Asylum

By Madeleine Roux 

     Finally, I was able to track a copy of this book and finished reading this interesting first book in the series.  This is when Jordan, Abby and Dan first meet during the New Hampshire College Prep program.  A program letting interested high school students check out college life.  The trio meet at Brookline Dorm, which used to house a psychiatric hospital.  Dan is an introvert, he has questions about his life before his adopted parents, and is fascinated with history.  Abby is artistic and beautiful.  Jordan is a math wiz, who is afraid to show his true self to his parents.  How do these three very different people become such fast friends.  

     On one of their first nights at Brookline, they happen upon an old office in the west wing.  Full of old paperwork, pictures, and a hidden stair well that is crying to be investigated.  What they find on the multiple trips to the west wing can be very disturbing.  For one the old warden at the hospital was shares Dan's name.  The warden had taken it upon himself to cure criminally insane patients through rather extreme measures.  One such inmate is Abby's Aunt Lucy and another patient is the notorious mass killer "The Sculpture".  When people start missing and some people are killed, the program is in danger of being cancelled.  Friendships are pushed to the brink and a crazy killer is on the loose.  Of course things get interesting when Dan is at the center of all of the killings and his lapses in memory are not helping matters.  How are these mysterious texts going out and putting people in danger? Who is behind all of the drama?  

     This book is a good build up to the rest of the series, I will definitely be reading "Sanctum" quickly.  I did enjoy this book, I am giving it a 4 out of 5 stars and would suggest it for grades 7th and up.  The protagonist is a young man and it is told from his view point, so it would be accessible to either gender.  This is another book that if you are open to the supernatural and believe in ghosts you would enjoy this book and the whole series.  

Links 

Author - Madeleine Roux

Images from Brookline Asylum

College Prep Programs for high school students

One for Sorrow

By Mary Downing Hahn

     This is a very thought provoking story.  I picked it up by happenstance one day subbing in a classroom.  I had just finished a book and this happened to be laying around, once I started reading I was hooked.  The new girl in town inadvertently becomes friends with a very unlikable person. Annie quickly regrets becoming acquainted with Elsie and wants to extract herself from the relationship, but Elsie will not let her go.  Annie gets her chance to remove herself from Elsie's grasp, when Elsie is absent for a week, and quickly shifts her friendship to Rosie's group.  Unfortunately, Rosie and her gang are "Mean Girls"  and belittle and bully Elsie. 

    It seems like overnight that Annie has a new friend group and begins to bully Elsie, and Elsie is left once again friendless.  Things quickly change, however, when a deadly Spanish Influenza hits Mount Pleasant and people begin to die at an alarming rate.  As schools are cancelled and the kids are left to their own devices, Rosie comes up with a plan to get free sweets, why not visit some of the wakes, and pretend to know the individual in the coffin?  They even learn to peruse the obituaries the night before and garner information about the deceased.  On one of these ventures, they happen to run upon Elsie alone in the park.  Elsie is wearing a flue mask, in an attempt to protect her from contracting the flue bug.  Rosie decides it would be fun to harass Elsie and chase her down.  After surrounding her and singing about her getting influenza, stealing her mask, Elsie is left crying in the park;  Annie and the rest of her friends feel bad,yet vow to never speak of this again.  The secret is kept until, they visit one wake with out forewarning and it happens to be Elsie...       Annie believes she is truly done with the worries of Elsie, but is she?  

     An accident that results in a concussion while sledding in the cemetery, another secret and somehow Elsie returns to haunt Annie from the grave.  Elsie is out for revenge!  She wants Annie back as her one true friend and she wants Rosie and the gang to pay for her death.  suffice it to say Elsie is a very angry ghost.  She coerces Annie to do her evil work, and puts words in her mouth that Annie would never say.  Annie's behavior and outbursts reach such a point that she is sent to a convalescent care home, so she can get the rest that she needs to recuperate.  Elsie follows her and continues to make her mind miserable.  Fortunately, there is help in the guise of another patient.  One who claims to be able to see and communicate with ghosts, one who says she can help Elsie transition to her afterlife.  Step one is to get Elsie's friendship, Elsie must believe that her and Annie are best friends.  Will Annie be able to help Elsie move on and reconnect with her mother?  Will Annie be able to return home and be able to get her friends back.  

     This book is very entertaining to read, a fairly quick read.  I think that it would be appropriate for fifth grade and up and even though the main character is female, the content is available to both genders.  I am giving this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars and think that if you like books about the supernatural you would love this book.  

Links 

Author - Mary Downing Hahn

Spanish Influenza 1918 

Dangers of school bullying

Crow nursery rhyme from title

     

Stepsister

By Jennifer Donnelly 

     It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a book this much.  What a great story!  This is my first time reading a fractured fairy tale and I loved it!  The greatness of literature is the ability to pull the reader into the great lie, the what if?  This book grabbed me and kept me drawn into its pages, it is well crafted, intentional and superb.  A lot of people know the beloved story of Cinderella, but what about her mean spirited step sisters?  What becomes of them after Cinderella is spirited away by the Prince?  How do they live?  Do they ever find happiness? 

     This fractured tale meets up with the step sisters, Isabelle and Octavia just as they have both maimed themselves in an effort to fit into Cinderella's shoes.  Octavia, has sliced up her heal, and Isabella has cut off her toes at her Maman's request.  Of course they are discovered and Cinderella is freed and finds her true love.  After Cinderella (Ella) is whisked off by the Prince, their small town hears of their cruelty and they are ridiculed and bullied. 

   There are multiple forces that may change their lives.  Unknown to Isabella, Chance and Fate have taken an interest in her actions.  They have placed a wager on whether or not she lives through the upcoming battle.  France is at war, the country is divided, especially when the king dies and the young prince must rule.  The encroaching rebels led by Volkmar will stop at nothing, they are killing whole villages for sport.  Finally, the fairy queen Tanaquill has a role to play, she has answered the call of Isabella's heart.  

     Will Isabella's warrior heart answer the call, can she find the pieces of herself that has been lost along the way?  This book works on the question what wins and directs us, can we decide our own fate through our actions?  Can Isabella break free of the chains of what she is expected to do can she embrace who she is meant to be and love who she wants?  

     This is a great empowering book!  I am giving it a 5 out of 5 stars and believe it is appropriate for readers from 6th grade and up.  It does skew a bit towards a feminine audience, but I do think that most readers would enjoy it immensely!  This is a great example of a fractured fairy tale and breaking the mold forever!  Pick up your copy today.  

Links

Author - Jennifer Donnelly

Other fractured Cinderella stories   

St. Michel, France