If you’re unfamiliar with JP McLean’s award-winning supernatural crime novels, you should investigate her Dark Dreams series from the beginning. The first two books, Blood Mark and Ghost Mark, are narrated by a gnarly and lovable trio: Jane Walker, protagonist, dreamer, and bearer of magical marks; Jane’s boyfriend, Ethan Bryce, swaggering manager of the Riptide bar in Vancouver; and Jane’s loyal sidekick, former foster child, and high-class escort, Sadie Prescott. In Scorch Mark, the narration expands to include Sadie’s love interest, undercover Vancouver cop Dylan O’Brien.
In Blood Mark, we learn that the scarlet marks snaking around Jane’s body were gifted to her in an ancient Incan ritual to protect her from death. Now, McLean reveals that anyone who tries to kill Jane will end up dead themselves, and this threat has been proven true. Jane also suffers from lucid dreams in which she appears as a shadowy figure whose actions can affect history. In Ghost Mark, the blood marks transform, and she appears in her dreams dressed in whatever she wore when she fell asleep. Since she’s visible, you can imagine the problems this presents. Jane also discovers a vivid white “escape valve” on the back of her hand that rewinds a dream if she turns it counterclockwise and jumps her out of the dream if she moves it clockwise. The spectral marks remain in Scorch Mark, but in a clever stake-raising move, McLean introduces a villainous group of cowboy thugs who intend to use the marks for their own evil purposes. She also reveals much more about the old Peruvian families, the old silver offering bowl, and the Incan ritual itself.
McLean deftly intertwines three plots in Scorch Mark. In one, the psychologist who abducted Jane in Blood Mark goes on trial, and we await the verdict with bated breath. Will the defence attorneys create enough reasonable doubt for the jury to allow him and his accomplice to go free? And how will the attorneys twist Jane’s story? As is typical of courtroom drama, it’s a fist-squeezing, jaw-grinding experience for the reader. Meanwhile, Detective Dylan O’Brien is investigating “ghost guns” — a shipment of illegal firearms that have been produced using a three-D printer, and Jane is dreaming about the evil producers. Interspersed are Jane’s dangerous dreams, where she must act as a witness without being caught by the villains who are changing history. Tension anyone?
Wickedly clever, original, suspenseful, and action-packed, McLean’s impeccable writing and razor-sharp plotting will draw you in and keep you riveted. Scorch Mark is glamour and grit, spliced with a magical sense of the macabre, and wildly Canadian. Detailed, descriptive scenes of the Vancouver Law Courts will have you sitting tensely beside Jane as she watches her attacker from the gallery through thick, bulletproof glass. Then it’s a race across the country to a 12,000-acre Alberta ranch and a massive criminal takedown.
JP McLean is a bestselling author of urban fantasy and supernatural thrillers. She’s been the recipient of numerous honours for the Dark Dreams series and her six-book Gift Legacy series. Among them are a Global Book Award, CIBA and Page Turner Award, the National Indie Excellence Awards, the UK Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and the Whistler independent Book Awards.
Book II of Magie Stiefvater’s “Raven Cycle” series brings us closer to Ronan Lynch and his family secrets. We learn more about his homelife and gifts, his mother’s condition, and his father’s murder. Ronan is an eccentric character. Traumatized by finding his father murdered, he seems violent, yet he has a caring side that is revealed in various ways throughout the series.
Imagine being able to design an object in your dream and bring it back to your waking life and into this physical reality. This is Ronan’s gift—his secret. Chainsaw, the strange raven creature that travels on his shoulder is one of his dream creations. Knowing that he can create living creatures raises the stakes, and we wonder who or what else he has created in his dreams. Are there other dreamers like him? Is this a gift or a curse? Ronan is the Greywaren.
A new character appears—Joseph Kavinski—as Ronan’s antagonist. I hate Kavinski . . . just sayin.
Blue Sargent has become one of the Raven Boys, and the group continues to search the magical Cabeswater for the dead Welsh king, Glendower, as emotions spiral. Blue’s psychic mother, Maura, and the mysterious Gray Man grow closer while Blue tries to sort out her feelings. Does she love Adam Parrish or Gansey? And how can she be with either of them when both obviously have feelings for her, are best friends, and are part of the same group? And then there’s that whole prophecy about her killing her first kiss. This is typical teenage trauma with a supernatural twist.
