Charm and Strange - Stephanie Kuehn

Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

This novel has been nominated for the CILIP Carnegie 2014 medal.

 

Charm and Strange: a curious UK hardback cover and a delightful title loaded with flavourful promise. I didn’t read the blurb too closely so I only had a vague idea of what this was going to be about and I’m pleased about that. If you look closely at the cover, you might spot a moon and a tennis ball. They are relevant and maybe significant. This novel is both charm and strange, and I kind of liked it.

Charm and strange. They’re flavours of quark. Those itsy bitsy quantum pieces from which we’re made. There’s plenty of fun and games to have with that but there’s also a dark and menacing implication if you think about entanglements and decay. This novel does exactly all that. It’s not a nice story and there’s very little fun in the actual plot. But, there’s a developed tension and the reader is unwittingly invited to unravel a mystery. That’s the fun bit. Gamewise, there’s a strong sporting element to the novel’s main character.

Win is at an elite boarding school. He is an athletic but anti-social teenage boy, with few (if any) friends. Drew is a rich tennis champion child with a mean streak. They’re really the same person and the novel shifts from Win’s present (matter) to Drew’s past (anti-matter). Is one of them strange? Is the other one charm? Or are they both? And what is eating away inside of them? Why has Drew become Win?

Charm and Strange sets a very dark and menacing tone. Drew is not the sweetest kid you’ll ever meet and what he does is very violent. Often, I’ve left a novel because the character is just too horrible for me. But this novel and its main character are also shrouded in mystery. You know that there’s even more to it (and him) than just that. Put a few of the pieces together and you’re going, “no, not that”, and “please, not that either”. From a fictional perspective, I was pleased that the mystery was not a plot cop-out.

Thematically, Charm and Strange is a big toughie: suicide, violence, mental health, self-harming, bullying, abuse and death. However, the tone of the novel is not gritty and there are plenty of gaps for the reader to fill themselves. Importantly for me, and without giving anything away, the final outlook is not bleak. If you’re ready to handle the darkest of some of these themes, Charm and Strange is an entrancing, thoughtful and (dare I say it!) enjoyable read.

A couple of drawbacks for me, if we’re thinking Carnegie criteria: a slightly overcrowded plot and I can’t decide if it all needed to be there or not (especially Anna). Sometimes Drew/Win’s voice didn’t sound like I expected him to sound – but that might be me (or his very posh American private school).

 

Publication details: 2013, Electric Monkey, UK, hardback

This copy: received from the publisher for review

24 hour readathon (& fundraising for the Philippines)

The 24 hour readathon! It's back by popular demand from our book group !

 

 

 

When:

 

8h30, Fri 6 December - 8h30, Sat 7 Dec (GMT)

 

Where:

 

Our places (online & off)

 

What:

 

Read! Anything!

 

You don't have to read or stay up for the whole 24 hours. But there will always be at least one person in our house reading for the whole duration.  Join in with us via Twitter ##wsd24, on the blog, or on our fundraising page.

 

Why:

 

It's a party!

 

Also, we do a bit of fundraising. This time, we're raising money for the British Red Cross, particularly in support of the rescue work they're carrying out in the Philippines as a result of the recent typhoon disaster.

 

Please, donate as much as you can. You can donate online via our justgiving page, or you can

 

Text:

 

MASM48

£2

 

to 70070

 

Please note, the £2 is just a suggestion.

Also, if you've really already done your bit for the appeal, feel free to just join in with the Readathon Party.


Readathon Tips

• Variety of reading material: something that will keep your eyes wide open
• Snacks, snacks, and snacks
• Move it - get a change of atmosphere and bit of excercise too
• Do it with friends - if you're on your own, we'll be around online to keep you company

We'll see you on the 6th or very early on the 7th!

#wsd24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the Truth That's in Me - Julie Berry

All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry

Review by M

 

All the Truth That’s in Me has been nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2014.

All the Truth That’s in Me had me from the first page. I loved it very much. That has as much to do with the story as it does with the writing.

