Thrive by Kenneth Oppel

Thrive is the final installment in the Bloom trilogy opening where the second book left off. A cryptogen ship has just been shot down by the Canadian military. From the vessel three cryptogens emerge; a flyer with dazzling golden wings, a swimmer and a runner. All the cryptogens are wearing special masks to help them breathe, as Earth's environment is still somewhat toxic to them. After Anaya convinces both sides to stand down, the cryptogens are brought inside. 

Seth has also returned to Deadman's Island. He fills Petra and Anaya in on what happened to him and Esta when they were left behind: Sienna was captured by police,  how Darren stung Seth with his tail causing Esta to force him to jump from the boat after blasting him with sound and how the marine police captured Esta from the boat.

The three rebel cryptogens have been placed into the Vancouver Aquarium's biodome, now "a cryptogenic landscape of high black grass, berry-laden  vines snaking  from buried pit plants, and seed-spitting water lilies floating serenely on a pond so acidic no human would dare swim in it..." The cryptogen ship has also been moved into the biodome. 

Colonel Pearson has Anaya, Petra and Seth communicate with the cryptogens so they can learn what they are planning. Terra, the rebel cryptogen, explains to Anaya that there are not many rebels aboard their vessel of over seven hundred thousand aliens which is now orbiting Earth. She also reveals that there were ten rebel landings on the planet but refuses to reveal the locations of the other landings. Terra tells Anaya that they need to extract the code from the hybrid's blood to make a chemical weapon and that the final invasion is planned in a little over a month so they need to move fast. Once the weapon is made, it can be taken back to the alien ship and released there. This will allow the rebels to gain control of the ship, overwhelm the flyers who are in command and leave, preventing the invasion.

In Petra's communications with her cryptogen, she can't sense the alien's gender and decides to use the pronouns ze and zir (in a nod to the current gender ideology fad). She learns that the swimmer is a scientist who took part in creating the human hybrids and that there are thousands of hybrids on Earth. The swimmer tells Petra that they created the hybrids because they needed them as a safe place to keep the "substance" and also as translators.

As Seth communicates with the flyer, whom he calls the general, he is shown the battle on the cryptogen's planet in which the runner and swimmers are destroyed by the sonic blasts from the flyers. The general was wounded but tended to by runners who saved his life. This experience changed how he viewed the swimmers and runners. When those who treated him were all killed he was disgusted by what had happened and became a spy for the rebel cryptogens. The general was responsible for starting the rains on Earth that led to the changes in the ecosystem and to the human hybrids. He tells Seth that the rebels have come to form an alliance with the humans and fight against the invasion. He also tells Seth that they hid a code inside of the hybrids and they now need it. The code is to make a virus which will permanently destroy the flyers ability to use sound as a weapon. Seth also learns that he will never achieve his dream of flying as his body is too heavy.

Later that day, over dinner, Anaya reveals that Terra told her they can repair their damaged ship's hull but the levitation system is damaged. There is however a ship that crashed sixteen years ago when they first came to Earth, and if they can locate it, they might be able to salvage the part.  

Seth continues to be focused on helping Esta, who Dr. Weber reveals is being held in a detention center in the U.S. She is accused of murdering Dr. Ritter. When Seth protests that she's innocent and that he killed Ritter, Dr. Weber tells him he's considered an accessory to the murder. When Seth expresses his determination to find Esta, Dr. Weber promises to ask Colonel Pearson where she's being held.

Pearson arrives and reveals to the group that intelligence has discovered that at least two ships, one over North Korea and another over the Suez Canal have been shot down. Pearson refuses to tell the Americans anything, for fear of jeopardizing their ability to make the weapon. 

The next day Terra takes Anaya inside their ship to extract what they need from her body to make their weapon. While they are working on making the virus into a weapon, Terra works on locating the crashed cryptogen ship in the hopes they can use its levitation device for their own ship. The crash site turns out to be located in northeastern British Columbia, in a swamp, with the ship underwater. To recover the levitation device, Petra and the swimmer are flown out to the site in a helicopter. But the retrieval proves to be daunting as Petra and the swimmer must fight off giant squids while the helicopter is almost taken down by giant parasitic creatures.

Meanwhile Seth has learned that Esta is being detained at Point Roberts. This leads him to sneak away from the aquarium to rescue her, but he only succeeds in getting himself captured and back into the hands of the cruel Dr. Ritter who it turns out has survived. Back at the base, Terra, with the help of Anaya and Dr. Weber is successful in creating a virus that affects the flyers' ability to use their sound weapon. But are they too late?

The early arrival of the cryptogen invasion force throws all their plans into chaos. As the cryptogens attack new plans are needed if they are to use their weapon on the flyers and give the rebel cryptogens and Earth a chance.

Discussion

Thrive is a fitting conclusion to Kenneth Oppel's Bloom trilogy about human's overcoming an alien invasion. In this series,  the story focuses on a group of human-alien hybrids, bred by a rebel alien faction, determined to thwart their planet's colonization of Earth. The novel is filled with character-driven action scenes including an epic battle between humans, hybrids, rebel cryptogens and the invading cryptogens. The ending is predictable and upbeat, with a final battle between the cryptogens, rebels, hybrids and humans.

Thrive is arguably the weakest of the three novels, with the events almost anti-climatic. Readers know the humans will prevail in the end. And after so many gruesome creatures in the first two books, any new ones the humans encounter seem almost expected. But in Thrive, the three main characters, Anaya, Petra and Seth, finally come into their own, each facing their own fears and challenges. This is especially true of Petra and Seth. 

In Thrive, Petra steps up to do her part to help out. Initially she has been reluctant, still struggling to accept the physiological changes she's experiencing and wanting her old life and her human body back. But with the help of the swimmer and as the situation becomes more dire, Petra rises to the challenge, helping in the recovery of the levitation device, saving the swimmer's life, devising a way to spread the viral weapon when the rebel's plan falls apart, and attempting to rescue the trapped hybrids on the cryptogen ship over Point Roberts.

Seth also commits himself. Abandoned by his mother, Seth has struggled to belong, and is now forced to choose who he will fight for; humans or cryptogens. The commander of the cryptogens tells him the human hybrids were mean to inherit the new earth and that they will thrive in it. He is also told he will fly, something he has dreamed of all his life. But this doesn't fit with what Terra has told them back in the biodome. Unlike Esta, Seth notes the difference in the way the commander and Terra have presented what is happening and he's not sure who he can trust. He also has, in the back of his mind, "the general's sonic message...wanting to be opened." From this message, Seth learns the truth about the cryptogen commander and her intentions for the hybrids. He also learns that he must finally make a choice, a painful one because he learns the truth about the one person he has come to identify with but who is a traitor.

For Esta, there is only one choice, solidarity with the cryptogens. On the cryptogen ship, Seth, Esta, Darren and Siena are given accounts of what happened on the cryptogen's planet that are much different from what Terra has told Anaya . While Esta accepts what she is being told, Charles counters, "Even if we don't know whose story is true...we know one thing for sure. These guys are here to take over our planet. That does not make them the good guys. Are you okay with everyone dying but us?" After the general and the swimmer rebels are captured and killed by the cryptogen flyer commander, Esta tells her fellow hybrids they have to make a choice. She tells them the choice is obvious because the cryptogens are going to win, meaning the hybrids will be safe. And so she acts on what she believes.

Thrive is an exciting read, with lots of battles, gruesome creatures, evil cryptogens and human traitors. Young readers will enjoy the satisfying ending, in what is one of Oppel's best offerings to date.

Book Details:

Thrive by Kenneth Oppel
Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.  2021
405 pp.

