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Shadowland by Meg Cabot: A

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From the back cover:
Sixteen-year-old Susannah Simon is a mediator who can see and speak with ghosts. As a bridge between the living and the dead, she gets called on to help troubled ghosts take care of unfinished business. Soon after she and her mother move from New York City to sunny California, Suze meets the sexiest boy she’s ever seen. But there are two problems: he’s a ghost, and he’s haunting her room.

Review:
This was YA supernatural fluff and I totally adored it! There isn’t actually much of a plot aside from one particularly hateful ghost wanting revenge on an ex, but it’s fun anyway. Cabot borrows heavily from the premise for Buffy and I suppose I should be annoyed by that, but it reads more like an homage than a rip-off.

The similarities:
* Susannah (a little Buffyish in character, but with the super snark of Veronica Mars—I obviously like her quite a bit!) has a supernatural ability/job that she did not ask for and cannot relinquish.
* This ability has gotten her into some trouble in her old town, and her mom is hopeful that moving to a new place, in the middle of her sophomore year, will be a fresh start.
* There’s an adult staffer at her new high school who knows what she is and can give some advice.
* The popular kids make overtures towards her, but she seems more inclined to hang with the “losers”—specifically one guy and one girl. The guy (quippy, but not as funny as Xander) has a crush on Susannah and is clearly oblivious to the feelings that the other girl (nothing like Willow, alas) has for him.
* Susannah meets a foxy dead guy who has been around for over a century and who helps her out when fighting the aforementioned hateful ghost.

Shadowland reads kind of like a pilot episode. It sets the theme, the mythology, and the characters without delving too deeply into any of those categories. At this point, I sort of expect the series to compare to Buffy’s first season without approaching the impact of the latter half of season two. I would be highly (pleasantly) surprised if Cabot managed to pull off something like that.

Ouran High School Host Club 6 by Bisco Hatori: B

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From the back cover:
The school festival opens at Ouran, and the Host Club members are busy entertaining the visiting parents. Teasing his son is a favorite pastime of Tamaki’s doting father, the school chairman, but Tamaki’s grandmother is cut from a very different cloth. She despises and shuns Tamaki, banning him from the main Suoh Mansion. It’s now time for Kyoya to take action with the Host Club to help their favored leader out.

Review:
The first few chapters aren’t very interesting or amusing, though they do provide a bit of background on Kyoya’s home life. The last chapter is also fairly pointless. Chapter 26, however, was a good one. We learned more about Tamaki’s family, and how it’s actually a fortunate thing that he is so upbeat and energetic.

The art also seems to’ve changed a little bit. I noticed several times that characters shown in profile had virtually no noses; one even kinda looked like Voldemort! Tamaki and the twins looked a little different, too, though I can’t exactly pinpoint how. I realize it’s normal for art styles to evolve over the course of a title, but this isn’t an improvement.

The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket: C

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From the back cover:
To: My Kind Editor

Top secret—only for readers deeply interested in the Baudelaire case. How I pity those readers.

With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

Review:
Cons? Rather pointless and reminds me of the Griffin & Sabine series with its obscure epistolary nature. Pros? Short!

No answers are forthcoming in this series of letters, but we do get some tiny hints as to what occurred after the events of The End. This book could very easily be skipped, and definitely shouldn’t be approached with any expectation of clarity.

The End by Lemony Snicket: B-

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From the back cover:
Dear Reader,

You are presumably looking at the back of this book, or the end of THE END. The end of THE END is the best place to begin THE END, because if you read THE END from the beginning of the beginning of THE END to the end of the end of THE END, you will arrive at the end of the end of your rope.

This book is the last in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and even if you braved the previous twelve volumes, you probably can’t stand such unpleasantries as a fearsome storm, a suspicious beverage, a herd of wild sheep, an enormous bird cage, and a truly haunting secret about the Baudelaire parents.

It has been my solemn occupation to complete the history of the Baudelaire orphans, and at last I am finished. You likely have some other occupation, so if I were you I would drop this book at once, so THE END does not finish you.

With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

Review:
Unfortunately, I found the final volume of A Series of Unfortunate Events to be somewhat of a disappointment. The first half is dull, and one feels that time that could’ve been used to settle some mysteries has been squandered. A couple of things are finally formally clarified, but a lot is left up in the air or, as the book puts it, in the Great Unknown.

At the same time, though, the point is made in the book that we seldom do get answers to all of our questions, which is certainly true. The orphans conveniently discovering all of the answers in the final volume would be satisfying, but it would also be too simple for a series that has spent the last few volumes dwelling on life’s ambiguities. I’m still annoyed, but perhaps not as much as I would be under other circumstances.

