Book Review 12: The Otherworldlies by Jennifer Anne Kogler

Now, let me start off by saying that this was a good enough book. Whenever I picked it up, it was hard to put down, but it did have some issues, or at least it did for me.

First, the cover, the main character is supposed to be only 12 years old, but the girl on the cover looks older to me, so that was a bit misleading. But I guess to sell it to teens, the section it is in our bookstore at, you probably have to do that. The main character is Fern, she has a twin brother named Sam, and an older brother named Eddie. They call their mother the Commander. Well, Fern has some special powers. She talks to the dog, and hears him talk back. She can predict the weather, and hear people from far away, when they're talking about her anyway. And she comes to find out that she is a vampire, or as they call themselves now, otherworldlies.

This book brings in Greek mythology in this. It is in a way that makes me wonder if they read the Lightning Thief before writing this. Another similarity is how the vampires/otherworldlies want to come out to "normals" or humans and live side by side. I've now read about this in the Suck it Up by Brian Meehl I read earlier from this list, as well as it is a big part of the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse series. Not that it's a bad thing, just very familiar to me right now.

There's a big deal about good and bad vampires and not knowing for sure who is good, and the good guys aren't always out for keeping Fern and her family safe, and not knowing who to trust, but in the end Fern does good and everyone is safe. I also see that it is left open for a sequel, so who knows when we might see another in a series. Why not, it's what everyone else is doing.

Tonight I started My Father's Son by Terri Fields. Should be done with it by tomorrow.

Book Review 5: Suck it Up by Brian Meehl

I knew this was about vampires, and while I'm really into that since Buffy, Twilight, and True Blood now, I'm very skeptical of all the other vampire books there are. I especially am not a big fan of all the "special schools" for vampires. I liked how Buffy and Twilight and True Blood all have vampires out with normal, the first two keeping vampires in secret. Suck it Up is kind of similar to True Blood, in that most of the vampires are called "Leagers". They don't drink human blood, only animal blood, and they want to come out and live among "Lifers" or humans. The main character, Morning, was an orphan until a vampire killed his foster parents and turned him. He was found shortly after and taken to the school where he learned to be a Leager. He's never drunk human blood, not even animal blood, until this story, he'd only had a soy substitute. As his class graduates, one of the teachers, Mr. Birnam asks him to do a special favor, and be "the" first vampire to come out to the public. Birnam hires a PR woman, Penny, and Morning goes and lives with her and her daughter Portia. We learn about Morning's past, and some people in it who have more to do with the whole story than we knew at first. Morning's coming out is of course fraught with mistakes and craziness, and turns out there is another group of vampires, called loners, who don't want to change their ways of drinking human blood. And one of them, is really against Morning doing this, and so decides he will kill, him. But due to some of the original vampire laws, he is unable to do it himself, and so must hire someone else.

Good book, not as good as the others I've read, but still a good read. I can see that they left it open for a sequel, but I think it ended just fine. Of course there is a bit of flirtation between Portia and Morning, the problem being that Morning is stuck as a gawky 16 year old forever, and she is human.

Book Review 4: The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

The Boy Who Dared is actually a novel based on a true story of a German boy. He actually belonged to the Hitler Youth. He wasn't really a Nazi, he didn't agree with most of what they did, especially once he started seeing friends and neighbors being mistreated for seemingly no reason. The story begins with the main character named Helmuth Hubener in prison. He is waiting for them to come to his door and say it is time for him to go, which means he is being executed. As he waits in this prison he flashes back to when he was younger, the end of World War I. He wants to be a soldier because of what has happened. He is very loyal to his country, something that is supposedly one of the Mormon's 13 Articles of Faith. Helmuth and his family are members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. An interesting thing I learned in this book, and I assume it is true, I'll have to go look it up, but supposedly the 11th article says that all people have the right to worship how, where, and what they want. So it would seem Mormons are supposedly more tolerant of other religions? At least that was how Helmuth seemed to be raised. Not sure, they're also supposed to support their country, yet the Mormons I know won't pledge allegiance to the flag, and don't celebrate holidays. Wondering where that came from? If what is told about this religion in this book is true.

But I like how the book touches on the fact that he joins the Hitler Youth because you're expected to. He also wonders about why he and others keep quiet instead of doing things for the Jews. And in the end, he tries to take actions on what he believes, and he faces the consequences bravely, doing his best to keep his friends from suffering what he eventually suffers, death.

This will be another high recommendation for me.

My next book that I started this morning and I am more than halfway through is Suck it Up by Brian Meehl. I hope to have a review on that tomorrow keeping myself on track, almost a day ahead. I will also check out another book at work tonight to start after Suck it Up.