• Story about teenagers living with terminal cancer and their approach to life and death.
• As you’d expect from John Green, it is very cleverly written with some nice touches of humour.
• If you like Green’s other stuff, you’ll probably like this. See also: Jenny Downham’s Before I die.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

Factotum is the third and final installment in D. M. Cornish’s fantastic Monster Blood Tattoo series (now called The foundling’s tale in USA). This is a series that you should definitely read in order so if you have not read books 1 and 2 yet, I suggest you give them a look. You can read what I thought of them here: The foundling; and Lamplighter. By way of warning, the following review will give away a couple of plot points that develop over the first two books, so feel free to stop reading here and go read those books first.

At the end of book 2, Rossamund took on the role of factotum to Europe, the monster slayer with whom his life had become connected. For those not already familiar with the series, Europe is a Fulgar, someone who has had extra organs surgically added to her body that allow her to generate something like lightning that she uses against monsters. Rossamund had also been accused of being a monster himself – one with a human form. These two developments provide the storyline for Factotum which begins with the final stages of the journey to the city of Brandenbass, including a battle with a sea monster on the way. Rossamund is then introduced to the lavish life Europe leads when not hunting monsters. He has little time however, to sit back and enjoy living in high society as influential people in the city, including some enemies of Europe become aware of the accusations against him. Rossamund also seems to find it hard to keep out of trouble and his curiosity and naivety lead him into a seedy establishment where his conscience forces him to act on what he sees there (sorry, that’s deliberately vague as I don’t want to give too much away).

Eventually Europe and Rossamund along with a couple of his old friends who are now also in her employ take on some commissions to track down and kill various monsters. While this may seem to take them away from the trouble brewing in Brandenbass, it manages to follow them. Throughout the various events in this book Rossamund is exposed to new aspects of the monster world and the ways the monsters and humans exist together as he tries to understand his place in the world.

As with the first two books, Factotum is a long and detailed book including extra information about the world in an Explicarium at the end of the book. If you have read and enjoyed the first two I expect you will want to read this and expect you will enjoy it. If not, then head back to the beginning and read Lamplighter. The series is set in a richly described fantasy world, the characters are interesting and well developed and it it not always clear who is on the side of good or evil. The story has also kept me curiously turning pages (over 1500 of them through three books).

[cross posted from about the books]

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

Micah Wilkins is a liar. Her whole family are liars. But when Micah’s classmate is killed she plans to come clean and stop lying. She tells us that we can trust her, that she doesn’t lie anymore. Mostly. Of course she can’t keep this up and then has to point out the lies she has told us. This means that while reading the book you never quite know what parts of the story are true and what parts are lies.

Liar is a brilliantly constructed novel. It jumps between events before Zach’s death, events after his death, and background information about Micah’s family and childhood. While it makes for a lot of short chapters that jump back and forth, it really works.

The book is broken up into three sections which divide the story nicely. I was enjoying the book through the first section but not really sure where it was going until I hit the second section, the first line of which picked me up and dropped me on my head.

This really is a wonderful book and in my opinion it is easily Justine Larbalestier’s best work so far and well worth a read.

[cross posted over at aboutthebooks.blogspot.com]

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

Here’s my review of The reformed vampire support group as posted over at my library’s blog.

The plain fact is, I can’t do anything much. That’s part of the problem. Vampires are meant to be so glamorous and powerful, but I’m here to inform you that being a vampire is nothing like that. Not one bit. On the contrary, it’s like being stuck indoors with the flu watching daytime television, forever and ever.

Vampire books are all the rage these days, but here’s one with a difference. Often vampires are portrayed as being some combination of attractive, strong, and rich. Catherine Jinks has turned this on its head.

Nina, the narrator of the story, is 51 years old. But she became a vampire when she was 15. So she still looks 15, and people still treat her like a 15 year old. She can’t even learn to drive. Bridget is stuck in her 80s. She has arthritis. Others never learned to drive because cars weren’t invented when they became vampires.

They can’t get normal jobs. They can’t eat normal food. They breed guinea pigs to satisfy their vampire cravings. They get sick constantly and bright lights will make their eyes bleed. Being a vampire is hard. Which is why they have a support group with weekly group therapy.

Things get even worse when one of them is killed. They decide to track down the killer, not for revenge, but to show him what pitiful creatures they are, that they are no threat to anyone. But they stumble onto something far more concerning and far more dangerous.

This is a very different take on the vampire genre and a fun one at that.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

If you’re excited about Lili Wilkinson’s new book Pink but haven’t got your hands on it yet, you can pop over to Lili’s blog and read the first chapter. I think it looks good and can’t wait for the copies we have on order to come in.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

Those of you who have been following BookBoy for a while may have picked up that I have a bit of a thing for Scott Westerfeld. I mean, he’s not Johnny Depp, but boy can he write.

