The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Dude!   This book was crazy!  I'd read a few others blogs about it and checked it out.

So Violet Ambrose is a teenager like any other.  She's been best friends with Jay forever.  He's always been there, but it's different this year.  He's "grown up" and basically gotten hotter over this last summer.  While it was usually just the two of them, but now all the girls who never noticed Jay before are following him around like little puppies.  Violet is a bit bothered by this but unsure of why.

Violet is different, though, in that she can find dead bodies.  She feels or senses tastes, smells, sounds that lead her to dead bodies.  It's only really happened with a body once, but she does find animals that have been killed.  As a kid she had a little graveyard where she put the animals to rest.

As the year progresses, she's dealing with normal stuff like school, friends, classes, and her feelings about Jay.  But then a string of murders in the area stirs up and scares everyone.  A serial killer is killing young girls.  Violet discovers one of them and becomes more involved than she knows in the serial killers plans.

This book is mainly about Violet, but every few chapters you get a glimpse into a short chapter from the point of view of the killer.  These chapters are freakin creepy, my friends.

I just had to keep reading this book.  Each chapter I wanted to know if the killer had gotten someone else, if Violet had found a body or discovered the killer, and then of course, were Violet and Jay ever going to hook up and get together??  It was obvious she liked him...so I just had to see how they would end up.  So all in all, this book is crazy suspenseful but also has a really great and sweet love story, too.  I just loved Jay - he was like the sweetest guy ever.  You should definitely check this one out for a strangely sweet and suspenseful read.  Cool book.

You Suck - by Christopher Moore

I loved Lamb by Christopher Moore and was excited to see what You Suck would be like.  I've of course read the Twilight books and Cirque Du Freak, but I was hoping for a funny vampire story when I started this book, and that is exactly what I got.  

You suck is about Tommy Flood who is turned into a vampire by his girlfriend, Jody.  The problem is that he didn't ask to be turned into a blood-sucking monster, and that both Tommy and Jody have captured the old vampire who turned Jody, and that old vampire wants out, AND Tommy's old friends are  trying to capture him...and the list goes on!  

Jody has been forced to leave town (San Francisco) once the cops find out that she is a vampire.  In order for Jody and Tommy to get out of town, they have to find a minion to do their bidding during the day...enter Abby Normal, a sweet freak girl who helps them out.  

Abby was what made this book for me.  Every so often the book is told from the point of view of her journal and I loved her voice.  She is really funny, but honest too.  The characters in this book were all hilarious from the Animals (Tommy's group of friends who stock groceries and go frozen turkey bowling at night) to William and his large cat (he's a homeless dude with a really big cat).  This book was a funny vampire story and not scary at all.  The only heads-up that I need to say is that there is a lot of foul language.  It's funny, but foul.  There are also a few sexual situations in the book.  So if you don't mind that and want to run around San Francisco with a bunch of vampires and vampire killers, then have at it.  I would recommend this book to older teens and upper classmen who can handle the language and suggestiveness more.  Too much for middle school. 

Grade:  B

The Dead Fathers Club - by Matt Haig

I love Shakespeare and am always interested to read new versions and reimaginings of Shakespeare's classic stories.  The Dead Father's Club is a modern day Hamlet and it was pretty good.  

The main character is a young boy named Philip Noble.  Philip's dad was killed in a single car accident.  Losing a parent is bad enough, but after his father's funeral, Philip is visited by his father's ghost.  Philip's father tells him that he was murdered by Philip's Uncle Alan, and that Philip must murder Alan in order for his father's ghost to move on and escape "the terrors."  The Dead Fathers Club is the story of what Philip decides to do about his Uncle.

One feature of this book that makes it different is the narration.  The book is narrated from Philip's point of view and has no punctuation except for periods at the ends of sentences.  The voice reminded me of The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night Time.  

I enjoyed this version of the Hamlet story, but at times, I lost interest.  I didn't get overly angry with characters or emotionally moved to feel for them much, even Philip, who is the main victim in the story.  The way he contemplates what he has to do is very different than the real Hamlet (who is in his twenties).  I just didn't get into this book that much.  I would recommend it to people who know the Hamlet story and who want to read a new version of the tale.  If you liked Curious Incident, you might also like the voice in this book.

Grade:  C

Dope Sick - by Walter Dean Myers

Fiction

186 pages

Dope Sick tells the story of a young man named Lil J who has gotten himself into a world of trouble.  How he ended up in an abandoned, rat-infested building with a strange man named Kelly is a long story, and Myers's book shows you glimpses into Lil J's life that show us how he came to be stuck in this run-down place and how he plans to escape from the cops outside...if he escapes at all.

After a drug deal gone bad, Lil J's friend Rico ends up shooting a cop which sends Lil J on the run.  When he runs into Kelly he thinks that man is just some homeless dude, but Kelly turns out to be much more.

Kelly talks to Lil J about his life and throughout the book Kelly takes Lil J back to important moments from his past.  Lil J sees mistakes that he made and Kelly offers him a chance to look back at his life and decide what he should change. 

I liked this book.  Lil J and Kelly live in a rough world of drugs and gangs.  Myers captures the language of the street with these characters and others, but also helps readers and Lil J himself take a good objective look at the life choices Lil J made.  Kelly doesn't push Lil J at all; he just shows him how his life went, and we along with our main character can see things that Lil J did wrong that he could go back and fix.  It's tough to read about some of Lil J's drug use, but it's also good to understand why he felt driven to do such things.  Lil J isn't glad about the decisions he's made, but he alone has the power to change them.  No matter how bad things get, we always have a choice of what to do next.  Hopefully we can move away from bad choices and make better decisions.  What will Lil J do?  End it all?  Try to get better?  Keep on down the same path?  Kelly helps him see the different stories of his life and hopefully he will make the right decision.  Read to find out.

Grade:  B-