The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff

Published August 1, 2012.

Three Author Websites.

From acclaimed YA authors Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff comes The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories. 

- A vampire locked in a cage in the basement, for good luck. - Bad guys, clever girls, and the various reasons why the guys have to stop breathing. 

- A world where fires never go out (with references to vanilla ice cream). 

These are but a few of the curiosities collected in this volume of short stories by three acclaimed practitioners of paranormal fiction. But The Curiosities is more than the stories. Since 2008, Maggie, Tessa, and Brenna have posted more than 250 works of short fiction to their website merryfates.com. Their goal was simple: create a space for experimentation and improvisation in their writing—all in public and without a backspace key. In that spirit, The Curiosities includes the stories and each author's comments, critiques, and kudos in the margins. Think of it as a guided tour of the creative processes of three acclaimed authors. 

So, are you curious now?  (goodreads.com)

I LOVE YOU, CAROLRHODA LAB!  DON'T EVER CHANGE!

NetGalley noted the pub date for this book as today but Goodreads is showing back in August.  Considering Goodreads has the bump-up date for Meagon Spooner's SKYLARK I'm going with the Goodreads date for accuracy.

Okay, so book?  Andrew Karre is a publishing genius, never pandering to a wave or reading fad.  He's his own dowsing rod of incredible works, sniffing them out like a nifler and finding precious, precious gold.  Instead of lifting debuts out of the publishing ashes this time he's taken the minds of three already-established authors and exposed their twisted brains in bound book form.

Stiefvater, Gratton and Yovanoff have been experimentally writing as the Merry Fates for years now, stretching their writerly fingers beyond the scope of each of their perceived comfort zones.  The end result in THE CURIOSITIES is a peek behind Oz's curtain, complete with handwritten cliff notes and StiefTonOff (I need to copyright that) doodles to compliment the shorts scattered throughout.  They banter back and forth about each others' writing styles, throw comments about and generally boost each other up as they dip their toes into unfamiliar, and oftentimes murky, water.

The style of each author emerges almost immediately and you get an almost intimate sense of what each is comfortable writing and what was really a stretch into no-man's land.  It got to a point in THE CURIOSITIES that I didn't need to read who the short was written by, they were that distinct from each other.  You get to see some of their prompts and how each author sometimes interprets something as simple as a single name and even when they reach beyond their zone they all cling to something familiar, something stylistic that grounds them in the unknown.  They wax writer-like about drawing blanks, building a story from a single image or a single sentence or even a snippet of some weird dream.  It's a true look into the heads of authors without the classroom lessons of writing.  All you're getting are real world examples and they're so much more poignant.

Maggie is consistent Maggie even when she's trying to be Brenna or Tessa.  I will admit I was not thrilled with her Ballad of Faerie series.  While her writing was beautiful I felt it was more author than character and as a result I stepped away from her Wolves of Mercy Falls series, not wanting to read more of the same.  But what with her story in KISS ME DEADLY and now all of these it's only a matter of time before I pick up another Maggie book.  I just like her shorts far too much.  Her voice is so much more than just her and her range as an author is astounding.  She can flit in and out of genres as if she were skipping despite how taxing some of those stories were to write.  I am coming around again.

Tessa has a thing for grim fairy tales without really broaching into horror.  She plays at the line with her freaky dolls and pokes brownies in their eyes just for shits and giggles.  She takes a fey world and by sheer will of style turns it into something not only eerily dark but captivating and something wholly other, spinning metaphors into pure gold.  I love it when she dredged up barely touched lore and adds her platinum touch to it.  THE SUMMER ENDS IN SLAUGHTER is one such example that blends lore and darkness and Tessa touch into something that's captivating, drawing you in and not letting you look away.

Brenna prances across that horror line and plays with the dead, dressing them up in decaying dresses and stringing them up like marionettes to put on a show.  NEIGHBORS blew me away to the point of speechlessness.  The opening blurbs even warn about the stereotypical twist.  You know what's coming as you read but you don't because Brenna, in all her twisted horror glory, twists the twist and while you may see one you won't see the other.  By god I loved it.  I need more Brenna stories in my demented, horror-loving life.

THE CURIOSITIES is not only an excellent collection of short stories meant as a glimpse into the legwork of writers but an amazing introduction to the authors StiefTonOff.  See the genius that is Andrew's editing skills in compiling this novel of awesome and then read the expansive minds of three authors with rather set comfort zones shatter their own walls and wander into the wild.

Ban Factor: High - From vampires to fairies to a libido-laden dead teenager there is a veritable smorgasbord of screech-worthy banstuff in here.

The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

Pub date: August 16, 2012.

Author website.

The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Years later, when she returns to the woods where Tom was taken to say goodbye at last, she finds herself lured into a world where stunning beauty masks the most treacherous of evils, and strange and dangerous creatures await-creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with allegiances that shift as much as his moods. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where nothing is what it seems, no one is who they say, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice-and not just her own.  (netgalley.com)

Okay, this must be a joke, right?  This is my second book in just as many weeks that I've loved so much that I need to check myself.  That I need to reign myself in and feebly attempt to keep myself from blathering on like a ridiculous, incoherent fangirl.  Is someone screwing with me?  Because I can barely handle the awesome right now.  Barely.

The thing with THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS is that not only is it a wonderfully honest story but it's filled with glorious WORDS!  Words here, there and everywhere!  Some of the most amazingly wrought words I've found in YA to date and it has revived my hope that YA still strives for quality, that YA readers have a taste for finely written words that read like listening to the most intricately woven concerto you've ever heard.  In reality Long is Irish and let's face it, the people on that side of the pond have a tendency of weaving words of a higher quality as the Brits and Irish have a higher breadth of understanding of the English language than us Americans do.  Don't believe me?  I consider myself above average in the intelligence department.  But nothing made me feel like a dumb effing American like sitting in an English (and I mean in London, English) classroom as the lone Yank and listening to them wax poetic about Derrida and Glas as if they'd been studying it since they were two.  So yes, when it comes to the written word I believe those guys are just inherently more loquacious than us.  I mean, c'mon.  Have you MET Sya?

So reading THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL things has me floored to the point of drooling on myself.  I can haz language?  Here, have some words -

07/25

page 27

7.0%

""She stared at another dart in her hand. She could see it clearly. Too clearly. The end finished in feathers, tiny strands of thread tying them to the shaft in intricate knotwork. She reached out with her other hand - huge and fumbling - and tugged it out. It was topped with a tiny, perfectly formed flint arrowhead. Her own blood glistened on it, and on her skin a red pearl formed around the wound.""

