Review of The Girl in the White Van by April Henry

Henry, April.  The Girl in the White Van.  Henry Holt, 2020.

Sophomore Savannah Taylor has been dragged from city to city by her mom, always in search of  her next boyfriend.  Since she knows they will only move again, Savannah has learned never to get too comfortable in one place.  Currently, they are living with Tim, an auto mechanic, who is macho and very controlling.

 

In her spare time, Savannah has achieved her orange belt in kung fu and is reading a book about Bruce Lee, whom she admires.  Gossip has been going around school about girls being followed by a driver in a beat-up car and a girl from a nearby town who has been missing for nearly a year.

 

One night after kung fu class, Savannah is attacked and kidnapped.  When she awakes, she tries unsuccessfully to escape by falling out of the white van her kidnapper is driving.  Upon falling, she breaks her wrist and is recaptured.  She is taken to an old junk yard and pushed into an RV, where she finds Jenny, whom she heard was missing.  Jenny tells Savannah that “Sir”, their kidnapper, has certain rules they must follow if they want to remain alive.

 

Savannah is determined to keep herself and Jenny alive, no matter what.  She teaches Jenny how to be resourceful and fight back.  She knows they must use all their strength and cunning if they are going to outsmart Sir and escape from the RV.

 

The Girl in the White Van is the latest in a string of breathtaking thrillers written by April Henry.  Although the plot is simple, the action is nonstop and heart-stopping.  As a student of various martial arts, Ms. Henry has incorporated her extensive knowledge into this book, as well as information about the late Bruce Lee.  

 

As usual, the author has given us a strong female protagonist.  Savannah has learned to be tough, both mentally and physically, because she has lived in many different places.  Although she is claustrophobic, she is able to overcome the fear of being in a small RV in order to empower and help Jenny, who is quite timid and traumatized when they first meet.  

 

Each chapter begins with a quote by Bruce Lee, who was quite the philosopher!  Besides Savannah and Jenny, there are other narrators--the girls’ mothers, Sir, and others to keep readers abreast of is happening with the search for the girls while they are locked inside the trailer.

 

The Girl is the White Van is a real page-turner.  Hand it to fans of the author and readers who enjoy stories about survival and adventure.  I highly recommend it for middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it five out of five fleur de lis!

 

Thank you to Edelweiss and Dutton for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Review of The Safe Place by Anna Downes

Downes, Anna.  The Safe Place.  St. Martins, 2020.

 

Emily Proudman wants to be an actress, but she has lost the current job she auditioned for.  Not only that, but her agent isn’t renewing her contract, and she can’t pay her rent on her apartment.  To add insult to injury, now she has been fired from her temporary office job at Proem Partners.  Her parents won’t even help her out, and she is out of ideas, when a job just seems to fall in her lap.  

 

Scott Denny, who is the attractive and rich CEO of Proem Partners, makes Emily an offer she can’t refuse—a job as a personal assistant/housekeeper/painter to his wife, Nina.  What’s not to like about this job?!  She gets a great salary, a car, and can live rent-free at a beautiful estate in France.

 

When Emily arrives at Querencia, she can’t believe her luck!  The estate is a paradise, and she thinks this must be her dream job!  However, Nina and Scott’s daughter, Aurelia, is a puzzle—she doesn’t speak and must wear clothes covering her whole body due to being allergic to sunlight.  And Nina is hard to figure out, as well.  She seems nice, but emotionally distant, and forbids Emily from entering the main house.  They also seem cut off from the real world since they have no Internet service and only intermittent phone service.

 

Emily also finds it strange that Scott never visits his family.  When he does finally arrive, months after she has been there, he seems to want nothing to do with Aurelia and doesn’t seem overly happy to see Nina.  She feels something is going on, but she doesn’t know what to make of it.

 

She eventually leaves Querencia and drives into town, where she visits an Internet café and discovers that the Denny family has a huge skeleton in their closet.  After learning this, she decides she wants to leave.  However, the Dennys have other plans for Emily…

 

In this debut suspense thriller by Anna Downes, the author has done an excellent job of world-building by giving the reader lush descriptions of parts of France.    The story is told in chapters by Emily and Scott, with some backstory narrated by Nina.  It is during this backstory that readers learn what transpires in the Denny family’s lives before the novel actually begins.  

 

The main characters are intricate and authentic, which makes for absorbing, obsessive read.  Emily is portrayed as weak, immature, and gullible, but she actually grows during the novel into someone who can think for herself.  Scott is aloof and controlling, but not near as much as Nina, who is also desperate and conniving.  Aurelia has a whole set of problems of her own, which don’t seem to improve, partially because of her mother.

 

The Safe Place is an oppressive, obsessive Gothic-type novel and is on several “anticipated book lists”.  There are plenty of twists, turns and surprises in the story to keep readers interested, although it does drag a bit in the middle.  Hand this book to your readers who enjoy mysteries and thrillers.  I recommend it for public libraries and give it three out of five fleur de lis.

 

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this title.

Review of Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Johnson, Maureen.  Truly Devious.  HarperCollins, 2018.

In the 1930s, affluent, but unconventional, Alfred Ellingham founded the exclusive Ellingham Academy in the mountains of Vermont, with hopes of attracting the future’s smartest, brightest, and most creative minds.  Students were allowed to learn at their own pace and take on personal projects tailored to their interests.  Not long after, Ellingham’s wife and three-year-old daughter were kidnapped.  Someone calling himself “Truly Devious” took credit for the crime and demanded ransom for the victims.  Unfortunately, the ransom drop went horribly wrong, supposedly leading to the death of Alfred’s wife.  His daughter, Iris, was never found.  At about the same time, one of the students was also found murdered in a tunnel on the school property.  Although someone was charged and found guilty, the true perpetrator was never found.

Jump ahead to present day, and a new class of students is arriving at the academy.  Among those students is Stevie Bell, an amateur detective, who hopes she can solve the Ellingham mysteries.  She considers herself to be an expert on the case because she has read and studied everything she could find on it.  Now another student has died mysteriously in the same tunnel, and the school is in an uproar.  Despite anxiety attacks, teenage drama, and a schoolgirl crush, Stevie must now solve more than one case.

Truly Devious is a fresh take on the basic crime novel.  The story alternates between the present and the 1930s, using flashbacks to describe the school and the crimes that happened in there in thirties.  The school’s grounds and buildings are beautifully described and seem idyllic in nature.  There is a cast of well-fleshed-out and exceptionally diverse set of characters—in gender, ethnicity, race, and other aspects.  There are laugh-out-loud funny moments, plot twists, surprises, with just a little romance thrown in for good measure.  Just when you think you know who the murderer is, something happens to change your mind and keep you guessing!  Of course, there is that dreaded cliffhanger, leading the reader yearning for next book in the series.

Hand this novel to your students who are fans of Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie.  I recommend it to middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it four out of five fleur de lis!

Review of Crazy House by James Patterson

Patterson, James.  Crazy House.  Hanchette, 2017.

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The United States has been split up into cells which are totally controlled by the new government, “The United”.  Citizens have jobs chosen for them, and it is forbidden to leave the cell’s boundaries.  Seventeen-year-old twins Cassie and Becca are trying to keep their family’s farm going after their mom was sent away to have a “mood adjustment” and their dad was hospitalized after trying to commit suicide. 

There have been a number of child kidnappings, and Becca becomes the ninth victim.  She is thrown into a secret prison full of teens and tweens who are now on “Death Row”.  These “prisoners” are tortured, forced to fight one another, and, overall, treated brutally.  Occasionally, one of them is murdered in front of the others.  Cassie ends up as a kidnap victim, joining her sister in prison, and experiences what has happened to her twin.  

Becca and Cassie work together with fellow prisoners to escape and figure out the prison’s secrets, many dealing with cells, the general masses, and the elite, but unknown, population.

This is the second young adult collaboration between James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet.  Although James Patterson is well known for his adult novels, he has been making the foray into the YA world for a number of years now.  Gabrielle Charbonnet also writes under the pen name, Cate Tiernan.  She has written books for both children and young adults.

