Novel Review: Shackled by Tom Leveen

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Realistic, Thriller, Romance

Publisher: Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster)

Release Date: 2015

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

From author Tom Leveen comes a taut, suspenseful novel about a girl’s abduction that leaves her best friend emotionally paralyzed, until a chance encounter points her toward the truth…and a terrifying new danger.

Sixteen-year-old Pelly has a master plan. After years of therapy, medication, and even a stint in a mental hospital, she’s finally ready to re-enter the world of the living. Pelly has been suffering from severe panic attacks ever since her best friend, Tara, disappeared from a mall six years ago.

And her plan seems to be working, until an unkempt girl accompanied by an older man walks into the coffee shop where she works. Pelly thinks she’s seen a ghost, until the girl mouths “help me” on the way out, and Pelly knows she’s just seen Tara.

Too shocked to do anything, Pelly helplessly watches Tara slip away again as she steels herself against a renewed spiral of crippling anxiety. But rather than being overcome by anxiety, Pelly feels more energized than she has in years. Determined to track down enough evidence to force the police to reopen Tara’s file, Pelly’s master plan takes a turn for the dangerous.

Pelly decides she cannot be shackled by her past—and the anxiety, fear, and grief that comes with it—any longer if she wants to save Tara. But in seeking answers through whatever means necessary, she’ll come face-to-face with true evil. And not all the shackles are in her head...

The Cover:

I really like this cover. It's simple, and not a cheesy YA one, but shows exactly what's important with this book and what you're getting. It displays the scary elements, the anxiety, well, I think.

Review:

Pelly can barely keep her job, what with her fear of being outside her home. She can't go to school. And then she thinks she sees her best friend from childhood who was kidnapped. And she has to do something.

I really admire the way that Leveen can make so many different voice so very realistic. I love reading his books so much, because each time you're right inside the characters' head, and every time it is very different. Pelly is afraid of being outside, and she's terrified of a lot of things, and has panic attacks. And it's very evident in the writing.

I really liked the way that Pelly pushes herself. She's terrified, but she makes herself keep going. She makes herself do something about the girl she sees, even when no one else believes her. She even drags one of her co-workers along, even when he doesn't believe her but wants to help anyway.

I wasn't terribly surprised by the twist at the end regarding who the girl was, but I did like it. I really liked how Pelly got out of the situation, too. It was exciting, and it made sense.

I'm definitely a reader of Leveen at this point. This book was fast and intriguing, and it was an easy read to the end.

Teaser Tuesday[267]: Hellworld by Tom Leveen

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

--------------------------

Hellworld by Tom Leveen

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Release Date: March 2017

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Five years ago, Abby Booth’s mom, co-host of a ghost hunting reality show, went missing while filming in a ‘haunted’ cave in Arizona.

Since then, Abby’s life has all but fallen to pieces, most notably because of her dad’s deep depression and how they’ve drifted further and further apart.

But now, at seventeen, Abby has decided that things will change. She plans to go to the same cave where her mom and the crew went missing and to find out, once and for all, what happened there.

With the help of the co-host’s son Charlie and two of his friends, Abby sets off on a quest for answers…but what the group ends up finding, what they stumble across in that dark, primordial cave in Arizona, is nothing they could have ever imagined.

Abby was investigating a possible haunting… she never expected that there could be something worse.

Excerpt:

“'It really happened? It really did?'

'Yeah. It really did.'” (Hardback, pg. 69)

What are you reading?

Teaser Tuesday[232]: Shackled by Tom Leveen

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

-----------------------------------------------

Shackled by Tom Leveen

Genre: YA Contemporary

Publisher: Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster)

Release Date: August 2015

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository.

Goodreads Synopsis:

From author Tom Leveen comes a taut, suspenseful novel about a girl’s abduction that leaves her best friend emotionally paralyzed, until a chance encounter points her toward the truth…and a terrifying new danger.

Sixteen-year-old Pelly has a master plan. After years of therapy, medication, and even a stint in a mental hospital, she’s finally ready to re-enter the world of the living. Pelly has been suffering from severe panic attacks ever since her best friend, Tara, disappeared from a mall six years ago.

And her plan seems to be working, until an unkempt girl accompanied by an older man walks into the coffee shop where she works. Pelly thinks she’s seen a ghost, until the girl mouths “help me” on the way out, and Pelly knows she’s just seen Tara.

Too shocked to do anything, Pelly helplessly watches Tara slip away again as she steels herself against a renewed spiral of crippling anxiety. But rather than being overcome by anxiety, Pelly feels more energized than she has in years. Determined to track down enough evidence to force the police to reopen Tara’s file, Pelly’s master plan takes a turn for the dangerous.

