About the Book
-
Author:
- Kathy Reichs
- Genres:
- Mystery
- Science Fiction
- Voices:
- Cis Girl
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: Well, At Least It Doesn’t Scream YA
BFF Charm: No, Thanks!
Talky Talk: Bones, Jr
Bonus Factor: Primates, Puppies, Baddies
Relationship Status: Like Dating That Guy For Three Hours at the Airport
Cover Story: Well, At Least It Doesn’t Scream YA
This cover looks like every other book of this genre. It could easily have Dean Koontz or Patricia Cornwell or Tami Hoag’s name slapped on the cover instead of Kathy Reichs. This isn’t actually a bad thing – what better way to YAngelize to other adult readers than to have a book cover that looks like a book they’re reading? Unfortch for you, if you try to YAngelize with this book, a crack team of YA Angels will come and haunt you for THE REST OF YOUR DAYS.
I realize that angels don’t usually haunt people, but these angels will. We have a contract signed.
The Deal
Tory Brennan has just moved to a tiny island off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina to live with a father who never knew she existed. Her mother has died and Tory is kind of adrift. But she has a good group of friends, and some fancy power tools from her aunt, Tempe Brennan, and life is looking up.
Until Tory and her friends go poking around on a nearby island that’s being used as a research facility by the local university. There, they rescue one of Tory’s beloved wolfdog pups . . . but maybe they let something out that should have stayed caged.
BFF Charm: No, Thanks!
Look, Tory, you’re cool and all, but you’re no Tempe Brennan. (And also Tempe is Tory’s paternal aunt, and her parents were unmarried, and her mom’s name was Brennan too, and that’s confusing to my alcohol-soaked brain. But I guess it would have made the monogramming easy if Tory’s parents had been hitched.) And please know that by “Tempe Brennan,” I actually mean the late-40s, recovering alcoholic, divorced, ass-kicking Temperance Brennan of book fame, not Emily Deschanel who doesn’t know what Facebook means and who once said, “This tibia was fractured below the knee” like, NO SHIT BRENNAN, as opposed to above the elbow? (When determining the location of bone fractures you use terms like proximal and distal; you don’t correspond the fracture to another part of the body.)
Aaaaanyhooskies, so, yeah. Tory’s okay, but she’s a bit Mary Sue-ish. She has lovely red hair! She only has friends who are boys! She doesn’t understand other girls! All that blahblahblah special snowflake nonsense that is beyond annoying in fanfiction and goddamn reprehensible in published fiction. ALSO, while I get that you want to rescue the puppy from the science lab, Tory, maybe when a file says that the dog has been infected with parvo, you, I dunno, DON’T LET IT OUT IN THE WILD? Just a thought.
Swoonworthy Scale: 2
There’s some romantic stuff thrown in to this book, but it’s exactly that: thrown in as an after-thought. The kids today! What do they like? That Justin Bieber kid and smooches! Put some of that in!
Talky Talk: Bones, Jr
I’ve read more than my share of Kathy Reichs’ books, being that they are about a forensic anthropologist and I studied to be a forensic anthropologist. And I enjoy them, for what they are. But I’m not after starting an FYA sister site called foreverkathyreichs.com, you know?
Bonus Factor: Primates
There are MONKEYS on the island! MONKEEEEEYS. I love NHPs (non-human primates) so, so much; they are my very favorite! So if I were Tory and her friends, I would totally hang out on the research island every day, just chillaxing with my monkey friends: Davy, Mickey, Michael and Tork.
Bonus Factor: Puppies
Not just puppies, but wolfdog puppies! Oh, is there anything in the world better than a furry puppy to hug? I proclaim that there is not. And Coop, the puppy that Tory and co rescued, reminded me a lot of a puppy that lived with me a few years ago. She showed up, worm-ridden and flea-bitten, in my apartment complex, and I couldn’t bear to leave her there, so I took her in to the vet. Poor little puppy was so sick that she wasn’t strong enough to get her vaccinations, and so I took her home and got her well and just when she’d become well enough, bam! She got parvo. It was super touch and go, but she was the most irrepressible little rascal evs, and she got well! Eventually she got a nice home with a big yard and another doggie friend, which was good because that dog was cute but my God, was she bored in my tiny apartment.
Puppies forever!
Bonus Factor: Baddies
One thing that I usually find lacking in YA mysteries is a real big bad. I don’t want the bad guy to just be the mean girl who wouldn’t invite the hero to the after-party prom! I want murder! Mayhem! Conspiracies! There was def murder and mayhem in this book (though the conspiracy was weaksauce), which I appreciated.
Relationship Status: Like Dating That Guy For Three Hours at the Airport
So when I was in seventh grade, I got to go on a school trip to Washington, DC, thanks mostly to my mom, who is awesome. On our way back from DC, we ended up stuck in Dulles airport for about four hours, due to the fact that the engine fell out of our plane. (Luckily the plane was parked at the time.) So after my classmates and I stuffed ourselves full of 14 dollars worth of French fries, EACH, we started wandering around the terminal. I had one of those drama-queen “friends” at the time who had found out – through a game of hotel room Truth or Dare- that I had a crush on this classmate. So she dragged me over to him, announced my crush, and stood there until he asked me out.
We went out for about three hours. Then he dumped me as we were boarding the plane, cause he wasn’t ready for such a commitment. I was upset, of course – my first boyfriend had just dumped me – but I overcame my broken heart around the time that the flight attendant came by with the complimentary peanuts.
Reading this book was a bit like dating that guy. Oh, sure, there’s a little rush of tingly fun, but mostly I’d just sigh with disappointment and think, “Really? This guy?” Really? This book? I mean . . . I guess it’s worth dating until the flight attendant comes by with the peanuts.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received my review copy from Penguin. I received neither money nor cocktails for writing this review (dammit!). Virals is available in stores now.
