reviews

Totally Teen Tragedy Author: Elizabeth Scott One of the issues I frequently see in Young Adult fiction is that the characters think, speak and act too much like adults.  A 14-year-old too often sounds more like my friends than my daughter.  I understand the desire of authors to avoid talking down to their audience, but in the process I think they sometimes lose credibility with the same kids by sounding too much like an adult telling kids how they should feel.  Avoiding this large, difficult to escape pitfall is the greatest strength of Love You Hate You Miss You. Author [...]

Chicks and Checks... Author:  Frank W. Abagnale I think it’s fair to say that anyone who writes their memoirs has a healthy abundance of ego.  But if you’re looking for ego measured in metric tons, search no further than Frank William Abagnale Jr.  The man can do literally anything he wants.  In 1980, after serving various sentences for a vast collection of financial fraud convictions, he told his story – with the help of co-writer Stan Redding – in Catch Me If You Can.  This guy makes Donald Trump look like a Boy Scout. At the age of sixteen he [...]

Novel Novellas Author: Stephen King I’ll never give up on Stephen King.  I know he’s prolific and not every word that drops from his pen is golden, but no matter what the format – short story, novella, book or tome – there’s always a chance that he’ll knock one out of the park.  The man simply has a way with characters that other horror writers seem to lack.  In Full Dark, No Stars, King is in novella form – and a fine form it is. There are four stories in Full Dark, No Stars.  In the afterward (well worth reading [...]