Hatch by Kenneth Oppel

Hatch, the second novel in Kenneth Oppel's Overthrow trilogy, picks up exactly where the first book, Bloom left off. The spraying of Stanley Park with an experimental herbicide appears to be working.  The cryptogenic black grass and vines that have spread throughout the world, "crowding out crops, sending strangling vines into houses, waiting underground to trap and eat animals and people in the acid-filled sacs" are dying. However, Petra, Anaya and Seth's joy is cut short when it begins to rain, not just raindrops but "gleaming, translucent beads" that quickly burst, releasing some kind of new life form. Anaya, realizing what they are, acts quickly to trap some eggs into a coffee cup. 

In the lab they discover that there are several new and frightening cryptogenic life forms that quickly try to hide. These are another part of the alien ecosystem that is invading Earth. Suddenly, Colonel Pearson arrives with soldiers, informing them that the lab is now under the authority of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and that the children are to be taken to holding cells downstairs.

All three teens are interrogated by Dr. Ritter who is in charge of a special task force in the United States, along with Dr. Weber and Colonel Pearson. Dr. Ritter informs Petra, that MRI scans of their brains have revealed that they have something in their brains that transmits radio pulses. On the morning the black grass began dying, the comms team picked up powerful radio pulses coming from where the three teens were sleeping. Dr. Weber believes that the children are transmitting biological data to the cryptogens to see if they can survive on Earth. They are also able to receive transmissions, as Seth's strange dreams seem to prove. After his interrogation of Seth, Ritter determines they are a threat and has the three teens transported to a secure location in the United States.

In the new location, they are given medical exams, ordered into jumpsuits identified with W for water, L for land and A for air and taken to a gymnasium where there are many other kids like them. Paul Samson, a military intelligence officer tells Petra that they are in an underground bunker that blocks all radio communication. 

The three teens make new friends with those who are undergoing similar changes; Petra meets a boy named Darren who is shedding skin, growing a tail but who also has a unique patterning developing on his body, Anaya meets Charles who seems super smart, and Seth meets Esta a flyer like himself but who is very angry.  In the gym, everyone is being evaluated; the runners are encouraged to run treadmills and practice jumping, the flyers to use their sharp feathers to slash and to try to fly, and the swimmers are evaluated for endurance by holding their breath. While Darren is certain they are being trained as soldiers, Petra believes they are simply being studied.

At bedtime, Dr. Ritter takes Anaya out of the bunker and mildly sedates her so that she can transmit with the cryptogens, allowing them to locate the source of the radio pulses. While sedated, Anaya begins to communicate with a cryptogen, named Terra, hearing the word, "help". Back in the dormitory that night, Anaya tells Petra what she experienced and tells her the presence felt motherly.

The next day Seth reveals that he and Esta have discovered that they can communicate telepathically. Petra and Anaya also have this ability. Petra wants to tell Dr. Ritter but the others are against this. After a nuclear attack on the cryptogenic ship fails, Ritter has Anaya attempt to contact the cryptogens again. When the transmission ends abruptly, Ritter accuses Anaya of stopping it. However, Anaya finds that the cryptogen has implanted in her mind a box that shows her what happened to the cryptogen's world. A war between the three major species resulted in the enslavement of the runners and swimmers by the flyers who could destroy the other two using a kind of sound weapon. The runners and swimmers were made to forge spacecrafts and were eventually loaded onto these ships as slave soldiers. These ships docked together to become the ship now orbiting Earth. 

Petra decides to tell Paul Samson about Anaya's vision. However, unknown to her, Ritter has heard everything and has many questions about what Anaya's experienced. The next day, during an unexpected birthday party, Ritter informs the teens that they will be implementing a protocol to remove the changes they are experiencing with the goal of returning all of them to their human selves. Petra, Anaya, Seth, Darren, Charles and Esta argue about what this means. Petra also reveals that she's told Ritter about Anaya's vision and that he knows about their telepathic abilities through monitoring the radio activity. 

Seth now believes they need to escape, but Petra and Charles are against the idea. Their views change when Seth is taken away after he and Darren fight, and Esta who likes Seth, uses telepathic sound to hurt Darren. After goading Seth to hurt him, Dr. Ritter tells him he plans to remove Seth's transmitting organ in his brain. Meanwhile, Petra approaches Paul to tell him that it was Esta who hurt Darren, not Seth. Paul tells Petra that they are no longer safe at the bunker and that he's contacted Dr. Weber to help them escape.

During their escape, Seth and Esta become separated from Anaya and Petra who are safely taken back to Deadman's Island. There, Anaya continues receives more messages from the cryptogen Terra who claims to be a runner who is awake in the ship. She promises to help Anaya and arranges a meeting. But the rendezvous appears to be a trap as it seems the final battle for their planet is just beginning.

Discussion

Hatch is an exciting second novel in the Overthrow trilogy by Canadian author Kenneth Oppel. In this novel, readers learn about the cryptogen's world and how they came to Earth, although their reason for doing so is not yet clear. But the main focus is on the continuing terraforming of Earth to suit the cryptogens as well as the developing abilities of Seth, Anaya and Petra and the other teens like them and the role they may play in all of this.

As the two girls, Anaya and Petra watch their bodies changing to be come more and more alien, both struggle with their identity, with the changes and who and what they are becoming. Anaya who has never considered herself pretty and who was not athletic before the changes began, finds she has incredible stamina on the treadmill. When she is complimented by Charles, Anaya thinks, "...she was pleased by his compliment. I like myself better like this. The moment she had the thought she realized how crazy it sounded. But it was true. She liked this new, healthier, stronger version of herself."

For Petra, the changes make her worried she won't be loved. When Seth, whom she is attracted to, leaves their group for Esta, Petra believes she's no longer pretty. Anaya remembers "...how Petra had confided her worst fear to her: she was terrified that if her body changed, she'd become monstrous and no one could ever love her." Petra asks Anaya, "I'm still me, right?" Although Anaya answers in the affirmative, she wonders. "...lately she'd caught herself wondering if it was true. Everything that had happened to her body -- her speed, her strength, her brain that could talk to an alien species -- it had started to change how she thought. And wasn't that an inside change?..."

In contrast to the girls, Seth and Darren both like the changes that are happening to their bodies. Darren sees himself as a soldier, while Seth, who's been dreaming of flying for years, sees the changes he's experiencing as good. Unlike Petra who volunteers to have surgery to remove her cryptogenic features, Seth is determined to keep his.

However, as the changes continue, the three teens begin to feel less and less human and notice they are becoming more like the cryptogens. For example, they begin to notice that they crave cryptogen plants and animals. When Darren orders a Big Mac and fries, he finds this favourite food suddenly doesn't taste very good.  Seth, who along with Esta and Sienna eats the flesh of an insect he has killed, and finds it delicious. "As he chewed, he felt like the meat was satisfying a hunger he'd never known he had. It tasted right. He couldn't believe he'd gone so long without it." Anaya finds a black vine growing up from the pavement on Deadman's Island and eats not only the red berries but the entire vine itself too. And Petra gobbles the eggs she is supposed to capture in the bay, finding them "deliciously salty."

Petra tells Anaya she feels like a monster for eating an egg and finally admits, "We're changing. We have no control over ourselves. What're we going to do next?" Anaya admits that since they are part cryptogen, they are behaving as they do, eating what they eat. Petra questions what they are becoming. "Remember when you said, I'm still me? What if it's not like that? What if we're not going to stay the same inside? What if we're going to change on the outside and the inside? What if we start thinking like them?"

