Book Club Pick: Blackbirds

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Blackbirds

(book 1)

Books 2 & 3 now available

by Chuck Wendig

Saga Press

2015 (paperback edition)

276 pages

ISBN: 9781481448659

From the inside cover:
"A gleefully dark, twisted road trip for everyone who though Fight Club was too warm and fuzzy. If you enjoy this book, you're probably deeply wrong in the head. I loved it and will be seeking professional help as soon as Chuck lets me out of his basement." --James Moran, screenwriter "Doctor Who," " Torchwood," and "Blackbirds."

 

 

Once considered by Starz as a new series, this blogger wishes that one of the cable  networks will consider putting this on the screen.

My review:

 

Gritty, grimy, ghisly, grotesque, gruesome, and gory, Blackbirds roars off the page and puts up one helluva fight. Miriam Black can see how you will die. All it takes is for her to touch someone skin on skin and she can see everything. She just sees it happen once; no replays. This freakish occurrence nearly brought her to insanity until she discovered that she could follow someone (her mark) whose death was imminent and empty their pockets and wallets. Miriam is not greedy but takes only what she needs to survive. Because of this, readers will empathize with her as a character. She is cursed with a condition that forces her to see hundreds of deaths and she makes the most of it. Does she try to keep people from meeting their Maker? Yes, to terrible results. Having failed, she lives with guilt and finds a way to keep herself fed.

 

When she accepts a ride from a trucker, she gets rattled for the first time in a long time. Miriam has a vision that Louis has only a few days to live, but what's get her even more concerned is that Louis calls out the name "Miriam" just before he dies. To Miriam this means she is responsible and present for his death--and it's a grisly, terrible death.

Miriam soon has a run-in with a stranger that leaves her speechless. He's been secretly following (stalking) her, and offers her a partnership in crime. She declines; she doesn't need anyone and certainly not Ashley. What she doesn't know is that she has no choice. Someone's after Ashley and they'll stop at nothing to catch him. As Miriam tries to shake Ashley, she is pulled into the cat and mouse game. On the run from bad guys and trying to save good guy truckerLouis, Miriam and Ashley will have to learn to trust each other or die.

Breakneck speed and taut dialog make this a quick read. Gratuitous violence (think Russian mob type violence), torture sessions, vomit inducing descriptions of grisly scenes and language that would make a sailor blush, and you get the picture. Blackbirds is the best kind of raunchy--a tough bird named Mariam  kicking a** and taking names. I usually don't gravitate to this kind of violence in a book, but Mariam is an interesting character that I wanted to get to know. She is the driving force of this book and the reason I kept reading.

Recommended for readers who aren't squeamish and don't mind profanity that stings.

Recommended grade 11-up--it's pretty racy and violent.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.




 

Book Giveaway: The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch

I have FIVE FREE copies of this outstanding new YA novel. This is one book you MUST read! Although seemingly an adult title, Zebulon is the must amazing and amusing YA protagonist since Ryan Dean West (Winger, Stand Off). Author Daniel Kraus has a sure winner on his hands, and there will be many awards and honors for this title.

For your chance to win, simply post a comment to the blog. Be sure to include first name, city, state and email contact. Deadline for posts is November 12 at noon MST. Winners will be chosen randomly by Randomizer. Please check your email on November 12 in the afternoon. Winners will be notified at that time. Winners have 24 hours to respond to my email. Books will ship from New York.

See my review of the book


Good luck and start posting!
Pamela

Action Thriller Pick: Cold Fury

View the book trailer here

Cold Fury
By T.M. Goeglein
Putnam
2012
312 pages

Unstoppable, fierce, feisty Sara Jane Rispoli is an uber-cool teen heroine with an in-your-face attitude and she won’t cower down from bullies, bullets, or baddies. Girls will admire her and want to be her; guys will want to meet her and if they’re brave, date her. From the first words in the “prelude,” I was reading with breathless anticipation of what would happen next. This book is a suspenseful thrill-ride that will have teens reading into the wee hours of the morning.
The day of her sixteenth birthday, Sara returns home to an empty and darkened house. It’s unusual—where is her family? She enters and can’t believe her eyes. The living room is tossed—someone was looking for something—and whoever it was didn’t appear to find it. She investigates and finds blood on the wall and their family dog has been badly beaten. Just then, a man jumps on her in the dark basement. Sara is a fighter—she’s been training at a local boxing gym for years, and she gets in a few well-aimed licks and jumps into her dad’s old Lincoln along with Harry the dog who helps her escape. Sara’s on the lam and running out of time to find answers.

