Category: Fiction

Shutter by Courtney Alameda

Shutter by Courtney Alameda

shutterMicheline Helsing is the last of the line of Van Helsings, of monster slaying fame. In this version of the tale, Micheline slays ghosts and otherworldly beings by capturing their visages on film, thereby taking away their power and banishing back to the realms where they belong.

One night, Micheline and her team has a mission go awry and now, because of a curse, they are going to die. Unless, they can find the ghost that caused the sickness, rid the world of it, and save themselves. The clock is ticking…

Shutter was a Brom Stoker award nominee for Best First Novel. That’s what drew me to this creepy tale.

Horror isn’t my usual genre and the scary parts of this tale really scared the heck out of me. If horror is your thing, this one might not be scary enough. Reading is such a personal experience, you know? It’s hard to predict.

Alameda was at her best during the truly terrifying moments, which, in my opinion, were the undead creatures and anything scenario involving a mirror. Everybody has mirrors in their homes. What if, hypothetically, these were portals into other worlds and *things* could come crawling out of them into this one- eeeeeek!

I didn’t enjoy the so-so character building, teen angst or abusive relationship with the father. That could be a potential trigger too.

Micheline is the type of teen heroine that I met in the Divergent trilogy and wasn’t impressed with then: not trusting anyone in authority with her problems even though they could potentially help her, throwing herself into life threatening situations without proper planning and, therefore, putting her friends in danger too, and pining for the lantern-jawed guy with the ridiculously pumped up fighting skills.

If it wasn’t for the insanely entertaining parts with the ghosts, mirrors, strong friendships with her team and tragic back story, this would be a two-star book instead of a four. But, I believe that its positive attributes outweighed the negatives. Again, reading is such a personal trip. You may disagree. And that’s ok.

For a debut book, Shutter is really very good. I read the last couple chapters of this in a rush because I was terrified for the well-being of the main characters.

If you love young adult horror tales, you should give this one a read. Some read-alikes: Jackaby or 13 Days of Midnight. Shutter is scarier than either of those, but they have similar themes.

Thanks for reading!

Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich

Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich
bull mountain

If you’ve ever thought that your family is too dysfunctional and you can’t, just can’t even, with them anymore, Bull Mountain is the book for you. You’ll read about the Burroughs family down in Georgia, and how through generations of crime, abuse, and out-right violence, they owned and ran everything that happened on their mountain, and you’ll think to yourself… maybe my family isn’t so bad after all.

For sensitive readers, there’s a lot of tough material in here. It runs the gambit from alcoholism to drug abuse, rape to mutilation, extreme poverty, prostitution, and physical violence of all kinds. Actually, I was surprised that I enjoyed it at all, but I really did. Panowich writes characters that I cared about and, when they were misbehaving in various ways, I kept yelling at the book in my head. “You’re better than that!” I kept telling them, but they didn’t listen to me…

The mystery, though not all that mysterious, was quite enjoyable as well. I think that the main point of Bull Mountain is the multi-generational struggle between nature vs nurture. Are people born a certain way, trained by their family to be that way, or is it a magical combination of both? What would it take to produce a good man from a mountain of bad ones? ReadBull Mountain to find out.

To the Burroughs, family is everything. Here, Rye is looking at Cooper’s (his brother) son: “As they ate, Rye studied Gareth’s face…. His eyes were set deep and narrow like his father’s. … They were Cooper’s eyes. It was Cooper’s face, without the calico beard, or the grit, or the anger. Rye remembered when his brother looked like that. It felt like a hundred years ago. pg 11, ebook. I was reminded of myself in that passage. When I look at my various sisters’ children, I see them in the child’s face. It’s just like that too, in that I’m transported to thirty years ago when we were all so young and carefree. None of us were/are what I would call angry though.

Another of the main story arcs is that Clayton (one of the Burroughs) is the town sheriff and the rest of his family are the people that he’s supposed to be protecting the rest of society from. They’ve had a big falling out and now, Clayton is no longer welcome on the mountain: “This place was his home, no matter how unkind it had been to him. Clayton knew he would always be welcome, but the badge had no business here at all. If a thing existed up here (on the mountain), it was because it belonged here. And if it didn’t belong, the people who lived here made damn sure it didn’t stay.” pg 109, ebook.