A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine: A-

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From the back cover:
Like most families, they had their secrets—and hid them under a genteelly respectable veneer. No onlooker would guess that Vera Hillyard and her beautiful sister, Eden, were locked in a dark and bitter combat over one of those secrets. England in the fifties was not kind to women who erred. They had to fight it out behind closed curtains using every weapon they had. And in this case, it was murder.

Review:
Barbara Vine is a pen name for Ruth Rendell, whose writing I generally like a great deal. A Dark-Adapted Eye is no exception.

The book can’t be called a mystery, really. The culprit is clear from the beginning, as is the method. What is missing is the why. Told from the point of view of the niece of Vera and Eden Hillyard, we are presented with “warts and all” portraits of the women involved, ultimately leading to the circumstances inspiring the drastic act. It’s very well-done and interesting throughout.

One frustrating thing is that the narrator refers to a variety of people by their given names at the beginning of the book without referencing their relationships, so it takes a bit of time to work out who these people are. I ended up drawing a little family tree to help myself.

I also guessed what “the secret” would turn out to be halfway through the book. There was at least one awesome surprise, though. Definitely recommended.

The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh: B+

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From the back cover:
Sir John Phillips, the Harley Street surgeon, and his beautiful nurse, Jane Harden, are almost too nervous to operate. The emergency case on the table before them is the Home Secretary—and they both have very good, personal reasons to wish him dead. Within hours he does die, although the operation was a complete success…

Review:
Wow, a Ngaio Marsh book I actually enjoyed! I think the difference is that we’re not seeing events (and Inspector Alleyn) through the eyes of another character this time. Alleyn seems almost like a different character now. He’s still breezy and flip, but seems to be more consistent in mood and personality. Characterization is not the focus of this novel, but this is still a definite improvement.

The structure of the book was very tidy. The first third is devoted to setting up the victim in life, and those with possible motivations against him. The next third consists of Alleyn’s interviews with all the surgeons and nurses present during the procedure. James Saxon, the audiobook’s narrator, does a fabulous job giving each of these people their own voice, both literally and figuratively. I especially love how he handles a blustery doctor prone to going “ha ha ha” at his own comments.

The rest of the book continues and completes the investigation. The only things I didn’t particularly like were the first appearance by a couple of Alleyn’s civilian buddies (they got on my nerves and disrupted the flow of things) and the pantomime reconstruction of the surgical procedure in question (lo, how it dragged).

A final note: apparently a nursing home is something else in the UK. This is not about a place where elderly folks dwell, but rather a small hospital where surgeries are performed. It took a while for me to get the image of the victim as an old dude out of my head.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart: C+

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From the back cover:
Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?

When this peculiar ad appears in the newspaper, dozens of children enroll to take a series of mysterious, mind-bending tests. (And you, dear reader, can test your wits right alongside them.) But in the end just four very special children will succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete. To accomplish it they will have to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules.

As our heroes face physical and mental trials beyond their wildest imaginations, they have no choice but to turn to each other for support. But with their newfound friendship at stake, will they be able to pass the most important test of all?

Review:
I’m sure this book will be compared to Harry Potter. It’s not a total rip-off or anything, but there were enough common elements to be distracting.

For example: the main character, Reynie, is eleven. And an orphan. But what could be better than one 11-year-old orphan? Four of them! Well, the kids are not all technically orphans, but their parents are not in the picture, at least. They each have different strengths and traits, which evokes the House system at Hogwarts. Reynie’s a Hufflepuff, Kate’s a Gryffindor, Sticky’s a Ravenclaw… They have a member on their team they don’t entirely trust, and the old, doddering leader dude assures them she’ll be helpful, but doesn’t disclose his reasons for including her, reminding one of Dumbledore and Snape to some degree.

Some children’s fiction authors seem to feel obligated to impart messages unto their readers. Featured in The Mysterious Benedict Society are: friends can become your family, don’t let fear cripple you, there’s no shame in accepting help… and TV and radio are evil (those with an “uncommon love of truth” have no interest in either).

The real problem, however, is that the book is boring. Drudgery would be an apt description for the effort required to finish it. The concept, somewhat reminiscent of one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes (creepy headmaster needs children for a nefarious plan), is a good one but the execution could put one to sleep.

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir: A-

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From the back cover:
New York Times best-selling author Alison Weir has earned her reputation as the preeminent historian of British royalty. Now with Innocent Traitor, Weir utilizes her vast knowledge and captivating narrative style to craft her first historical novel, choosing Lady Jane Grey—the most sympathetic heroine of Tudor England—as her enthralling subject.

