Twisted

Twistedby Hannah Jayne, 313 pages

“Guilty until proven innocent... Bex has always been her daddy's little girl. After her mother left, it was just the two of them. Sure he spoiled her with clothes and jewelry, but what father doesn't dote on his daughter? Except Bex's dad is alleged to be a notorious serial killer. Dubbed "The Wife Collector" by the press, her father disappeared before he could stand trial. And Bex was left to deal withthe taunts and rumors. Foster care is her one chance at starting over, starting fresh. But Bex's old life isn't ready to let her go. When bodies start turning up in her new hometown, the police want to use her as bait to bring her father in for questioning. Is Bex trapping a serial killer or endangering an innocent man?” This was creepy and satisfying.  There was enough doubt about everything that I wasn’t sure until the reveal at the end who was guilty and who was innocent.  This has been one of Jayne’s best books, in my opinion.  Teens who like thrillers will read this

Orphan Train

Orphan Train  by Christina Baker Kline   278 pages

In an act of judging a book by its cover, I thought that Orphan Train was a story about the Kindertransport, the organized rescue effort that happened during the nine months before the outbreak of World War II when approximately 10,000 from Germany, Poland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. They were placed in foster homes, schools, farm and hostels in the United Kingdom.

In a way I was wrong and right. This story is about the relocation of children, but instead of Europe, it happened here in in America between 1854 and 1929. Indigent, orphaned or abandoned children from the East Coast were put on trains to be fostered or adopted by Midwestern families, who often treated them like slaves.

Christina Baker Kline’s novel, Orphan Train, tackles this almost-forgotten aspect of American history. Vacillating between Spruce Harbor, Maine, in 2011, and New York, Chicago, and Minnesota of 1929 to 1943, readers meet two children in dire circumstances.

First is seventeen-year-old Molly, who has been sentenced to community service. She is to help an old woman cleanout her attic. The old woman, Vivian, maybe ninety-one years old, but she has a few sparks left in her. Her whole life is in that attic. She doesn’t so much want to clean it out, but look back and remember her life.

Vivian, along with her parents and three siblings, emigrated from Ireland in 1929. She and her parents lived in one of New York City’s infamous tenements. After her family dies in a fire, Vivian, whose birth name is Niamh Power, is sent to the Children’s Aid Society and ultimately placed on a train bound for Minnesota.

While Molly’s story frames Vivian’s story, both take solace in each other. Molly learns that she doesn’t have it so bad after all. Poor Vivian went by several names before Vivian was finally settled on her.

This is a tale of loss, turbulence, resilience, second chances, adaptability, and courage. Be prepared to not get anything else accomplished once you start this wonderfully woven tale.

Orphan Train receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Up From The Sea

Up From the Sea by Leza Lowitz   272 pages

On March 3, 2011, the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami happens. It was a disaster of epic proportions where “approximately 15,889 people died, 6,152 were injured, and 2,601 people are still missing. And 127,290 buildings were destroyed, with a million more severely damaged.”

Leza Lowitz, who lives in Toyoko, used that premise as the basis for her powerfully haunting novel about a teenage boy and the devastation that rocks his costal Japanese village.Kai is at school when the earth begins to shake. A 9.0-magnitude quake rattles and rolls his small village. The aftershocks, which number 11,106, often measured over 7.0.

This scenario would make an excellent novel, but Lowitz doesn’t take the easy way to tell of Kai’s life. Instead she has chosen a novel-in-verse.

Readers run with Kai as he heads for high ground with his teachers and classmates. We feel his weary arms cling to a tree as a wave hits. We reel at the loss of his mother, grandmother, and grandfather, his village, his friends, everything. Everything.

The only bright spot is that Kai’s estranged dad live in New York City; he hopes he can make contact with him, and that, somehow, they can be reunited.

Watching Kai search for his family’s remains and to try to pick up the pieces of his village is eerily reminiscent of watching New Yorkers combed hospitals, leave notes and pictures in the hours and days after 9/11. One thing I learned from this tale is that to the Japanese, 3/11 conjures the same type of painful memories that Americans feel every time 9/11 is mentioned.

Kai is selected to go to New York to participate in the 10th anniversary of 9/11. That part of the story was not delved into enough for me. It almost sounded like a vacation.

I read Up From the Sea in less than two hours. The prose is highly visual and emotionally gut- wrenching. I could not put the book down until I learned how Kai came to terms with what he had endured.

I give Up From the Sea 5.5 out of 5 stars. The whole 9/11 thing could have been left out without hurting the story at all.