“Anya’s Ghost” by Vera Brosgol

Anya is an unhappy teen.  Daughter of a Russian immigrant, she prides herself on her lack of an accent, rejects her mother’s home cooking and avoids all contact with another Russian student who is “fresh off the boat.”  She is snarky, angsty, moody, and nearly friendless (her one companion is more frenemy than friend).  Going out for a surreptitious smoke one night she falls into a deep hole – and discovers a ghost.  A strange relationship develops between Anya and the ghost which ranges from barest tolerance to appreciation.  All is not what it seems, however, and the tale took a far darker twist than I ever could have imagined.  In retrospect, this is definitely not a “comic book for little kids.”  It is, in fact, fairly creepy.  The graphic novel has a pleasing purple background behind black and white drawings.  Use of this one muted color palette creates an appropriate feel for the book and fits well with the diverse settings.  Panels scan easily and many are wordless, making for smooth flow and underpinning emotional tones.  Anya and the ghost are the major characters, everyone else – including her family – seem to barely register.  Teenagers are, in fact, very often “in their head” – this book seems to epitomize that.  One odd note is the friend, who is clearly female, but dresses in a masculine manner.  There is no indication of why this is allowed at a private school where girls must wear those hideous plaid skirts.  It was the only element of the story that distracted – not sure what it was or why it was there.  That being said, the “messages” of the book are subtle but healthy.  In the beginning, there is the typical teenage crush.  Anya’s reaction to the reality she then discovers shows her inner moral self.  In the end, how Anya reacts to the horrors she faces gives you a sense of what she might become.  A fast read (in one or two settings) this was a “hand-to-hand” book which a student requested before I got it back on the shelf.  Although it didn’t receive any notable awards this year, it had some buzz.  I can see why.  Neil Gaiman’s quote on the cover is just a hint that this one is worth the look.

“The Last Apprentice, Revenge of the Witch” by Joseph Delaney

Started out “okay,” quickly went to “ehh” and ended as a “blah.”  The first of the ever-growing Wardstone Chronicles, it’s telling that I have no interest in reading the next book in the series.  A boilerplate fantasy, this one is ostensibly placed in a kind of late middle-ages England.  Young Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and is tapped to apprentice under a “Spook” whose occupation is the ridding of ghosts, goblins, and ghouls in neighboring villages.  While the pen and ink drawings and large, unique font make it visually engaging, I was less impressed with the storyline and prose.  Maybe it’s a British thing, but the pacing seemed inordinately slow and the overall tone was pedantic and plodding.  Much like the last book I read, the action scenes dragged and I had little interest in turning the page to see “what happens next.”  Thomas is supposed to be 13 but comes off as a flat, too-eager-to-please 11 year-old.  He is naïve and a goody-two-shoes.  There is also a troubling undertone of women being “difficult” which I didn’t care for.  The witches in this book are all of the bad kind and “Spook” warns Thomas off from women in general quite early in the narrative.  Thomas is supposedly his mother’s favored child and he holds her in great esteem, but she reads decidedly non-maternal.  She is depicted as stern, demanding and limited in affection (maybe it’s a “Gibbs” thing??) so the childlike affection he professes seems misplaced.  Lastly, there is gory violence that is far out of spec for this otherwise tame tale.  The “Ranger’s Apprentice” series by Australian John Flanagan began about a year and a half after this book was published and there are tremendous similarities, but, IMHO, Flanagan did it better.  Reviewers have painted this as the next Farthest Shore Trilogy, with deep moral issues to plumb, but personally, I don’t feel the writing here is anywhere as good as in LeGuin’s books.  Boy-friendly, most of the young men who have read it say it is “okay” but haven’t stuck in for the long haul (also, like Ranger’s Apprentice, this series is stretching into double digits).  If a younger reader can stomach the queasier parts (“meat cakes” with a mystery ingredient is one example) then it may appeal.  As for me, I’m off to stronger fantasy fare (when, oh when, will Patrick Rothfuss finish the Kingkiller Chronicles?)

