I still haven’t decided whether or not I like the latest series I’ve been reading.  The first book is titled Wake, and the second- which I just read- is titled Fade, and the third is titled Gone.  I read Wake quite a few months ago and when I started reading Fade I couldn’t really remember what had happened previously, but the book did provide enough details to recall the gist of it.  I actually started reading it about a week ago, and put it down on page 22 because it seemed…off.

There was something about it that made me not want to read it, but I picked it up today, found my place, and continued reading it straight through.  And now I desperately want to read Gone.  However, I’m not sure if I particularly like it, even though I’m entirely hooked.  Author Lisa McMann has a very interesting style of writing, though it’s good enough to work perfectly for the storyline.  More on that later, though.

The story takes place in Michigan, centered on the main character (who else?)- Janie Hanagan.  Janie is a dream catcher, falling into people’s dreams and nightmares every day.  When she falls into the dream of a fellow student, assumed to be a lazy drug dealer, she doesn’t know what to think of what she’s seen.  When she tumbles into his nightmare, Janie is driving outside of Cabel Strumholder’s house and doesn’t at first know whose twisted nightmare she gets an inside look of.

As she gets to know Cabel, she finds someone who can not only relate to her past, but also having their own ugly secrets.  She also finds herself a confidant, and begins to fall in love with Cabe.  Cue the reality check.

Both she and Cabe find comfort in one another, especially because of sharing so much in common.  While Cabe is not a dream catcher like she, both characters have pasts they are ashamed of- and parents they are even more ashamed of.  As the plot unwinds, we learn more about who we suspect Cabe to be, and who he really is.

Regarding the style of writing: the books are written in third-person and told in a unique way.  Sentences are short and choppy, but bring you closer to the characters- especially because of Janie living a minute-by-minute life, unsure of when she might next fall into the dream or nightmare of an unsuspecting napper.  It seems to me that you’ll either hate this book or love it.  It’s a very quick read, and despite taking a few pages to get used to the style, it really is an excellent book.

More twists in the plot appear in the second book, and I’m sure there are even more in the third.  Definitely check this book out if you’re into obscure topics, interesting writing styles, love that cannot be, or any of the above.
 
Darkly Dreaming Dexter.  A serial killer, who kills the bad people.  But he doesn’t just kill them; he confronts them, and makes them suffer.  And his way of killing is just as unique as he is.  It all started when he was just a boy, as we see in flashbacks throughout the book.  He would kill small animals such as squirrels, and once, his neighbor’s dog.  His adoptive father, Harry, worked for the police department at that time, and had found Dexter at the scene of a crime, and proceeded to adopting him. 

It wasn’t long before Harry realized what Dexter had gotten himself
into, and what he was becoming.  The only thing he could do was intervene, and teach Dexter how to control himself.  Control himself enough so that he could fight off the urge to kill something, and only kill the people who deserved death (rapists, killers, etc).  Dexter fine-tuned his style from the beginning, carefully and dutifully working. 

Harry helped him, and helped him to find and know who the bad people were.  Dexter makes sure he has proof of the wrongdoings of the people he kills.  He works as a blood splatter analyst for the Miami police department, which also helps him during his moonlighting job.  However, when a string of murders display a resemblance to his own style of killing, he is both flattered and frightened- of himself and this mysterious murderer. 
This book series by Jeff Lindsay has inspired the Showtime series, Dexter.
 

The House of Night series by P.C. Kast and Kirstin Cast are a really great series that are about the world and lives of vampyre fledglings at the House of Night.  One thing I really enjoyed about this series was the Greek legend aspect about it.  The fledglings worship Nyx, the goddess of Night, and when things start happening that their high-priestess Neferet cannot seem to control, it is in the hands of vampyre fledgling Zoey Redbird.

An odd fledgling, Zoey became Marked one day in her high school, which meant she had to either go to the House of Night and accept her position as a fledgling, or die.  She chose the former, against the wishes of her mother and step-father.  Supported by her grandmother, Zoey entered the school and is quickly noticed by everyone because she has developed faster than the normal fledgling, which poses a few problems.

The four books in this series that I have read all caught my attention, because like the Vampire Academy novels, this series focuses on a more original and lesser-written about aspect of vampire legends.

Marked
Betrayed
Chosen
Untamed
Hunted

 

These books by L.J. Smith are insanely good.  Each volume has 3 different stories, centering around the "Night World" which is a world inside the world of humans that humans are supposed to have no knowledge about.  The Night World has vampires, witches, werewolves, and shapeshifters. 

They are very quick reads, at least for me, and always hold my attention very well.  I'm very much into books involving the supernatural, and will be reviewing more of them on here very soon :]