Later on Anaya, after the death of Petra's mother wonders if she might be right about the changes."They had changed. They weren't the same people, even on the inside. Petra craved cryptogenic insects, she loved being underwater, and she had a venomous tail that seemed to act on its own. And she, Anaya, felt the same kind of hunger for cryptogenic plants. But the biggest change for her was the powerful mental connection to Terra, which seemed to guide her own thoughts. Was she being brainwashed?"

Overall, Hatch is a good second novel that sets the stage for the arrival of the cryptogens and the final showdown. There's plenty of gross monsters and heart-pounding battles between the teens and these alien life forms to keep readers engaged and wanting more. At the same time, Terra, the cryptogen who has been communicating with Anaya offers enough mystery as to whether she's really on the side of the humans and is part of a "resistance" as she claims, or simply misleading the young girl. And readers are left to wonder which side will the three teens choose, as they become more and more like the invading aliens.

The final installment, Thrive, will be published in May, 2021.

Book Details:

Hatch by Kenneth Oppel
Toronto: HarperCollins Publishing Ltd.   2020
397 pp

Bloom by Kenneth Oppel

Teenager Anaya Riggs is allergic to everything and she has acne. She is allergic to smoke, dust, tree and grass pollen, gluten, eggs and milk to name just a few. She carries EpiPens everywhere with her. She's constantly sneezing and her eyes are often swollen. Her father Michael is a botanist with the Ministry of Agriculture's experimental farm so Anaya knows a bit about plants. Her mother Lilah Dara is a pilot. 

One day, on her way home from school, Anaya notices a black shoot, almost a foot high, jutting out from a barren patch on her family's front lawn. She can't imagine what this strange plant might be since her father hasn't been able to ever grow anything on that patch of lawn.

Petra Sumner is allergic to water, a disorder called aquagenic urticaria. No one, even her specialist in Vancouver, B.C. seems to know how to help her. So after school one rainy day, Petra, encased and totally covered by her large umbrella, walks to Alicia Dumont's office to see if she can get a walk-in appointment. Dumont is a naturopath. However, because Petra isn't accompanied by her parents, she is refused an appointment. 

Walking home in the rain, Petra gets wet. But when she is picked up by her mom and taken home, she is shocked to see that the rain has not harmed her. She races outside to collect some of this amazing water.  Over the next day Petra wipes her face with the water she's saved and even drinks some of it.

Seth Robertson is now living on Mr. and Mrs. Antos broccoli farm. The Antoses are Seth's seventh family since his mother abandoned him as a baby. At first he hadn't helped out much on the farm, but today Seth decides to help the kindly Mr. Antos pull out the large black plants that have suddenly started growing between the rows. The towering plants are hard to cut down and Seth cuts his hands on the sharp spikes on the stalks.

The next morning Anaya and her father visit the Antos's farm to investigate the large black plants. Her father has no idea what these strange plants are. When they return home, they learn that the strange black plants are being reported all over the world. Meanwhile, Petra wakes up to discover that the water she collected and saved now seems to be growing black plants in it. She panics because she's been washing her face with the water and drinking it.

The next day as the black plants, now close to twelve feet high, begin to clog out their crop, Mr. Antos decides to burn it. The thick black smoke seems to go after the older man and he has to be taken to hospital. At a community meeting that night, no one seems to know what is happening but some suspect that the night's previous rain has had something to do with the appearance of the black grass. Petra brings forward the bottles of water she saved, explaining that black plants have sprouted in the water overnight. The meeting abruptly ends when the black plants outside begin spewing forth massive amounts of pollen, causing everyone to experience a serious allergic reaction. Only Anaya, Petra and Seth are not sneezing.

At school Anaya notices that the school field has no black grass. Puzzled she and her friends decide to bag some soil samples. Meanwhile at home that night, Anaya's mother who is a pilot, shows them pictures of Cordova Island at  the top of the Gulf Island Archipelago. Anaya's mother noticed while banking over the island, that the black grass on a small island in a marsh, is dying. Anaya's dad decides to travel to the island to investigate.  The next morning Anaya discovers the soil sample she bagged now has thick black vines growing out of it and up their house. On the vines are flowers that trap and eat birds.

The true nature of the empty field at school is revealed when Anaya and her friends watch a deer suddenly pulled into a pit that has opened in the ground. Ignoring Anaya's warnings, some of her classmates run out onto the field only to fall into other pits. Soon Anaya, Seth and Petra find themselves trapped as well. The pits are giant plants that spray a mist which numbs their victims and then release acid to burn and digest them. The three teens are able rescue their classmates who are badly injured, but they are mysteriously unharmed. In the hospital, Anaya, Petra and Seth begin to realize they are different. Seth points out that they are not allergic to the plants, and the plant mist and acid did not affect them. When Petra talks about how she was born with a tail, Seth reveals that he was born with bony growths on his arms that look like feathers.

From this point on, conditions on Salt Spring Island begin to rapidly deteriorate. The power goes out and Petra and her mother are almost trapped by a gigantic pit plant that swallows their car, while Anaya and her mother are almost killed by the black vines while they were sleeping. Seth discovers that the black vines have overtaken the Antos farmhouse, killing Mrs. Antos in her bed.

Because they were largely unharmed by the pit plants, all three teens are brought to the local hospital by CSIS. Dr. Stephanie Weber, a scientist from CSIS wants to study Anaya, Petra and Seth to find out why they seem to be immune to the effects of the plants. She reveals that the plants are not from Earth but are cryptogenic or alien and that this information is not yet common knowledge. Dr. Weber tells them their planet is being invaded and colonized. 

The three teens are taken by helicopter to a military base near Stanley Park, on Deadman's Island. While Anaya and Petra's mothers are not allowed to accompany them, Carlene Lee, Seth's appointed guardian is. Testing reveals the true nature of Anaya, Petra and Seth. Their mixture of alien and human DNA is evidenced by the changes all three are experiencing in their bodies. They also learn there are others  just like them. As they set out to rescue Anaya's father who hasn't been heard from, it becomes increasingly apparent  that humanity's survival may depend on understanding the changes they are experiencing and how they came to be.

Discussion

Bloom is the first book in a trilogy by well respected Canadian author, Kenneth Oppel. Bloom is a sort of cross between The Day of the Triffids and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a mixture of science fiction and horror in the tradition of classic sci-fi writer John Wyndham.

Oppel employs a great deal of foreshadowing in his novel, providing his readers hints of events to come. For example, medical tests reveal that Anaya, Petra and Seth are part alien. That they are different is evident early in the novel as two of the teens have unusual allergies. And later on when the three teens not only are not allergic to the black plants but Anaya and Petra begin to lose their own serious allergies. Anaya's acne and allergies begin to subside almost immediately after the rain and she begins to feel strong, excelling at gym. "She'd even done gym today...What was most amazing was the high jump. Usually she just crashed through the bar, but this time she cleared it, even after Mr. Hilborn raised it twice. It was like she'd finally figured out how to use her legs. They felt strong as they pushed her into the air...."  Petra who is highly allergic to water, finds the rainwater healing and invigorating.

Soon these changes are more pronounced with Anaya's toenails turning black and jagged like claws, Petra shedding scaly skin like a snake molting and re-growing the tail she was born with, and Seth re-growing feathers out of his arms. These changes all foreshadow the revelation that they are half alien and are undergoing some kind of internal physiological change. This is just one of the many ways Oppel builds tension and suspense in his novel. The reader begins to suspect that Anaya, Petra and Seth are connected to the black plants in some way that is not yet apparent.

Oppel quickly sets the stage as the invasion overwhelms the planet: crops are overrun, power fails, people are encased in black vines as they sleep, clogging their nose and mouth, and pit plants lure animals to their death with beautiful red berries. The author keeps his readers engaged as the novel races from one terrifying event to the next. After saving some of their classmates from the pit plants, Anaya, Petra and Seth accompany a rescue mission led by Dr. Weber to find Anaya's father. But this too goes terribly wrong, with the plants taking down their helicopter and attempting to kill everyone. This event allows the characters the opportunity to demonstrate how their changing bodies are enabling them to successfully fight back the alien plant and animal invaders.

