Title: Transcendent - Tales of the Paranormal
Authors: Lani Woodland, Melonie Piper, Rita J Webb, Wendy Swore, Melanie Marks, Heather McCubbin, and Even Joseph
Published: 2011, Robot Playground
Format: Print copy provided by Rita J Webb for review
Discover the secrets of a siren, fly with a hawk girl over the mountains of Montana, and flee supernatural party-crashers as the décor comes to life in this magical journey through paranormal stories.
Along the way, watch for ghosts in a haunted house, or ride through the moonlight with a stranger. Save a comatose boy who has lost his soul, and don’t forget to bring your garlic and wolfsbane—you never know when the shadows will snag you.
Transcendent includes eight stories of magic, love, death, and choice by some of the newest names in young adult fiction.
First let me say that I find it very difficult
to review anthologies. First, you might
love one story and hate the next. So
they get a middle grade because of averages? Luckily I didn’t run into that problem
with this book, because they were all pretty darn good!
In Transcendent
you get 8 stories. My favorites were the
ones that were a bit longer and able to give a bit more detail. And those were
Spectre by Wendy Swore, Pumpkin Thief by Evan Joseph, and Kiss of Death by Lani
Woodland and Melonie Piper.
In Spectre we meet
Marcella and Lissae, who are throwing a Homecoming Halloween themed party at
Marcella’s house. They go to a store to
rent some decorations and find the staff there to be extremely accommodating. They even set the decorations up the next
day! The party is a smash hit, and then some uninvited guest show up and
crash. And they aren’t exactly what you’d
call Welcome.
I found this story to be great, perfect for a setting like a
campfire (although I could probably say that about any story in this book), but
this one had an extra level of creepy
that I liked. It reminded me of a
B-Movie – and I totally adore B-Movies!
Second, Pumpkin Thief. Another Halloween themed story. Kira is getting ready for a party, and she is
going as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Already I’m hooked. She’s carved a pumpkin pretty elaborately for
part of her costume, but someone has stolen it!
I’m not going to blow the surprise on this one. But lets say that it mixes some of the very
old with some of the new, and it throws in a dash of romance and a bit of
chivalry. It was a great blend of
everything and I really enjoyed reading this one!
And lastly, Kiss Of
Death. In this story we are
introduced to Scarlet, who has been very sick with cancer. She knows her end is near, but she wants to
live every girl’s teenage fantasy – Prom.
So she goes. She dances, she
socializes, she has the time of her life with her friends. And then he
arrives.
This story had a really great twist that I think YA PNR fans
will really love and just snatch this story up.
Plus its written by two authors, so I think that in itself is pretty
darn cool. Again, I’m not going to tell
the secret, but it certainly has a modern feel to the story.
And here we go! I’m
going to give away my copy of Transcendent
along with a Fictional Candy bookmark and magnet (I’ll even throw in some
other swag!) It is still in really good
condition, I made sure not to break the spine cause I thought this would make a
great giveaway prize! Just enter your
info in the Rafflecopter, and Good Luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
