And Then You Dye by Monica Ferris Book Review

Dyeing for a Good Book

By Ann Baillie

My guilty pleasure is armchair detective novels. These short books – rarely over 300 pages – are the murder mysteries that are never gory and have amateur detectives that love to knit or read or write or drink tea. Think Jessica Fletcher of Murder, She Wrote. So it should come as no surprise that I thought And Then You Dye by Monica Ferris was a great story. It had fun characters and an interesting crime. My only complaint is the story was just a tad too long.

And Then You Dye follows Betsy, who owns a needlework shop called Crewel World. One of Betsy’s suppliers, a yarn spinner and dyer named Hailey, was shot in the head while dyeing some yarn. The police start investigating and soon put Marge, Hailey’s neighbor, on the suspect list. Marge approaches Betsy to prove her innocence, and Betsy starts the case. The development of Betsy, Marge, Hailey, and the other suspects and characters in the book is well done. The characters are in turn funny and surprising, with secrets that are perfect for this sort of book. The crime is intriguing, with lots of lose ends and questions.

Unfortunately, the plot was a bit slow. At one point, the plot slowed down so much the characters even commented on how difficult the case was. Parts of Betsy’s search for answers could have been dwindled down, but it was mainly the in-between scenes that took up time. For example, Ferris has a tendency to explain in detail scenery when Betsy walks. The descriptions were nice but overdone and had no real impact on the story or any characters. The writer spends time talking about the characters’ personal lives, which is rather unnecessary. Overall, And Then You Dye is a fun and fast read for the detective in all of us.

Gaby took a project that most seniors in her high school used as a blow off activity, and turned it into a change for her community. She is admired greatly by many. I recommend this to anyone who wants to see the power of one person and how much of a difference one individual can make in so many other people’s lives. Give it a try, it’s phenomenal.

Books about music can be really fun. Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony was mysterious and well thought out. Mark Peter Hughes’ Lemonade Mouth was funny and a smash hit. Romance novels can also be enjoyable. If they weren’t, Harlequin would not be a successful publishing agency. So when I saw Guitar Notes by Mary Amato, I was excited. A perfectionist and the school outcast pass notes through a guitar? I thought.  It sounds a little overdone, but it’s probably still good. As it turns out, this book is not so much a story as a collection of clichés taken from bad teen chick flicks.

I wish I could say that there were parts of this book that were salvageable. Or even just one part gave me a glimmer of hope. That statement, unfortunately, would be a bold-faced lie. The ending was obvious from the first page. The characterization was simply not there, except on a very obvious and superficial level. The description of settings was just as poorly done. The writing was so bad, it distracted from the plot development there was. If I had to bet on how long Amato spent writing Guitar Notes, I would put my money on one or two hours.

I wish I could say the plot helped the story out. Based on the inside flap, after all, I went in knowing the story was going to be very simple. If that were the case, maybe part of the story would be good. Unfortunately, it seems that all the time Amato should have spent on writing she spent on the plot. The story line is way more complex then it should be. Two characters, the main girl Laya and her best friend Annie, have the same argument in the same location with separate times in the book. The story seems to be stuck on loop for three-fourths of the book, only to have a highly unusual conclusion that has nothing to do with the story. I suspect this is Amato’s attempt at a “twist”, but it comes across more as if she had a very bad case of writer’s block and did not know what to do. Overall, don’t waste your time reading Guitar Notes.

I believe that everyone who has read multiple books has like fallen for a character in a novel. I, for one, will admit that I would marry Holden of The Catcher in the Rye, if he was real. This is the problem that Delilah has in Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer (Picoult’s teenage daughter). Delilah’s story, however, is a lot more interesting then my own quest for literary love. It turns out the character she has fallen for, Prince Oliver (in a fairy tale called Between the Lines) is real, and can hear her. When he manages to get her attention, the two go on a mission to find a way to be together.

It’s not necessary to read between the lines of the title of this review to know I loved this book. It was creative, charming, and funny. The book changes font color depending on who is speaking, which makes the story easy to follow. Also, the characters are well developed and very, very funny. The settings are well described, especially those inside the fairy tale world. As a fun bonus, part of the fairy tale is also written, which is both creative and gives the reader a clearer idea of who Prince Oliver is in Delilah’s mind.

However, there were a few plot holes in the book. Delilah pulls a few stunts in the book, and it’s hard to believe that a 15-year-old girl could do so much by herself. The ultimate solution to the novel seems nice at a first glance. However, upon thinking about it for more then a minute, the solution leads to a lot of long-term problems that neither Delilah nor Prince Oliver seem in any hurry to resolve. So while this book is strong in a character sense, it has some problems in the plot department.

As a little kid, I loved the circus. Where else can you find so much cotton candy? So when I saw Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby in the teen section, I was intrigued and confused: wouldn’t a book about the circus be better with a younger audience? After reading the book, I realized that this book takes the fun out of the circus by focusing the book around a failing freak show where everyone, both the freaks and the normal people, has something to hide. The main character, Portia, is both running away from one thing and toward something else; her story is the only one given in full.

I have no complaints about this book. I loved it in every aspect. The characters were strong and life-like. The settings were well described. Every building is clear and speaks a lot about the people who stay there. This is especially true of the carriages the carnival workers live in. The plot itself is fast-paced and interesting. It is constantly twisting and filled with shocking secrets. The story starts and never lets up. It just pulls the reader along for a crazy ride. It talks about loyalty and what it means to be a family with an emotional intensity most writers can only dream about. Barnaby takes the moral to a whole new level.

It would only be fair, though, to give a warning about Wonder Show. This is a very intense book. It talks about death and suicide, cold-blood murder and abandonment of a minor. This is done to further show the books central theme: what makes someone human. While I thought the intensity was necessary, it might be too intense for someone 14 or younger. So parents and older siblings, take caution and use your common sense. If you think you can handle this wonderful work, however, then read it without a second thought.

MTV is not known for its ability to educate. If anything, watching MTV’s greatest hits, like Jersey Shore and Sixteen and Pregnant will take away valuable IQ points. So when I stumbled upon Wuthering High by Cara Lockwood at my school library, I was more than a little confused. Why would MTV publish a book that bragged about how it featured dead authors  (Ernest Hemmingway, Virginia Woolf, and Charlotte Bronte, to name a few) and parallels to classic novels (Wuthering Heights and Dracula, for example)? Expecting nothing more then a few laughs, I checked out the book to see just how bad it could be.

So imagine my surprise when the book wound up being really well done. The references were witty and well thought out. The character development was good for most of the novel, and strong during some very intense scenes. Beware, however, that this book is not for someone looking for a light-hearted read. Lockwood did her best to make this a modern version of a Gothic novel. For the most part, she succeeds: her characters are troubled and upset, the setting is spooky and even acts as a character during some points of the novel.

What goes wrong, however, is when Lockwood tries to turn the book into a love story. Whether this was to draw more ties to Wuthering Heights or to appeal to a broader audience, I could not say. What I can say is that the romance sections of the book are very stereotypical of chick lit. For a book with so many strong female characters (both fictional and real), the main character just turns to goo around her crush. This betrays the reader and does not fit with the rest of the story.

This book is a great read for literature geeks who do not mind being scared once in a while. Ignore the MTV symbol on the front of the book.