Review: After Dark by James Leck

First, thanks to Kids Can Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read an egalley of this title.  I definitely enjoyed it.  It is more of a middle school level title, but not in a bad way.  I loved the main character who was just constantly sarcastic.  I mean even in the middle of danger his responses were snarky.  And I probably love it because my brain works that way so that I have to stop myself from saying those things all the time.  But it was fun to read a story where someone did just let it all out that way.  The reactions he got, well, I've gotten those myself before.  I also love how the names of many characters are from the original Dracula story, even though this isn't necessarily a vampire story, although it is kind of.

The main character is Charlie Harker, who moves to a small town where his mom is renovating a family bed and breakfast for them to live and run.  (Jonathan Harker was the guy in Dracula who went to his castle to help him with his affairs).  He's just finished the school year at his private school, where as usual, he was up to a lot of mischief and causing problems.  He arrives in this small town and is not real excited about it.  For one thing, in the past his family has always gone to the beach or other fancy vacation spots.  Now he's going to have to help his mother renovate the inn, and he doesn't want to spend his summer working, he wants to relax as in the past.  His older brother is an actor in a popular supernatural tv show.  His younger sister is kind of a severe girl, vegan, very into yoga and meditation, as well as martial arts.  They have a crazy uncle that lives there, and after a first strange meeting with him, the uncle disappears. This all leads into the conspiracy theory or whatever you'd call it, that the new boy he meets, Miles Van Helsing, is trying to prove.  (Van Helsing was the vampire hunter in Dracula, if you didn't already know that).  Miles is kind of the town crackpot. The sheriff knows all about him, and when he shows up the first night and is supposedly running from something, he makes Charlie and his mom stay in the house and lock the door because he says they are in danger. And then he won't leave.  So Charlie's mom calls the Sheriff who comes and picks Miles up and takes him home. 

But when people do start acting funny, Charlie can't quite explain away all that Miles is saying.  And soon the whole town seems to be taken over, so Charlie and Miles must figure out a way to save their families without getting sucked into the zompire/virus or whatever it is that is going on.

Like I said, it was a fun read.  Loved how the craziness just went from one incident to another, and Charlie just happened to stumble into Miles and helping him out whether he wanted to or not.  The characters were fun to read.  This kind of left it open for a second book.  Not sure if one is planned. But I will have to read if it is, to find out just what will happen to Miles next.

Top Ten Tuesday - 10 Characters I Wish Would Get Their Own Book

Top Ten Tuesday is sponsored by The Broke and The Bookish.   I'm going against my normal dislike of more than one post a day because I think this week's topic is such a fun one!  I'm going to pick some characters from books I liked that I want to read more about, or maybe just the same story from their viewpoint instead of the main character originally.

1.

Jacob from the Twilight series.  I don't know that I need the whole original story from his point of view, but I would like to know what happens next after Breaking Dawn.  How do things go for him with Renesmee?  And because, look at Jacob in the rain.  Who doesn't want more Jacob?







2.

Eric from the Sookie Stackhouse novels.  I would love to get books telling about his whole lifetime from the beginning up until today.  And from his viewpoint, like the original books are from Sookie's viewpoint.







3. 

Daryl from The Walking Dead.  Now I know that Daryl wasn't in the comics.  I haven't read the books yet, so I don't know if he's in any of those either.  But come on, he should totally be added in.  Or get his own spin-off comic, don't you think?   






Hmm, I think I see a trend with the first few.  Let's move away to some other types of characters I'd like to read more about.

4.

Rudy from The Book Thief.  I just adored Rudy, he made me smile so much to read about him.  And I loved the friendship.  It would be neat to have a whole book from his perspective as well.







5.  

George Weasley from the Harry Potter series.  I loved the Weasley twins.  Yes I thought they were cute in the movies, but I just loved their characters.  Really I think it would have been neat to have books about the older siblings, Bill and Charlie, as well.  Percy, nah, he just annoyed me.






6.

Rusty from The Lynburn Legacy series by Sarah Rees Brennan.  He is so funny.  I would love to read more about his life and his family outside of just the story.  He's another character that makes me laugh or smile as I read the books.






7.  

Julian from the Goldy Bear Mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson.  He is kind of her adopted nephew and he helps her out with the catering that she does.  At least until he starts branching out on his own, going to college, etc.  But I think maybe a series about him having mysteries to solve might be fun as well.






8.

Balthazaar from Mortal Heart (His Fair Assassin #3) by Robin LaFevers.  I will try not to give too much away if you haven't read this one yet.  But what you learn about who Balthazaar really is makes it so that if you're like me, you'd like to know more about his life before he met Annith.  I'm guessing there would be lots of great stories to tell. 





9.

