Summer book recommendation

I read voraciously, and I love that adverb. It sounds like how a velociraptor would undertake anything.

Pretty much every sunset of my life has fallen with several pages at least (or hours) under my belt. I no longer have the physical capacity to read until 3 a.m. anymore; my eyelids close despite my fierce admonitions to stay open.

The funny thing is, despite devouring novels like a T-Rex rigged with an arm-lengthener to hold books, there are very few books I actually love. Like maybe two a year. I’m fussy.

When a book I adore comes along, I get so excited. I no longer want to interact with peers, husband, children; I only want to return to the world of the book.

That happened to me this week.

At our local library, for months now the six-foot spindle of “new books” has shown a lovely cover that twice made me pause and pick the book up. And twice I put it down. Why? The swords the two characters hold on the cover. Totally stupid of me, but I imagined parrying and thrusting and “‘en garde’ said the ghost” moments.

How happy I am that events transpired to leave me in the children’s area of the library, watching two adorable kids (okay, they were my own) without access to the adult books, so that I swung by the spindle and immediately started reading The Screaming Staircase. Soon those children were pulling at my shirt and asking for snacks, bathroom trips, medical treatment, “one last phone call to Dad” but these were all put aside in favor of more pages.

I loved this book. It’s the perfect book. And those swords? Well, as rapiers they turn out to be pretty cool weapons.

Stroud has a wonderfully Edward Goreyian look at ghosts and they are every bit the winsome, twisted wraiths and vengeful, tonsured monk ghosts I crave. I loved the interplay between the three main characters and Lucy Carlyle is a kick-ass heroine.

I’m BEYOND excited to see there are already two more books in the series (procrastination rewards me once again). It’s interesting to see the difference between the U.S. and U.K. covers. I do wish Lucy featured on the English cover…I think this U.S. cover is perfect for letting us see a strong, equal partnership between Lucy and Lockwood…but the other features only Lockwood. And alas, poor George must’ve failed to show up for the appointment with the illustrator, off buying donuts.

Same book, U.K. cover. Where’s Lucy?

The tantalizingly-light suggestion of romance is so well done. Stroud does a lot with simple glances. The minor action of adjusting a lock of hair off someone’s forehead becomes fraught with romantic tension and I imagine over the course of the series this will build and build. I love it.

Finally, Stroud’s website relays that he spent several years of his childhood bedbound with illness. During that time that he read to the degree that he shaped his aesthetics and his love of magical adventure, as well as the idea of reading as escape. That’s what I like so much about middle grade and Y.A. fiction; they unapologetically explore imaginary worlds. I’d far rather read that than serious adult books about failed marriages and careers that fizzle out. J

So, my strong recommendation for this season is Book One of the Lockwood & Co. series, the Screaming Staircase.