Home » Posts tagged "Lisa McMann"

Booklist: Invisible Disabilities in Horror for YA Readers

Disability is one way that monsters are created in the horror genre. Monstrosity is usually expressed visually, though, especially in the classic texts– think The Phantom of the Opera, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mr. Hyde of Jekyll and Hyde fame. Or if we don’t actually see the disfigurement, many monsters, from the Phantom of the Opera to Michael Myers, are masked.  Physically marking a character is a way of representing that person as the “other”; abnormal in some way, which is disturbing to those who see themselves as “normal”. It is a problematic representation of disability in literature, and I think we see it more strongly in the horror genre because for so many people it is disturbing and scary to face anyone who isn’t like them. Mary Shelley’s description of Frankenstein’s monster and his friendship with the little blind girl is a perfect example of how dependent we are on sight as a cue to decide who is a monster and who is not.

 

What about the disabilities that aren’t immediately visible? Yes, those do very much exist, and shape personality. Putting aside the curse of paranormal abilities, like the”Typhoid Mary” powers Jenny Morton displays in Jenny Pox, disabilities and disorders that can’t be seen do appear in horror, especially as victims. What’s really neat to see is when a character with an invisible disability flips that trope over.  But honestly, as someone who has epilepsy, I can tell you that ANY recognition of my disability that appears in fiction, no matter how problematic, has always been welcome (even when I hate the depiction) because it means I’ve been seen. And it meant even more to me when I was a teen, because there really was absolutely nothing at all. Here are five books you could hand to a teen dealing with an invisible disability.

  A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

This is not technically a YA novel, but it is told from the point of view of a young woman, with extensive flashbacks to her childhood, and the central character is a teen dealing with… we don’t know exactly what. Teenaged Marjorie might be possessed, or she might be developing schizophrenia. It is actually possible to meet someone with schizophrenia and not know that’s the case. And as far as I remember, schizophrenia is not mentioned outright, even though Marjorie is under the care of a psychiatrist at the beginning of the story. This is actually one of the more visual depictions of an invisible disability, as Marjorie’s actions also suggest that she might be possessed, which lands her family on a reality television show.

  A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

This is the first book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy. It’s almost an trope for a British girl who grows up in India in the late 1800s to be sent to England for further education after her mother dies, usually at a boarding school, and that’s what happens to Gemma, who is also clairvoyant. She and her friends discover an entrace to magical realms where they can have their hearts’ desires– darker than it sounds. One of Gemma’s friends, Pippa, has epilepsy, and during a seizure travels to the magical realms. Pippa must keep her epilepsy a secret, so she won’t be discovered to be “damaged goods” before she can be married. Gemma follows her, but Pippa has found true love there and refuses to return to a life of illness. Pippa’s story brought tears to my eyes. I found Bray’s straightforward descriptions of Pippa’s seizures to be accurate, although you should never put a wooden spoon in anyone’s mouth.

 The Dark Between by Sonia Gensler

I’ve just finished this one, and I really recommend it. It also takes place near the turn of the 20th century, when spiritualism was in vogue. Three teenagers brought together by coincidence turn out to have more in common than they expected come across some mysterious murders that might have something to do with electrical experiments to enhance the brain with psychic powers. Kate, the youngest, is an impoverished orphan who loses her job as a “spirit guide” for a medium when the medium is exposed by a skeptic. Asher is an American teen at loose ends, traveling alone, who is considering attending Cambridge. Elsie is a dreamy, beautiful girl who has been sent away by her parents, whose mind is clouded by drugs she takes to control her epilepsy. Elsie’s seizures began after she was struck by lightning, and she can see visions of the dead during them. The attitudes Elsie has faced and expects to face after the secret of her epilepsy is exposed, and her drugged feelings, make her a more sympathetic character than you would expect, as she is not especially thoughtful or rational. Elsie is no Beth March, shy and pure; she’s drawn as a complex character, a real girl with burgeoning sexuality and intense emotions who makes bad decisions that make you want to smack her. Score one for Sonia Gensler in her development of a character with epilepsy who has more than one dimension.
 Dark Muse by David Simms

Muddy, Poe, Otis, and Corey are The Accidentals, a band of misfits. All four love music, and all four have problems they have to face. Muddy is dyslexic, Poe is legally blind and has a difficult home situation, Otis has brittle bones, and Corey has a checkered past and is a year behind in school. When Muddy’s older brother Zack, a troubled and gifted guitarist, disappears at “the crossroads”, Muddy and the rest of The Accidentals decide to cross over to an alternate reality where music has real power, and find him. Author David Simms has worked with many special education students, and draws realistic, sympathetic portraits of his characters. It’s cool to see ordinary, music-loving kids with disabilities as the heroes of the story.

