The Beckoning Shadow

The Beckoning Shadow by Katharyn Blair    463 pages -- read 350 pages

This YA fantasy novel focuses on Vesper, a teen runaway who has some dangerous powers. One of the many Oddities, she's a person who can summon your worst fear and turn it into reality. It's a scary sort of power, especially because she can't always control it.  Finding a group of other Oddities, Vesper learns there might be a way for her to rid herself of her power. However, to do this, she'll have to compete in the Tournament of Unraveling, where one wrong move can mean landing her or someone she loves in a world of hurt.

I got 350 pages through this before closing the book and returning it. I liked the idea of these powers, kind of like the tv show The Gifted, which is based on the X-Men universe. However, I felt like the story's pacing was a little slow and then I got a little bored by the main character and the fact that there was a love interest thing running through this.  I don't think this is as much a problem of the story as it is that I'm not the reader for this book.  Interesting premise, and for someone else, probably a really good story.

The Hunger

The Hunger by Alma Katsu  384 pages

I was warned. It was right there on the back in big, bold letters, “A Tense and Gripping Reimagining.” The genre of this book could be classified as historical horror, a mashup of sorts, I guess.

This was the first time I had ever read any historical fiction about the infamous Donner Party, who left Springfield, Illinois, on a 2,500-mile journey to California on April 16, 1846. The nine wagons were delayed due to a series of mishaps and mistakes, causing the wagon train to be stranded high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Of the 89 men,women and children who began were stranded, only 49 made it out. As their food ran out, the party was forced to result to cannibalism in order to survive.

While Katsu, stays true to the people and timeline of the original party, she throws in a supernatural element. For me it didn’t work. It didn’t feel real to me, especially since the factual story of cannibalism is much more horrific than the beings attacking the travelers.

I was disappointed how the paranormal interfered with the real story, and I was especially disappointed in the book’s ending.  Therefore, The Hunger receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.