Book Review: The Archived

By Cheshire

Wow. This was kind of just a “wow” book. I can’t wait to get my hands on the second. But for now I have Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier, The Young Elites by Marie Lu, and Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld, plus Blue Lily, Lily Blue and all those other books on my shelf that I am just dying to read. Sigh. So many books, so little time.

Summary: Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what she once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

My Rating: FIVE STARS!

Book Review: Suspicion

By Cheshire

I got this as an ARC on Netgalley from Delacorte Press (Random House). Thank you, Delacorte Press! Here goes.

Summary: Mysterious. Magnificent. Creepy. Welcome to Rockford Manor.

“There’s something hidden in the Maze.” Seventeen-year-old Imogen has never forgotten the last words her father said to her seven years ago, before the blazing fire that consumed him, her mother, and the gardens of her family’s English country manor.

Haunted by her parents’ deaths, Imogen moves to New York City with her new guardians. But when a letter arrives with the news of her cousin’s untimely death, revealing that Imogen is now the only heir left to run the estate, she returns to England and warily accepts her role as duchess.

All is not as it seems at Rockford, and Imogen quickly learns that dark secrets lurk behind the mansion’s aristocratic exterior, hinting that the spate of deaths in her family were no accident. And at the center of the mystery is Imogen herself–and Sebastian, the childhood friend she has secretly loved for years. Just what has Imogen walked into?

My Rating: TWO STARS!

Book Review: The Graveyard Book (Book vs. Graphic Novel)

By Cheshire

As an avid Neil Gaiman fan, it’s time for a special feature! I read The Graveyard Book many years ago, but found the need to read it again to fully appreciate Volume One of its new graphic novel. Exciting, no? Now I just have to reread Good Omens. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are like a writing dream team. Here goes.

Summary: After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack-who has already killed Bod’s family…

My Rating: FIVE STARS (for the book)

FOUR AND A HALF STARS (for the graphic novel)