Isabella's Reading Corner: The Hunger

The Hunger

Author: Alma Katsu

Publication Date: March 6th, 2018

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

The Hunger by Alma Katsu is a fictional account of what might have happened to the real life doomed Donner Party of the 1840s. The wagon train of approximately ninety people traveled west from Springfield, Illinois hoping for a new life and opportunities in California, but unfortunately their happy ending was not to be, as an unspeakable fate awaited them.  

Early in the novel the settlers are plagued with misfortune – one of the young wives gives birth to a stillborn baby, there are weevils in the flour and wolves have been stealing their food. When a six-year-old boy goes missing from his tent in the middle of the night and his body is found horribly butchered, suspicions arise that the abominable deed was done by one of their own. 

After a stop at Fort Laramie, those heading to Oregon leave behind the smaller Donner Party who are bound for California. Ominously warned not to take the route they are planning, George Donner seems more concerned about boosting his ego and controlling the group than about the practicality and safety of the journey. Fighting amongst the men begins as there are reservations about separating from the larger part of the wagon train, heading down an unknown trail and lingering for a picnic instead of moving as quickly as possible toward their destination before winter sets in. As the story progresses, more unsettling situations arise as livestock and people disappear and some of the party begin to exhibit increasingly aberrant behaviour…

The author tells her narrative through multiple viewpoints and with such a large cast of characters, there are many secrets among them as their backstories are also relayed. The real historic events that occurred were lurid and shocking enough, but Katsu adds in ritual sacrifices, supernatural and diabolical elements to her version, creating an utterly macabre and hair-raising novel.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the finished copy provided for review.

From the publisher:

A tense and gripping reimagining of one of America's most fascinating historical moments: the Donner Party with a supernatural twist.

Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere. 

That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the isolated travelers to the brink of madness. Though they dream of what awaits them in the West, long-buried secrets begin to emerge, and dissent among them escalates to the point of murder and chaos. They cannot seem to escape tragedy...or the feelings that someone--or something--is stalking them. Whether it's a curse from the beautiful Tamsen Donner (who some think might be a witch), their ill-advised choice of route through uncharted terrain, or just plain bad luck, the ninety men, women, and children of the Donner Party are heading into one of one of the deadliest and most disastrous Western adventures in American history. 

As members of the group begin to disappear, the survivors start to wonder if there really is something disturbing, and hungry, waiting for them in the mountains...and whether the evil that has unfolded around them may have in fact been growing within them all along.

Effortlessly combining the supernatural and the historical, The Hunger is an eerie, thrilling look at the volatility of human nature, pushed to its breaking point. 

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on The Hunger here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: Find You in the Dark

Find You in the Dark

Author: Nathan Ripley

Publication Date: March 6th, 2018

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada

Martin Reese has an unusual hobby. He finds the bodies of murder victims that have not yet been discovered. Using old case files for reference, he looks for seemingly random or unimportant clues that police working on the cases originally missed. He keeps photos of the bodies, along with detailed records of how he uncovered them, stored in his 'scrapbook', an old computer which is hidden away in a locked drawer in his house. Once he uncovers the remains he phones 911 anonymously on disposable cells, leading the police to where they are buried. Unfortunately for him, he has caught the attention of a serial killer who is not entirely happy with Martin's activities and is recently making those feelings known. Also hot on Martin's trail is police detective Sandra Whittal who believes he has escalated from being a 'finder' to a murderer.

Martin and his wife Ellen appear to have a good marriage with arguments mainly revolving around her overprotectiveness of their daughter, Kylie. Ellen's sister Tinsley went missing twenty years ago and Ellen believes she was murdered. She's worried the same will happen to Kylie, so she sets heavy boundaries and rules for her. Martin looks specifically for female victims of serial killers in an attempt to find Tinsley and put his wife's mind to rest.

The insight into Martin's personality is fascinating. There's a complexity to him as he conceals what he's doing from his wife and daughter to create some sort of balance within his life and family. He believes he is providing a public service for the victims’ loved ones. However, there might be another motivation that drives him other than providing closure and finding Tinsley's remains. Martin also has a history of secret impulses he's trying to suppress, so there could be an even deeper reason why he is digging up bodies.

