The Turning Book 1: What Curiosity Kills
By Helen Ellis
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
"What Curiosity Kills … cracks open the world of Upper East Side prep-schoolers and literally turns it wild, bringing together the best parts of Gossip Girl, Twilight, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer … funny, fierce, and full of surprises."—Hannah Tinti, ALA, Alex Award-winning author of The Good Thief
Nobody can know your secret. Nobody can know your power. But if nobody knows who you are to begin with … what's stopping you?
I whisper, "What's so special about me all of a sudden?"
Nick says, "The Turning."
Mary feels different, but can't explain why. The fainting, the strange cravings … and worse, the things she's noticed about her body.
Mary doesn't know where to turn. If she tells her parents or her sister, she'll risk losing everything. She has no other family, no way of knowing if what she's going through is normal. Everyone she's ever known and loved could reject her …
Helen Ellis
Helen Ellis is the author of Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge, Bring Your Baggage and Don’t Pack Light, Southern Lady Code, American Housewife, and Eating the Cheshire Cat. Raised in Alabama, she lives with her husband in New York City. She is a poker player and a plant lady. You can find her on Twitter @WhatIDoAllDay and Instagram @AmericanHousewife.
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Eating The Cheshire Cat: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beauty for Ashes: Prison Ministry for Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for The Turning Book 1
27 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This is an absolutely awful book. I have attempted to leave a more complete review a number of times, but somehow it keeps disappearing. So, I will keep it to this, if you even remotely like animals, feel a shred of compassion for living creatures, or like well-written books, don't try this one. It will only bring you pain.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I’ll admit, I picked this book up because of the cover. It’s pretty, colorful, she has a cat eye… Once I confirmed my suspicions that What Curiosity Kills was a story about a girl turning into a cat, I knew I had to read it. After finishing the novel, I must say that it reminds me a lot of the show (I’ve never read the novels) The Nine Lives of Chloe King, except the protagonist literally turns into a cat, not a person with cat features. What Curiosity Kills had some definite strengths. While the casual narrative style Ellis adopts may turn off some readers, I found the witty dialogue and thoughts refreshing and very funny. Mary’s internal narration, the banter between her and her sister and the other characters, and the things that happen to Mary as she slowly turns into a cat had me smiling constantly as the pages flew by.Sure, the novel has flaws. It’s short, a little absurd at times, possibly offensive to some in parts, some of the characters lack depth, the mythology is not thoroughly explained, and Mary and Nick’s relationship kind of comes out of left field. However, it’s a fast, fun read — especially for cat lovers like me. I hope Ellis does plan to release the sequel, because I look forward to spending more time with these wacky characters and seeing what happens next.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Turning was a very quick read — at just over 200 pages I whipped through this bad boy like a cat slurps down a bowl of milk.The simple, interesting plot does away with all the convoluted back-story that others in the paranormal genre seem to feel is necessary in abundance. Don’t get me wrong, I could have done with a bit more, but it likely wouldn’t have influenced how I ultimately felt about the book. Well, that is unless it was 100 pages worth of old world stuff droning on and on. That likely would have turned me off, but I digress. Interestingly enough, I suspect given where this story ended (and the final revelation as to where Mary stands in the hierarchy of shapeshifting) we’ll have the opportunity to delve a bit deeper into that history in the next book.What did we have? We had a good group of central characters, some high school antics, realization of paranormal ability and an ascension to power. Seems super fun right? Right, it was!As far as characters go there was an interesting mix. We have Mary, the main character, a timid girl who just wants to blend in. Her wise cracking sister Octavia, a super-student who is most often the center of attention. A set of twins with an eccentric mother who provide the sisters an excellent escape. And finally, Nick and Yoon the boys who know all about Mary’s abilities. It was through these characters that we got to experience Helen Ellis’ fabulous sense of humor. Her sarcastic wit comes through most notably through Octavia’s words and deeds. I had many laugh out loud moments at the hands of Octavia’s dialogue that definitely made the story all that more enjoyable.So what about the paranormal elements? Oh, they were there for sure. But unlike some I’ve read within the genre it wasn’t heavy handed. In fact, I’d say the story was more about the idea of the turning than the actual act itself. Don’t get me wrong, we got the latter too but seeing it happen over and over again wasn’t the end all be all of what Ellis was trying to get across. I really appreciated that. I wanted to take the journey with Mary and I didn’t need the repetition of seeing her turn fifty times in two days to do it.The Turning is an excellent foray into the paranormal genre for those who may be a bit wary of it. It’s also appropriate for your middle grader. It’s highly entertaining, with some good laughs to liven up the more serious moments.