Judith went missing when she was a young teenager. She returns a few years later, mute, to her community in Roswell Station. Nobody knows where she has been or why and she can’t tell them. Set back when the United States of America was still in its formative years and western ways of life were quite different from today’s, there is no loving welcome for her and she is treated with suspicion as a cursed outcast by her community. While this is bad enough, Judith has no time for wallowing in self pity and is treacherously defiant about the loss of the love of her whole life.  All the Truth That’s in Me reads like a eulogising ode: To Lucas, from Judith.

At face value, this is an unrequited love story, smouldering and intense. It’s mournful and yearning, in the way of odes, elegies and praise poetry. But, through its praising and its questioning, Judith’s narrative is also suspenseful and the whole story turns on a couple of whodunit questions.

 

A girl has been murdered and Homelander invaders threaten. Rumours taken as truth for answers abound.  As the story progresses, many readers will fill in the story’s gaps correctly. For me, these came as light relief from what was otherwise a very intense and absorbing read.

All the Truth That’s in Me is a short novel (perhaps even novella?) and the reading experience is similar to last year’s Carnegie shortlisted, The Weight of Water. While The Weight of Water was written as poetry and was a light-but-substantial read,  All the Truth That’s in Me is not a poem and it is darkly, deeply intense.

The overwhelming feeling that this novel is a poetic ode or eulogy, to Lucas, is further enhanced by this ‘verselike-diary entry’ structure. Again, this also gives it the quality of a testament, which narratively it is, in more ways than one.  The chapter structure feels like verses from the Bible and is thematically very fitting as Judith’s community is deeply and often rigidly religious. With references to Greek myths, I also can’t stop thinking of Keat’s Ode on a Grecian Urn. I love it when a novel sends me off on a search.

This is a little book but it is quite as long as it should be. I dare any of you not to fall head over heels for Lucas (and that’s something I may never have said on this blog before!?). Judith’s ode does its work and I loved it. It was enormously satisfying. Far and away, All the Truth That’s in Me has been one of the most captivating books I’ve read all year.

This novel has adult themes suited to the ages of its characters who, at times, are about eighteen and twenty-something. But, these issues are treated in a way that makes this novel easily suitable for secondary school shadowing groups. Visions of things that might not have happened in the story may fill the mind of the reader in much the same way that they did the judging minds of Roswell Station’s community.

 

This novel may also prompt some readers to find out more about Joan of Arc.

Publication details: 2013, Templar, Surrey, hardback

This copy: review copy from the publisher

 

The Fault in Our Stars - Teen Book Club

October’s teen book club read was John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. The group met at the local library and had a Hazel and Gus style picnic: Dutch themed sandwiches – Gouda cheese, chocolate spread – and fizzy drinks in fancy bottles served in picnic champagne flutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some of their thoughts about the book:

Imi

I absolutely loved this book, it's beautiful, emotional and one of my favourite books! It is so well written and by an amazing author. I constantly wanted to read more and I swear I had withdrawal symptoms when I wasn't reading it! Both times I read it I was sobbing even when I knew what was going to happen! All in all, I think it's an incredible book that I would recommend to anyone and everyone! 

Bridget

I thought that it was a good book but it was very predictable as I guessed the ending from the end of the first (or second) chapter, but I didn't really expect it to happen exactly in the way it did and as dramatically. I really liked Isaac, I thought that he was funny and I feel like I connected to him very easily. I thought that at points the words felt quite forced, like he didn't know what to put, also I think he tried too hard to put in quotes that would make people remember the book and think about it. I think that the book was over-hyped, my expectations were very high from what people had told me but it didn't live up to those expectations at all, this could be because they were so high that I didn't give it a chance.

Catherine

I thought The Fault in Our Stars was basically just a cancer novel, not that I have anything against cancer novels. However writing about someone overcoming this particular illness I think tends to restrain the level of originality others can have. As a whole the novel was okay to good, but not exceptional. It is one of the most hyped up books I've ever read and it really didn't live up to my expectations. The characters, while different, weren't very believable. For example Augustus didn't flow. Everything he said felt very scripted, like an over prepared speech. I feel Augustus was sort of made as a character to be famously quoted and therefore he wasn't natural. The characters didn't really connect for me. I think over a longer or teen novel I tend to expect to build a little empathy link with the characters. You come to know their little habits and their flaws and that makes them seem real. The characters and the whole book were really too perfect for me but I can see why some people liked them. The plot was also easy to predict. All in all I thought the book was a nice short novel perhaps for a day on the beach however I was disappointed and sad that it wasn't the emotional page-turning heart-wrencher it was set up to be.

