Mary McCoyReviews

Another YA book that, like [book:Greenglass House|18222716], is just a little to cute by half, a little too in love with itself. Still, it's a rousing read.

Imperial Day Academy has a student Senate, but the school is really ruled by the Honor Council, a group of students charged with seeing that their peers uphold the school's Honor Code. Claudia never expects to be involved in either group, though her older sister Maisie is poised to be Honor Council president someday. Born prematurely, Claudia has a limp, a stutter, asthma, and various other physical differences that have positioned her as more of an observer than a leader -- but all that will change as she gets caught up in the politics and backstabbing that happen during her time at Imperial Day.

This modern-day retelling of I, Claudius by Robert Graves really hits the mark in so many ways. (Amusingly, Graves is the surname of the principal of Imperial Day.) Readers unfamiliar with the source material will find that this book stands well on its own as a tale of school government machinations, but those who have read I, Claudius will find lots of clever corollaries between the two books. (It does make me wonder who this book is really for, though, as it's the rare teen who is a fan of Graves' work.) There's strength in the writing, plot, and characters -- scheming Livia was particularly well drawn, and Cal was appropriately terrifying. I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy YA stories set in private schools, particularly if they are also fans of Roman history (or, specifically, I, Claudius).½

RGG: An amazingly good read!! I enjoyed all the allusions to Robert Graves' I, Claudius, but I don't think missing those allusions will detract. On the College-Bound list. Reading Interest: 14-YA.

"Don't believe anything they say."

Those were the last words that Annie spoke to Alice before turning her back on their family and vanishing without a trace. Alice spent four years waiting and wondering when the impossibly glamorous sister she idolized would return to her--and what their Hollywood-insider parents had done to drive her away.

When Annie does turn up, the blond, broken stranger lying in a coma has no answers for her. But Alice isn't a kid anymore, and this time she won't let anything stand between her and the truth, no matter how ugly. The search for those who beat Annie and left her for dead leads Alice into a treacherous world of tough-talking private eyes, psychopathic movie stars, and troubled starlets--and onto the trail of a young runaway who is the sole witness to an unspeakable crime. What this girl knows could shut down a criminal syndicate and put Annie's attacker behind bars--if Alice can find her first. And she isn't the only one looking?

I, Claudius meets Watergate meets Clueless, or Cruel Intentions, or something. I felt repeatedly thwacked over the head with the references and parallels to the Roman Empire and at the same time completely uninterested in the plot. So this one didn't work for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Lerner Publishing Group and Mary McCoy for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving and advanced copy.

Political intrigue. Think House of Cards for high schoolers, except teenagers are so much more ruthless than adults. A modern retelling of “I, Claudius” where ancient Rome is replaced by a Los Angeles private high school. Is this where we will find tomorrows leaders? Let’s hope not, but after reading this, probably, given what we have seen from the political arena. Has nothing changed? Not really. Is power the seductive - certainly. Does it corrupt - absolutely. A living entity and watching what it does to those students it comes into contact with - fascinating. From the outside, where it won’t affect you in any way. Does it turn good into evil and evil into…psychopaths? No one comes out unscathed, that’s for sure. We aren’t all good and all bad, but it does warp each person in a different way. Can you avoid it? Well, history has lots to teach us, but we don’t seem to learn from it. Many of these questions and more are raised in this fantastic, outstanding and thoroughly enjoyable read about the Imperial Day Academy.

Claudia McCarthy has a stutter and a noticeable limp as a result of one leg being noticeably shorter than the other. School has not been the kindest, most sympathetic place, with children often being cruel in their taunts. She quickly realizes that high school will not be any different. Her only friend is her sister, Maise, who sits on Imperial’s High Council. The school has two organizing bodies, the Senate and the High Council. The Senate doesn’t have any real power, with it’s main function organizing school dances and such. The High Council has more power than the administration, voting on a student’s smallest infraction with suspensions and expulsions. The story is told through Claudia’s perspective, privy only to people and events as she sees them. Interspersed between the chapters we get glimpses of the transcript of Claudia on trial. We learn that she is being accused of abusing her power as president of the High Council. How did she get from being invisible to holding the highest office? Claudia relates her journey that takes her from witnessing the corruption from those in power, to being enticed to running for the Senate and ends up being elected president of High Council. Her only intent was to weed out those who were abusing power and to restore the school to a safe, honest environment. How did she get into the predicament of Imperial Day Academy Board vs. Claudia McCarthy.