Just when the reader has hope that humans are getting the upper hand by using the bacterial spray that successfully targets the black plants, Oppel throws in the cliffhanger, a second rain, not of water but of eggs that hatch!

The characters in the story are realistic and well developed with typical teenager fears and struggles. Anaya and Petra used to be best friends but Anaya's betrayal by revealing Petra's secret, destroyed their friendship. Anaya with her acne wants to be beautiful like Petra, while Petra fears losing her looks because she is afraid of what this might mean for her in the future. Oppel also reveals how each character is coping with the changes they are undergoing. Of the three, Petra is the one most afraid of what she might be turning into, something that no doubt will be addressed in the next book.

Bloom is one of the better science fiction novels to come out in recent years and will appeal to a wide audience. Ironically, some of the behaviours of minor characters and situations mirror the current pandemic situation, even though this novel was penned before the pandemic. It is well written, thrilling and very suspenseful. A great start to this new trilogy!

Book Details

Bloom by Kenneth Oppel
Toronto: HarperCollins Publisher Ltd.      2020
313 pp.

Map of Days By Ransom Riggs

A Map of Days is the fourth novel in the Peculiars series by Ransom Riggs. The novel opens with a prologue that sees Jacob Portman who has returned home to America after a "vacation" in Wales, in the process of being escorted by his two uncles to an asylum. His parents, who are also accompanying him, believe he has lost his mind.

Fortunately for Jacob, this is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Miss Peregrine and her peculiar wards, terrifying Jacob's parents and his uncles to the point that they crash the car into the garage doors. In an attempt to calm everyone, Bronwyn, used a copious amount of Mother Dust putting them into a "velvety sleep", long enough so that they likely wouldn't awaken until the following day.

This gives Jacob time to reunite with his peculiar friends whom he hasn't seen for the past six weeks.  With Miss Peregrine, are Bronwyn, Enoch, Olive,the invisible Millard, Hugh, Horace, Claire and Emma whom Jacob has a crush on,  While his parents and uncles sleep, Jacob and his friends enjoy pizza and talk. He learns they have travelled via the Panloopticon, exploring loops that were deemed safe by the ymbrynes. They travelled to many places including Mongolia and the Atlas Mountains of North Africa and they also spent time Sharon, the boatman from Devil's Acre.

While the peculiars are only interested in resting, Miss Peregrine tells them that they must learn how to navigate the world of normals and so she assigns Jacob the task of helping them. That night Jacob wonders how he will explain his situation to his parents. He has returned to his home in Englewood, a small community on Needle Key, a barrier island in Florida, hoping to finish his schooling. But Jacob's experiences in the peculiar world have changed him. Jacob wants his parents in his life but he also wants to be a part of both the normal and peculiar world.

Leaving Hugh behind to alert them when his parents and uncles wake up, Jacob takes Miss Peregrine and the peculiars to the beach. At the beach, following a discussion with Miss Peregrine, Jacob decides that he'd like to tell his parent the truth about what has happened, rather than having Miss Peregrine wipe their minds. When they get the call from Hugh, Jacob returns home and attempts to tell his parents the truth. His mother becomes hysterical and passes out while his father becomes angry. Jacob's father then tells him the story of  how his father took him on one of his trips with a mysterious man named "H" and relates how they were attacked in North Florida or Georgia. Jacob's father witnessed the attack and fled in terror, but has only partial memory of the attack as his memory was partially wiped.

Miss Peregrine attempts to help but Jacob's father is so upset that he insists that she wipe his memory completely. To help Jacob who is deeply upset at his parents' reaction, Miss Peregrine has him take some of the peculiars shopping for modern clothes. However, Jacob inadvertently drives to his late grandfather's subdivision. Determined to pay their respects to the memory of Jacob's grandfather Abe who was killed by a hollowgast, Emma and Olive insist on visiting his abandoned home. They find the home on Morningbird Lane in a state of disrepair and decide to clean the home. In the process discover a secret room beneath Abe's study that can be accessed through a metal door in the floor. Beneath is a bunker with four cots and supplies to last several weeks. Jacob also discovers a binder titled Operations which reveals that his grandfather was not only a hollowgast hunter but was rescuing peculiar children, a job normally assigned to the ymbrynes. The log book only leads to more questions. Why were the American ymbrynes not saving peculiar children? "...Was there still a group of hollow-hunters out there somewhere, fighting monsters and rescuing peculiars? If so, I wanted very much to find them. I wanted to be part of it, to use my gift to carry out my grandfather's work here in America. After all, maybe that's what he wanted!"

Jacob sets out to find the mysterious "H", leading him on a quest that not only places him and the other peculiars in grave danger but also challenges his relationship with Emma and the other peculiars.

Discussion

 In A Map of Days, Ransom Riggs continues the story of Jacob Portman, hollowgast hunter extraordinaire. Now back home in Needle Key, Florida, Jacob must deal with his parents who believe he is insane, his fractured relationship with the normal world, and his future as a peculiar.

The inability of his parents to accept what he is telling them and the sudden appearance of Miss Peregrine and his peculiar friends forces Jacob to confront his parents and to have Miss Peregrine wipe their memories - a convenient plot device that Riggs employs to remove them from the story. With school set to begin in a week's time, the appearance of Miss Peregrine and his peculiar friends who are now free from their loop and able to travel anywhere they want causes Jacob to wonder how he will return to normal life. "Could I really imagine sitting through interminable classes and lunch periods and mandatory assemblies every day...."  Jacob questions what he wants for his life. "I had no interest in a normal career. In settling down with someone who didn't understand who I was, or in having kids from whom I had to keep half my life a secret, like my grandfather had." 

In addition his peculiar friends, now freed from the constraints of the loops, begin to rebel against Miss Peregrine's restrictive care. Jacob notices that "The dynamic between the kids and Miss Peregrine had shifted a bit. They seemed more like teenagers now -- real ones, beginning to chafe against her authority."  

Against this backdrop, along with the discovery that his grandfather was saving peculiar children in addition to hunting down hollowgasts, Jacob decides that he wants to carry on Abe's work. To that end he seeks out the mysterious "H" who sends him on a mission that ultimately almost gets Jacob killed and sends waves of discord through the peculiar world. However, Jacob remains undeterred in his determination to continue what he views as his mission to save peculiar children.

A Map of Days is an enjoyable fourth book in the Peculiars series with a storyline that's a bit easier to follow than the confusing third installment, The Library of Souls. Story line does become somewhat muddied near the end of the novel, when Jacob and the peculiars accompanying him are trapped by a gang of peculiars set in 1930's New York.

This novel sets the stage though, for a fifth book that will likely continue the adventures of Jacob and the "uncontacted peculiar" named Noor whom he rescues against the wishes of Miss Peregrine and with the help of "H" who dies in the attempt. There's also some unfinished business between Jacob and Emma who have grown apart in this novel. Their blossoming romance at the beginning of the novel is dampened when it becomes apparent that Emma has not come to terms with the loss of Abe and his living his life mostly without her. Emma had spent decades dreaming about life with Abe that being in his time, in his home and learning about him seemed to have placed his ghost between them.

As with the other novels in the series, the book contains old photographs representing characters Jacob meets in his adventures as well as some of the clues Jacob receives to help him  However, in A Map of Days, these photographs seem secondary to the story and almost unnecessary, although they do add an element of intrigue.

Book Details:

A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs
New York: Dutton Books     2018
480 pp.

