<img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-14341" title="Edgewood" src="http://www.bookroomreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Edg

ewood-150×150.jpg” alt=”Edgewood book” width=”150″ height=”150″ />

“I couldn’t believe it was happening again. Couldn’t sleep, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t sleep. It was a Monday night; school started the next day at 7:30 a.m., and I was exhausted, but my body didn’t care. I shifted in bed and punched my pillow into different shapes, like that would help, even though it never did before.” Then Russ Becker did what he usually did, he took a walk to cure his insomnia so that he could come back home and sleep.

But this night was different. Russ saw bright lights “moving fast in the sky overhead”, not planes or flares but more “like photos I’ve seen of an aurora borealis”. In a field there were “fragments

of something, like someone had tipped over a charcoal grill the size of a water tower. The embers were blue and gold, beautiful like jewels” and formed a perfect spiral that covered the field. Russ wondered if this phenomenon would be on the news tomorrow.

Nothing but late-night walks help Russ’s sleeplessness, not even a psychiatrist. He notices other people (through their windows) who are up late at night too, and feels a kinship with them. But then one of Russ’s walks causes something to happen that he never expected, which later joins him to Mallory, Nadia and Jameson, who are his age and who too have seen the spiral and been affected by it.

Edgewood has a heightened sense of mystery: just as Russ doesn’t know what’s happening, we don’t either, and we try to puzzle it out along with him as he’s pursued by men in white with guns and somehow shot while trying to run away. Electricity, healing, teens with super

powers, a man who gives Russ a medallion as he’s taken into emergency, the Associates and the Praetorian Guard and a struggle for power, and Russ’s sister’s Carly’s heretofore undisclosed past: all are part of Edgewood’s amazing intrigues.

Mallory tells Russ, “Over the past thirty-five years a disproportionate number of teenagers from this area have suddenly died or disappeared, many of them after reporting seeing strange things in the sky. Some of their families also disappeared – just moved out of the area without a forwarding address. Like they were….relocated or something” and “No one else seems to have observed the lights except for teenagers. Instead, on the dates the kids see the events, there are next-day reports of adults having had trouble staying awake that night — falling asleep at the wheel, dozing on the job, that kind of thing — which leads me to believe the light particles energize and draw some people, notably some teenagers, while having the opposite effect on adults. Some of the teenagers mentioned feeling compelled to go outside at night long before the lights appeared.”

Through his experiences Russ gains friends and his family also tells him they love him, besides acquiring some super powers himself. Karen McQuestion has written a page-turner that constantly tweaks our curiosity while being lit up with humor and social commentary. Russ also tells us everything he’s feeling about what it’s like to be a teen who’s growing up. Other characters are so much like our own families that we immediately identify with them too.

The back cover of Edgewood tells us to look for Karen McQuestion’s Wanderlust, Book Two of the Edgewood Series, and I certainly will and know that other readers will too, because when you reach the end of Edgewood, you definitely want the story to continue! Since she’s one of the finest writers on the scene today, I look forward to many more interesting and challenging books from Karen McQuestion.

Edgewood, by Karen McQuestion, published by CreateSpace on September 13, 2012, 324 pages.

