Book Review: The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin

***I haven't posted a book review in weeks. Over a month, really. I will start posting reviews more consistently!***

Title: The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin

Author: Josh Berk

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/YA/Mystery

Page Count: 248

Rating: 4.2 out of 5

Cover Rating: 3.9 out of 5. I like the way there are all three major characters on the front cover, and the way they're centered on the front. It could have been a bit more dynamic--a little less blue, maybe? A little something more in the background?--but it's a good cover.

Inside flap:

It was a dark, gloomy class field trip.
Because it was in a coal mine.
   Somewhere the star quarterback swore as he tumbled to the bottom of a mine shaft. Probably. Will Halpin could only guess about cursing. Because he's deaf, y'see? But here's the thing about murder: even if it's silent, it's still deadly.
   Being hefty, deaf, and the new guy in school isn't an easy ticket to popularity. At Carbon High, Will is put in the corner of every class. True, it's to help him read lips. And true, most treat him like a houseplant. But Will doesn't intend to stay stuck in any corner. And houseplants are privy to a lot of dirt.
   So when he teams up with the least popular guy to figure out what happened in that mine, Will discovers that the suspects are many and not so usual Was it the too-sexy-for-calculus math teacher? The crackpot bus driver? That scuzzy guy who talks to his fingers?
   Will and his side-geek are hardly Hardy Boys. But I wouldn't bet against them.
   Think Will can make it out of that corner?

My expectations: High. This was on the humor shelf of the library, and I love humor books. Plus, how could you go wrong with that kind of title?

I can happily say I wasn't disappointed.

About the book: This is the only book I can remember where the main character is deaf. I get the feeling I've read books with a deaf MC, but I can't recall them right now. The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin was intriguing just for that bit--besides personality/emotional weaknesses, relatively few characters seem to have serious physical disabilities. An added bonus was that the main character in this story, Will Halpin, had a great sense of humor and his snarky comments are sprinkled throughout the book.

The writing style was pretty much to the point, slightly dry at times (and by dry I mean humorous/sarcastic), and Josh Berk did a great job, I thought, of presenting what it might be like to be a teenager trying to make the change from a special school for deaf students to regular high school.

• Plot:

I loved the fact it was based on a murder, but humorous. It isn't completely a mystery story, though, since it's not quite as driven by that as a regular whodunit, but it kept the plot moving nicely. Plenty of twists here and there, and the ending is great.

• Characters:

Will Halpin is funny, smart, and unique; in addition to being deaf, he's overweight, which isn't something that a lot of YA books put into the picture. His sense of humor really keeps the tone of the book lighter than it would be with more somber characters, and I had to laugh at some of his remarks.

Devon Smiley was geeky, a bit weird, serious, and also rather funny. With a fascination and love of Hardy Boys, and an attraction toward danger--despite being the son of a police officer--he's a great companion to Will. Will doesn't want to have anything to do with him at first, and their friendship, with the usual bit of snark, forms over time.

Ebony. Despite being the ex-girlfriend of Will, they manage to get along when the circumstances require; and she becomes friends with Devon, too. She had strong beliefs when it came to the deaf community, and what it means to be deaf, and it was interesting to read about them in contrast to Will's trying to integrate himself into a "normal" school.

• Setting/Elements:

I was intrigued by the history in the story, about the coal mines and the people who had shaped the town's past. The fact he had the same name as someone (also deaf) who was reported to have died in the same mines he visited on his field trip was an interesting turn.

Other: Language, references, description, some violence.

Do I recommend this book? Yes!

-----The Golden Eagle

Book Review: The Kneebone Boy

Title: The Kneebone Boy

Author: Ellen Potter

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Genre: Paranormal/MG/YA(? Could fit in either age group, really. I just found it in the YA section of my library.)

Page Count: 280

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Cover Rating: 5 out of 5. I love the people on the front--they fit the characters in the story perfectly, and I do mean perfectly. (At least in my mind.) The colors are dark, which fits the whole atmosphere of the story, and the way the three siblings are looking straight at you matches their attitude. It's also creepy; notice that there are feet dangling down from the tree and that the cat has five legs.

Inside flap:

The Hardscrabble children are weird.Otto doesn't speak.Lucia is shamelessly candid.
And Max likes to sit on the roof of their house. 

Life in a small town can be pretty boring when everyone avoids you like the plague. But after their father unwittingly sends them to stay with an aunt who's away on holiday, the children take off on an adventure that ends in a peculiar season village where legend has it a monstrous creature lives who is half boy and half animal . . .

My expectations: Because of the cover, because of the intriguing blurb, and because I love Author Bio on the back flap, I expected a lot out of this book.


It went beyond my expectations.

About the book: Love. The characters are great, plot moves fast, and there's just something wonderfully mysterious about the whole book--it has a kind of charm that doesn't come up very often in YA literature.


The writing style is funny and quirky, and one of the more interesting things about it? The author actually states that she's breaking writing rules several times. There are instances where she'll explain that her English teacher told her NOT to do this and that, and then she'll proceed to do those very things. Usually, they would get in the way of the story, but the way it's presented is just so funny.

