Reviewed by Mrs. Walker

I’ve always loved vampire stories, but since the mayhem surrounding the Twilight series erupted, I’m asked almost daily for “books like Twilight.”  So, I’ve been reading more vampire stories than ever.   The Vampire Diaries comes the closest of any to being “like Twilight,” but guess what – it was written more than 10 years BEFORE Twilight.  And, I have to wonder if Twilight author Stephanie Meyer may have been influenced by this vampire classic.

A few of the startling similarities:  Well, for starters, both Twilight and the Vampire Diaries are told in four novels.  Vampire Diaries novels are MUCH shorter, and each book contains two of the novels, so there are two books in total to read to complete the series.

Startling Similarity #2:  The premise:  Human girls meets vampire boy at high school, they fall in love, they battle all the human-in-a-vampire-world/vampire-in-a-human-world problems.  In this case, the “new kid” is the vampire boy, Stefan, for whom mega-popular Elena falls for immediately.  Stefan at first seems to entirely hate Elena, but we soon learn he’s simply masking an uncontrollable attraction to her (hmm, sounds familiar).  In Twilight the attraction is based on the smell of Bella’s blood, in Vampire Diaries, it is Elena’s uncanny resemblance to Stefan’s former love Katherine.

Startling Similarity #3:  The main characters.  Stefan is a brooding, guilt-consumed, reluctant, but ”good,” “vegetarian” (aka non-human diet) vampire who tries repeatedly to keep Elena from continuing a relationship with him for her own good.  Elena is strong-willed and pursues their relationship with complete abandon – the need to be with Stefan is more important than anything to her.

Startling similarity #4:  Evil vampire enters the picture and wants human girl.  Vampire boy must save human girl.  In Vampire Diaries, the evil vampire happens to be Stefan’s older and stronger vampire brother Damon with whom he once battled for the love of Katherine and whom he must now battle for Elena.

There are many other little similarities between the stories, so I can’t help but wonder how much Twilight might have been influenced by this series.  Others obviously share this thought.  Just Google “twilight vampire diaries” and you’ll find a number of websites where readers discuss which one they like better.   For me, I’m still a bigger Twilight fan, but if you’re jonesing for another story in a similar vein, I’ll quickly admit that Vampire Diaries is a good read.

Reviewed by Mrs. Walker

In this novel by the same author who wrote the Peeps series, the main character, Hunter is a teen with an eye for the next great fad.  He is part of a team of “cool hunters” who help companies market products to teens – an industry where there’s a LOT of money to be made.  Hunter soon meets Jen, a true Innovator – one of those types who defines her own style – the kind of person everyone looks at a bit funny but then quickly imitates.   Hunter knows there’s the potential to use Jen’s creativity for profit.  They become friends, but there’s clear signals that their friendship could be more.  Hunter and Jen are scheduled to meet with a PR rep at a shady location in Manhattan, but the rendezvous turns dangerous, and they become entangled in a very interesting missing-person adventure.  The story is moves quickly, has lots of action and an absorbing mystery while posing some interesting questions about our culture and commercialization.

Find it in the Fiction section FIC Wes.

Nick Andreas is rich, hangs with the popular crowd, plays on the football team, and has a great girlfriend.  HAD a great girlfriend is more like it.  As the story opens, we find Nick and his ex Caitlin facing off in a courtroom where she has accused him of physically abusing her – an incident he dismisses as a little “slap.”  As a result of the incident, Nick’s life begins to crumble – his friends no longer speak with him, he still longs for Caitlin, and he is forced to take an anger management course where he meets an assortment of boys and men dealing with issues of abuse and manipulation against the women in their lives.  Many of the boys come from families where they were also abused.    While Nick originally thinks he has nothing in common with the other guys in his group, he soon finds similarities which force him to take a hard look at himself. 

The story progresses in two directions:  we watch Nick’s life unravel after the trial while we are also slowly introduced to the details behind the story of Nick and Caitlin’s confrontation.  The final revelation is shocking.

