The Best Book I Read This Month: Lost Boy by Christina Henry

Christina Henry has become one of my favorite authors. I love her retellings of Alice in Wonderland and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. So it’s no surprise that the best book I read this month was her take on Peter Pan.

Lost Boy is a prequel to the Peter Pan story we know. It’s an account of how Captain Hook, Pan’s mortal enemy, became Captain Hook.

Jamie, the boy who would become Hook, is the narrator and main character. The story grows darker as Jamie awakens to the true nature of Peter Pan, the island, and what it means to be a Lost Boy. Along the way he forms a surrogate family, one that he defends and protects as a parent would.

The story has all the magic one would expect from a Peter Pan story, as well as many of the familiar elements of Neverland. Henry adds a few inventions of her own, as well, that add to growing darkness of the story.

It all works to tell an engaging, compelling tale—and posits the idea that maybe Captain Hook really wasn’t a villain after all.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

The best book I read this month was a pop culture delight. If you’re at all familiar with Scooby Doo cartoons, the title of Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids gives away the premise: a group of kids and their dog solve mysteries.

In Cantero’s version, the kids really were kids—tweens—when they solved their mysteries (as opposed to the older Scooby Doo gang) and their last case comes back to haunt them many years later.

Cantero’s detectives are not a 1:1 match to the Scooby Doo gang—the dog, for example, is a Weimaraner, not a Great Dane—but they were known for unmasking a monster to reveal it was an angry older man who did, indeed, call them “meddling kids.” And it all took place in a town near the Zoinx River. It’s a fun homage to Scooby and the gang. There are shout-outs to other pop culture properties, too, but I don’t want to give them away.

The story centers around the gang’s realization that their last mystery sent an innocent man to prison and their efforts to right that wrong by finding the real perpetrator. Along the way, they encounter old friends, old enemies, and dangers both real and supernatural. The story is fun and suspenseful, one that appeals not only to fans of Scooby Doo but also to those who love Stranger Things.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

The best book I read this month was a hard but powerful read. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch imagines an Ireland plunging into authoritarianism. We watch this descent through the lens of a single family’s experience.

The Stack family are an ordinary middle-class family living in Dublin. Larry is a teacher and union representative. Eilish is a scientist in a biomedical firm. They have four children: teenagers Mark, Molly, and Bailey and infant Ben. Eilish is also caring for her dementia-ridden father, who lives on the other side of town.

The story opens with a late-night visit from the police, who are looking for Larry. Things get worse from there. As the country’s authoritarian leaders clamp down, life in Dublin becomes more difficult—food grows scarce, travel is limited. The country becomes torn by civil war. Eilish struggles to keep her family together as the danger escalates.

It’s a dark story and one that does not offer much, if any, hope. Like other dystopian stories, it’s inspired by things that have happened (in this case, the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis) and a warning of what could be. Living here in the United States, it all hit just a little too close for comfort. Still, it is a worthwhile read, a reminder of the human cost of an authoritarian power grab and of the humanity that exists and persists under authoritarian rule.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Shutter by Ramona Emerson

The best book I read this month was a mystery by Navajo (Diné) author Ramona Emerson. Shutter follows photographer Rita Todacheene as she gets caught up in and tries to solve a series of murders in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rita is literally haunted by her work. She sees dead people, and these ghosts both help and hinder her pursuit of justice.

It took me a little while to get into this story, but once I found the rhythm, I couldn’t put it down. The mystery was well-crafted, and I love the way Emerson wove in not only Rita’s personal history but also her Navajo culture.

Rita both accepts and rejects her culture. The tension she feels between living and working in white society and being true to her roots informs much of the story. Should she listen to her grandmother’s warnings about the ghosts she sees? Should she give up her job with the Albuquerque police in favor of a job that doesn’t bring her in contact with death all of the time? Rita wrestles with these questions as she tries to solve the gruesome murder of a young mother and of a judge and his family. Ultimately, it is this pursuit of answers that endangers Rita’s life.

I don’t know if this is the first in a series, but I hope it is. I like Rita. I adore Rita’s grandmother. I want to spend more time with both of them.

The Best Book I Read This Month: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

The best book I read this month was a gripping tale inspired by real events. In The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon tells the story of Martha Ballard, a midwife who lived in Maine in the late 1700s. The story focuses on Ballard’s efforts to win justice for a rape victim, a preacher’s wife who named two of the town leaders as her attackers.

The story opens with a death—a murder, to be precise—and the story unfolds from there. Lawhon paints a striking picture of life in the early years of the United States, especially the lives of women. Ballard is an exception in that regard because of her profession. Being a midwife bestows privileges on her that other women are denied, such as the right to speak in court. Ballard only has that right because as a midwife, she is considered a medical professional. Throughout the story, she uses that privilege to push for justice for the preacher’s wife.

Martha Ballard was a real person, and she did testify against a town leader in a rape trial. We know this because of the diary that Ballard left behind. That diary became the nonfiction book A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and Ulrich’s book led to Lawhon’s. I was so intrigued by Ballard that I ordered Ulrich’s book before I finished Lawhon’s.

It’s tempting to say that Ballard was an extraordinary woman, but she wasn’t. She was an ordinary woman who made the most of what was given to her. And that makes her a very compelling main character in a very compelling story.