"Between the Spark and the Burn" by April Genevieve Tucholke: review

Between the Spark and the Burn
by April Genevieve Tucholke

Published August 14th 2014 by Dial
series: Between #2

The conclusion to Between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea, this gothic thriller romance with shades of Stephen King and Daphne du Maurier is a must-read for fans of Beautiful Creatures and Anna Dressed in Blood.
Freddie once told me that the Devil created all the fear in the world.
But then, the Devil once told me that it's easier to forgive someone for scaring you than for making you cry.
The problem with River West Redding was that he'd done both to me.
The crooked-smiling liar River West Redding, who drove into Violet's life one summer day and shook her world to pieces, is gone. Violet and Neely, River's other brother, are left to worry—until they catch a two a.m. radio program about strange events in a distant mountain town. They take off in search of River but are always a step behind, finding instead frenzied towns, witch hunts, and a wind-whipped island with the thrum of something strange and dangerous just under the surface. It isn't long before Violet begins to wonder if Neely, the one Redding brother she thought trustworthy, has been hiding a secret of his own . . .


"And then I noticed the birds.Black-feathered corpses. Everywhere. Piled up on steps, kicked into snow piles, dangling by their necks from lampposts and signs. There were eight nailed to the door of the dark, abandoned-looking Youngman’s Inn, and five hanging by their feet from the iron church gate.
The four of us walked down the center of the road. Still and silent. I saw lights in windows, but there was no one in the street. Not a soul."

You know how you sometimes stamble on a book that is just insane, it has no logic, just the flourishing madness? And you end up loving it? Well, that was the case.




Violet, and her rather big crew, lives in a Citizen Cane. It’s Christmas, time for laughing and happiness. But that`s for normal families, right? And this one doesn`t have anything to do with them.
After Reddings broke into Violet`s life, all turned upside down. Brodie disappeared in an unknown direction, River vanished to work on his "glow" and madness, and only Neely stayed close. Violet tries to recover from her nearly-death. But no matter how much time had passed, she can`t forget River. 

One day, Violet finds a diary of her grandmother Freddie, retelling about her relationships with Redding.
Reading an extracts from it was very interesting: rich, spoiled kids, doing what they want, full of passion and madness.
Then she and Neely decide to listen to the radio, which tells them about the strange supernatural events that occur in different cities. Missing people, murderings, suicides. All this leads them to the idea of Brodie and River.

They decide that it's time to stop waiting, time to act. Taking Sunshine and Luke in company, they go on a quest.

«The landscape had stayed roughly the same since we turned away from the sea . . . winter, winter, winter, with barren trees and green pines and wooden fences and open fields full of crows. But we were up higher now, and the sky was bigger. Even the clouds were bigger..»

Places they’ve visited were extraordinary. Kids go to the mountains, to the quaint village where people pour blood on the graves, and boy with the crows steals the dreams of girls. Could it be River? Or Brodie? Or they are working together?
Violet decides she’s tired of fear; she wants to look danger in the face, and not sit around. And though she’s homesick, she is brave enough to leave everything behind, no matter what, and go in search of adventure.

In the village they are introduced to a red-haired boy, who was accused by citizens in all crimes, and decide to save him from certain death. After it, Violet, Finch and Neely follow the trail of the Redding boys.
Along with the characters, we are going to visit islands, where wild horses run throughout the neighborhood and people worship the sea god, or the city, where trees whisper strange thoughts in your ear and children disappear.

The writing style is just incredible. Everything was described in very atmospheric way, words were scary and beautiful, frightful and delightful.

«The nursery. Sunshine opened the door, but none of us went in. Boy things, everywhere, shoes and toys and books and a rocking horse and . . . And all I could think about was a small crushed boy body, tangled in leaves and shadows»

I also liked the developing of the characters. Violet became move brave, though she is still very submissive and does what she is told to do.
Neely is a breakout of this book. In the first book I didn’t really care about him, but that has changed in the sequel. He is a strong person who loves his brother more than himself.
I was really interested in Finch, the new character. A quiet boy who has no family and who spent most of his life in the woods. He is attentive and kind, and brave, and smart.
But the thing that I liked the most was a total insanity of each one of them. They didn’t think like normal people. They didn’t react like normal people.

The ending was… well, I don’t know how I feel about it. More feels like there was none. It leaves a lot of space for imagination, but personally I like it more when everything is said in the story.
Overall, I loved this series. It surprised me, fascinated me. Sometimes it made me happy, sometimes sad. Sometimes it creeped me out. But I loved it through and through. Thank you, Ms. Tucholke!