Audience: Adult

Format: Hardcover/Owned

Harold opened the door that day to find a dark-skinned man in a well-cut suit smiling at him.

- first sentence

This book was okay. People start returning from the dead, not coming back from the grave, but just appearing in places all over the world. There is no pattern to where they appear or who returns, or how long they've been dead. So many of them come back that the "true living" get nervous. The returned are placed into camps and it just goes downhill from there (as we would expect). Imagine the religious objections, the people who don't accept those who are different, etc.
The book is well-written, but I found it just ok.

Audience: Young Adult

Format: Hardcover/owned

The drone circled high above the wreckage of war.

- first sentence

 

The third book set in the Drowned Cities universe brings us full circle by including characters from both previous books. It was great to see everything connected and to see Nailer back. I enjoyed the book, but Ship Breaker will always be my favorite from this universe. Tool is like the Terminator - he never gives up and almost can't be killed.

Audience: Young Adult

Format: Hardcover/Owned

I'm starting over.

- First sentence

 

Margaret "Cuckoo" Clarke has just been released from a brief stay at a mental institution after she had an emotional breakdown. Now she's starting over with "Operation Happiness." Cuckoo and her friends (who call themselves the "Freakshow") are determined to bring the different factions of high school together and find a way for everyone to get along.

The illustrated diary style works well for this book. Cuckoo writes down her thoughts and feelings about high school life, along with illustrations. She also talks to literary characters in an attempt to figure out life. I think this book will appeal to teens and pre-teens, especially those who like the diary format. It's easy-to-read and tackles real-life situations. 

I read this for #3 School's Out for Summer

At 272 pages, it's worth  $3.00

Audience: Adult

Format: Physical/Owned

I love Thursday nights.

- first sentence

Such an ordinary opening line for an extraordinary story. Jason (a college professor), his wife (Daniela), and their teenage son Charlie spend Thursday nights together, making dinner, eating, and talking. Until the Thursday when Jason goes to meet his friend at a bar and is abducted on the way home. He wakes up in a world he doesn't know. He is confused and wondering which world is real and which is the dream/crazy place he made up in his brain. The truth is even crazier and trying to wrap my mind about it almost broke my brain.

I was fascinated by the story and trying to figure out how Crouch was going to resolve the main problem of getting Jason back to his wife. Every time Jason stepped out of the box, I was thinking, "no - go back in, it isn't safe!" But he kept going out into worlds that obviously weren't his. I especially loved that Crouch didn't shy away from the last problem that kept Jason from being happy - I didn't even think about it until it happened, but then it made perfect sense.

Another highly recommended Crouch novel!

I read this for Booklikes-opoly Beach Week 10 (author's last name begins with one of the letters in BEACH). At 342 pages, it is worth $3.00.

OMG! Every time I think I finally wrapped my mind around this story, Crouch adds something else to mess with my mind.