This part reminded me of my family too: “No hugs or small-talk sentiment, just a hand on a shoulder and a respectful nod made it obvious to anyone watching that these men were family. It wasn’t necessary to catch up. They were both thankful to be there now.” pg 127 ebook. That’s what it’s like to hang out with my father, a painfully shy introvert. But, you know he cares, because he’s there and he’ll sit with you if you’re family.

Finally, this moment between Clayton’s wife and Big Val captured the general feeling of reading Bull Mountain for me: “They shared a moment of crushing sadness that tightened her chest and suddenly made it hard to breathe. It was the kind of sadness brought on by turning corners that led you to places there was no finding your way home from. They had both looked deep within themselves and found an ugliness that couldn’t be stuffed back inside. She’d seen that look on the faces of people before, but now she understood it. Now she owned it. pg 225 ebook. And boom! Panowich breaks your heart. Consider yourself warned.

Thanks for reading!

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

magoniaAza Ray Boyle can’t breathe. It seems like she has always been sick- inexplicably short of breath and weak.

This continuous illness has made her always feel different from the people around her. But, perhaps, there are stranger and more exotic reasons why she is different. Ones that Aza can’t even imagine…

Jason is Aza’s dearest friend. They are so close that they almost speak their own language.

He realizes there is more to Aza than meets the eye. How will Jason handle it when he discovers the shocking truth?

This young adult fantasy is weird, but I enjoyed it.

That’s probably because I read a lot of weird, non-fiction. The story of Magonia, a world in the sky above the every day world which we know, has shown up in some of those books.

One of those books, Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds, captured my imagination.

That book recounts an incident where a bunch of villagers were holding church service and they heard a crash outside. They went to investigate the noise and discovered what appeared to be a ship anchor attached to the roof of their church. It was connected to, this just blows my mind, a ship in the sky. This supposedly happened in 1211 AD.

The astonishing thing about Passport to Magonia is it has pages and pages of stories like that, eyewitness accounts of bizarre ships, people, and incidents concerning people from the sky. And they all actually happened, reportedly.

I remember thinking that an author needed to get her hands on these stories and turn it into something fantastic. Maria Dahvana Headley used a different source material than the book that I read, but does a good job bringing a mysterious blip in history to life.

She has the ability to interweave actual events with fantasy fiction story lines so that the two begin to blur in the reader’s mind.

I read Headley’s first book Queen of Kings years ago and I remember being struck by its originality.

Headley took Cleopatra’s life and turned it into a vampire story. It sounds sort of silly described that way, (oh, ANOTHER vampire story) but it is actually rather fun.

I had read Margaret George’s The Memoirs of Cleopatra shortly before Queen of Kings so I had a pretty good idea of the actual story of the Egyptian queen.

Back to this book, Magonia isn’t going to appeal to everyone.

I was, at first, rather turned off by the uber-intellectual back and forth conversations of the main characters- Jason and Aza.

I think, since the mega success of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, authors make their teenage protagonists so brainy and well-spoken, it is just unbelievable.

I mean, it’s been awhile, but I remember high school. My peers and I were lucky if we could string two cogent sentences together, let alone present verbal dissertations on the meaning of pi.

Anyway, once I was able to look past their flowery repartee, I got really into the story.

Headley paints a magical and dangerous world.

If you enjoyed Magonia, you may also enjoy The Mermaid’s Sister or Under the Empyrean Sky. Both are young adult novels and take place in fantasy worlds that are so close to the world we know, but different in surprising ways.

Check out my review of Aerie, the sequel to this book.

Thanks for reading!

I am Pusheen the Cat by Claire Belton

I am Pusheen the Cat by Claire Belton
pusheen

As I’ve mentioned in a few other reviews, my nine year old hates to read. It breaks my heart. I’m constantly searching for titles to pique her interest and I struck gold with this little book, I am Pusheen the Cat.

Usually, when I bring a book home from work for her, she takes one look at the title and then puts it on her desk…where it sits, until I have to take it back to the library again. This one was a completely different experience. I handed it to her. She sat down. She opened the book and read it cover to cover right then. I was blown away. Seriously, you could have picked my jaw up off of the floor.

There’s no story to this book. It’s just a series of cutsie pictures of Pusheen and her sister, Stormy. There are, however, some tricky vocabulary words thrown in like “inconvenience” or “procrastinator”. I was in mommy/librarian heaven, helping her sound out the words and explaining what they meant. I can’t say enough how much it meant to me to find something she liked, no, loved.

