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Cat Acree

Fiction

The Story of Beautiful Girl

Review by Cat Acree

A white woman and an African-American man are in love in 1968. But that’s not the only obstacle in The Story of Beautiful Girl: Lynnie and Homan met as patients at the abusive Pennsylvania State School for the Incurable and Feebleminded. Lynnie has a developmental disability, which makes speech nearly impossible, and Homan is deaf. But their disabilities don’t keep them from falling deeply in love—and trying to create a family.

After escaping from the state school and giving birth to a baby girl in widow Martha Zimmer’s barn, Lynnie is caught by the institution’s staff and dragged back to the corrupt school, leaving the child in the widow’s care. Homan flees, and suddenly the little family’s chance for happiness seems to vanish. But Lynnie, Homan, Martha and baby Julia—along with social worker Kate—have a permanent connection that leads them on a 40-year journey to repair what has been broken. Each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective, and we watch as the individuals find the confidence to somehow make their way back to each other.

The Story of Beautiful Girl makes a beeline for the heartstrings in capturing a seemingly impossible love story—and the secret pact that makes it so unforgettable. Rachel Simon, who gained critical acclaim for her bestselling memoir, Riding the Bus with My Sister, graces readers with an illuminating and affecting view into a unique love.

A white woman and an African-American man are in love in 1968. But that’s not the only obstacle in The Story of Beautiful Girl: Lynnie and Homan met as patients at the abusive Pennsylvania State School for the Incurable and Feebleminded. Lynnie has a developmental disability, which makes speech nearly impossible, and Homan is deaf. […]
FictionHistorical Fiction

The Land of Painted Caves

Review by Cat Acree

For more than 20 years, Jean M. Auel has enthralled readers with her prehistoric novels in the Earth’s Children series, starting with The Clan of the Cave Bear, where Auel first introduced the enigmatic outsider Ayla. The series has followed Ayla through several Ice Age European cultures, and her strange accent, animal companions and foreign knowledge have always placed her in the spotlight. The much-anticipated sixth and final book, The Land of Painted Caves, takes Ayla into a new country with her blue-eyed mate Jondalar, and she begins her training to become a Zelandoni—one of the community’s spiritual leaders and healers—to the people of Zelandonia.

The Land of Painted Caves follows Ayla as her mentor leads her across the land of Zelandonia. Their tour through the caves, which are carved and decorated by unknown ancestors, is meant to bring Ayla closer to the Great Mother Earth. Her training intensifies to near-intolerable levels, and as Ayla draws closer to the Great Mother Earth, her roles of mother, lover and Zelandoni brew a small storm in her mind. She pushes the boundaries of the Spirit world, and her revelations will set in motion a completely different world for the men and women of the land of painted caves.

Like all of Auel’s books, the research is extensive, with brilliantly re-imagined scenes of daily life and early forms of religion. The realism feels just as important as the mysticism, and the painstaking detail grounds the story with a sense of familiarity. Readers will find the people charming for their early discoveries, such as learning to count and creating glue. Those who have never read the Earth’s Children series may be a little confused, especially concerning Ayla’s extensive backstory, but will be no less entertained and touched by Auel’s careful representation of early people.

 

Auel's epic series continues.
YA FictionYA

XVI

Review by Cat Acree

Every 16-year-old girl gets one—the XVI tattoo. It’s for protection, it’s a symbol of female status, or it’s a curse, depending on whom you ask. To 15-year-old Nina, it’s dangerous; if she could drag her feet a little more and slow time, she would. XVI means girls are legal, and while this means most “sex-teens” can finally lure in guys, Nina knows it comes with serious sacrifices.

After Nina’s family is shattered by her mother’s death, what little protection she had left as a 15-year-old evaporates. With her dying breath, Nina’s mom tells her to find her father, who was supposed to be dead, and to keep her little sister Dee away from Ed, a violent government official who holds a little too much sway over Nina’s family.

Nina soon finds herself flirting with the world of the rebel NonCons. Though being a NonCon will get you killed, Nina’s connection to these hidden denouncers of the Governing Council cannot be avoided. She turns to her friends for help, but a mysterious boy named Sal seems to be the only one who can help her hide in a world where no one is hidden, not even their thoughts.

