Whispers at Moonrise

Whispers at Moonrise
The fourth book of the Shadow Falls series
By C.C. Hunter
Warning: The following contains spoilers for those who haven’t read the first three books of the series

A chameleon! Kylie Galden, the protagonist we’ve been following throughout the entire series trying to figure out what she is, is a chameleon. But what does that mean? In the fourth book Whispers at Moonrise Kylie has a new quest: finding out what being a chameleon means? Other than her supernatural problems she also has boy troubles. Both Lucas, a werewolf, and Derek, a fae, are striving to get her attention. And to top it all off, Kylie, with her ability to communicate with the dead, has a new ghost following her, with a familiar face!

The third book, Taken at Dusk, ends with Kylie’s deceased father stating that they were chameleon. So what’s Kylie going to do now? When she tells her friends even Holiday, a leader of the camp who Kylie loves like a sister, they all laugh at the idea of her being “a lizard”. Then Derek tells her “I love you,” when she is already in a committed relationship with Lucas.

One day Kylie’s mother unexpectedly comes to Shadow Falls Camp. Kylie immediately asks her mother if someone is hurt, but her mother says the one who is hurt is Kylie. Apparently, Kylie’s mother got a letter saying that Kylie has been sick and is suggested to run some tests. Kylie tells her mother that everything is okay but Holiday and Kylie automatically know that it was the FRU, the police for the supernaturals, who sent the letter to her mother, since they’ve been yearning to run some tests on Kylie, the undefined creature.

Often Kylie feels a calling from the woods, something in there is telling her to come in. But no matter how tempted Kylie is, there is no possible way she can enter, especially after an odd visit from her grandparents. Burnett, another leader of the camp, was able to get ahold of Kylie’s father, Daniel’s adoptive grandfather, and when they came to visit, they weren’t Daniel’s adoptive parents. They weren’t complete strangers either but rather the biological father and aunt of Daniel (but Kylie didn’t know this until after the visit). Since then, they’ve disappeared from the face of the earth, until one day in a turn of events Kylie enters the woods and comes face to face with the people who can solve her problems.

You may ask yourself why her grandfather and grandaunt are being so discreet? Well, we know from the third book that Kylie’s grandmother was killed by the FRU when being tested. Kylie’s grandpa, knowing that Burnett is part of the FRU, wants to stay away from the camp as much as possible due to the trauma of losing her wife. One night when Kylie gets to sneak off campus, she finally gets to ask her granddad: “What’s a chameleon?” He explains to her that it means they have a little bit of everything in their blood. They can change from one supernatural to another; they even can change to human form. When Kylie asks how she can control the transformations he tells her that since it’s a skill that can take a lifetime to master she must go with them and leave Shadow Falls Camp. Kylie refuses, but when her grandfather hears that the FRU is trying to run test on her he insists on her leaving. She still doesn’t agrees.

Kylie can’t leave now! Not when she has a mission. The ghost that has been following her looks like...Holiday, her beloved Holiday. But how is that even possible? With the help of Derek she discovers that the ghost isn’t Holiday rather her twin sister Hannah. Though this may seem like a sigh of relief, with C.C. Hunter it never is. Hannah tells Kylie that her murderer killed her believing it will give him power and he wants more power, so Kylie if doesn’t do something soon Holiday will join her sister in ghosthood.

Throughout the entire series we’ve seen how many problems Kylie has gone through, but in this book the troubles are tougher and life-changing. First, someone is after Holiday but with forgetful Hannah, Kylie doesn’t know who. Second, her grandfather wants her to leave Shadow Falls leaving behind her loved one. Third, she is confused about love. Derek and her have grown closer but she is officially in love with Lucas; however, Lucas is hiding something. Even he has said himself that he has secrets. Want to know more? Well, you're going to have to wait with me until April 30th, 2013 to read the final installment of the Shadow Falls series. Though it seems like a long time don’t worry, I’m here to entertain you. I stress that you read this book! The ending is so breathtakingly shocking!

 

My Rating:

 

 

 

 

~A.BW                            

 

The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones
By Alice Sebold

Murder mysteries, personally my favorite type of mysteries; but it is usually hard to find a really good one. Almost all murder mysteries have similar plots: someone dies and we follow either a cop, a close family member, or some random person who pops into the story, through a long adventure seeking justice. But Alice Sebold takes murder mysteries to a whole new level. We no longer see the aftereffects of a murder through the family’s eyes (or through the cop’s eyes) but rather through the victim’s eyes.

The book contains such an outrageous and captivating beginning that captures a reader’s attention. We follow a young girl named Susie Salmon. At the age of fourteen she is just experiencing glimpses of responsibility, maturity, even love, but on December 6, 1973 it is all taken away. As Susie is leaving school realizing how late it is she decides to take a shortcut through the cornfield. When she is closer to home she bumps into her neighbor, George Harvey; he tells her to follow him for he has built something fascinating that he would like to show her. At first Susie doesn’t know what it is, but when Mr. Harvey tells her to look harder she realizes he build a hut in the ground that is so breathtakingly hidden. He welcomes her to enter, through she refuses him at first she eventually enters the fascinating hut – what a terrible mistake. In minutes Mr. Harvey rapes and kills Susie Salmon.

Susie enters her heaven, in which in this book is a perfect little world of your own with anything you desire, but all Susie seems to do is watch over her family on Earth. At first her parents, Jack and Abigail Salmon, deny that their daughter is dead, until officer Len Fenerman finds and shows them Susie’s hat that is covered in saliva (what Mr. Harvey used to cover her mouth),implying she was dead. Later, they found her elbow. Through Mr. Harvey foolishly left the hat and elbow out in the open, he cleverly disposed the rest of the body by dumping it into a sinkhole. 