07/26

page 116

30.0%

""It started like a warm summer breeze moving through the trees in late afternoon, a whispering voice in the forest itself. Jack lifted his face to greet it, closed his eyes and inhaled. Sweet summer flowers, all thing in the fullness of life … and beneath it, decay, the moment where everything began to eat itself away.""

07/31

page 203

53.0%

"People, just people, he tried to tell himself. It looked like a sketch done by a child, and yet at the same time, profoundly powerful, as if a great hand had reached down from the sky - or up from the earth - to scour its mark into the land, long brush strokes that glowed with light when the moon spilled over it."

08/02	page 367		96.0%	"A sound came from her, something between a scream and a clogged drain."
08/01	page 270		70.0%	"Every story, all those tales she loved as a child, all her escapes … were they all twisted and changed to something dreadful here? And yet, wasn't that where they came from, all the oldest tales, from blood and pain and misery?"
07/31	page 218		57.0%	"Dreams, some might call them. Lies with a kinder name."

WORDS! GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS WORDS!  These words painted such a stunning visual setting throughout the story that my life lost sound when I was reading.  I was sucked directly into this fairy world and when I put the book down I often had to blink myself back into reality, rub the world out of my eyes and reorient myself with my surroundings.

With that being said the story isn't without it's faults.  Jenny is naive to the point of aggravation, making deliriously stupid decisions for the sake of being nice.  Seeing as how I literally just read Kat Kennedy's review of this title, being on Goodreads to collect the WORDS samples and her review was right on top so of course I HAD to read it and now I can't get it out of my head, dammit, she is very right in saying this is in line with old timey fairy tales that center around a virginal MC with the fairy world standing for hedonism that the maiden must fight against with every ounce of her being.  This is very true of THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS.  Jenny is reminiscent of a Disney princess with virtue flowing out of her ears, throwing self preservation to the wind and ultimately defeating evil with her wiles of love and caring.  It is a sickly sweet story and the pretty chick on the cover in the white tulle dress is actually relevant and it's literally playing out a scene in the story.

With that being said the events that Jenny went through are exceedingly brutal.  There is absolutely no shortage of character screwing going on here.  Jenny does not go in one side of this story and come out the other without some dirt under her fingernails.  Look at the first quote I have above and what page it's on.  Literally from the beginning Jenny is being abused and I love it so.  While she is unabashedly representative of a pure, light-filled queen she gets the high holy crap kicked out of her in the process.  She does suffer from Damsel in Distress Syndrome (DDS) and her requirement of being rescued runs some other characters rather ragged but I was so thrilled with the WORDS and the brutality of the situations that I could easily overlook the fact that I wanted to slap Jenny around for some of the things she did.

The fairy world is true to form in terms of its contradicting beauty and horror.  Couple that with the WORDS and you can only imagine what kind of scene Long is setting.  I was a little less thrilled with the Jack/Jenny relationship simply because it's a deviation from an otherwise seemingly accurate depiction of Fae, especially since Jack didn't have a heart.  Literally.  I found his fascination with Jenny odd.  If it had remained purely business that would have been one thing but I was a little uncomfortable with it's development.

On the adverse side and to completely throw a wrench into my own opinion of the relationship I like where it went.  I like the role reversal Jack and Jenny went through by the end of the book.  While it didn't completely cancel out Jenny's DDS and her unyielding naivety it softened the blow to something more palatable and I was ultimately rooting for them by the end.

If you're looking for a more true-to-form fairy tale that isn't shy about it's own brutality but at the same time really sticks to its own morality path throughout you'll find it in THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS.  But above and beyond that it's so incredibly beautifully written and Long has such an amazing way with words that you'll be mesmerized by the lyrical prose the second you start reading.  Jenny isn't really your kick ass heroine.  She makes some incredibly dumb decisions for the sake of being nice and she needs to be rescued more often than not but when the situation calls for it Jenny stands on her own.  She has more strength than what the story allows her to have and while she's wrapped in this virginal shroud of old fairy tales there's a modern fierceness about her that I think will appeal to someone looking for a story about a girl persevering, setting her mind on something and not backing down until she gets what she wants.  It's a story of ups and downs and you ultimately need to decide how you're going to process it.

That's another great thing about THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS.  It's a story with so many avenues of thought that you don't have to settle on just one.  I absolutely agree with Kat's assessment of it but I personally believe it's so much more and that Jenny is just so much more than merely a bastion for virginity.  She proved herself within the story.  She could have said 'screw you guys, I'm going home' numerous times throughout and Jack would have gladly escorted her back to the Edge but she didn't.  Bringing her brother home was her number one objective and not even Jack could come between her and her brother.  She made some really crappy decisions and her DDS showed A LOT but she made some really good decisions too and I applaud her for them.

Ban Factor: High - Pagan-ness.  So much Pagan-ness going on.  Fairies and old gods and witchy queens?  Oh noes!

Vanishing and Other Stories by Deborah Willis

Published August 17, 2010.

Author website.

In Vanishing and Other Stories, secrets are both kept and unearthed, and lives are shaped by missing lovers, parents, and children.  With wisdom and dexterity, moments of dark humor, and a remarkable economy of words, Deborah Willis captures an incredible array of characters that linger in the imagination and prove that nothing is ever truly forgotten.  (book back blurb)

Every once in a while I'll come across a book with such stunning writing that when I get to the end of it I can't help but heave a great big sigh of relief.  There is hope.  There is talent.  There are WORDS.

I like reading anthologies but they're usually a compendium of stories from different writers so each work is, by default, going to be different.  Different styles, different prose, different methods.  Personally I find it a lot harder for an author to write a single anthology composed entirely of their own stories and have each story differentiate itself from the last.  My experience in that is pretty even keel; one working out not so well and the other I ended up loving.  VANISHING?  Yeah, I pretty much loved it.

VANISHING has stories told of life.  They're not all that action-packed.  In many not much really happens outside of a character's internal monologues.  But the way they're all written Willis just sinks her claws into each and every one of her characters and forces them off the page so that you can't help but see them as their own individuals.  And that's exactly what they are.  From the grieving scientist in ESCAPE to the lonely teacher in THE FIANCEE to the boy-turned-man in AND THE LIVING IS EASY, each are individuals, each are wholly separate and each are as vivid in my mind as if they were all given their own books.