Anyway, you may also have heard me mention his upcoming book Leviathan, due out very soon. Just to tease you a bit more, here’s a trailer.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

I used to be someone.
Someone named Jenna Fox.
That’s what they tell me. But I am more than a name. More than they tell me. More than the facts and statistics they fill me with. More than the video clips they make me watch.
More. But I’m not sure what.

Jenna Fox has just woken from a one year coma following a car accident. She now lives in California instead of Boston. She knows nobody except her parents and grandmother. She remembers nothing from before the accident. She has to learn everything again. Her parents show old home movies and tell her what happened, but there are gaps. Some things do not add up.

This is one of those books that works best if you don’t know too much about it, so I’ll keep it short. I guess you would call it science fiction, but don’t let that put you off if you’re not particularly a fan of that genre. It’s a powerful story about ethics, identity, and the lengths to which a parent would go to protect their child.

It is wonderfully written, challenging, beautiful, and well worth reading. Trust me.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

One of my two most anticipated books of 2009 is coming out in August. That’s next month! The book is Sacred scars by Kathleen Duey and it is the sequel to 2008 Golden Bookboy winner, Skin hunger. I previously mentioned that you can read the first chapter online, but perhaps you haven’t even read Skin hunger yet. If that is the case, get yourself to a bookstore or library and read it. Go on. Do it now. So you are ready for the Sacred scars release. You can also pop over to Kathleen Duey’s blog where she has posted an excerpt of the Kirkus review for it.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

For those unable to attend the recent Reading Matters conference , there are a few podcasts now available.

Tim Flannery, John Green, Mal Peet, M.T. Anderson, and a panel discussion about growing up Muslim in Australia are available for your downloading pleasure over at insideadog.com.au

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

For almost two years now, the small leather-bound journal of Lieutenant William Downes has been sitting on a corner of my writing desk, defying me. I must confess that I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve sat here in the twenty months since the diary came into my possession, leafing through its pages and then staring out my study window at the distant Brindabella Mountains, sometimes for hours, trying to come to terms with the horrors contained within.

First, a bit of background. Some years ago Anthony Eaton, while researching for what he referred to as a “boys own adventure story” was presented with the opportunity to visit Antarctica as a guest of the Australian Antarctic Division. I heard him talk about this trip at a recent conference and he talked about the way the experience forced him to change the nature of his book.

What we have ended up with is essentially two stories intertwined throughout the book. One story is that of an author named Anthony Eaton who was given the opportunity to visit Antarctica as a guest of the Australian Antarctic Division (sound familiar?). He talks about his experience at Casey Station, his reaction to the story he uncovered there, and some of his experience back in Australia following up that story. Which leads us to the other narrative running through this book. The aforementioned story.

While at Casey Station, Eaton discovered a journal written by Lieutenant William Downes detailing a previously unheard of expedition to Antarctica in 1921-22. Sections from the journal are recorded describing the preparations for the trip, the people aboard, it’s aims, and it’s slow and increasingly inevitable failure. I am not spoiling the plot for you, as this outcome is indicated within the first few pages of the book.

Eaton has done something quite fascinating by adding his fictional self into the story and the first chapter of the story reads much like an author’s introduction, which is essentially what it is. But the use of so many real facts about himself and his trip serve to make it feel more real, or to blur the lines between fact and fiction. It is very well done.

The chapters taken from Downes’s diary are no less enthralling. After service in the First World War, Downes is invited by his former Captain to be involved in a mysterious adventure which turns out to be an expedition to Antarctica. Things start going wrong before they even reach the ice bound continent and only get worse as they travel further south. Although the eventual fate of the expedition is known to the reader all along, the unfolding of the story is no less captivating. It held me right to the very end, which is an impressive writing feat when that end is given away on page three.

Into white silence is a brilliant book. It is published as a young adult book but the main characters are all beyond that age themselves leading some people to argue that it should be considered an adult book. Eaton himself wrote a fairly weighty article about the nature of YA literature and this book in particular. I find it too difficult to say whether this book is one or the other, because I honestly believe it is both. I really think a lot of teens will like this book. I might hand it to some of the older Horowitz/Muchamore readers and see what they think. I also think a lot of adults will like it, but I feel that way about plenty of other YA fiction anyway.

The feeling the book left me with was odd. It wasn’t gut-wrenching or tear-jerking, more soul-emptying perhaps. After turning the last page I just had to drop the book and stare into space for a while. It was fascinating. I should say that I have spoken to a couple of other people who simply could not get into it, and plenty of others who loved it. For my money, Into white silence is very cleverly crafted and written, it grabbed and held me to the end and thoroughly deserves its place on the Children’s Book Council Awards shortlist. I would not be surprised if it wins.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net