Julia Karr’s Orwellian novel, XVI, depicts a world where present problems have been pushed to their extremes. Society is dominated by whatever the media says, girls are too blinded by the rush to impress and reel in boys, and sometimes it feels as though technology has left no privacy in the world. Karr’s novel is perfect for girls who have begun to ask questions about themselves and about how they are supposed to act under the barrage of sexual influences. Our heroine Nina lives within every girl who is willing to fight to define herself all on her own.

 

Every 16-year-old girl gets one—the XVI tattoo. It’s for protection, it’s a symbol of female status, or it’s a curse, depending on whom you ask. To 15-year-old Nina, it’s dangerous; if she could drag her feet a little more and slow time, she would. XVI means girls are legal, and while this means most “sex-teens” […]
Children's & YAYA FictionYA

The Floating Islands

Review by Cat Acree

Imagine a place so wild and fantastical that even the characters who inhabit this strange world can lose themselves in the magic around them. These are the Floating Islands, held above the seas by the power of invisible dragons.

Trei is only 14, orphaned and alone, when he first sees the flying men of the Islands. Taken in by his aunt and uncle, he is “sky-mad” by the time he meets his fierce cousin Araenè, who also has seemingly unattainable dreams. The Floating Islands place very strict constraints on women, and Araenè’s secret of donning boys’ clothing and disappearing into the streets creates a bond between the two teens.

A tragedy causes their worlds to get a little smaller and their paths to become infinitely tougher. Doors appear out of nowhere for Araenè, and through them she finds a possible future as a mage, a career only allowed for boys. Trei attains his ultimate dream of becoming a kajurai—a flying man—only to have his life threatened by an invading army. The young cousins find that their special gifts may be the only way to save the Floating Islands from disappearing forever.

In The Floating Islands, Rachel Neumeier creates a world with special wings designed for the flight of men and stone orbs that deliver magic in the form of flavors and spices. The rich details of Neumeier’s fantasy appear with the same ease with which the Islands seem to hover over the ocean, and the alternating voices of Trei and Araenè swap back and forth like the changing of trade winds. Young readers will find this book a delicious feast of geographies, histories, magic and flavors, and this reader certainly hopes there will be a sequel.

 

Imagine a place so wild and fantastical that even the characters who inhabit this strange world can lose themselves in the magic around them. These are the Floating Islands, held above the seas by the power of invisible dragons. Trei is only 14, orphaned and alone, when he first sees the flying men of the […]
Fiction

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady

Review by Cat Acree

There’s a killer stalking the streets of suburban Tallahassee. She’s exacting her revenge for a 50-year-old injustice with cool, calculated steps—well, more like a shuffle. It is only a matter of time before Dr. Wilson Spriggs will die at the hands of his killer, be it via a gleeful stabbing or a poisonous pineapple upside-down cake.

The killer is Marylou Ahearn, a batty 77-year-old retired teacher from Memphis. Dr. Spriggs gave pregnant Marylou a radioactive cocktail in 1953 during a secret government study, which ultimately led to the death of her daughter. Now she takes her Welsh corgi Buster for a few walks each day to scope out Spriggs’ home and pumps herself up with self-motivations of “Today’s the day. Today’s the day. Today’s the day he’ll suffer and die.”

However, Marylou’s homicidal plans change slightly when she sees an opportunity to destroy Spriggs’ entire family. She introduces herself as Nancy Archer (the heroine from the 1958 movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) and pleasantly weasels herself into the family, who find her annoying but interesting enough to keep around. Mischief ensues, and it gets downright dirty. Were it not for Elizabeth Stuckey-French’s puckish voice, The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady could have been a drama. Luckily for us, it’s not.

Much of the book’s whimsy comes from the varied perspectives of the nutty cast, not only Marylou but also Spriggs’ entire family: Spriggs himself—now afflicted with Alzheimer’s—his menopausal daughter Caroline, her cheating husband Vic, two kids with Asperger’s (one a science genius, the other Elvis-obsessed) and overachieving youngest daughter Suzi. They are a modern dysfunctional family, and the bumbling interactions between them and Marylou have dark—and darkly hilarious—effects.

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady is surprisingly chipper as the neurotic and lovable cast turns a macabre tale into a wildly compulsive read.

A radioactive cocktail brings on 50-year hangover.
YA FictionYA

Across the Universe

Review by Cat Acree

Amy was supposed to spend 300 years as a cryogenically frozen passenger on the spaceship Godspeed. She was supposed to sail through space, unaware of her arrested state, until finally being awoken on a new planet. She was supposed to see her parents again. But everything goes wrong when someone wakes her up 50 years before the scheduled landing—and nearly kills her in the process.