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It's funny really. I had every reason to say no when I was approached to read The Turning: What Curiosity Killed. I nearly did. I am not even sure why I said yes exactly. Unlike so many bloggers out there, I am not smitten with young adult novels in general. Take Peanut Buster Parfaits. I like them, but only now and then. It's the same with Young Adult fiction. Then there is the little fact that people assume that because I go by the name Literary Feline that I love to read about cats. Sometimes I do. I tend to be picky in that regard though. Animal books and I don't always get along. I have a thing for shape shifters though and it isn't too often I come across a book about shape shifting cats. So, I was more than curious.I set aside an afternoon to read this book as part of my recent Reading Day adventure, and it made for the perfect light reading, especially after a heavier book that left me feeling a little sad. Helen Ellis has a great sense of humor that shines through in her writing. I really liked the characters, Mary and her sister Octavia in particular.Both Mary and Octavia were once foster children and have been adopted by a loving and well-to-do family. They attend an elite private school where there is the requisite bully (Ling Ling) and the handsome crush (Nick Martin). Life couldn't get any better for Mary. She has everything she could ever hope for. That is until she begins to notice little changes: a patch of orange fur here and a sudden and undeniable craving for milk, among them. Mary is scared and embarrassed at the changes coming over her. The turning throws her into an entirely new sub-world, one of a feud between cats, the Strays and the Domestics. Not only is Mary told she must choose sides, but she also faces the threat of losing the life she's come to love.Events unfold quickly in The Turning: What Curiosity Kills. And while I think that the author could have developed certain aspects of the story more fully, I never felt it suffered because she did not. Besides, she has to save something for future books, right? Overall, this was a fun and entertaining read. Mary is a likable character, thoughtful and kindhearted. She has the usual insecurities of a girl her age, and is a character most readers will be able to relate to. Her adopted sister Octavia is probably my favorite character. She doesn't think twice about standing up to the biggest bully in the school, but she is deathly afraid of cats, which makes things even more interesting and tests the sisters' bond. Okay, and so my affection for Octavia might have a little something to do with her love for books too, the hours she spends at the library book sale. Just saying.I do not often complain about an ending of a book, but I had a problem with the ending of this one. It had more to do with my own personal bias, however, than quality or fit. The ending made total sense in the scheme of things. It's just, well . . . I don't want to say. Spoilers, you know. While sometimes an ending can ruin a book for me, it did not in this case. Far from it. The book has so much going for it, and I really did enjoy reading it. I just wish I didn't have to wait so long for the second book in the series!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mary is a pretty normal 16 year old. Having been adopted she's definitely living a better life now. But lately she has been feeling really odd, doing odd things that she can't explain. Mary learns that she is slowly turning into a feline, but it's not that simple. She's got some tough choice to make. So, much for normal.This was a fast fun read. I have a tabby cat who thinks he's human, so I enjoyed this story. The Turning was different but intriguing, very unique with boat loads of charm. It's like nothing I've ever come across before. It had some really funny-laugh out loud moments. Both Mary and her sister Octavia were great characters. While this wasn't a favorite of mine, I am interested to see how things play out in the next book. This book will definitely spark the interest of cat lovers.