We also learn more about Richard Campbell Gansey III in this book as we attend one of his mother’s political soirees at their Washington, DC mansion. Lowly Adam Parrish attends with Gansey and disappears (but that’s another story.)
I know I’ll come back to these books time and again. Why hasn’t someone made them into a TV series yet?
Ronan is the subject of various fan art. His obsessive personality lends itself to that.
How did I miss this series? The paperback I borrowed from my local library was published in 2012. Eleven years of pale paws, nightly consumption, suspenseful reading in stairwells, and skipping class to find out what happens, have rendered it as gnarly as the boys themselves—as beat-up as Adam, as etheric as Noah, as violent as Ronan, as intelligent as Gansey, and as powerful as Blue.
I remember seeing the covers when I googled urban fantasy series in 2020 while searching for inspiration in the hallways of YA mysticism. I wanted to read it then but life happened. And now I’ve begun I can’t stop. Thankfully, there are four.
It’s not always possible to explain why a particular author or story grabs you and holds on. Sometimes, it’s a crosshatch—the author’s voice, characters drawn as friends, language that casts a spell, surprises, unexpected emotions, intrigue, a tale so leisurely mystical it could be real. As I read book one, other stories came to mind: The Lord of the Flies, Stand by Me—ensemble casts assembled to unearth teenage truths and show the remarkable strength in friendship.
Blue’s mother is a psychic who lives with two other psychics. They’ve always warned Blue that when she kisses her true love he will die. This year, she hears two more prophesies: this year she will fall in love and this year Gansey will die.
The rich, handsome, and charismatic Gansey is on a quest to find the body of Welsh king, Owain Glyndŵr, (1354-1415) descendent of Llewelyn the Great, and nationalist rebel who fought the usurping English King Henry IV. Glyndŵr was eventually defeated and his castles taken by the English. He became a wanted outlaw and eventually died though his body was never found. Gansey believes that Owain Glyndŵr’s men brought his body to Virginia, where this story is set, and entombed him along a particular ley line (a place of great mystical energy). According to Welsh legend, he lies in wait and will arise again when Wales is in need. Gansey is determined to awaken the ley line and find the sleeping Welsh king, Glyndŵr. The notion of ley lines is a whole other phenomenon worthy of research.
When Blue and the Raven Boys discover that one among them has been murdered, they’re determined to bring the killer to justice. The to-the-death-and-beyond camaraderie between them raises the emotional stakes. Set against the backdrop of a prestigious private boys’ school called Aglionby, the mash-up of contemporary life, mystical phenomenon, myth, and murder, rocketed this book to fame. Check out Maggie Stiefvater’s site for more. How did I miss this?
#1 NYT Bestselling Series
Over 1 million copies in print
Published in over 28 languages
Most starred reviews from literary journals (18) of any young adult series ever published
One of Rolling Stones top 40 YA novels
American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults
“Two dozen unexplained wreaths over the past year?”
When a mysterious undertaker is seen delivering floral funerary wreaths to families of the deceased BEFORE the death occurs, the WISE women spring into action in Ace’s latest cozy mystery. The police won’t touch it with a “bargepole” as the deaths aren’t suspicious. And yet, how can this undertaker know who’s going to die unless he’s been killing them? Meanwhile, using her nursing background, no-nonsense Mavis goes undercover to investigate some Suspicious Sisters, when it’s noted that narcotics belonging to recently deceased patients are disappearing in a certain hospital. A morbid aura shadows the idyllic village of Anwen-by-Wye, in the eighth installment of Ace’s WISE Enquiries series, and the bodies pile up.
By the way, WISE is an acronym for the origins of the four women who’ve teamed up to answer enquiries and solve these bizarre crimes: Carol from Wales, Christine from Ireland, Scottish Mavis, and English Annie. These bizarre crimes can only originate in the unrelenting mind of Cathy Ace. Averaging two books a year, the woman is unstoppable.
The jury’s still out on Ace’s view of the Welsh aristocracy. In this book, more than others, we see the colossal power held by Henry Twyst, the eighth Duke of Chellingworth, and his eccentric dowager mother, Althea. By the end of this book, they own it all, and though we applaud their generosity as patrons, the reader can’t help but notice the power imbalance. “At least we keep the village hall looking tidy. Which pleases both Their Graces,” quips one lowly villager. “Indeed, while “Their Graces” quibble over family issues, they continue to generate a rental income from the villagers and more from tours of Chellingworth Hall. Yet, Ace’s satirizing of the octogenarian dowager’s bizarre wardrobe choices, and her daughter Clementine’s plans to wed “at dawn on the summer solstice at the base of Queen Hatshepsut’s obelisk at the temple of Karnak” in Egypt, give us pause. Do I detect a mutinous murmur beneath a witty veneer?
