Back Cover of A Certain Slant of Light

Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you’re dead.

In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: For the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen–terrified, but intrigued–is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.

Three Quick Points About A Certain Slant of Light

• Point 1: Classic voice wrapped in a contemporary setting. It felt more like reading historical literature than contemporary fiction, despite its 21st century setting.
• Point 2: James and Helen (once she gets a body) are bunnies. And I don’t mean cute. I mean they like to get down and dirty. A lot. And passionately.
• Point 3: More questions than answers. After the final page is closed, a lot of questions about the meaning of life and death are still lingering in the air, unanswered.

Full Review of A Certain Slant of Light

Before reading the full review, please note that there may be some spoilers. I tried to keep it vague enough not to spoil the entire story, but be warned. If you’d rather not take any chances, skip the synopsis and go straight to the final thoughts.

A Certain Slant of Light Synopsis

Helen has passed on, but her spirit remains as what she refers to as Light. To sustain her existence, she clings to living hosts and follows them about their lives, careful not to drift too far away.

Through her current host, a modern high school English professor, she meets James. He is also Light, but inhabiting the body of Billy Blake. At first, Helen is frightened that someone living (Quick) can see her, but soon discovers the true story.

As James and Helen come to know each other, their desire to connect on a physical level grows and they decide Helen needs a body. Both with physical bodies, they proceed to live the lives of their hosts, though they have none of their memories and each one has their own set of problems.

(Billy Blake is from a broken home where his older brother Mitch is his caretaker and Jenny Thompson lives with extremely religious parents whose world is quietly crumbling.)

Through these physical bodies, both James and Helen are able to figure out what happened to them and ultimately move on. Along the way, however, they make decisions that greatly affect the lives of their individual hosts.

Final Thoughts On A Certain Slant of Light

A Certain Slant of Light reminded me of The Sixth Sense (1999, M. Knight Shyamalan), except told from a ghost’s perspective. And when I closed the book, I realized it was more about how actions can affect others than a straightforward romance.

Using prose and pacing found usually in historical literature, Helen brings us through the story, explaining what it feels like to be Light, how it feels to find love with James, and her struggle with doing the right thing as opposed to following her desires when it comes to the lives of Billy and Jenny.

I didn’t care much for how the love developed between James and Helen; call me cynical, but I don’t entirely buy the love in two days scenario even if they were the only two Light on earth—in that respect, Whitcomb didn’t sell it for me—but I could understand their magnetism.

Plus, there was an undercurrent to the story: how James and Helen’s actions were affecting the lives of Billy and Jenny. Inadvertently, both James and Helen needed to help their hosts, whose souls had vacated their bodies beforehand, in order to free themselves and bring their hosts back to their rightful homes. In essence, James and Helen needed to do what Billy and Jenny could not.

Although Billy’s story was cut off due to perspective, it’s relatively simple to assume that he needed to confront his brother and father in order to move forward in his life. And Jenny needed to confront her parents—more specifically, her mother, and let them know who she was as a person rather than shrinking away into oblivion.

At the end of the book, there are plenty of strings untied, but it’s left up to the reader to tie them. For instance, in the case of Billy and Jenny, they seem to be in one fine mess, however, another way of looking at it would be that Billy and Jenny were drawn together for a deeper reason and they would continue forward, helping each other and possibly finding lasting love.

Also, one wonders about Helen’s first husband. After she was finally able to pass over, she sees James and they are together once again, but it was mentioned she had another husband who she had a child with—was James this husband? Again, a question for the reader to answer.

Finally, there’s plenty of allegory to decipher which brings up questions about the meaning of life and death and even God. Great book to pick up for discussions as there are likely to be many conflicting opinions. However, it’s important that the reader enjoys classic literature on some level, otherwise the motility could seem sluggish. It helps, too, if one is in the right state of mind before reading.

NB: There is some explicit sexual content, though very tastefully done, and some mature subjects. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone under 16—or at least, not mature enough to handle such content.

Rating: Worth every penny [TPB] (?)