The dark and rainy streets of Seattle create the perfect backdrop for the narrative. Author Nathan Ripley conveys such a sense of unease, I was frequently looking over my shoulder as I was reading. Find You in the Dark is a disturbingly sinister novel with plenty of suspense, intriguing characters and a story that kept me riveted.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for the DRC to review.

From the publisher:

In this chilling debut thriller, in the vein of Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley, a family man obsessed with digging up the undiscovered remains of serial killer victims catches the attention of a murderer prowling the streets of Seattle.

Martin Reese is obsessed with murder. 

For years, he has been illegally buying police files on serial killers and studying them in depth, using them as guides to find missing bodies. He doesn’t take any souvenirs, just photos that he stores in an old laptop, and then he turns in the results to the police anonymously. Martin sees his work as a public service, a righting of wrongs that cops have continuously failed to do.

Detective Sandra Whittal sees it differently. On a meteoric rise in police ranks due to her case-closing efficiency, Whittal is suspicious of the mysterious caller—the Finder, she names him—leading the police to the bodies. Even if the Finder isn’t the one leaving bodies behind, who’s to say that he won’t start soon?

On his latest dig, Martin searches for the first kill of Jason Shurn, the early 1990s murderer who may have been responsible for the disappearance of his sister-in-law, whom he never met. But when he arrives at the site, he finds a freshly killed body—a young and recently disappeared Seattle woman—lying among remains that were left there decades ago. Someone else knew where Jason Shurn buried his victims . . . and that someone isn’t happy that Martin has been going around digging up his work.

When a crooked cop with a tenuous tie to Martin vanishes, Whittal begins to zero in on the Finder. Hunted by a real killer and by Whittal, Martin realizes that in order to escape the killer’s trap, he may have to go deeper into the world of murder than he ever thought.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Find You in the Dark here.

Cover Reveal - Echoes by Alice Reeds

Echoes

Author: Alice Reeds

Publication Date: August 7th, 2018

Publisher: Entangled TEEN

About Echoes:

"Fast-paced and thrilling. ECHOES is a heart-pounding and addictive love story." —Mia Siegert, author of Jerkbait

They wake on a deserted island. Fiona and Miles, high school enemies now stranded together. No memory of how they got there. No plan to follow, no hope to hold on to.

Each step forward reveals the mystery behind the forces that brought them here. And soon, the most chilling discovery: something else is on the island with them.

Something that won’t let them leave alive.

Echoes is a thrilling adventure about confronting the impossible, discovering love in the most unexpected places, and, above all, finding hope in the face of the unknown.

Want to read more? Pre-order your copy of Echoes by Alice Reeds today!

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About Alice Reeds:

Alice Reeds was born in a small town in Germany but spent her first eight years in Florida, USA. Later on, she moved back to Europe, where her family moved around a lot. She was raised trilingual and has a basic understanding of Russian, read and spoken. After getting her International Baccalaureate Diploma, Alice is studying English Language and Literature at University. In her free time Alice mostly writes, reads, figure and/or roller skates, or watches countless let's plays and figure skating videos.

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What do you think of the cover for Echoes by Alice Reeds? Let me know in the comments below!

This cover reveal is brought to you by Entangled TEEN

Isabella's Reading Corner: The Final Six

The Final Six

Author: Alexandra Monir

Publication Date: March 6th, 2018

Publisher: HarperTeen

World leaders have called a state of emergency between humanity and the environment. A plan called the Europa Mission is created to send young men and women to terraform Jupiter's moon in the hope of developing a future home for mankind.

Leo is a survivor of a catastrophic flood in Rome that took his entire family. It is one of many recent apocalyptic disasters affecting cities all over the earth. After losing everyone and everything he cared about, he's lost motivation to go on. However, he's been drafted by the European Space Agency (ESA) to train alongside twenty-three other teens at the International Space Training Camp (ISTC). Only six of them will be selected to take part in the mission to colonise Europa. 

Leo believes this will be a chance for him to do something important with his life. While he is excited for the opportunity, Naomi, an American high school student, has a completely different outlook. She has a family and doesn't want to leave them behind, especially her younger brother who she is very close to. She is devastated to have been chosen and horrified by the thought of never seeing them again. 