VANISHING is one of those books that one SHOULD read because it's that kind of book.  These are the stories that would get taught in literature classes, dissected for meaning, subtext, intent.  To some that's a bad thing but I loved reading good short stories when I was in school.  It was how I was introduced to the likes of Flannery O'Connor.  And she's pretty awesome.  But just because people SHOULD read it doesn't make it bad or dull.  They're all engaging stories, each and every one of them, with a range of protagonists, a range of ages and a good mix of both sexes.  There is literally something for everyone in VANISHING and the writing is so good all the rest would just suck you in anyway.

All of the stories are inherently real, spun golden by words that would make any writer envious (including this one).  But it's not a high falutin, overtly showy type of writing.  It's glorious, simple enough to hook the resistant but intricate enough to ensnare the more well-read, those with noses held higher than others.  When literary does it right, it REALLY does it right.  Willis's writing is effortless.  She doesn't come across as trying to impress or show off her writing prowess.  Her words are for the stories and the stories are for you.  It's that simple.  And they're wonderful.

There may not be anything supernatural in VANISHING but that doesn't make it any less engaging.  It still hooks, it still drags you in and then spits you out, leaving you reeling in your book hangover because the writing . . . THE WRITING.  It stuns.  It really does.

Ban Factor: Low - It's pretty innocuous.  There might be a couple of salacious pieces in there but that would require the banners to read and that's just downright silly to expect.

The Black Isle by Sandi Tan

Pub date: August 7, 2012.

Author website.

Uprooted from Shanghai with her father and twin brother, young Cassandra finds the Black Isle's bustling, immigrant-filled seaport, swampy jungle, and grand rubber plantations a sharp contrast to the city of her childhood. And she soon makes another discovery: the Black Isle is swarming with ghosts.

Haunted and lonely, Cassandra at first tries to ignore her ability to see the restless apparitions that drift down the street and crouch in cold corners at school. Yet despite her struggles with these spirits, Cassandra comes to love her troubled new home. And soon, she attracts the notice of a dangerously charismatic man.

Even as she becomes a fearless young woman, the Isle's dark forces won't let her go. War is looming, and Cassandra wonders if her unique gift might be her beloved island's only chance for salvation . . .  (netgalley.com)

I was floored with THE BLACK ISLE from the second I started reading it.  Written in a voice that's so incredibly engaging that you can't take your eyes from the page, it sucks you into an old world China where women are barely second class citizens and, depending on your status, superstition rules your life.

Cassandra goes through an epic transformation throughout the book.  The story starts with Cassandra as an old woman both running from and to her past.  She relives the world of her island through an out-of-print book at the library.  When she find that "her" book has been desecrated, her world gets rocked.  And infiltrated, by a less-than-welcome guest that wants Cassandra's story.  The plot flips back to the present a few times throughout the book, reminding the reader that Cassandra is narrating the story to someone, that there's a reason for this recounting.

When the greater story begins, Cassandra is Ling, twin of Li, the latter the more favored child because of his male status and the fact that Cassandra hogged the goods in the womb.  So while she came out nice and healthy Li was a bit starved.  To see the dynamic between brother and sister based on the parents' behavior was, at times, horrifying to watch.  They're twins so they share the same birthday except Cassandra didn't get gifts.  Those were reserved for the favored son.  It's a cultural aspect that I had a hard time getting over and it really bothered me to read.

I'll admit, Chinese culture isn't something I'm crazy about but the ghost story aspect of THE BLACK ISLE drew me in and I actually learned quite a few things about the culture.  And it even answered a few of my questions about the people in general.  I'd like to believe that a story so rich in Chinese culture would, in the same breath, be accurate as well.  I believed everything I read without a blink but you'll have to ask someone better versed in Chinese culture just how close it all is.  Right now I have no reason to doubt any of it.

It's not too long into the story that things take a turn for the strange and Cassandra starts being able to see ghosts.  It actually coincides with an incident in the park involving Li and their subsequent distancing.  That incident, though, I don't think is very realized.  It serves as a catalyst to get the twins apart (they were pretty much inseparable until that point) and then it comes back in at the end.  But it doesn't do much for character-building.  I thought it was going to have some greater impact on Li other than just a personality shift but there wasn't much.  He got cranky for a little while but that was about it.

When they up and moved to the Isle you get the full realization of just how incompetent Cassandra's father is and how reliant he is on his children to do his job.  I was flabbergasted by this and how long both of them actually put up with his ineptitude.  And it wasn't he just didn't have the smarts for it.  He just had better things to do with his time and it really angered his kids, especially when it was entirely their doing that got the plantation they moved to up and running and the workers in order.  Of course their job was thankless.

There was a tryst between Cassandra and Li that really bothered me and it's another aspect of the story that I'm not sure how relevant it is to the greater plot.  Like I said I'm unfamiliar with Chinese culture but the ease with which the siblings entered into a sexual relationship really took me aback.  Was this okay because they're twins?  They hid it from their father so there was some level of shame there; just not a lot.  I was bothered by it, by its casual attitude and then it's relevance was gone.  It served its purpose for the plot at the moment but, like the incident in the park, I don't think it served it's purpose to the greater story.

Cassandra is a character trying desperately to be her own person.  She breaks off from her father and brother and gets a job on her own after finishing her schooling.  That job brings her to her fiancee, the son of her school's proprietor, and she's elevated into a social strata that she wouldn't otherwise be in.  Of course the male members of her family resent her for it.  She's supposed to be subservient to her father and brother, not rise above them.  But she was determined to make her own way, albeit on the backs of wealthier others.  It's because of this that she officially changes her name from Ling to Cassandra.

As time progressed in the story itself it does come across, a bit, as Cassandra effectively whoring her way into the best possible scenarios for herself.  She does appear to have feelings for two of the three suitors in the story but their positions in society sway my feelings about her a bit and make her look a bit like a gold digger.  These were opportune matches.  She just happened to have feelings for them as well.  But I don't believe she would have entered into those relationships simply for the status.  I do believe she loved two of the three.  I just think the author wrote it in such a way as to make the reader see, just slightly, what other people might see in Cassandra.  She is not a woman that actually worked her way up from the dredges.  She was well-placed, well-timed and well-suited.  Not her fault but it is convenient.