Tom Imura from the Rot and Ruin series by Jonathan Maberry.  Tom is the main character Benny's older brother.  And he has been around and remembers when the zombies started coming back.  He remembers their parents, in fact he has been like a parent to Benny because of all of what has happened.  I think a book dedicated to him would be very interesting, not to mention give a lot of information on the first days of the zombie apocalypse in this story. 

10.  

Rue from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  Sweet, sweet Rue.  How I would love to spend more time with her.  Let's go back and get her story.  Or even maybe Peeta.  Let's get it all from his point of view.  See how he feels about Katniss from the very beginning.  How all of her manipulations might feel real to him, so that we can be a little more heartsick.   





Wow, almost all my picks are guys.  And even on the last one where I picked a girl, I kind of added a guy in there too.  Hmm, wonder what that says.  Oh well.  Would you like to read more about any of these characters?  Who would you pick?

Booking Through Thursday #2

Well, I could have saved my review of The Dream Thieves for today and posted a Waiting on Wednesday yesterday, but I was ready to post my review.  So, here we go for my second time of Booking Through Thursday:

Connected to last week’s—it’s one of the ways writing has changed. Books from a century or two ago spent huge swaths of text describing locations and character traits, but modern writing does all of this in shorthand. You might know a character is short with blond hair and blue eyes, but the author leaves the rest for you to figure out on your own. The writer might tell you the story takes place at a beachside town, but leaves the details to your imagination. Why do you suppose this is? Is it that we have shorter attention spans these days? That, bombarded with video and photos as we are, we don’t NEED every detail of an unknown scene described, because we have a stock of images already in our heads?

Now, since I didn't participate last week, I'm not sure how to connect it, but I will answer this question. And I'd actually have to say I disagree with this a bit.  And the reason I disagree comes from the book that I just finished, The Dream Thieves.  I feel as if that author, Maggie Stiefvater really does describe in great detail the people, the settings, etc.  So while I think maybe some authors don't spend as much time on that, I think maybe it has more to do with the specific author's writing style and technique.

How about you?  What do you think of today's books?  Do you feel that more of the details are left out because of the reasons listed above?  Or do you feel there are other reasons for it?  Or do you, like me, think it all depends on the author, and maybe even the type of book?

Top 10 Tuesdays: Rewind!! Top 10 Characters that I'd Name My Children After

Top Ten Tuesday is sponsored by The Broke and The Bookish. This week's "Rewind" is to pick a topic you missed or want to revisit.  As I've probably only done this a couple times, there were TONS of choices for me!  And while I hate doing more memes in a week than actual reviews, it was a very busy weekend, and so I'm a bit behind on my reading.  Guessing my Goodreads goal for the year says I'm now at least 2 books behind.  :-(

But, I also hate not posting a couple times a week, so to keep it going, I'm participating in this, and the topic I missed, that I've chosen to cover is:

The top ten characters (and literary figures) that I'd name my children after

I decided this would be fun, because there is one name I've always wanted to name a girl if I ever had kids.  Well, a name I've really liked for the past 15 or so years that is, so without further ado, here is my list!

1. Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, part of the reason is because it is so unusual, there aren't any people named Buffy anymore, or at least it is not a common name.  And, the other reason, Buffy was just cool.  My favorite tv show ever probably, besides The Big Bang Theory and The X-Files. (I count it as a literary character/figure because I have all the books, and there are comic books!)
2. From the same series, BTVS, for a boy, I now love the name Xander.  And it has to be spelled with an "X" not a "Z" because it is short for Alexander.  Not that I'd do anything but the Xander part.  I'd never heard it done before, always Alex, until that show.  But now of course, I know someone I worked with at B&N with a kid with that name, and I currently have a student that goes by Xander.  
3. And because I'm one of those lame Twi-hards, I do love Bella.  
4. Along the Twilight line, I like Cullen.  I know it is a last name, but I think it would make a neat name for a boy.  I've actually had a student with that name, but it was spelled with an "a" at the end instead of an "e".
5. From the book and tv series North and South, I have also loved the name Ashton.  For a girl.  I wanted to name a girl Ashton Leigh, then she could be "Ashleigh" for short.  Of course then Ashton Kutcher came along, and I'd be afraid people would think that's where my name came from.
6. From Gone With the Wind, I also love Katie Scarlett.  I loved Scarlett O'Hara, and so would love to use that name.
7. I know for awhile I really liked the name Elizabeth, and kind of wanted to pretend that was my name, because of all the  nicknames you could get from it.  I think I got the name from Elizabeth Wakefield in the Sweet Valley High Series.
8. Okay, starting to have to think to come up with some.  I do kind of like Clary from City of Bones.  It's unusual enough that it would be neat to have.
9. I think I'm skipping boy names, so I'll go back to Gone With the Wind and choose Rhett.  I've never known anyone with that name, and how cool would it be?
10. I can't think of any more!  So I'll leave it at 9.  

So, what about you?  Do you have 10 character names you would use for your children?