Category Archives: Paranormal

Review: Forsaken by Gina Detwiler

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,
Forsaken by Gina Detwiler

Forsaken
Gina Detwiler
Vinspire
Published September 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Forsaken

He was forsaken but not forgotten.

Nine months have passed since Grace Fortune saw the boy she loves, Jared Lorn, die before her eyes. But Grace’s suspicions have her wondering if Jared really dead. Along with her friends, she sets out to find answers, and the investigation leads to an unexpected place: Silo City, an abandoned silo complex that houses as many dark secrets as it does forsaken people.

Very much alive, Jared’s on a mission to save the girl he loves by collaborating with the enemy—a young, brash rock star named Lester Crow who fronts the punk metal band Blood Moon. Jared’s “deal with the devil” will take him on a cross-country journey into the heartland of darkness. The music of Blood Moon is a weapon against God, and Jared must wield this weapon while trying desperately to preserve his mind and soul from its power.

Jared and Grace are desperate to be reunited, but first, they must defeat the demonic forces arrayed against them. And pray that Jared, a Nephilim forsaken in God’s eyes, has a chance at a future.

My Review

I feel like I had a lot of strong thoughts about this book. Some things I really liked a lot. The way the author describes music really pulled me into each scene. I loved that so much of the story followed Grace’s singing (or her inability to sing) and Jared’s talent with the guitar. I wanted to sit in on their jam sessions. The big concerts felt very realistic.

In terms of the spiritual elements, I struggled with some of the doctrine. Jared, the son of a powerful demon and a human woman, had a lot of questions about his value and identity. I like that he’s a complicated character, that he wants to do good and be good despite his origin. Honestly, I think that’s pretty relatable. I don’t think it’s something that’s within the bounds of Christian ideology, though.

Music in the story has a strong spiritual component. I thought this was also pretty cool to show this spiritual component to songs depending on who’s playing them, what the songs glorify, and the motives of the musicians playing them. Early on in FORSAKEN, a mentor character shares a theory that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones artists were Satanists. He cites some interesting evidence.

I looked it up because I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be an in-the-book thing or a this-is-real thing. The individual things the character points out are true (an occult founder being pictured on an album cover and some lyrics about Lucifer), I felt like those were probably things the artists used for their shock value. I didn’t see any indication that the artists themselves had any real love or worship for Satan, so I had a hard time following that thread of the plot.

Sometimes I felt like I had missed something – I think because I started reading this series with book two. I think FORSAKEN makes a good choice for TWILIGHT or BEAUTIFUL CREATURES fans or readers who like a sweet paranormal romance. I’d recommend starting with the first book, FORLORN.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
I think all the major characters were white and straight.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
One instance of mild profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to two characters having sex (off-scene).

Spiritual Content
Jared is the son of a demon and human, but he wants to be worthy of God’s love, and seems to be part of God’s plan as he has visits from other angels. Grace has a guardian angel who tries to keep her safe. At one point, characters start talking about a church where the pastor preaches that God wouldn’t send anyone to Hell because he loves us so much, and that Hell doesn’t really exist. One of the girls scoffs and responds with something like, “Why would anyone believe in God if there’s no Hell?” From a Christian perspective, I didn’t think this made any sense. I could see not believing in Jesus if there was no Hell, since his death and resurrection are the reason people don’t have to go there. I didn’t understand the point being made there, maybe?

See my review for more on the spirituality of FORSAKEN.

Violent Content
Jared has some anger issues and gets into fights when provoked. At one point, the girls venture into a dangerous part of town and a man attacks one of them. At another point, one character stabs one of the girls.

Drug Content
One of Jared’s companions uses a lot of drugs and is very often drunk. He has a girl with him who’s often high or drunk as well. Jared doesn’t participate in any of that.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which cost you nothing, but help me buy more books.


Review: Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy by Elizabeth Kiem

Book Review and Content, Historical, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy (The Bolshoi Saga #1)
Elizabeth Kiem
Soho Teen
Published on August 13, 2013

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy
Marya is a ballet dancer born of privilege; her mother, Sveta, is the most popular ballet dancer in the Soviet Union and its glamorous face to the West.

When Sveta disappears, Marya and her father suspect their own lives are in danger and arrange a harrowing defection. Marya is certain that her father is doomed to be murdered at their new home in Brighton Beach, where his closest friends are unapologetic criminals . . . she’s “seen” him die.

Soon she’s drawn into web of intrigue that ultimately reveals the truth about her gift of foresight, her mother’s disappearance, and a boy she cannot bring herself to trust.

My Review
Things that drew me to this book: the 80s setting, the ballet elements, the Russian characters, and the intrigue/mystery about her mom. Reading about the 80s was super fun. I loved the conversations Marya has with Ben about music and some of the descriptions of fashion. That part of the story was a lot of fun to read. As a former ballet dancer myself, I love reading books that feature ballerina characters. It definitely makes me miss dancing but also gives me a chance to celebrate that part of my life again.

Truthfully, I was a little nervous once I read the author’s note about characters being referred to by multiple names as they would be in Russian culture because I have a harder time keeping track of a lot of names in a novel anyway. But actually, I had no trouble. There are only a few characters with multiple names, and most often it’s Marya who’s referred to by different names, and even those were easy to keep track of.

Solving the mystery of her mother’s disappearance drives Marya’s story forward. Just like Marya, her mother has a supernatural gift that gets her into trouble. In Sveta’s case, it’s the ability to see past events which she has no personal knowledge of. Things like a secret government experiment. While I really enjoyed the mysterious, suspenseful feel of the story, I felt like the supernatural gifts didn’t really fit. It seemed to me like they were really shortcuts so things could happen in the plot without needing realistic explanation. Marya could discover something via her gift rather than uncovering clues leading her to the conclusion.

The plot of the story focused more on the relationships between characters than on the mystery/suspense elements. I didn’t mind this as a reader, but it wasn’t what I was expecting based on the title of the book, which sounded like a reference to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. All in all, I enjoyed reading it. Not sure the series is really for me, though. 80s fans or readers interested in Russian culture will definitely want to get a copy of this one, though.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are Russian and several are referred to by more than one name (the author explains this is the way they’d be used in Russian culture.). I thought that would be really confusing, but actually I had no problem keeping the characters straight. The story contains some phrases and words in Russian, too.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Rumors about Sveta and the ballet director, who’s said to be in love with her.

Spiritual Content
Marya and her mother have unusual gifts. Marya’s mother can see the past and has visions of things she has no real way to know. Marya has visions that foretell the future.

Violent Content
Marya worries that her mother may be tortured or killed. She has a vision of a person with a gun preparing to shoot her friends. She sees some members of the Russian mafia and hears some rumors about how they operate. She stumbles into a crime scene in which a man has been shot.

Drug Content
Some scenes show characters drinking alcohol or getting drunk. (Mostly these are adults.) At one point, Marya pours out a bottle of vodka because she doesn’t want her dad and uncle to drink it.

Review: Metal Mouth by Jaimie Engle

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

Metal Mouth
Jaimie Engle
JME Books
Published on December 1, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Metal Mouth
Mahlorie hates her braces. And who cares what she looks like anyway? Her parents sure do. Dad, a traveling magician, and Mom, a famous erotica author, constantly harp on the importance of appearance. Her best friend Shai is the epitome of pop-culture, crushing on every boy with a cute smile. But when Mal has a near-death experience and can suddenly hear a boy’s voice in her head, life takes a turn for the weird. He can hear her too. How did her braces become transmitters? And who is this boy she just might be falling in love with?

My Review
Metal Mouth narrator Mahlorie has a spunky, fierce voice that drew me into the story right away. She doesn’t mince words, so she’s pretty frank about the difficulties in her relationships with her parents and even her best friend, Shai. But beneath that prickly exterior is a girl hungering for love and connection with others, even if sometimes her biggest obstacle to them is herself.

In terms of the story, I thought I pretty much had the plot pegged pretty early on, but I was wrong. Lots of things happened that I simply didn’t expect—in a good way. I knew I was hooked when I panicked over her getting into the water where there are alligators, because OMG I live in Florida, and just NO! Don’t do it, Mahlorie!!!

As I turned pages of Metal Mouth, I found myself laughing at Mahlorie’s take on things and jokes between herself and Dyson (he’s a pretty funny guy). Mahlorie’s comments about dentists were also pretty comical. A couple parts had me crying, too, so be warned. Here there be emotions.