A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd

A Cold Legacy continues the saga of Juliet Moreau, this time incorporating elements of Mary Shelley's classic novel,  Frankenstein.

On the run, after killing three members of the King's Club who intended to use her father's research for evil, Juliet seeks shelter at Elizabeth Von Stein's estate, Ballentyne Manor.

For three days Juliet, accompanied by her fiance Montgomery James, her friend Lucy Radcliffe, and her father's creations, Balthazar and Edward Prince, flees into the moors. Edward lingers between life and death after poisoning himself with arsenic. Despite Montgomery's administering of an antidote, Edward continues to suffer from and high fever and remain unconscious.

The four travelers are resting at an inn when they encounter a traveling carnival troupe. One man insists on reading Juliet's fortune and unnerves her by quoting her father's favourite saying. Later that night four British police officers show up at the inn questioning the staff. This forces them to quickly leave and head through the village of Quick and onto Ballentyne.

At Ballentyne they are met by Valentine who is second in change behind the housekeeper McKenna and whose strange hands Juliet immediately notices. Valentine is unwelcoming despite a letter of introduction from Elizabeth, stating that Juliet is her ward. However McKenna offers them rooms and Edward is placed in a separate room without a fire and with a lock on the door. Valentina tells Juliet that Ballentyne has three floors and two towers, one in the southern wing and one in the north. The north tower contains Elizabeth's observatory. The second floor contains the guest bedrooms and a library, while the servant's rooms are located on the third floor. The estate has electricity supplied by a windmill. Valentina teaches the young servant girls who live on the estate.

Despite their engagement, Juliet and Montgomery are struggling in their relationship. Montgomery worries about Juliet's obsession with her father's research and her apparent ease in killing the King's Club men. That night Juliet meets Hensley, a young boy who McKenna identifies as Elizabeth's son who wanders through the house's many hidden tunnels and passageways. Edward regains consciousness and tells Juliet and Lucy that he is unable to fight off the Beast taking over his personality. He tells them that the Beast discovered that he was created through a mistake by Juliet's father resulting in damage to the reptilian portion of his brain. The only way to cure him is to remove that part of his brain.

The next day Juliet and Lucy walk into Quick to order Juliet's wedding dress. In Quick Juliet discovers a newspaper article written by Lucy's father, John Radcliffe, who was the King's Club's financier. Radcliffe seems to be concerned about his daughter's disappearance. Juliet sends Lucy on her way home, wishing to walk back to Ballentyne alone. On the way she becomes trapped in a bog attempting to rescue a sheep but is saved by Elizabeth who is returning to Ballentyne.

Back at Ballentyne, Elizabeth reveals to Juliet that she intends to make Juliet her heir, giving her title to the estate.She also tells Juliet that Hensley who is her son, is not fit to manage the estate. Elizabeth tells Juliet, Lucy and Montgomery  that there is a one thousand pound reward for the capture of Juliet, who is wanted for murder. She assures Juliet that they are safe at the manor since its location is unknown to the local police and is not in her family name. Hoping Elizabeth can help Edward, Juliet reveals what he told her but Elizabeth tells Juliet that there is no way to help him.

On the festival of Twelfth Night, Juliet once again encounters the carnival troupe. The fortune teller reveals his name to be Jack Serra and he tells Juliet that her path.... At the festival Juliet has the opportunity to check out Valentine's unusual hands and realizes that they may have been transplanted by Elizabeth. Valentine reveals that Elizabeth has cured many people of "ailments" including missing limbs like Valentine's. Valentine also reveals the depth of her animosity towards Juliet for being named Elizabeth heir. The truth of Hensley is also exposed when he is impaled in the chest by a tree branch and survives.

Montgomery, realizing that Elizabeth is using Victor Frankenstein's science to regenerate dead people, attempts to convince Juliet to leave the manor.  She refuses but promises him she will try to be like her kindly mother and act for good. After tending to Hensley, Elizabeth tells them the truth about Hensley. It turns out Victor Frankenstein's work has been carefully preserved over the past generations through his journals which are known as the Original Journals. Elizabeth's family came to own the journals after the daughter of a Ballentyne lord gave birth to Victor Frankenstein's illegitimate child in 1786. The journals contain all the information necessary to "reanimate" or bring back to life a person. Hensley is revealed to be Thomas, the professor's son who died and who he brought back to life at Ballentyne. Although Hensley is now forty-one years old, he has the mind and body of a child but has enormous strength and cannot die.

Elizabeth believes the King's Club at least suspects that they have the knowledge of reanimation but Juliet believes that based on Radcliffe's letter to the newspaper this is no longer a concern. Montgomery wants the Frankenstein research destroyed, but Elizabeth insists that since she has operated on all the Ballentyne servants they are all loyal. She has taken the Oath of Perpetual Anatomy and she has named Juliet as her heir so as to pass on this knowledge. But this upsets Montgomery to whom Juliet has promised she would not practice Frankenstein's science. To convince Juliet, Elizabeth shows her how to bring back to life a dead rat.

Things begin to unravel however when Valentina runs away with the intention of telling the police where Juliet and her acquaintances are hiding. Montgomery, Juliet and Balthazar track Valentina and eventually catch up to her but she is killed when the hackney coach overturns. Before she dies they learn that she was to meet secretly with an unknown person near Inverness. Juliet and Montgomery discover the person Valentina was to meet is none other than Lucy's father, John Radcliffe.  Barely escaping back to Ballentyne, with Montgomery wounded Juliet discovers the manor in chaos as the Beast has taken over Edward.

Juliet must now save Ballentyne from both the Beast and John Radcliffe. Can she do so and still remain faithful to her promise to Montgomery not to continue Victor Frankenstein's dark science begun so many years ago?

Discussion

In some ways A Cold Legacy is a fitting finale to the the Madman's Daughter trilogy by Shepherd. The loose ends are tied up and the conflict within Juliet is finally resolved. In this novel, Shepherd explores themes about life and death.

Juliet struggles with whether or not she should continue to dabble in the strange scientific endeavours her family and those connected to her seem to be involved in. In this case, Elizabeth Von Stein, who has taken in Juliet and her friends, has recreated the methods of Victor Frankenstein. His discoveries have lead to the "reanimation" of dead people - that is he brings dead people back to life. The catch is that they are inhumanly strong and immortal. The major issue for Juliet is whether being her father's daughter means she is susceptible to his immoral use of science.  She believes her intense scientific curiosity and the desire for revenge against her father and the people seeking to misuse his discoveries mean she is more like him.

Juliet confesses to Montgomery that "Bringing the creatures to life, letting them slaughter those men...I enjoyed it...The justice of it.The power of it." When Lucy approaches Juliet about bringing back Edward Juliet struggles with her promise to Montgomery and her desire to fulfill what her father has stated is her destiny - to do something remarkable like "defeating death to a save a life."  She admits "Since I'd first learned about Frankenstein's science, since I'd first seen Hensley brought back to life. My father's spirit was in my veins, urging me to do this." She feels compelled by her father's legacy to continue down the path of doing exotic but morally questionable scientific research. Juliet believes that since bringing Edward back is her "heart's true desire" she should do so and when she accomplishes this, she feels she's done the right thing.

Gradually Juliet comes to the realization that she is not her father. Jack Serra/Ajax points out to her she is not cruel but he notes she has been trying to use the science to help people. "But you aren't like him...It wasn't your own fate you were most worried about, but that of your sick friend. Henri Moreau never once cared about anyone but himself. He turned to darkness for his own selfish reasons. You were drawn to the darkness, but that wasn't what made up your mind. It was the hope of saving a friend's life." This is why he has decided not to destroy her but to help her against Radcliffe.

