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An eternity of reflecting one’s misery back on oneself, as it turns out, gets quite dull. Really, it’s torturous. You can’t change anything at this point, it’s all been said and done. And the thanklessness of it…well. It’s just more than Kiriel can deal with. So what if he’s breaking all the rules? He deserves a vacation. And the body he slipped into…well, it was about to die anyway.
After eternity as a spirit, the physical realm is quite something. In fact, Kiriel is giving the Creator props at every turn. Color! Wind! It’s all just incredible. Of course, learning to be human whilst being supervised is more than a little awkward, so his first order of business is to remove himself from the company of Shaun’s best friend and head home for some solitude.
After getting caught essentially making out with a t-shirt, spending a couple of hours in the bathroom, and overhauling Shaun’s appearance, Kiriel thinks he’s getting the hang of this physical thing. Each new experience is incredible. Like ketchup. Oh does he love ketchup! Ingenious.
But he has bigger issues at hand. Better experiences he wants to try to get to before someone notices and his trip comes to an end. Only at this point does he realize his choice of someone generally unnoticed may not have been the best. These are not the boys who…get on well with girls. But he can try!
Speaking is his biggest issue really. It’s a bit hard to remember to try to talk like an uninterested, unenlightened teenage boy when you know pretty much everything. Eager to try to make an impact while he can, Kiriel decides to give some advice to a bully, who he knows he’ll see in Hell if things don’t change. But apparently attempting to counsel a bully on his fears of inadequacy in public is not the best idea.
After a few days as Shaun, Kiriel’s curiosity is starting to wear off. The novelty is wearing off. Being human is hopelessly futile. Shaun has disappeared, and no one has noticed, aside from his cat. It’s horribly depressing. And the changes he’s begun, being nicer to Jason, well, he won’t be here to carry through on that. So what’s the point, really?
Still. It’s been fun. And you can learn things while physical that you just wouldn’t otherwise. So it wasn’t all pointless. And maybe he will leave a mark after he’s gone. Maybe it’s not all futile.
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After seeing a trailer for this movie recently, and then stumbling across my copies of the series in VT, I decided to re-read them.
This story is central to Lyra Belacqua, a child without family, left in the care of Oxford College. While the college does its best to educate her, Lyra more greatly enjoys running amok with her best friend Roger, who works in the kitchens. But her curiosity and hankering to know are what lead everything into being.
Having snuck into a room she’s not meant to be in, she gets trapped, and while hiding in a closet sees a plot to poison her uncle unfold. She then warns her Uncle without thinking, and after filling him in, is left hidden to spy on the upcoming meeting. The meeting, of course, leaves her all the more curious, especially about Dust.
Then come the Gobblers, child thieves, stealing children from their families all around England, and finally coming to Oxford, where they get their hands both on Roger, and a gyptian boy Lyra knew. Lyra has little time to mourn, as she herself is about to go away, newly made assistant to the beautiful Mrs. Coulter.
Not long into her new life, Lyra grows increasingly disturbed, both by Mrs. Coulter, and her daemon, the evil golden monkey, who can roam too far from his mistress. In the end, she runs away, meeting up again with the gyptians, who hide her and keep her safe, as they know even more about her and the big picture and the gobblers than she herself does.
And so begins Lyra’s Quest to save Roger, and all the captured children, and her father, as she comes to learn Lord Asriel to be.
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Paski Archuleta is absolutely certain her father has lost his mind. He went to LA for talks–there’s interest in making his popular comic Squeegee Man into a movie. He came back an entirely different person. New clothes, shades, teeth, attitude, vocabulary, and diet. She has no idea what to think. But she doesn’t have long to ponder it either, since there’s an even bigger bombshell in all this. They’re moving. The movie is going to happen, and he needs to be there to work on it ASAP. As in, now.
Leaving Taos does not thrill Paski in the least. Her dad sees adventure, Paski sees disaster. New Mexico, California is not. Although upon arriving she realizes they might have more in common than she first thought. In scenery at any rate. Which is pretty much where it ends.