Alice

I loved The Fault in Our Stars and I cried at it.

Mac

I really liked The Fault in Our Stars. It was sad but happy and a few tears were shed. Parts were a little predictable but that didn’t stop me from reading it. People have said it is very over-rated but I don’t think that at all. John Green did a splendid job. I can’t wait to read others of his.

 

Thanks to The Reading Agency for sending us reading group copies.

 

November's book club read was Noble Conflict by Malorie Blackman. Thoughts on that coming soon.

 

 

 

 

Freedom - Jonathan Franzen

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

 

Adult fiction: Book review by M

I'd been curious to read one of Franzen's novels for a while. Having recently bought copies of both The Corrections and Freedom, I started with Freedom purely because the title compels me more.

Freedom is an epic turn of the century (20th to 21st) great American family drama that dilly-dallies heavily in the American dream and national politics of the day. No-one gets off too lightly. Tonally, it has the zip and sting and taboo-shaking that Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap delivered but is geographically and thematically set in a far more expansive American way.

Freedom is about the Berglund family but really more about Walter and Patty, their son, Walter's friend Richard, and not so much about their daughter. From the start, we know that Walter has mucked up big time over ethical environmental issues in Washington, and that this seems uncharacteristic from what people knew about him. The story immediately jumps back and traces, through a third-person narrator and occasionally, Patty, a series of events that led to this current situation. The story traverses about four decades of intersecting and persistent relationships (mostly flawed and definitely obsessive) amidst a vitriol against American middle class politics that raises questions (not so new but nevertheless persistent and deliberately ignored) about motives for war, saving the earth and of course, freedom.

Being somewhat stuck in the middle of the debates about freedom from meets freedom to, the concept of freedom is what drew me to the novel.While always interesting (and especially if you've never given much thought to the un/limits of freedom), I felt that the concept of freedom was heavily overworked in this novel. This doesn't necessarily detract from it still having thought-provoking value for the reader (in this case, moi).

Characterwise, Walter is the most interesting and, for me, wholly likeable. Patty reads like a dull character and I really can't see what other characters thought was so extraordinary about her. No doubt she wouldn't give me a moment's notice either. Her beloved son, Joey is very unlikeable and his whole situation is weird (or maybe the way some things are in real life just don't translate very well to the written word). Interestingly, the daughter, Jessica, doesn't get much textual space in the novel whereas the rest of the Berglund family (and Richard Katz, Walter's best friend) get their own very lengthy chapters, at least once. Arguably, Jessica gets a lot of headspace though. The description of Richard as a cute Gaddafi, that ruined him from the start for me.

It's not often that I think or feel that a novel has a gender, but I think Freedom is masculine. All of the characters feel masculinised (rather than gender indeterminate). For example, Patty is a top notch basketball player and describes herself as a jock. That's great but the sound and flow of her voice felt very masculinised - even the high school incident, which, well.......is alarming. But, what is especially interesting is how all of the female characters are described as super pretty, bar perhaps just one - Jessica. Jessica, who doesn't get the word count that the other characters get describes herself as not that pretty. Every other woman character is drop-dead-georgeous-and-beautiful-in-a-very-pervy-objectified-way. Even Walter's feminism doesn't stretch beyond that.

Did I like it? On the whole, yes but with lots of grumbles. It is an absorbing read (though its chapters are...lengthy). I especially liked the character of Walter Berglund and the final chapter (which is a bit Life of Pi-ish - but more in terms of interpreting the ending rather than the whole story so it might be a cop out but it's very entertaining). It's the kind of novel I'd love to read with a bookclub because there is a lot of stuff to wrangle over.

Publication details: Fourth Estate, London, 2011, paperback
This copy: Mine



SPOILER ! SPOILER!  SPOILER!

SPOILER about the ending!


My interpretation of the final chapter is that there is not a happy ending.

This chapter was a story that Patty wrote for/to Walter. None of the events in that story actually happened, in a literal sense. They may of course have happened post-writing but I'm not so sure. I don't think Walter was a big grumpy depressive hermit in the way that Patty portrays it. Then again, The Winter's Tale quote at the beginning suggests quite the opposite........