Amy finds herself trapped on Godspeed, desperate to see the sky and smell real air again. But it’s not long before she discovers that these are the least of her worries, as most of the passengers on Godspeed follow their leader, Eldest, without a single thought in their own heads. Fortunately, Amy is not alone in this Brave New World scenario. Eldest’s rebellious protégé, Elder, is supposed to be spending all his time learning to be the next leader of the ship, but his interest in Amy seems to highlight more and more of Eldest’s secrets. Now Amy and Elder must race an unknown murderer to save the rest of the cryo-passengers, while Eldest’s thick sheen of lies grows thinner and thinner.

Beth Revis’ debut novel, Across the Universe, pushes the boundaries for teens who feel trapped, whether literally or figuratively. The world Amy encounters lacks the civil values that every teenager should learn as they grow up in modern society, such as free thought, respect for all races and the power of every person’s voice. On Godspeed, Revis’ characters and young readers alike must think for themselves or risk the silent, and deadly, consequences.

 

Amy was supposed to spend 300 years as a cryogenically frozen passenger on the spaceship Godspeed. She was supposed to sail through space, unaware of her arrested state, until finally being awoken on a new planet. She was supposed to see her parents again. But everything goes wrong when someone wakes her up 50 years […]
FictionHistorical Fiction

The Mistress of Nothing

Review by Cat Acree

In England in 1862, there was little cure for the racking, bloody crawl of tuberculosis. When Lady Duff Gordon faces death as her lungs collapse beneath consumption, she has no choice but to escape the chill of London. Her maid Sally Naldrett, whose loyalty edges on childlike adoration, follows her Lady in her descent into Egypt, where the two women find themselves completely out of touch with their surroundings. The Lady hires a dragoman, Omar Abu Halaweh, to help them acclimate to their new foreign home.

It is not long before the three characters fall into familiar rhythms. The women shed their heavy British garb for the lighter clothing worn by Egyptian men, gain very dark tans and learn Arabic. They become more like friends than lady and servant, and soon neither woman can be recognized as her former self. Most of all, both women experience a type of freedom that they had not previously encountered—Lady Duff Gordon with her condemnation of the Egyptian community leaders, and Sally with her sudden discovery of love and all its freedoms. Their glowing little world cannot remain, however, and a mistake could cost Sally everything she ever had—or could dream of having.

Winner of Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award, The Mistress of Nothing is inspired by the true story of Sally and Omar, whose lives were hidden between the lines of Lucie Duff Gordon’s book Letters from Egypt. There is little known about Lady Duff Gordon’s maid and dragoman, and Kate Pullinger illuminates these blank spaces to create serpentine connections between the three characters. Pullinger offers them neither judgment nor amnesty, and the book’s commitment to a historical and pragmatic voice is its true gem. Even with its soft voice, The Mistress of Nothing is a tough story of the unavoidable tragedies and celebrations that three simple, yet extraordinary, lives may yield.

 

In England in 1862, there was little cure for the racking, bloody crawl of tuberculosis. When Lady Duff Gordon faces death as her lungs collapse beneath consumption, she has no choice but to escape the chill of London. Her maid Sally Naldrett, whose loyalty edges on childlike adoration, follows her Lady in her descent into […]
YA FictionYA

Six-stringed salvation

Review by Cat Acree

Jonathan stands at the edge of a bridge, wobbling, mere seconds from toppling to his death. The only things keeping him rooted to reality are his guitar, named Ruby, and his crew of “thicks”—his best friends, high school boys with the loyalty of Odysseus. Jonathan, self-medicated and frustrated, suffers the aftermath of his twin brother’s death with little grace. He clings instead to Red Bull, Ruby and his poetry, though he distances himself from his local fame as a talented young writer. He buries himself in Bukowski and his own “spontaneous writing” to avoid the rest of his life.

But Jonathan is forced to face reality when he discovers that he will have to redo his junior year if he does not comply with his principal’s requests—first, to write the memoir of a dying, blind old man; and second, to play a terrible song in front of a huge graduation crowd. Jonathan must face his demons, at the Delphi hospice and on stage, and all on very little to no sleep. With the help of his “thicks” and the wisdom of the blind man, Jonathan searches for the “shimmer”—a reason to step away from the bridge’s edge.