McCoy does an excellent job of retelling or reimagining the original. It is full of nefarious characters, intensity of emotions, depicting the rise and fall of a reluctant leader, all fo it just works at so many levels. Claudia’s rise and fall takes place over four years, crafted so well that makes it believable. She uses a play on the character’s names from Grave’s text - you have an Augustus, Livia, Herod becomes Hector. Her characters are deep and come to life, jumping off the page at you. It is dark with some violence, drugs, death, but nothing a young adult wouldn’t have come across in other novels for their age. Then ending, cruel almost - you’ll see why. There is al least one big flaw that I found in the story but I don’t want to get into spoilers in my review. I’d be happy to discuss in comments if anyone has the same feeling. McCoy includes two pages of discussion questions that will encourage thought and analysis. Something that can be done individually, in small groups or as a class. This so easily lends itself to be taught in a classroom setting, although I believe anyone would enjoy reading it on its own for pure enjoyment. It is too good to just be in a classroom. Too good to not be done in a classroom.

Definitely one of my stand out reads of 2018.

That was one of the most unexpected books I have ever read. I'm glad I took a chance on it. I thought it was going to be some ya horror camp trope but it's not in the slightest. For those readers who don't like horror (including myself), this is actually a fantasy novel. And that's all I'll say about that.

I would like to add the more that I think it's interesting that the narrator's dilemma actually becomes the readers' as well. Reading this book felt like I was the one looking in all the mirrors (that won't make sense unless you read the book).

Sixteen-year-old Alice has been waiting for four years for her older sister Annie to come home. Alice knew one thing—her wealthy, reputation-conscious, Hollywood-insider parents had not been truthful about the reasons for then sixteen-year-old Annie’s rebellious departure. Summoned to her comatose sister’s hospital bedside, Alice decides that she cannot just sit back and wait this time. Determined to find the person or people who beat up her sister and left her for dead, Alice warily joins forces with a P.I. claiming to be a friend of her sister. She quickly finds herself immersed in a sordid story of power, corruption, betrayal, and a young witness on the run. Set in the Hollywood’s Golden Age, "Dead to Me" is classic noir with a jaded teen girl as Sam Spade, albeit one with a personal investment in bringing the guilty to justice. As a fan of noir and teen fiction, I enjoyed the story and the strong sense of time and place that permeates the novel. Fans of noir, the television series Veronica Mars, or the Keaton Academy series of books are likely to enjoy this vintage noir story featuring another resourceful, tenacious California girl.

Rachel H. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

What an awesome book! It's laid out in a pretty cool way, with the different acts, and each cabins different adventures are very entertaining. The different stories slowly come together, each cabin unknowingly helping the other cabins, and all the stories come together nicely in the end. I highly recommend this book to prettty much anyone, it's just a good story.

I won this from a goodreads giveaway

This is an...odd book. I finished it, and it was quite lengthy, but I'm not sure I would recommend it.

Twenty-five campers have been invited to summer camp. They are divided into five cabins. Each cabin has an adventure. Cabin 1 is participating in the All-Camp Sports and Follies. This is their chance to beat the posh campers across the lake and Kadie is determined that this will be the year they win. But is she really a returning camper? And are the rival campers even human? Cabin 2 is being stalked by a murderer...or are they? They're a disparate group but they can come together to survive anything - they hope. Cabin 3 is on a quest, united in their goal of discovering a secret treasure. But perhaps they should have thought about it a little more before taking off into the woods... Cabin 4 has 4 best friends and one lonely girl who meet their soulmates, but they're not quite what they seem... and Cabin 5 is in serious trouble right from the start.

SPOILERS

So, the story is told jumping back and forth from cabin to cabin. People "die" (although none of the campers actually gets killed) and various chapters end on cliffhangers. Some of the campers are just focused on survival, some are working through personal problems and issues, some have realized that Something is Going On. Throughout the story, the theme of a popular series of girls' adventure stories is woven and readers also hear from a narrator, with more and more hints that everything is stage-managed. We never really discover the exact nature of the beings that are running the camp, but the implication is that they're some kind of faery since iron injures them. There is a conclusion of types; the narrator is freed, both from the creatures and her own mental prison, the girls are rescued more or less intact, and no mention is made of the fate of previous campers and personnel who didn't survive their summer adventure.

This is certainly intriguing, and I continued reading to the end of all 413 pages to see what happened, but I found myself fervently wishing that the story would get on with it at several points. It's not really a horror story, although people are attacked frequently, not really a fantasy although magic does exist, and not a love story although kisses are exchanged. One story line follows a girl who is panicked that her cabin mates will discover her soulmate is a girl, but it's not the focus of their plot thread. Several descriptions imply racial diversity, but it's rarely specified. Ultimately it's a weird and unique blend that I think would have done better if it had been about 100 pages shorter.

Verdict: A good story, but I can't think of an audience - it would have to be one that is comfortable both with first kisses, spider monsters, and narrow escapes from death as well as soul-searching. That's kind of a limited field. Also, it's over 400 pages long. I enjoyed it, but can't quite recommend it. I'd say it's an additional purchase for a specific type of middle school reader.

ISBN: 9781512415971; Published 2017 by Carolrhoda Lab; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

This is a weird and wonderful book.