A Certain Slant of Light at Amazon

When I was about 9/10ths of the way through this book, I realized that it was a sequel to Red Handed, which was sitting on my bookshelf—unread. That was definitely a *facepalm* moment if I do say so myself. So, if you already have Red Handed, read that one first.

Aside from reading the book out of order, I enjoyed my little detour.

• The action never stopped. It seemed that Camille and Erik were always being chased, shot at, and when they weren’t Camille was getting a little action of her own. (There were a couple scenes which would definitely place this book on the 16+ list.)
• The characters were well-drawn, if not a little stereotypical. I would have preferred, however, if Camille’s cowardice and goodie-two-shoes-ness was shown more clearly in her actions before we got to see the brave, strong Camille that she never realized she could be. But it was no big. I also wish the bad guys had been a little badder. (Eh hem, I’m looking at some of those A.I.R. agents.)
• Reading it made me reminisce about old Alien Nation episodes that I used to watch as a kid. Yes, folks, I just admitted that I watched Alien Nation. The concept of aliens inhabiting the earth alongside humans has always been intriguing to me and the thing that I loved about both the series and this book was that it didn’t sugarcoat it. It showed some of the tribulations that different species might encounter as a result of simply being different.
• There were more editing mistakes than I’d expected. The book started off strong, with an easy flow, then all of a sudden, errors started cropping up. The errors seemed random and gave the book the feel that it was a rush to complete and get to print. While it didn’t detract entirely from the story, there were more than a few moments when I had to stop and re-read a sentence because I thought my mind was playing a trick on me.

Put plainly, I had no idea what to expect with this book, but was pleasantly surprised. It’s a great lazy day read when you just want to kill a few hours.

And since I won’t be reading this title for my Sunday Salon post, I won’t be able to use this sketch for my Sunday Sketch. Rather than let it languish, I’ve decided to include it here.

This is my interpretation of Kitten, one of the A.I.R. agents that took on Camille and Erik.

I have no idea why I chose to draw Kitten—in fact, I didn’t even know I was drawing her until I was done. I really wanted to draw Cara or Erik, but never quite got around to it…maybe while I’m reading Red Handed.

(Sorry about the image bleed-through. I sketch in my Moleskine notebook and these particular pages are thin.)

Back Cover of The Forest of Hands and Teeth

In Mary’s world, there are simple truths.

The Sisterhood always knows best.

The Guardians will protect and serve.

The Unconsecrated will never relent.

And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village. The fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

Now she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?

Three Quick Points About The Forest of Hands and Teeth

• Point 1: Love square surrounded by zombies. You’d think there would be plenty of drama when you have two guys in love with the same girl and another girl being in love with those two guys without throwing zombies into the mix, but you’d be surprised.
• Point 2: Storytelling lost to the ages. One thread throughout the book was the stories Mary’s mother told her, yet we the readers aren’t told these stories, only their synopses.
• Point 3: So many unanswered questions. Such is life. You’re presented with a question, but you become sidetracked and you don’t realize you never received an answer until it’s too late.

Full Review of The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Before reading the full review, please note that there may be some spoilers. I tried to keep it vague enough not to spoil the entire story, but be warned. If you’d rather not take any chances, skip the synopsis and go straight to the final thoughts.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth Synopsis

Mary lives in a gated community surrounded by The Forest of Hands and Teeth and in that forest live the Unconsecrated (flesh eating zombies, in other words). It’s the only life she’s ever known.

When her father is bitten by one of the Unconsecrated, Mary and her brother Jed decide to start keeping a closer eye on their mother because they’re not certain she can be trusted to remain sane in the wake of losing her husband.

It doesn’t work, however, because Mary is distracted by a childhood friend, Harry, who declares his desire to court her and lingers with him a little too long allowing her mother to get too close to the fence.

As Mary watches her mother turn and sent out into the forest to join the other zombies, her world comes crashing down around her. She loses her faith in God. She’s being courted by a boy she does not love and the one she does love (his brother) is courting her best friend. Her brother Jed is angry about their mother and refuses to allow Mary back into their home, so she’s forced to live with and join the Sisterhood and that means good-bye freedom.

