77 Shadow Street and The Moonlit Mind

Hey there!

In this post you get a two for one review. The main book is 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz. The prequel to this is The Moonlit Mind .

77 Shadow Street

The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Gilded Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon’s dream home. Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse. But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace. For its fortunate residents—among them a successful songwriter and her young son, a disgraced ex-senator, a widowed attorney, and a driven money manager—the Pendleton’s magnificent quarters are a sanctuary, its dark past all but forgotten. But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths. With each passing hour, a terrifying certainty grows: Whatever drove the Pendleton’s past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again. Soon, all those within its boundaries will be engulfed by a dark tide from which few have escaped.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I think because there was so much hype surrounding it and its own cool website I was really excited and wanted to love it. But then I dove into the world of the Pendleton and didn't feel that way. This is a book that deals with a lot of supernatural creatures and Koontz just failed at describing them. I couldn't imagine half of the stuff he was talking about because the descriptions were so jumbled. I also was unaware of the timeline. I think it took place in 24 hours? But all of that was unclear, how long did they have to live in that miserable situation. There were just too many stories. How the heck was I supposed to keep up with all those people? And some of them just seemed to be thrown in there and have no purpose in the story. This had a lot of traits of Koontz's other books. Overall, it just felt unfinished and in the end Koontz seemed to just want to end the book. This book felt like it could have had so much potential. I gave it 3 out of 4 stars.

The Moonlit Mind (I believe this is a Kindle exclusive)

Twelve-year-old Crispin has lived on the streets since he was nine—with only his wits and his daring to sustain him, and only his silent dog, Harley, to call his friend. He is always on the move, never lingering in any one place long enough to risk being discovered. Still, there are certain places he returns to. In the midst of the tumultuous city, they are havens of solitude: like the hushed environs of St. Mary Salome Cemetery, a place where Crispin can feel at peace—safe, at least for a while, from the fearsome memories that plague him . . . and seep into his darkest nightmares. But not only his dreams are haunted. The city he roams with Harley has secrets and mysteries, things unexplainable and maybe unimaginable. Crispin has seen ghosts in the dead of night, and sensed dimensions beyond reason in broad daylight. Hints of things disturbing and strange nibble at the edges of his existence, even as dangers wholly natural and earthbound cast their shadows across his path. Alone, drifting, and scavenging to survive is no life for a boy. But the life Crispin has left behind, and is still running scared from, is an unspeakable alternative . . . that may yet catch up with him.

I liked this a lot better than 77 Shadow Street. The two really have nothing to do with one another accept that they are across the street from each other. It was simple and the plot was kind of creepy and whimsical. There were real people and not made up creatures I couldn't picture. There was some great symbolism in it specifically the moon. The one issue I had was that Koontz sets up some great symbols for the reader to figure out and then he ruins it by spelling it out for the reader. At times he left nothing to the imagination of the reader. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. It was drastically better than its later counterpart.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

The Maze Runner

Hey everyone!

Next up on the list is The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.

This book starts off a little slow. But then it sure does pick up and after that I couldn't put the series down. It was definitely a unique dystopian teen sci-fi book other than the whole concept of "Big Brother". Dashner really created his own world in this book. He creates slang words that the Gladers use which is sort of unique to this book. Only a few characters really had personality, the rest were completely lacking. It also doesn't help no one has their memories so personality is almost impossible. The reader goes into this book with absolutely no information but his name and it takes a REALLY long time before we find out anything. It also did seem like a big video game but don't all of these types of books. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

The Giver Quartet

Hey there!

Over the summer I reviewed The Giver by Lois Lowry. After that I read the last three books in the series. As I did with the "Lorien Legacies", I'm going to lump them all together in one review. If you missed my review on The Giver you can find it at the link below:

The Giver Review

Gathering Blue

Unless you have read the fine print, you would never know this is in anyway related to The Giver. It was a really good book though. I love the fact that there is an imperfect protagonist and she is quite an amazing one at that. The protagonist has a super cute little sidekick too! The story seemed to take place in a time that was before this time. The village has very simple ways that seem less complex than those in The Giver. This book was a really good story. It was fantastical and dystopian, unlike The Giver which is just total dystopian-this-could-be-us-soon story. I gave this a 4 out of 5 stars.

