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 11: Jump the Cracks by Stacy DeKeyser

So, I'm now over a fifth of the way through the books I've got to read by December 1st. yay!! This book was not too bad. The main character is Victoria, her parents are divorced, happened soon after 9/11. Her dad lives in New York city, so she has to take the train to go visit him. On her trip there she notices a teen mom with a little boy, the little boy has bruises on his arm. The mom seems to not really want the boy around, and leaves him in the bathroom when she gets off the train. Victoria feels for the boy, especially when her dad isn't there at the station to pick her up either. She decides to board the next train leaving and try to make sure that people start taking care of both her, and the little boy she calls Wills. She won't let him slip through the cracks, the way she feels she has sometimes. On her journey it turns out the boy gets reported as being kidnapped, and now she has to decide how to get him home safely to a person who will take care of him, and to not get herself in trouble, making sure people know she only had his best interests at heart.

An interesting story, not sure about it though compared to the others I've read so far. Tonight I started "The Otherworldlies" by Jennifer Anne Kogler.