• Plot:

There's a lot of mystery in this book. Their father goes off to--supposedly--paint portraits of royalty, their mother walked off one day and disappeared, people avoid them, and there are a lot of questions to be answered. At the beginning it also says the protagonists in the story hired the author to write it; that in itself marks it as something a little more individual.

The only thing I didn't really like is the ending. It's not bad, per se, but it's strange. I would have rated The Kneebone Boy a 5 out of 5 if the ending was different.

• Characters:

Lucia (pronounced lu-CHEE-a) is my favorite character, aside from Otto. She's headstrong and determined, she's got lots of spunk, and she's strong when she needs to be.


Otto was quiet, but he was smart under that silence and a very intriguing character--the questions that come up at the beginning of the story are Why does he wear a scarf all the time? Why doesn't he speak? What does he really know about their mother? and it all serves to pull the reader in further.

Max was a great kid. Usual little-brother attitude, with his need to impress and show his older siblings that he can actually do things, but he was well-meaning and I he was very perceptive about many things.

• Setting/Elements:

I love the setting in this book. It's strange, a little creepy, and mysterious which I love.

Other: Nothing. The ending was a bit strange, but, as far as I can recall, there were no references, there was no language, (if there was it was mild) and there isn't any violence.

Do I recommend this book? Yes! I highly recommend this book.

-----The Golden Eagle

Book Review: Morpheus Road: The Light

Title: Morpheus Road: The Light
Author: D.J. MacHale
Publisher: Aladdin
Genre: Horror
Page Count: 341
Rating: 3.8 out of 5
Cover Rating: 3.5 out of 5. I like the image of Gravedigger. It's perfect for the book, but I do wish they'd made the red a little brighter just to contrast with his wings and his outline a little more. (It's really dark on the library copy for some reason.) It sort of morphs into black and can be hard to see.


Inside flap:

Marshall Seaver is being haunter. It begins with mysterious sounds, a fleeting face outside a window, a rogue breeze--all things that can be explained away. That is, until he comes face-to-face with a character who only exists on the pages of a sketchbook--a character Marshall himself created.

Marshall has no idea why he is being tormented by this forbidding creature, but he is quickly convinced it has something to do with his best friend, Cooper, who has gone missing. Together with Cooper's beautiful but aloof sister, Sydney, Marshall searches for the truth about his friend while ultimately uncovering a nightmare that is bigger and more frightening than he could ever have imagined.

My expectations: I really started to hate Pendragon after I had read more than five books in the series; they were full of cliches and stereotypes, and plot just kept repeating itself. Sure, the worlds were interesting, but that was it. Since I was getting tired with Pendragon I wasn't sure I'd like this book at all . . .

But it was surprisingly good.


About the book: I don't read much Horror--at all, actually, so the only reason I picked up this book was out of some hope that D.J. MacHale might have applied his writing skills (he isn't a bad writer) to this book and made something original. The feeling I got out of this book was of good writing, some creepiness, and a good plot.

I thought I'd be a little more scared after reading this book, but I wasn't it. Ghosts, Gravediggers, weird noises and breezes just don't terrify me, I guess. :P I don't know about you, but I wouldn't say that this is the creepiest book I've ever read, so I'm not saying "this thing is too scary!" or anything. (I'd have to think to come up with the creepiest book I've read . . .)

• Plot:

It was a "missing-person" plot with ghosts thrown in. I liked the way the two were mixed, because if it had just been mystery it would have been dull; this way, there's fantasy and mystery. Cooper disappears, Marshall starts looking for him, magic and hauntings continue.

Overall, it was fairly solid, but I think the fantasy part of it helped to pull it up a little--there were some events I could guess were going to happen but the supernatural events distracted me from the mystery and helped keep the plot together.

• Characters:

Marshall was an appealing protagonist. He's a geek (I love geeky characters) and a loner. (I love reading about loners.) He's quiet, pretty sensible, and although I thought his clingy attitude toward Cooper was a little naive, it worked for the story.

Sydney is . . . well, one thing I really hate is the image of "smart-girls-who-are-b****es" because it's not always true. Sydney's heading toward valedictorian, she's taken the SATs, she'd smart, she wants to got to Ivy League, and she's nasty to almost everyone she meets and has a really jerk-y boyfriend. There probably are girls who have that sort of attitude toward life, but not all do. It's just another stereotype and it drives me nuts.

Cooper is a natural troublemaker. He's fearless, reckless, and popular, and everyone knows that's a bad mix. But he is--most of the time--a good friend to Marshall. Not my favorite character ever, but his attitude is of a fairly common type of teenager.

Gravedigger is freaky. Looking like the product of Marshall's imagination doesn't help anything. (Check the cover of the book.) I wouldn't want that thing haunting me . . .

• Setting/Elements:

As I said before, I like the mix of horror/fantasy/mystery. If you've read a lot of these genres, I suppose that the plot and elements might seem familiar, but for me it was a change of pace.

One thing I have to mention is that this book plays on stereotypes. A lot of stereotypes. I don't like things like that, but I'll grudgingly admit that they work for Morpheus Road. Unfortunately, that still doesn't change the fact they're stereotyped which is a drawback.

Other: If you scare really easily or don't like descriptions of blood, this book may not appeal. There are several instances where blood comes into play--and there's a lot of it. I thought it went a little overboard.

Do I recommend this book? Yes.

-----The Golden Eagle