In Cali, all drivers appear to be maniacs. All cars are luxury. All roads are 6 lanes. All buildings are humongous.
As first order of business, Paski takes off on her bike to check out her new school. In a fit of pride she can’t help, she takes the direct route down–straight down the hill–to show off her biking skills, since it’s the one thing she can really do.
And she get immediate notice. From the perfect guy.
The next morning, she gets some more notice. Of the bad kind. And she knows, without being told, that the car full of laughing girls are the girls. Worse, the head girl seems to have a thing with her perfect guy.
In general, she finds her fellow students shocking, and her teachers more so, and the parents the most. They tend to look younger than their children.
Her first party turns into a near death experience, and the drama and craziness doesn’t really slow down from there. This is war, pretty much. And she doesn’t intend to lose.
This is one of the best coming-of-age/finding-self stories I’ve read in awhile. Paski finds out the hard way that ignoring her insticts and truest self can only cause harm, and that things really do happen for a reason, even if that reason is long in showing itself. There really are perfect boys, and girls can be too cruel to comprehend.
But she sticks to her guns, navigates through the minefield, and finds herself in a place she never would have expected to be.
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January 8th, 2007
11:38 am
Book Review, Series, Staff Favorites
adult fiction, ghosts, koontz, mediums, missing persons, mystery, odd thomas, psychological thriller, supernatural
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Unable to deal with life in his hometown, Pico Mundo, Odd Thomas has retreated to St. Bartholomew’s, where he hoped to find some peace. Telling his secret only to those necessary, he manages for a time to live a quiet life, piquing curiosity, but being left alone. The arrival of bodachs with his first ever snow storm changes all that.
What begins as the mystery of Brother Timothy’s disappearance quickly spirals into an ever-growing and changing puzzle. While Odd knows something is coming and the children must be protected, he can’t explain to anyone what, why or how, which makes the planning more than a little difficult.
Elvis continues to pop in for comic relief as Odd struggles to make sense of things he’s never seen and can barely comprehend. The trusty Boo offers some help as well, but as a dog can only go so far.
In a race against not only the unknown but also the clock, Odd struggles to find a way to communicate with those who rarely do, in hopes of solving the riddle before it’s too late for anyone else.
I’ve loved Odd Thomas since his first story. Apparently some found his second tale to be lesser than the first. I’m not sure I was of that opinion, but for any who were, I can say that this installment should definitely please.
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In this sequel to Faerie Wars, we pick up right where we left off. Mr Fogarty has settled into his duties as Gatekeeper of the Realm, Pyrgus is acclimating to his position as Emperor Elect, and Henry is back at home missing the Faerie Realm. So when he finds out he’s been invited to Pyrgus’ Coronation Ceremony, he’s perfectly happy to except. On top of that, he finds out he’ll be receiving some magical help in sneaking away–even better!
But not for long.
In the Realm, Lord Hairstreak has struck a deal with the now resurrected Purple Emperor, putting Comma on the throne, with himself as Regent. Comma then releases his crazy mother from the West Wing, after banishing Pyrgus, Blue and Fogarty. Henry lost his original portal maker and had to make himself a new one, and isn’t at all sure he got it right, though he does eventually realize what’s actually going on.
Much more action in this one, since the plots are thicker and the twists more numerous. Very enjoyable and quick read. Can’t wait for the next one!
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Henry Atherton thought he was living a pretty normal life. Sure, working for Mr. Fogarty could be strange, as the man was completely paranoid, but all in all things were good. He even made his cardboard pig fly–and that’s no mean feat. But when he comes down to breakfast to find his Mother acting strangely, and his father turns up acting even stranger, he starts to get the feeling something is amiss.
He mulls it over on the ride to Mr. Fogarty’s with his father, and bites the bullet when he gets let off, and asks his father if he’s having an affair. The answer he receives sends him reeling. So, while cleaning out Mr. Fogarty’s shed and realizing the cat has caught a miniature person with winds, and NOT a butterfly as he first suspected, he captures the thing in a jamjar and takes it to Fogarty, sure things can’t get much weirder.