Conrad Wesselhoeft’s bildungsroman Adios, Nirvana is heavy with death, sexually frustrated high school dudehood and the hanging rainclouds of west Seattle grunge (Eddie Vedder makes a cameo appearance). The heart of the story, however, is the connection between Jonathan and music. It attaches him permanently to his late brother Telemachus, and it transforms his damaged guitar Ruby into a breathing, warm body. Ruby is his girlfriend, his family and his heart. It is through music that Jonathan is able to “connect to eternal things” and keep himself from toppling over the edge.

Adios, Nirvana is raw and angry, but forgiving in its love affair with guitars and the universality of lifelong grief.

Jonathan stands at the edge of a bridge, wobbling, mere seconds from toppling to his death. The only things keeping him rooted to reality are his guitar, named Ruby, and his crew of “thicks”—his best friends, high school boys with the loyalty of Odysseus. Jonathan, self-medicated and frustrated, suffers the aftermath of his twin brother’s […]
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

One boy’s doomsday

Review by Cat Acree

Rex Zero has faced the end of the world before, but never like this. His family is moving (again), which only makes living during the Cold War all the more difficult. This time, however, Rex is determined to fight the move. Now a seventh grader, he has finally found a tight group of friends, and he is not about to let them go so easily. Nothing will stop him this time—or will it?

Hoping against hope, Rex builds a nuclear pile of lies as he refuses to give in to change. He doesn’t want to go to his new district school when his friends are going to Hopewell, and so why should he? He saves up money so he can secretly take the public bus to Hopewell, and he stays under the radar at home, which is easy when everyone in his family is acting crazy. Rex’s mom starts smoking and being super moody, Rex’s sister Annie Oakley appears to be keeping some serious secrets of her own and Dad disappears on business and cannot help ease the tension. Rex feels the tug of guilt, but no one is around to stop him.

Despite all of Rex’s cunning, his lies explode in his face. After he gets in a fight with Spew, the school bully, Rex’s devious plot is exposed and he finds himself transferred to his district school. He no longer gets to sit in class with his buds and cute Polly, and the transfer doesn’t keep Spew off his back. Rex finds that his initial lies have much greater consequences than he thought possible, and he is soon biking for his life through the neighborhood streets of Ottawa.

Tim Wynne-Jones’ final installment in the Rex Zero trilogy caps off Rex’s adventures with a bang. Rex Zero: The Great Pretender deals with some heavy issues, as do the previous installments, but the humor of Wynne-Jones’ writing makes the tough stuff easier to deal with. Although it isn’t necessary to read the first two Rex Zero adventures to understand the final book, tweens will want to read them all after enjoying the adventure and heart of Rex’s escapades in 1963 Canada.

A story where family and friends take a front seat to the impending doom of the rest of the world, Rex Zero: The Great Pretender is a boyhood tale that will capture the hearts and imaginations of young readers and parents alike.
 

Rex Zero has faced the end of the world before, but never like this. His family is moving (again), which only makes living during the Cold War all the more difficult. This time, however, Rex is determined to fight the move. Now a seventh grader, he has finally found a tight group of friends, and […]
FictionHistorical Fiction

The Wolves of Andover

Review by Cat Acree

Kathleen Kent has a unique talent for early American storytelling, as proven by the smash success of her 2008 debut novel, The Heretic’s Daughter. Kent is back with a prequel to her bestseller, which digs into Colonial Massachusetts after the English Civil War. The Wolves of Andover, a story of love and British-American mystery, embodies the struggles of an entire young nation through the tale of 19-year-old Martha Allen.

Martha, unwed and nearing spinsterhood, is sent to work as a servant in her cousin’s home in hopes of finding a husband. Similar in spirit to the ceaselessly roaming wolves of New England, she gains a reputation for her sharp tongue and stubborn brow. She attracts the attention of the towering Thomas Carrier, a former soldier with portentous ties to the death of King Charles I. A young but hardened love materializes between them as it becomes all too clear that the Colonies are not as safe from the past as is believed. It is not long before danger circles the little homestead in the forms of beast, man and death.

The Wolves of Andover combines the steadfastness of well-researched historical fiction with the organic mien of oral storytelling. Less intimate voices are silenced as Kent gives one young woman the ability to represent herself independently. The Colonies, a pubescent and fiery version of what would eventually become America, provide the ideal backdrop for a story of deception and harrowing passion.

