Release Date: December 18, 2009

I must say I am a bit partial to this book because it was the first one I received for review. But, I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading it.

All I knew about this book before I dove in was the it was kind of like Goosebumps on steroids and it dealt with a little bit of demons.

Here’s  a summary in my words: Strange things start happening in Brockton Falls. And it’s all very unexplainable. It’s things that make you cringe a little while you’re reading. Examples: bugs, snakes, demons … Oh my! Then it all becomes very clear (if you understand science and demons). Eric and Kevin, the two main characters, aren’t your average teenage boys. There’s a darnkness about them that could mean the difference between life and death. Once they finally figure out why such strange things are  happening, they take a trip to save themselves and their family, and they don’t have long to do it.

There are many things I like about this book. I really liked the layout. There is a countdown of 8 days. You’ll find out eventually what that countdown means, when it started and what happens when the time runs out, but not from me

I thought this book was a great read. It kept me flipping the pages, and itching while thinking about all of the grossness! There are many twists and turns and quite a bit of action.

I like that this book makes you think. Personally, I like for books to come easy for me. By the time I pick up my book, my brain is close to fried and I like to relax with something fun. I had to re-read some parts of this book and think about it. For the age group it’s aimed at (12 and older), I am glad it’s not simple. I am glad there is more to it than crushes and clothes and school. No, it’s not going to happen to you tomorrow, but you will get a little entertainment out of it, as well as a science lesson.

Now to the science! While I am glad it was educational, the science part of the book really wasn’t my cup of tea. I was never great at science and when Dark Matter was being explained, I was lost. Luckily, that just comes and goes, but when it was there, I had a hard time not zoning out.

But really, that’s my only complaint. I thought it was well written, had enough drama and suspense to keep me turning the pages and I would definitely suggest it if you like science fiction with a bit of horror mixed in.  I give The Dark Matter Directive 4 bookmarks.

I think D. Charles Wilson did a great job with this book and I will definitely be waiting for future reads from him. And thanks to the Kelley and Hall Company for sending an advanced copy of this to me!

This week’s On My Bookshelf post is very exciting for me for two reasons.
1. It contains the first book I’ve won in a contest!
2. It contains the first book I’ve received for review as well as two other books I got for review this week. 3 in one week? I’m pumped!

CONTEST:

I won this book from Vicki over at Reading At The Beach.

I have read one Patterson book and fell in love. Plus, the cover of this is very cute! Can’t wait to read it!

“A calculating killer who calls himself The Teacher is taking on New York City, killing the powerful and the arrogant. Discovering a secret pattern to The Teacher’s lessons, Detective Mike Bennett realizes he has just hours to save New York from the greatest disaster in history.”

REVIEW: This is the first week I’ve received books to review and I got three! WOWZA!

The first book I got is an ARC from the Kelley and Hall Company. It comes out next month.

The company says Wilson’s debut novel “creates a bridge between adult horror and teen adventure.”

They also say he “picks up where R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps left off.” I don’t know about you, but I loved me some Goosebumps. 

 I got the E-Book copy of Dirty Little Angels. Since I have to look at a computer for 9 hours at work, I decided to print off the book so I’ll have a hard copy of it! I hope to start it this weekend. Here’s a summary of the book:

“Set in the slums of New Orleans, among clusters of crack houses and abandoned buildings, Dirty Little Angelsis the story of sixteen year old Hailey Trosclair. When the Trosclair family suffers a string of financial hardships and a miscarriage, Hailey finds herself looking to God to save her family. When her prayers go unanswered, Hailey puts her faith in Moses Watkins, a failed preacher and ex-con. Fascinated by Moses’s lopsided view of religion, Hailey, and her brother Cyrus, begin spending time down at an abandoned bank that Moses plans to convert into a drive-through church. Gradually, though, Moses’s twisted religious beliefs become increasingly more violent, and Hailey and Cyrus soon find themselves trapped in a world of danger and fear from which there may be no escape.”

This is also a book I received from the Kelley and Hall Company. Here’s what the back of the book says:

“What Would You Do If…

You were a lovelorn wizard with a rat that lived in your hair (your trademark in the very competitive business of wizardry)? Would you turn it into a human to spy on the damsels for you? What if you were a little Princess, and no one would listen to you when you tried to warn them about the murderess who was trying to take over the kingdom? Would you go looking for the wizard of Fandon whom no one had ever seen, but had the best fireworks of all, and so, was surely the greatest of all the wizards? And if you were her brother, the Prince, would you try to rescue her from certain death?

What if you were a real life little girl, dying of a mysterious illness, and had an equally mysterious and deadly creature living in your closet? And what if you were her little brother? What would you promise the creature in return for saving the life of your sister?

The story starts with Father, a gifted storyteller, telling a fairy tale to his son, Charles, a troubled loner, and his daughter, Tanya, who is very, very ill. Each night Father tells more of the fairy tale, but later at night and during the day Charles and Tanya have real life problems of their own. Charles must fight his own descent into hellish darkness and Tanya must confront her coming death and the mysterious noises, scratches and bumps that echo every night from her closet.

The Duty of Love is about a girl who is dying physically and a boy who is dying spiritually. It’s about rats that become humans and humans that become lizards. It’s about a wizard who becomes wise and a wizard who tells lies. It’s about well-meant little compromises that turn deadly, and heroic stands against all odds. It is also the story of a mysterious maiden, who is sure she knows the deepest and greatest secret of all. But most of all, it’s about what it means to love and what it means to be human.”

BORROWED:

This is the front and back cover of Stephen King’s Duma Key. A co-worker brought this one to me after I told him how excited I was for Under the Dome to be released. I’d never heard of this book, but the last one he brought me was The Historian and I absolutely LOVED it, so I’m expecting the same from this. Here’s the summary from Fantastic Fiction:

“Six months after a crane crushes his pickup truck and his body self-made millionaire Edgar Freemantle launches into a new life. His wife asked for a divorce after he stabbed her with a plastic knife and tried to strangle her one-handed (he lost his arm and for a time his rational brain in the accident). He divides his wealth into four equal parts for his wife, his two daughters, himself and leaves Minnesota for Duma Key, a stunningly beautiful, eerily remote stretch of the Florida coast where he has rented a house. All of the land on Duma Key, and the few houses, are owned by Elizabeth Eastlake, an octogenarian whose tragic and mysterious past unfolds perilously. When Edgar begins to paint, his formidable talent seems to come from someplace outside him, and the paintings, many of them, have a power that cannot be controlled.

Soon the ghosts of Elizabeth s childhood return, and the damage of which they are capable is truly terrifying.”