Great Books for Teen Girls

John Green; An Abundance of Katherines

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 04:02:00 +0000

Hey everyone! I know it's been a little while, but I'm back, and I'm ready to review another book. So here it is.

The book that I am reviewing today is called An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. I liked this book a lot at times, and at other times...not so much. The main reason I didn't like this book as much was actually because it's filled with footnotes! It made me think of all of my footnotes, and so I have decided not to add any footnotes into this post because they bothered me there. Moving on, the main characters in this book were Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey. The book begins with Colin, the main character, a child prodigy who loves anagramming, has dated nineteen Katherines, and knows close to every language possible, suffering from heartbreak, so his best friend Hassan decides that they need a road trip to take his mind off of things. They end up in Gunshot, Tennessee, where they meet Lindsey. Throughout the book, Colin and Lindsey work on a theorem to prove the predictability of love. The book is mainly about this this theorem and how it connects all of the Katherines that Colin has dated.

The genre of this book is, yet again, teen romance. I actually don't know if teen romance even counts as a genre. It's 215 pages long. I give it...8.9 of 10. It was honestly really good, but the footnotes bothered me. So yes, I recommend this book! Once again, this was Great Books For Teen Girls.

Now I'm reading Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler.

Julie Halpern; Get Well Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:14:00 +0000

Gasp! It must be a miracle, because I'm back, and ready to review another book! To top that, it's actually going to be the book I said that I would review! This deserves a round of applause.

So, as I said last time, I will be reviewing Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern. This book was...okay. The main characters in this book were Abby, Justin, Sandy, and kind of Matt O.*. Abby is a girl living in a mental hospital because she is suffering from depression. Justin is Abby's love interest*, Sandy her roommate, and Matt O. is one of her friends there who has been at the hospital the longest amount of time - 6 months. The book is written in letters from Abby to her best friend at home. It's just about her life there. And her friends who are mental patients, but don't ever seem to have any very good mental disorders**. Not too exciting. The reason that this book was just okay, maybe even less than okay, was because on top of the whole thing being written in a not very good style, most of the plot was completely unrealistic. For example, her doctor, when she begins to cry and begs to go home, tells her to "Shut up, and stop being such a baby." There are other little things, such as her referring to her blankey*** only as her "trusty blankey," really bothered me, and took away from the book. I ended up finishing this book with some interest, but that could just be because I had nothing else to do.

The genre of this book is...I guess teen romance again? It seems as if it's trying**** to be a comedy as well...moving on, though. It's only 193 pages long. I would rate this book 3.9 out of 10. I, personally, did not like it, it took me forever to get through despite it's short length, and it was poorly written. So go ahead and read, or don't read, Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern. This has been another ingenious post from Great Books For Teen Girls*****!

The next book that I am reading is called An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

*His name is Matt O., not Matt. Matt O..

**SOME make sense: depression, and hearing voices. The others, such as having seizures, or being pregnant, don't seem like something that would cause someone to go to a mental hospital.

***It's not the fact that she has a blankey that bothers me, it's the fact that she calls it her trusty blankey. Okay, actually, she's a sophomore in high school, she doesn't really need a blankey.

****Keyword trying. It was funny sometimes, but mainly, just annoying.

*****I think I'm just going to start signing off (hee hee) with these lame sayings from now on. They amuse me.

Sarah Dessen; Along for the Ride

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:11:00 +0000

Before I review this book, I would like to formally apologize. I understand that some of you have been wondering when (or if) I would ever post anything again. The truth is, I got sidetracked with a whole ton of other stuff (I could list it all, but that's not the point). But I'm back now, so you can be expecting more from me!

Okay, to begin the review, the book I read is called Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. I have always liked Sarah Dessen's books, and this, by far, was her best.
There are a few main characters in this book. Auden, who the book is telling the story of, Eli, the one who she falls in love with, Heidi, Auden's stepmom who Auden is sure to hate, and the girls working at Clementines, a little boutique that Heidi owns. There, again, are many, many other characters in this book that have important roles. These ones, in my mind, are the most important. If you want, I'll make a character list* in the footnotes. So see footnotes. Moving on, Auden is basically the epitome** of a studyholic***. All she ever does is study and get good grades, to the point of where her friends have stopped inviting her places. She decides to spend the summer with her dad, stepmom, and their baby for the summer, in an attempt to be more interesting. There, she meets three girls who are completely girly, and the opposite of anyone Auden would want to be friends with. These girls, along with some of the local boys, along with Heidi, her brother, and many other people, help Auden break free of her boring, study-freak self.
The genre of this book is definitely teen romance. It's 383 pages long. The thing with this book is, you either love it, or you don't. I, personally (as I said earlier), love it. If you like books about "real" things, you'll love it, too. I'd rate it 9 of 10, because it had a bit in there that could have easily been omitted due to it's irrelevance. So go on and read, Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. And remember, you read it here, at Great Books For Teen Girls****!

