they could fight to the death. I liked Emma because she is very tough and independent; she is prepared to fight Wirtz to save her little sister. Kudos to Nelson as well for the original take on vampires. There are two types of vampires, the Verloren (evil) and the Sonnen (who believe that a sort of solar eruption will someday save them, and take blood from people with a exacto knife and disinfect the cut afterwards, leaving their victim resting at home safe and sound). Those names are based in German, as are all other vampiric terms in the book. The vampires are not the perfect "Twilight" vampires, who have amazing willpower and get astounding beauty to boot. They are much deeper than that, definitely one of the highlights of the story. The last little thing I wish the author had done was go a bit farther with Emma at the end. I wanted to see more of what happened to her. Overall, this book is a 3.5 or 3.75. In terms of food, I'm going to borrow from Elizabeth's last review and say it is like a orange cream chocolate (chocolate on the outside, orange on the inside). You first bite it, and the chocolate outside is yummy. But then you get to the cream, and it's merely okay, a bit of a disappointment because you were hoping for raspberry. It's a quick read if you don't let yourself get bogged down in all the pages of Emma waiting for Wirtz.

Here is the author's website: http://www.ranelsonbooks.com/

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Mariller

Juliet Mariller, you have stunned me once again with a masterpiece of literature. Every time, I am amazed. Well, onto the review!

Daughter of the Forest is a thrilling, touching tale of Sorcha, the seventh daughter of a seventh son, who lives in Sevenwaters, surrounded by a mystifying forest, where people can disappear and reappear, years later, memory wiped babbling about fairies. She lives with her seven brothers, each special and unusual in their own way. Her father, struck with despair at her mother's death, pushes all of them to be what he wants them to be, or leaves them as he organizes a conquest against the Brits. Sorcha, as a result, grows up somewhat a tomboy and an extensive knowledge of the herbs. Her life is mostly happy and peaceful - until her life is disturbed by a sorceress. She runs, in danger and her six brothers under a curse. The only way for the curse to be lifted is for Sorcha to do a task and under a condition (secret! No spoilers from me!).

Apparently this is a retelling of an old tale, the Celtic "Swans" myth or the "Seven Swans" story, though I haven't read either.

This book would be a chocolate truffle - in the beginning, it's good chocolate, and you're pretty sure it's going to be good but not completely sure. By the time you hit the center, gooey caramel or creamy chocolate stuff, you're in love.