High schoolers Liam, Elayah, Jorja, and Marcie are close friends, just like their parents were back in the day. When the foursome learns about a time capsule their parents hid back in 1986, they decide to dig it up just for fun. Among the expected items—photos, mixtapes, newspaper clippings, old coins—the teens make a shocking discovery: a bloody knife and a note that says, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill anyone." Is it just a stupid joke? Or did one of their parents actually murder someone?

When other disconcerting things start to happen, the kids realize that they've stumbled upon a decades-old secret that someone does not want revealed. As they start poking around, digging into their parents' pasts, disturbing information comes to light. What really happened between their parents? Who died? And, most importantly, which one of the adults they all know and love is a murderer?

I'm always up for a dual-timeline mystery about secrets of the past coming to light. Time Will Tell, a YA mystery by Barry Lyga, gives the classic premise a fun spin by turning a group of teens into detectives investigating their parents' long-hidden secrets. At 421 pages, the novel is longer than necessary but it moves along at a fair pace. Not a fast one, but not a super slow one either. True, there's not tons of action; still, I zipped through the book, eager to know what was going to happen next. Many reviewers have complained that the tale is confusing because there are lots of characters and it's difficult to keep them all straight, especially the parents because they're referred to as "Mom/Dad" or "so-and-so's mom/dad." I get this, although I also understand that the obscured identities are necessary to keep the mystery suspenseful. Still, it does make the story confusing at times. For the most part, Lyga's story people are sympathetic and likable. I wanted good things for most of them. Plotwise, Time Will Tell isn't the tightest. There are several holes and things that just didn't make much sense to me. Overall, then, I didn't love this book. I did like it well enough, though. It kept me reading.

(Readalikes: Hm, I can't think of anything. Can you?)

Grade:

The War Between the States was in full-swing when the country got the shock of its young life—its dead soldiers were not remaining dead.  They were rising up, hungry and rabid.  With shamblers turning everyone in their paths, war was derailed and desperate Americans had to learn to fight the growing zombie menace.  An enterprising government came up with a brilliant solution.  To create an army of monster-slayers, it passed the Native and Negro Reeducation Act, which required every Native and Negro child to attend combat school starting at 12 years old.  While certain cities have since been declared shambler-free, these "throwaway" children still have plenty of fighting to do in order to keep their betters from being bitten.

At 17, Jane McKeene is in her third year at Miss Preston's School of Combat for Negro Girls in Baltimore.  Despite being the daughter of one of the wealthiest white women in Haller County, Kentucky, Jane's mixed-race ethnicity destines her for a life of servitude.  Although her fondest desire is to return home to check on her family—from whom she has heard nothing—she's making the best of  her situation.  She's training to be an Attendant, a combination chaperone/bodyguard for rich white girls.  While such a career will hardly give her the freedom she craves, it beats harvesting cotton or slaving away in a hot kitchen.  Besides, she's a skilled fighter.  If she can just manage to keep her mouth shut and her manners in check long enough, a secure future will be hers.

When local families start to vanish, Jane's skeptical of the official "shambler attack" explanation.  Something else is going on, something much more disturbing.  Not one for leaving well enough alone, she launches her own investigation into the strange disappearances.  Before she knows it, she's embroiled in a plan more sinister than she ever could have imagined.  With her bright future, not to mention her very life, on the line, she has to escape and find her way back to Kentucky.  The shamblers aren't the only monsters Jane encounters as she fights for survival in a grim, violent world that considers her—and others like her—very much expendable.

I've been dying to read Dread Nation, a debut novel by Justina Ireland, ever since I heard about it.  I was thrilled, then, when I won a copy of it from YA author Mindy McGinnis (if you like book giveaways, you have to check out her blog).  The story gripped me from the very first page with its intriguing blend of horror, adventure, alternate history, and humor.  Jane's impossible not to like.  She's tough and sassy, but also compassionate and loyal.  It's easy to root for her as she struggles to make her way in a grisly world where her life is valued only for its sacrificial power.  With plenty of action to keep readers turning pages, Dread Nation is an entertaining novel so engrossing you almost don't recognize its allegorical nature.  Ireland definitely has some messages—about race, about individual worth, about the value of all life—that she's trying to get across.  And she succeeds without breaking the story's stride in the least.  In short, I loved this book.  I can't wait to see what happens next to the intrepid Jane McKeene.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of the Ashes trilogy [Ashes; Shadows; Monsters] by Ilsa J. Bick)

Grade:


If this were a movie, it would be rated:

Felix Brewer, an extravagant show-off who makes his dough off several businesses (some legal, some not), is facing prison time when he vanishes into thin air.  His disappearance shocks his wife and two daughters, throwing their comfortable lives of luxury into a wild tailspin.  The three Brewers have no idea what has happened to their husband and father, but what about his 23-year-old mistress, Julie Saxony?  Does she know more about Felix's whereabouts than she's letting on?

Julie's disappearance—exactly a decade later—seems to indicate that she's finally flown off to meet up with her man.  Until her remains are discovered in Leakin Park almost 20 years after she went missing.  Maybe she knew where Felix was, maybe she didn't.  Whatever secrets Julie harbored, they went with her to the grave.

Intrigued by the very cold case, retired Baltimore police detective Sandy Sanchez decides to investigate Julie's murder.  As he digs into her colored past, he discovers an alarming web of lies, many of which center on one person: Felix Brewer.  What really happened to the enigmatic fugitive?  Did Julie Saxony die because of her connection to him?  Or was her death unrelated?  As Sandy untangles the threads of deceit that bind five women to Felix, he will discover some very shocking truths about one of Baltimore's greatest unsolved mysteries.

After I'm Gone, a mystery by Laura Lippman, was inspired by the real, unsolved case of Julius Salsbury, a Baltimore bookie who vanished instead of facing a possible 15-year sentence in federal prison.  As colorful as his true-life counterpart, Felix Brewer makes for an alluring central character.  The mystery of his disappearance is intriguing enough, but After I'm Gone focuses less on Felix's case, more on the characters and their relationships with one another.  All of Lippman's story people are complex, flawed and captivating in their own ways, making their individual tales just as interesting as Felix's.  The story's slow, steady build-up creates plenty of tension, forging a plot that's as exciting as it is compelling.  With enough twists to keep me reading, I found After I'm Gone quite riveting indeed.  Overall, I enjoyed it.

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't really think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade: