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Book Review: Break My Heart 1,000 Times by Daniel Waters

Break My Heart 1,000 Times by Daniel Waters
Hyperion 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4231-2198-5
Available: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle

The sight of ghosts has become commonplace to Veronica and her friends since the “Event”. Ghosts are everywhere–walking about in classrooms, standing on street corners, going to the mailbox, and even reading books in the local library. Veronica also sees the ghost of her father sitting at the table reading the newspaper every morning, while the ghost of a teenage boy named Brian hangs out in her bathroom. These days though, it seems the ghosts are gaining power.

It’s not long before Veronica realizes maybe it’s not the ghosts she should be quick to step around, but the living instead, as Mr. Bittner, one of her teachers at Montcreif High, begins to stalk her in the creepiest of ways, like popping up at the coffee shop when she stops in for a quick cup of tea, and staring at her a little too long in class. Why is he following her?  What does he want?  And why does the ghost of Mary Greer appear on his front steps every morning?

Fans of author Daniel Waters, who also wrote the Generation Dead series, will likely sink their teeth into this stand-alone supernatural story filled with paranormal suspense, ghostly chills and fast-paced action.

Recommended: YA Ages 12 to 18

Contains: Minor Violence

Reviewed by Tina Mockmore

 

Posted on July 9, 2014 by , Reply

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.

 

 

Posted on December 18, 2013 by , Reply

Teens Are Shameless Readers

Elissa Gershowitz has written recently in Horn Book about the trashy books teens read, and how sharing that they’re reading them to an adult (like, say, the librarian) makes them “avert their eyes”. I think she’s wrong about that. I’d say most librarians these days have a pretty relaxed attitude towards kids’ reading tastes, and are more likely to capitalize on those tastes than judge them. And, more importantly, kids reading what they LIKE to read aren’t ashamed of their tastes. They just don’t read their preferred texts around people who don’t respect their reading choices or take away what they want to read– they find people who are excited about those books, and will give them what they want. Whether adults include or exclude kids’ favorite books on the basis of  whether those books are “trash” or “quality literature”, those books are everywhere. Gershowitz argues that most trashy books have no staying power (some don’t, some do, just like any other kind of book). Mostly, I don’t think writers write their books with the intention of writing classics, with the exception of those literary types bent on writing the Great American Novel.

Gershowitz asks what makes one trashy book the standout above all the others of its kind. Well, today I would say a lot of it has to do with marketing. I was a newly minted children’s librarian widely read in science fiction, fantasy, and children’s books of all kinds, when I first encountered Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (widely considered trash by authorities in the field of children’s literature). My reaction was that it was a pretty good fantasy novel. It wasn’t an instant takeoff– I returned to school at the end of 1999 and hardly heard boo about it. A year later I walked into a Hallmark store and almost crashed into an overwhelming display of  Harry Potter merchandise. I read both Twilight and The Hunger Games before they became massive hits, too. What makes these books “standouts” of epic proportions is cross-marketing that is completely immersive and overpowering. It’s impossible to include Twilight in the same category as some of these other books Gershowitz mentions.

As someone who grew up during the time in which Forever, Go Ask Alice, and Flowers in the Attic were published, I believe those books are standouts in part because they address taboo topics in a frank way. They’re books my parents and teachers weren’t going to put into your hands.  They’re not especially didactic, and the protagonists speak right to you. Yes, even Cathy Dollanganger, locked in her attic in a horrifying situation as gothic as it gets, reflects back pictures that storm inside our heads. On that, I think Gershowitz and I can agree. And there’s some of that in Twilight as well, although where the book stops and the marketing starts is difficult to measure.

Contemporary YA novels are hard to compare because so much of what was taboo at that time is no big deal today. A series like Gossip Girl is like a soap opera on paper. 25 years ago those were (in theory, anyway) for adults only. The paranormal was a tiny piece of the market. With the popularity of Interview with the Vampire and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that changed. The world of children’s and YA literature today is not the same as the one I grew up with. That’s okay, but it makes comparisons difficult. The difference between what makes a book quality literature and what makes it trash changes with time.

But here’s the thing that’s different. Teens today don’t feel like they have to hide their reading tastes from the world. In places and with people who don’t respect them or their reading choices, they aren’t going to share them, but what happens is that those places and people become irrelevant to their lives. If adults don’t address those choices in a positive way, they will find themselves locked out. And reading ‘trashy books’ won’t stop with adulthood– but, for many, it will limit whether they choose to read anything else, or choose to read at all.

 

Posted on June 27, 2013 by , Reply
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