Reviewed by Mrs. Walker

So, does the author look familiar?  Meyer, the author of the hyper-popular Twilight series, tries her hand at a bit of Sci-Fi.   Aliens have taken over the planet earth.  Known as “Souls”, these small, shimmering beings  implant themselves into human bodies (”Hosts”) and minds.  The  Souls are a peaceful group of aliens, but the price is that the original human spirits who inhabited their bodies are erased.  A small group of native earthlings still exist in hiding.  Melanie, a rebel earthling, is caught and implanted with a soul named Wanderer.  Melanie’s strong spirit refuses to be erased, and Melanie and Wanderer are forced to share one mind until/unless Wanderer can eventually eliminate Melanie’s presence.  But Wanderer begins to be moved by Melanie’s memories and emotions, particularly Melanie’s love for her younger brother Jamie and her boyfriend Jared, both of whom she left behind in hiding.  Eventually Wanderer and Melanie agree to try and find them both.  They find MUCH more than they bargained for.   There’s something here for all sorts of readers – thrilling science fiction adventure, moral delimmas, action, drama, and absolutely the most complicated love story you will ever find.  A bit long in the middle, but it’s SO worth the time and effort, as the end is completely fascinating and satisfying.

Reviewed by Mrs. Walker

Andy Jackson and Rob Washington are stars of their high school basketball team and great friends.  When Rob is killed in a car driven by Andy who had been drinking, Andy’s world turns upside down.  As he drowns in guilt and grief, others try to help him come to terms with the accident and loss of his friend. His girl friend, family, and teachers struggle to recover the vibrant Andy they once knew.  This heart breaking story is told from the perspective of a variety of characters through dialogue, letters, poems, and news articles which allow you to piece together a very honest and complete picture of how the tragedy is affecting Andy and his friends and keeps the pace fast and readers interested.

Reviewed by Mrs. Walker

For those of you who read Peeps, you’re going to begin this book wondering where Cal, Lacey, and Morgan, our peeps crew from book one are hiding. Trust me, they each have a presence in the story, and two of them will reappear. In the meantime, enjoy a new cast of characters who form a rock band as New York City crumbles around them. With a newly-made (and very hungry) Peep as the lead singer and a love triangle brewing, the band’s dynamics become complicated.

Meanwhile New York City is in crisis. Everyone can sense something is very wrong: the underground rumbings have increased and the rat population is out of control. More and more people are giving away to the “sickness” (vampirism) and are taken away by “angels” (the Night Watch crew). The great battle between the Peeps and those very weird yet deadly enormous worms lurking beneath the city surface is intensifying, and our new band of friends are caught right in the middle of the action.

Find Peeps and The Last Days in the Fiction section under FIC Wes.

Reviewed by Mrs. Walker

M.T. Anderson is another author I’ve been wanting to revisit. I read his book Burger Wuss several years ago and liked it, and some of his other books, including Feed, have been getting a lot of attention. I really liked Feed. For starters, you gotta love the first line, “We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.” You soon learn the teenagers in Feed are always on the lookout for the next big thing, a new way to have fun, but too often they’re disappointed. To get a grasp of what the “Feed” is, think about all the things you do online: shop, check your email, instant message, watch videos, etc. Now imagine having all these capabilities from a computer feed linked directly to your brain. So, you can just think your IMs directly to your friends. They can share videos, memories, and thoughts with you at any time. Businesses tap into your feed to sense your emotions, wants, and environment to recommend the products you “need.”The Feed is the center of the story which involves Titus, his friends, and his new girlfriend Violet. Violet was raised in somewhat traditional means and is only now really exploring normal teen life of the times. Her emotions are tangled admist wanting to fit in and questioning what society has become, and her questions force Titus to acknowledge some of their world’s darker realities. The world in Feed is constantly mesmerizing. There’s the Feed itself with its onslaught of images and information. Then there’s the people and the physical signs that something is very wrong (hint: lesions have become cool). People drive in floating “upcars,” farms are just genetic plants where meat is produced in rows of tissue, and each neighborhood produces its own clouds and weather determined that day by the homeowners’ association. Despite how freaky everything appears at times, Anderson manages to keep it in a perspective that at the same time makes it clear that we are really not that far from such a reality.

A great read, Titus and Violet are each incredibly interesting and every turn in the story brings new fascinating details about this future world.

Find Feed in the Fiction section under FIC And. Note: Be warned that this book contains strong language.

