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jenwesner

Today in Jen's Library

I listen to audiobooks while I flip houses. I also read real books which I buy incessantly.

Currently reading

Monsters (The Ashes Trilogy, #3)
Ilsa J. Bick
Time Between Us
Tamara Ireland Stone
The Message: The New Testament, Mass Market Edition

Everlost (Skinjacker, #1)

Everlost  - Neal Shusterman, Nick Podehl I had just read "Unwind" by Neal Shusterman, and liked it so much I wanted to hear more from him. What I got with the entire Skinjacker series is now on my top 10 books of all time.

This book is absolutely delightful, and here's why: Shusterman (wisely so) let these kids be what they are - kids - in a world that is not the world. Children generally are more readily accepting of things that don't make sense, so we were able to follow right along as they adapted to their new environment. The whole thing reads like a fairytale, and yet the characters are coping as best they can with a fantastic situation. There are no parents to ask, so they just figure things out and do the best they can. This, combined with the way kids behave, just captured me. The Magill just cracked me up. Who better than a little boy to go grandstanding around and bullying everyone just because he can? Kids are mean sometimes. Kids also will believe things that are completely crazy without even blinking an eye, so when the older ones pull things on the younger ones, we get to smile at all of them.

The whole repetition thing was very clever as well. Honestly, it makes perfect sense. Why else would ghosts behave the way they do?

I would never have imagined that I'd be this captivated by a novel about ghosts. Well done Mr. Shusterman.