At home later, he starts to think he must have been crazy to believe in faeries, even if he had been just talking to one. But he knows it was real. When he arrives the next day to find Fogarty with a youth about his own age, things get better and odder all at once.
As promised, Pyrgus has returned to his actual size.
Pyrgus and Henry break into Henry’s school to gather components needed to build a portal to enable Pyrgus to get back home, where he’s certain plots against his father are unfolding. After delivering the parts, Henry’s bit is meant to be done. He’s promised never to see Mr. Fogarty again. But after many days of unanswered calls, he can’t take it anymore, and heads to Fogarty’s to make sure everything is all right.
By this time, Pyrgus has disappeared through the portal and no one’s sure where he is, and his father has come through and gone back with Mr. Fogarty in tow. Henry manages to find the clues left behind and open the portal himself to get through.
After arriving at the Purple Palace, things take one unfortunate turn after another. Only though a stroke of imagination does Henry manage to turn things back around.
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Abel Dandy grew up in Faeryland, surrounded by the most unusual people, right down to is legless father and armless mother. To him, oddities were the norm, and it was he, with his own human unoriginality he saw as the lack. While he was a decent knife-thrower, he felt unspecial, surrounded by the inhabitants of the Faeryland show. When the departure of the Siamese twins, and the souring of his dealings with Phoebe the dogfaced girl, Abel grows restless and angry. At night, his dreams are filled with images of an Egyptian beauty, and he knows he’ll never find someone like that inside the life he leads.
After a couple of run-ins with local town boys, Abel steals away in the middle of the night, planning to find fortune, and return with money and his own name. Instead, he joins the Marvel Bros. Circus, only to be thrown out when they discover the escaped monkey to be his friend Apollo, Phoebe’s brother, who followed him from home. Thinking himself lost, and his friend doomed, he stumbles upon a farmhouse near the tracks, only to meet up with Apollo yet again.
After receiving a job within the house, Abel begins his plan of earning enough money to send Apollo back home, and to take off again on his own in search of a show. But then, much to his surprise, a show comes to him.
While at first excited about the possibility of getting a knife throwing act, it doesn’t take Abel long to realize that Dr. Mink is up to no good. Through luck, he learns that Mink planned to sneak away in the night, taking Apollo with him, and manages to weasel himself into the deal as a driver.
Upon meeting up with the rest of Mink’s crew, and finding the children locked in their wagon, Abel knows what he has to do. But how can he get away, and save them all too? And what of the mysterious woman still entering his dreams? What does it all mean?
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Matt hasn’t had the best life. His parents died when he was eight, on their way to a wedding. His mother’s half-sister showed up afterwards to claim him (for the money), and had little use for him (once she blew through the cash). He had no friends at school, and so sought out the company of a boy down the way, who was himself a troublemaker, and led Matt nowhere but down the wrong path. When their latest scheme goes awry, Matt is given two options. Imprisonment, or LEAF. Though he doesn’t like the look of the woman who’s agreed to look after him under the LEAF project, he figures it has to be better than prison, because hey, he can just run away, right?
Wrong.
It doesn’t take long for Matt to figure out there’s something very wrong with Lesser Malling. And when he’s had enough and tries to run away, every road out of the tiny town leads him back to where he began. He meets a man who says he can help, only to find him dead the next morning upon his arrival for their visit. When he returns with the police, the scene has been cleaned up, making it look like just one more troublemaker’s stunt.
Everywhere Matt turns, he finds help, followed swiftly by trouble. One by one, anyone who seeks to aid him ends up dead.
After finding a picture of himself at his parents’ funeral in his guardian’s closet, he knows something sinister is going on, and none of it accidental. Somehow, he manages to escape with a local reporter, only to end up once again back where he began. Wherever he goes, the darkness of Lesser Malling finds him. Because they need him.
The town of Lesser Malling and all its inhabitants live a life of old ways, worshipping dark powers long since run aground. With Matt’s “help,” they hope to set them free. Long ago, 5 children saved the world. The time has come for them to do so again. With Matt’s story, it begins.
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