While in the Sisterhood’s charge, Mary discovers they’ve been keeping secrets, but becomes distracted when her true love, Travis, is brought in with a badly broken leg. Each night she visits with him and tells him stories of the ocean and eventually, their love for one another grows.

By some miracle, Harry decides to go to the Sisterhood and claim Mary. In doing so, she’s no longer required to join the Sisterhood. Unfortunately, Mary’s heart belongs to another and to make things worse, that other belongs to Cassandra, her best friend. Let’s just say things get extremely muddled from there and will not properly render in a synopsis.

Then there’s a breach of the fence. The village is overrun by slow moving zombies and a fast one, which they aptly call The Fast One. Before leaving the Sisterhood, Mary had a brief interaction with The Fast One and discovered her name was Gabrielle and the Sisters had something to do with her turning.

In all the chaos, Mary, Harry, Travis, Cassandra, Jacob, a young boy, Jed, and Beth, his wife and Harry and Travis’s sister, are all forced into the maze of fences that lead into the unknown.

Final Thoughts On The Forest of Hands and Teeth

I have to start off by saying I truly didn’t care for Mary. I didn’t connect to her emotionally and had no idea why she thought the things she thought or did the things she did half the time.

Her mother’s Return was a pivotal time in her life because it seemed as though she was close to her mother, however, we’re not shown the extent of that closeness. Told? Yes. Shown? No.

For instance, Mary’s mother always told her stories of a time before the Return, but we’re not drawn into the stories. Instead, we’re offered synopses of these stories and as a result, we don’t get to see that bonding between mother and daughter. It would have simply been nice to hear the words coming from Mary’s mother’s mouth as a beautiful memory.

Since I didn’t get that emotional bonding, I had to go on blind faith how guilty Mary truly felt about not getting to her mother before she wandered too close to the fence.

As the book progressed, I began wondering what was so captivating about Mary that would make two guys strive for her love as Harry and Travis, two brothers, did. From my point of view, she seemed a little too flighty and a bit whiney for my liking. Of course, that doesn’t make Mary a bad person, just someone I didn’t connect with.

Another area of contention was Cassandra. We’re told how she is, or how she was, by Mary, but never shown this. No flashbacks of moments where she and Cass were being carefree or laughing over Mary’s stories or anything of that nature. All we’re shown is the current Cass who seems somewhat unreasonable and selfish, until the end when my respect for her grew.

All of that notwithstanding, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. The narrative was smartly written. It was the story and the mystery surrounding the Sisterhood, the forest, and the fences that made the book compelling. Frankly, I would have been just as fine if the whole love square thing were hacked right out of it and we were left with five people, a child, and a dog trying to figure out the puzzle.

Their society, in light of events, became ultra-religious and honoured constancy above love. Marriage was one of convenience and survival rather than for love. It was about keeping the bloodlines clean (I assume, of inbreeding) and elaborate binding rituals were created to see that traditions were upheld.

The Sisterhood controlled their secrets and they apparently had many, even from the Guardians and The Guild who were tasked with keeping the village safe and the fences strong.

It’s hinted at multiple times that The Sisterhood has some knowledge of where the Unconsecrated came from and what lied beyond the forest, but in their lust for power and domination, those secrets were fiercely guarded. Mary’s desire to figure it all out is the driving force behind the book.

At the end, Mary does get her answer, but we readers are still left with plenty of unanswered questions. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. And though it may sound a little masochistic, I actually like the not knowing. It gave me some hope.

Rating: Get It Used [B-/C+] (?)

Get the Forest of Hands and Teeth at Amazon

*On a completely unrelated note, I have to warn you that the word scrabble is used at least one too many times in this book. Every time my eyes landed on it, I had to sigh and wonder why.

From the back cover of Wake

She is floating. Not the falling dream again, she thinks. She is sick to death of the falling dream.

