The Moon Dwellers

The Moon Dwellers by David Estes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started reading this as an ebook and just couldn't get into it. But on audio? It's a different book entirely!

This is one of those books that would make a fantastic movie. The action gets going and never lets up; there are chases and bombings and shootouts and escapes and outlaws and even a cannibal! Oddly, none of these situations are out of line with the plot, which is just a girl trying to put her family back together. They've been arrested and split up between prisons and an orphanage, and she's determined to break everyone out and reunite them. In the process, she picks up a couple of friends and crosses paths with the President's son and his right hand man.

The characters here are all well-developed and even endearing. Adele starts out seeming like a total badass, but her compassionate and sensitive side quickly emerges. Tristan is just a likable guy. He's not too pretentious or overly noble in his view of his father's politics. I think the best part for me was that neither of these two characters took themselves too seriously. When reading this previously in print, some of the dialogue and inner monologues seemed forced, like the book was trying too hard to be funny. But on audio, Julia Whelan and Will Damron are able to give such personality to the characters that they translated as having somewhat of a wry wit. Rock, who is Tristan's sidekick and best friend, has some of the best lines. This isn't a funny book at all, but there are occasional moments when things are a bit lighter. And that's good, because with all the serious action going on there needed to be some high points.

Rivet, the big bad guy, was somewhat underdeveloped. He was evil - but why? We really knew nothing about him other than he was the head of a goon squad and a brief physical description of him. What was his motivation? There was also a band of outlaws who were never really well-defined. They popped in and out of the story very briefly and it seemed a shame, because the leader had a lot of potential to be an interesting side character - maybe one that could have been morally gray. Maybe we'll see him again in the sequel.

Overall this was a great read, made even better by the narrators. They gave the story presence and atmosphere - I was right there in the damp caves with hard stone floors and utter darkness. The audio was really, really well done.

These two narrators also do the sequels in the series. I can't wait to move on to the next book.


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Light in the Shadows

Light in the Shadows by A. Meredith Walters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Now this is my kind of New Adult recovery story.

In this sequel to Find You In the Dark, we pick up where things left off - Clay is in therapy at a mental health facility and Maggie is back home trying to get over him. Clay's recovery is precarious at best, and he's told Maggie to move on. Of course she can't, neither can he, and when he has to return to their town they have to face their issues.

And face them they do. This time it's without all the drama, which was so refreshing! This is a well-written story about recovery, triggers, things that cause relapse and a true commitment to just get better. There is real honesty and struggle here. At times it's raw and at times it's frustrating. But Walters hit the mark when she refused to bring the plot to a big terrible climax. The other shoe didn't need to drop, it needed to get figured out. And it does.

She's given us rich, realistic characters here that example the best way to deal with terrible situations. Clay and Maggie may have been a bit mature for their years, but in their respective situations they had to be. Mental illness is always a difficult subject because it is so full of tragedy. Where Find You In the Dark was full of destructive behavior and emotionally taxing, this sequel was full of hope. Young Adults need to be reading this stuff.

Bravo to Walters for taking on such a scary, complicated issue. And bravo for giving us characters who cared about overcoming it and had no illusions about how hard it would be - or would continue to be. This is a happy ending I can appreciate.

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Boneshaker

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fantasy, steampunk, the old west, the American Civil War, and zombies. This book has it all.

The premise here is a really interesting one. The story opens with a bit of a history lesson about the purchase of the Alaskan Territory by the US from Russia. Set in the mid-1800's, it involves the gold rush and the invention of a machine designed to dig through ice and tundra in order to extricate gold. It's invented in Seattle, goes haywire during a test and destroys the city. In the process it digs deep enough to release gases which turn people into zombies - the high functioning kind that can run and climb. Seattle is evacuated and a wall is built to keep the zombies and gas inside. The widow and son of the machine's inventor are ostracized as they live in The Outskirts, the city next to Seattle formed by the evacuation. In the rest of the US the Civil War rages on in an altered, fictional future.

So suffice it to say that the world building here is spectacular. It is gritty and desperate. Priest has even done so good a job as to make it difficult to breathe and claustrophobic at times. The action is palpable. The description is rich. The situations are dire. And the whole thing doesn't bog down at all as the events happen.

