All posts by Kasey

About Kasey

Reads things. Writes things. Fluent in sarcasm. Willful optimist. Cat companion, chocolate connoisseur, coffee drinker. There are some who call me Mom.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Book Review and Content, Middle Grade 8-12, Paranormal, , , , , , ,

The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins
Published September 30, 2008

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

They say it takes a town to raise a child. Or in this case, a graveyard.

After his family are murdered by a stranger named Jack, a toddler escapes to a graveyard where he is adopted by a pair of ghosts who name him Nobody. A vampire speaks up as Bod’s guardian, eventually sharing this responsibility with a werewolf.  Bod befriends other ghost children and even a witch buried on unconsecrated ground near the graveyard. But the mysterious man who murdered his family still seeks him and intends to finish the task he set out to do the night Bod came to live in the graveyard. Bod and his friends must find out who this man is and why he is determined to kill Bod before it’s too late.

Neil Gaiman recently received the Newberry medal for The Graveyard Book and has also been nominated for the Hugo award. The characters are well-crafted, memorable and endearing, but the story is very dark. I found it so easy to care for Bod and root for him throughout the story. It’s a pretty quick read with illustrations throughout. Sensitive readers might find the dark elements to be too intense. See below for other content information.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None

Sexual Content
None

Spiritual Content
Ghosts, ghouls, a vampire, werewolf, and a witch are included in the story’s cast of characters and save Bod from harm. Bod literally lives among the crypts and tombs of the graveyard and spends most of his life among the dead (and undead?).

Violent Content
The story opens after a man has murdered Bod’s parents and sibling. While the murders themselves are not graphically described, the killer is cold, complacent about their deaths, even the death of the other child. He intends to kill Bod as well, though he is only six months old at the time. While not graphic, the nature of those intentions seemed harsh to me.

Drug Content
None

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Review: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Book Review and Content, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

Breaking Dawn
Stephanie Meyer
Little, Brown & Company
Published August 7, 2007

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

At last– the moment Twilight fans have dreamed of: Edward and Bella marry and retreat to a private island for a honeymoon. When it becomes obvious that Bella is pregnant– and with an extraordinary child– the couple returns home to care for Bella and possibly even protect her from the child in her womb. But the only way to save Bella may be to transform her.

When the dreaded Volturi close in on the Cullen Family, presumably to kill the child, Bella commits to do whatever it takes to protect the child she saw in her dreams. As the battle looms nearer, it becomes clear to Bella that she has more strength than even she gave herself credit for. But will it be enough to protect her new family from total destruction?

This was my least favorite book in the series. I will say that at last, we see Bella find her own strength, and that was a cool twist. But instead of it happening in an interesting and hard-won way, she kind of just eases into victory almost without realizing she’s doing anything incredible. So that part wasn’t so cool.

Edward and Bella finally have their long-awaited consummation of their romance, and that takes some time and is a bit ridiculous what with Edward’s crazy strength kind of out of control. Bella’s pregnancy is kind of weird, too. Honestly, some of the vampire story rules got too weird for me at that point, because it gets into what the risks are of her carrying a child who’s only part-vampire and is that even possible? My favorite description of the book (though it does contain some spoilers) comes from a spoof commercial advertising a Twilight Edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It’s pretty crazy, but it kind of sums up some of my feelings on the story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
There was a little bit more swearing in this novel compared to the first. Light bordering moderate.

Sexual Content
So now that Edward and Bella are married, the party is on. Meyer does a fair job keeping the details of Bella and Edward’s sex life strictly between them. Hints about it are dropped, and the room is damaged due to Edward’s super-strength, but there’s no play by play description of the events that occur.

A bond forms between the baby and one of the werewolves, and because of her age, it’s a little strangely creepy. The characters maintain that it’s an imprint, kind of a betrothal type matching deal, that’s not sexual in any way, but I still found it to be a little weird.

Spiritual Content
Largely the same as the other Twilight books. The Edward Cullen and his family are “good” vampires who’ve chosen only to feed on animals, not humans. They are at odds with the “bad” vampires who consider themselves superior to the human race and still kill/bite people. Werewolves emerge to protect the people of Forks, WA.

Violent Content
The Volturi are as ruthless as ever, destroying one vampire in the midst of a conflict. The baby emerging from Bella is a bit graphic and bloody– it’s not the usual birth experience.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Book Review and Content, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Eclipse
Stephanie Meyer
Little, Brown & Company
Published August 7, 2007

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Once again Bella Swan’s life is in danger, seemingly because of her association with the Cullen family. Strange events unfold in nearby Seattle– a mass of unsolved murders. Could there be “newborn” vampires on the loose?

As rumor of the “newborn” vampires spreads, a new rumor reaches the Cullen clan. The powerful Volturi, to whom Bella has promised to shed her mortality and become a vampire, appear to be planning a visit to the town of Forks. As Bella seeks to get her promise met, she discovers she must make a difficult choice. If she becomes a vampire, she loses Jacob, her best friend. If she remains mortal, Edward will watch her grow old and die.

I liked that this book expanded some of the ideas about the vampire lore and hierarchy beyond the Cullen family. Some of the same plot constructions hold up this story that formed the earlier books in the series. Again we see Bella waiting for rescue and Edward treating her as though she’s helpless. I’m just not a huge fan of that model. I want to see more spine from her at the very least. See below for content information.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
There was a little bit more swearing in this novel compared to the first. Light bordering moderate.