For me, I am Pusheen the Cat is a three star book at most. It’s cute, sure, but that’s about it. For my child, however, this is the holy grail of graphic novels. If you have a reluctant reader, I can’t recommend it highly enough. In fact, I may pay this book the ultimate compliment (in my mind) and purchase a copy of it for my home. Coming from a public librarian, that’s high praise indeed.  Thanks for reading!

The Red Queen by Christina Henry

The Red Queen by Christina Henry

redqueenThe second book in The Chronicles of Alice is scheduled to be published on July 12th.

Though it lacked the grittiness and extreme horror of Alice, Red Queen is a fantastic second effort by Henry. We’re reintroduced to Alice and Hatcher as they escape the City and make their way into the wilderness, on a hunt for Hatcher’s long lost daughter, Jenny. Magic, danger, and monsters wait on the path ahead, but those things are nothing compared to what Alice and Hatcher bring with them in their own damaged and twisted minds.

Cheshire, one of my favorite characters, gives a quick summary of the first book in the beginning of this one, in case you didn’t get a chance to read it:“Hatcher and Alice escaped from the hospital, and traveled through the Old City in search of their pasts and in search of a monster called the Jabberwocky who made the streets run with blood and corpses.” The girl shuddered. “I know about him… What about Alice? Did she have a happy ending?” “I don’t know,” Cheshire said.”

Henry weaves enough of the classic tale into her story so that you know that it is a retelling, but still manages to introduce enough original elements in to make it feel entirely new. Like the toll that magic takes on the people who wield it, something that Carroll never addresses: “Maybe power corrupts them,” Alice said. It was a frightening thought, one that made her suddenly reluctant to try any magic at all. She’d spent years under the influence of drugs that made her think she was insane. She was only just learning who Alice was, what it was like to be her own self. She would rather use no magic at all than become some one unrecognizable.”

The world that Hatcher and Alice inhabit feels like the real world in that, there are no guarantees of happily ever after for the main characters. It’s reminiscent of George R.R. Martin in that, Henry makes you feel truly concerned that either Alice or Hatcher are going to be struck down at any moment. But, Henry actually manages to tell a story in 300 or so pages, something that Martin can’t do. Not that I’m bitter or anything… : “The world gobbles us and chews us and swallows us,” Hatcher said, in that uncanny way she had of reading her thoughts. “I think happy endings must be accidents.” “But we hope for them all the same,” Alice said.” I do too.

Alice really comes into her own in this story. She’s brave, but fragile- a damaged hero but resilient. If you’re looking for a strong female protagonist, you’ll find one in this book: “Alice thought, my magic doesn’t seem to be good for much at all. And there is no one who can help me learn, for all the Magicians I have met have been mad or cruel or both. I was mad once too, but it doesn’t seem to have taken properly. I didn’t come out of the hospital with any powerful powers.” Or did she?

This passage summed up the book for me: “This is really all very strange,” Alice murmured. “One of the strangest things I’ve seen, and I have seen lots that is strange. More than my fair share, as a matter of fact.”

Highly recommended for adult readers who enjoy dark fairy tales, magic, and transformation through suffering. I’ve really become a fan of Henry and I can’t wait to see where she takes this story next. If you enjoyed this tale, you may want to try The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins or The Circle by Mats Strandberg.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ace Publishing for a free digital ARC of this book. And, thank you for reading!

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

Review on Reread, August 2025: It has been ten years since I first read The Library at Mount Char (my original review may be read below this one). I think the book has held up incredibly well in the decade since its publication. Well done, Mr. Hawkins.

Rather than rehashing the plot, I’d like to take a moment to address a theme that I didn’t touch on my last review. If the spirit (or soul, if you will) of a person is truly immortal and said person, through magic or a technology so advanced that it appears as magic, does not die but instead lives on and on for 50 to 60 thousand years, what effect, if any, would this unnatural longevity of the body have on the spirit? What if the spirit retains all memories of this elongated life? How would that change their behavior in their every day interactions with other, non-immortal, beings?

My partner and I have discussed the potential devastating consequences of such a thing when considering the longevity of elves in Tolkien’s classic work The Lord of the Rings or the twisted upper class in the series Altered Carbon. The way I see it, the elves would probably start to lose the plot around year 150 or so and then it would be all downhill from there. Why? Imagine, if you will, the hurts, slights and every day micro-traumas that can cause such damage in a normal lifespan being extended over thousands or tens of thousands of years. How could someone possibly deal with such a thing and not lose their minds? My contention is that they can’t.

