YA Fantasy/Urban Fantasy

The Rattled Bones is a super-atmospheric ghost story that follows a young woman named Rilla Brae who has recently lost her father and is struggling with her grief as well as her uncertain future. The story takes place in a small Maine fishing community and visible to the town is a mysterious uninhabited island.

One night Rilla sees the apparition of a ghostly girl floating over the nearby island and her haunting yet familiar song reaches Rilla, beckoning her.

The ghosts pull grows stronger until intrigued, Rilla boats over to the island. There she meets a young man named Sam, a university student who’s excavating the island and searching for clues about the island people who were evicted from the island 80 years earlier.

Now, this is news to her, as Rilla has never heard of anyone living on the island, and she is determined and excited to investigate the island’s history. Bit the bit, the island’s horrifying past — and a tragedy that has been kept secret – finally comes to light — a disaster that has a strong connection to Rilla’s own past.

So there’s a lot going on with this story: long-held secrets, grief, and loss, there’s a mystery to solve, there’s the struggle between tradition and moving forward, the connection between the past and present, there’s the horror of racial prejudice and even a touch of romance. And given that this is a ghost story, there’s a delightful creep factor to it as well.

It was so much fun journeying with Rilla, and she began to uncover the island’s strange and unsettling past and discover herself in the process. It’s also an excellent example of how an unnerving and distressing past can resound right into the present in a variety of ways with the uneasy suspense building page after page.

One of the things I loved most about this book was the way the author developed the mystery and then slowly weaved together its strands, bringing the characters closer to each other in the process. This is an atmospheric book that is vibrant with life, rich in culture, and yet, is followed by haunting shadows that make your spine tingle.

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Tunnel of Bones is the second book in the City of Ghosts series and follows Cassidy, a twelve-year-old girl who can see ghosts and her ghostly friend Jacob.

This time, the story takes place in Paris, where her “ghost-hunter” parents are filming in the creepy Catacombs, which is basically an underground cemetery that is a labyrinth containing the bones of millions of Parisians. Think it might be haunted? If you answered yes, then you’re correct.

In this novel, Cassidy and Jacob end up awakening an angry Poltergeist who ends up wreaking all kinds of havoc in Paris.

The problem is that Cassidy can’t stop him with her mirror because the Poltergeist doesn’t remember who or what he is, which is a necessary element for the mirror trick to work.

As time passes, the spirit grows stronger and more dangerous, and it’s up to Cassidy and Jacob to stop it before someone ends up getting killed.

This was a super creepy story with a delightful, pervasive sense of menace that lingers over the story. It’s a story with tons of suspense, gobs of creepiness, and tension galore. It was also quite eerie — how could it not, given that it literally takes place in a tunnel of bones.

The characters of Cassidy and Jacob continued to grow on me with this second book, and I love watching them work as a team to fit together the pieces of the mystery and fix what’s going on around them, in this case, a super angry ghost.

The story has an excellent atmosphere, and at times, I felt like I was walking right along with them in the twisty underground boneyard. The author succeeded here in giving us another suspenseful Cassidy Blake story with just the right amount of creepiness and adventure. As a plus, we got to learn quite a bit more about Jacob in this book, which renders him all the more endearing.

All in all, Tunnel of Bones is a fun, spooky middle-grade paranormal fantasy that had the perfect amount of creep factor and mystery. I loved the fact that the story takes place in Paris because I lived there for a while, so that was an extra plus for me having one of my favorite cities as a backdrop.

I don’t read a lot of middle-grade, but the author has really me hooked with this series. I can’t wait for the next installment.

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This is the second book in the Necromancer’s Song series and follows Naya, the daughter of a sea merchant captain, who was murdered and then brought back to life as a wraith by a Necromancer.

In this book, she finds herself back in her country of Talmir, a place she never thought she’d ever see again given that Talmirans absolutely loathe the undead. Because of the events that took place in the last book, she’s also marked as a traitor to Talmir.

There’s quite a bit going on in this book. First and foremost, she has to rescue Corten, fellow wraith and lover, from a dark, dark place where there are shadows who wish to claim him permanently — and time is quickly running out for the both of them. But in order to save him, she has to find and obtain missing secret necromancy journals, which on the surface appears to be a nearly impossible task.

