Review: Astray (Gated #2) by Amy Christine Parker

Thanks once again to Random House for Young Readers as well as Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of the next book in this series.  Although I'm sure it is the conclusion, not really needing another book.  I gave this one a 5 star rating on Goodreads, although looking back, I'm not quite sure why I didn't give the first one, Gated, 5 stars, as I remember thinking it was a very originally told story.  Although there was one thing that bugged me, although I don't know if I mentioned it in my review of the first book. It was the name, Mandrodage Meadows.  Mandrodage is just hard to say and my mind tripped over reading it every time.  But anyway, I thought the first book was really good, and it didn't need a sequel.  So I was unsure about this one. But then I picked it up, and it was such a great sequel, and I could see that Lyla did need more to be done in order to finish her story.  Some spoilers of course, so if you haven't read the first one yet, you should probably go read my review with the link above.

We ended the last book with Lyla running away from the Community and her family after their leader Pioneer seemed to kind of go crazy, including killing her friend Marie right in front of Lyla.  After the big shoot out and confrontation at Mandrodage Meadows, when to get away Lyla had to shoot Pioneer, all the children were taken away and moved to foster homes, Lyla being moved to the Sheriff's house with her new friend Cody.  Eventually the Community, after counseling and meetings with officers were allowed to have their children back, and they moved into another place with trailers.  They were helped out by a group of militants who are about making sure the government doesn't take away people's rights.  But now all the kids are required to go to the public school.  And Lyla chose not to go back with her parents, doesn't even want to visit them after her first visit to the trailer when she sees just how far they've fallen back under Pioneer's spell, even with him in jail.  A man like Pioneer still has ways in jail to get into Lyla's life and make her scared, to tell her she still belongs to him, she is his "Little Owl". Scary things begin happening to Lyla, she can tell she is being watched by someone from the Community.  And all her old friends do crazy things at school, like chanting their strange sayings in the middle of classes, and they shave their heads to support Pioneer with his shaved head, even the girls do it.  When the trial begins things will start happening around the town, making Lyla wonder if maybe Pioneer's predictions are right, and she sometimes doubts if what she remembers is real, or if what Pioneer says happened to Marie is the truth.

It will all come to a conclusion, with Lyla, her old friends, and even her parents, having to find out and choose what is the truth about this Community, and what kind of a man is Pioneer, and is he really getting help from some aliens that they call the Brethren.

I just have to say it was a very realistic and attention grabbing ending to the story.  Even when I was saying out loud that Lyla shouldn't doubt things, and being shocked at what types of things these people following Pioneer would do, I couldn't put the book down.  Such a compelling story.  One that I would guess is similar to what someone who has actually been part of a cult and escaped would probably recognize.  And the way they reacted to the outside world again seems just like examples of the same situations we've seen in the news.  The emotions of Lyla, and even of those who follow Pioneer almost blindly are so potent and grab you to keep you involved in the story.  A great series, that I intend to make sure is in the library where I work.