Although Montgomery is horrified that she has brought back Edward, Juliet points out to him, "I didn't bring Edward back to serve some purpose. He's a person. A friend. I brought him back because he had been wronged, and I had the power to help him." 

Montgomery also tells Juliet that should he not survive the fight with Radcliffe he does not want her to bring him back. "I don't care if it works or not. " I want to know that this life is the only one that matters. When you can never die, do you ever really live?" He tells Juliet he wants only one life with her. This ultimately influences Juliet's decision regarding Lucy who is shot by her father. She realizes Lucy's life was a full one, lived on her own terms. "Lucy's life had been short, but she'd lived it well. She had chosen her own fate, bleak though it was."

This causes Juliet to reconsider reanimation in light of the consequences it has not only for science but for the individuals involved.  "I had the power to cure death, but what had new life brought to Hensley, or Frankenstein's monster, or Edward? Only more pain."

The end result is that this leads Juliet to understand how dangerous the knowledge might be in the wrong hands and she becomes determined not to allow John Radcliffe to learn about Victor Frankenstein's discoveries, even if it means they are lost forever and even if it means she must die to accomplish that task.

The science is sketchy at best in A Cold Legacy; the idea that you can simply plunk the eye of a cadaver into the eye socket of a living person and it works, or remove a piece of the brain from a dead person and place it into another dead person and it functions after running an electrical current through the body are at best amusing. But this is Gothic horror rebooted and its fun, campy and suspenseful. There are plenty of dead bodies despite a young woman

There are plenty of plot holes in A Cold Legacy. For example, just after Elizabeth reassures Juliet that no one knows the existence of the manor (which has electric lights that would likely be visible over the moors), the reader learns that all of the town of Quick knows about the manor but are faithful to its secret location. 

Overall, A Cold Legacy, with its lovely modern gothic cover is an enjoyable read and a fitting conclusion to Shepherd's trilogy.

Book Review:

A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd
New York: Balzer & Bray          2015
390 pp.

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs

Library of Souls begins where the previous novel, Hollow City left off,  with Jacob Portman, Emma Bloom and the talking dog (yes that's right!) Addison MacHenry trapped by a hollowgast. However, Jacob has been able to neutralize the hollowgast with his newly discovered ability to control and speak to hollowgasts. He, Emma and Addison are able to escape out of the tunnel and into the subway station, hoping to track their fellow peculiars who have been captured by the wights. They decide to leave the station but discover a severely injured man in the train tunnel. That man is Sergei who tells Jacob he has the gift of speaking in the monster's tongue. Their plan to leave the station is thwarted by the appearance of two wights dressed as ambulance drivers. Attacked by the wights and the hollowgast, once again Jacob is able to control the hollowgast and make it kill one of the wights.

Escaping on a train, the three peculiars are followed by the hollowgast who latches onto the train. When they pull into the next station, Addison warns them that there are wights waiting for them. One of the wights boards the car behind the peculiars and he soon discovers them. Off the train, they are pursued by the wight and the hollowgast, through a crowd attending a ComicCon. Addison is certain the peculiars have passed this way. The wight is called off and Jacob, Emma and Addison work to find loop entrance. They discover that they are back in present day London. Addison, following the peculiars trail, leads them to a rotting, rat-infested jetty and indicates that they must take a boat to follow the scent. At the jetty they meet a creepy man named Sharon. They decide that it is likely their friends and the ymbrynes have been taken to the loop called Devil's Acre, a lawless slum. They negotiate passage to Devil's Acre with Sharon. They enter the loop and encounter a place resembling hell. "The foundations of every house were decomposing into mush. Crazy wooden footbridges, some no wider than a board, crisscrossed the canal like a cat's cradle, and its stinking banks were heaped with trash and crawling with spectral forms at work sifting through it. The only colors were shades of black, yellow, and green, the flag of filth and decay, but black most of all. Black stained every surface, smeared every face, and striped the air in columns that rose from chimneys all around us..."

Sharon guides his boat along the river called Fever Ditch and begins to look for a place to land. However, before he can accomplish this, they encounter ditch pirates who are curious about Sharon's now hidden cargo of the peculiars. Things get further complicated with the arrival of the hollowgast, which latches onto the bottom of Sharon's boat. In the struggle with the pirates, Jacob manages to order the hollowgast to sink the pirates boat. However, unable to get the hollowgast to release their boat, Jacob has Emma burn one of the tongues, causing the hollowgast to crash into a bridge.

Sharon lands the peculiars in Devil's Acre but discovers his boat is badly damaged. While he goes in search of someone to repair it, the peculiars are invited by a woman named Lorraine to visit her house of curiosities. Jacob, Emma and Addison discover that she has hundreds of peculiars imprisoned and drugged in the house. Determined to set them free, Emma confronts Lorraine who tells her that the wights often come and take her peculiars and return them damaged. She tells Emma that the wights bring in trucks of peculiars and that one just recently came through. Believing this to be their friends, Emma learns that the trucks go over a bridge at the end of Smoking Street.

Jacob, Emma and Addison decide to travel to Smoking Street and the wight's bridge. Smoke Street turns out to be a desolate area of Devil's Acre. The land is charred black and "Sulfurous smoke rose from deep cracks that fissured the pavement. Fire-stripped trees loomed like scarecrows over the ruins." The wight's bridge leads to their fortress, a high white tower. Crossing the bridge proves to be not only dangerous but deadly as Jacob, Emma and Addison are attacked by a hollowgast hidden in the bridge. This leads to a deadly fight in which all are injured but saved by Jacob's ability to control the hollowgast.

After their fight with the hollowgast, Emma and Jacob are attacked by the crazed people of Devil's Acre and just barely rescued by Sharon. Addison manages to cross the bridge hidden beneath a wights truck. They are taken to the house of Myron Bentham where they are healed by Mother Dust. Myron reveals that he knew Jacob's grandfather and that the Siberia Room they discovered in the house is a time-loop to Siberia. He also tells them that the house is a peculiarium where he collects and preserves peculiar artifacts. The house itself is a machine which he calls the Panloopticon which he created.

Bentham tells Jacob and Emma that his house is a collection of entrances to loops leading to areas where peculiars live. Bentham and his brother, Caul/Jack collected and created them with the intent to link all the peculiars together so as to organize them.

Legend states that when peculiars died they went to a special loop called Abaton that led to a repository holding their souls - a library of souls. The souls could be borrowed but when a peculiar died the soul had to be returned. Someone began breaking into the library and stealing the most powerful souls to use for evil purposes. The library guardians killed this person and recovered the stolen souls. This led to battles for control of Abaton and library of souls. The King of Abaton was killed during the war, ending the fighting, but the loop to the library had vanished. This led Perplexus Anomalous to hunt for the loop, creating many detailed maps as he did so. Bentham's brother soon forgot their goal of mapping became obsessed with discovering the lost loop to the library of souls. Bentham reveals is sister is Alma Peregrine. This revelation shocks Jacob and Emma who were told by Miss Peregrine that her brothers had become hollowgasts and then wights. In order to stop Caul from trying to gain control of the Panloopticon and to stop him from destroying the ymbrynes, Bentham made the hollowgasts, Bentham turned Caul into a hollowgast. He tricked Caul and his supporters into entering a loop that could be collapsed and closed. However, the hollowgasts escaped the collapsed loop to feed on peculiars, normals and animals. The peculiars stayed in their loops for safety. Eventually Caul returned to Bentham's house. "He'd consumed enough peculiars to fill his hollow soul and turn himself into something that resembled my brother...A wight is to the peculiar he once was as a thing copied many times is to its original. Detail is lost, and color..."