Messenger

My favorite Matt is back. This book is clearly connected to Gathering Blue and connections form to The Giver. I can't stress enough how incredible the writing is in all of these books. This book was very supernatural. Not fantastical and not dystopian really. This book also seems to take place in the past with simplistic ways. The idea of this story was great. This book was a super quick read. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

Son

This book takes us back to the very beginning. All the way back to The Giver and the Ceremony of Twelves. And through Claire's life. In this story all things come together. The series ended so nicely, although I was sad to see it end. The adjectives and description in this book were so good! This book almost lived up to The Giver. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

I highly suggest this series. It's so good and one of my favorites.

Happy reading!

Mackenzie

My Name is Rapunzel

Hello!

My next review is on My Name is Rapunzel by K.C. Hilton - this was another book club book.

My tale has been told again and again, and I’ve heard each one. Except for my hair, I barely recognize the pitiful renditions. Muddled versions, crafted to entertain laughing children…but the children wouldn’t have laughed if they’d known the real story. It wasn't their fault. They didn't know the truth. Nobody did. My name is Rapunzel. I will tell you my story. I will tell you the truth

I'm still waiting to use the one "M" in my challenge for a special book, so this one won't count for a letter.

Alright, this is the "true" story of Rapunzel. She's heard all the other stories and those are just versions that are fluffed up to make the public want to read them... well it worked. This one was a little more twisted than Tangled but not as twisted as the Grimm's version. But there really wasn't anything special or different about this version except it takes place in present day, which doesn't really matter because she's kind of shut off from society in a castle. Let's start at the very beginning.  The prologue is a scene in the future meant to capture the reader. Okay, got it. But the scene is supposed to be repeated later in the book and the reader is supposed to be given more detail. Hmm... that was missed. It was glossed over and Hilton basically just said, "This happened somewhere between here and here. And it happened." Then Rapunzel mentions random fairy tales, saying she met this character and these ones but only in passing. Why do the fairy tales have to exist all together, why can't it just be Rapunzel's story. A huge chunk of the story is missing. A HUGE chunk! There's also a lot of switching going on. About halfway through the book she switches to letter format, where we get a little more information about the missing pieces of her life from when she moved into the castle until present day. Also, twice they switch to Henry's point of view. It adds nothing to the story because you find out the exact same information in the next chapter and it just makes it confusing. The ending felt rushed and it was a little convoluted with it's weird love triangle and what not. I don't know.... I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Keep reading!
Mackenzie

Mountain Madness

Hello there!

So I read this book Mountain Madness by Daniel Pyle. I only have one M available to me in my challenge and I want to save for a really special book (I haven't figured out what yet), so I can't give it to this book. Here's what this lovely book look like.

So like I said, I'm not including this in my challenge so you'll just get my review.

This book is two shortish stories in one book. I'll take them one by one. First is Dismember. This is a psychological thriller. It was very unrealistic, which is fine in a horror book by all means, but not in a psychological one. This is supposed to freak you out and and make you not want to be home alone and this book just didn't do it. Freeze was a little better. The creatures were an interesting concept but it was WAAAAY overly gruesome. Both were very overly gruesome and they didn't need to be. I am, by no means at all, against gore but there is a line and this was way over the line into ridiculous. All characters were underdeveloped and so was the plot. I know I've said this before but shorter isn't always better, shorter is NOT better when you can't figure out how to fully develop anything in such a short amount of pages. He also didn't end them properly. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars simply because I didn't hate the books. They were alright. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the book to anyone, unless you're a HUGE guts and gore fan.

Keep on reading!
Mackenzie