The American Colonies provide the backdrop for an absorbing prequel.
YA FictionYA

Rot & Ruin

Review by Cat Acree

What kid wouldn’t love to whack some zombies? Slaughter some bumbling, disintegrating bodies with gnashing teeth? Kill them before they kill you?

Benny Imura has absolutely no interest. But in his post-apocalyptic Californian community, Benny will lose half his rations if he does not find a job by the time he turns 15, so he has no choice but to become an apprentice to his lame zom-slaughtering brother Tom and to follow him into the Rot & Ruin—the world outside the fences. The zombie-covered fields of America reveal to Benny a world without morality and without humanity, even among the living.

Jonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin melds the entertainment of a zombie thriller with an examination of the roots of anger and the value of human life. When the dead rise, it is easy to find sport in whacking a former mailman or two. But Benny quickly discovers that the living dead were once simply living, and there are things far more evil in the world than a shuffling mob of zoms.

Along the way, Rot & Ruin ordains the younger generations with a sense of purpose and power, and a new understanding of what a hero really is: “Often it was the most unlikely of people who found within themselves a spark of something greater. It was probably always there, but most people are never tested, and they go through their whole lives without ever knowing that when things are at their worst, they are at their best.”

 

When the dead rise, teens rise above it.
Mystery & SuspenseSuspense

Our Kind of Traitor

Review by Cat Acree

The newest addition to John le Carré’s extensive list of novels proves that this master of the espionage genre is still at the height of his authorial powers. Filled with Russian spies, financial and political scandals and even a few games of tennis thrown in for good measure, Our Kind of Traitor has all the necessary elements for a rip-roaring, intelligent thriller that never lacks in high-wire suspense.

When young British couple Perry and Gail decided to splurge on a Caribbean tennis holiday, they never imagined their dream vacation could go from fun in the sun to deadly dealings so fast. Without really being sure how it happened, they find themselves inexplicably linked to money-launderer Dima, who has ties to the Russian mafia. He enlists the couple’s aid in seeking amnesty from the British Service in exchange for information concerning corruption in the British banking system. Before they have the chance to say no, Perry and Gail find themselves acting as pawns in a sinister game well beyond their depths, one that will take them on a whirlwind tour through Paris, Switzerland and beyond, always with the British Secret Service nipping at their heels.

Le Carré has managed to capture a snapshot of history and immortalize it in the suspenseful and morally complex Our Kind of Traitor, which is based on a December 2009 article in The Observer claiming that at the height of the economic crisis in 2008, it was drug money keeping the British financial system afloat. A member of the British Foreign Service from 1959 to 1964, le Carré is well-positioned to infuse the thrilling story with the gravitas necessary to set it apart from your dime-a-dozen drugstore pulp fiction. A solid addition to his oeuvre, Our Kind of Traitor does not disappoint, and readers should be prepared for one heck of a ride.

 

The newest addition to John le Carré’s extensive list of novels proves that this master of the espionage genre is still at the height of his authorial powers. Filled with Russian spies, financial and political scandals and even a few games of tennis thrown in for good measure, Our Kind of Traitor has all the […]
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Bird in a Box

Review by Cat Acree

It might seem impossible that one man could bring together an entire community, but Joe Louis, the “Brown Bomber” of pounding punches and focused fighting, did just that. At the height of the Great Depression, Louis’ big fight warbled through just about every radio in America, and for the three kids in Andrea Davis Pinkney’s new novel, it changes their lives forever.

Bird in a Box is told through the voices of three youngsters in Elmira, New York, in the months leading up to the big fight. Hibernia, Otis and Willie, who come from different worlds, are thrown together by tough luck and the power of the True Vine Baptist Church. Each has lost someone, and each has a seemingly unobtainable dream. Their stories converge at the center of their world: the radio.

Through the voices of the children, Pinkney creates a triumphant tale of accidental friendships and repaired lives. An appendix adds interesting historical context on the “real people and real places” in the book. The stories of Hibernia, Otis and Willie, accompanied by the backdrop of the championship fight, will have young readers rooting for a win all the way to the end.
 

It might seem impossible that one man could bring together an entire community, but Joe Louis, the “Brown Bomber” of pounding punches and focused fighting, did just that. At the height of the Great Depression, Louis’ big fight warbled through just about every radio in America, and for the three kids in Andrea Davis Pinkney’s […]

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