This dystopian novel has all the surprises, twists, and turns that readers have come to expect from Mr. Patterson.  The prison scenes are, at times, horrific and quite gory--add to that, the experience of having a child murdered right in front of an audience full of kids!  There are reasons behind all of the plot devices, but I do not want to spoil any of the suspense for those who have not yet read the book.

Readers will be sucked into this fast-paced novel.  The ending is a real cliffhanger, so I am hoping this is the first in a planned series of books.  I recommend the book for upper middle, high school, and public libraries, and I give it four out of five fleur de lis!

Review of The Night She Disappeared

The Night She Disappeared by April Henry.  Henry Holt, 2012.

Drew, Gabie, and Kayla work at Pete’s Pizza, and most nights Gabie delivers pizzas.  Out of the blue, Kayla asked Gabie to change shifts with her so she could be free on Friday night. So on Wednesday, Kayla was making pizza deliveries instead of Gabie.  She went out to deliver three pizzas and never returned.

Gabie is both horrified and frightened when Drew tells her that the guy who phoned the order in asked for the girl driving the Mini-Cooper.  Gabie is the only one working at Pete’s who drives a Mini-Cooper!  The guy on the phone, who now has Kayla, really wanted Gabie!

As the days drag on, everyone, including the police and a psychic, think Kayla is dead.  But Gabie and Drew aren’t so sure.  It’s a race against time to try to find clues to Kayla’s disappearance.  Could the kidnapper take Gabie next?

This book grabbed me from the first paragraph!  It is chilling page-turner and also a quick read!  The majority of the story is told chromatically in days beginning with the day the  kidnapping takes place, in alternating voices of the characters—Drew, Gabie, Kayla, “John Robertson” (the kidnapper),  plus others.  Pieces of evidence, including the kidnapper’s pizza order, the 9-1-1 transcript of the kidnapping, Kayla’s fortune cookie slip, an interview with a suspect, the transcript of a radio show, and more are included in the book.

I think one of the reasons the book works is that, like April Henry’s previous book, Girl Stolen, the author has told a tale that could actually happen in real life!  The reader gets to see inside the minds of all the people involved in the story.  Drew is a great guy; although he comes from a bad home-life, he is tough and has both true survival skills and a good heart.  Gabie is very persistent, and I got the impression that she might have some ESP capabilities in her; she never gives up on Kayla and insists she is still living.  Kayla’s parents are desperately grasping at straws, even going so far as to bring in a psychic to help find their daughter.  While Kayla’s parents truly believe what the psychic tells them, Gabie is convinced that she is really a charlatan!
 

The cover art is terrific!  It really picks up the theme and mood of the book!  If you like fast-paced, action-packed mysteries, this book is for you!  I highly recommend it for middle school, high school, and public libraries.

The copy of The Night She Disappeared reviewed was obtained from the publisher at ALA Midwinter.

Review of Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Wither by Lauren DeStefano; Simon & Schuster, 2011.

A number of years previous to the beginning of the story, all diseases in the world are eradicated through genetic engineering. “First Generations” later discover that there is a problem with subsequent generations. All females at age 20 and all males at age 25 will develop a genetic virus and die. While scientists desperately seek a cure, the lab and all research are destroyed in an explosion. Young teenage girls are considered a commodity and are stalked and kidnapped by Gatherers, who sell them to be young brides to wealthy men. Polygamy is widely practiced and encouraged.

Rhine and Rowan Ellery are twins who lost their parents to the lab explosion. They are living in their parents’ house in Manhattan and working at odd jobs in order to make ends meet. They are very careful, always looking for Gatherers and turning away anyone trying to take advantage of them. They are living in their basement and have even booby trapped their kitchen so that they can be alerted to any intruders invading their house.

However, Rhine is not careful enough because she is ultimately lured away, kidnapped, and sold to be one of three wives to twenty-year-old House Governor Linden Ashby, who lives on an estate in Florida. His current wife, Rose, is now twenty-years old and dying. Rhine’s “sister wives” are Cecily, age fourteen, and Jenna, age eighteen. Their roles are to be companions to Linden and produce children to be secretly used as guinea pigs towards a cure. The household is actually headed by Linden’s father, Housemaster Vaughan Ashby, who is a widower. Vaughan is supposedly a medical doctor and is looking for a cure for the virus so that he can save his son.