End of spoiler

National Short Story Week: Margo Lanagan

National Short Story Week: Margo Lanagan

This week is National Short Story Week. In celebration of it, we sat down for a chat with critically acclaimed young adult author, Margo Lanagan. She shares a few thoughts about her short story collections. For any teen or adult reader who hasn’t read any short stories for a while (or ever), I’d highly recommend trying Lanagan. She combines play, observation and provocation beautifully.

WSD: All of your short story collections are named after colours. Does each colour have a special significance to each book: either in its contents, to her when she was writing it, or any other way?

Margo Lanagan (ML):

Short answer, no. The first collection, White Time, had a story called "White Time" in it, but I chose Black Juice simply because I wanted a title with Black in it. Then with later collections I thought I'd just move on to the primary colours: Red Spikes, Yellowcake. Blue is next. It's easier to have a naming scheme than to try to capture the essence of each collection, particularly as the stories within each collection are so varied.

I also have a fifth (mini-)collection, Cracklescape, which came out from Twelfth Planet Press last year. That one's title came from a kind of firework - there's a firework display in one of the stories, but mainly I just liked the word. The -scape part of it also pointed to the fact that all the stories were set in Australian landscapes, so they were united by that.

WSD: Do you have a favourite (or a few) short story/ies in your collections and why?

ML:

Let me think.

In White Time, I think my favourite story is "The Night Lily", because it still remains slightly mysterious to me; I kind of coughed it up rather than putting it together from ingredients I chose.

In Black Juice, "Singing My Sister Down" and "My Lord's Man" are my favourites because they came out the neatest and best formed; "Sweet Pippit" I like because I grew very fond of those elephants in the telling.

In Red Spikes, I like "Winkie", because it's so creepy, and in Yellowcake I'm torn between "A Fine Magic" and "Ferryman", again for their neatness, but also because I enjoyed the characters in them.

In Cracklescape, probably my favourite is "Significant Dust", because I enjoyed going back to that stark Nullarbor Plain setting.

WSD: Your writing, though fantastical, is often literally and symbolically visceral as it unpacks anatomies and life's inequalities. At times, this is a delight and also a discomfort to the reader. Does it have the same effect on you as a writer?

ML:

I think I'm always looking for what Kelly Link calls a "pleasurable" experience in the writing, but this doesn't necessarily translate to the writing of a joyful story or a story about people experiencing pleasure. Generally it means that I've got hold of a story and some solid, interesting characters to drive it (or some interesting characters, with a plot to drive them to reveal themselves) and if everything's working well I will be totally absorbed in the adventure of creating it.

Delights and discomforts for the characters are equally challenging to write; I wouldn't say that I get more distressed writing one than the other. Sometimes if I've been delving in dark stuff there's a certain relief in walking away from it; sometimes I make myself cry - although I try not to have characters cry, as it usually indicates a weak point in the story construction. And my tears are usually momentary things; we're not talking floods of tears and loud sobbing here, just one nose-blow and some eye-dabbing.

The experience of putting together a scene that I'm hoping will affect readers one way or another generally involves one layer of character's actions and emotions and one layer of technical preoccupation with evoking particular emotions (not always the same as the characters') in the reader; there's very little room in that mixture for me to indulge my own emotions.

 

Thank you, Margo. Having read Yellowcake, I think the Ferryman story was one of my favourites too. I'll look out for your favourites when I start White Time and Red Spikes too.  

 

Read my Yellowcake review.

 

North of Nowhere - Liz Kessler

North of Nowhere by Liz Kessler

Review by Chutney* (12)

North of Nowhere has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2014.

 

Publisher’s summary:

The sleepy seaside village of Porthaven hides a mystery....

Mia’s grandad has vanished and nobody knows why. When Mia and her mum go to support her grandma, Mia makes friends with local girl, Dee. But why does Dee seem to go out of reach? Why does she claim to be facing violent storms when Mia sees only sunny skies? And can Mia solve the mystery and find her grandad before time and tide wash away his future?

North of Nowhere was inspired by the real village of Hallsands, South Devon, that collapsed into the sea one stormy night in January 2017.

