Review: Keepers of the Labyrinth by Erin E. Moulton

First, thanks to the author, Erin E. Moulton, as well as her publisher, Philomel Books, for sending me an advanced readers copy of this title to review.  I got a little behind, and didn't get started and finished till this past weekend, and the book came out on Tuesday.  I was ready to do a review on Tuesday, but then my time got away again, crazy busy stuff at school, so I am a couple days late with my review. I am very glad to share my thoughts on this one, as I'm sure there are many out there who will enjoy it. 

The main character is Lilith Bennette.  Her mother killed herself a few years ago, but it was entirely unexpected, as there was never any suggestion of depression or a reason for her to do that.  Now she has the opportunity to go to Greece, Crete to be exact.  She's been invited to a leadership conference, one that her mother also attended when she was younger.  She's hoping to learn some things about her mother, especially from a person she sees in a photo of her mother from that time. 

When she gets there, she finds different kinds of girls.  Some that she seems to get along with right away, and that she fortunately gets teamed up with.  Others that are snobby, and seem very rich, in a way that they lord it over the other girls.  Lil's teammates are not the rich ones, some of them, most of them, are there to win a scholarship given to the winning team. 

Readers get a little bit of extra information, first there are people at Melios Manor, the instructors actually, that we get a glimpse into one of their rituals, as well as a discussion.  There is also someone out there who seems to be after something there.  He goes by the code name of Hermes, and well, he doesn't sound like a very nice guy.

The girls will get some great experiences in solving riddles and puzzles based on what they know about Greek mythology, as well as some major team building type of activities that include very athletic types of tests.  When Hermes shows up, things go downhill quick, and to get away from him and his crew, the four girls will have to go into a labyrinth and solve even more riddles, and find out that what they've always thought were the stories, weren't quite the way things were.

I loved all the mythology "change", the way that you could kind of turn the myth into a different story, but still stay true to the original, or well known version easily.  The trip through the labyrinth really reminded me a lot of the movie The Goonies.  Solving riddles, and all the dangerous booby traps and paths. 

If you are a big fan of mythology retold, kind of like the Percy Jackson series, or dangerous adventures like in The Goonies, then this is the book for you!

Review and Blog Tour: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes

First, thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Young Readers Group, as well as The Fantastic Flying Book Club Tours for allowing me to read an egalley of this title.  I had been intrigued about it since I first saw it, and had already been approved for the egalley when I saw there was a tour going on, so I thought I'd sign up and be a part of that as well.  I have to say this was a pretty good book.  It's another look into a cult, one that again ends in fire. 

The main character is as the title states, Minnow Bly.  When she was pretty young, her parents packed up and moved with a cult to live in a forest.  Their new religion was Kevinian.  And when you hear the rules and all the things they believed in, well, these people were just plain stupid.  I'm sorry, but it's just ridiculous. The sad thing is, there are probably cults out there that have just as stupid rules and yet people still join in. 

The story begins after everything has happened.  Minnow is going to juvenile detention.  You see it's not that she caused the fire or killed their leader, but she did attack and beat up a boy after she escaped.  A boy who just came across her at the exact wrong moment.  Not to mention one of the things that happened to her, was that their leader, the Prophet, had cut her hands off.  The story follows Minnow's time in the juvenile center.  She makes friends with her roommate named Angel.  Who killed her uncle, who had been abusing her.  Throughout the book we learn the whole story of Minnow's time with the cult.  The crazy things they believed and did.  The friend she found outside of the cult, living in the forest a little ways a way from where the cult lived, his name was Jude.  Part of the story is learned as she talks with an FBI agent.  Part of it is learned in flashbacks she has, and some parts are learned through conversations with Angel. 

By the end of the story you're waiting to see if she will be able to get off on parole, and what will Minnow do with her life afterwards, because if she doesn't get parole, she'll go to the adult women's prison. 

The story was very well told, the suspense built up perfectly.  I think all the different details were laid out in such a way to keep you reading, to keep you wanting to know.  But also in a way that you kind of were like, "Oh, yeah, I was thinking that!" 

My only gripe is that the story ended very ambiguously, it's left open and vague, so that you don't know for sure how things really go.  And I don't like that.   I really need to know.  I can see that it also leaves it up for the reader's interpretation, you can kind of choose what you think will happen.  You can see that maybe Minnow has come far enough in this journey that whatever happens, she can be happy, and finally move on with her life.

You can check out the rest of the tour by clicking on the image below!

