Elegy by Tara Hudson

I actually preferred the second book Arise in Tara Hudson's Hereafter Trilogy to the first, so I decided to pick up book three, Elegy not long after, hoping it would be even better. Unfortunately, it was not. In this final book Amelia is threatened by the demons of high bridge that unless she turns herself over to evil forces, one person she knows will die every week. She and her friends plot to destroy the bridge-- and stop evil from crossing over for good. However, Amelia has a plan of her own, and she's not telling anyone until it's too late to stop her.

I felt like a lot of Elegy was a bit of a mess. The plans the teenagers make don't always make sense, like showing up at prom to recruit people for a secret plan. With alcohol. It just felt random and like a bad idea, created only to cause tension that didn't come across as authentic. The ending also felt like it was really trying to tie up all the loose ends and as a result it came across as forced and wasn't overly satisfying-- nor did it really tie many of them up. Despite getting some enjoyment out of book two, I was just really tired (and bored) of this series by the time I finished Elegy.

Release Date: June 4th 2013 Pages: 386  Publisher: HarperTeen  Buy It: Book Depository

Arise by Tara Hudson

I felt okay about the first book in this trilogy, Hereafter by Tara Hudson, but I wasn't blown away enough to know if I'd bother continuing. Now that all three books are released, and I want to finish up some unfinished series in 2014, I decided to give book two a shot. So what did I think of Arise by Tara Hudson?

Well, things are far from paradise for Amelia and Josh, as they can't even kiss too long without Amelia vanishing, and Josh has basically ditched all his friends so they don't think he's crazy for making out with empty space. Dating a ghost sucks. It isn't long before there is more drama thrown into the mix, as it turns out the underworld doesn't just "give up" and they want Amelia-- along with anyone she cares about who happens to get in the way. Amelia travels with Josh to New Orleans for one last Christmas together before she knows she has to leave him forever, but of course, once there, things do not go as planned. 

I found Arise pretty easy and enjoyable to read. It took a little chunk for me to really get engaged in it, but once I did I had a fun time reading it. This isn't a book to change your life or to reread again and again, but it had some interesting twists and it definitely kept my attention. Neither Amelia or Josh are the most interesting characters, but I did like Amelia a lot more in this book, even if she was still a bit whiny in this book. I also thought the tension between Josh and Amelia in Arise was well done, and played off the interesting dynamic of the human/ghost relationship. 

There were a bunch of new characters introduced in Arise and one in particular, Gaby, I really enjoyed. Gaby, along with the easy writing, is enough incentive for me to finish this trilogy up with the final book, Elegy, sometime in the next couple months. Overall I'd say this is a fun, decent read if you're looking for a paranormal romance and although Arise isn't groundbreaking for me, Hudson provides enough suspense and an action-packed second half of the book to keep me hooked. 

Release Date: June 5th 2012  Pages: 407  Format: Egalley
Source: Netgalley  Publisher: Harper   Buy It: Book Depository

A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle

 A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle

Release Date: May 1st 2012
Pages: 208
Format: E-galley
Source: NetGalley/Publisher
Publisher: ABRAMS
Buy It: Book Depository

Mary O'Hara is a sharp and cheeky 12-year-old Dublin schoolgirl, and her Granny is dying. Then the ghost of Granny's own mother shows up. She needs the help of Mary and her mother, Scarlett, who embark on a road trip to the past. Four generations of women travel on a midnight car journey. One of them is dead, one of them is dying, one of them is driving, and one of them is just starting out.

Honestly, and I don't say this lightly, but this book is really weird. Like, really weird. Possibly too weird for me, though I admit it was the unusual title and haunting cover that drew me in to begin with.

Mary, and especially her mother, Scarlett, tended to be more ghost-like in character than the ghost herself, who had quite a lot of spunk. I did love the way Scarlett spoke with exclamation points though, and loved the snarky way Mary pointed it out, I definitely know people that do that. But I think my favourite parts were when Tansey, the great-grandmother, was reflecting on her past.

A Greyhound of a Girl does a gentle and thoughtful job on tackling the complex issue of death, especially from a child's perspective. Unfortunately, I picked this book up after having read Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver, which is another middle grad novel involving ghost and death and officially one of my favourite books. So it was hard to compare.

In the end, I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about A Greyhound of a Girl. It's a very quiet book, so much so that I wonder how much of an audience it will have with middle grade readers, but that's also refreshing when so much of the focus in MG is often on fantasy and adventure type books. In fact, I hope to be proven wrong, as I'd love to see more middle grade like it.

A Greyhound of a Girl is a book which is all about strong females, but ones that feel authentic and real, with the kind of fragile skin you can reach out and touch. But at times, the novel had a hard time keeping my attention, while at others it lost me completely. With a book that's only about two hundred pages, every page counts, and I spent too many of them dazing off.

There are some strange and special things about A Greyhound of A Girl, and though it wasn't perfect for me, I know when it finds the right reader, it will have exactly the right words.