Jack continued to be obsessed about locating Abaton. He needed Bentham's machine and he also needed to capture all the ymbrynes because they were the ones who locked the loop before it was lost. Jack has spent years tracking and capturing all the ymbrynes, including Miss Peregrine. Bentham tells Jacob and Emma that Jack does not know that even if he finds Abaton and the Library of Souls he will not be able to simply see and touch the jars containing the souls. Bentham tells them "We share a common goal...To destroy my brother and his kind, and to save my sister and hers." Can Bentham, Jacob and Emma stop Jack from finding Abalon and the Library of Souls and save their fellow peculiars?

Discussion

Library of Souls is the satisfying finale to the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series, tying up all the loose ends. While the entire series is fascinating and very original, the final novel was at times, tedious and drawn out partly because of the excessive details and descriptions throughout the story. This slowed down the middle of the novel, as Riggs sets up the grand finale - Jacob and Emma must save the thousands of peculiars who have been enslaved, protect the Library of Souls and destroy the evil wights bent on stealing the powers of those peculiars stored in the library.

Although Riggs used photographs throughout this series to enhance his story, their inclusion was probably least effective in this novel - although still intriguing. The basic storyline is fleshed out with detailed descriptions of settings and characters. These descriptions are particularly well written, giving the reader a strong sense of the Victorian-era slum that Devil's Acre is, and the hollowed sacredness of the Library of Souls.

The strength of this novel is its unusual characters and their strange abilities and Riggs portrayal of Jacob Portman's transformation into a heroic character.

Although the conclusion to Library of Souls was exciting, it seemed at times as though it was written with a screen adaptation in mind. Riggs ties up all the loose ends and realistically has Jacob's parents believing their son is mentally ill. The resolution to this problem and to Jacob and Emma's dilemma feels somewhat contrived, but in a world of unbelievable characters and situations, seems quite reasonable.

The first novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will be brought to the big screen in late 2016. I can think of no better director than Tim Burton to do this. Jacob and Emma will be portrayed by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell.

Book Details:

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
Philadelphia: Quirk Books          2015
458 pp.

Shadowlands by Kate Brian

At a first glance, Shadowlands by Kate Brian appears to be psychological thriller involving a serial killer. However, as the novel moves along, it morphs into a blend of horror and mystery that draws the reader in to the very end.

One day after school, Rory Miller takes a shortcut through the woods near her home, only to be stalked and attacked by her math teacher, Mr. Nell (isn't that every high schooler's nightmare!). In a stroke of luck, Steven Nell slips and Rory fights back, escaping to the road. There she is picked up by her new boyfriend, Christopher, who calls police. It turns out Nell is serial killer, Roger Krauss, who has murdered fourteen girls in the past decade and who has been the subject of an intensive FBI manhunt. The Miller's are ordered to remain sequestered in their home, because Nell has a history of murdering a girl's entire family when he fails to succeed in a first attempt. When police fail to catch Nell, and he demonstrates that he won't be denied Rory, the FBI decide to send the Miller's far away with new identities. But, Nell, notorious for his brilliance, continues to stalk the Millers.

Rory, along with her older sister, Darcy, and their father travel nonstop to Juniper Landing, an island off of South Carolina. During the trip, Rory falls asleep and has a nightmare involving Nell. When she wakes up she is still in the car with her Dad and Darcy, on the ferry to Juniper Landing.

Rory's relief at being on an island soon gives way to a vague unsettled feeling. The island has no phone or internet service and is often surrounding by a creeping fog that blocks out the mainland. Rory and Darcy meet a group of young people; Tristan and Krista whose mom is the mayor of the island, as well as Joaquin and Aaron. Rory's unease increases as she learns that Tristan is watching her from the house across the street.But when people begin disappearing and others on the island don't seem to remember their existence, Rory enters a state bordering on panic. Added to this are signs that Steven Nell has indeed followed Rory to Juniper Landing? Convinced that she and others are in grave danger, Rory begins pressing Tristan and Joaquin for answers. What is going on?

In many ways this novel was both bizarre and fascinating. The situations with the FBI and how they handled Rory's family lacked realism. Rory arrives home in Christopher's car to find her house surrounded by police cruisers while there doesn't seem to be any organized manhunt of the woods (using helicopters and infrared cameras for example) where Rory was attacked. One week after the attack, when their house is broken into, the FBI sends the Millers off on their own to an unknown destination, with new identities.

However, Brian does a great job at ramping up the suspense as Rory struggles to figure out what is happening, while also dropping the reader numerous clues. The presence of a methodical, brilliant killer, mysterious happenings on Juniper Landing, dense fog that seems to have a will of its own, and three deadly encounters with a serial killer keep the tension high.

The story is told mostly from Rory's point of view, but Brian occasionally adds a second narrator, that of the killer, Nell. His chapters are very well done, and especially creepy. Readers may guess at where Rory is and what's happened, but for most part, the ending is a surprise.

A great novel, with a puzzling cover that seems unsuited to the horror and suspense of the story.

The book trailer is well done:


Book Details:
Shadowlands by Kate Brian
New York: Hyperion    2012
328 pp.

Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters by Suzanne Weyn

Novels based on Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein seem to abound these days. While Kenneth Oppel's This Dark Endeavour and Such Wicked Intent explore Victor Frankenstein's life BEFORE he creates his monster, in Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters, Suzanne Weyn crafts a good story about his fictional daughters AFTER their mad father's death.

Giselle and Ingrid Frankenstein are the twin daughters of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the mad scientist. The novel opens with excerpts from Victor Frankenstein's diary, in which he acknowledges the birth of his twin daughters, but dares not to claim them after the death of their mother. Victor is being pursued by his monster-creation, who demands that Frankenstein make him a mate. Frankenstein agrees but in the end, decides to destroy the creature.

Seventeen years later, twins Giselle and Ingrid arrive at Castle Frankenstein, located on Gairsay Island in the Orkneys. They are accompanied by their uncle, Baron Ernest Frankenstein, who has revealed to them that they have inherited both the castle and a large amount of money from their father. Giselle and Ingrid have learned that their father was considered to be raving mad, and although considered lost in the Arctic wastelands, his frozen body has only recently been located and returned to Germany.

The two young women are very different; Ingrid is studious and interested in her father's old scientific journals which she finds in one of the rooms in the castle, while Giselle, who is very beautiful, is of delicate health and suffers from sleepwalking. Giselle is deeply afraid of the dark. Giselle is also recovering from a case of unrequited love after having been rejected by a young man named Johann.

Their story is told in first person narration, through alternating entries in their diaries, beginning in May through to December of 1815. These entries suggest that the madness that plagued Victor Frankenstein, did not die with him! Ingrid is revealed to be inquisitive and intelligent and willing to take risks for the sake of knowledge, while Giselle appears fragile both physically and mentally. Gradually, we come to question Giselle's perspective, as people begin to disappear. Weyn uses the two perspectives to develop two different story lines for each of the Frankenstein twins which ultimately converge unexpectedly.

Once in the castle, Giselle decides that she will oversee its restoration, hoping to create a place where she can hold parties and entertain the social elite of the day. Their new housekeeper, Mrs. Flett, suggests that they hire the young men of Gairsay to renovate the castle, which Giselle and Ingrid agree to. Although Giselle's health appears to improve, she continues to have episodes of sleepwalking and night terrors. She is inexplicably afraid of the dark.  Giselle and her sister take a trip to Edinburgh, where she meets up with Johann, the young man who dismissed her love for him only months ago, but who now seems deeply interested in Giselle. A planned meeting turns disastrous, and Giselle wants only to return to Castle Frankenstein. But even the journey home, results in another bit of tragedy for Giselle.

Ingrid meanwhile, continues to be fascinated by her father's old notebooks, spending much time reading them. She also finds herself drawn to the sullen, wounded naval officer, Walter Hammersmith, who resides in the cottage adjacent to Castle Frankenstein. Ingrid discovers her father's abandoned laboratory, deep beneath Castle Frankenstein, which leads her further into studying his research on animating dead flesh. While in Edinburgh with her sister, Ingrid attends medical lectures disguised as a man, to learn more about the human body. She becomes convinced that her father's research holds the secret to healing, Walter, with whom she has fallen deeply in love, has lost a limb and Ingrid is determined to make him whole again using the knowledge she has gained from her father's research. She manages (somewhat unbelievably) to take him to the laboratory beneath Castle Frankenstein, where she attempts an experimental treatment to try to heal him.

But when people begin disappearing both in Edinburgh and on Gairsay, Inspector Cairo is sent over to the island to investigate. His investigation reveals that both murder and insanity are not far behind the Frankenstein family!

I was pleasantly surprised at how well constructed this story was and how it held my interest. Using the two narratives advanced the story lines quickly and from different points of view. It gradually becomes evident that Giselle's accounts are not reliable and that Ingrid nor her uncle suspect anything. Ingrid's fascination with creating new life and her experimentation with Walter suggest she has inherited her father's obsession. There is a hint of what has caused Giselle's madness near the end and a suggestion that there might be another book?

The novel is filled with plenty of references to the original work of Mary Shelly, Frankenstein. It would be helpful to have read Frankenstein first, but not really necessary as Weyn provides the backstory of Victor Frankenstein and his Monster at the beginning of the novel. The author note at the back of the book explains which elements of the novel are true to the Frankenstein story and which are not. Dr. Frankenstein's Daughter's is a quick, high interest read for younger teens!

Book Details:
Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters by Suzanne Weyn
New York: Scholastic Press 2012
250 pp.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

I read Frankenstein many years ago and of course, loved the story which was originally published in 1818. Based on a dream Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly had when she was just 16, the novel tells the story of a scientist who discovers the secret of life and constructs a living human being out of body parts. The creature he creates however, is eight feet tall and hideous. Frankenstein is horrified by what he has created and leaves his laboratory and the monster unattended. The creature escapes and this sets in motion a series of tragic events that ultimately lead to Frankenstein tracking his monster with the hopes of destroying it. The entire Frankenstein narrative is set with another narrative, that of Captain Robert Walton, who while exploring the North Pole, encounters Frankenstein pursuing a huge man driving a dog sled. Frankenstein, old and weakened from his pursuit of the monster, relates to Walton the story of his creature and asks him to continue in his place, the pursuit. Shelley's novel combines both gothic and romance, and is arguably one of the first true science fiction novels. An interesting aspect about this novel is how the name Frankenstein, which was the name of the scientist, became known associated as the name of the monster. Perhaps a suggestion and warning that scientists in their desire for knowledge, might unleash upon the world, creations that will not benefit mankind.

This new reprint of the unabridged but revised third edition of the novel, is enhanced by the steampunk illustrations by Zdenko Basic and Manuel Sumberac. The illustrations add to the horror of Shelley's story by incorporating gears, mechanical devices and steam machines. Zdenko Basic is well known for his steampunk work having illustrated Steampunk: Poe. There's a wonderful review of this book over at wired.com by GeekDad.

 Steampunk: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is the second book in the steampunk series. The gothic novel works well with the steampunk subgenre as does Edgar Allen Poe's works. There's a mad scientist, body parts, and a frightening monster, set in the Victorian age when some scientists believed in galvanism - the potential use of electricity to create life. Diehard fans of classic horror or steampunk may not be too enthusiastic, but if this book encourages the younger generation to pick it up and read the story, I am fine with that.


Zdenko Basic is also well know for having directed the short film Guliver, whose trailer is shown below.



If you enjoy steampunk you may want to check out this blog, Steampunk Revue.

172 Hours On The Moon by Johan Harstad

172 Hours is set in the year, 2019. In 2010, eight men including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met to plan a return mission to the moon. They want to return to a secret base, DARLAH 2 built in the Sea of Tranquility from 1974 to 1976. It was built there to investigate some unusual phenomena which the Apollo astronauts encountered during the moon missions. We are never told what much about the first DARLAH base until well into the novel. 

The purpose of this new mission is threefold; to make sure the base is in working condition, to investigate the potential for mining rare Earth metals and to attract media attention so as to secure funding for future missions. To attract the necessary media attention, they decide to send three teenagers on the mission to attract a new generation of supporters for space exploration. The teens will be chosen by lottery, an unrealistic aspect of the plot because it assumes that everyone is suitable for space exploration. This information which is provided in the prologue provides the backstory.

The first section of the novel, entitled Earth focuses for the most part on the three teens chosen for the mission ; Mia Nomeland from Stavanger, Norway, Midori Yoshida from Yokohama, Japan, and sixteen year old Antoine Devereux from Paris, France. Each has their reason for going. For Mia it's the dream of fame even though her parents signed her up for the lottery , for Midori this is her chance to escape her restrictive life in Japan, while for Antoine it's an escape from a broken relationship. Once they learn they are to participate, things move quickly and the teens undergo a rigorous but short three month training program. 


We also learn about Oleg Himmelfarb, an elderly man who once had been "a custodian with the highest security clearance at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in the middle of the Mojave Desert." Now suffering from dementia, he lives in a nursing home. When Oleg hears about the mission he is terrified to the depths of his very being, but he can't remember why.  Eventually Oleg remembers the source of his fear, but near death and unable to speak, he can only provide a clue which may or may not be recognized by the nursing home staff.

The second part, Sky relates the unfolding horror once the mission arrives on the moon. On the moon, things begin going wrong almost immediately and people begin to die. What seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime, becomes a desperate struggle for survival against something they don't understand but they know is evil. One by one, crew and teens disappear and die. The crew then makes the unnerving discovery of the doppelganger. Harstad introduces the doppelganger into the novel to create both confusion among characters and suspense. Soon we don't know who is real and who is not, who survives and who doesn't.

This novels suffers from a somewhat unbalanced structure with 145 pages devoted to the time before the moon expedition in which background is prevented but not much character development occurs. The lack of character development makes it difficult to relate to the teens and especially the crew who are mostly one dimensional characters. But in a novel driven by plot this doesn't matter quite so much. The effect thous is to want to skip these pages for the most part to get to the more interesting parts of the novel.

Harstad's ending is reminiscent of renowned science fiction writer, John Wyndham, whose novels often left readers to figure out what happened on their own. But unlike Wyndham's endings, there is nothing to suggest the twist the story takes and the ending is largely inexplicable.

Also similar to Wyndham, Harstad's science fiction novel is a combination of horror and psychological thriller.The author uses a great number of devices from modern sci-fi/horror movies including Alien and also Japanese horror movies. The Japanese myth of the Kuchisake-onna, the Slit-Mouth Woman, which is a malicious spirit, is introduced into the novel creating an element of impending horror. There is foreshadowing of this spirit in the first part of the book, when Midori is warned by "Hanako-chan" not to go to the moon.

Harstad also works the mystery of the alphanumeric code 6EQUJ5, which was an unknown signal picked up by the Big Ear Radio Observatory in Ohio in August, 1977, into the novel. The origins of this signal have never been determined and it remains unexplained to date. For Harstad this is a warning not to return to the moon.

If you like horror with your science fiction, and don't mind the loose ends, this book will appeal. Many readers will be drawn in by the innovative cover and the nifty premise. Many will leave unsatisfied.

Book Details:
172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
New York: Little, Brown and Company
355 pp.