Sexual Content
Still very little physical sexual contact at all. Huge amounts of romantic tension between them, though. Bella and Edward’s desire for each other is very obvious.

Spiritual Content
Largely the same as Twilight and New Moon. The Edward Cullen and his family are “good” vampires who’ve chosen only to feed on animals, not humans. They are at odds with the “bad” vampires who consider themselves superior to the human race and still kill/bite people. Werewolves emerge to protect the people of Forks, WA.

Violent Content
The Volturi are as ruthless as ever, destroying one vampire in the midst of a conflict. The werewolf clan takes on a vampire.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Book Review and Content, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

New Moon
Stephanie Meyer
Little, Brown & Company
Published September 6, 2006

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

The sequel to Twilight, New Moon picks up a few months after its predecessor. It’s Bella’s birthday, and despite her wishes that there be no fuss, the Cullen family make quite an occasion of it. But the party spawns a sequence of events that shatters Bella’s world. She finds herself alone, feeling as if a gaping hole exists through the center of her very being. As she struggles to cope, and to carve out some semblance of life around the edges of her wound, she at last finds a friend. But when battle lines are drawn again, she finds herself torn between mortal enemies, and she must choose between them.

Can I be brutally honest? I never understood Team Jacob. Seriously. He’s pushy and impatient, and maybe you can argue that he knows Bella better because they’ve got this long history, but I don’t get the sense that he values her needs above his own. I don’t know. Maybe I’m being too harsh.

When I read the part of the book in which Bella grieves for a loss, I remember feeling like I’d never read anything that captured that emptiness so well before. I remember thinking about a loss I’d experienced and feeling like, yes, this is how this feels. Which counts as a triumph for any writer, I think, to be able to capture something so vividly.

New Moon has a repeat of the whole rescue-Bella situation, and while in the first book, everything was new, it’s starting now to feel a little redundant. See below for content information.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
There was a little bit more swearing in this novel compared to the first. Light bordering moderate.

Sexual Content
Still very little physical sexual contact at all. Huge amounts of romantic tension between them, though. Bella and Edward’s desire for each other is very obvious.

Spiritual Content
Largely the same as Twilight. The hero and his family are “good” vampires who’ve chosen only to feed on animals, not humans. They are at odds with the “bad” vampires who consider themselves superior to the human race and still kill/bite people. In New Moon, werewolves also emerge. In the story their abilities are used to protect the people of Forks, WA.

Violent Content
A powerful vampire clan brings a victim in to feast on. Another plot appears to be underway to kill Bella.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Twilight
Stephanie Meyer
Little, Brown & Company
Published October 5, 2005

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When Bella reluctantly moves to the dark and dreary city of Forks, Washington to live with her father, she is not expecting much out of life. A few precious days of sunshine at most. But fate brings something to her that’s far more dear and far more deadly. At first Edward Cullen seems repulsed by her presence– and for no reason at all. Gradually he softens toward her, but still remains aloof though alluring. But once Bella learns his secret, and the war it causes inside him, she begins to understand. He is a vampire, and she has already fallen in love with him.

I liked the experience of reading Twilight. I liked the romantic tension and the whole tortured soul (wait, does he have a soul????) element of Edward’s character, but there were definitely some things that didn’t work for me. He’s protective to the point of almost stalking. She’s not bothered, because she wants him with her all the time, in fact, she’s more bothered when he’s absent. They have this sort of whirlwind obsession thing happening.

On the whole, the romance is a powerful force in the story, so I can see why it’s wildly popular. It’s one of those books you’re going to love or hate. See below for content information.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Sexual Content
While there is a great deal of romantic tension between Edward and Bella, there is almost no physical romance between them. He does often stay nearby at night and watch over her, but she is not aware of his presence at first, and even when she is, their contact remains very limited.

Spiritual Content
Edward and his family are all vampires who have committed not to bite (and therefore infect or kill) humans. They feed only on animals. They are immortal beings, with some question as to whether or not they still possess a soul. Another group of vampires still choosing to attack humans are portrayed as the villains in the story.

Violence
A battle occurs between the “good” and “bad” vampires. One threatens and attempts to kill Bella, and she’s severely injured.

Drug Content
None

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Vampires, Ghosts, Witches, and Teen Fiction

Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

If you are a parent of a teen and have escaped the Twilight craze and the Harry Potter boom, you are probably in the minority. This week, and for many weeks past, vampires dominate the young adult bestseller lists, as Harry Potter did before them. Also not long ago, the Newberry Award was given to Neil Gaiman for his middle grade novel The Graveyard Book, a story about a young boy on the run from a killer, raised by ghosts and other beings in a graveyard. Is this bad news for Believers?

Some say no. After all, we read the Narnia chronicles, which have many connections to Greek mythology. Tolkein’s Gandalf is a wizard. Is that so different from Rowling’s characters?

To others, Rowling and Lewis aren’t even in the same universe. C. S. Lewis wrote a story using mythology to retell the sacrifice of Christ. That’s a difficult goal to compete with.

But what about the way these stories present these spiritual things as benevolent? A vampire hero. Foster ghost-parents. Are these admirable things from a spiritual perspective? Should we as Christian parents encourage our children to participate in literature that presents these characters as admirable and good?

Would we be just as eager to pass a book about a really good psychic to our kids as we are books about werewolves and vampires who protect people, or is that comparing apples to oranges?

Weigh in on the (anonymous) poll below and check back this week for reviews on the Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga and Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book.

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