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Turning: What Curiosity Kills by Helen Ellis Genre: YA, paranormal, romanceRating: 4Mary Richards always knew she didn't fit in exactly with everyone else, but she always attributed that to the fact that she and her sister were adopted. But when her long time crush suddenly starts showing interest in her, she randomly starts sleeping and purring in class, and she starts to turn into a cat, she knows things are never going to be the same.I was instantly pulled into The Turning. The story starts and progresses quickly, and I read the whole thing in one day, almost fully in one sitting. It's the kind of book that you don't realize you've gotten to the next page, or the next chapter, and before you know it, you're done… but the adventure was so engaging, you forgot who you were for a while, because you were living solely in the character's shoes. The writing was casual, but good. I rarely felt out of place or confused by what had just occurred. One of the only things that really bothered me about this book was the fact that Nick and Mary's relationship was very fast, and seemingly out of nowhere but lust. The ending, also, didn't quite have enough closure on the relationship aspect, nor on the actual story. It directly after the final exciting scene, with no smooth curve down. My heart was still racing when I got to the last page, and I felt like it should have lasted a little longer. Lastly, I wasn't sure if this book was for pre-teens, ages 12-14, or older. It would probably appeal to both age groups. My favorite part was watching the characters show themselves for who they were. Yoon being more than what meets the eye, Octavia confessing her secrets and being willing, for love, to face her fears, and all the others, too. They were all very unique. I loved the characters and their interaction and dialogue. Overall, I enjoyed The Turning, and look forward to the rest of the series. Content: Some language, no sexRecommendation: Ages 14-18, or if offended by language 16+
Book preview
The Turning Book 1 - Helen Ellis
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by Helen Ellis
Cover and internal design © 2010 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Cover design by Gothamhaus Design
Cover photos © Lukasz Laska/iStockPhoto.com; Veni/iStockPhoto.com; Terraxplorer/iStockPhoto.com
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published by Sourcebooks Fire, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
(630) 961-3900
Fax: (630) 961-2168
teenfire.sourcebooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher.
Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
What happens is...
What happened was...
chapter one
chapter two
chapter three
chapter four
chapter five
chapter six
chapter seven
chapter eight
chapter nine
chapter ten
And then it happens...
chapter eleven
chapter twelve
chapter thirteen
chapter fourteen
chapter fifteen
chapter sixteen
chapter seventeen
chapter eighteen
chapter nineteen
chapter twenty
acknowledgments
about the author
Back Cover
For Lex Haris,
Greek god among men
She turns herself round and she smiles and she says,
This is it, that’s the end of the joke
—The Psychedelic Furs, Pretty in Pink
What happens is...
I want to scream for help, but pain that feels like fire ants has found me. The ants crawl up and out of my knee socks and take over every bit of my flesh. They are between my toes, behind my ears, and in every crevice in between. They scamper across my scalp. They bite. Their bites are unbearable. I twist and scratch within the suffocating comforter. I’m trapped.
The boys lean over me, say things—to me, to each other—I can’t make out. My hearing is fading. I’m shrinking. The boys’ faces get bigger and rise like moons. One of them blinks. When his eyes close, they are chestnut. Open, they are emerald green. He smiles, parts his teeth, and unrolls a long, narrow pink tongue. He licks the tips of his incisors, which have grown past his lower gums to form fine points.
He purrs, his voice velvet. He says, Don’t worry, Kitty. There are no such things as vampires.
What happened was...
chapter one
I knew something was wrong with me when I fell asleep in school. I never fall asleep in public because it is way too embarrassing. Your face goes slack. If you’re sitting up straight, your mouth hangs open. You could say something stupid or say someone’s name or make some weird, inappropriate noise. You could snore. Twitch. Drool! In the movies, people watch other people sleep and say that it’s beautiful. Those people are crazy—or in love. Trust me. Nobody at Purser-Lilley Academy loves me that much.
What I did was roll out of the seal position and crash on my Pilates mat. The seal is when you start on your back with your hands clutching your ankles and your knees bent out to the sides, making your legs look like a diamond. You’re supposed to clap the soles of your feet three times and then rock forward onto your butt and clap your feet three times again. Then, roll back and forth, clapping like a maniac—Ar! Ar! Ar!—until you build up enough momentum to throw yourself forward into a standing position. You’re supposed to end up with hands in the air like a gymnast.
I ended up in the fetal position. For five full un-revivable minutes.