 

 

 

********

 

Our reviewer, Chutney (age 12), used North of Nowhere to complete a school reading report. Here are her responses:

Genre: mystery, adventure

I chose to read this book because I found the cover interesting and attractive. The storyline caught my attention and it is the most recent book I have received. The story was situated in Porthaven, a fishing village where Mia tried to find the grandad.

I would give Mia an award for her determination to solve the mystery of her grandad’s disappearance. I learnt from the story that with bravery and hope you can conquer anything. I would like to invite Peter over to my house. I would invite him because there are many questions I would like to know the answers to.

There is nothing that I would change about the book because the storyline was interesting, the pace was perfect for me, I enjoy the idea of time travelling and the story captured my mind throughout.

 

Publication details: Orion Children’s Books, 2013, London, hardback
This copy: review copy from the publishers

 

*Chutney is a nickname!

 

 

 

 

 

 

CILIP Carnegie Nominations List 2014

It’s Carnegie Greenaway Medal nominations time again. Because we enjoyed it so much last time, that means it’s extended-shadowing time for us again. We have all sorts of things planned this time around. If your school or community doesn’t have a shadowing group, give us a shout, you’re welcome to join ours.

The nominations list for the Carnegie this year is a whopping 76 titles long, the longest ever (see below and note: we don’t follow the Kate Greenaway, which is for picture books). There’s a bit of a process shake-up this year too, one which I welcome and tciks boxes for all the 'stakeholders'. Last year, the nominations list was the longlist. That’s changed. This year, the longlist will be selected by the judges from the nominations list in February 2014 and a shortlist will be announced in March 2014. The winner will be announced in June 2014.

There are plenty of books on this list that appeal to us which we look forward to reading between now and June 2014 (and some of them, no doubt, after that!). Between Little M and myself, we’ve already read and reviewed 15 and we could pick a few for the shortlist from those. We’ve started about 9 of the others. I doubt we’ll get through all 76.

So far, some very entertaining and thought-provoking reads. I loved Phoenix but think it might fall down on some criteria for the Carnegie but I’m delighted to see it on the Kate Greenaway list. 

Favourites for the Carnegie medal so far

• Campbell-Johnston, Rachel, The Child's Elephant
• Cooper, Susan, Ghost Hawk
• Kurti, Richard, Monkey Wars
• Pitcher, Annabel, Ketchup Clouds
• Stead, Rebecca, Liar and Spy

Based on our reading to date, my current favourite is Susan Cooper’s Ghost Hawk because the storytelling surprised me, swept me along and interested me in finding out about something. Little M is partial to The Child’s Elephant. We’ll see how it goes because there are definitely a few I haven’t read that I have my eye on.

The CILIP Carnegie 2014 Nominations List
Links to our reviews in blue

 

1.      Almond, David, Mouse Bird Snake Wolf (Walker Books)

2.      Almond, David, The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas (Walker Books)

3.      Barber, Elke, Is Daddy Coming Back in a Minute?: Explaining Sudden Death to Pre-School Children in Words They Can Understand (Elke Barber)

