Review: Harmony House by Nic Sheff

First, thanks to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for allowing me to read an egalley of this title.  I was definitely interested in seeing how a fiction book by the author, who is most well-known for his book about growing up and using drugs, Tweak, would do.  This one sounded good, as I  love a good scary story.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed. 

The main character is a girl named Jen.  She and her father have moved away from their home to fix up and run an inn in an old house called Harmony House.  Jen doesn't have a good family life.  Her mother died recently.  Her mother had been an alcoholic, but hiding something possibly.  Jen is not happy to be in this small town away from her friends.  And due to what happened with her mother's death, her father is going to home school her.  Of course right away weird things happen.  Within the house, as well as seeing shadows moving in the trees.  Her dad has become ultra religious and is very strict with her. Even grounding her the first day there when he sees a tank top in her suitcase, a piece of clothing he forbids her to wear. But she sneaks out anyway, wanting to get into town and away from the strange house.  She meets a nice woman at a diner, and her niece, and has found her first friend, she hopes.  They plan a sleepover at the creepy house for a night later on.  On Jen's way home, she runs into some guys, and one of them decides to walk her home. But once they get there, she tries to tell him that he can't come up to the house, her father would kill her and him. But he doesn't want to take no for an answer. She is rescued by another guy, the shadow she'd seen in the woods earlier. 

The longer she's in the house, the more strange things happen.  Her dad gets even more into his religious behavior, and it even gets to be really strange behavior.  Now, when the girls come over for a sleepover, things get dangerous.  The guy from town also doesn't want to leave her alone.  Jen isn't sure what is happening, but the nice lady she met in town feels like there may be something more to Jen, something that maybe her mother had as well.  And all is tied in to earlier years in the house.  The first family that lived there had a daughter who committed suicide.  Later it was a convent where the nuns took care of unwed mothers.  Supposedly burying all the babies somewhere on the grounds.  The ghosts of these past residents seem to be coming back.  By the end Jen will find connections between her family in different ways, as well as have to figure out just what is going on with herself. 

Now, while this wasn't the worst story, it had potential to be so much better.  My first complaint would be all the drugs that Jen was taking.  Honestly it seemed like there were no repercussions, no effects from the drugs at all.  I don't know if the author meant that maybe this is why Jen saw things and thought maybe she had powers, maybe it was all because of the drugs?  I just feel like for as much as it was in there, it needed more explanation.  Otherwise it was just as if it was no big deal for the character to be taking all these drugs.  I don't like that personally.  Drug use like that is often a reason I will put a book down and not finish it.  There needs to be a reason for it to be in the story.  Yes, I get that the author probably was just going based on his own experiences in life, but for a YA book like this, one not about drug use, but supposedly a horror story, there really needs to be more of a reason for the drugs.  Again, that is my opinion. 

I also mentioned there was lots of potential.  The back story in the prologue was really good, I could have seen some really creepy bits from that, but they didn't seem to make it into the story.  There were flashbacks to when the nuns were there, and while those were really intense and disturbing, I feel there could have been so much more done to fit that into the scary part of the story. 

All in all it was a quick, easy read, with lots of potential, but it fell way short of where it could have gone, and weighed too heavily on scenes with the main character taking drugs, that seemed in no way to really affect the story.

Review: Waterfall (River of Time #1) by Lisa Tawn Bergren (COYER Summer Challenge #1)

This is a book I downloaded for free quite a while ago.  I think it was one of the first books I downloaded for my Nook that wasn't an e-galley.  Now that I've read it, just as with other books like this I read for the last COYER challenge, I can't believe I waited for so long!

