Kindle Press, 2016

What is going on with Griffin Rinaldi? He wishes he knew. Sometimes he feels like his body is dead and he’s observing someone else going through the motions of his life. At other times he sees the red-haired kid from his dad’s stories even though no one else can see him there.

Griffin’s got a tough life; it would be hard to deny that. His dad died less than a year ago, and his grandfather, whose heath has been better, is trying to help him through the worst of it, but Griffin’s mom doesn’t know quite what to do with him, and his aunt’s convinced he’s possessed. When an unusual snowstorm comes to Griffin’s home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, the perfect storm that hits Griffin and his family is only partly due to the weather.

Though The Disembodied is marketed as an adult psychological thriller, I read it as a young adult story for a couple of reasons. First, the main character is 13 years old, and the story is told primarily through his eyes. Second, after the beginning, told from the grandfather’s perspective, the pace and focus of the book felt more like a young adult thriller than one written for adults.

I would have liked to feel more emotionally engaged with the characters in The Disembodied. Most of the most fraught and dangerous scenes are shown as memories, robbing them of the power they might have held if I had believed that the outcome was uncertain. Nonetheless, the story held my interest until the end. Though the story was somewhat suspenseful, I didn’t find it spooky. I’d be more inclined to save it for a snowy evening read than for Halloween as suggested by the publisher. The descriptions of the cold and snow left this New Englander shivering on my couch.

I received The Disembodied through Kate Tilton Book Bloggers Reach Out from Anthony Hains in exchange for an honest review.

Bloomsbury, 2016.

Simon Thorn is lonely. He lives in a small Manhattan apartment with his uncle. His mother is super busy with work and travels constantly. His only friend at school has ditched him and gone over to the bully’s side. On top of all that Simon’s afraid he’s a freak. He can talk to animals and understand their replies.

It’s all a lot to handle, but it’s about to get much worse. In one day Simon’s old, lonely life becomes a thing of the past. Simon’s world opens up when he learns about another hidden world, one in which people can morph into animals and the different animal kingdoms make alliances or battle one another. Before he knows it, Simon’s in a fight to save lives – his own and his mother’s.

I received an advance reader copy of the second book in this series, Simon Thorn and the Viper’s Pit at the International Literacy Association’s conference. As soon as I finished it I went scurrying to my library’s website to find myself a copy of the first book, Simon  Thorn and the Wolf’s Den. This is a series I look forward to reading through. It looks like there will be five books in all.

I found Simon a tremendously sympathetic character. He’s had a tough life and he’s impulsive, but he focuses on doing good. Carter imbued the story with realistic emotional struggles of middle school kids even as she places them in a fantasy world that thrusts them into epic battles. My chief disappointment in the characterization of Simon and his friends is that though they in no way comprise the “in” and accepted crowd among the Animalgams (people who can turn into animals), they are the heirs of the leaders of the animal kingdoms, a fact that sticks in my progressive craw a bit.

I think this is a fabulous new series that will appeal to readers of adventure that love Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. If you’re an elementary or middle school teacher or librarian, start your students reading Simon Thorn now. They’ll have some great new books to look forward to in the future. I’ll be reviewing Simon Thorn and the Viper’s Pit closer to its release date in February 2017, and I’m already waiting impatiently for the third book in the series.