 

 Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann

Sixteen year old Kendall has obsessive compulsive disorder. She’s been able to function in a carefully constructed world, and that begins to disintegrate when a girl disappears, and then, shortly after that, her boyfriend. Did Kendall have something to do with the disappearances? Or will her obsessiveness lead her to become a victim? Kendall is a very sympathetic character struggling with a difficult situation that is complicated by her obsessive compulsive disorder.

 

 

 

 

 

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: What Next?


When I first read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, I didn’t realize it was intended to be a young adult title, even though the narrator is a teen. Obviously a lot of other people missed out on that too, as it became a bestseller read by teens and adults alike. A sequel, Hollow City, is scheduled to  be released in January, and I expect a lot of the people who were oblivious to the first book will now discover Miss Peregrine and her charges. What to read next, as they impatiently wait for a third book (and there practically has to be a third book, so this can make up a trilogy)?

I think that much of the appeal of Miss Peregrine comes from how atmospheric and surreal it is, while at the same time being grounded in history and reality by the use of real photographs obviously taken long before the advent of the modern camera. The mix is one that will be difficult to replicate, maybe impossible, but I think there are titles that might be of interest to those who enjoyed Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, as well.

 


The Seer of Shadows by Avi.  It is 1872, and Horace Carpentine, taken on as an apprentice by a photographer of dubious character,  discovers, to his disbelief, that he can bring back the spirits of the dead by taking photographs. This is an unforgettable tale of ghostly vengeance, well-grounded in historical fact. While there aren’t actually any photographs in the book, readers will learn a great deal about early photographic processes and how they could be manipulated, something that ought to appeal to people who are curious about the early photographs that appear in Miss Peregrine. While the target audience is (theoretically) ages 9-12, this should appeal to older readers as well.

 

 


Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann. In this spine-chilling read, Kendall Fletcher is drawn into a terrifying supernatural situation that stems from incidents in her isolated town’s dark past (yes, I know it’s a trope). Kendall is  a unique and likable character who also has OCD, something that plays into the story without overtaking it. There are creepy alternating chapters from the malevolent force’s point of view, which ratchet up the suspense and give the story a surreal edge. While this is a contemporary novel, the focus that triggers the supernatural is a physical object, and there is a boarding school involved, and Kendall ends up digging into local history to find answers to her questions. The ending is so intense, I almost forgot to breathe. This book is targeted at older teens, but I definitely enjoyed reading it.  All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn, while much more of a middle grade novel, is another excellent novel that deals with a similar tragic situation.

 


The Photo Traveler by Arthur J. Gonzalez. Gavin escapes from his abusive adoptive family through photography. He discovers that photography is more than a hobby for him– it gives him the opportunity to travel through time. Although this is also a contemporary novel, there’s family twistiness, time travel, photography, and historical detail, things which will probably be appreciated by someone who enjoyed Miss Peregrine.

 


The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff. Mackie Doyle has a secret– he’s a “replacement”, or changeling child, in a town where, for the sake of keeping the residents prosperous,  a human child is traded away every seven years. Kind of like “The Lottery”, which has always given me the chills. When another child is stolen, Mackie and his friends decide to rescue her. This novel plays up the surreal and the atmospheric setting has been described as one of  misery and hopelessness. According to Yovanoff, there is no sequel in the works, but maybe this is a good lead-in to introducing readers to her other books (she has a new one coming out soon).

 


Asylum by Madeleine Roux. This is about a teenage boy who is sent to a camp for gifted students inside a former mental hospital. Because nothing could possibly go wrong by sending gifted kids to an insane asylum for summer break. Roux has written two books for adults, which we read and reviewed (and I highly recommend the first one, Allison Hewitt is Trapped), and this is her YA debut. I haven’t had the opportunity to read it, but reviews seem to be all over the place as to whether it works as a crossover title. It does take advantage of the photo-novel aspect of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, however, with both genuine and (in this case) altered photographs from early asylums. I imagine that increases its creep impact at least tenfold. While it doesn’t have the realism that photographs offer the readers of Asylum, another excellent book, aimed at middle grade students, with the similar background of gifted youngsters isolated in a haunted school is Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan.