Yes, we are talking about magical beings with, I’m assuming, some sort of safety valve to the normal wear of time on the spirit. But what if there was no safety valve? What if, as time marched on and on for these beings, they became more and more removed from their elvishness (or in The Library of Mount Char and Altered Carbon, their humanity) and instead became aloof, immortal beings who would stop at nothing and have all of the resources in the universe to achieve their aims.

One might observe them abusing the beings around them because they no longer have the ability or desire to empathize with other flawed beings who are still existing in time. Or maybe they forget their reasons for wanting to change their world around them in the first place and become overly fixated on their own viewpoint to the detriment of all others.

Or maybe, just maybe, they can’t let go of what happened in the past and they make their current reality into a reoccurring nightmare of past traumas, perpetuating the cycle subconsciously into not only their future but everyone else’s too.

My point is, I believe physical death happens for a reason, perhaps a reason that we do not yet understand, but maybe it has something to do with the rehabilitation of the spirit that occupies the body more than the limitations of physical reality. As humanity develops more and more sophisticated methods for extending our lives (one thinks on a certain conversation two world leaders had recently about organ transplants), I think we should consider the potential spiritual cost of these strategies not only for those who are unable to afford such things but also for those who partake in them. What sorts of emotional baggage or past traumas are being dragged kicking and screaming into the future?

The Library at Mount Char could be read as a warning for the fantasy of the immortality of the body. At what point in a life that spans eternity does a person change from a person into something else? Does immortal life make one a god or simply a mortal who has outlived their own time?

I don’t know the answers to these questions. I invite you to give this book a read and let me know what you think. It really is worth the read and I highly recommend it.

Thanks for reading.

Original Review, May 2015: The Library at Mount Char is an urban fantasy/horror novel about Carolyn and her adopted “family” who are studying the seemingly endless knowledge of an immortal being that they call “Father”. The lessons that they learn are terrifying but powerful. After years of fear and torture at the hands of the Father and some of her siblings, Carolyn wants to break free from her living nightmare. She knows that she can’t trust anyone, but she also doesn’t know all of her Father’s secrets. How exactly does one escape from a god?

I think that this book is fantastic. The characters are more than human and divinely flawed, all of them. The plot proceeds at a breakneck pace, going from thrilling to apocalyptic so quickly that I couldn’t put this book down. Yes, I lost some sleep reading The Library at Mount Char. If you pick this up, I bet that you will too.

Sensitive readers, beware.  There is sexual violence/rape, physical abuse, mental abuse, and animal abuse in this book.  If any of those topics cause troubles for you, you may want to choose a different read.

The distinctive mix of godlike powers and very human, emotional, knee jerk reactions contained in this story reminded me of some of the darker Greek and Roman mythological story elements like the serial rapists (Zeus and about every other major god figure) and the unjust punishments of the innocents (Medusa, Actaeon, Laocoon, etc etc). Those mythologies were written to explain the unexplainable workings of nature, weather, time, and humanity itself. I think, if one makes The Library at Mount Char into a metaphor for reality, that in a modern way, it fills the same role as those more ancient stories. It gives a rhyme and reason to the mystery that is life. Pretty deep for a debut fantasy novel, yes?

Some of the twists I saw coming, but others, some of the big ones, I didn’t. It kind of reminded me of an M. Night Shyamalan film, except instead of one gasp worthy moment, there were maybe six of them. After each one, I’d sort of put the book down for a second and start to rethink the story from the new vantage point that the author had just provided. It’s really an amazing work for a first novel. Maybe Hawkins will give the world a series?? Please. I’d read it.

Thank you to the Goodreads First Reads program for an advance reader copy of this book.  And, thank you for reading!

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Dear readers, warning!!  I don’t usually put spoilers in my reviews, but I had to in this one to discuss it properly.  Please do not read this if you haven’t read the book yet.

Time to talk about Me Before You. This is a difficult one. Louisa (Lou) Clark recently lost her job. She needs another one, quick, before her family loses the house. Will Traynor used to be an active, world traveling, 1%er, but, after a terrible accident, he’s stuck in wheelchair and suffers each day as a quadriplegic. Both Lou and Will are damaged in their own way, but they make life better for each other.

