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just after dark, by stephen king

4/2/2014

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A couple waiting for the train discovers the truth about their situation.  A woman running from her troubles must run to save her life.  An overweight man enters a new reality with the help of a stationary bike.  A black-and-white cat delivers a special kind of justice.  Two neighbors try to settle a score in a very unconventional way.  As the sun sets and night begins, the protagonists in Just After Sunset will have to face their fears—no matter which form their fears choose to take.
In Just After Sunset, Stephen King draws from the mundane experiences of his characters to explore what it means to be afraid.  To some, fear is born out of an imminent threat; to others, it is something that cannot be expressed in words, a feeling or nagging belief that nothing will ever be the same.  This collection of short stories is a great introduction to King's style and substance, and it shows why he has earned the reputation of one of the best horror writers of our times.  

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wonder show, by hannah barnaby

10/16/2013

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Portia was too young when her mother left.  From her, Portia has no memories.  When Portia's father leaves to follow the circus, however, Portia is very aware of the pain of her loss.  Left to be raised by her Aunt Sophia, a practical woman with no imagination, Portia holds on to the hope that her father will be back for her.  When Aunt Sophia, tired of her niece's willful and stubborn ways, dumps the girl at the McGreavy Home of Wayward Girls, it is Portia's hope to her father will find her that keeps her going.  The Home is run by a cold, calculating man known simply as "Mister," and his charges are subjected to hard labor and awful living conditions. Portia would have waited for her father's return were it not for a horrible incident that leaves her with the terrible burden of guilt.  To escape an unbearable situation, she runs away to join Mosco's Traveling Wonder Show, a sideshow for circuses where "human oddities" are the main attraction.  Even though she is a "normal," her storytelling skills guarantee her a job with the show introducing the talent.  As the circus moves from to town to town, Portia must find her father before Mister finds her.
Wonder Show plays on the old idea of running away with the circus to tell a fresh and engaging story.  Portia is a modern heroine, a young woman who takes charge of her destiny and makes use of her talent as a storyteller to survive instead of waiting for someone to rescue her.  One interesting aspect of Wonder Show is that even though the book is written in third person, the author allows her characters to speak in first-person chapters that shows us exactly what each of the "oddities" is thinking.  Like the oddities in the sideshow, this book is weird, eerie, warm, and delightfully human. 

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Girlchild, by Tupelo HASSMAN

10/2/2013

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Rory Dawn Hendrix is third generation in a line of poor, drunk, addicted, and abused women. Both her grandmother and mother have escaped unhappy relationships by running away to Reno, where they live on La Calle de las Flores, a dusty trailer park where drinking, gambling, poverty, and unhappiness abound.  While Grandma spends her paychecks on slot machines and her Mom on booze, Rory finds comfort in the teachings of The Girl Scout Handbook. There, on the pages of a copy so worn out that the librarian has removed it from the shelves and given it to her as a gift, Rory finds practical life lessons and a message that encourages her to persevere. The Girl Scout Handbook is her safe haven from the tough reality of life on the Calle.
Like Rory's grandmother's garden, Girlchild tells of the possibility of beautiful things sprouting under the most unlikely conditions. As the story moves forward, it becomes more and more difficult for us to expect that Rory will ever avoid the fate of the women before her, "apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom." With every cruel blow that life delivers—and there are many—we hope that Rory will find the strength to keep on going. And she does. This is not a happy book, yet I finished it with a sense that if there is hope for Rory, there is hope for all of us.





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    Ms. Fonseca

    I love books, cats, and zombies.  If anyone ever writes a book about cat zombies, it will be the most sensational book ever.

    Picture
    Wonder Show
    Girlchild
    A Game of Thrones
    Love and Other Perishable Items
    The Twelve
    My Abandonment
    Just in Case
    The Best and Hardest Thing
    The Perks of Being a Wallflower
    Story of a Girl
    Handling the Undead
    Sharp Teeth
    Gil's All Fright Diner
    Room
    Beauty Queens
    Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
    The Girl Who Played with Fire
    The Reapers Are the Angels
    The Night Circus
    The Tequila Worm

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