Review: The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick (COYER Challenge #2)

First, thanks to Roaring Book Press and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I of course loved the cover right off, and the idea of the story sounded really intriguing.  I don't know that I was a huge fan of the story though.  It was very creative, and unique, and well-written for sure.  And I made it through the book, and for the most part wasn't bored at any part.  At the beginning of the book, the author makes a note about how it is divided into four different parts, and that the reader can read them in any way they want.  Personally, I'm not sure how true this is.  I feel like they were arranged chronologically and it works that way.  In fact, I think if you read them in a different order, there are small bits in each story that tie back to the story before it, that might not stick out as much to the reader if they didn't read them in order.  But that's my opinion, and how my brain works, so maybe for others it would be okay.  All of them deal with a spiral in some way, the cover is a perfect tie in for that.

The first story is told in poetry form.  It is the story of a girl in the time of cavemen, and references the paintings found in caves that date back to those times.  I skimmed through this rather quickly, as I am not always a big fan of the poetry, and it is a lot of times quicker to read as well.  I get the spiral bit in it, kind of, but not as much as it was set into the other stories.

The second story is a woman in the times of witch hunting.  She and her mother created herbs and "potions" to help those who were sick or in pain.  At the time of the story a new priest has come to town, one who is setting about proving there is a witch to be taken care of.  And in this time period, there are those who would give her up, even though she's helped them, because of their own problems.  Again, a spiral plays into the story, and the wonder of what it might mean.

The third story takes place in a time where asylums were a big thing.  And the story follows a single father who is a psychologist come to work at an asylum in a very remote area.  He and his daughter live on one of the top floors of the building, and the floors below are the different patients, the lower the floor, the worse off their problems are.  The first day there they meet a man who seems like he must work there, but it turns out he is a patient.  And one that lives on the lower floor, because his psychosis has to do with spirals.  I feel like this story brings in the "ghosts" bit from the title.

The final story is set in the future, a world where humans must move on, find a new planet to live on.  It is a space ship that carries 500 people to start a new life for humans on the "New Earth" that has been found.  Besides the 500 people that are in a sleep until they reach the planet, there are 10 sentinels.  These are people who are under a different kind of sleep, one that wakes them up every 10 years in order to see what has happened in the time they were asleep, and make sure things are still working.  The main character is one of these sentinels.  And he begins to wonder if he is really the only one awake during the 12 hours he gets to do his work every 10 years.  Especially when he wakes up to six people being dead.  And according to the computers on board, there is no reason for their deaths, no malfunctioning of anything.  Again there is a spiral tie in because of the ship having to spin to create the fake gravity needed to help with the long journeys in space and human health.  This story has the most tie ins to the other stories, especially at the end of it.  I kind of feel like it would be the best at the end, or if you were going to try a different order, maybe it could be the first one.

Definitely a very complex story overall, and a good one, just not something I would read over again.  I can definitely recommend it to people who enjoy a complex group of stories, and looking for the connections in them.  It is definitely very thought provoking, with numbers and science, nature and history.

Review: Amity by Micol Ostow

Thank you to Egmont USA and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  Unfortunately, while it had some definitely scary parts to it, very horror movie like,  I wasn't necessarily as thrilled with it as I had hoped to be.  You see, I recently looked into the whole Amityville Horror stories, more about this after my summary. 

This story takes place in two different time periods, with two different families.  It starts out even with a letter from the oldest son of the first family, one he's writing to his twin sister.  His name is Connor, and his sister's name is Julianna, or as her father calls her, Annie, but she prefers to be called Jules.  Their father is abusive, at least he is to their mother, as well as their younger brother Abel.  Connor seems to take after his father with the anger issues.  And it is possible that is what saves him and his twin sister from their father.  They have moved to Amity because of issues his father has had with money it seems.  Moving out there is not what the twins really want to do, but it is better not to complain in front of their father.  Because complaining will lead to someone getting hit, their mother or their younger brother.  But moving there, something changes about Connor.  The house seems to be calling to his "bad" side.  Even causing him to get mad at his twin, something he's never really felt about her. 