My friend Marjorie says I was motionless for so long, she thought I was dead. Marjorie’s sister promises me that the rumors I was sucking my thumb are untrue. My sister will tell anyone she hears spreading lies about me that my hands were curled up under my chin.
Like she was all Laura Ingalls and shit, tying a bonnet,
my sister says.
You might wonder how my best friend, her sister, my sister, and I are in the same tenth-grade gym class; how my sister can curse in front of teachers and get away with it; how a high school gets twenty Pilates mats and towers drilled into what was once a basketball court. The answer to all these questions is: money.
Marjorie and her sister Magnolia—nicknamed Mags—are in vitro twins. Sometimes, we call them Baby A and Baby B, which is what they went by before they were born and their parents deselected
the weaker of the quads, C and D. Kathryn Ann wanted to experience the blessing of childbirth, but not that much of a blessing. She didn’t want to be bedridden. She wanted to get back to her call-in cable TV talk show, Chime In with Kathryn Ann. A former district attorney, Kathryn Ann had made her name by charging drunk drivers with murder and now makes a living pressuring upstanding citizens to go after drunks and pedophiles and anyone else who, as she says, could be shot for less.
Kathryn Ann was forty-four when she had Marjorie and Mags. Long story short: She built herself a career and then remembered she wanted kids. But her ovaries were like, What?
Kathryn Ann wrote a check to her fertility specialist. And then another. As did a lot of older couples who wanted kids late in life and found themselves reproductively challenged.
At Purser-Lilley, there are fourteen sets of twins and six sets of triplets.
We also have a bunch of kids who don’t look like their folks. You can spot adopted kids because most Upper East Side parents go for Asians. An Asian baby says you have twenty thousand dollars, plus cash to fly to the other side of the world and put yourself up in a hotel for two weeks. Asian babies are also good because their biological parents aren’t going to show up to reclaim them. At Purser-Lilley, there are four Korean boys and eight Chinese girls. One of them, Ling Ling Lebowitz, is the meanest girl I’ve ever met.
Ling Ling likes to tell me that I am white trash. I don’t think anybody uses this term anymore, but she read Gone with the Wind and fell in love with the slur. She says, "One day, your real parents are going to kidnap you and hold you for ransom. They’re gonna take you back to Ala-bama. Say good-bye, 72nd and Lex! Good-bye, Bravo marathons! Your real parents are so poor, all you’ll have to do for fun is fish for crawdaddies in the crick!"
My response to Ling Ling’s barbs (another beaut is, You’re so flat-chested, your redneck mama must have breast-fed you Mountain Dew!
) is: Could be.
This stumps her and shuts her up, but the next time I run into her, she’s prepared with another verbal assault. I don’t enjoy it, but I bear it and say Could be,
and it’s over in a minute. I’m not going to argue with her. That will prolong her abuse. Besides, most of what she makes up is actually true: the poor part, the Alabama part—but not the part about rednecks plotting to kidnap me.
As far as adoption goes, my sister and I are an oddity at Purser-Lilley because we came from within the United States, and our folks didn’t get us when they were middle-aged and we were infants. When they decided to start a family, they cast their nets wide and took the first kids they caught: me from Alabama, Octavia from Nebraska. Unlike Ling Ling, my sister and I have memories of our eight years before our adoptive parents saved us—memories we do our best to forget.
My birth parents were neglectful. I spent a lot of time alone. I barely went to school. I survived by eating so much generic cereal out of the box that to this day, I won’t walk down the breakfast aisle at Gristedes. When a social worker came and got me, my biological parents missed every court date to get me back. If it weren’t for my southern accent—which I cain’t shake to save my life—I might have been able to blend in at Purser-Lilley. My same-age sister’s appearance stopped any chance of that.
Octavia is the only student in the whole school who’s black—or, as Purser-Lilley mandates we say, African American. Her minority status was our ticket into private school. Over frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity 3, when Octavia and I were both thirteen, Dad had a brain freeze. He let it slip that success can often be attributed to what you look like. To this day, my sister’s greatest discovery is the race card.