Me Before You addresses the difficult issue of assisted suicide, so if you have trouble reading about that topic, steer clear. There’s also some flashbacks to a rape, so another warning, for folks who are triggered by such things.

I didn’t struggle with either of those topics, but it bothered me that the author painted such a bleak world for Lou. Her family doesn’t treat her well, her boyfriend, Patrick, doesn’t treat her well, and, in consequence, she doesn’t treat herself very well. I realize that the point of the story is how Will changes Lou’s view about the world and herself but it is awfully depressing.

And then, of course, I hated the ending. After everything they go through, Lou’s love isn’t enough? Yeah, I didn’t like that. You’d think Will would see how he made such a difference in one person’s life and realize that he could help many, many more people, if he could just see his world as larger than his body, but no. This book didn’t make me cry, I just felt awful. Seriously, awful. Stomach hurting, headache inducing, post-book depression, awful. So, you may not want to read Me Before You if you’re feeling down before you begin. It’s not a happy book.

Moyes does a great job with the characterizations. Here is Lou explaining how badly she misses her job: “Unemployment had been a concept, something droningly referred to on the news in relation to shipyards or car factories. I had never considered that you might miss a job like you missed a limb- a constant, reflexive thing. I hadn’t thought that as well as the obvious fears about money, and your future, losing your job would make you feel inadequate, and a bit useless. That it would be harder to get up in the morning than when you were rudely shocked into consciousness by the alarm.” pg 30 ebook Dealing with some unemployed depression at my house right now. That passage rang some bells for me.

Will’s mother, Camilla, is also a major figure in the story. Lou describes her here: “I wanted to say: Well, here I am, being cheery every ruddy day. Being robust, just as you wanted. So what’s your problem? But Camilla Traynor was not the kind of woman you could have said that to. And besides, I got the feeling nobody in that house ever said anything direct to anyone else.” pg 71 ebook

Lou’s perception of time when caring for an ailing Will: “There are normal hours, and then there are invalid hours, when time stalls and slips, when life-real life-seems to exist at one remove. I watched some television, ate, and cleared up the kitchen, drifting around the annex in silence.” pg 90 ebook When my child gets sick, I’ve experienced that strange “between time” too.

Camilla’s frustration as a town magistrate: “It’s quite hard to stay calm and understanding when you see the same faces, the same mistakes made again and again. I could sometimes hear the impatience in my tone. It could be oddly dispiriting, the blank refusal of humankind to even attempt to function responsibly.” pg 112 ebook I feel that sometimes at my job. Why can’t folks learn how to use a copier! Sigh.

I laughed when Lou went to the library for the first time in years and was surprised by what she found. I think it makes a statement for the evolution of library systems: “It wasn’t what I remembered. Half the books seemed to have been replaced by CDs and DVDs, great bookshelves full of audiobooks, and even stands of greeting cards. And it was not silent. The sound of singing and clapping filtered through from the children’s book corner, where some kind of mother and baby group was in full swing. People read magazines and chatted quietly. The section where old men used to fall asleep over the free newspapers had disappeared, replaced by a large oval table with computers dotted around the perimeter. pg 141 ebook. My section! “A librarian stopped by my table, and handed me a card and a laminated sheet with instructions on it. She didn’t stand over my shoulder, just murmured that she would be at the desk if I needed any further help..” pg 141 ebook. If Lou had grown up in my town, that would be me!

The key to Lou’s character, in my opinion: “It felt like I was living a life I hadn’t had the chance to anticipate.” pg 234 ebook  I think a lot of people are like that, sort of stumbling through life without goals or dreams of any kind. For her, love was the key to turning that around.  If only more people could be that fortunate, without the abrupt ending.

If you enjoyed Me Before You, you may want to pick up The Fault in Our Stars by John Green or If I Stay by Gayle Foreman. All of which have film adaptations: so, read the book first, then keep those kleenexes close for the movie.

Thanks for reading!

Unshelved Vol. 1 by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum

Unshelved Vol. 1 by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum

I enjoyed Unshelved, a comic about a public library, its librarians, and the ridiculousness that goes on when the library is open.  But, sometimes the cartoon hit too close to home. I’ve been treated and spoken to like Dewey at the information desk, tons of times. So, librarians beware. Some of these are almost too true to be funny. On the other hand, I like my job, so I’ve never responded like Dewey. It’s cathartic, reading his sarcastic responses to ridiculous questions and situations.

