Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions

Paranormal is really big in teen fiction right now...and has been for quite awhile. It can be tiresome reading over and over again about vampires, angels, werewolves, and other creatures of the night. But put a new spin on it, and the subject comes to life again. I don't see this teen phenomenon coming to a close anytime soon, but if you want to see the subject in a new light (i.e. without all the romance), check out Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions, an anthology of short stories by sixteen different female authors, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong.

Short stories, yeah, I know. They get a bad rap because, well, they're short. But if that's a problem for you, Enthralled is different. Many of these short stories take place in worlds the authors have built in book series. In fact, I had my suspicions that some of the stories weren't standalones when I was reading at the beginning, but I knew it before I even looked up the authors' other books because I recognized characters from a young adult novel I'd read. So, if there's a story in this anthology that you really like, you can just look up the author and read more. You might even find a few new authors to try that you haven't before. And that's what this book is about for the authors, at least. It's a promotional tool, designed to spark your interest.

What I like about short stories is that they don't waste time. They have to get you interested immediately without a lot of set-up. They have to end quickly without a lot of time for frivolous details or drawn out romantic scenes. Romance is great, but paranormal romance tends to go off the deep end a lot of the time. There's only so many ways you can write about it, so many creatures you can use or make up. Have you been to a bookstore lately? What stands out first? That young adult section with covers of beautiful boys and girls, sometimes half naked, often with fangs or wings or colored smoke around them. You know what I'm talking about. Huge. Teen. Phenomenon.

Enthralled isn't about paranormal romance. When I picked it up, I thought it was, and I was more interested, at the time, in seeing if a book of young adult short stories could go off. The theme of the book, which holds all the stories together, is Journeys. In some way, each new set of characters has a journey to take. Often, to my surprise, the characters were siblings rather than romantic interests, though there were a few of those, too, the weaker stories, in my opinion.

Now, down to the nitpicking. The first half of the book is fascinating. Each new story is so different and not what I expected. In the latter half of the book, there are a far too many vampires and a few more romances. Plus, by then, I think I was getting tired of "starting over" with each new story, having to get into a whole new set of characters. Also, some of the stories were clearly from bigger worlds that the authors had written in other books. Part of that was cool. I liked having the sense that there was a bigger story, but sometimes, the short story didn't really have a satisfactory end. I guess that's where the promotional aspect of the book comes in. Like the story...buy the author's whole book. Great for the authors. Annoying for the readers unless you're looking for a bigger world to submerge in.

The theme of Journeys could have gotten old by story sixteen or even by story three, but it didn't. Each author approaches the subject very differently, and though a few road trips are actually taken in the stories, the paranormal aspect of it, in this case, is a plus, keeping the stories quite different from each other. The subtitle, Paranormal Diversions, describes this book perfectly. The title, Enthralled, not so much. I don't get it. Is the reader supposed to be enthralled? Are the characters enthralled with their own superhuman powers? Is anything paranormal supposed to be enthralling, simply because of what it is? I enjoyed the book, but I was hardly enthralled.

Three stars. If you are into paranormal teen fiction, check out this book to find new authors to read. The authors, alphabetically, are Kelley Armstrong, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Sarah Rees Brennan, Rachel Caine, Ally Condie, Kimberly Derting, Kami Garcia, Claudia Gray, Melissa Marr, Jackson Pearce, Mary E. Pearson, Carrie Ryan, Jeri Smith-Ready, Margaret Stohl, Jessica Verday, and Rachel Vincent.

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour

I picked up this book because it featured a road trip, and my husband and I have been taking road trips about every other year since we got married. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour, by Morgan Matson, is a young adult novel already in hardcover but coming out in paperback in a few days, so I picked a good time to read it. It was another one of those that had been sitting on my shelf for awhile, and though I thought it would be interesting, it wasn't about shape-shifters or magic or the Apocalypse so I thought I wasn't in the mood for it. But my shelf is emptying, and my options were limited. I had to read something.

It ended up being pretty fun. Having traveled from Indiana to California and back over three weeks, it was intriguing to see another viewpoint of the trip. In the book, Amy and Roger go from California to Connecticut. They are supposed to get there in four days, following a very strict schedule Amy's mom sets for them. Amy's dad has died recently, her twin brother is in rehab, and her mom has moved them across the country. Amy finishes her junior year of high school in California on her own and then has to get the family car to Connecticut where her mom is already working. The problem is Amy doesn't drive anymore, not since the accident that killed her father. So, a college freshman friend of the family is recruited to drive for her.

But Roger and Amy decide the itinerary is too confining, and they set out on their own path, beginning a journey of healing, breaking free, and finding love.

The book incorporates black and white photos of some of the sights along the road, as well as receipts and other paper stubs that document the journey. For each state they travel through, Amy keeps a one-page journal, jotting down interesting facts like the state motto. There are also lists of each of the character's music playlists for the road with songs that mirror whatever state or mood they are going through. In some ways, it's like looking at a scrapbook of a trip you really want to take yourself. Traveling across the country is freeing and fun, but Matson, who has taken the trip three times herself, writes about two people who are suffering and need each other to get through the pain holding each of them back. That gives the story depth, and the back story of the characters is what drives them, literally, to each destination on the map. It's a clever interweaving of literal and figurative journeys.

There is one story premise, though, that I have to focus my two-bit word of caution on. I don't think it's the greatest idea in the world to put a guy and girl into a car alone together for a week. It's just asking for trouble, and sure enough, they end up in situations you should never find yourself in if you're trying to flee temptation and remain pure. In a few hotels, they not only share a room, but they share the bed, and finally, (SPOILER HERE) when they do fall in love, they spend their last night in the same room on purpose so they can have sex. The book doesn't give any details, keeping it PG, but it still sets a bad example.

I know it's only catering to the culture. I guess it's normal now for teens to have sex. I mean, it's what you do if you love someone, right? That's according to the culture, and I will never buy into it.

Here's how well I'm getting to know "young adult" fiction. I actually kind of expected it to happen eventually. It does so often in young adult fiction these days. But this book was particularly set up for it. I mean, seriously, any psychologist or even just a logical mind could tell you it was going to happen. Amy and Roger set off alone in a car together and then, right away, decided not to do what the mom wanted. Not a very smart mom, either, to put them in that situation. But real people, not just fictional characters, do things like this every day in the real world. They put themselves into situations that are begging for trouble. This one was one of the more obvious to me, and it irks me to see this kind of an example being put in front of young adults all the time under the guise of learning about yourself. There were a lot of good things Amy and Roger learned, but that shouldn't have been one of them.

I did appreciate one thing the book said about sex, although I was disappointed in the character for doing it. In a flashback, we learn that Amy went to her boyfriend after her father's funeral and had sex so that she wouldn't think about anything else. In the end, though, she realized what a mistake it was. She lost her virginity and ended up feeling completely vulnerable, the exact opposite of what she wanted to feel. There's a good lesson there.

Well, that's my rant. Other than the morality problem, I enjoyed the book and the journey it took me on. Makes me want to get on the road again myself soon.

Four stars for story, plot, and setting. Two stars for moral message.