Angel Dust Blues available as eBook

In case you're interested:

Todd Strasser (author of many YA books that I read before my blogging days) has released his very first YA book, back from 1979, as an eBook. I wrote a tiny bit about it over at the examiner.

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Slayed--Amanda Marrone

Title: Slayed
Author: Amanda Marrone
Publisher: Simon Pulse, 2010.
Pages: 240 p
Source: the author
Compensation: None

When I was at the Albany Children's Book Festival, I was lucky enough to meet some amazing YA authors. One of those authors, Amanda Marrone, gave me a free signed book. Just because.

Daphne Van Helsing just wants to be a normal teen girl worrying about school, boys and going to the Prom. But Daphne is far from normal. She's a teen Slayer, charged with dusting vampires and keeping the world safe. She comes from a long line of slayers (Van Helsing!) including her overbearing parents who have kept her on the road since she was born and inducted her into the business at the tender age of 12. Daphne is so childhood-deprived that she keeps a binder full of things she never got to experience. A crude drawing of a house, pictures of "best friends" she invented, magazine cutouts of prom dresses and potential dates. Of the best friends she drew only one was a real person, Maybelle Crusher, former child star of the kids TV show The Disco Unicorns until her parents replaced her with a more attractive, less chubby 5 year old. The last thing Daphne expects when she and her parents arrive at their latest job is to find Maybelle, now known as Kiki, in a local bar. When Kiki's bodyguard is bitten by a vampire and Daphne saves him she is completely unprepared for Kiki's response: she wants to join the business and slay vamps too.

There have been lots of vampire books but this book is refreshingly different in that it focuses on the slayers, not on the vampires. The vampires and demons are peripheral and BAD. Daphne very clearly explains to Kiki that what she's seen on TV and read in books is false. Vampires are not romantic creatures that are just misunderstood and would make great boyfriends. Vampires are bad and need to be slayed. While Marrone doesn't specifically name other books or TV shows, it's clear what Daphne is talking about... there is a subtle reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Kiki asks Daphne if she has any special powers and has been Chosen to slay vamps. She hasn't been chosen, she's been forced by her parents, and she has no special powers besides being aware of their existence.

Vampires and slaying are just the backdrop to the real story about a young girl whose childhood was stolen from her by her oblivious parents and her desperate longing for a normal life. In many ways her story mirrors Kiki's, which is not supernatural at all. Kiki's parents replaced her on a national TV show because she was too chubby without once thinking about how that would make her feel. They don't see HER, much like Daphne's parents are blind to their own daughter.

Slayed is well-written and fun to read. Daphne and Kiki have a good chemistry together. The vampire-slaying story will satisfy paranormal fans. There's a bit of romance between Daphne and the son of her parents' slayer competition that will appeal to girls expecting a brooding misunderstood boy--who is human and not vampire. The ending is wrapped up neatly and nicely, but that's okay because we want Daphne and Kiki to find their happy endings.

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Heist Society--Ally Carter

Title: Heist Society
Author: Ally Carter
Publisher: Hyperion Teens
Pages: 287 p.
Source: Local library
Compensation: None

I'm a big fan of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series, so it was just a matter of time before I got around to Heist Society, the first in a new series. Carter has a knack for writing strong, yet vulnerable, girl characters. The Gallagher Girl Cammie is a spy-in-training who can kick ass and still worry about boys. In Heist Society, Katarina is just as daring and talented at deception--but on the other side of the law. Kat is an art thief who comes from a long line of art thieves. She briefly tries to escape the family business by enrolling in boarding school and trying to be "normal." It doesn't take long before she's dragged back into it and planning another heist. It's not really her fault though; her Dad is being fingered for a job he didn't do and in order to save his life, she needs to find the paintings he supposedly stole--and steal them back.

This wouldn't be an Ally Carter book without some romantic tension thrown in as well. Kat's partner in crime is Hale, a dashing rich thief, who can make the calm Kat lose her cool. There's no overt romance, nothing that slows down the action, just the appealing tension a la Moonlighting (I know that show is wicked old, but that's always the first show I think of when I think of romantic tension. Even more so than Who's the Boss? Yes, I do know what decade it is.)

It's hard to write a morally ambiguous character who is both appealing and likable, but Carter pulls it off well. Kat is a thief and she's not proud of it. She tries to escape the life, but it's not just her life, it's her family as well. Kat knows she shouldn't be doing these things, but she does live within a certain set of rules. They don't steal from honest people. They're not muggers or violent criminals. In Kat's latest job she's stealing something that was already stolen (more than once) and is trying to return the art to its rightful owners. Carter doesn't pretend that it's okay to steal, she's not glorifying thievery, she's just written an exciting thrilling suspenseful story with a main character who is not black or white, not good or bad, but a little of both.

The sequel, Uncommon Criminals, will be coming out in June 2011. Teens will be eager to read Kat's further adventures.

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Saving Zasha--Randi Barrow

Title: Saving Zasha
Author: Randi Barrow
Publisher: Scholastic Press, 2011.
Pages: 229 p
Source: VOYA courtesy of the publisher
Compensation: None

Mikhail is a young Russian boy living in the aftermath of World War II. His soldier father has been missing since the end of the war, food and resources are limited, and there is still a large amount of fear and distrust. The Russians are so angry at Germany that they have outlawed owning a German-breed dog and have executed any they find. When Mikhail discovers a dying man in the woods with a German shepherd he understands the dangerous risk of adopting the dog, but decides to do it anyway. He and his family must keep Zasha a secret from the government, dog thieves, and even their own neighbors but that proves hard to do with a young nosy girl asking too many questions.

There are many books about kids dealing with war and its ramifications, but this book is unique in its focus on dogs. An afterward describes the real development of the Black Russian Terrier dog as a response to the decimated dog population in Russia after the War. Unlike most dog books, Saving Zasha has a happy ending with all loose ends tied up nicely. There is nothing particularly groundbreaking or remarkable about the writing, but it will be popular with dog lovers as well as students who need to satisfy historical fiction requirements but do not like to read traditional historical fiction.

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I'm an Amazon Associate now. If you click on the Amazon links & buy anything I might make a tiny bit of money.