"Heat Rises" by Richard Castle

If anything proves that these books, produced by ABC in conjunction with the “Castle” TV show, are written by a variety of authors, this third novel in this series is it.  While still good, it is very clearly written by a different author from the first two titles.  All of the books are stories within stories to a degree … the characters in the books are extrapolations of the characters on the TV show.  On the show, writer Richard Castle follows around Detective Kate Beckett and her cohorts, Esposito and Ryan.  In the books, these characters become writer Jameson Rook, Detective Nikki Heat and sidekicks Ochoa and Raley.  The books often use snippets of storylines found in the show, but they weave new tales.  The novels go further than the TV show with somewhat steamier, more violent content appropriate to the hard-boiled detective novel genre.  This particular book has a priest murdered in an S&M studio, a Latin civil rights organization that may or may not be fronting for drugs and weapons smuggling, a political minefield at Police Headquarters, an old case surrounding a celebrity’s spiral into drugs, a military hit squad that may or may not be connected to a private black ops group, and enough bad leads and suspects to make your head spin.  Whoever wrote this book was consistent – the characters remain the same, with language and flow nearly identical to the first two books.  This author, however, is different in the level of detail and specificity he brings to the writing.  Every single instant is explored.  While this sometimes gives a strong image (so important to figure out all those clues!) it also drags down action sequences a bit.  The two “big” battles in the book seem to go on forever (IMHO).  The detailed prose is evident in the length of the book, which is a full hundred pages longer than the first in the series.  There are plusses to this new writer, however – more humor, for one; and at least two Firefly references that I was able to catch.  Whoever wrote it clearly did his homework – watching the show and probably reading the first two titles (“Heat Wave” and “Naked Heat”).  Fans of the show will find lots of little Easter Eggs here to smile at, including the Castle character’s self-congratulatory preen in the first season of the TV show, stating “I am ruggedly handsome, aren’t I?” as well as a subtle homage to Stephen J. Cannell’s “21 Jump Street.”  In any case, like the first two books, this one is selling well and rose to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list in its debut week.

So, who wrote them?  And why am I calling the writer a “he?”  Well, I enjoy being a bit of a detective myself, and have surmised that Stephen J. Cannell wrote the first, and most likely second books (Cannell sadly passed away from  Melanoma in 2010).  I’m familiar with his extensive body of work, and the books just “read like him."  Also, under the author picture of Nathan Fillion aka “Castle” on the back of those two books, there is a quote attributed to Cannell praising the writing.  This newest book has no quote under the photo, but all of the books have congratulatory quotes on the front – the first is James Patterson, the second is Mitch Connelly and the third is Dennis Lehane.  All three have appeared as guests on the TV show and ABC producers shyly hint that the author is, in fact, someone who has been "seen on the show.”  I’m betting on Lehane.  I’ve read Patterson, and don’t feel the specificity in this book is his style.  I haven’t read Connelly or Lehane, but Mr. Lehane's bio reads as the kind of “writer’s writer” that might have produced this piece of work.  We’ll see.  Likely, we will not know for sure until long after the TV show has left the air – which will probably not happen anytime soon, as the ratings continue to soar for the alphabet network.  In the meantime, happy reading.  And TV watching.

"One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies" by Sonya Sones

Poetry novels, a growing trend in recent years, have really hit their stride. An excellent example is this clever book by Sonya Sones. Yes, the book is told in poems and yes, the mother is dead. Like most of the good poetry novels, I found myself sucked in from the beginning, as our lead character Ruby begins her huge transition to a very different life. Ruby’s voice is that of a really interesting and witty young woman. The writing isn’t overly deep, but it is engaging, and the characters feel real (a nicely unexpected turn, given the Hollywood setting). A clean and simple story, the details really “make it”. Page graphics start as planes and become palm trees, showing the transition for Ruby, and the subtle notes are the ones that make you smile as you read this. The surprises are interesting but expected – I knew two of them long before they happened, but it is the warm and fuzzy feeling I got with this book that makes it one of the more enjoyable I’ve read of late.