The second suitor?  Well he's not really a suitor.  He was one of the occupying soldiers when Japan invaded and kept Cassandra locked in her fiance's house and raped her repeatedly and referred to her as his wife.  It was a very weird situation and Taro absolutely took advantage of everything he could about her.  He kept her compliant to his whims by dangling her would-be family and friends in front of her.  It was a horrible situation and throughout, since it's in first person, you know that she's doing it for other people, for Daniel and her brother although I don't doubt some level of self-preservation.  No one wants to die, not really.  So I don't begrudge her that.

It takes Cassandra a while to come into accepting her abilities.  Issa, a shaman of sorts, tries to teach her but she bails, afraid of what she's getting into.  Years later she realizes that there is a benefit to working with the damned, at a heavy price, of course.  The ghosts of the Isle become tools for everyone to use, from Cassandra to prove a point, to suitor number three to get the island where he wants it to be.  It's not until she's much older that she fully realizes the total repercussions of what she can do, what she can see and how it affects not just her but everyone.

THE BLACK ISLE is a story about growth fueled by ghosts.  Ling/Cassandra denies her true self for a long time but slowly she comes into her own, taking hold of who she really is and embracing it, at times not fully understanding what it is she's undertaking.  The ghosts are a prominent aspect of the story but I wouldn't necessarily call THE BLACK ISLE a ghost story.  It's a coming-of-age and moving past it.  It's accepting your past and knowing when revenge has already been paid.  I can't say enough good things about it.  The voice is PHENOMENAL, balancing an elegant prose with a relatable one resulting in a story that anyone can love and get drawn into.  I'm so glad I opted to read this.  It called out to me from the NetGalley list and for good reason.  There are some books in your life that will leave a lasting impression for any number of reasons.  THE BLACK ISLE is one of mine.

Ban Factor: High - A foreign culture and religion and ghosts.  Oh noes!

Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Pub date: June 5, 2012.

Author website.

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.


Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.


Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.  (netgalley.com)

Potential Spoilers Ahead

I don't think my review is really spoilerish because of elements that I believe are rather obvious from the beginning but just to be safe . . .

OMFGBBQ did I devour this book.  Like whoa, gobbled it right down and it didn't even give me gas.  We're talking Cinda Williams Chima level of love right now.  For anyone that knows me, that's a lot of love.  Not quite on the same exact level but I did add BBQ to my explanation.  That means a lot.

Let's see . . . what can I say about SHADOW & BONE without turning into a total blithering fangirl?

Alina is one hell of a kick ass heroine.  Seriously.  She's got a smart mouth and stands up for herself even in moments when she'd probably be better off keeping her trap shut.  A character flaw but one I like.  Because that's totally me.  Honesty is my best policy.  It just may not be true for others.

Mal?  Yeah, I'm a total fan.  There was a time there where I filed him into the complete toolbox category but with his re-emergence came his redemption.  He fits Alina perfectly.  One personality doesn't overpower the other and they really jive.  It's a relationship I can totally get behind because it feels real.  It's something that was built up over time as opposed to the instant soup kind.  There was substance there, history, a deeper bond than smelling pretty.  It's everything I want to see in a relationship and then some.  That's not to say it's perfect but it's REAL.

The Darkling surprised me.  I kind of knew he was off from the beginning but I found the depth to his offness shocking.  But it was well-built.  His personality ended up being kind of standard villain-ish but I'm okay with that.  There were other elements to the puzzle that ground out that particular aspect of him and made him more realistic.  There's a ruthlessness there and the author's willingness to actually show it that I admire.  Not the evil, sadistic ruthlessness but the author not shying away from it.  It paints Bargudo in a great light for me and it brings added depth to The Darkling's character.

I was pleasantly surprised by a few of things in the book.  One of them is that at the beginning of Alina's stay being a Grisha that her schooling appeared to be a type of boarding school.  Wherein I began to think that it's yet another boarding school story and I've been duped.  Not the case.  Another, where Alina is coming into her powers and they're trying to figure out why she constantly needed an amplifier to bring them out.  I guessed, and was wrong.  Another?  The vulcra.  I was shocked to find out just what they are.  Another testament to Bardugo's authorly twistedness.  I liked it.

I wasn't overly thrilled with the ending, more like a particular element of it, but I'll get over it.  I liked it overall and how it wasn't a total cop-out and everything wrapped up nicely with a little bow at the end. Not so much.  But there was hope there, just enough to wrap up the greater story arc but set the precedent for future books.  And I can't wait.

SHADOW & BONE is an excellent high fantasy addition to the YA category.  The world is lavishly built, with real world elements that keep it firmly within reach, and characters that'll suck you in and have you begging for more.  You'll definitely want to read this.  You'll be disappointed if you don't.

Ban Factor: High - Never mind Alina's swearing or her defiance or her sexy tryst.  It's a world without a Christian god.  BE ALL END ALL!

The Stein & Candle Detective Agency, Volume 1: American Nightmares by Michael Panush

Published March 9, 2012.

Author website.

Morton Candle is a tough guy. He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, dodging from mobster-ruled neighborhoods to reform school before the army snapped him up and sent him to Europe to fight Hitler.

That’s where he met Weatherby Stein, the scion to one of the greatest occult families of Europe. Weatherby and his parents were being held prisoner by the Nazis, forced to use their supernatural knowledge to aid the Third Reich’s war effort.
Morton Candle got Weatherby to safety, but the kid’s parents didn’t make it.

Now it’s the 1950s. Weatherby’s a teenager, with his father’s knowledge and a chip on his shoulder from the indignities of the modern world. Morton bumps into him again and they decide to go into the only business they can – paranormal private detectives.

This time, Weatherby and Mort have cases that will take them from a vampire’s decaying mansion to the mob-controlled streets of Havana. They’ll take on roadside attractions gone wrong, hordes of the living dead, and ride against the devil in a high speed car race to the death.

Between them, Weatherby and Mort have a small arsenal and a deep knowledge of matters arcane and bizarre. They’ll need brains and brawn to survive in a world where horror, action and hardboiled noir come together in a cataclysmic mix. (netgalley.com)

OMG I loved STEIN & CANDLE so much I can't even tell you. It had the perfect amounts of cheese, campiness and noir all mixed in together. I can't tell you what it was specifically that I loved about this book but I can say it hit me just right in the cockle area that it made me a little giddy. Seriously, it was wonderful.

I will say the one thing that did irk me a bit was Candle's constant PTSD flashbacks/mentions to his war days. Those became a little much. I understand it was a part of Candle but for the most part I don't believe that's how most veterans go around thinking. For Candle everything reminded him of bullets or explosions or tanks or something. I'd imagine that kind of thinking would drive someone insane because they wouldn't be able to leave the battlefield. And Candle wasn't all that crazy compared so some of his former military buddies he came across in the stories. So I'd have to say that'd be my one complaint.