The scene changes immediately. Now Janie is outside. It’s dark. She’s alone, behind a shed, but she can hear muffled voices. She’s never been alone before, and she doesn’t know how people can have dreams that they are not in. She is curious. She watches nervously, hoping this isn’t somebody’s nightmare about to explode through the wall of the shed, or from behind the bushes…

Three quick points about Wake

• Point 1: It’s rather short. With abrupt, sometimes awkward, sentence structures.
• Point 2: This is either a ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’ book, yet somehow I managed to be squarely in the middle, loving some aspects, craving more definition, and hating others.
• Point 3: The characters remind me of Bella Swan and Eward Cullen in their inexplicable love that just somehow seems to work for the story.

The full review of Wake

Before reading the full review, please note that there may be some spoilers. I tried to keep it vague enough not to spoil the entire story, but be warned. If you’d rather not take any chances, skip the synopsis and go straight to the final thoughts.

Wake Synopsis

The story, penned by Lisa McMann, is about a young girl named Janie Hanagan who has a special ability: she inexplicably plunges into the dreams of others.

She first discovered this unique ability when she was eight, but she didn’t fully understand it until much later. As she aged, she had more episodes and through her interactions, she discovered the hopes, fears, and desires of those around her.

Then, while driving one day, she tumbles into a nightmare. Over time she discovers who the recurring nightmare belongs to and they form a relationship. He, Cabel, helps Janie come to terms with her ability and Janie helps him come to terms with his own twisted history.

Both of these main characters, Janie and Cabel, have disturbed childhoods–Janie’s mother is an alcoholic who couldn’t care less about what her daughter is up to (rather convenient) and Cabel’s abusive father died (plus, he’s legally old enough to live alone which is also rather convenient for the story progression); his mother is purportedly living somewhere in Florida.

Their budding relationship suffers some setbacks when Janie allows the rumors she hears about Cabel to overrule her own judgment, what she’s seen in his actions, and what he’s told her. Eventually, Cabel’s secret is revealed, Janie learns the truth, and all is once again right in their world.

Final Thoughts on Wake

Rarely do I say this about a book, but it needs to be longer. It’s convoluted in places, well conceived in others, and simply anemic overall. Otherwise it would have rated as one of the better books I’ve read recently.

Wake falls into the category of well conceived, but questionably executed. The format of the date and time for sections was a nice touch. The description of the dreams, the terseness of the sentences, and the vague descriptions all contributed to the dreamlike quality of the book.

What didn’t work well for the story, however, was the lack of details, back story, and transitions. The development of the relationship between Janie and Cabel was suspect. (It’s difficult to give an example without giving away the spoilers.) And the cat and mouse game they played while Cabel was withholding information from Janie, leaving her with nothing to go on except rumors and conjecture, seemed trite. And let’s not even get started on the big reveal of Cabel’s secret, or the secret itself. That entire section, which came at the end and changed the tone, style, and tempo. Suddenly, what made the book a unique and exciting read dissipated into thin air and it became yet another commercial novel.

McMann has an excellent and unique story idea, but its evolution is too unsophisticated to be fully palatable. Other readers might love it for its simplicity, but for me, it was overly simple. So simple that the complete story seemed disjointed. The end was more like an afterthought, added for a bit of action, than a deliberate thread in the story. There’s another novel due out in February 2009 which is said to complete the Janie/Cabel story, but frankly, the story shouldn’t have been broken into two books. Or, the current story should have been slightly more rounded out.

All in all, it was a quick and easy read. The premise and story was good (the concept of someone who falls into other peoples’ dreams). And the style worked for about 80-90% of the story, so I don’t regret the purchase, but I’m wishing I’d checked it out at the library first or grabbed it used.

Rating: Get it used (?)

Note for parents or sensitive readers: This book is targeted to young adults (girls in general), but it does have some coarse language and underage alcohol/drug use. It’s probably along the lines of what young people face today. While it’s not hardcore, or even condoning its use, I thought I should go ahead and mention it.

Wake by Lisa McMann at Amazon