She goes to the gym where she thinks she can find a safehouse until she can figure out what happened and who is after her. She knows not to trust the cops because they are now looking for her, too. The one thing she carried out of the house is a cheap plaster bust of Frank Sinatra that always sat on their mantle. It has a camera in it, and Sara Jane replays the tape and sees her father’s last message to her. He is in a panic and tells her to go to the God of Fire. It’s code for the Vulcan oven in her family’s bakery.

Sara Jane follows the clues and finds a hidden room, a coded notebook, a Sig Sauer .45 (gun), $96,000 in cash and an American Express Black card in her name. What did her father intend when he left all this behind? Sara Jane deciphers what’s in the notebook—much of it is yellowed and very old and some of it is in Italian.

She reads the history of her family and realizes that their very being is a sham. Her grandfather was a powerful man in Chicago and her whole family is “mobbed up.” The notebook holds the ultimate key, and whoever wants it will stop at nothing to get that notebook away from Sara Jane.

Her pudgy but helpful friend Doug steps in as “Robin” to her “Batman” and they take the fight to the criminals. This books sets up the sequel nicely. I can’t wait to find out what happens next!

I predict this is going to be a huge title. The cover with the picture of a tough looking girl holding a steel briefcase is edgy and screams, “BUY ME! “ The back cover and inner cover hooked me, and I had to purchase this book for myself. Teens are going to love this one.

Highly, highly recommended grades 7-up. Some violence, mob references to crimes, Doug mentions he doesn’t know if he likes boys or not—but he doesn’t go into detail and he’s never acted on it. No other sexual references.


FTC Required Disclaimer: I bought this book for myself. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

High School Pick: Because It Is My Blood

Because It Is My Blood
by Gabrielle Zevin
Farrar Straus Giroux
2012
368 pages

Available September 18,  2012 (expected publishing date)

Book page count and expected publication date from publisher's arc

In Book 2 of the Birthright series, Anya Balanchine finds herself just released from prison, the Liberty Children's Facility, and  she's ready to become a model citizen.  She wants to break the family mob ties to her uncle and their family's black market chocolate operation. She finds that much harder than she thought. When all the local high schools refuse her as a student due to her prison record and family background, Anya decides to travel to Mexico and learn more about the chocolate business from cocoa pod to black market chocolate bar. Things are not as quiet in Mexico as Anya expected and her heart is tested.

While she is away, she finds out that her family is in danger and she must leave Mexico immediately to save her little sister. Anya is still wounded from the fact that she's in love with Win, a boy she can never have. Win is still in love with her, too. Throughout the book, the reader keeps hoping they will be together for that "Romeo and Juliet" love story moment, but then things didn't turn out so right for Shakespeare's star-crossed duo either!

At home, Scarlet, Anya's bestie,  is in love with Gable and even Win seems to have a new girlfriend. Try as she might, Anya cannot escape the pull of the mob and the corruption of her family and the "chocolate wars." It seems every friend has secrets and everyone wants a piece of the chocolate business. When her closest alliances come into question, she will have to decide who her real friends are.  Who is the double agent? Who wants her dead?

All These Things I've Done (book 1) was compelling and complex but equally entertaining and exciting. Book 2, Because It Is My Blood , is not as taut and thrilling as book one. Anya is still one of the best and brightest heroines in young adult novels, but the storyline plodded along in places.

Readers of book one will want to read this book.

Highly recommended for fans of All These Things I've Done. Readers must read book one to understand Anya's story and background.

Grades 9-up. Mature situations, violence, mob violence, killings.

FTC Required Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.