The child of a scheming father and ruthless mother, Jane is born during a time when ambition dictates action. Cousin to Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, she is merely a pawn in a political and religious game where one false step means certain demise. But Lady Jane has remarkable qualities that help her withstand the constant pressures of the royal machinery far better than any person could be expected to do.

Weir’s striking novel sweeps readers back through the centuries to witness first-hand one of the most poignant tales from a time of constant scheming and power brokering.

Review:
I’ve known of Alison Weir for some time, and always intended to read her nonfiction works. I’ve also long been interested in Lady Jane. As a result, I’ve been looking forward to reading Innocent Traitor ever since I first heard about it.

I’ve only read two other historical fiction novels concerning British monarchy, but this is better than both of them. It isn’t dry, dense, or esoteric, thanks to many events being seen through young Jane’s inexperienced eyes, and therefore prompting some explanation from those around her. The story is told in a series of alternating first-person narratives, in which everyone candidly reveals their ambitions and motives, and sometimes their appearances, too. This is a little weird, as who refers to themself as “a bull of a man”?

I liked everything about the Tudor court, its intrigue, and the risks involved in holding “heretical” protestant views. Catherine Parr was cooler than I ever expected. Elizabeth I was a “clever minx” (much better than the petulant and fickle characterization she got in Philippa Gregory’s The Virgin’s Lover). Thomas Seymour was fun with his foolish scheming, and John Dudley with his slightly more skilled attempts. Queen Mary was sympathetically rendered, and spoiled Guilford Dudley managed to avoid being romanticized as he was in the film version. I feel as though I have learned as well as been entertained.

But… I had trouble liking Jane. She’s far too perfect, and characters of that sort never endear themselves to me. Weir’s scholarship is respected, so probably it’s factually accurate that Jane possessed the skills mentioned. (She can read and write at a young age, is “musically gifted,” is adept at learning languages, and corresponds with a bunch of old dudes about religious matters, to name a few.) However, Weir also fabricates some scenes wherein Jane saves the day: it is she who manages to find something that helps Parr fend off charges of heresy, she who manages to get overlooked in a room so she may overhear pivotal scheming, etc. She gets better as she gets older, though her self-righteousness rankles. A quote on the back of the book claims that Weir is trying to rehabilitate Jane’s “merely pathetic” reputation, which I get, but I think she went overboard.

Even though Jane is ostensibly the protagonist, the scope is wide enough that, even if one isn’t particularly fond of her, there’s much else to enjoy. If you’ve never tried historical fiction, this is a good place to start. It’s not overly stuffy, and neither does it seem plagued with dubious scholarship. I will definitely be reading any further fiction that Weir produces.

Please Save My Earth 21 by Saki Hiwatari: A+

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From the back cover:
Eight-year-old Rin is still tormented by his past life. As Shion, an engineer stationed on Earth’s moon, he spent nine years alone after his home planet was annihilated and a deadly virus took the lives of his fellow scientists. Now, in the conclusion to the Please Save My Earth series, Rin’s plot to destroy the moon base—and all traces of his past life—reaches its denouement. Alice begs Rin not to let his past life as Shion rule his future—and even threatens to jump off Tokyo Tower if Rin chooses to pursue his plot of eventually controlling the world…

Review:
The final volume to this series provides a very satisfying conclusion to the story. Some things required a bit of thought to really appreciate what had happened, but it all ultimately made sense and was not a let down after all this long build-up.

The best parts began when Rin goes to Tokyo Tower. I especially like the first few pages there (58-62), where he’s walking around alone. The worst bits, thankfully scant, were when Mr. Tamura tried to be helpful and ended up making things worse. The last chapter is an epilogue.

I will definitely be rereading this series in the future, and recommend it to any book lover, whether or not they think they have any interest in manga.

Please Save My Earth 20 by Saki Hiwatari: A

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From the back cover:
Rin is finally face to face with Alice again, and he is determined to get the computer password she used in her past life on the KK moon base. But even in the face of his vicious threats, Alice steadfastly refuses—unless he’ll tell her why he needs it. It turns out that Rin’s motives, tied into his past identity as Shion, are more complicated than his former moon compatriots could imagine…

Review:
Another excellent volume. This one primarily consists of Rin and Alice finally talking about all of the things they’ve needed to talk about for a while. We learn why Rin wants the passwords, and also more about Rin’s internal struggles. This bit felt a little tacked on to me, but that might just be because I haven’t read the earlier volumes in a while.

The art and expressions are top-notch, and I particularly liked the few pages without dialogue when Rin enters the room where sleeping Alice lies. Because of the layout, it has the potential to be an extremely quick read. I only took longer with it to reread a few pages, since the conversations that were transpiring were so pivotal.