Phoebe's Paper Paradise

Howker captures her characters beautifully! They feel real and authentic, just like the story!

It is a story about a boy (Bill) growing up in a small town, raised only by his father - and partially his grandfather. It is a story about a town loosing its last big factory, and with it, it's last big employer. Common people like Bill's dad and granddad suddenly loose their job, having to life on the dole. Bill, not the most motivated student in school, but a practical handyman, witnesses a town of workers falling into a depression. In addition, a wild beast starts terrorizing the surrounding area, attacking kettle and small farm animals. Bill tries to cope with his grandfather moving in with them, his father's unemployment, and the challenge to find the beast. At least he has his best mate Mick, or not?
It is a social commentary of the time the book was written in (1985), but in big parts it can still be applied to today's society.
Told in first person narration by Bill himself, it's an easy to read book - but beware the accent.

Again, a very well written children's/youth novel by Terry Pratchett. It's thoughtful, yet amusing. The story is quite creative and I liked the solution at the end. Johnny Maxwell is saving someone again, this time it's the local cemetery. The cemetery is supposed to be sold to a company which is going to build office buildings on top. Johnny and his friends speak up at a public meeting, reminding the adults that the past is important for the people living in the present, and that the cemetery is more than just dead people, but a place to remember, and even a place for recreation and nature.
Besides, Johnny has been asked for help, by the tenants of the cemetery themselves: The dead can be seen by Johnny, and thanks to him, they get in touch with current events and real life again...life (and death) can be very eventful in Blackbury.

Well, a Stephen King classic, that's for sure. The characters were nicely portrayed and their development was believable enough. Especially some of the major characters, like Larry Underwood or Fran Goldsmith, and Harold Lauder. Somehow the "enemy" Flagg was not as impressive and memorable to me than others made me believe, that was a tad disappointing.
The book is about a post-apocalyptic America after a plague wiped out the majority of the planets population. It is a "Good vs. Bad" story line, which sometimes (unfortunately) drags a little during the second part of the book. While the post-apocalyptic problems that the people left behind have to face are drawn very realistic, there were too much pages "wasted" for depicting a specific character development (repeatedly) [can't say more because of spoilers]. Overall it is a human story, with a good portion of religion, faith and destiny put into the mix. It shows the best, and the worst, humankind has to offer.

World War Z is not about zombies...not really. It is more about humankind, about its societies, about its military, about its struggle - about its people. The book consists of stories told in retrospect by individuals who survived. They tell their stories and with it the story of the "Zombie War". The story unfolds more or less chronological, starting with the first sightings in China. Since it's told in retrospect the reader gets bits of information about the postwar world as well and early on a sense of the magnitude of the "war".
There is no character development on the long run, but you get an insight into the individual storytellers - and the zombie's characteristics: What they can do, and what they can't do.
The book is brilliantly written and draws the reader in right from the beginning. Because of the book's set-up as an eye-witness report, it makes the events sound more "real" more "possible to happen", which makes it even more scary! Nicely done!