As days pass by, a depressed Jack seems to want nothing but justice for his little girl. He then starts to notice how strange his neighbor, George Harvey, is; he decides to talk to him, to see who this man is. When he spoke to the odd man his fatherly instincts told him Mr. Harvey is the murderer. Once knowing what he was sure of, he called officer Len, but as much as Len tried to find evidence, there was absolutely none that indicated Mr. Harvey was the murderer. The only suspect they had was Ray Singh, a fellow classmate of Susie. Ray had a schoolboy crush on Susie and wrote her a love note, later found unread in her textbook, but since he was with his father in a conference during the murder, he was checked off the list. 

From what Susie sees in heaven, her death has caused nothing but trouble to her loved ones. Her father is depressed and going crazy trying to find evidence against George Harvey. Her mother is miserable feeling like an empty mom wanting to escape from her sad reality through a romantic affair with Officer Len. Not only does she affect the relationship between her parents but also the lives of her siblings. Lindsey, Susie’s younger sister, is constantly being told that she looks like Susie, causing a great sadness in everyone. Because of all the chaos Susie’s death is causing in the relationship of her parents, Buckley, Susie’s 5 year old brother, isn’t getting the attention a little boy should. The boy she likes, Ray, is being wrongfully accused of being her murderer. Even people Susie barely spoke to are being affected, like Ruth. When Susie took spirit form and was heading towards heaven she appeared to Ruth; after Susie’s death, Ruth still feels her presence and often writes poems about her. Ruth is already a strange person to everyone – even her parents – and when she starts to write poems about the dead (a.k.a Susie) people find her more weird. Everyone on Earth is falling apart and all Susie can do is sit there and watch. 

This is such an interesting story because we see it through a dead person’s point of view. I think it was a big risk writing it from a dead person’s shoes because no one really knows how they feel and it’s impossible ask them how. It is also is a challenge to keep the story entertaining when the reader already knows who the murder is. I believe Alice Sebold did an outstanding job! I also think it such an engaging story due to the fact that Alice gives a realistic side oh how crazy people get as side effects of depression from losing a loved one. However, there are some unrealistic events in the story which keeps it entertaining. The only thing I can criticize is that I felt the story dragged a little in some points that I didn’t feel like continuing, but overall it’s a great read.   

My Rating:

                                                                                                ~A.BW

Taken at Dusk

Taken at Dusk
By C.C Hunter
Third book of the Shadow Falls series

It seems that as  we go further into the book, the plot gets juicier! So lets jump right ahead! Warning: the following contains spoilers for those who still have not read the first book (Born at Midnight) or  second book (Awake at Dawn).

Based on the second book we know that Derek, a handsome fairy striving to obtain Kylie’s love, has left on a mission for FRU, they police supernatural beings, but it is clearly seen it is just an excuse stay away from Kylie giving her space to figure out who she really loves. Kylie, trying to move on, has grown closer to Lucas, to the point they unofficially make it official. Lately, Kylie feels like she is being followed; when she tells Burnett and Holiday, they suspect it’s Mario, the rogue vampire who has attempted to attack numerous times in the past books. With that being said, Burnett orders that Kylie must have a shadow (someone who follows her EVERYWHERE every minute of the day). When Lucas volunteers to be her shadow, Derek, returning from his trip, surprises everyone by entering the room and volunteering as well, causing a lot of tension. Burnett, one of the head leaders of Shadow Falls Camp, feeling the tension, turns down both Lucas and Derek and says he’ll assign someone else.

What confuses Kylie the most is how cold Derek is with her, yet he persists in shadowing her, so she decides to confront him. As she leaves her cabin to speak with Derek, Della shows her some incriminating pictures of Derek and his ex-girlfriend Ellie. Kylie runs to Derek to demand answers when she realizes she has no right to ask him because they were really never together; he insists that he wants to explain. Derek says he was supposed to investigate a group of rogue vampires but when he saw his ex-girlfriend Ellie (a vampire), he wanted to pull her away from the bad influences. She was lonely and he was hurting, one can finish that sentence. He also tells Kylie that he brought Ellie to Shadow Falls Camp to put her back on a straight path, but has no other feeling for her than friendship. As much as Kylie is hurting, she decides it’s none of her business, Derek can do whatever he pleases, she is with Lucas.

One can see why Kylie sees Lucas as the only one who can comfort her, especially after the whole Derek thing, but it seems like fate doesn't want Kylie happy. When arguing with a jealous Fredericka, she is told that since Lucas has been desperately trying to gain a position on the werewolf council his entire life, they can't be together due to a rule that the council members are only allowed to be with werewolves. Although Lucas repeatedly tells Kylie not to worry, who wouldn't? Besides the boy troubles, Kylie has another mission impossible with a new ghost who can’t seem to remember anything nor tell Kylie what she can do to help.

Kylie has been consistently told “Someone lives and someone dies.” Just as Kylie was, I was personally freaked out by this. On one of Kylie’s regular visits to the falls, with Holiday, the death angels give both Kylie and Holiday a vision that tells them a vampire from Shadow Falls Camp will die. While Kylie wants to figure out who will be killed and how to stop it, Holiday tells her there is nothing they can do. Kylie’s heart aches to know a vampire will die. Who can it be? Will it be Della, her dearest best friend?  Or Burnett, someone who has done nothing but protect her? Tune in in two weeks to find out what happens next.

My Rating:

~A.BW