Book Review: You Know Where To Find Me by Rachel Cohn

Title: You Know Where To Find Me
Author: Rachel Cohn
Published: New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2008
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 204
Total Page Count: 56,469
Text Number: 163
Read For: reading books about suicide, checked out from the library
Short review: Cousins Laura and Miles grew up like sisters, but high school has separated them—attending different schools, Laura has become attractive and successful, Miles overweight and underachieving. When Laura's sudden suicide separates them for good, Miles begins a downward spiral of overeating, drug use, and depression. You Know Where To Find Me is based on the absence of Laura, but it heart lies with Miles, her downfall, and her journey back to life. This should be enough content to make up a novel—but, unfortunately, it's not. Miles is a believable narrator, but there are so many issues cluttering the short book, from politics to drug use and of course Laura's suicide, that no one element has the chance to stand out. The subject matter may interest younger readers, and there's nothing outright bad or overly objectionable, but on the whole this book is lackluster and I don't recommend it.

( Long review. )

Review posted here on Amazon.com.

Book Review: Benighted by Kit Whitfield

Title: Benighted
Author: Kit Whitfield
Published: New York: Del Ray, 2006
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 516
Total Page Count: 56,985
Text Number: 164
Read For: reading books about werewolves, checked out from the library
Short review: Benighted takes place in a world not unlike our own, except for one fundamental difference: over 99% of the population are lycanthropes, and the remaining minority work with the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity, capturing and prosecuting lunes that break full-moon curfews. Lola Galley is a DORLA veteran, but the events of two bad moon nights leads her to investigate a new type of lycanthrope crime: lycos capable of thought in wolf form and murder in human form. Benighted is uniquely conceived and features a complex plot and a cast of realistic, faulted characters. Unfortunately, it suffers from inconsistent pacing and the conclusion comes out of left field, seemingly unrelated to the rest of the book. I recommend it as a unique, intelligent deviation from the werewolf genre, but I hope that Whitfield's later novels are more consistent.

( Long review. )

Review posted here on Amazon.com.

lupanotte: You should check this one out.