Even before Rhine enters the Ashby estate, she is trying to find a way out and back to her twin brother. As the days pass, Rose tragically dies, and the three wives become emotionally closer because they spend so much time together. Rhine discovers how controlling Vaughan is and how little Linden knows of the outside world.  Much of Rhine and Linden’s time together is spent going to elaborate parties in a nearby city.

Vaughan eventually discovers that Rhine is drawn to Gabriel, a servant in the house, and is considering escaping from the estate. The results of his discovery lead to Gabriel’s being sent to another floor to work, the tightening of the wives’ freedoms, and, unfortunately, in one of their deaths. In the last moments of the book, Rhine and Gabriel do escape and make their way to freedom.

I have really gotten caught up in the dystopian movement! From the moment I started reading Wither, I was totally spellbound. Imagine a world where lives are over nearly before they have begun and a world where polygamy is commonplace, widely promoted, and accepted! While these ideas seem repulsive to me, I was so drawn into the story that I could not stop reading! Told through the eyes of Rhine, readers see both the cruelty and the oppressiveness of those who are wealthy and, therefore, feel entitled. We also see how being orphaned has affected the young and made them desperate for the necessities most people take for granted—food, shelter, water, and warmth.

Author Lauren DeStefano’s descriptions of the Manhattan living conditions, the Ashby estate, and the flamboyant parties held in an unnamed Floridian city are breathtaking. Landscapes, foods, clothes, and furnishings are explained in lush detail. All the characters have distinct and recognizable personalities. I loved Deidre, Elle, and Adair, the very young domestics who were charged with taking care of the sister wives. They are so dedicated to the women they serve! I also loved the sister wives, especially Jenna, even though she is initially withdrawn and moody.

I did not expect that Rhine would become friends with her predecessor, Rose, or any of the sister wives. However, they were there, both emotionally and physically, for each other. I also did not think Rhine would have any feelings except hatred for Linden, so I was surprised that she empathized with him. Rhine grew tremendously within the novel. She comes to believe and accept that it is Linden’s father, Vaughan, who is actually stifling and controlling everyone within the house, and who is keeping Linden in the dark about what has really happened in the world. The idyllic life that Rhine lives within the Ashby estate is a much better life than the squalid one she lives with her brother. I am surprised that she would even think about leaving it all behind, but obviously, blood, true love, and freedom are thicker than a wealthy life of leisure!

What a powerful book this was! I was surprised and excited to find out that this is actually going to be a trilogy called “The Chemical Garden”! I am so looking forward to the next two books in the series! I highly recommend this book for high school libraries and public libraries!!!

Review of Girl Stolen by April Henry

Girl Stolen by April Henry; Henry Holt, 2010.

How would you feel if you were kidnapped? What if you were also blind and had pneumonia??? This is what happened to sixteen-year-old Cheyenne Wilder, who just happened to be sitting in a vehicle that was "car-jacked"! The car thief was shocked to find out that there was an unwilling passenger in the Cadillac Escalade that he decided to steal! The terrifying events that follow the surprising kidnapping will not only grip, but also hypnotize readers!

This story gets only more intense when Cheyenne is taken to a chop shop in the middle of nowhere, and the car thief's father finds out that she is the daughter of the iconic Nike owner! The fact that she manages to escape and elude her captors in the woods in the dead of winter is both amazing and ingenius! The way facts are woven into the plot give the reader insight into guide dogs and how blindness affects a person's senses.

This book was very well-researched, and the characters were extremely well-developed! The way that Cheyenne adapts to being blind is a tribute to both her persistance and her survival instinct. Cheyenne dupes her captor into thinking she is weak, and then uses that to her advantage in order to gain his confidence and escape. However, she eventually begins to relate to her kidnapper and actually tries to help him.

From the moment I picked up this book, I could not put it down. It is a gripping, intense story, and I was cheering on the heroine all the way through the story! I highly recommend it for high school and public libraries! It will be available on September 28, 2010, according to barnesandnoble.com.