The next book that I plan to review is called Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern. I'm reading it now, so you can hope (I hope, actually) that I review it soon. Or at all. But don't worry, because I will!

*I changed my mind, there are too many characters for this. But if you read it, you can figure them out for yourself!

**Dictionary Definition: noun

1 ( the epitome of) a person or thing that is a perfect example of a particular quality or type : she looked the epitome of elegance and good taste.***Not a real word, but it seemed to fit well here.****It was a lame thing to say, but it seemed to work...at the time...

Laurie Faria Stolarz; Deadly Little Secret

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Hey! Long time no see, or post, or whatever. So recently I read a book called Deadly Little Secret. It was insanely suspenseful, and it definitely made me keep reading.

The main character in this book is named Camelia Hammond, and most of the book is telling her story. Every few chapters or so, however, there will be a journal entry from her stalker. Yes, she has a stalker, and yes, I can tell you this because it's not giving anything away. Camelia's story begins with a mysterious Ben, whom she meets once as he saves her life. Ben holds more secrets than Camelia could imagine, however, and is accused of murdering his old girlfriend. This just adds to the exciting plot in the story. There are also more than one side character in this book, such as Kimmie and Wes, Camelia's best friends, who feel that Camelia shouldn't trust Ben. Also, there are Spencer and Matt, whose roles will be revealed once you read the book.

The genre of this book is Thriller, and it is 252 pages long. Although it isn't an incredibly long book, it is definitely worth reading, and it will keep you up nights wondering who the stalker is. I would rate this book a 9.4 out of 10, only because at a few points during it I felt like they needed to just reveal who the stalker was and get on with it. Other than this, however, the book was awesome. So read Deadly Little Secret by Laurie Faria Stolarz, and find out who is stalking Camelia, and what Ben's secrets truly are. You heard it here, on Great Books for Teen Girls.

The next book that I will read is called Dark Visions* by L.J. Smith.

*If you haven't noticed, I am trying to read more fantasy and sci-fi books. This is because my friend Sydnee says that I need to stop reading "real life books" and start reading more "interesting books."

Wendelin Van Draanen; Flipped

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:22:00 +0000

Congratulations everyone! You have been reading my Great Books for Teen Girls blogs for awhile now (even though there are only four posts), and now, you get to finally see what it's like for me to review a bad book! YAY! Ok, so I will admit that this book was not torture to read, if it were, I would have stopped reading it immediately. Trust me, I cannot read a book if it doesn't hold my attention, and generally if it's that bad it simply ends up collecting dust in my bookshelf. But enough about that.

The genre of this book is...romance*? This book was only 212 pages long, and it had a strange plot. The story was about these neighbors who meet in second grade, although most of the book happens while they are in eighth grade. The girl neighbor (Juli) had been in love with the guy neighbor (Bryce) since then, and Bryce wanted nothing to do with Juli. The thing that was weird was that when I was looking up this book on amazon and even on the back of the book it basically advertised how now that they are in eighth grade everything is flipped and so Bryce loves Juli and Juli hates Bryce, but that wasn't really what the book was about. The book was really about how weird Juli and her family were and all of this other stuff. I think that Bryce falls in love with Juli about ten pages before the book ends.

I rate this book 2.5 out of 10. I would rate it less, but I can't really do that because if it were any less of a rating I wouldn't have even been able to read it. Don't waste your time trying to read this book. It was too short to even last me a day, and it is just not worth it. So I hope that you have enjoyed listening to me rant on about how bad that book was, and I hope that I didn't drive you away from my blog, Great Books for Teen Girls.

The next book that I will read is That Summer by Sarah Dessen.

*I honestly don't know what genre it is, but I would say that it is romance because that it basically** the only thing that it ever even talks about.

**I just realized that I say the word 'basically' A LOT.

Richelle Mead; Blood Promise

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:27:00 +0000

I know that the title of this post says that I will be reviewing Blood Promise, but actually I am going to review the entire Vampire Academy series. It has been awhile since I read the first three books in this series, so if this review is missing some information, I'm sorry. This is Great Books for Teen Girls.

This series is DEFINITELY worth reading. I mean it. I was actually a bit skeptical about reading it at first, mainly because I didn't think that the cover of the book was worthy*, and so I thought that it would be stupid. But, alas, my friend persuaded me to read the series, and it was amazing. Enough about that, though.