The characters here are all well-developed and multi-faceted. Briar, the main character, is determined but knows her limitations. Zeke is brash and young but not altogether stupid. He has just enough sense to be his mother's son. Swakhammer (what a great name for a guy in a novel like this!), Lucy, Captain Cly and Minnericht were all entertaining and excellent supporting characters - I was drawn in by them and kept interested with their unfolding backstories.

The plot here is what really takes center stage. Getting to the bottom of the mystery is really the point. Zeke's motives for entering the city become more and more cloudy as the story progresses, but the overall story of Levi Blue and his motives become clearer. It's a nice interplay.

On audio, the book is narrated from two points of view by Kate Reading and Wil Wheaton. Reading, while expressive, tended to be a bit stiff. Wheaton on the other hand was fantastic. Reading's expression was obviously limited by her character's voice, as Wheaton's was enhanced. Overall the narration was great and enhanced the story.

There are several more books in this series but they appear to be companion novels, set in the same world but stand-alones, occasionally picking up a character or two from this novel. I doubt I'll be continuing simply because this isn't my genre of choice. But if I am in the mood again for steampunk, this world is where I'll look first.

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Find You in the Dark

Find You in the Dark by A. Meredith Walters
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My impressions after finishing this book: emotionally exhausting, sad, tragic. This is dysfunctional love on a highly elevated level.

This is the story of Maggie, high school senior with a boring life. She's a bit emo and self-pitying despite having wonderful parents who love her and a couple of wonderful friends. The book is told in first person and when we meet her, initially Maggie seems to be an average girl, happy but bored with her life. But as soon as her conversations with her friends begins her sarcastic voice emerges. On the one hand it gave her character some depth - but on the other hand it was just annoying. This is a girl with a great home life and good friends, so why does she need to be so stand-offish? If all this can be attributed to her insecurity, it makes sense. Otherwise it's completely at odds with the person we meet at the outset.

It is also the story of Clay. Poor guy, he's the new kid at school and as soon as Maggie crashes into him he's confronted with her arrogant attitude. The mystery that surrounds him is well done. I didn't guess his situation as much as recognize it. It's always nice to discover a plot rather than predict it. He's a great guy in a bad situation, trying desperately to overcome his demons with both a lack of support and a high schooler's perspective. Even as we root for him we're torn up by his innate inability to fix himself.

The relationship between Maggie and Clay was just tragic - and this because it was so realistic. It was painful to watch because it was so much like real life. Believable? Absolutely. Entertaining? Not so much. These characters were well-developed, full of depth, rich, even likable at times. But overall they were painful to watch as they tried to navigate a situation that in real life ends badly.

There's no cliffhanger but not really a happy ending, either. On the one hand it's a relief that things came to a head and finally it's over. On the other hand it's worth picking up the sequel just to see how things turn out. The sequel promises to hold the same types of struggle that the this one does, but hopefully with a more uplifting ending.

This book is heart-wrenching and hard to read. Great characters? Check. Good writing? Check. Entertaining? Not so much. Tragedy is hard even when it's as well done as this is.

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Looking for Trouble (Jackson: Girls Night Out #1)

Looking for Trouble by Victoria Dahl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well now here's refreshing plot. Daughter and son of parents who had an affair are attracted to each other. Romance ensues. Hmmm.

As romance stories go, this is pretty average. Gorgeous girl hides behind a retro, librarian facade (and she really is a librarian). Gorgeous hunk rides a motorcycle and doesn't do relationships. Nothing is unexpected here.

But Dahl did put a nice spin on the plot. It's a small town, so she uses the stigma of adultery to capitalize on the relationships within the families and the town at large. Politics and gossip lean everyone one way while reality balances it another. The social pariahs raised some sense of injustice so I wasn't just interested in these characters, I was emotionally invested in the story.

The characters were believably developed. Also refreshing was the way they behaved; they may have had distorted reasons for their behavior but at least it was realistic on some level. The romance wasn't so much sweet as savory, a welcome change in the genre. It maintained a nice balance between sugary sweetness and the tart sense of the forbidden.

This is a decidedly above average book for me - I'd give it 3.25 stars. It's an easy read in one sitting. And hopefully it's a taste of good things to come from this author. I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.

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