The thing is, she taught herself to keep it real from TV Land reruns of shows older than we are, so 227, Living Single, and Martin are her guides. Our parents ignore her Yo’s and It’s like dis and like dat’s and when she goes, "Can I ax you a question?" because Octavia makes all As, and Mom says trying new identities is part of growing up. Mom says when she was our age, she imitated California girls and said Totally! when she agreed with you, and when she didn’t, Gag me with a spoon.
In school, Octavia gets away with murder. If she doesn’t want to be called on, she folds her arms across her chest and gives the teacher a look that says, Are you calling on me ’cause I’m black? If she wants an extra brownie at lunch, she says to the Jamaican lunch lady, Hook a sistah up!
If she doesn’t want to play basketball, she says, "What, Coach, you think I was born to shoot hoops?"
That’s how we ended up with just half a basketball court for dribble drills and H-O-R-S-E. Our last coach told Octavia (in front a bunch of us) that the only reason she got into Purser-Lilley was to help us win the city title. Other parents were so afraid of being labeled racists that they withheld their second-semester tuition checks until the principal eliminated competitive sports.
Which brings us back to yours truly being all Little House on the Prairie on a Pilates mat.
***
At lunch, Ling Ling stops by my table and offers me a baby bottle she snuck from Health and Development. Ha, ha. Very funny. I sucked my thumb, so I’m a baby.
My sister comes up behind Ling Ling and pokes her shoulder hard. Octavia warns, You better check yo self before you wreck yo self.
Ling Ling doesn’t test her. She scuttles off, prop slipped into her book bag, because she wants nothing to do with my sister. Ling Ling teased Octavia once about domestic adoption and was met with a brutally honest tirade about birth parents mutilated by farm equipment; the greedy, heinous devil that is America’s health-insurance system; an older brother jailed; a sister pregnant and married at sixteen; another sister missing; and four years of personal foster-care horror stories. Octavia put an end to any and all future Ling Ling harassment with: Uh, and if you don’t know, now you know!
Octavia plops down next to me with a brownie the size of two fists. Across from us sit Marjorie and Mags, who are the same shade of pale from their platinum-blond heads to their never-painted toenails (unlike Kathryn Ann, who will not be seen without blood-red tips and lips and a permanent spray tan). Ling Ling calls the twins albinos every chance she gets. Her favorite zinger is that they might have had a little color if their mom had let them cook as directed and not scheduled her C-section a month early to coincide with the verdict of a trial she was covering.
With Ling Ling out of earshot, I ask the group, Did I really look like a baby?
Marjorie says, A dead baby. I kept shaking you. I thought you’d never wake up. I nearly cried.
I gush, Aww.
Mags says, "It wasn’t Aww. It was scary—but you definitely weren’t sucking your thumb."
The twins look at each other. They are mentally conferring. Eyebrows arch. Lips twist. Noses scrunch in concentrated worry. It drives me nuts when they do this, but I’ve known them long enough to read a line or two from their minds.
What are you deciding to tell or not tell me?
The twins swing around to Octavia, the official teller of all you might not want to know but should know.
What?
I plead. Okay, don’t tell me. No, tell me!
My sister leans into me and whispers without covering her mouth, Shaniqua…
(My real name is Mary, which I hate. What’s worse is that when I took my adoptive parents’ last name, Richards, I was branded with the 1970s TV alter ego of Mary Tyler Moore—a grinning, mousy-haired, perpetually single brunette. My parents say I can legally change my first name when I find one I like better—which I never do—but Octavia’s always offering suggestions).
She whispers, "It was weird. I’ve slept in the same room with you for years and never seen you do this. Or heard you, is more like it. And to tell you the truth—no offense—I don’t want to ever hear you do it again. It’s not a sound I want to wake up to, trapped in a dark room with you, in the middle of the night. Now, get a hold of yourself. Chill. With the three of us around, Ling Ling wasn’t close enough to pick up on it. But we did."
The twins nod. Then, their bobbleheads stop. They pick up their ginkgo frappuccinos, made exclusively by Purser-Lilley’s Starbucks, and each take a sip. The drinks stop halfway up their straws as they anticipate what my sister says next.
Girl, you was purring!
chapter two
At home, my family sits down to dinner. House rule is that we eat together five