Everything else? LOVED IT! Weatherby Stein was, of course, my favorite. He is the Brain to Candle's Pinky. Well, no, not really. Candle's actually a pretty smart guy but it's obvious he's the muscle and Weatherby's the smarts. He's just 14 I believe but he has the air or someone that could be his father. You get a look at him in his own story's section when he was little, maybe 8, and he was like that even then. Just far smarter and more mature than his age dictated. But he wasn't annoying about it. He was constantly endearing, especially when it came to one boy he rescued a couple of times. He felt an affinity for him and had a need to constantly protect him (a by-product of not being able to product those around him whom he loved, I would imagine) when he's near. The kid, for the most part, always has his head about him and Candle really relies on him as much as he wants to protect him as his own. He's a great character; possibly one of the best I've come across in my reading ventures.

Candle is another great guy. Like genuinely just a good guy that happens to break some kneecaps if the situation calls for it. He's a bit of a hardass on the outside but since all of the stories are in his POV you get to see just how he feels about things, the soft spot he has for Weatherby and even for some of the people in the cases he works. He's far more intelligent than his outward demeanor would otherwise say and I just loved being in his head. I was never bored and he told a damn good story.

STEIN & CANDLE is a series of individual stories set apart as chapters but loosely linked together through minute mentions of previous stories. For instance mentioning Havana when they come across a couple of the same characters in Las Vegas or Candle's new car when he previous lost it in Vegas. Outside of those small mentions there isn't much stringing the chapters together. They can rightly stand on their own as their own individual stories and, for the most part, they do. The best part about them, though, is their feel. Panush has done a great job of capturing that cusp feel of a society switching from a war-geared gangster-fueled era into one greater led by the Mary Tyler Moores of the world. There's a crime-fighting noir about it reminiscent of Dick Tracy just with vampires and zombies and hoodoo. Loved the hoodoo, by the way. It's not an element seen very often and I just squeal a little every time I do see it.

Anyway, each story had it's particular feel led, of course, by Candle's voice. Aside from the flashback thingy I mentioned earlier, it has a little bit of wise guy attitude fresh off the battle field but without being overly obnoxious. Everywhere they go I can feel the time in which they're in. Havana in the early 50s, pre-revolution. If you know anything about it you'll be able to picture it in your mind. Or a drag race with the devil in a hot ass muscle car in California when cars still had real muscles. Or even the smartly-dressed aristocratic vamps wanting to get their money back. My favorite was Weatherby's story, about what happened to him and his parents in Castle Stein with the Nazis. It was a great departure from the tone of the rest of the stories but one that needed to be told just to give Weatherby some more depth, although he already had plenty.

Seriously, I can't say enough good things about THE STEIN & CANDLE DETECTIVE AGENCY. I'd love to see it as a comic because, well, that would just be epic. It has the feel for it and I really hope that's a possibility in the future. But between the most excellent characters, the settings to vivid you'll see them in your dreams and all of the crazy paranormal shenanigannery Stein and Candle get into, there's not much left to NOT love. It's campy, it's crazy and most of all it's fun. You really can't beat that. It's not to often I find a genuinely fun read; one that riles me up and makes me want to get up and do something. STEIN & CANDLE is a different incarnation of Sam and Dean, when Dean can go all Untouchable to his heart's content. Yeah, I can see it. And I love it.

Ban Factor: High - There's a prostitute in one of these stories. It doesn't matter what else is in there (zombies, vampires, hillbillies). The pro will make them go con.

A Week with Carolrhoda Lab Review: The Knife and the Butterfly by Ashley Hope Perez

Published February 1, 2012.

Author website.

After a marijuana-addled brawl with a rival gang, 16-year-old Azael wakes up to find himself surrounded by a familiar set of concrete walls and a locked door. Juvie again, he thinks. But he can't really remember what happened or how he got picked up. He knows his MS13 boys faced off with some punks from Crazy Crew. There were bats, bricks, chains. A knife. But he can't remember anything between that moment and when he woke behind bars.

Azael knows prison, and something isn't right about this lockup. No phone call. No lawyer. No news about his brother or his homies. The only thing they make him do is watch some white girl in some cell. Watch her and try to remember.

Lexi Allen would love to forget the brawl, would love for it to disappear back into the Xanax fog it came from. And her mother and her lawyer hope she chooses not to remember too much about the brawl—at least when it's time to testify.

Lexi knows there's more at stake in her trial than her life alone, though. She's connected to him, and he needs the truth. The knife cut, but somehow it also connected. (goodreads.com)

I took a huge risk on THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY and gave it the benefit of the doubt. This whole gang, thug life thing, totally not my bag in the slightest. And characters like this? I pretty much don't give two shits about. But I am SOOOOO glad I took the chance because it ended being worth it and then some just for the ending. Like to the point of me being winded and speechless and not even moving worth it.

Azael is a thug. He's entrenched in gang life and quite frankly, until he really started breaking down in his prison cell and we start delving into his past I didn't feel much for him. He's a punk, someone that's starts ridiculous fights over some imagined blast to his or his friends' pride. At first I was really worried this would be a first for me: the first Carolrhoda Lab book I really didn't like. But once Perez started chipping away at the surface and really started getting into who Azael really was under that whole thug facade it became interesting. His life with MS-13 ended up being akin to addiction. Throughout the book he kept coming back to his girlfriend Becca and how he wanted to get clean for her, actually using those words. But it was always tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. I ended up feeling bad for him because he is so young (15) and once his mom died his childhood pretty much sucked thanks to a selfish father that couldn't get over it enough to take care of his kids.

And then you have Lexi. I found the blurb just a touch misleading because I thought it was going to alternate POVs between Azael and Lexi but it sticks with Azael the whole time although we learn everything about Lexi through him and her journal. We don't really NEED to be in her head because we already kind of are when Azael is doing his observation.

What really bothered me was how quick Azael was to discount Lexi's problems because she's white. That really got under my skin and I wanted to slap him for it. Just because she's fair doesn't mean her life doesn't suck, and it certainly sucked. She was basically pseudo-raised by a mom in denial that had a revolving door of boyfriends, some of which abused her. She acted the only way she really knew how, through sexuality, and the gang life she sought provided her a bit of protection that she couldn't get at home with her mom. They were family where she didn't have any, except for her grandmother, who really tried. That's who Lexi warmed up to the most, that's where she looked to for encouragement or whether she should feel disappointed. Her mom didn't matter but her grandmother did.