She’s also sucked into an intricate political web where she’s forced to form new alliances in order to survive though she’s not quite sure who she can trust. Like the last book, there are plenty of secrets, lies, and layers of treachery, but this time, the entire world is peril, a tidbit we don’t learn about until nearly the end of the story. The plot and the continuous action enthralled me right until the end of the book. I felt that the author did an excellent job portraying the political tension between the two countries, as well as the moral disagreements and mistrust.

I also enjoyed the dual POVs in the book, going back and forth from Corten to Naya, and witnessing the feeling of ever-growing desperation that both of them were experiencing. I also liked how much Naya’s character has grown since the first book where she’s transformed into quite a decisive, less gullible, and courageous young woman (or young wraith, as it were). She’s spirited, headstrong, and alert and has the backbone and personality to complement and balance many of the other no-nonsense characters, includes the stodgy Talmirans. I also was surprised by the “bad guys” in the story, which totally took me by surprise.

All in all, a mesmerizing, action-packed multi-layered adventure story with a unique and compelling spin on necromancy. The narrative never bogs down, and I was on pins and needles pretty much the entire time I read this book. My only niggle was the abrupt ending. Though it wasn’t exactly a cliff-hanger, it was pretty darn close, and because of that, I knocked off one star. Still, a super-fun read, and I’ll definitely be picking up the third in the series.

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This book is supposedly based upon a popular podcast series called “Bright Sessions,” which I was not familiar with before reading this. I definitely plan on checking out the podcast now, as well.

Infinite Noise is a YA Contemporary Sci-Fi story that follows a 16-year-old high school football player named Caleb Michaels. But lately, he hasn’t been his usual self. Whenever he’s around a group of people such as in class or at a party, he feels overwhelmed to such a point that he fears passing out. He’s also noticed that his moods swing back and forth to extremes of the spectrum without explanation or cause, sometimes even culminating with him violently lashing out in anger.

Upon receiving therapy, it’s determined that Caleb is in fact what the book called an “Atypical” — a powerful empath who feels and experiences the moods of everyone around him, which can be pretty intense if one is in a room full of teenagers whose moods are often extreme and ever-changing. But there’s one person who seems to help Caleb deal with the overwhelm, and that is Adam, an introverted gay teen who suffers from severe depression.

Though Adam’s emotions are often extreme and tend toward the dark side, they seem to “fit” with Caleb’s, and when Adam is around, Caleb finds it much easier to control the crushing, overwhelm that he experiences when Adam is not around. So in this way, Adam’s presence is calming to Caleb. Because of this, Caleb’s therapist encourages him to befriend Adam, and so the two of them form a unique friendship. In the process, they discover they have more in common than they’d initially thought.

Eventually, their friendship evolves into something more, which poses an entirely different set of challenges for our two main characters. There’s also the danger of others finding out about Caleb’s ability (there was even mention of a nefarious organization), which also added a bit of compelling intrigue to the narrative.

I love stories about people who possess superpowers and/or enhanced abilities so it was fun to journey along with Caleb as he struggled to understand and control that part of himself. The story was told from both Caleb and Adam’s alternating points of view, which really helped the reader understand the emotions and motivations of the characters. The dual perspectives worked exceptionally well in the book as both characters’ voices were so distinct that there was little danger of confusing them.

The book also had phenomenal descriptions of emotions, and I thought the author especially nailed it when describing Adam’s depression from Caleb’s point of view. I found the use of colors and physical sensations in describing emotions to be especially effective.

All in all, this is is a delightfully moving character-driven coming-of-age love story that was also a journey of self-discovery for our two highly complex protagonists. It’s an exceptional novel with lovable characters that teaches us to find solace in the special friendships that we forge and to trust those who love us.

I do believe this is going to be a series. I do hope so as I’d definitely love to delve more deeply into the world that the author has created here. The author also briefly introduced a couple of other Atypicals in the story, so hopefully, we’ll be seeing them in future books.