Something about the Mahlorie’s way to relating things reminded me a bit of Forever for a Year by B. T. Gottfred (Metal Mouth doesn’t have any explicit sex). I liked that at fourteen, she’s a younger narrator than you often see in YA. All in all, I’d say Metal Mouth has solid storytelling and a fun cast of characters.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white. One character is in a wheelchair.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used twice.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to kissing or making out. Mahlorie’s mom writes erotic romance, so there are some vague references to that. Mahlorie recalls trying to read one of her books once and being confused at first and then grossed out once she figured out what the descriptions meant. At one point a boy makes unwanted advances at Mahlorie. She fights him off and escapes.

Spiritual Content
When Mahlorie gets scared, sometimes she cries out in a prayer-like way, asking for help. Dyson says of their meeting that perhaps the Universe means some good to come from it.

Violent Content
Mahlorie gets struck by lightning (or nearly) and winds up in the hospital. She’s outdoors in more than one violent storm. An alligator threatens her twice.
A boy pins Mahlorie down and tries to kiss her. She hits him in the head with a trophy and escapes.
Teens get involved in a drunk driving accident. Mahlorie isn’t there, but she’s affected by the outcome.

Drug Content
A couple scenes show teens drinking alcohol and smoking a joint. Mahlorie describes her babysitter as a wino and notes that she drinks a couple bottles of wine in one evening.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Athlanmara by J. M. Burrows

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

Athlanmara: Seaborn Series 1
J. M. Burrows
Published on September 1, 2018

Amazon | Goodreads

About Athlanmara
The beautiful Florida Keys is the setting for love, adventure and a family secret that will affect every creature on earth.

When timid misfit Brooke is rescued from drowning by a handsome merman, Adrian, her eyes are opened to a world she didn’t know existed.

Adrian can’t stay away from the human girl he rescued, even though he faces certain death if their relationship is discovered. He is torn between his desire for love and his desire to save his people.

The two teens join forces to save both races as illegal pollution threatens to destroy Adrian’s people and the Athlanmara are planning to fight back against the human threat. Brooke and Adrian’s forbidden relationship will change both worlds, but not without a cost.

My Review
I’m kind of a sucker for stories about mermaids or mer-people, so I was pretty intrigued when I heard about this book. The way it’s written is a bit unusual as it shows a lot of direct thoughts of different characters, but they’re not in italics. I found it a little confusing at first. The story mostly follows the point of view of Adrian and Brooke, but other characters have scenes or moments from their perspectives, too.

The Athlanmara (mer-people… maybe just mermen?) had an interesting culture and the author included some language and history, which were cool and fit with the story pretty well. I wasn’t really clear on whether the genders live separately all the time or part of the time or how that worked. I enjoyed some of the goofy moments between Adrian and his best friend Maksim and some of the inevitable faux pas that happened when they tried to pass for human.

I really liked the way the plot explored pollution and its effect on marine life and thought it was a great message. I also thought the Athlanmara were a neat take on mermaids even if I didn’t fully understand all the elements of the culture.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Brooke is white, and her best friend is Latina. Other characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Most often the characters say things like, “oh my gosh,” or “dang it,” or “shoot.” There’s one instance of a crude word for female anatomy.

Romance/Sexual Content
When the boys transform from Athlanmara (mer-people) to human, they appear naked. Brooke feels embarrassed by this and unsafe especially before she knows them well. Kissing between boy and girl. One scene shows a girl and boy lying in the sand together making out.

Spiritual Content
The Athlanmara have magical artifacts which have certain powers. Adrian is hoping to find one which has the ability to heal so he can save a family member.

Violent Content
A man threatens people with a gun. More than one scene shows giant crabs brutally killing people.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Delusion by Laura Gallier

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

The Delusion
Laura Gallier
Tyndale
Published on October 3, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Delusion
By March of Owen Edmonds’s senior year, eleven students at Masonville High School have died by suicide. Amid the media frenzy and chaos, Owen tries to remain levelheaded–until he endures his own near-death experience and wakes to a distressing new reality.

The people around him suddenly appear to be shackled and enslaved.