Proxy (Proxy #1) by Alex London

First thanks to Penguin Young Readers and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this book.  This is a dystopian type of thriller, one for boys, with the main characters being boys.  However, and though I have no problem with it, something that might be an issue for some people is that the main character, Sydney, he is gay.  It's not really any way that could be considered "in your face", in fact it fits into the story perfectly, and really isn't much different than any other teen romance story.  Actually there really isn't anything other than a kiss or two, and those aren't even really in what you'd call really romantic settings actually, like you'd think of a romantic scene in a movie or book, not so much.  But beyond that, let's talk about the story.
As I mentioned, the main character is Sydney, or Syd as he prefers to be called.  Syd is an orphan who was brought into the city and given a chance to go to school by becoming a Proxy for one of the rich kids, or as they call them, Patrons.  What that means is that his debt will be worked off by taking the slack, the punishment for anything his Patron, who is named Knox, does wrong.  Instead of Knox getting spanked, or punished in any way really, Syd gets the punishment, Knox does have to watch though.  One main type of punishment in this world is being given shocks, I'm guessing it is basically like a cattle prod or taser type of weapon.  And Knox is basically always in trouble it seems.  At first before Syd understood why he was being punished when he hadn't done anything, he had cried.  But soon when he learned just why it was happening, that he was having to pay off his debt of living basically, he vowed not to let them see him cry.  And unlike Syd's friend Egan, Syd does nothing else to add to his debt.  Once he reaches a certain age, I think it was 17 or 18, he will be free of his debt, and have no more to do with this.  But unfortunately, his Patron has done something that will change this.  Knox gets drunk or drugged up and steals his father's car to impress a girl, Marie, and he has an accident.  When he wakes up, he finds that Marie has died, and he has to watch his Proxy, Syd, get a horrible punishment.  More of the shocks at one time than ever.  And not only that, Syd must now go to a prison/reform center, to fulfill Knox's sentence for killing the girl.  And this will go WAY past the time he was supposed to be free.  So Syd decides he must escape.  And when he is able to get away, he finds his friend Egan.  Egan has a friend who can help Syd get a fake ID so that he can hopefully get out of the city and save  his own life.  Turns out this friend is a Patron, and guess who it is, Knox.  So as he figures out who Knox is, because while Knox has had to watch him be punished, Syd has never seen Knox, he determines that he must kidnap Knox and use him as his hostage to get away.  Along their attempt to get Syd to safety they will learn that there is more to Syd's background than he knew, and that it is something very important in why Knox's day is so eager to find and catch him.  Knox will learn more about himself, enough to maybe grow up a little.  Egan will come back to help them with their getaway.  And the end it kind of about redemption in a way.
While I believe that they can still go on with the story, I think that it also ended in a way that it doesn't have to go on, and that is kind of nice.  The ending reminded me of the Star Trek Movie where Spock and Kirk talk about how the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or vice-versa.  I also was really ready for Egan to betray Syd at the end from the way Syd had described Egan's need to get as much tech, or "lux" things as they described them in the book.  But I was pleasantly surprised that although Egan made some bad choices, he truly seemed to be the friend Syd thought he was until the end.  Definitely a fun story, with some great ideas about how to save a system of debt like this society in the story is made up of.

The Madness Underneath (Shades of London #2) by Maureen Johnson

Of course I have to start out by thanking both Penguin Young Readers, and Netgalley for letting me read the e-galley of this book in December 2012.
I was very excited when I saw this book was available on Netgalley.  I am a big Maureen Johnson fan from following her on Twitter, as well as the other books I've read of hers always show her sense of humor and are fun to read because of that.  I liked the first book in the series, The Name of the Star.  However, I must admit that I was a little disappointed with this one.  Not quite sure why.  I agree with one of the reviews on Goodreads, that it is kind of a normal 2nd book in a series, setting up for the 3rd one.  Especially with how it ends. But I won't give that away.
Anyway, Rory is back.  She's home with her parents recovering from her attack by the ghost that was perpetrating the Jack the Ripper murders in the first book.  But she wants to go back to school, back to her boyfriend and friends.  Back to the new friends she has, Boo, Callum, and Stephen who also can see the dead, and who helped her with the Jack the Ripper case.  Only, something new has happened.  While the terminus, the device used to send ghosts to their final resting place, all of them have been destroyed as far as anyone knows.  But Rory, well, she may be able to replicate their power.  Something happened in the bathroom where she was stabbed.  Something that created a crack in the floor, something that now whenever she goes to touch a ghost, they disappear.  This happening helps her be able to get back to school.  Thorpe, the big guy behind Stephen's group, gets her Therapist to say she is ready to return.  And once she's back, he sees, or is told her new skill, and the group is saved from possible destruction.  One murder has occurred nearby, and while at first, Stephen doesn't see it as anything odd, Rory discovers the past and how below the school there used to be a mental hospital.  And she wonders if these ghosts could be coming out and affecting or causing problems.  Along the way Rory realizes that she is so far behind at school.  She did no make up work while she was with her parents, and comes back right before the final exams.  Plus, a boyfriend, something she's never really had.  All in all, with the terminus issue, she's just pretty stressed.  And Charlotte, the other girl who was part of the attack in the bathroom, tells Rory about her therapist, Jane.  And one day, in a fit of panic, Rory goes to see this Jane.  And she seems like a great help.  She leaves feeling much calmer and ready to handle what comes next.  But is Jane really as good of a person as she seems?  That remains to be seen.
Okay, I won't give much away.  But there is a part where Rory even talks about how she knows when people are really deluded, gives examples from her life in Louisiana, but then doesn't see the person she should be worried about?  I don't know.  The book seemed really short, and not a lot of excitement until the end.  And even then, that went quick!  I don't know that I like the way it ended, or what was decided at the end.  Of course, I'll have to read on, because I have to know what happens next.  But I don't feel that we got quite as much of Rory's personality in this one, at least not as much as what I remember liking about the first book in the series.  So, my recommendation is, if you like Maureen Johnson, and the first story, go ahead and read on.  It's worth it.  But, I wouldn't recommend this as a first book to start reading.  Good, but not great.  I had trouble reading, it wasn't one that I had trouble putting down.