The ending was so insanely sudden for me and hit me so profoundly that I actually gasped, my hands started shaking and I didn't know what to do with myself. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not even halfway decent at picking up on twists in plots early in the story so I didn't see it coming AT ALL. And you know what? I'm glad. Because it took me aback so much that I think if I'd guessed before had, it would have ruined the story for me. It would have kept the story an okay story instead of launching it into FUCKING PHENOMENAL territory as it wrapped a rubber band around the whole thing and brought it all together. The ending really did it for me. If it had not ended the way it did I wouldn't have liked the book nearly as much. In fact I can't really imagine it ending any other way because it wouldn't have had nearly the same impact. Flabbergasted. Seriously.

THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY is not for the faint of heart. It's told through the eyes of a male MS-13 member (for those that don't know, it's a brutal gang based out of Los Angeles) and Perez is not shy about language, sexual innuendo or violence. It's all there, raw and uncensored for you to read and absorb. But she's written it so well that you'd think an actual member wrote it, that the story was coming from someone really living it. And in a way it did as it was inspired by actual events. Perez made me feel for someone that I would rightly brush aside, whose story I wouldn't have even considered before and I thank her deeply for that. Now I'm pretty much screwed because Azael's story was so phenomenal that I don't even know if anything else will compare. I don't know if I want it too.

Ban Factor: High - Gangs, swears, sex? Far too terrible for the eyes of banner babies.

A Week with Carolrhoda Lab Review: Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick

Published February 1, 2011.

Author website.

There are stories where the girl gets her prince, and they live happily ever after. (This is not one of those stories.)

Jenna Lord's first sixteen years were not exactly a fairytale. Her father is a controlling psycho and her mother is a drunk. She used to count on her older brother—until he shipped off to Iraq. And then, of course, there was the time she almost died in a fire.

There are stories where the monster gets the girl, and we all shed tears for his innocent victim. (This is not one of those stories either.)

Mitch Anderson is many things: A dedicated teacher and coach. A caring husband. A man with a certain...magnetism.

And there are stories where it's hard to be sure who's a prince and who's a monster, who is a victim and who should live happily ever after. (These are the most interesting stories of all.) (netgalley.com)

I've been sitting on reviewing DROWNING INSTINCT for about two months now, doing the Homer Simpson "I wanna" dance waiting for Carolrhoda Lab's special week so I can finally put it up. And now I'm faced with what to say. What can I say other than Ilsa's done it yet again? She's ripped my heart out, stomped on it, sewed it back together and gently placed it back in my chest. I cried like a freaking baby at the end of DROWNING INSTINCT. It's hard to see such a sad character lose a rare piece of happiness in her life.

DROWNING INSTINCT was also the book that made me realize that I needed to step away from these kind of contemporaries for a while. It's so real and honest and gritty that it hurts me to read. As much as I shy away from the prospect of loinfruit, to see a child hurting kills me. Ilsa killed me with Jenna. She was so wounded and so alone and when she finally found the support she needed it was wrenched away from her again. And the story leaves you hanging. Kind of. You know what happens but you really DON'T. You can kinda tell how Jenna's going to do but you don't REALLY know and it's a killer. Is she okay, Ilsa? Please tell me.

Like DRAW THE DARK the story is a bit drawn out and slow at points but that's really the only nominally negative thing I can say about DROWNING INSTINCT and Ilsa's writing in general. She gets so thoroughly into her characters' heads its scary, like she could be automatic writing with a ghost or something. Or she trances out and channels the characters living inside of her. When she's writing she's not Ilsa, she's Jenna and that's why it feels so realistic. That's why every pang and pain and piece of anger jumps off of the page, grabs you by the collar and shakes you until you feel it too. It can't be helped. The story won't let you walk away without feeling something.

Jenna isn't just your average overcoming, strong heroine. She's life. She's reality. She's a piece of soul torn and put through the wringer. It's like you can hear her whispering the story in your ear. As she's talking into that recorder the cop gave her, it's like she's sitting right next to you and she's looking you dead in the eye while she's telling it. She isn't just a character that's been through some terrible crap. She hit the delete button at the end of the story and you don't even know if there's hope. But you pray there is. Because you're looking at her and you have to hope. You have to carry on her hope.

Before I completely jump off the cliff of nonsensical fangirling praise, I'm ending this here. DROWNING INSTINCT is as gritty at they come. It's realistic, poignant and will punch you in the gut by the end of the book. You will feel everything Jenna does. You will go through all of her ups and downs with her, even when you think you probably shouldn't. You still will. And then you'll get to the end and try to will more pages to appear because it can't end there. It just can't.

Ban Factor: High - Student/teacher relationship? I can hear the banner squeals already.

Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry + Giveaway!

Published October 25, 2011.

A prison doctor injects a condemned serial killer with a formula designed to keep his consciousness awake while his body rots in the grave. But all drugs have unforeseen side-effects. Before he could be buried, the killer wakes up. Hungry. Infected. Contagious. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang…but a bite. (goodreads.com)

I continue to be amazed by the awesomeness that is Jonathan Maberry. He writes zombies like none I've ever seen. But it's not just the zombies. It's the lives of the people around the zombies, and even the lives of the zombies themselves. He knows what he's doing so well that if there's room for improvement, then I'm a natural blonde. I am continuously struck dumb at the end of Maberry's novels, in complete awe of the awesome that they are. From ROT & RUIN to DUST & DECAY and now DEAD OF NIGHT. I have the first two Joe Ledger books in my pile and I look at them longingly. But once those are read, my Maberry library dwindles and I'm left with little else. That's a sad day.

DEAD OF NIGHT is written in alternating viewpoints using mainly Dez, Billy Trout and Doc Hartnup as the rotating POVs. Dez is the hot white trash cop that's a total hard ass and will sooner kneecap you than compliment you. Billy is a reporter just striving to get a hit when he stumbles onto this mess. And Doc who unintentionally at the forefront of the apocalypse and hating every minute of it. We get peeks through other eyes and while those moments are small, they're no less significant. Each provides valuable insight into the greater story. Without it all, each and every piece, the story would be missing something. Thankfully it's not.

The thing is, even with all of the characters that we do end up bouncing around to, they're all written so uniquely that it's impossible NOT to tell them apart. They each pop off the page in their own singular way that all you have to do is read a few words from that particular chapter and you'll immediately know whose head you're in. Really, it's phenomenal.