Picked for her scientific genius, Naomi is particularly worried about the logistics of the trip. She questions a delegate from NASA about the Athena - a previously failed mission to Mars, as well as rumours of intelligent life already existing on Europa. The delegate is quick with assurances that there is no cause for concern and tries to assuage Naomi's fears with explanations that sound rehearsed. There may be more to the Europa Mission than is being revealed. 

There are many diverse characters in the book and they are thoughtfully written. They have unique abilities and skills which make them highly important to the ESA and the mission. Although Naomi and Leo have different backgrounds, they both come from close-knit and loving families. They have an immediate connection and build a relationship that is integral to the narrative.

The story is fast paced and suspenseful. It depicts tragedy, heartbreak and hope amidst cataclysmic events and the high tech setting of the ISTC. The protagonists are in an unpredictable situation and must take dangerous risks which could lead to either dire consequences or the survival of the human race. The Final Six revolves around a profound and currently relevant subject. This is the first book in a series and I can't wait for the sequel!

Thank you to Harper Collins Canada for the ARC provided for review.

From the publisher:

Set in the near future, this action-packed YA novel—already optioned by Sony Pictures—will take readers out of this world and on a quest to become one of six teens sent on a mission to Jupiter’s moon. This is the next must-read for fans of Illuminae and The Martian.

When Leo and Naomi are drafted, along with twenty-two of the world’s brightest teenagers, into the International Space Training Camp, their lives are forever changed. Overnight, they become global celebrities in contention for one of the six slots to travel to Europa—Jupiter’s moon—and establish a new colony, leaving their planet forever. With Earth irreparably damaged, the future of the human race rests on their shoulders.

For Leo, an Italian championship swimmer, this kind of purpose is a reason to go on after losing his family. But Naomi, an Iranian-American science genius, is suspicious of the ISTC and the fact that a similar mission failed under mysterious circumstances, killing the astronauts onboard. She fears something equally sinister awaiting the Final Six beneath Europa’s surface.

In this cutthroat atmosphere, surrounded by strangers from around the world, Naomi finds an unexpected friend in Leo. As the training tests their limits, Naomi and Leo’s relationship deepens with each life-altering experience they encounter.

But it’s only when the finalists become fewer and their destinies grow nearer that the two can fathom the full weight of everything at stake: the world, the stars, and their lives.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on The Final Six here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: Need to Know

Need to Know

Author: Karen Cleveland

Publication Date: January 23rd, 2018

Publisher: Doubleday Canada/Ballantine Books

Vivian, a CIA counterintelligence analyst, is working to uncover a highly secretive network of Russian sleeper agents. When she comes across a file of potential agents on a suspected handler's computer, she's hoping the pay off will come in the form of a promotion. She's shocked and horrified when she clicks open the file to see her husband Matt's photo, alongside four other faces, staring back at her. Is he really a Russian spy or has he been set up because she is getting too close to the truth?

Vivian is an extremely relatable character, even if her situation is not. She struggles with her decisions but justifies them as being for the protection of her family, who she loves above all else. It's easy to sympathise with her as she expresses confusion over how much Matt is involved with the Russians. After almost ten years of marriage and four children, she questions everything she thought she knew about her husband, wondering if she can trust him or if she's being manipulated. Themes of suspicion, trust, loyalty, betrayal and deception are prevalent throughout the story.

Need to Know is compulsive reading at its finest. Full of shocks and twists, this is a true rollercoaster of a novel, with intense edge of your seat excitement. Once I started reading, it was almost impossible to stop until I reached the electrifying conclusion. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the finished copy provided for review.

From the publisher:

In pursuit of a Russian sleeper cell on American soil, CIA analyst Vivian Miller uncovers a dangerous secret that will threaten her job, her family—and her life. On track for a much-needed promotion, she’s developed a system for identifying Russian agents, seemingly normal people living in plain sight.

After accessing the computer of a potential Russian operative, Vivian stumbles on a secret dossier of deep-cover agents within America’s borders. A few clicks later, everything that matters to her—her job, her husband, even her four children—is threatened.‎

Vivian has vowed to defend her country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. But now she’s facing impossible choices. Torn between loyalty and betrayal, allegiance and treason, love and suspicion, who can she trust?

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner posts on Need to Know here and here.