Reviewed by Mrs. Walker

As a change of pace, I picked up A Northern Light primarily due to its Printz Medal Honor status. I normally don’t give much weight to book awards, but the Printz award has been dead-on with some of its best picks. A Northern Light is set in the Adirondacks in 1906. Mattie is 16 years old and nearing the end of her schooling and is torn between two choices which will determine her life’s path. Does she keep her mother’s dying request and remain on the family farm to help raise her younger sisters? or does she follow her heart’s desire to head north to college and pursue her dream to be a writer? The decision is complicated by a new romance with many questions of its own. Mattie’s personal story is told through flashbacks after becoming involved in a mystery surrounding the death of a young woman who was a guest at the resort where she works. As she tries to make sense of the truth behind the young woman’s death, Mattie must make sense of the truths surrounding her own life. The story is very well told and you truly get a sense of the challenges, struggles, and hard work involved in those who survived off their land. Mattie’s choices also bring to life two very different realities for women during the time. Through Mattie’s eyes we see first hand exactly how hard it was to be a woman: marriages often for convenience sake, difficult childbirths, and the hard work of raising a family while toiling on the farm. But Mattie has another option -to become an independent, educated woman, a role that is not widely viewed as favorable. A great read for those who enjoy historical fiction and also for any teen facing the choices that come with the end of high school and the options that lie beyond. Find it in the fiction section under FIC Don.

Reviewed by: Mrs. Walker

Happy New Year! And welcome to a new year full of great reads. Over break I was able to finally finish Eclipse, book three in the Twilight series. Wonderful! This series just keeps getting even better. I love that in this book there is much more depth given to several characters – Bella’s character finally comes to some honest to goodness sincere revelations on several issues, Edward is no longer the arrogant Edward of book one (and I can finally REALLY see what makes him so special to Bella – besides being gorgeous, rich, immortal and all), and we get to know another character who’s been lurking in the background – Jasper, who has a very interesting story to tell. All those countless conflicts in book two come seamlessly together in a MUST-read battle of epic proportions, one that involves former foes, new foes, the Cullens, and the werewolves. And of course, the Edward-Bella-Jacob triangle continues to develop with some surprises (or maybe you saw it coming?). Not sure how I like the very last few pages and the final decisions that are made (or rather why they’re made). I’d like to hear what others think (use the Comments button above), as I don’t want to give away too much here for those who haven’t read it yet. But read it, you must.

For Twilight fans, there’s great news on two fronts. First, the next book, tentatively titled Breaking Dawn, is scheduled to be released this August. This may or may not be the last book in the series, but there’s talk of a companion book told from Edward’s point of view.

Also, there’s a MOVIE in the works and filming is set to begin in the next few months, so it won’t be in theaters for another couple of years. In the meantime, visit author Stephenie Meyers’ website for talk and pictures of actors she and other readers would recommend to play various characters. The roles of Bella and Edward have been cast with actress Kristin Stewart playing Bella and Robert Pattinson (aka Cedric Diggory from Harry Potter movies) playing Edward…hmm, I think I can see it. The series has developed quite a following. There’s dozens of fan websites and MySpace pages devoted to the book and its characters, so there’s plenty of Twilight content out there to keep you busy until August as you wait for the next book.

Be sure to visit my reviews of the first two Twilight books in the December archives to the right. More vampire fiction reviews coming soon…

Reviewed by Mrs. Walker

When Tony V discovers the buried diary of Pelly D, we enter Pelly D’s world which is at once familiar (teen girls obsessed with shopping, boys, and popularity), but strange details (why does everyone go by their last initial and why ARE they always swimming?) hint at a very different reality.  The novel is fun to read as you quickly begin to pick up the clues and put together the truth behind Pelly D’s world.  Then things take a dark turn as history repeats itself in a way humanity promised it never would, and Pelly D’s life is completely turned upside down.  It helps to have some knowledge of events surrounding the Holocaust, and the parallels in this novel are done so well that we are able to see how entire societies are methodically swayed by the rhetoric of their leaders.  A very interesting read on many levels, it’s language is easy to follow, and it’s easy to read.   Find it in the Fiction section under FIC Adl.  HINT:  Be sure to look very carefully at the cover for one important clue.

Reviewed by: Mrs. Walker