Review: Vacations from Hell (anthology)

Cruisin’ by Sarah Mlynowski (4/5)

Sarah Mlynowski is a well-known editor of YA fiction, and some of her books aren’t half bad (give ‘Me Vs. Me’ a try). Cruisin’ was a pleasant surprise and an excellent opening piece for this particular anthology – the story centers around teenaged girl Kristin, who’s on a luxury cruise with best friend Liz and new comrade Hailey. She’s determined to experience her epic ‘first time’ on this cruise, and her friends are only to happy to help. The thing is… there seem to be some disturbing reports of cruise passengers getting drained of all their blood by an unlikely vampiric race.

You’re in for a big surprise at the end – nothing is what it seems, and Mlynowski manages to pull it off beautifully. I never saw it coming.

I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend by Claudia Gray (3.5/5)

I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend focuses on teenage with Cecily, part of a coven of witches that meet yearly at a beach house under the guise of having a group holiday. The thing is, none of the men in the family know about witchcraft, which makes things a little tricky. Throw in some horrible weather, her archnemesis Kathleen, and her seemingly perfect boyfriend Scott, and we’re in for one hell of a vacation.

Fans of Claudia Gray’s Evernight series will certainly appreciate this piece, which is a pleasant foray into other aspects of paranormal fiction (Evernight’s primary focus is on vampirism). The writing flows smoothly and Gray manages to inject her own brand of humor into a light-hearted tale with a twist at the end. Gray’s site reveals that she will be releasing a brand new series, Spellcaster (which will no doubt revolve around witches), so let’s keep our fingers crossed for an early release!

The Law of Suspects by Maureen Johnson (5/5)

Of all the stories in this anthology, I;d have to say that The Law of Suspects creeped me out the most. Maureen Johnson certainly knows how to work her magic with historical mysteries (if you haven’t already, you need to pick up Johnson’s YA, albeit, non-paranormal Girl at Sea for a captivating read) - The Law of Suspects had me on the edge of my seat for most of it.

Johnson spins a madcap, thrilling adventure with compulsive liar Charlotte (“Charlie”) and her sister, Marie-Louise (“MaryLou”), who find themselves in a remote French village as their vacation plans go awry. The village seems all but boring until Charlie runs into Henri, a strange man with even stranger intentions as he relays to her an oddly unsettling story that she soon relays to her sister. The thing is, what Charlie doesn’t know is that the story is none other than the Law of Suspects, a deadly tale that threatens to turn people into homicidal maniacs driven by the impulse to kill the people around them, before taking their own lives. And now, Charlie and MaryLou’s lives hang in the balance as they must figure out how to deal with a rifle-wielding Henri and hunky Frenchman Gerard as the curse runs its toll.

The bone-chilling conclusion will leave you wanting more.

The Mirror House by Cassandra Clare (2.5/5)

I didn’t enjoy The Mirror House as much as I did the others in this anthology, to be honest. The Mirror House tells a tale about Violet and her adjustments to her mother’s new marriage to Philip, an abusive, cold man as they all journey to the tropics on their honeymoon. To make things more complicated, Violet’s got a thing for her new stepbrother, Evan, and their romantic involvement makes the holiday very, very awkward.

Things take a turn for the worse when the two stepsiblings encounter Anne Palmer, a mysterious woman who seems to have gotten her claws into Evan and is quite literally, sucking the life force out of him. Needless to say, Violet jumps to the rescue by offering a trade – her cruel stepdad Philip in return for Evan’s soul back.

I found the plot a little contrived at times, with the story flow a tad stilted and predictable – nothing I wouldn’t have seen coming. The “romance” between Evan and Violet seemed a little unnecessary and nothing short of weird (I snorted aloud when I came upon Evan’s new “bruised” appearance; I guess old habits die hard in Clare’s case), and I couldn’t really bring myself to feel any sort of compassion for poor Evan as sadist Violet chose to withhold his soul at the end.

Nowhere is Safe by Libba Bray (3/5)

Nowhere is Safe was a fair read, though my interest waned midway while reading the story. Libba Bray (author of the Gemma Doyle series) tells it from the perspective of Poe Yamamoto, a half-asian, heterochromic guy that runs into some seriously bad news whilst vacationing with his closest friends in Europe. The four decide to head offroad to Necuratul, the Town of the Dead. Unbeknownst to them, the old legends surrounding the cursed town aren’t exactly legends…

The reason, I think, that Nowhere is Safe failed to inspire the chills Bray was shooting for is possibly the way she attempted to fit to many things into the story at one go instead of building up from a single point. The plot itself had promise, with the interactions between most of the characters being lively and believable (I had some real issues with Mrs. Smith, the unlikely fortune-teller). However, the writing began to fall flat when the action started to kick in. The inconclusive, open ending which I assume was intended to thrill simply left a sense of dissatisfaction in the pit of my stomach.