It ostentatiously tells the story of a group of girls who are mailed invitations to attend a summer camp, and who accept these invitations, ready to head off to what they assume will be a week full of smores, songs and sleeping under the stars.

But this story goes places they, and you,will never see coming.

The mysterious narrator had me guessing from the start, as did the unique structure of the book, set up as if it was being run as a play (though the chapters are in prose, not script). There's the group facing off against their rich archenemy camp across the lake, the group running from a murderously mad former camper, the group on a heroic quest, the group who seem to have found their soulmates, and the group just trying to survive as their cabin turns against them.

McCoy plays with popular narrative tropes from both movies and books, and gives readers a fabulous Cabin in the Woods-esque feel, where we know from the start that our expectations and understandings of human nature are being toyed with by a talented writer who has so much more going on than meets the eye.½

Twenty-five girls head off to camp for the summer. In five groups they have their adventures, like girls at summer camp do. But everything seems a little *too* perfect, and something seriously weird is going on. And why is this book structured like a play?

There's so little I can say about this book without spoiling the fun. It's like seven stories packed into one, with everything connecting and intertwining and much more than it seems. At first there were a few bits of the story or writing that annoyed me, but by the end it turns out everything had a purpose. This is the best book I've read in awhile, and I highly recommend it. It's hard to point out a book to compare it to because there are so many different stories going on at once. I'm very much looking forward to reading more by this author, and I also really really want to read the fake book series that all the girls in the book are obsessed with.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Such an action-packed read; filled with page-turning mysteries and family dramas.

Opening Sentence: When I saw my sister in that hospital bed, she was different from how I remembered her. She’d changed her hair. Her cheeks were leaner. And someone had tried to cave in the side of her head with a baseball bat.

The Review:

After four years of zero contact, Alice comes face to face with her older sister, Annie, only to find her broken at the hospital, fighting for her life. Since Annie’s disappearance, Alice’s life changed for the worst; she distanced from her parents and her friends and became a distrusting, skeptical girl. Deep down, she always hoped that the sister she played spy games with would return and their family would be whole again, but with Annie’s changed re-appearance, it’s clear that fantasy will never come true.

I very much enjoyed this book because despite the crazy circumstances, Alice felt so real. She’s not cut out for this mystery, it’s far too dangerous for her but she’ll do what she can to help, even if it means using her childhood detective skills to save her sister. Along the way, Alice finds pieces and people from Annie’s new life, forcing her to realise that the beautiful older sister she had has changed to someone almost unrecognisable.

I would never have gone so far as to say that our parents loved her more than me, but it was clear they considered her more promising. Where Annie was “beautiful” and “smart,” I was “cute” and “clever.” Annie was charming; I was pleasant. Annie danced ballet and tap and took voice lessons, and I backed her up on the piano. And we both went to those awful parties.

The hurt Alice feels at not being part of Annie’s new life is palpable but throughout the mystery Alice travels her own journey of self-discovery. She’s no longer the adorable little sister who used to sing at her parents’ parties.

Alice’s courage in the face of danger and the constant twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat. I doubted most of the characters’ agendas because it was clear they all had secrets. Alice didn’t know any of them well enough to trust but at the same time she had no choice but to trust them because she needed all the help she could get.

I loved that Alice was no Sherlock Holmes, she’s bumbling her way along, trying to piece clues together and making so many mistakes it would be funny if it wasn’t terrifying. Despite her flaws, it’s clear how much Alice loves her sister and that she’ll go to any lengths to make Annie proud even though she envies these broken girls who her sister cares so much for; the girls Annie chose to care for whilst leaving Alice behind.

Clearly, Annie had been wronged and I’m aware that she went through some unimaginably hard times, but I still detested her for Alice’s sake. She didn’t want Alice mixed up in her new life because of the danger it posed, but it was because of her that Alice was left so vulnerable. Annie was trying to protect Alice but she forgot that Alice needed a sister’s love more, and I guess I hated Annie for this.

“Jerry doesn’t have friends. He has a cabinet full of broken dolls like your sister. And he acts like he wants to fix them, but the truth of it is, Alice, I think he likes them broken.”

There was a sadness to this book that I find hard to explain. Annie’s reunion with her family and Alice managing to bring justice for all the girls that fell prey to Donahue should have been cause for a happy occasion but although it is a victory, it’s one that came with a lot of pain. An excellent thrilling read, with an almost Nancy Drew-like mystery, I look forward to reading more from this author.

Notable Scene:

“This was never about you, Alice.”

She said it as kindly as you could say something like that. I could tell she tried to make her voice gentle, but her words still cut me because I knew they were true. Terrible things had happened, and because of them, my big sister had disappeared. That she could have been more careful with my heart and her promises was the least important thing about it.

FTC Advisory: Disney-Hyperion/Hachette provided me with a copy of Dead to Me. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

3.0 stars