Owen frantically seeks a cure for what he thinks are crazed hallucinations, but his delusions become even more sinister. An army of hideous, towering beings, unseen by anyone but Owen, are preying on his girlfriend and classmates, provoking them to self-destruction.

Owen eventually arrives at a mind-bending conclusion: he’s not imagining the evil–everyone else is blind to its reality. He must warn and rescue those he loves . . . but this proves to be no simple mission. Will he be able to convince anyone to believe him before it’s too late?

Owen’s heart-pounding journey through truth and delusion will force him to reconsider everything he believes. He both longs for and fears the answers to questions that are quickly becoming too dangerous to ignore.

My Review
One of the reasons I’ve moved away from calling this blog a Christian blog is that there really aren’t a ton of Christian YA titles (and there shouldn’t be a great need for a content breakdown on Christian books, as I would think they would be clean, but that’s another conversation for another time.). It’s still important to me to review the Christian titles I come across, and as is the case with this one, I find don’t necessarily agree with the worldview in them. I’ll talk about this more under the Spiritual Content breakdown below.

In terms of the story, though, I thought the premise—a boy suddenly able to see into a spiritual world has to decide what to do or how to fight spiritual battles—was very cool. I’m not a fan of narrators who come across like they think they’re smarter than everyone else, even though I know this is a pretty popular young adult theme. So I found it hard to like Owen because he just seemed to me like he thought he was better than everyone else (partly because he saw them with chains around their necks and he had none).

I guess that sums up my feelings about the whole book, actually. The idea is very cool, but I had too many issues with other elements of the story.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A couple references to swearing (no profanity shown in text).

Romance/Sexual Content
Some references to sex. For instance, Owen thinks about how nice it would be to have a girl on top of him. He also thinks about kissing a girl. He kisses a girl on the cheek.
A teenage girl is pregnant.

Spiritual Content
Owen drinks water from a strange well and then begins to see spiritual beings he refers to as Creepers and Watchmen. Creepers, dark, vile creatures, attach themselves to humans using chains only Owen sees. Watchmen, beings of light, are able to chase Creepers away. Some other people don’t have chains, but instead emanate light themselves, which the Creepers avoid.

Though he isn’t a Christian himself, Owen’s visions serve as a view into a spiritual realm. He wrestles with anger at how freely the Creepers move about, harming people, and even at one point believes they must be God’s servants since He’s not stopping them. He meets a Christian girl who gives him a little perspective on what’s happening, but Owen mostly explores what he believes on his own.

Near the beginning of the story, the man who introduces Owen to the well tells Owen that suicide never happens unprovoked. To be honest, I found this implication that depression/suicide attempts or ideation are always caused by some sort of demonic presence troubling. I do believe there are spiritual happenings around us, and certainly some of our struggles arise from them. But I think characterizing mental health issues as always having a demonic root cause grossly oversimplifies a complex issue and ignores the existence of mental health problems as a biological or biochemical issue. I don’t think it’s a good idea, especially in literature aimed at teens, to have this blanket position that all suicide attempts are caused by demons. Where does that leave us with issues requiring medication or counseling? I’m just really uncomfortable with the position the book takes on this topic, and to be really frank, I’m disappointed in that it’s been chosen as a Christy Award winning title.

Violent Content
Some references to teen suicide. Several scenes show teens intending to die by suicide. One shows a girl dying following an overdose. Demons rip her spirit from her body. One scene shows several teens being shot with a rifle.
If you’re struggling with depression, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book as some of these scenes have some graphic descriptions and may be triggering for some readers.

Drug Content
None.

Review: Borrowed by Lucia DiStefano

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

Borrowed
Lucia DiStefano
Elephant Rock Books
Published on November 1, 2018

Amazon | Goodreads

About Borrowed

Love, mystery, and danger collide in this new literary thriller with the dark heart of a Gillian Flynn novel and the lyrical prose of Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun.

A triumph of authenticity, grace, and nail-biting suspense, Lucia DiStefano’s ingenious debut is an unflinching, genre-bending page-turner.

As seventeen-year-old Linnea celebrates the first anniversary of her heart transplant, she can’t escape the feeling that the wires have been crossed. After a series of unsettling dreams, inked messages mysteriously appear on her body, and she starts to wonder if this new heart belongs to her at all.