And then there's the heart factor. One of the best parts about Maberry's ROT & RUIN series was how he humanized zombies. In DEAD OF NIGHT he takes it a step further and puts you behind the eyes of the single-minded corpses to see what's really going on. And it's truly horrifying. The deal with this strain, it detaches the conscious thought from the body, letting the parasite control the physical while the mental still belongs to the person. It is horribly, horribly, horrifying to be looking through Doc's eyes as he's doing things he can't control and begging for a real death. Not to mention a bit nauseating. I would not recommend reading this one while eating. I keep making that mistake.

The best heart, though, is Dez's. You see her as the immovable rock that she is in the beginning and slowly all of the horrors around her break through her defenses and you see her crumble only to build herself back up just as quickly. She's such a moving, dynamic character that it's hard not to like her. Yeah, she's a loud-mouthed bitch that shoots first and probably won't ask questions later but there's hope in her, buried pretty deep. But it's there. And as the story goes on it crawls its way out and really, the end is pretty touching. There were tears on my end. I won't lie.

I can't forget the human horror in the story. These apocalyptic tales are bound to have them. Enter the military and martial law and all that comes with it. Even though that part was pretty much expected, I didn't care. I loved every second of it. Because in reality, I believed it. I believed everything Maberry wrote. Seriously. This guy writes guns and battle and form like he's done it all himself (and I'm pretty sure he's done a lot of it). No cocking triggers for this guy! I was able to see, feel and hear it all. I'd get so sucked into the story's reality that I'd lose chunks of time and actually lift my head disoriented. How many books can do that to you?

If you love zombies, Maberry's got the front-running mark in that category. I've read three of his books so far and they're all astounding. DEAD OF NIGHT carries on his awesome writing, his eye for specifics and his insane character development to the next level. How he keeps hitting these marks he sets with his own books I have no idea. But I continue to be surprised bythe epicness that is Jonathan Maberry every time I read one of his books. Really, you'd think I'd expect it. But to say Maberry surpasses my expectations is like saying Pamela Anderson's boobs aren't that big.

Giveaway time!!!

Want my copy? Then just fill out the form below for your chance to win it!

• Open to US residents 13 years of age and older only.
• One entry per person per email address.
• Duplicate entries will be deleted.
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• Giveaway ends February 20th at midnight, EST.

Return to Titanic: Time Voyage, Book 1 by Steve Brezenoff

Pub date: February 1, 2012.

Author Website.

On the first day of their spring break, best friends Tucker and Maya discover a "Special Collection" of Titanic artifacts at the local museum. But the artifacts have more power than they know. When they touch a magic ticket, Tucker and Maya find themselves transported 100 years in the past — to Titanic's maiden voyage. Now they must figure out how to save a new friend, and return to the present, before time runs out. (netgalley.com)

Holy crap. I have so much love for this book it's quite possibly bordering on unhealthy. The love is not just for the book's topic (MAJOR love) but for the writing. It's probably because I hardly read middle grade books but TIME VOYAGE is written so amazingly that I can't form thoughts beyond ill-conceived adjectives. There is no pandering to the reader whatsoever, no talking down, no kiddie feel. Yeah, it's written in a very precise way. Absolutely no fat (and as a result very little detail or depth) but Brezenoff wrote it in such a way that it told the story that needed to be told and you got out of it what you should. You get just enough emotion, just enough feeling, just enough depth to really connect with it. As someone that is WELL beyond middle grade reading, I didn't feel like an adult reading a kid's story (like when I read GOOSEBUMPS, for instance). I just felt like I was reading a succinct story about one of my favorite topics. The amazing pictures didn't hurt either. Okay, the kids may be a little whiny at first but that's short lived.

And the story! Just being able to touch a ticket and get zapped back in time? If you were a history nerd like me when you were younger (and maybe still are), if that fantastical thought never crossed your mind I will sit here and call you a big fat LIAR! That's epic fantasy right there and Brezenoff pulled it off without it being hokey at all. Touch the ticket, flash, back in time. No frilly waves or flashing lights. Just poof! Time warp.

Of course, TIME VOYAGE left me wanting MORE! How could it not? I read it in the span of roughly 20 minutes and it just hit all the right happy nerves on me. And let me tell you how giddy my inner Titanic nerd was. Insane. Thankfully there are three other books in this series and I so can't wait to read them. Between the phenomenal story and the absolutely amazing drawings to supplement it, RETURN TO TITANIC as a whole won't be a series to miss. So be sure to pick up TIME VOYAGE and start yourself, and any other Titanic aficionado you know, on the journey.

Ban Factor: Low - If they bitched about anything it'd be the time travel and even that's a stretch. This one's pretty wholesome.

The Liberation of Max McTrue + A Figment.com Writing Contest!

Pub Date: February 1, 2012.

Author Website

Have you ever had an extraordinary day?

Max hadn’t. Until one winter day when he met a girl.

THE LIBERATION OF MAX MCTRUE takes place in a single day. The classic Boy Meets Girl story. Well, sort of: Boy meets homeschooled girl. Boy ditches school. Boy finds his future. And there's an ice cream truck. And archery. It's a bit like what would happen if Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Alchemist had a kid, well...a kid who was a YA eBook novella. You get the idea.

Max took a day off and found his life.

Who changed your life today? (eBook blurb)

THE LIBERATION OF MAX MCTRUE isn't anything spectacular. It isn't a story about Max fighting demons or werewolves or anything otherworldly or otherwise undead. He hasn't set out to save anyone and, really, the only person that needs saving is himself. From the world created around him that, up until he meets Clara Jane, he's quite content in. Max is someone that doesn't have a plan. His plan is to follow others plans for him: where to meet, which schools to apply to, which sports to play, which jobs to chase. But then Clara Jane comes in and rattles his brain even more than his best friend Emerson ever could and for a flash of a second he hates her for it. Then he hates himself for not realizing it sooner.

People aren't the biggest fans of change. Add in fear of the unknown and zombies are born; those that in one place their entire lives, whether it's actually because of fear or they're simply content and lacking desire, they end up existing in the lives created for them by other people. Max was no exception and even when Clara Jane came into his life for just that short school day, he fought the change. He made excuses for why it had to be this way. He lashed out. He accused. He hurt. And then he was finally free.