Reviewed By Christina Zawadiwsky

Christina Zawadiwsky is Ukrainian-American, born in New York City, has a degree in Fine Arts, and is a poet, artist, journalist, critic and TV producer. She has received a National Endowment For The Arts award, two Wisconsin Arts Board awards, a Co-Ordinating Council Of Literary Magazines Award, and an Art Futures Award, among other honors. She was the originator and producer of Where The Waters Meet, a local TV series created to facilitate the voices of artists of all genres in the media, for which she won two national and twenty local awards, including a Commitment To Community Television Award. She is also a contributing editor to the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology, the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, and has published four books of poetry. She has reviewed music for Music Room Reviews, films for Movie Room Reviews, Movie Scribes, and FilmSay, and is currently reviewing books and films online for Book Room Reviews at www.bookroomreviews.com while also showing artwork professionally.Rich Text AreaToolbarBold (Ctrl + B)Italic (Ctrl + I)Strikethrough (Alt + Shift + D)Unordered list (Alt + Shift + U)Ordered list (Alt + Shift + O)Blockquote (Alt + Shift + Q)Align Left (Alt + Shift + L)Align Center (Alt + Shift + C)Align Right (Alt + Shift + R)Insert/edit link (Alt + Shift + A)Unlink (Alt + Shift + S)Insert More Tag (Alt + Shift + T)Toggle spellchecker (Alt + Shift + N)▼
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“I couldn’t believe it was happening again. Couldn’t sleep, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t sleep. It was a Monday night; school started the next day at 7:30 a.m., and I was exhausted, but my body didn’t care. I shifted in bed and punched my pillow into different shapes, like that would help, even though it never did before.” Then Russ Becker did what he usually did, he took a walk to cure his insomnia so that he could come back home and sleep.
But this night was different. Russ saw bright lights “moving fast in the sky overhead”, not planes or flares but more “like photos I’ve seen of an aurora borealis”. In a field there were “fragments of something, like someone had tipped over a charcoal grill the size of a water tower. The embers were blue and gold, beautiful like jewels” and formed a perfect spiral that covered the field. Russ wondered if this phenomenon would be on the news tomorrow.
Nothing but late-night walks help Russ’s sleeplessness, not even a psychiatrist. He notices other people (through their windows) who are up late at night too, and feels a kinship with them. But then one of Russ’s walks causes something to happen that he never expected, which later joins him to Mallory, Nadia and Jameson, who are his age and who too have seen the spiral and been affected by it.
Edgewood has a heightened sense of mystery: just as Russ doesn’t know what’s happening, we don’t either, and we try to puzzle it out along with him as he’s pursued by men in white with guns and somehow shot while trying to run away. Electricity, healing, teens with super powers, a man who gives Russ a medallion as he’s taken into emergency, the Associates and the Praetorian Guard and a struggle for power, and Russ’s sister’s Carly’s heretofore undisclosed past: all are part of Edgewood’s amazing intrigues.
Mallory tells Russ, “Over the past thirty-five years a disproportionate number of teenagers from this area have suddenly died or disappeared, many of them after reporting seeing strange things in the sky. Some of their families also disappeared – just moved out of the area without a forwarding address. Like they were….relocated or something” and “No one else seems to have observed the lights except for teenagers. Instead, on the dates the kids see the events, there are next-day reports of adults having had trouble staying awake that night — falling asleep at the wheel, dozing on the job, that kind of thing — which leads me to believe the light particles energize and draw some people, notably some teenagers, while having the opposite effect on adults. Some of the teenagers mentioned feeling compelled to go outside at night long before the lights appeared.”
Through his experiences Russ gains friends and his family also tells him they love him, besides acquiring some super powers himself. Karen McQuestion has written a page-turner that constantly tweaks our curiosity while being lit up with humor and social commentary. Russ also tells us everything he’s feeling about what it’s like to be a teen who’s growing up. Other characters are so much like our own families that we immediately identify with them too.
The back cover of Edgewood tells us to look for Karen McQuestion’s Wanderlust, Book Two of the Edgewood Series, and I certainly will and know that other readers will too, because when you reach the end of Edgewood, you definitely want the story to continue! Since she’s one of the finest writers on the scene today, I look forward to many more interesting and challenging books from Karen McQuestion.
Edgewood, by Karen McQuestion, published by CreateSpace on September 13, 2012, 324 pages.
Reviewed By Christina Zawadiwsky
Christina Zawadiwsky is Ukrainian-American, born in New York City, has a degree in Fine Arts, and is a poet, artist, journalist, critic and TV producer. She has received a National Endowment For The Arts award, two Wisconsin Arts Board awards, a Co-Ordinating Council Of Literary Magazines Award, and an Art Futures Award, among other honors. She was the originator and producer of Where The Waters Meet, a local TV series created to facilitate the voices of artists of all genres in the media, for which she won two national and twenty local awards, including a Commitment To Community Television Award. She is also a contributing editor to the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology, the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, and has published four books of poetry. She has reviewed music for Music Room Reviews, films for Movie Room Reviews, Movie Scribes, and FilmSay, and is currently reviewing books and films online for Book Room Reviews at www.bookroomreviews.com while also showing artwork professionally.
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Book Room Reviews BOOK ROOM REVIEWS - BOOK REVIEWS & WRITING TIPS | VISIT NOW Copyright (C) http://www.bookroomreviews.com. Read more at... http://www.bookroomreviews.com/ .