Review: Liv, Forever - Amy Talkington

Where I got it: Library
Rating: 3.5 stars  
Cover Rating: 5 stars (LOVE IT!)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: March 11, 2014
Publisher: Soho Teen
Page Count: 278 p.
Add it: Goodreads

Liv has never belonged anywhere in her life, she's simply bounced from foster home to foster home. Liv thinks that Wickham Hall might finally be a place where she can belong...it isn't. She soon finds that she is not the same as the people in this school. Wickham Hall is steeped in tradition and secret societies and ghosts. Liv soon meets Malcolm Astor one of the golden boys at the school and they strike up and unlikely relationship. She also meets Gabe who is a kindred spirit and can see and talk to the dead. When things change for Liv, Gabe is the only one who can help her and time is running out. Liv has to figure out what is going on at Wickham Hall and why there are so many ghosts haunting it. Her future depends on what she can find out, but she may need to trust more people then she wants to in order to unlock all the mysteries of Wickham Hall.

This book was very good. It was spooky and just really awesome. The mystery kept me tangled up for quite awhile. It's quite what I was expecting and I always love a good boarding school story especially set in New Hampshire!

The only thing I didn't like about this novel was all of the art references. I realize that Liv is an artist and knows a lot about art, but comparing every single thing she observes with a piece or art or an artist was distracting and annoying. I could see a few references thrown in to establish how she views things, but four or five references on nearly every page seemed excessive. I knew some of the artists, but a lot of them I had no clue about and I'm not going to sit with my computer open so that I can Google every single reference. It just got absurd fast. I was sick of having every sight weighed down with a handful of artistic references. Maybe if you're really into art and art history this would appeal greatly to you, but I just found it tedious.

Beyond the over establishing that Liv was arty though I quite enjoyed this story. It was a creepy enough to freak me out while reading before bed and the mystery was suspenseful enough that I didn't want to stop reading. I just had to know what happened. Were these girls murdered and by who?

The characters weren't too developed, but I didn't find that they were underdeveloped either. As we spend more time with them we start to unravel more about their personalities and lives. Malcolm and Astor were great sidekicks for Liv and it was interesting seeing them interact.

I would definitely recommend this novel if you're looking for a quick, somewhat spooky mystery. I quite enjoyed it despite it's shortcomings.

First Line:
"Chances of a girl like me ending up at Wickham Hall were next to nothing."

Favorite Lines:
"We are not stars. And if we were, we'd be distant, immaterial. Alone."

Re-tellings I have loved

Team Epic Reads recently released this amazing chart of YA retellings. It's even broken down into different categories and further into specific stories. I am a huge fan of retellings and am super excited to have this list to direct me when I'm picking out the next one I want to read. So make sure that if you're a fan of retellings, you check out their awesome chart below (click to enlarge) or go to their website where they have other version and printables!

Since I'm such a fan of retellings and have read quite a few I figured I would share some of my favorites today to get you started or share in the joy with you!

Damosel - Stephanie Spinner
Not so much necessarily a retelling, as bringing life into a character. This story is from the perspective of King Arthur's Lady of the Lake. 

Fathomless - Jackson Pearce
The September Girls - Bennett Madison
Two Little Mermaid retellings that felt very different from each other, but were both good in their own ways. 

Sweetly - Jackson Pearce
A Hansel and Gretel retelling that is possibly more creepy than the original.

Tiger Lily - Jodi Lynn Anderson
This is another that may not be strictly a retelling, but is still based on a story that already exists. I know the EpicReads ladies are a big fan of this one and I was too.

Impossible - Nancy Werlin
A Rumpelstiltskin retelling that was different but awesome. 

Illyria - Elizabeth Hand
A Twelfth Night retelling that was haunting and intriguing.

Death Cloud - Andrew Lane
So this is yet another that is not really a retelling. This is Sherlock Holmes' younger years and it's pretty fantastic. 

Briar Rose - Jane Yolen
Sleeping Beauty re-telling that was one of my favorite retellings.

Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
Another one that was my absolute favorite is this retelling of Cinderella.

So those are ones that I have read and loved.
What are some of your favorite retellings?

Stuff I Got This Week

Title links send you to the Goodreads page for the book. Author links send you to their website.

Review:

Charm & Strange - Stephanie Kuehn

Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself. 

 He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost. 

He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable. 

 Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present. 

 Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.

Amity - Micol Ostow

Inspired by a true-crime story of supernatural happenings and gory murders, Amity spans two generations and beyond to weave an overlapping, interconnected tale of terror, insanity, danger, and death. 

Of Monsters and Madness - Jessica Verday

Summoned to her father's home in 1820's Philadelphia, a girl finds herself in the midst of a rash of gruesome murders in which he might be implicated. She is torn romantically between her father's assistants-one kind and proper, one mysterious and brooding-who share a dark secret and may have more to do with the violent events than they're letting on. 

Torn Away - Jennifer Brown

Born and raised in the Midwest, Jersey Cameron knows all about tornadoes. Or so she thinks. When her town is devastated by a twister, Jersey survives -- but loses her mother, her young sister, and her home. As she struggles to overcome her grief, she's sent to live with her only surviving relatives: first her biological father, then her estranged grandparents. 

 In an unfamiliar place, Jersey faces a reality she's never considered before -- one in which her mother wasn't perfect, and neither were her grandparents, but they all loved her just the same. Together, they create a new definition of family. And that's something no tornado can touch. 

The Geography of You and Me - Jennifer E. Smith

Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father. 
 Lucy and Owen's relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and -- finally -- a reunion in the city where they first met.

That's what I got this week, what did you all get?