Aldo’s Fantastical Movie Palace
Hardcover | Kindle Edition
By Jonathan Friesen
HarperCollins | Zondervan
Released Date: July 10, 2012

Jonathan Friesen‘s fourth novel, Aldo’s Fantastical Movie Palace (you can watch the trailer below), begins like this: Fourteen-year-old Chloe Lundeen has a scar. It’s a big, ugly scar given to her by her father, Crazy Ray, while testing out one of his many failed inventions. Her scar is the source of all her pain, from the kids at school who taunt her and call her Scarface, to the father whose guilt is so great that he can no longer bring himself to even look at his daughter.

The only solace in the world for Chloe is her great-grandpa Aldo’s movie theater, which she helps her mother run. She describes the movie theater as being a real New York City art deco building plopped in the middle of rural Minnesota. Chloe’s only friends are her cat and her grandpa Salvador, who has no trouble looking at her at all.

Dracula, My Love
By Syrie James
HarperCollins
Release Date: July 20, 2010
Paperback | Paperback (discount*) | Kindle

If when you read Dracula by Bram Stoker you wished you could get into the head of one of the characters and get an intimate first-person account, then you’re in luck. Dracula, My Love is a revisionist novel that retells Stoker’s novel from the point of view of Mina Harker (neé Murray). The author, Syrie James, is no stranger to this subset of the historical fiction subgenre, having produced such novels as The Lost Memoirs of Charlotte Brontë and The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. Through beautifully written prose, she tackles the chain of events in Dracula from Mina’s mind and presents what happened in a highly defined manner that gives new context to the original.

Thankfully, it’s not told in the epistolary format, through diary entries, or through newspaper clippings. Instead, the reader gets Mina’s recollections after the fact. Although there are some changes and additions to Mina and to her history, as well as the sequence of events, James hasn’t made too many departures from Stoker’s tale and she has, for the most part, lent a sense of discovery that fans will gobble up. She presents a fresh new look that considers many different angles.

Lucy’s sleepwalking problems are more drawn out in this novel, and a focal point of the plot. But if you’re expecting a lesbian makeout scene a la Francis Ford Coppola’s 1993 interpretation of Dracula, you won’t find it in this book.

How to Archer
The Ultimate Guide to Espionage and Style and Women and Also Cocktails Ever Written
Paperback | Kindle Edition
Written by Sterling Archer
HarperCollins/It Books
Release date: January 17, 2012
Price: $15.99

As Mel Brooks once said, “Merchandising!” You can’t be a successful anything these days unless you have a t-shirt, or a CD, or a book, or a million other knick-knacks for fans of the show to buy. Which is why we can now call FX’s Archer a successful show, due the release of How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage and Style and Women and Also Cocktails Ever Written. The book is ostensibly written by series star Sterling Archer and explains how you too can become the world’s greatest covert agent. Or at least how to be the second best, because no one can be a better spy than Archer.

Phoenix Rising
A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel
Paperback | Kindle
By Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris
HarperCollins Voyager
Release Date: April 26, 2011

You know how everyone says to never judge a book by its cover? Well, I did”¦ and boy, was it worth it! I was intrigued by the title Phoenix Rising, or rather the subtitle — A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel — but was snared by the art on the front. Going in with an expectation of sexy, steampunk fantasy I was happily rewarded with an excellent introduction to the characters. Agents Braun and Books came to life immediately. Even better, they continued to grow slowly throughout the book keeping me interested in not just the plotline, but in the character development as well. As with any steampunk novel this book is full of mechanized gadgets, well described and alluring. I might perhaps be doing this book an injustice by labeling it so, as it does have all the earmarks of an excellent fantasy-mystery. That said, it was a well-written, highly entertaining romp.

The Child Thief
Paperback | Kindle
Written by Brom
HarperCollins Voyager
Release date: August 27, 2010

The prologue to artist Brom‘s novel The Child Thief begins with a girl who is afraid of an abusive stepfather, which leads into the appearance of Peter Pan, who has come to “save” this child from the certain doom she faced at the hands of the malevolent step-parent. But in Brom’s world, things are not as clear cut as they seem. When people grow up, they often start to see the odd perversity in the idea that a teenage boy who is perpetually young can bring little boys to an island with no grown-ups (and seemingly no problems), which ties into the whole Michael Jackson and Neverland Ranch issues. But in this version of the tale, Peter Pan is about as similar to his Disney incarnation as Robin Williams is to Justin Bieber.