Tag: technology

The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (YA Horror)

The Watcher in the Shadows

Carlos Ruiz Zafón (YA Horror)

Fourteen-year-old Irene Sauvelle and her family are left desperate and destitute when Irene’s father dies and leaves them buried in debt. They happen upon some good luck when a family friend offers Irene’s mother, Simone, a job working for Lazarus Jann, a reclusive toymaker and inventor who lives in a mansion called Cravenmoore. Their new life in the seaside village seems idyllic until a young girl is brutally murdered. As events surrounding Cravenmoore become more disturbing, Irene begins to reconsider the veracity behind the local ghost stories and becomes curious about the secrets being closely guarded by the brilliant yet mysterious Lazarus Jann.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón, who was taken from us MUCH too soon, gives us a spine-tingling, hair-raising, and heart-pumping story that is begging to be brought to the screen (hint, hint Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video). The Watcher in the Shadows—which is book three in the Niebla series, but can be read as a standalone—is a suspenseful, young adult horror that wastes no time in bringing the story’s action to full steam. Each chapter brings an escalation in the danger, as well as several eye-opening revelations that keep the reader guessing until the end.   

Given the current horror offerings inundating cable and movie screens lately, I was hesitant to pick up anything in this genre, but I knew Zafón would hand me a winner…and he did. Rather than going for the instant and predictable shock value by filling pages with copious amounts of guts and gore, he instead delves into your deepest fears by setting his scenes in darkness and using various light sources to allow walls, ceilings, and floors to become the playground for shadows that slither, slink, and stalk. Zafón exploits our primal fears by writing about situations involving drowning, delirium, confinement, abandonment, and isolation and he does so with calculated effectiveness.

This book is written for grades seven and up, but its underlying theme of technology vs humanity is one that any age could benefit from. Zafón wrote The Watcher in the Shadows in 1995, which coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web as a global medium for information access. Fast forward almost thirty years later and we’re now a society where gadgets and gizmos control almost every aspect of our life. And while The Watcher in the Shadows is not an overtly cautionary tale of automation overtaking humanity, it does serve as a subtle warning of the dangers that can occur when we depend on technology to fill the void left by loneliness and grief…an emptiness that once was filled by humans.   

Rating: 5/5

* Book cover image attributed to www.goodreads.com

How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson (J Non-Fiction)

How We Got to Now

How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World

Steven Johnson (Juvenile Non-Fiction Science)

Ever wonder how a plant in Syria could enable scientists to study galaxies and supernovas billions of light-years away?  Or how one man’s desire for a cold drink in the tropics would ultimately change the political map of America?  Or how a 19-year-old boy daydreaming in a church pew would lead to the ability to trace humans crossing into the Americas more than ten thousand years ago?  Well wonder no more as Steven Johnson shows readers how big ideas changed the world and how ordinary people were able to accomplish some rather extraordinary things.

Steven Johnson’s young reader adaption of his New York Times bestselling book has its own “How We Got to Now” story.  His non-fiction book was made into a television version for PBS and the BBC.  After several airings, Johnson began hearing from families (and later schools) who enjoyed watching the show with their children.  He was then approached by Penguin Random House with the idea of adapting his work for a middle grade audience.

How We Got to Now covers the topics of glass, cold, sound, clean, time, and light and Johnson presents each subject in a fascinating step-by-step, connect-the-dots-type story full of interesting facts and tidbits.  If you are familiar with James Burke and his television series Connections, this book follows a similar format so if you enjoy Burke, you’ll find Johnson to be an equally talented historian and storyteller.

How We Got to Now is an ode to the tinkerers, dreamers, inventors, hobbyists, scientists, and reformers who had an idea to make life easier or the desire to make something better.  Some achieved their goals through grueling trial and error while others stumbled upon greatness purely by accident.  Whether it’s a flat and filthy city, a thirsty businessman, or a bored teenager staring at the ceiling of a church, every problem leads to an idea and that idea—however outrageous, ludicrous, or preposterous—marks the beginning of an amazing, unpredictable, and never-ending journey.  To all the future scientists, inventors, innovators, and dreamers, here’s to your success and here’s to now.

Rating: 5/5

* Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com 

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