Review: Pull Down the Night (The Suburban Strange #2) by Nathan Kotecki

Title: Pull Down the Night (The Suburban Strange #2)
Author: Nathan Kotecki
Source: Amazon Vine
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Release Date: Octoer 8, 2013
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

This year at Suburban High School is just as troubling as the last. A curly-haired girl ghost is disrupting lives with dreaded “kiss notes,” and students are inexplicably sinking into depression. Bruno—the new kid on the block—finds himself at the center of the mystery when he discovers his natural map-reading abilities are actually supernatural. When the reluctant hero isn’t engaged in cosmic battles against evil, Bruno is swooning over the mesmerizing Celia (from The Suburban Strange) and navigating the goth sensibilities and musical obsessions of the Rosary, her über-chic clique. A hypnotic coming-of-age novel that chills and thrills.

The Suburban Strange (The Suburban Strange #1): Review

Book Two wasn't quite as exciting for me as book one was.  There was still a lot going go, so the book moved forward a nice pace.  Two of the orginal Rosary members have left for college, but there are two new students that slip into place fairly nicely, Bruno and his brother Silvio.  Now Bruno starts off the year with a huge crush on Celia.  She seems to be the center point of the story again, even though much of the book followed Bruno this time instead.  

I really enjoyed Bruno - he was a very dynamic and interesting character.  We get to follow Bruno as he discovers he is Kind, and his experience is very different than the story we hear from Tomasi in book one.  His power is very similar, but manifests in a different and fun way.  We also meet another Kind that has found themselves at Suburban High that gives some interesting insights into things.  The ghost "haunting" the school is a familiar face that I was very happey to see.

The Unkind in this book takes a very different twist that I really loved.  There is also a gatekeeper type that we meet who has a lot of interesting things to say and do, expecially towards the end of the story.  A lot of the story was figuring the new characters out and showing how they fit in the grand scheme of things.  There just wasn't as much action as there was in book one.  Very interesting characters, but a little bit slower.  Still a great story, and I'll be watching for book three.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

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Review: The Suburban Strange (The Suburban Strange #1) by Nathan Kotecki

Title: The Suburban Strange (The Suburban Strange #1)
Author: Nathan Kotecki
Source: Self-Purchased
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Release Date: October 2, 2013
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Shy Celia Balaustine is new to Suburban High, but a mysterious group of sophomores called the Rosary has befriended her. Friends aside, Celia soon discovers something is not quite right at Suburban. Girls at the school begin having near-fatal accidents on the eve of their sixteenth birthdays. Who is causing the accidents, and why? As Celia’s own birthday approaches, she is inexorably drawn into an underground conflict between good and evil—the Kind and the Unkind—that bubbles beneath Suburban High. Plentiful references to music and art—along with the intriguing underworld mythology—make this supernatural series debut a page-turner.

The Suburban Strange is going to be a fantastic series - the first book has me hooked to Celia's life and I NEED to know what happens next.  The first book follows her first year at Suburban High and her adjustment to living as a member of the elite clique The Rosary.  It's the first time she's felt included and important and she hopes to make a whole new life for herself.  

She does that and then some.  Learning about the Kind and Unkind and finding out it's all true and part of her life.  It's not just part of her life, it's threatening to take her life.  When the time comes for the curse to find her she needs to make a very tough choice.

Celia's group, The Rosary, seemed to have the potential to be a bad influence at first.  But you quickly discover that they are true friends for her.  They introduce her to music, art, and literature that blows her mind (in a good way).  There is actually a playlist in the back of the book that I will be checking out this weekend.  Her cultural horizons expands as does her self-confidence.  Now they aren't perfect by any means, but they were amazing friends throughout the story.  She has a couple other friends outside this close knit group and they all play very important roles in the story as well - sometimes even more important than The Rosary.

The story itself unfolds in a way that makes you keep reading.  There was no "down time" just times where it slowed down to an easy jog so you could catch your breathe.  I did figure out who the bad guy was early on, and it made me want to scream at Celia a few times for not seeing things that seemed obvious to a reader.  Nathan Kotecki isn't afrad to shock you a little or make you feel.  There are a lot of highs and some very deep lows in the story that only made it more enjoyable and easy to fall in love with all the characters.

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