The 2nd family moves in 10 years later.  There are two kids in this family, a brother and his younger sister.  Luke and Gwen's family have moved there for some family reasons as well.  It seems Gwen has had mental problems, that have caused her to even be in an institution for a while.  And the family felt it would be better for her to have a new start.  Gwen is saying and trying to act like she is better.  But she still sees and feels things like before.  Her Aunt Ro is the only one who really understands her, but her parents don't really appreciate what her aunt seems to condone.  Gwen feels the house is talking to her.  But it's not just her.  Her older brother Luke seems to be affected as well.  He gets really kind of spaced out, and abrupt.  Very similar to Connor, ten years before.  And things seem to be happening all over again.  Gwen sees a ghost, of a girl named Annie, who seems to want to help her. 

We go back and forth in time, the viewpoints of Connor and Gwen are how we get the story.  There are some great scenes that I could totally see in a horror movie, and so in that way it is a very scary book.  And if you don't know a lot about the actual Amityville Horror reality and background, and this sounds good to you, you can probably stop with my review right here, and go enjoy a good scary book.  Otherwise, if you want to read what my problems with the book/story are, you can go on.  But don't let it keep you from reading, like I said, it is a good scary story.

When I mentioned in the first paragraph about how I'd recently looked into the whole background of the real place called Amity, it was mainly because of Lorraine Warren, and her involvement in the original "haunting." I had read the original Amityville Horror book years ago before I looked into this, as well as watching the movie.  But now I know that many people say it was all a hoax because of those involved who have come back and said they lied.  Now it's not that issue that bothers me, it is the things that have been proven to not be true.  Such as the land being a Native American burial ground.  Or that a famous man, thought to possibly be a witch during the Salem Witch Trials lived there.  And the other thing, that it was a insane asylum at one time.  All these things were used in the story as possibilities of what the reasons were for all the hauntings or mysterious events that happened there.  I'm not saying that using one of them would have been that bad or bothered me too much. Just that the author pulled in all three misleading ideas, seemed a bit of a cop-out to me.  But as I said, if you didn't know all those things, then you would enjoy it because those things are very eerie and make for a good back story.  Sorry, I guess I may have just ruined that for some people.

Asylum by Madeleine Roux

First thanks to HarperCollins and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  I've read another book by this author, Allison Hewitt is Trapped, and I enjoyed the zombie story.  So when I saw the info about this on Edelweiss, and heard it was going to be like Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, I immediately requested a download of it.  And it was a pretty good, twisty plot story.  It comes out at a good time, after the recent hit TV show American Horror Story had its 2nd season take place in an insane asylum.  My only disappointment is that not all the photos for the story were part of the e-galley.  Although I definitely understand why that was probably the case.
The main character is Dan Crawford.  Dan is attending a summer institute called New Hampshire College Prep.  It just so happens that the dormitory the high school students are staying in is called Brookline, and was once an insane asylum.  One that has some really bad history, and the town really would like to see it destroyed.  Dan doesn't seem to have a lot of friends from what he sounds like at the beginning.  And his roommate Felix is a bit odd he feels.  But at the mixer the first night he meets a girl named Abby.  And she introduces him to the friend she made on the bus trip there, Jordan.  Now, when Dan first got to his room, there was a picture in the drawer where he put his belongings.  It was what looked like a doctor maybe, with his eyes scratched out.  And his roommate said he'd seen some cool stuff down in an office that was from the old asylum.  So when Dan tells Abby about this, she immediately thinks it sounds like a fun trip.  It takes a bit of convincing, but they get Jordan to go as well.  Once down there they find more pictures, and old files, and weird things start to happen.  Abby finds a picture that just speaks to her for some reason.  Dan begins having dreams where he seems to be seeing things from the warden's view point in the past.  And that's not all.  When they get caught for being down there by one of the Hall Advisers, a day or so later, he is found dead.  And not just dead, but kind of posed, the way a serial killer that had once been at the asylum used to do to his victims.  And when Dan tries to ask townspeople more about the asylum, he runs into some issues.  One is when he tells them his name.  See Daniel Crawford was the name of the last warden, the one who was doing so many horrible things to the patients.  What is really bothering Daniel is why he has the same name, why such a huge coincidence?  And as he is adopted, there is no telling if there was some relationship between him and this guy.
In the end, it is definitely left a bit open, because I would like to know exactly what his relationship is, and while they thought they'd solved the mystery, something happens at the end that leads you to think otherwise.  A good creepy story, and I can't wait to actually see the book in print with all the pictures, and then I'll be eagerly awaiting a sequel, I hope!