Happy Blogoversary!

On this day one year ago, Life by a Letter was born! Just looking at how much it has changed in the past six months compared to one year is unbelievable, and I can't believe how far its gone. As you can see on top, the blog's dressed up for the occasion!

Release: Deadly Little Voices by Laurie Faria Stolarz

High school junior Camelia thought her powers of psychometry only gave her the ability to sense the future through touch. But now she’s started to hear voices. Mean voices. Berating her, telling her how ugly she is, and that she’d be better off dead. It’s a troubling development that has Camelia terrified for her mental stability, especially since her deranged aunt with a suicidal history has just moved into the family house. More torturing, ex-boyfriend Ben, who has similar psychometric abilities, has been spending more time with their classmate Alejandra.

With the line between right and wrong fraying, Camelia turns to pottery to get a grasp on her emotions. She begins sculpting a beautiful figure skater, only to receive frightening premonitions that someone’s in danger. But who is the victim? And how can Camelia help them when she is on the brink of losing her own sanity?

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I've yet to read this series, but from what I've heard, it's pretty good. From what I've read, it seems like one of those books that after the first, the rest just goes downhill. Am I right? Or wrong?

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Genre: post-apocalyptic, science fiction
Series and Book #: Forest of Hands and Teeth #1
Pages: 308
Synopsis:

In Mary’s world, there are simple truths.

The Sisterhood always knows best.

The Guardians will protect and serve.

The Unconsecrated with never relent.

And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village. The fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

Now she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?

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Such a dark, hopeful novel. The world Mary lives in is surrounded by so much death that her society is consumed by it. To them, it is only survive and live, never love or hope or fantasize.

Mary is one of my favorite characters. She's so hopeful when the world around her crumbles, and she clings to her one dream of seeing the ocean before she dies. Her friends fuel her need to see life and worlds that are not touched by the gruesome death of her neighbors and loved ones. And so when her village falls, she keeps believing in the ocean and in life and that is what keeps her going even as her friends fall, and her heart is crushed and swelled and crushed again. She's relentless. She's so strong and full of life.

Carrie writes the village and its principles so well. She makes it seem as dismal and uneventful as Mary sees it. She transitions between normal life, to chaos, into Mary's miserable existence in the Cathedral, to the Forest, with so much ease that you barely notice. Her vocabulary also expresses the darkness and disaster and the suffocating death that Mary is surrounded by. Just a wonderfully written novel.

Overall, even though this novel is about a zombie apocalypse, it doesn't feel like one. I almost thought it was a dystopian novel because it's placed in the future after the world as we know it has ended by what seems an infection that has overtaken the world's dead population. The anguish and optimism all melt into a delectable read. Carrie has done a beautiful and creative job of building paradise out of disease and destruction.

The Cover: Reflects the novel wonderfully. Loved this cover, loved the portrayal of Mary, loved the darkness in the woods.

In My Mailbox (10): November

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren where we share what books we've bought, received, or borrowed over the last week or, in my case, month. I don't get enough books over the week to cover a weekly IMM but I always do one every month. Here's October's!  (Some of these books I've already read, so if you click on the links they should bring you to the review)

Library Finds:

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter

Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Genre: paranormal
Series and Book #: none
Pages: 343
Synopsis:

Mackie Doyle is the Replacement.

Mackie is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess.

He is a Replacement—left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is slowly dying in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us. He just wants to play bass guitar and find out more about an oddly intriguing girl named Tate.

But when Tate’s baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem.

He must face the dark creatures of the slag heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

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This is definitely one of those novels you can read after dark and jump at the slightest sounds. Trust me. It happens.

Mackie was a wonderfully unique character. He wasn't particularly brave and he wasn't incredibly strong. Really, he was very weak and very quiet. He tried to keep his head down and avoid blood, iron, and churches. I thought this was great because you don't see a lot of weaker characters in novels. Mostly they're very strong and they're very curious. But Mackie knows what happens, and he doesn't feel he can change it, so he doesn't. And despite his otherness, he acts like a regular human boy. Which might be provocative to some, but it's true, and I like how Brenna doesn't fuzz up the reality of him being a high school boy.

Gentry was a character in itself. The town's fascination with the creatures that ruled them was beautifully written. Mackie always points out that the townspeople could change what happens to them, but they never do because things are the way they are and that's how it should be. Hopelessness overshadows this book immensely.

Overall, this is a beautifully written novel that touches base with scary, dark things. Though the Morrigan was sweet, she was dangerous when she had to be, and the Lady was wonderfully horrific. Brenna also added just the right amount of humor and wit in the story, and though it was a depressing novel, Tate spiced  things up by implying that things could be different. Mackie was a very real character and he wasn't made out to be a super heroic boy. Great first novel!

The Cover: Quoted from my best friend, "Are they trying to kill the kid?" It catches your eye and it speaks that this book isn't going to be about pleasant things.

Releases: The Pledge, Shatter Me, Wherever You Go, and The Space Between

The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

In the violent country of Ludania, the language you speak determines what class you are, and there are harsh punishments if you forget your place—looking a member of a higher class in the eye can result in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina (Charlie for short) can understand all languages, a dangerous ability she’s been hiding her whole life. Her only place of release is the drug-filled underground club scene, where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. There, she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy who speaks a language she’s never heard, and her secret is almost exposed. Through a series of violent upheavals, it becomes clear that Charlie herself is the key to forcing out the oppressive power structure of her kingdom…. 

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

"You can't touch me," I whisper.

I'm lying, is what I don't tell him.

He can touch me, is what I'll never tell him.

But things happen when people touch me.

Strange things.

Bad things.

No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.

But Juliette has plans on her own.

After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.

Wherever You Go by Heather Davis

Seventeen-year-old Holly Mullen has felt lost and lonely ever since her boyfriend, Rob, died in a tragic accident. But she has no idea that as she goes about her days, Rob’s ghost is watching over her. He isn’t happy when he sees his best friend, Jason, trying to get close to Holly—but as a ghost, he can do nothing to stop it. As their uncertain new relationship progresses, the past comes back to haunt Holly and Jason. Her Alzheimer’s-stricken grandfather claims to be communicating with the ghost of Rob. Could the messages he has for Holly be real? And if so, how can the loved ones Rob left behind help his tortured soul make it to the other side? 

The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff

Everything is made of steel, even the flowers. How can you love anything in a place like this?

Daphne is the half-demon, half-fallen angel daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. Life for her is an endless expanse of time, until her brother Obie is kidnapped - and Daphne realizes she may be partially responsible. Determined to find him, Daphne travels from her home in Pandemonium to the vast streets of Earth, where everything is colder and more terrifying. With the help of the human boy she believes was the last person to see her brother alive, Daphne glimpses into his dreams, discovering clues to Obie's whereabouts. As she delves deeper into her demonic powers, she must navigate the jealousies and alliances of the violent archangels who stand in her way. But she also discovers, unexpectedly, what it means to love and be human in a world where human is the hardest thing to be.

Cover Reveal: Rapture by Lauren Kate

So this is Rapture, the final novel in the Fallen Series by Lauren Kate. If you remember, I had a post back in January about Passion, the third book, and it's cover. There, I mentioned that I really didn't like the cover because it was just so bright compared to the others. But this got right back on track. I love the darkness that reflects Fallen and Torment. Such a great finish for this series!

This is all from Midnight Bloom Reads at midnightbloomreads.blogspot.com. Check out her blog!