The main character is Gabi.  Her mother is an archaeologist, and so she and her younger sister Lia are spending their summer on a dig site in Tuscany.  But as the girls have been doing this their entire life, they know this isn't as glamorous as it seems.  They'll be stuck in a small town, away from anything that other kids their age will be doing.  When they get to this site there is a bit of an issue with a local official, which gives Gabi and Lia the chance to sneak off to get a look at the artifacts before everything is cleared out, something they normally have to wait for.  When they find these interesting handprints on the wall of the tomb, they each put one of their hands on the print that fits them, and when the stone becomes warm instead of how a stone is normally cool, things start to get weird.  Gabi pulls her hand away first, and lands in the past, 14th century Italy, where there is a fight going on for the land.  Her sister doesn't seem to be there. But she knows that she must find her sister.  She will have to learn how to live and speak with the people of this time, fortunately she knows Italian, and also figure out how to get their help to find her sister.  Of course there will be love, not only is it a love she shouldn't have because of the years of time between when they live, but he is also taken. There will also be bad guys out to take over the castello where she has been helped, and grown to feel a part of the family, as she helps them in ways she can as well  There is family intrigue, forbidden romance, and some interesting history woven in. 

While it is a Christian book, it is in a way that I totally liked. The main girl was not really religious but began to wonder in the book what was really out there. And I like the way it was done.  As someone who grew up very religious, attending a religious school from 1st-8th grade, but now questioning what I believe, it was done very realistically.  While I'm now not sure if I believe, I do still find myself praying for help, etc., just like Gabi did. 

I now have to wait until I can get a copy of the 2nd book to read.  Definitely a good read, a quick read, and highly recommended.

A to Z April: M Review - Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle/Meg by Steve Alten

Today I have another kind of religious book to share, although it also has a science fiction edge and is part of a YA series. The other book is a science fiction series I love, and an author that I devour all of his books!

First is Many Waters (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet) by Madeleine L'Engle.  I know a lot of people have heard of and probably read A Wrinkle in Time at some point in their childhood.  As did I.  But at the time I also then wanted to read every book by that author, especially those that were in a series.  The reason I chose this book is because there was one thing that really stood out for me. Something that others may know more about from the book The Red Tent by Anita Diamont.  The tent that the women stay in, separate from the men, during their "time of the month".  I know that it was not a good thing, it was a way of discriminating against women, they were considered "unclean" during that time.  But today all I can think is that how awesome would it be if I could just sit and rest and be away from the rest of the annoying world during that time.  :-)  Right girls?  That's not all the books is about obviously, that's just what stood out in my head.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
A touch of computer keys, a blast of heat, and suddenly the Murry twins, Sandy and Dennys, are gasping in a shimmering desert land. If only the brothers had normal parents, not a scientist mother and a father who experiments with space and time travel. If only the Murry twins had noticed the note on the door of their mother's lab: EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS. PLEASE KEEP OUT.

But it's too late for regrets. There's a strange -- and very small -- person approaching, with a miniature mammoth in tow....

At last it's Sandy and Dennys turn for an adventure -- an adventure that turns serious when they discover that "many waters" are coming to flood the desert. The twins must find a way back home soon, or they will drown. But how will they get back to their own time? Can they?

Second is Meg by Steve Alten.  This is an awesome science fiction story about the giant Carcharodon megalodon, an ancient prehistoric shark that has found its way from a hiding place deep in the ocean up into our world.  I could totally see the SyFy channel doing a movie of this series, but what I'd really love is if the people who did Jurassic Park would do this, using all the awesome technology and special effects to make it into the movie it deserves to be.  This actually is a series, there are 4 books in the series.  And this author has other great books as well.  Here is the blurb for this first book in the series from Goodreads:
On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with terror. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor remains haunted years later by what he saw. Written off as a crackpot, he insists that the prehistoric shark known as Carcharodon megalodon still swims the deep underwater chasms.

Only an urgent call for help from one of his oldest friends can persuade him to return to those deadly waters. Now Taylor will relive his darkest nightmare, only to find that what he saw before was only the beginning. For what lies deep beneath the waves is a horror that could turn the tides blood-red until the end of time....


So, did you read A Wrinkle in Time when you were younger?  Are you a science fiction fan?  I love all things dinosaur and other prehistoric creature related, so Meg just fascinates me no matter how unrealistic the story may be.

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