Gated by Amy Christine Parker

First I will say thanks to Random House books for Young Readers and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  This was a good book about a young person in what would most likely be called a cult situation.  In a way reminded me of the book The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams, and you can read my review of that HERE.  This was a much more involved book, and you almost, at least at first, didn't think it was such a crazy place.  In fact, the main character, Lyla, seems to really be happy there.
Now Lyla's family came to live at Mandrodage Meadows, following Pioneer, after several things happened.  Lyla's sister disappeared off the sidewalk outside their brownstone in New York City.  Then shortly after, the Twin Towers fell on 9/11.  Of course once that happened, the search to find Lyla's sister ended.  There was too much going on for the police to worry about that.  Pioneer showed up at their house around that time.  Saying that he'd seen their story on the news, and The Brethren had sent him a vision saying to help this family.  Soon, Lyla's family, along with others had decided this world was only getting worse, and they all went to help build the community that Pioneer had said would be their way to be safe when the world ended.
  From the outside it just looks maybe like an Amish community, in that they garden and have simple cabins, and keep to themselves.  But they do have electricity.  They aren't really religious, you see the Brethren are aliens that have told Pioneer who to choose and when the end of the world will come.  And how to build a Silo under their community to go into and wait once the world ends.  There are only people of a certain age, and all of the children, none are very young, at a certain point, around the age of 12 I believe, all were told who their intended spouse would be.  For some, like Lyla, she was glad it was Will, her best friend, even if she didn't have "romantic" feelings about him.  For her best friend Marie, her match wasn't anything special at first, in fact the kind of boy they hoped NOT to be matched with.  But he grew up, and got cuter.  And it all seemed like it was right. They had horses, which Lyla loved to ride hers.  They only visited the nearest town like once a month, and that was to pick up things they couldn't take care of with their own farm, and to sell furniture.  Like the Amish, they sold handcrafted furniture.  Lyla's only problem is when they practice shooting.  Lyla is fine with all of what they have to do, and she understands the people outside of the compound are evil, but shooting a person, to her that seems evil.  And so when they practice, she aims for the knees.  An idea she got from the Terminator movies.  They are allowed movies, they show them at the clubhouse, and as you can see, they are some more modern movies.  They do have books to read, and go to school as well, well school with each other.  Pioneer is not happy about her not taking the shooting seriously and even comes and stands over her until she is able to shoot the wooden "people" cutouts with kill shots, the head, the chest.
One day the sheriff from the nearby town shows up and asks to speak with someone.  With his son there, Lyla ends up being asked to give a tour of the compound to his son Cody.  There seems to be a spark between Cody and Lyla, but she fights it.  She is intended for Will, and Cody is one of the bad people, he wasn't chosen for the compound, so he must be bad, right?  Then one night Will, Marie and her intended Brian, and Lyla, all sneak out of the compound.  They're not trying to run away, they just want to go down to a more private area.  While they're out, the alarms sound back at the compound that say it is time to go into the Silo.  It's early, months early, but not knowing if it is a drill or the real thing, they run back, scared to death.  When they get there, everything is empty, and the Silo door is shut and locked.  The alarm has gone off, and the second rule is that once the door is shut and locked, they will not open it until the Brethren come to save them.  After they have given up and begin to try to figure out what they will do next, the door opens.  It seems that Pioneer knew about them sneaking out, and did this to scare them, and their families.  Their families who went into the Silo without looking for them.  This leads to a very harsh punishment for the four teens.  Even with this punishment, they mostly seem to still believe in Pioneer.  But Lyla really begins to have doubts now.  She knows she might get to see Cody again when her family goes into town on the next run.  And Pioneer shows them news clips of natural disasters that have begun to speed up, all in the past weeks, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis.  And begins to speed up the timeline to go into the Silo.
It all begins to add up now, much quicker.  Accidents and unexpected things lead to the town becoming more of an issue for them.  And Lyla begins to doubt Pioneer, and wonder if what she is doing is really right, and how can all the people outside of the compound be so bad?
A great story, very in depth look at it, and how maybe the people in the cults may get swayed, without being stupid, or gullible.  Definitely a good read.  I could see this on a few State Readers' Award Lists in the future, like the Gateway in Missouri?  Or maybe now that I'll be in Kansas, I can get them started with a high school level Readers' Award list as well.

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 2.2

This will be a combination of Saturday night and last night, as I am way behind on blogging. Which means there are four books to talk about, so here goes.

First, I have always been intrigued by the Titanic disaster (as I know many other people are). And imagine my surprise and excitement to see another young readers novel, by a bestselling author about this event. Titanic is going to be a 3 part series by Gordon Korman, similar to his Island and Kidnapped series I assume, neither of which I've read though. Here is the info on the first in the series: We have Paddy, a stowaway, Sophie and her mother who have been arrested, Juliana and her rich, eccentric father, and Alfie who has a secret that could get him kicked off the ship. It will be interesting to read the stories that Korman weaves here and learn who will survive, if any.