4.      Beasley, Andrew, The Claws of Evil (Usborne Books)

5.      Berry, Julie, All the Truth That's in Me (Templar)

6.      Black, Holly, Doll Bones (Doubleday Children's Books)

7.      Blackman, Malorie, Noble Conflict (Doubleday Children's Books)

8.      Bowler, Tim, Sea of Whispers (Oxford University Press)

9.      Bradford, Chris, Bodyguard: Hostage (Puffin Books)

10.    Brooks, Kevin, The Bunker Diary (Puffin Books)

11.    Bryce, Celia, Anthem for Jackson Dawes (Bloomsbury)

12.    Campbell-Johnston, Rachel, The Child's Elephant (David Fickling Books)

13.    Carthew, Natasha, Winter Damage (Bloomsbury)

14.    Colfer, Eoin, The Reluctant Assassin (Puffin Books)

15.    Cooper, Susan, Ghost Hawk (Bodley Head Children's Books)

16.    Cossanteli, Veronica, The Extincts (Chicken House)

17.    Cousins, Dave, Waiting for Gonzo (Oxford University Press)

18.    Creech, Sharon, The Great Unexpected (Andersen Press)

19.    Crocket, S. D., One Crow Alone (Macmillan Children's Books)

20.    Cross, Gillian, After Tomorrow (Oxford University Press)

21.    Crossan, Sarah, Breathe (Bloomsbury)

22.    De Quidt, Jeremy, The Feathered Man (David Fickling Books)

23.    Dennis, H.L., The Knights of Neustria (Hodder Children's Books)

24.    Diamand, Emily, Ways to See a Ghost (Templar)

25.    Dickinson, Peter, In the Palace of the Khans (Peter Dickinson Books)

26.    Dockrill, Laura, Darcy Burdock (Corgi Children's Books)

27.    Dowswell, Paul, Eleven Eleven (Bloomsbury)

28.    Drewery, Kerry, A Dream of Lights (HarperCollins Children's Books)

29.    Earle, Phil, Heroic (Puffin Books)

30.    Fine, Anne, Blood Family (Doubleday Children's Books)

31.    Fisher, Catherine, The Obsidian Mirror (Hodder Children's Books)

32.    Flood, C. J., Infinite Sky (Simon & Schuster Children's Books)

33.    Gibbons, Alan, Raining Fire (Indigo)

34.    Harris, Carol, Adventures of the Chickalloon: A Bird's Eye View of Earth (Pentre Publications)

35.    Jarratt, Laura, By Any Other Name (Electric Monkey)

36.    Jones, Gareth P., Constable and Toop (Hot Key Books)

37.    Jones, Rob Lloyd, Wild Boy (Walker Books)

38.    Kessler, Liz, North of Nowhere (Orion Children's Books)

39.    Kuehn, Stephanie, Charm and Strange (Electric Monkey)

40.    Kurti, Richard, Monkey Wars (Walker Books)

41.    LaFleur, Suzanne, Listening for Lucca (Puffin Books)

42.    Lake, Nick, Hostage Three (Bloomsbury)

43.    LaBan, Elizabeth, The Tragedy Paper (Doubleday Children's Books)

44.    Mayhew Julie, Red Ink (Hot Key Books)

45.    McCaughrean, Geraldine, The Positively Last Performance (Oxford University Press)

46.    McDowell, Nigel, Tall Tales from Pitch End (Hot Key Books)

47.    McFall, Claire, Ferryman (Templar)

48.    McGowan, Anthony, Brock (Barrington Stoke)

49.    McKay, Hilary, Binny For Short (Hodder Children's Books)

50.    McNeal, Tom, Far Far Away (Jonathan Cape)

51.    Morris, Jackie, East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

52.    Mulligan, Andy, The Boy With Two Heads (David Fickling Books)

53.    Murdoch, Emily, If You Find Me (Indigo)

54.    Mussi, Sarah, Seige (Hodder Children's Books)

55.    Pass, Emma, ACID (Corgi Children's Books)

56.    Pitcher, Annabel, Ketchup Clouds (Indigo) (+ book group)

57.    Pratchett, Terry, Dodger (Doubleday Children's Books)

58.    Prue, Sally, Song Hunter (Oxford University Press)

59.    Robinson, Jon, Nowhere (Puffin Books)

60.    Rundell, Katherine, Rooftoppers (Faber Children's Books)

61.    Said, S. F., Phoenix (David Fickling Books)

62.    Sepetys, Ruta, Out of the Easy (Puffin Books)

63.    Shearer, Alex, The Cloud Hunters (Hot Key Books)

64.    Smale, Holly, Geek Girl (HarperCollins Children's Books)

65.    Stead, Rebecca, Liar and Spy (Andersen Press)

66.    Stiefvater, Maggie, The Raven Boys (Scholastic)

67.    Stroud, Jonathan, Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase (Doubleday Children's Books)

68.    Sutcliffe, William, The Wall (Bloomsbury)

69.    Syson, Lydia, A World Between Us (Hot Key Books) (+ book group)

70.    Torday, Piers, The Last Wild (Quercus)

71.    Watts, Helen, One Day in Oradour (A & C Black)

72.    Wein, Elizabeth, Rose Under Fire (Electric Monkey)

73.    Whyman, Matt, The Savages (Hot Key Books)

74.    Wooding, Chris, Silver (Scholastic)

75.    Yancey, Rick, The 5th Wave (Penguin Books)

76.    Yangsze, Choo, The Ghost Bride (Hot Key Books)

 

 

What do you think?