A master of social satire, Ace presents this wry romp, slathered in details, and peppered with Welsh gems. Some favourites? The chief inspector “knew his onions when it came to his job” and “she’ll have my guts for garters.” Or this cringeworthy favourite: “Sugar was better than bile.” Annie’s “Gordon Bennett!” sent me running to Google. Ace’s dialects sparkle, her sensory descriptions wrap you in the best of the season, and her satirizing will make you smile.
Ace’s strength is in writing what she knows and doing so flawlessly. It’s clear she genuinely loves her characters and her birth country, as her prose oozes with colloquialisms. Ace emigrated from Swansea, Wales to British Columbia at age forty, and often visits home. A longtime fan of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, she comes naturally to the cozy murder mystery genre and is a storyteller extraordinaire. Her standalone novel, The Wrong Boy, and her Cait Morgan Mysteries have been optioned for TV by UK producers Free@LastTV. One can only hope, the WISE Enquiries follow in their wake.
Ace has been country-hopping this year, presenting at events like Gŵyl Crime Cymru (Wales’ first international crime literature festival), Calgary’s When Words Collide, and Boucheron (an annual world mystery convention). Catch her where you can and in the meantime, check out her two long-running cozy mystery series: The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries and Cait Morgan Mysteries.
The Mother of All Degrassi takes us on a voyage through time and place in this, her memoir. Most Canadians will have heard of Degrassi at some point in their lives, whether they watched the television series themselves, or with their children, or borrowed episodes to use in the classroom to teach their students about life. But how Degrassi originated, its transformations, its effect on those it touched and those who were involved in its growth, and on the woman herself, is the subject of this story.
This is a tale of an ambitious, energetic, feisty, risk-taking woman who listened to her heart and her spirit, who played the game to win, transforming disastrous moments into a multi-million dollar empire. It is the story of a woman who touched the lives of millions of viewers over a period of forty years, and changed the lives of countless child stars who found their start at Degrassi.
Her memoir is about revelation and risk-taking, daring and dogmatic perseverance, inspiration and hope. And I bet you’d never even heard her name before. Linda Schuyler stood strong behind the scenes, cradling her young actors, and leading her team. I’d certainly never heard of her until recently, though I knew of Degrassi. Living near Toronto, Ontario in the early 70s, 80s, and 90s gave me an edge because that’s where it all began. Or did it?
Entangling business with personal, Schuyler’s memoir is structured somewhat chronologically but supplemented with natural turns and flashbacks when she’s touched by a certain moment or brushed by a special person, and life changes. Yet, she returns to one pivotal moment time and again.
Schuyler wanted to be a mother more than anything else yet was unable to conceive. She suffered with endometriosis, possibly caused by a bodily wrenching in a near-fatal car accident in 1968. She was working at a pub in England when she met Simon, a handsome young man who offered to take her water-skiing in the Lake Country. They were joined by his friend, Elliott. Afterwards, while driving back to London after a long playful day in the sun, their car collided with a double-decker bus. Schuyler was the lone survivor but wore the scars of that moment forever. And from that wreckage emerged a filmmaker, storyteller, teacher, and businesswoman.
Her “giddy, schoolgirl sense of excitement” (47) permeates the text. Flush with media terms like blue-skying, footage, rough picture edit, 16 mm, and Bolex, Schuyler interjects the more technical edges of film production. If you’re at all interested in media studies, this book is for you. In fact, I’d make it part of the syllabus. Yet far beyond that, in its very heart, it’s an emotional story, and a quick and entertaining read that feels real and genuine. Even moments of name-dropping feel natural—that’s just how it was when you happened to be seated next to Hugh Laurie at Bob Newhart’s table in L.A. picking up a Television Critic’s Choice Award (2005).
Rife with teachable moments—Schuyler is at heart an educator—she reminds us that writing for kids means confronting the issues of the day. Degrassi was real and raw. From the beginning, no issue was taboo, and over the years the episodes involved all manner of sociopolitical topics that affected teens. “Our serious subjects for the first season were underage drinking, parental abuse, adoption, bullying, and teen pregnancy . . . pills being sold as drugs, bad date advice, a thwarted pornographic viewing, and the formation of our one-song-wonder rock group — The Zit Remedy” (90). Later stories involved racism, homophobia, and the impact of social media.
