I needed a bit of a break from fairy tales and realistic fiction...so I chose some YA horror!
Sick by Tom Leveen is your typical zombie apocalypse/outbreak horror novel. Brian and his friends are the school misfits/troublemakers. Due to an accident when the school had an open campus, a high wall with spikes has been erected around their huge, Phoenix high school. Brian and his best friend Chad scale the wall regularly to cut class. One day, though, they come back into the school to a violent viral outbreak, and a building on lockdown. Turned into crystallized, rage-filled zombies, students and teachers are attacking the healthy ones. Brian and Chad hole up in the drama department, and try to figure out how to reach Brian's twin sister Kenzie, and his ex-girlfriend (whom he still likes) Laura. Both are on the other side of the school, with the living dead between them.
The description said it was Breakfast Club meets The Walking Dead; it reminded me more of Lord of the Flies meets The Faculty...meets The Walking Dead. An entertaining, fairly quick read, it gave me what I expect from a zombie story.
I was a bit put off by some of the dialogue, but this comes from someone who constantly has to remind teenage boys of appropriate language, etc. at the library- so, it may have just been my professional self creeping in. Leveen's descriptions, though- wow! Vivid and gory, super fast-paced...two thumbs up for that! Just don't make the mistake I did and try to read it during lunch- though, that could become a new diet craze ("Just read a highly graphic, gory novel while you try to eat, and watch the pounds melt away!")
There wasn't much new zombie-wise in this book, though, I did like that Brian's Mom was a doctor and could kind of explain what was going on with the virus. There were also some new visual descriptions I liked- physical changes, as well as motor skills. The attack motive was good, too, and ties into a backstory.
All in all, entertaining horror. If you're into zombie books, you'll probably like it. Cell it is not, but if you aren't super-picky about the genre, give it a go!
Sick is published by Amulet (an imprint of Abrams). Digital ARC provided by NetGalley.
Release Date: 10.01.13
Librarian Fail. I never read a Gordon Korman book. I recommend the heck out of him to boys looking for something that will interest them...but have never, ever looked at anything more than the spine (okay, maybe the cover) of a Korman book. However, when Scholastic sent me an ARC for the first in a new series called The Hypnotists, I figured I should give it a shot...and I'm so very glad I did.
Jackson Opus is twelve years old, and has always been persuasive. He won the student council election without even running, he got the other team's star basketball player to shoot like a toddler, and can get any bus to stop for him. What he doesn't realize is, he's descended from a long line of very talented hypnotists. When he's accepted into the esteemed Sentia institute, he's very excited- and his parents are very proud. Soon he's learning to bend minds, and his best friend Tommy thinks it's the coolest thing ever! However, things are darker and deeper than they seem, and soon Jax is in over his head. Will Jax be able to control his powers, or will Sentia control him?
This is a great read, especially for middle-grade boys. I'd say probably 3rd-7th. The dialogue is funny, and there's just enough challenging vocabulary to make it educational, too. The characters are well-written, and not just one-dimensional. There are some great moments of hypnotism gone awry- one of my favorites occurs in the school cafeteria, and also some heart-stopping action-y moments.
I'm always on the lookout for books to sell to boys. It's not that I'm not on the lookout for books to sell to girls, too, but, truthfully, girls are an easier sell. Girls don't care, usually, about the gender of the protagonist, etc. I think boys definitely love stories about guys their own age being chosen to do extraordinary things (like Horowitz's Alex Rider series, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, even the 39 Clues series...which also has books written by Korman!)
Full of action and adventure, fantasy, and humor, this book gets two thumbs up from me! There's even some political intrigue thrown in for good measure!
Hypnotize Me (The Hypnotists #1) is published by Scholastic. ARC provided by publisher.
Release Date: 08.2013