Told in a voice that makes me want to wrap the words around me like a blankie, it pulls you into Max's life. It gives you an idea of where he's coming from. It shows you glimpses of the people that rule his life. And then it shows him changing. It's not an easy change but Max makes it. He doesn't make it until the last possible second, where, as the reader, you might be thinking that he won't do it. But Max doesn't disappoint. All it took was a girl.

This isn't a story about love at first site. It's about intrigue and the will to chase something different. To break from the norm, and from the norm that other people have thrust onto you, and do something completely different and see whether the shoe fits or not. It'll make you re-evaluate where you stand in your own little world. It'll make you open your eyes to the people around you, even those that may pass in and out of your life in a flash. Because they can still leave a lasting impression.

THE LIBERATION OF MAX MCTRUE has a butterfly effect not just for Max but for the reader. Sometimes you just need to get slapped in the face with a branch before you see the forest for the trees. And that's exactly what it does. Your life will be one step closer to complete after reading this.

Ban Factor: Medium - Other than the swears it's pretty innocuous. The banners would need to actually read this one to find something.

Kim Culbertson technically writes for teenagers, but some grown-ups like her work. Sourcebooks Fire published her award winning first YA novel Songs for a Teenage Nomad (2010, originally Hip Pocket Press, 2007) and her second YA novel Instructions for a Broken Heart (2011) which was named a Booklist Top Ten Romance Title for Youth: 2011. Kim’s short fiction has appeared in Cicada, Canary, and The Smoking Poet. When she’s not writing for teens, she’s teaching them. She’s a college advisor and teaches creative writing and English at Forest Charter School in Northern California. Kim wrote The Liberation of Max McTrue for her students who, over the years, have taught her much more than she has taught them.

I mentioned something about a writing contest, didn't I? Well, Kim and Figment.com have teamed up to put together an awesome writing contest where you can get the chance to win a copy of THE LIBERATION OF MAX MCTRUE and a manuscript critique from Kim herself! How tempting is that? Just don't be fooled by the idea of writing flash fiction. Just because it's shorter doesn't mean it's easier. Here are the details -

The Liberation of Max McTrue Contest

Brought to you by Figment.com and Kim Culbertson

Kim Culbertson is joining Figment for a whirlwind weekend of Flash Fiction to celebrate her new ebook, The Liberation of Max McTrue!

Enter the Max McTrue Flash Fiction Contest!
There will be a Total of three prizes: Each winner gets a free download of The Liberation of Max McTrue as well as a custom-made “beautiful things” journal. The first place winner will also receive a 30 minute manuscript review by Kim Culbertson.

All you have to do is write a super short story under 500 words that follows one of the four prompts below. Submit your entry between 11:00am on February 3rd, 2012 and 11:59pm on February 5th, 2012. The Figment editorial staff will choose the top ten entries as finalists, and Kim will choose the winners from those finalists.

The Prompts:
(1) Write a story set against the backdrop of a scavenger hunt.
(2) Write a story confined to the periods of a school day. The character can be in school or out of school.
(3) Write a story in which a character is deeply afraid of something.
(4) Come up with a totally ordinary character and then set him/her up to have an extraordinary day.

How to enter:

• Go to www.figment.com and sign up.
• Once you have received your confirmation email, go to your Figment profile page, click “My Writing,” and “Create Something New.”
• Before you start writing, read the full rules on the Max McTrue contest page, which you’ll be able to find under the “Contest” tab on Figment on February 3rd, 2012.
• Write an original story, under 500 words, that follows one of the four prompts above.
• Go to the “Details” tab of your story, and put maxmctrue in the “Tags” section.
• Wait the 2 hours it sometimes takes to see your story appear on the contest page.

101 Things You Thought You Knew About the Titanic . . . But Didn't! by Tim Maltin

Published November 29, 2011.

Ever since that night, fact has merged with fiction about what really happened. Now, for the first time, Titanic expert and author Tim Maltin gathers together all the key elements surrounding the disaster and presents a fascinating, compulsive and accurate account of what really happened. Taking as his lead one hundred and one oft-quoted theories about the fateful night, Maltin uses eyewitness testimony to rigorously examine each one in chronological order, and in so doing tells the true story of the Titanic and the night she sank with the loss of 1,500 lives. (netgalley.com)

The sinking of the Titanic was one of the worst tragedies in modern history, evidenced by the fact that, as a whole, we're still salivating over it 100 years later. We're still eager for information about it, we want to know the people, we still want to learn things we didn't know, and for some god awful reason, we want 1996's Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet released in 3D. Apparently there isn't a god.

But that's besides the point. As a crazy Titanic enthusiast myself, having been reading about the ship since I was roughly eight, thus coming across new information is a pretty big rarity, it was refreshing reading 101 THINGS because it did shake some rumors and clear up some cloudy moments about the Titanic for me. Of course, and I say this not patting myself on the back but just as someone that's done a shit-ton of Titanic reading, I already knew a lot of the stuff presented in this book. But that's okay because I still got a kick out of it.

Really it's all in the presentation. Maltin pulled right from the source, relying heavily on the transcripts from the hearings after the Carpathia docked in New York, and also from the hearings in London. It's astounding to read words spoken by Lightoller about how sure he was that the Titanic didn't break in half before sinking. I mean, he was SO sure. Of course, we now know that to not be the truth. And one of the pieces of information I didn't know was that the Brits tried to whitewash the whole thing. Bad, Brits. Bad. Another piece of information I didn't know: even if there were enough lifeboats to fit everyone on board, there weren't enough able seamen to man them, thus rendering the boats useless. How's that for a paradox. Really, those people were screwed anyway.

So there's really something for all levels of Titanic interest in 101 THINGS. If I can find new information within these pages, then anyone can. And it's told in a manner like you'd hear a good teacher talking about it. It's not just information regurgitated back at you simply to get it out. It's evident in the tone of the information that Maltin has a great interest in the Titanic and he's enthusiastic about it. You can't fake that so when you're reading you, in turn, get enthusiastic about the information you're given. You won't be able to help it. It's infectious.

101 THINGS would be especially wonderful for those just coming across the Titanic and wanting to know more about it. It's the Cliff Notes version of what you can find scattered throughout the referential material floating out there. Definitely a good place to start. And it's a good book to have to round out your Titanic knowledge. I can almost guarantee that there'll be something in there that even the most interested Titanic aficionado might not know. So give it a whirl. You'll be able to envision it all as you read. In this case, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's vivid. That's for sure.

Ban Factor: Low - It's a book of Titanic facts. What's there to ban? Knowledge?