Schuyler experienced bullying beginning in grade three, when her family moved from England to Paris, Ontario. The taunts of “Limey Linda—slimy Limey Linda” haunted her. “I consider Degrassi to be probably the world’s longest running anti-bullying campaign,” she revealed at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2020. Perhaps, Degrassi was in-part her revenge. Because Schuyler’s family were immigrants like so many of the children she taught, she understood their experiences and dilemmas, and she wanted to tell their stories. In her first low-budget film, Between Two Worlds, she told the stories of her inner-city Toronto class as she taught them about media. The film was broadcast internationally, and Degrassi was born. Schuyler’s elements: “casting age-appropriate actors, taking chances on fresh talent in front of and behind the camera, naturalistic settings and dialogue, and setting the stories in a lower-middle-class environment” featured in five hundred episodes (60).
Schuyler’s memoir is a celebration of a life well lived, of a woman who loved and lost, followed her heart, then fell and rose again.
Cherie Dimaline never fails to enchant and VenCo is the start of something spicy, warm, and wicked. At least, I hope so. The prologue features three bad-ass hipsters collectively known as the Oracle—the Maiden (a Tender), Mother (a Watcher), and Crone (a Booker)—who reveal the stakes and premise. A sixth witch must be found and once she is, she’ll have seventeen days to find the seventh witch and complete the circle. In case you missed it, VenCo is a play on Coven. “She better be some kind of living-at-Hogwarts, spell-work-in-her-sleep legacy witch,” says the Maiden.
What sets Dimaline’s work apart is her original and impeccable writing style, which is both literary and lyrical, casual and raw, as befits the characters and situation. Vivid descriptions of urban grit pepper the pages, along with references to pop culture, and symbols such as little yellow witchy birds. In this magic carpet ride of a romp, we fly to various locations: Toronto, Salem, the California desert, and New Orleans. Chapter headings are casual, detailed, and comic. For example: “A Complete F* 180 over General Tso Chicken and Shitty Rice.”
I feel like the first half of this book offers a crucial backstory to a series and world-building as Dimaline introduces the members of VenCo, and we hear their individual tales. Circles within circles, stories within a story. We begin with protagonist Lucky St. James and her charming, dementia-prone grandmother, Stella Sampson. After her Métis mother dies a drunk, they are about to be evicted from their grotty home in East End Toronto when Lucky finds a key to a hidden basement room in her wet laundry. When she unlocks the door, she discovers a dirty, rocky, tunnel, and inside it, a tiny silver spoon engraved with a Halloween witch and the word SALEM. Lucky is the sixth witch. The other five: Meena Good and her Anishinabe partner Wendy; blond, gender-queer Freya; artist and rare-book collector Morticia from New York; and Louisiana Creole woman Letitia and her son, also joined the coven via enchanted spoons. Freya offers Lucky a writing job at VenCo and with nothing to lose, Lucky and Stella drive to Salem where they join the others whose personal tales are embedded within the larger narrative.
Jay Christos (obvious play there) is the smarmy antagonist taxed with stopping the coven from forming and keeping the Patriarchy in place. This immortal, bisexual, misogynist, Benandanti (witch hunter/killer) hunts at night through streets and dreams, and has mesmerizing skills of his own. Once he starts to move on Lucky, things heat up. This is a feminist kind of book; at least the job of VenCo is to “Hex the Patriarchy” of whom JC is the kingpin. This matriarchal coven has much work to do, enough to fill several more novels. With shades of Thomas King and Eden Robinson, this book will delight and enchant with its quirky, irresistible characters.
A member of the Georgian Bay Historic Métis Community, Dimaline is an Indigenous Canadian writer. Her YA book, The Marrow Thieves, won the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2017, was named Book of the Year by CBC, Quill & Quire, the NY Public Library, and was selected by Time magazine as one of the top 100 YA reads of all time. She followed it with the disturbing sequel, Hunting by Stars. Her stand-alone novel Empire of Wild was Indigo’s #1 Best Book of the Year and was featured in the New Yorker and the New York Times. Without giving too much away, “f* you” is the last phrase in VenCo. That takes courage and a certain amount of bravado.
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