Book Review: THE REVEALED by Jessica Hickam

 The Revealed, by Jessica Hickam, is part of the BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge 2014. Click here for the full list of this summer's reads! 

The Revealed is a nice addition to the current crop of dystopian young adult novels, like Divergent and The Hunger Games. Like both of those series, I could absolutely picture this one being turned into a film, with maybe Lily Collins or Emma Watson as Lily Atwood, the main character. One thing that I really appreciated about The Revealed is that it was full of suspense, action, and some dark themes, but did not have the graphic violence of, say, Mockingjay.

One reason this book is so chilling is that we live in a world where it seems like complete and utter destruction is just a button push away; it is not that hard to imagine ourselves rebuilding from devastation after a worldwide conflict, which is where The Revealed picks up. The middle class has disappeared, and most of the population is now working 12-hour days in factories and living in studio apartments. All that is left of the United States is the East Coast, with everything else a wasteland.

 Lily lives in Capitol City, a.k.a. Washington, D.C.,  and is the daughter of a presidential nominee; the upcoming election will be the first since the war. She has been targeted by a mysterious group called The Revealed, which has been associated with the disappearance of many other 18-year-olds. No one previously targeted by this group has ever been heard from again. The kidnappings started after the war ended, and over the past five years four hundred 18-year-olds have gone missing. ("What would an organization of any kind be doing with four hundred teenagers? Parents say having one is hard enough.")

I am not going to say much about The Revealed other than that they do NOT disappoint when they finally show, making plants grow, glass shatter, and guns fly out of people's hands from across the room.  (I know I am not 18, but how do I sign up to learn to defend myself like this?!)

In the midst of everything that is happening around her, Lily is a surprisingly normal teenager who is constantly sneaking out of the house. She is restless and yearning for freedom, and is counting down the days until her 19th birthday when she will be out of danger from The Revealed; most 18-year-olds are kept hidden away inside their homes for an entire year.  She has also caught the attention of two gorgeous guys: Kai Westerfield, who has a green-gold gaze, is the son of Lily's dad's rival for president, and is the most eligible bachelor in the North American sector; And Skylar, with the crystal-blue eyes, who comes into Lily's life under unbelievable circumstances.

I enjoyed The Revealed, and it surprised me by challenging me to think hard about destiny, the greater good, stepping into and owning your power, and the hard truth that you cannot truly understand and appreciate beauty until you have been through tough times.

Btw, Jessica Hickam is an actress and also worked in production on Star Trek: Into Darkness, and that sci-fi experience must have really come in handy while writing The Revealed. You can click here for more on the book and the author but (WARNING) do not read the author Q & A until you have finished The Revealed, because there are some SPOILERS in there. However, if you would like to try to guess at a spoiler, you will find a big clue on the cover of the book. And guess what? There is a sequel coming! The Revealed has revealed a talented new writer to keep an eye on.

Book Review: Paul Hoppe's THE CURSE OF VAN GOGH

Paul Hoppe's The Curse of Van Gogh, part of the BookSparks 2014 Summer Reading Challenge, is a fast-paced, suspenseful, wild ride through the art world. And even if you do not know a van Gogh from a Picasso, or a Manet from a Monet, not to worry; this book is for anyone who loves a good thriller. Writing about art theft seems to be a trend right now, as I have read two books recently (B.A. Shapiro's The Art Forger and The Girl You Left Behind from JoJo Moyes) that deal with similar themes.

The book opens in Nazi Germany with a horrific accident involving a young man who is carrying a stolen van Gogh painting, and later we find out that this story has been circulating for years as support for the rumored "curse of van Gogh," where anyone who owns one of his paintings is doomed to either become possessed or meet a terrible end.

Cut to New York City just before the dawn of the new millennium, and we are introduced to Tyler Sears, a bartender at the Art Bar, who is just out of prison and the recipient of a mysterious invitation to a swanky event at a new building whose lobby doubles as an art gallery. As the messenger informs Ty, he is known to be good at handling matters that require the utmost discretion, which is why Komate Imasu, a billionaire art collector and chairman of a powerful global corporation, wants to meet with him.

At the reception, Imasu "suggests" (threatens) to Ty that he should do a job for him involving van Gogh's Starry Night, and in the course of the conversation lets it be known that he has way too much information about Ty's family and complicated, tragic past. That same night, Ty also runs into Lucy, a woman from years ago that he loved (and left) in Paris. Still feeling the attraction, she pulls a business card from the top of her Italian leather boots, a move that I need to try one of these days.

Will Ty agree to Imasu's plan, or will he counter with an offer of attempting to pull off an art heist for the ages? As the web tightens around him, is there anyone in his life that Tyler can trust? Can he ever tell Lucy the truth? Will he live to see tomorrow? And how about the femme fatale he meets on a train who is known as Chanel No. 5? Not only was Tyler drenched in sweat and fear at certain times of the book, so was I. As you make your way through this smart and stylish thriller, you might feel like the web is tightening around you.

The BooksSparks bio on the author says: "Paul Hoppe worked as a lobbyist in Washington DC, a stockbroker on Wall Street, and a screenwriter in Hollywood before writing his first novel.  He has lived on four different continents and currently splits his time between the High Sierras and the beaches of Australia." Reading The Curse of Van Gogh, you can definitely see how he has written what he knows, and that he has a great love of the arts. I really loved how descriptive the novel was, with tons of details about famous paintings, gadgets used to pull of heists, buildings, and cities, and lots of references to classical music and poetry. At times, I felt like I was walking the streets of NYC and DC with Tyler, who I pictured as a cross between George Clooney in Ocean's Eleven, Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl, and Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief (which is mentioned in the book).


Initially, it took me a minute to get into this book, but once I got sucked in I was hooked. Like, did not want to do the dishes, shower, work, or go to sleep so I could keep reading kind of hooked. And like The Da Vinci Code, many of the chapters are short, so you think, "Let me just read one more. And one more. And just one more..." I do want to give you a heads up that there are some graphic descriptions of violence, but you can easily skim over those parts if you are faint-hearted.



I have heard that this is the first in a series of books that Mr. Hoppe is planning to write, all involving art and museums, and I look forward to what will be coming next from him! And, inspired by The Curse of Van Gogh, I signed up to take a course on Expressionsim at Lacma. Although, unlike Tyler, I will NOT be planning on taking any masterpieces home with me...