Second: Family by Micol Ostow. I have to admit the cover is what drew me in, and look at it here, doesn't it make you want to pick it up and read it, or at least see what it is about? It is loosely based on teh Manson family murders in 1969. It is about a teenager who is on the run and finds a boy named Henry who invites her to live with his family. At first it seems great, they share food, chores, everything. Everything includes their bodies and beliefs. And Melinda must agree to it all to belong.





Third is The Sallie House Haunting by Debra Pickman. Ever since this haunting was brought to my attention from my first Ghost Hunters University with Chris Moon at the Mason House Inn in Bentonsport, Iowa, I have wanted to learn more. Especially since it is so close by, in Atchison, Kansas. This is a place that has had a multitude of different types of hauntings, full body apparitions, items moving, sounds, and even physical harm has come to people in the house. The famous scratching of the people who lived there or investigators. From what I know not just anyone can go to this house, it is kept locked and only certain people are allowed to go in with permission from the people who own it and investigate it. I am interested to read this book from the people who have done the most of the research.




Fourth and final is The Uninvited by Steven LaChance. This is another true ghost/haunting story. As you can tell I spend some time in the New Age section of the bookstore Saturday night. It is right by the 2nd floor customer service desk. Anyway, this is a home in Union, Missouri. So, another place I might want to visit. But supposedly there are horrific sounds there, people have been possessed, really scary stuff. I've never heard of this before, so I'm very interested to read the story. I guess the author is someone who lived in this house and was driven out by all the stuff going on. Sounds like a spooky read!

The Unspoken by Thomas Fahy

In my goal to read 5 books this week, which I barely made by the book I finished today, this was one I chose because I figured it would be a quick read. But now I'm behind on blogging! So here goes!

As I read through the other reviews of this on Goodreads after I finished reading this, several reviews stood out. First was the one that was not what the book was about at all. Which was really weird. Second, several of them said this was just like a teen horror slash film. And I got to thinking, yeah, it could totally be one of those.

Basically our main character is Allison. She and 5 other teens survived a cult that ended in a horrible fire. But before they got away, the leader of the cult, Jacob, told them that in 5 years they would all die by their worst fear. When the first one dies by drowning, although he is found in the middle of a field, they all go back to the hometown for the funeral. One by one they start dying. As we go through this, we learn what really happened to them in the cult and why it was so horrible.

I didn't like the way the story was told, there were times I wasn't sure who it was we were following. But other than that, the story was good, the ending was a bit of a surprise, I didn't quite realize that would be what would happen.

Again, maybe they should make a movie out of this! It would make a great teen slasher flick.

Gateway 2: The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

This was the 2nd I chose to read from the Gateway nominees. And it was also a very good one.

Our main character is Kyra, a 13 year old girl who has grown up as part of a polygamist religious cult. Her father has 3 wives, and they live in homes that are in a circle. She has 20 brothers and sisters, and 2 of the mothers are pregnant. Their leader is called The Prophet, and he has some of the men who are his Apostles, all old men. Kyra is a bit rebellious, but in secret. She takes walks outside the isolated compound that the community lives in, and one day she came across a mobile library truck, and began checking books out. Now this is wonderful for Kyra, because at the time the current Prophet took over when his father died, he had all the books burned. Not only is she reading books she shouldn't be, books like Bridge to Terabithia, The Borrowers, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Anne of Green Gables, she also has built up a friendship/crush on a boy her age in their community named Joshua. Joshua wants to choose her when they grow up, and she wants to marry him. They have met in secret, held hands, kissed, made plans. She's even taught him to play piano in an attempt to be with him without sneaking around.

When we begin, her father has heard that the Prophet has brought his name up, which means good things for his family could be coming. The Prophet and the Apostles have big homes, with fancy furniture and all they can use. It turns out this good news is that Kyra has been chosen for her Uncle Hyrum, her father's 60 year old brother, who already has 6 wives.

This is a community where women are treated as property, and punished with beatings. Escaping is almost impossible. Children who are not quite right, if it is noticed when they are babies, well, they may be killed. At least since the new Prophet has taken over. The punishment that both Kyra and one of her younger sisters go through in this book is horrifying. The books is an intense read, and I could barely put it down.