My library has this book classified as young adult and I feel that it is an appropriate categorization.  There’s nothing in here that I would find objectionable for a younger teen to read but some of the interpersonal problems may go over the head of a 12 year old.

Favorite character: Buddy the Book Beaver! Of course.

Favorite cartoons: The one where Merv writes a brochure to get more teens to come to the library pg 33 (My department is responsible for the young adult room, so I really appreciated the humor).

When the patron asks Dewey if he has any pens when he’s standing next to a pile of pens (Happens to me all the time). bottom of pg 41

And finally, when Dewey starts dispensing Eastern philosophy to the library patrons: “Search without searching. Look for nothing and find everything. Read the book but don’t look at the words.” top of pg 103. That’s probably me in about thirty years.

If you enjoyed Unshelved, you may want to pick up Rex Libris, Volume I: I, Librarian (Rex Libris, #1-5) by James Turner (another librarian themed comic) or The Black Belt Librarian: Real-World Safety & Security by Warren Graham (non-fiction book on how to deal with difficult patrons or security risks at the library).  Thank you for reading!

More Than This by Patrick Ness

More Than This by Patrick Ness

I picked up More Than This because I recently enjoyed A Monster Calls. This book, like Monster, is about a young man learning how to handle life’s major hurdles. That, though, is where their similarities end.  More than This opens with Seth drowning in the ocean and the story really begins when he opens his eyes after death…

Photo by Amber Janssens on Pexels.com

More Than This is darker than A Monster Calls in many ways. For readers who are concerned about the maturity level of themes in this book: there are some (short) scenes of physical abuse, non-graphic GLBT teen sex, teen suicide, brief moments of bullying, extremely brief nudity (both male and female), and a short masturbation bit. On the other hand, there’s a lot of empowering elements in here too. There’s a very strong, young, black female heroine, a plucky, brainy, Polish sidekick, and some really trippy depictions of reality itself. The GLBT relationship is healthy and non-abusive. The friendships that develop between the main characters are real and beautiful.

Depending on the young adult reading the book, I’d say 14+ might be a good age for this one.

I loved the ambiguity of Seth’s situation in the afterlife. No spoilers here, but that was my favorite part, the “what the heck is going on here” moments that Ness kept handing to me. Read it and you’ll see what I mean in mere pages.

Photo by Jonathan Andrew on Pexels.com

Patrick Ness is at his strongest when he’s writing his way around painful emotions, which there are piles of in this book. He’s at his lowest during the first part of More Than This because of the pacing. This starts out seriously slowly, but if you can make it through the first section, things pick up considerably afterwards.

Some of my favorite moments: “Is this a dream? he thinks, the words coming to him slowly, thickly, as if from a great distance. The last dream before death?” pg 13 ebook

“He looks out toward the darkened sitting room and wonders what he’s supposed to do here. Is there a goal? Something to solve? Or is he just supposed to stay here forever? Is that what hell is? Trapped forever, alone, in your worst memory? It makes a kind of sense.” pg 31 ebook

Seth’s relationship with his parents is pretty messed up, which is very sad, really: “His mother made a sign with her hands of sarcastic surrender, then stared firmly at the ceiling. His father turned to look at him, and Seth realized with a shock how rare it was for his father to look him straight in the eye. It was like having a statue suddenly ask you for directions. pg 97 ebook

Photo by Denise Duplinski on Pexels.com

My favorite character was Tomasz. He has wisdom far beyond his age:“Tomasz shrugs. “People ask for what they need in different ways. Sometimes by not even asking for it at all.” pg 149 ebook

The heroine: “People see stories everywhere,” Regine says. “That’s what my father used to say. We take random events and we put them together in a pattern so we can comfort ourselves with a story, no matter how much it obviously isn’t true.” She glances back at Seth. “We have to lie to ourselves to live. Otherwise, we’d go crazy.” pg 159 ebook. Very true.

One last passage, for my husband, who argues with people on the internet far too much and who came to mind here: “And that’s what the Internet age has done for us,” his mother says, sitting down. “Anything you don’t like is automatically disgusting and anyone who may like it themselves is an idiot. So much for a world full of different viewpoints, huh?” pg 319 ebook.

If you enjoyed More Than This, you may like A Monster Calls even more (I know I did) or try The Last One by Alexandra Oliva (a book written for adults, but a mature young adult would probably enjoy it too).  Thank you for reading!