Book Review: Lockwood and Co:The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

How do you feel about ghosts?  How about adventure and sarcastic banter?

The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, is set in a modern day London where ghosts stalk the night, and only children and teenagers can see them clearly. Our heroes Anthony Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle, and George Cubbins run a psychic detection agency. That is, they hunt and destroy ghosts. But unlike most other agencies, they don't have any adult supervisors. Since adults can't see or hear ghosts very well, Lockwood thinks they just get in the way.  Lucy tends to agree, given her unpleasant past.  George hates everyone equally.

We meet Lucy and Lockwood as they prepare to banish what they think is a routine ghost.  The ghost, and the case itself, prove too hot to handle, and Lucy and Lockwood barely escape.  Unfortunately, the Lockwood and Co. Psychic Detection Agnecy finds itself in some trouble with the law, and Lucy, Lockwood, and George are forced to take on a dangerous case in one of the most haunted houses in England.  The last team that tried to clear the historic mansion of ghosts died; every last one of them.

I enjoyed all the action and adventure, as well as the smart mouth comedy in the face of creepy, deadly ghosts.  Hope you will too!

Happy reading!

~ gothbrarian

V for Vendetta

If you've seen the movie, this graphic novel will expand your knowledge and understanding with a deeper and more detailed background. If you haven't, then you're in for a treat. V for Vendetta takes place in a alternate but similar future England where fascism takes over. With Alan Moore's intense creative mind and David Lloyd's striking graphics, V for Vendetta will keep you peeled to the page until the end. This is a must read graphic novel. It sheds light to all crevices and holes of the human behavior. Every dirty and beautiful aspect of the human capacity. Even after you set it down, it will stay with you and tease your brain. Which is a good thing. Our society needs wake up and start using that organ on their shoulders.

When a mysterious masked man with a dark past who calls himself as "V" is responsible for the destruction of significant structures and the death of important figures, England spirals down into chaos. V vows to seek revenge for his painful suffering and defend his love: anarchy. Totalitarian England has forgotten to love. It has been sick with greed and power. Leaving the rest of the population powerless, defenseless, and left at the mercy of a cruel system. V for Vendetta is not a stereotypical story with "happily ever after." V is not a hero, he's a cleaner. He merely removes the destroyers and sets a clean canvas for the creators.

Even though this comic includes fictional events and characters, it can be reflected onto any present situation. Is it possible for our society to head into the same direction as the one in the comic? What would you do prevent the wrong thing to happen?

~Paige Turner

Black Butler

The Victorian gothic manga, Black Butler by Yana Toboso, features a too perfect butler and his charge, the Earl of Phantomhive, a twelve-year-old boy who is the head of a very successful toy and candy business.  But both of these characters are something more, with deadly secrets and dark pasts.  Together, they host dinner parties and solve mysteries. 

The artwork is elegant and the reveal moments are both dramatic and gorgeous.  I am, quite frankly, in love.  There is murder, black magic, inept minor characters, cross-dressing, kidnapping, betrayal, kick@$$ fight scenes, and the most wonderful costumes.  What more could a fangirl ask for?  Oh yes - multiple volumes so my new favorite addiction can be drawn out just a bit longer. 

~ Book Ninja

Teenagers Fight Communism with Magic!

Okay, technically it's alchemy, not magic.  And technically, they're trying to prevent everyone from using nuclear weapons; they're just starting with the Communists.  And technically, it's the adults who are supposed to be preventing nuclear war, but they keep getting kidnapped.  So it's up to three teens with an ancient book of alchemy recipes to outwit the bad guys and save the day in The Apothecary by Maile Melov.  Which brings me back to: teenagers fight communism with magic - er, alchemy!  In 1950s Britain, of course. 

I knew I'd like this book the moment that Janie, the narrator and main character, confessed her desire to be more like Katharine Hepburn.  If you have not seen a movie with Katharine Hepburn in it, go do so.  Her award winning classics are The Philadelphia Story and The African Queen, but the films where she co-starred with Spencer Tracy, like Adam's Rib, are a lot of fun too.  My personal favorite of her movies is Bringing Up Baby - because escaped leopard!  Anyway, the point is, if a character in a book decides that Katharine Hepburn is their role model, then I approve.  And then I recommend the book and the witty Ms. Hepburn to you.

"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun."  ~ Katharine Hepburn

Book Ninja