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So first off, I’ll mention that I love the body swapping trope and some of my favorite films include Freaky Friday, Big, 18 Again, Vice Versa, 17 Again and the like. Now I’ve read a few body swapping books, and my experience has been that this trope doesn’t translate all that well to the written form. Body swapping novels often end up being frustrating and confusing, so though I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book, I was also a bit hesitant. But I needn’t have been because the author managed to pull it off here.

This story follows a somewhat shy, young man named Ezra Slevin who is obsessed with a girl named Imogen and is working up his courage to ask her to the prom. The only problem is Imogen’s overly protective best friend Wynona, a loud and annoying girl who has made Ezra’s life miserable for as long as he can remember and seems to derive enjoyment from tormenting Ezra whenever possible.

But on the night of the total solar eclipse, something weird happens to Ezra and Wynona — they wake up in each other’s bodies. But what’s especially strange is that they begin randomly swapping back and forth every day. To make things even more interesting, Ezra learns that Wynona has a crush on his best friend, Holden.

So the two enemies are forced to come together to form an alliance as they need to pretend to be the person whose body they’re inhabiting. They also agree to help each other with their crush — Ezra will help Wynona with Holden and Wynona will help Ezra with Imogen, with the body swapping adding in all sorts of additional hilarious complications.

There’s also the problem of the play all four of them are in, a rendition of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in which a bit of gender swapping itself is part of the story. But also what’s comical here is the whole issue of learning your lines and being expected to perform while in the wrong body.

The entire novel is told through Ezra’s perspective, which helps to keep track of the body swapping. Also helpful, is that when Wynona is in Ezra’s body, he refers to her as Wynezra, which is super useful in keeping everyone straight.

I was never confused or overwhelmed by the swapping and was delighted when the author turned up the tension a couple of notches by throwing in themes of gender fluidity and homosexuality into the works. This additional complexity worked well in this story, especially as various characters developed feelings for each other, and I thought that this added to the richness and depth of an already gripping plot.

What especially worked for me with his book was the hilarity that would ensue if you found yourself not only in the body of the opposite gender but of someone whose personality is night and day different from yours — and all this taking place while in high school. There were so many laugh-out-loud moments in this book, and I thought it was so much fun to go on this journey with Ezra and Wynona as they struggled to figure out how to live in each other’s bodies, and navigate the challenges associated with the other’s sex and personality.

I thought it was interesting how the story follows Ezra but is still able to give a more in-depth inside look into Wynona’s life through Ezra swapping bodies with her. Likewise, it gave Wynona a deeper peek into Ezra’s life with each of them developing empathy and understanding for the other person’s issues and baggage in the process. That being said, this is also a story about how both people manage to find new wisdom by being in the other’s shoes.

I like how this story teaches empathy and understanding. By using a body swap as a tool, the author gets to show the world through the other person’s eyes resulting in a comedic contemporary with a heartfelt emotional relationship between two people who couldn’t be more different. It also succeeded in illustrating how we cannot judge or make assumptions about others based solely on outward appearances and Norton provides a means of exploring one’s own preconceived notions about others without being preachy.

I also loved how the author dealt with sexuality in such a unique and interesting way, a way that I haven’t come across before in a novel. This book is a new twist on body swaps and with it come themes of sexual preference, gender fluidity, and figuring out who you really want to be.

There are also themes of family, friendship, forgiveness, grief, and self-acceptance that also rendered this quite a serious novel as well. What worked nicely for me was how Wynona and Ezra learned to be their authentic and best self at the end of the day.

I liked how real and authentic these characters felt to me. The author gives us real teenagers with real problems and in so doing, provides us with a cast of flawed, lonely, impulsive, and quirky individuals that are totally relatable.

Where I End and You Begin is as inventive as it is moving and ended up being a beautifully rendered story of love, attraction, sexuality, family, and friendship. It’s a clever, engaging, and wildly entertaining read, and I felt that the author did an excellent job of bringing his characters to life, allowing all of them to thrive in their complexity. All in all, a lovely, subtle thought-provoking blow-me-away kind of book that I’m still mulling over. Needless to say, I loved it.

A big thank you to Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book.

This title will be released on June 4th, 2019 but it is available for pre-order now. Link is below.

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