Review - Bones & All

Written By: Camille DeAngelis

Published By: St. Martin's Press (MacMillan)

Release Date: March 10, 2015

Pages: 292

Genre: Horror, Coming of Age

Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

Maren Yearly doesn’t just break hearts, she devours them. 

Since she was a baby, Maren has had what you might call "an issue" with affection. Anytime someone cares for her too much, she can’t seem to stop herself from eating them. Abandoned by her mother at the age of 16, Maren goes looking for the father she has never known, but finds more than she bargained for along the way. 

Faced with love, fellow eaters, and enemies for the first time in her life, Maren realizes she isn’t just looking for her father, she is looking for herself. The real question is, will she like the girl she finds?

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Indiebound

Author's Website | Author's Facebook | Author's Twitter

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2015 and I was so thrilled to end up being on the street team!  I feel like right off I should say that this book is not for everyone.  It's dark, it's gritty, and there are parts of it that are downright gross, but if you can get past that it's a very original, enjoyable read.  While it's being marketed and sold as an adult novel it is very much a YA novel, seeing as the protagonist is 16 years old and trying to figure out who she is without her mother.  Despite having a main character who eats people whole, bones and all (hence the title), the book is largely a coming of age story along with learning to accept yourself for who you are, which is an important message.  There were also some lines that I really loved and thought were very artfully worded, which doesn't always happen.  I will say that there were a few things that either struck me as odd or confused me in some way, those things were as followed; first, there was the time period, the book actually takes place back in the late 90's which I wasn't expecting.  It wasn't a problem though, so much as just a shock and, initially I was a little confused as to parts that seemed outdated (as it turns out they were).  The other thing that I found slightly confusing was that things happened in the novel and the main character made some sort of "ahh, now I see" deceleration when I as a reader did not.  That was slightly jarring and I found myself going back a page or two trying to figure out it I just skipped over something important or if I just didn't "get the joke" so to speak.  I would have liked to see more focus on the eaters, they fascinated me and while there was some information it did at times seem very glossed over, but I think that's more of a personal thing, seeing as the idea of cannibalism is something I find intreguing. As a heads up I do have to say that there were a few places where the story lagged somewhat, but once I got through them - and they didn't seem to last very long - I was pulled back into the story and things got going again.  Overall it was a deliciously unique novel that those with a flare for the macabre will enjoy, and I'm excited to see what the author comes up with next.

4/5 stars

Review - Shutter

Written By: Courtney Alameda

Published By: Feiwel and Friends (MacMillan)

Release Date: February 3, 2015

Pages: 384

Genre: Horror, Paranormal

Source: ARC from my local indie

Horror has a new name: introducing Courtney Alameda.

Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat—a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual: the corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens. With an analog SLR camera as her best weapon, Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film. She's aided by her crew: Oliver, a techno-whiz and the boy who developed her camera's technology; Jude, who can predict death; and Ryder, the boy Micheline has known and loved forever.
When a routine ghost hunt goes awry, Micheline and the boys are infected with a curse known as a soulchain. As the ghostly chains spread through their bodies, Micheline learns that if she doesn't exorcise her entity in seven days or less, she and her friends will die. Now pursued as a renegade agent by her monster-hunting father, Leonard Helsing, she must track and destroy an entity more powerful than anything she's faced before . . . or die trying.

Lock, stock, and lens, she’s in for one hell of a week.

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Author's Website | Author's Facebook | Author's Twitter

Shutter was one of those books that I was just crazy excited about getting my hands on.  If for some reason you didn't know I'm a HUGE horror fan so to have a YA book being published that hails the author as the new name of horror is very exciting.  I've learned the hard way that the hype that a publisher places on a book isn't always the way I see it, but thankfully this was not one of those times.  From the very first page of this book the action and horror was ramped up full force, sending little chills down my spine from time to time and keeping me on edge.  The world that Courtney created was fascinating, and the fact that she based it all off of Dracula was even cooler.  It's actually rather impressive how well thought out this book was, especially considering it was a debut, and although there were a few bits here and there that got a little bogged down with the details (the first few chapters had a little bit of an info-dump) overall it kept me interested the entire time and I was compelled to find out what happened.  I think it's hard to write scary because so often in the movies we rely on those moments of tension coupled with suspenseful music that ultimately leads to the reveal of the big bad thing where it jumps out from around the corner and yells "boo!" but in books it's so much harder to do that.  You're not physically showing a person those things and you don't have the background music to help set the tone, you're forced to rely totally on words on a page, and Courtney has managed to do that.  She's managed to do it not just with the typical creepy setting but with her descriptions of everything, morphing the ordinary into the grotesque just by weaving words together and comparing mundane things to horrific ones.  It was fantastic.  A note to the faint of heart, it wasn't just the descriptions of ordinary things, buildings and the like, that were gross, but the ghosts and the creatures and the death, so this book, it's not for the weak willed.  That being said I can say that fans of horror, especially those who are also fans of the YA age group, will find this to be a delightful read.  The action is non-stop and while there's a little bit of romance is isn't overwhelming.  I can honestly say that this won't be a book for everyone , there are going to be people who won't like it, but as a horror novel it stands its own and I really do hope that Courtney is able to continue the story because while most things are wrapped up there's potential for more.  Fingers crossed that will happen (on both Courtney and MacMillan's end)!

On a separate note I can totally see this is a movie too, and if it was done right it would be SO COOL!!!

4.5/5 stars