 

 


Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past by Ransom Riggs. This is a book of “found” photographs that captured an important moment in the photographed person’s life, noted by an annotation or message written on the photograph. These are not the bizarre photos used in Miss Peregrine, but people intrigued by the photos in Miss Peregrine may be interested to see into the lives of other people, who live on through photographs that might otherwise be filed away in a shoebox.

 


Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link. Putting aside the visual and historical aspects of Miss Peregrine completely, there is a surreal feel to many of the stories in Pretty Monsters that some readers of that book might appreciate. Illustrations by Shaun Tan, a brilliant visual artist, complement the stories beautifully. Link’s stories will ring true to a lot of readers, and many of the stories in Pretty Monsters first appeared in editions published for adults. I’d also like to mention Shaun Tan again here, as he has produced some gorgeous and surreal artwork both on his own and in collaboration with author Gary Crew. The Viewer. The Viewer is not easily available, but does play with images, and did involve photography in its production (I will note here for clarity that Amazon’s suggested age range of ages 6-11 is radically different than what I (or most people) would suggest as an appropriate title for children– I wouldn’t give The Viewer to any child under age 10, and then only if I planned to sit down, read it with them, and discuss it afterwards).

 

Interested in some additional suggestions? Check out BookRiot’s booklist here. And enjoy the wait for Hollow City by enjoying (and recommending) a few of these.

 

 

MonsterLibrarian.com’s Top Picks for 2011- Young Adult and Children’s Books

So here we are- part two of the Top Picks list for 2011.

Each book on the list below was reviewed in the past year, although not all the books were published in 2011. If the book made a Top Picks list in the past, it won’t be on this year’s list (Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson, was first reviewed in 2009 and made the list that year, so it’s not on this year’s list).

Books that made this list were chosen by our reviewers as exceptional examples of compelling writing, creativity, and original illustration or presentation. Many of them provided considerable food for thought as well as entertainment value. The choices were made only from books reviewed for the site, so there are many fine titles that do not appear here. The Monster Librarian’s Top Picks for 2011, listed below, have not been ranked in any order(although I tried to list them alphabetically). We created lists for adult books, young adult books, and kids’ books. I previously posted the Top Picks for Adult Fiction in 2011. You’ll find the Top Picks booklists for young adults and children below. Enjoy!

Note for librarians and readers: As with all recommended reading lists, not all of The Monster Librarian’s Top Picks for 2011 will be appropriate for or appreciated by every reader. Please take the time to check out reviews of these titles at MonsterLibrarian.com before making a decision about reading them or recommending them to others.

 

The Monster Librarian’s Top Picks for Young Adults, 2011

A special mention goes to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs, chosen as a top pick by four different reviewers independently of each other.

 

Abarat series by Clive Barker (Abarat, Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War, and  Abarat: Absolute Midnight)

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann

Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst

Ghost Town (Morganville Vampires, Book 9) by Rachel Caine

Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely) by Melissa Marr

Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1 by Alexander Gordon Smith

Mercy by Rebecca Lim

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Nickel Plated by Aric Davis

Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore

Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls) by Maggie Stiefvater

Skulls by Tim Marquitz

Subject Seven by James A. Moore

Teeth: Vampire Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

The Dead (An Enemy Novel) by Charlie Higson

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

 

 

The Monster Librarian’s Top Picks for Kids, 2011

A special mention goes to Crooked Hills: Book One by Cullen Bunn, reviewed independently by two different reviewers and highly recommended by both.

 

Crooked Hills by Cullen Bunn

Dragonbreath series, books 1-3, by Ursula Vernon (Dragonbreath,

Attack of the Ninja Frogs,

Curse of the Were-wiener

)

Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror edited by R.L. Stine

Monster and Me (Monster and Me) by Robert Marsh

Scary School by Derek the Ghost

Little Goblins Ten by Pamela Jane, illustrated by Jane Manning

The Island of the Skog by Steven Kellogg

The Shadows: The Books of Elsewhere: Volume 1 by Jacqueline West