In another Austin neighborhood, Maxine braces for a heartbreaking anniversary: her sister Harper’s death. Between raising her brothers and parenting her grief-stricken mother, Max is unable to ignore her guilty crush on Harper’s old flame or shake her lingering suspicion that her sister’s drowning wasn’t really an accident. With Harper as the sole connection, Linnea and Maxine are soon brought together in fantastic and terrifying ways as the shocking truth behind Harper’s death comes to light.

My Review
I would describe Borrowed as Return to Me (as in the movie starring Minnie Driver and David Duchovny) meets The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

The premise totally fascinated me. What if this girl who received a heart transplant started getting messages from the new heart inside her? I loved this idea. And I loved Max and Linnea. Both are pretty unusual teens—Linnea because she’s a transplant recipient, so for much of her life, she’d been sick and waiting for the transplant. She doesn’t go to school (though she’s supposed to get her GED), and she works full time as a pastry chef. So not an entry level thing. This makes her seem a lot more like an adult than a teen.

Max manages the care of the rest of her family and clearly wrestles with survivor’s guilt after her sister’s death. So she, too, feels more adult than teen.

But both situations seemed understandable and worked in the story. Max’s care for her siblings and the hard calls she has to make with her mom definitely won me over. Linnea had me with her spirit and her creativity.

Somewhere around the three-quarter point, the story takes kind of a dark turn. I’m not good with stories like this—ones that show sexual trauma, even if the details aren’t outright explicit, so I struggled with this part of the book. I definitely think it could trigger sensitive readers.

I liked that each girl handled the situation very differently, fighting in their own ways. But it was too intense for me. I finished reading it—didn’t want to stop in the dark part. For readers who like this kind of intense, dark story, Borrowed really hits those notes and packs some interesting characters as well. I’d say it’s a good fit for fans of The Lovely Bones.

Recommended for Ages 17 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described. One of Linnea’s best friends is Latina.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing, references to sex. For instance, Max uses sex with her boyfriend as a way to escape the pressures in her life for a while. The last part of the story contains some scenes with some intense content including rape and assault. There’s not a play-by-play description of the event, but we’re in the mind of the victim and see a great deal of the emotional trauma and some of the physical trauma she endures. Definitely not for sensitive readers. Honestly, this was probably a bit too much even for me to read.

Spiritual Content
Some references to God and a brief “Thank you, Jesus”… more cultural references than spiritual ones, if that makes sense? At one point Chris gives Max a cross he carved from wood as a sort of good luck charm or symbol. It’s clear neither of them mean it as a spiritual symbol.

One character believes fervently that he is called by God to do some horrible things and uses scripture references to defend some awful treatment of others.

Violent Content
See notes in sexual content. Some brief memories and descriptions of someone attacking a girl.

Drug Content
Harper smoked weed and drank with a boy before she died. Teens smoke cigarettes. Max and her boyfriend get drunk together.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

About Lucia DiStefano

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

A former high school English teacher, Lucia DiStefano currently works as an editor, ghostwriter, and writing coach. First-generation Sicilian-American and daughter of an olive farmer, she admits to having recurring pasta dreams. Hailing from central Connecticut, Lucia lives near Austin, Texas with her husband and an old bloodhound named Waffle.

Follow the Blog Tour for More

August 1: Cover reveal at YA Interrobang

September 4: Review at Alice Reeds

September 10: Author interview at Alice Reeds

September 24: Cover reveal at BubblersRead

October 8: Review at Liz Loves Books  

October 9-15: Giveaway at Miss Print

October 15: Review at BubblersRead

October 17: Guest post at Liz Loves Books

October 22: Excerpt at YA Interrobang

October 25: Author interview at YA Outside the Lines  

October 31: Author interview at Katya de Becerra: The Last Day of Normal

November 1: Giveaway and guest post at Carina’s Books

November 5: Author interview at BubblersRead

November 12: Author guest post at BubblersRead

November 14: Author interview at Cynsations

November 19: First impressions video with YouTuber BookRatMisty

November 20: First impressions on The Book Rat

November 20: Author interview at The Story Sanctuary

December 3: Review at The Story Sanctuary – you are here!

December 5: Podcast Interview at The Writing Barn

Like Elephant Rock on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @ElephantRockBks for book and blog tour news and updates!