Friday Finds #39

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading. Each Friday, you share the great books you heard about or discovered over the past week: "books you were told about, books you discovered while browsing blogs/bookstores online, or books that you actually purchased."



Another Faust
by Daniel Nayeri & Dina Nayeri

Available as: hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, ebook, audiobook
Pages: 387
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication date: August 25, 2009
Suggested tags: young adult, paranormal, retellings



First in The Marlowe School series. From Goodreads:

"A devilish debut by a brother-sister team invites us into the world of the elite Marlowe School, where some gifted students are having a hell of a year.

One night, in cities all across Europe, five children vanish — only to appear, years later, at an exclusive New York party with a strange and elegant governess. Rumor and mystery follow the Faust teenagers to the city’s most prestigious high school, where they soar to suspicious heights with the help of their benefactor’s extraordinary "gifts." But as the students claw their way up — reading minds, erasing scenes, stopping time, stealing power, seducing with artificial beauty — they start to suffer the sideeffects of their own addictions. And as they make further deals with the devil, they uncover secrets more shocking than their most unforgivable sins. At once chilling and wickedly satirical, this contemporary reimagining of the Faustian bargain is a compelling tale of ambition, consequences, and ultimate redemption."

Dream Factory
by Brad Barkley & Heather Hepler

Available as: hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 256
Publisher: Speak
Publication date: May 17, 2007
Suggested tags: young adult, realistic fiction, contemporary



From Goodreads:

"When the Disney World character actors go on strike, teens are hired as replacements. Ella is assigned the role of Cinderella simply because the shoes fit. And every afternoon at three o'clock she gets married to Prince Charming. A perfect dream come true-except Ella doesn't believe in dreams anymore. Meanwhile, Luke is one of the fur characters (Dale, the chipmunk), and his girlfriend, Cassie, plays his counterpart, Chip. Cassie is perfect in every way, so why does Luke want to be with Cinderella? Then Luke and Ella are brought together during a scavenger hunt, and as they uncover the Magic Kingdom?s hidden treasures, they discover an undeniable magic between them. Perhaps dreams really can come true after all?"

Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator
by Jennifer Allison

Available as: hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, ebook, audiobook
Pages: 336
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Publication date: July 28, 2005
Suggested tags: middle grade, mystery, paranormal



First in the Gilda Joyce series. From Goodreads:

"Ever since her father died, kooky Gilda Joyce has been working hard to sharpen her psychic skills. She's determined to communicate with spirits from the Other Side and become a crack investigator of spooky, twisted mysteries. After wrangling an invitation to visit San Francisco relatives, Gilda discovers just how much her dreary, tight-lipped uncle and his strange, delicate daughter need her help to uncover the terrible family secret that has a tortured ghost stalking their home.

From poignant to hair-raising and hilarious, this is a behind-the-scenes, tell-all account of the very first case in the illustrious career of Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator."

Newes from the Dead
by Mary Hooper

Available as: hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, ebook, audiobook
Pages: 272
Publisher: Square Fish
Publication date: April 29, 2008
Suggested tags: young adult, historical fiction, 17th century



From Goodreads:

"WRONGED. HANGED. ALIVE? (AND TRUE!) Anne can't move a muscle, can't open her eyes, can't scream. She lies immobile in the darkness, unsure if she'd dead, terrified she's buried alive, haunted by her final memory—of being hanged. A maidservant falsely accused of infanticide in 1650 England and sent to the scaffold, Anne Green is trapped with her racing thoughts, her burning need to revisit the events—and the man—that led her to the gallows. Meanwhile, a shy 18-year-old medical student attends his first dissection and notices something strange as the doctors prepare their tools . . . Did her eyelids just flutter? Could this corpse be alive? Beautifully written, impossible to put down, and meticulously researched, Newes from the Dead is based on the true story of the real Anne Green, a servant who survived a hanging to awaken on the dissection table. Newes from the Dead concludes with scans of the original 1651 document that recounts this chilling medical phenomenon."

Review: The Dresskeeper

The Dresskeeper
by Mary Naylus

Available as: paperback, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 238
Publisher: Prospera
Release date: June 25, 2010
Suggested tags: young adult, time travel



(Please note: Somehow, my original review for this book was erased from my blog. This is the abbreviated review I posted elsewhere, along with the bits and pieces I could remember from the original review. This has been a lesson in backing up all reviews before posting. *grumble grumble*...)


Picky Robson is a 13-year-old who finds herself in 1680s London after trying on a dress in her grandmother's attic. She is still in the same attic, but someone else is there with her - someone who calls her Amelia and is trying to kill her. She escapes back to her own century just as the murderer's knife presses into her, but from the blood on the dress, she assumes Amelia was not so lucky.

Picky goes back and forth from her own time to the past by putting on and taking off different dresses in the attic, trying to find out who Amelia was and how she can save her from her fate. She has a hard time fitting in with the 17th century; she uses modern phrases that others don't understand, she asks to use a phone, and she actually suggests to one character that they download a book from the internet. (In the oft-repeated words of Picky herself: "No. Seriously.")

I really liked the fact that this wasn't a fluffy, "everything's peachy in the past!" type of time travel novel. Naylus introduces issues such as poverty, servitude, sanitation, and disease, which are almost foreign to modern-day Picky. The overall tone of the book is light, though; Picky is an entertaining, and at times hilarious, narrator. She springs little one-liners in now and then that catch you off guard and keep things from getting too serious.

The book has a solid, engaging pace that kept me reading for hours on end to see how Picky handled her own time and the past. The only downside was that the end felt a little rushed to me, and the reveal of the murderer was a little on the hard-to-believe side. (SPOILERS - highlight to read: I don't know, I just felt like Picky might have realized that it was a woman's hands on her when she was first attacked. And also regarding the end, I reeeally hope that whole 70% offer to her dad was just an act to gauge his reaction. I can think of 70 better things she could do with that 70%. However, the hint at Edwina's fate really appealed to the side of me that loves overly happy endings. :) ) I really enjoyed Naylus's style and her handling of the time period, and I will definitely be checking out her next book, The Plaguemaker, which sounds like it's in progress from the posts on her blog.

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars