Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

Dead Silent 
by Sharon Jones

hitting shelves February 6, 2014 from Orchard Books

description:
A snow angel etched in blood. An elite society. A secret dying to get out.
​
The second Poppy Sinclair Thriller.





My Thoughts: OK, so the synopsis is not much to go on, but we do have the trailer!


I really enjoyed the first book in the series (check out my review), and this one looks like another fantastic setting for Poppy Sinclair to solve a mystery!

Becky's View: Memory by Christoph Marzi

Memory by Christoph Marzi
♦publisher: Orchard Books(UK)
♦release date: August 1st, 2013
♦paperback, 329 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

This is a book about a ghost called Story. She's lost in the city - alone, afraid and without her memory. Then she meets Jude, a boy who sees the dead. And he is the only one who can help her remember...
A thrilling urban ghost story set in the twilight cemeteries of London.

Review:  Even just this tiny little blurb was enough to get me excited for this book.  Tell me it's a ghost story set in the cemeteries of London and I'm all in.  I wasn't sure what to expect beyond that, so I wouldn't say I was disappointed---but I didn't love it as much as I'd hoped. Christoph Marzi's Memory has a bit of a mishmash of things going on: a fun cast of characters, a likable main character, a mystery, some chills and thrills, and a last minute direction change that left me feeling like it was too different from the rest of the book to be a satisfying twist.

Jude is a sweetheart.  He recently discovered that he can see ghosts and enjoys spending his days in the cemetery with his newfound ghost friends. Despite being seventeen, Jude read much younger for me.  I couldn't help but picture him as closer to 13 or 14 from his personality throughout the book.  One day he finds a girl on a bench and discovers that she's not quite a ghost and not quite alive.  He brings her to Gaskell, an eccentric and long-dead rock star, and Miss Rathbone, a living not-quite-human who also hangs with the cemetery crowd.  They name her Story and realize that her current state means she is not dead, but in danger of dying if they don't find her body soon.  She has no memory except for a few details, so Jude follows the meager clues to find out who she is and what happened to her.  And so, the adventure begins. 

Their quest is filled with stories within stories; legends, backstories, histories.  At times, this made the story all the more rich.  But there were also times when the pacing and plot felt bogged down with overabundant and sometimes insignificant details.  I was surprised by a lot of the quirkiness and humor.  The story's mood swings from comical to sweet, spine-chilling to joyful, casual to fantastical.  There are so many characters and creatures that it is sometimes hard to follow, but the main crew is colorful and fun to read.  There are more than a few nods to every corner of British culture: Mary Poppins (a chalk artist in the park that calls himself Van Dyke), The Beatles (both musically and the main characters are named Jude and well, I won't tell you Story's real name...spoilers!), and Dr. Who (creepy angel statues that attack, creatures that you can only see out of the corner of your eye)...just to name a few.

All in all, a mostly fun read with a few drawbacks and distractions.  Despite my own few quirks with it, I do recommend giving Memory a try for a lighter Halloween read!

Find Christoph Marzi online:  Website  •  Facebook

Purchase Memory: Amazon  •  BookDepository 

Becky's View: Dead Jealous by Sharon Jones

Dead Jealous by Sharon Jones
♦publisher: Orchard Books
♦release date: July 4th, 2013
♦paperback, 320 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Poppy Sinclair thrillers, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review

People think of Mother Nature as a gentle lady. They forget that she's also Death...Sixteen-year-old Poppy Sinclair believes in quantum particles, not tarot cards, in Dawkins, not druids. Last summer, in a boating accident in the Lake District, Poppy had a brush with death. But the girl she finds face down in Scariswater hasn't been so lucky. As she fights to discover the truth behind what she believes is murder, Poppy is forced to concede that people and things are not always what they seem and, slipping ever deeper into a web of lies, jealousy and heart-stopping danger, she comes to realise - too late - that the one thing that can save her has been right there, all the time.

Review: Dead Jealous kicks off a great new mystery series, and introduces us to Poppy Sinclair, a veritable Nancy Drew for the modern age.  It's a perfect blend of crime thriller, YA contemporary romance, with just an inkling of something ghostly going on to keep readers on their toes.

This fun story boasts all kind of uniqueness, starting with a setting that I've never come across before.  The entire story takes place amidst all the curiousity and mysticism of a pagan festival.  Poppy, who was raised surrounded by paganism, is no longer into it, but she's come this year to attend her mother's handfasting to her new stepdad.  On her first night, she escapes the crowd and meets Beth---a somewhat enigmatic girl who's come to the festival in search of her missing girlfriend.  Though they just have a short but meaningful conversation, they immediately connect.  The next morning, Poppy discovers Beth dead in the lake and is compelled to find out how she ended up there.

Poppy is a great conflicted, flawed protagonist that you just can't help rooting for.  She is facing down a few fears of her own, which include her own recent brush with nearly drowning and the fact that she is completely in love with her best friend since childhood, Michael.  I know I've said this a million times, but I love a good romance with tons of history behind it, so all the building tension and mixed signals that happen between Michael and Poppy were just perfect. It even gave me that lovely little ache in my own heart as I was reading. The story actually alternates third-person POV between Poppy and Michael, and I admit that did get a little confusing at times, but also gave a wider perspective that worked for the story.  

When it comes to solving the mystery, Poppy is persistent to a fault (as any sleuth worth her salt will absolutely be!) and not afraid to get her hands dirty or go head to head with the creepiest of suspects. There were only a few silly-thriller-cliche moments where the heroine foolishly wanders right into the claws of the villain, but I easily enjoyed the story enough to overlook those.  The whole situation calls into question her own beliefs and her trust of even those closest to her.  It digs her deeper and deeper into danger, and leads up to a truly heart-pounding twist ending!

I definitely look forward to many more mystery-solving adventures with Poppy Sinclair!

Find Sharon Jones onlines:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Dead Jealous:  Amazon.uk  •  BookDepository