Pelly decides she cannot be shackled by her past—and the anxiety, fear, and grief that comes with it—any longer if she wants to save Tara. But in seeking answers through whatever means necessary, she’ll come face-to-face with true evil. And not all the shackles are in her head...

Excerpt:

“ 'Tonight?' I said, but it was only a squeak. I cleared my throat. 'Tonight,' I said again. 'Um. Sure. Okay.'

I had to do it sometime.” (Hardback, pg. 78)

What are you reading?

Teaser Tuesday[227]: Sick by Tom Leveen

Sick by Tom Leveen

Genre: YA Sci-fi/Zombie

Publisher: Amulet Books (Abrams)

Release Date: 2013

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Breakfast Club meets The Walking Dead as a group of unlikely allies tries to survive a deadly outbreak.

Brian and his friends are not part of the cool crowd. They’re the misfits and the troublemakers—the ones who jump their high school’s fence to skip class regularly. So when a deadly virus breaks out, they’re the only ones with a chance of surviving.

The virus turns Brian’s classmates and teachers into bloodthirsty attackers who don’t die easily. The whole school goes on lockdown, but Brian and his best friend, Chad, are safe (and stuck) in the theater department—far from Brian’s sister, Kenzie, and his ex-girlfriend with a panic attack problem, Laura. Brian and Chad, along with some of the theater kids Brian had never given the time of day before, decide to find the girls and bring them to the safety of the theater. But it won’t be easy, and it will test everything they thought they knew about themselves and their classmates.

Excerpt:

“'Well, let's just give it the old college kick in the nuts,' Chad says.” (Paperback, pg. 46)

What are you reading?

Novel Review: Random by Tom Leveen

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Realistic; Suicide, Cyberbullying

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: 2014

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Who's the real victim here? This tense and gripping exploration of cyberbullying and teen suicide is perfect for fans of Before I Fall and Thirteen Reasons Why.

Late at night Tori receives a random phone call. It's a wrong number. But the caller seems to want to talk, so she stays on the line.

He asks for a single thing—one reason not to kill himself.

The request plunges her into confusion. Because if this random caller actually does what he plans, he'll be the second person connected to Tori to take his own life. And the first just might land her in jail. After her Facebook page became Exhibit A in a tragic national news story about cyberbullying, Tori can't help but suspect the caller is a fraud. But what if he’s not? Her words alone may hold the power of life or death.

With the clock ticking, Tori has little time to save a stranger—and maybe redeem herself—leading to a startling conclusion that changes everything…

The Cover:

I really like this cover. It portrays the subject really well, it's eye-catching. I think the model being a boy works, since the victim was, but mainly because the person who calls Tori is also a boy. I really like the tag-line, too. It's perfect for this.

Review:

I don’t know how I feel about this book. It definitely dealt with a tough, serious subject, so maybe that’s how it should be.

Tori, and her supposed friends, is being accused of cyberbullying and pushing a classmate into killing himself. And when she gets a strange call in the middle of the night, from some guy claiming to be looking for a reason not to kill himself, she’s forced to look at things a little differently.

Tori is definitely an unlikable character. She doesn’t feel she’s at fault, she’s extremely selfish and self-centered, and doesn’t really even feel very sympathetic about what happened. She just wants it to go away. I did not like her in the beginning, but I appreciate how well her voice was done. I believed her, completely, that she believed herself. Leveen really knows how to write a unique voice.

I liked the twist at the end. I think it just makes the call seem that much more important, and I like what they did to try and make her realize what had happened and who she had become. I also think, though, that her sudden change in thought was a little sudden. I think she still has a ways to go before she’s really changed, and I do think that was realized, though.

This is definitely a book worth picking up. The perspective, the subject and the way it was handled, I think it was all well done. And I look forward to reading his other books.

Teaser Tuesday[195]: Random by Tom Leveen

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

-----------------------------------

Random by Tom Leveen

Genre: YA Realistic; Suicide; Cyberbullying

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: 2014

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Who's the real victim here? This tense and gripping exploration of cyberbullying and teen suicide is perfect for fans of Before I Fall and Thirteen Reasons Why.

Late at night Tori receives a random phone call. It's a wrong number. But the caller seems to want to talk, so she stays on the line.

He asks for a single thing—one reason not to kill himself.

The request plunges her into confusion. Because if this random caller actually does what he plans, he'll be the second person connected to Tori to take his own life. And the first just might land her in jail. After her Facebook page became Exhibit A in a tragic national news story about cyberbullying, Tori can't help but suspect the caller is a fraud. But what if he’s not? Her words alone may hold the power of life or death.

With the clock ticking, Tori has little time to save a stranger—and maybe redeem herself—leading to a startling conclusion that changes everything…

Excerpt:

“Notes on everything you’re saying, everything I’m saying. I have to cover my ass here. I hope you understand that.” (Hardback, pg. 83)

What are you reading?