There are four books in this series so far, but there are supposed to be five in total. The books, in this order, are Vampire Academy, Frostbite, Shadow Kiss, and Blood Promise. The only ones that I have the number of pages for are Shadow Kiss (443), and Blood Promise (505). The genre of this book is Sci-Fi and Romance. I will warn you that Blood Promise is a cliffhanger, so if you don't like cliffhangers, beware.

Ok, moving on to the characters in the series. I think that the characters that are the most important to this series are Rose, Lissa, Christan, and Dimitri. I am not entirely sure when you meet Christian, and since it might be in the second book, I will not tell you who he is. Rose is definitely the main character, and then Lissa, because they have a bond that allows Rose to read Lissa's mind. Dimitri is equally important, because the entire fourth book revolves around him. He is Rose's trainer, and soon, he and Rose fall in love**. There are also many side characters that are important, but to find out who they are you need to read the series***.

I give this series a 491 out of 10 because it was just so wonderfully amazing and I am literally dying to have the next book come out. Even though the cover or release date are not out yet... So thank you, once again, for reading Great Books for Teen Girls.

I am not sure what book I will read next. A friend just recommended Willow, so possibly that...but who knows?

*Don't judge a book by it's cover. Really.

**Of course they fall in love, and of course it is a teacher-student relationship. Not allowed. Duh.

***Seriously, read it and all of your dreams will come true. (not really)

Sarah Dessen; This Lullaby

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Hi again! This is Great Books for Teen Girls! I finished another book a few days ago that I would love to share with you. The book that I read was called, you guessed it, This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen. I really thought that this was a great book. To me, it doesn't matter whether the book is well written as long as it has good enough content to hold my attention. But this book, as well as being very entertaining, was also very well written. This book is 345 pages long. I would say that the genre of this book is the same genre of the last book that I reviewed, a.k.a. fiction and romance.

There were a few characters in this book that really brought the book together, Remy and Dexter mainly, but also Remy's friends, Lissa, Jess, and Chloe. Remy, the book's main character, is a hard cynic who thinks that love doesn't exist. Dexter, the only person whose mom has been married more times than Remy's mother (six rather than five) has determined that he and Remy are made for each other, and therefore will do anything to make her fall in love with him. Lissa, Jess, and Chloe are Remy's friends who have unique parts in the book, such as picking up or dropping off Remy if she needs a ride, or giving simple, friendly advice on life.

Remy, whose Dad died before she had a chance to meet him, was a musician who wrote in his last song, "I will let you down." Because of this, one of Remy's rules for dating is NO MUSICIANS*. However, surprise of all surprises, Dexter is the singer in a band. Of course. So, will Remy fall in love with Dexter despite this, and despite other things that Remy has sworn against having in her relationships?

I rate this book 7 out of 10, because it was very dull at the beginning. Get past the first ninety pages or so, however, and you will be sucked in, unable to stop reading until the book is over. This book review is over now please read Great Books for Teen Girls again somehow**.

The book that I am reading currently is Blood Promise by Richelle Mead. It is the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series, which is awesome. I will be reviewing next time the entire Vampire Academy series, as opposed to Blood Promise, because that would give stuff away.

*Yes, she's crazy, because as Dexter says in the book, "Who could resist having a song written for them?" But then again, Remy didn't like the song that her Dad wrote for her...

**Lame rhyme.

Sarah Dessen; Just Listen

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:40:00 +0000

Hi everyone! This will officially be my first time ever reviewing a book, so I hope that it ends up being at least somewhat decent. OK, so onto the actual review. The book that I will be reviewing today is called Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. This book is 371 pages long, and the genre of the book is fiction and romance.
In this book there are two main characters, Annabel and Owen. Annabel struggling to balance the problems in her life, such as her sister's anorexia, recently being dumped by her best friend Sophie, and wanting to quit Lakeview Models but not wanting to upset her mom. Owen is a past delinquent who loves music more than anything, always tells the truth, and has a crazy sister who is obsessed with models, and therefore obsessed with Annabel. Owen is intimidating to Annabel at first, but the two loners soon become unlikely friends. But why did Sophie really dump Annabel?*
I thought that this book was very good, and definitely worth reading. One of the things that I liked a lot about this book was that the characters were very real and believable. For example, I feel that a lot of girls will be able to relate to the main character Annabel because she felt that she needed to bend the truth to make it less harsh. I also enjoyed watching the friendship unfold between Owen and Annabel, because the way that Sarah Dessen explains it is so real and fun. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this book a 10**.
I would add an excerpt from this book, but I don't currently have the book with me, so I can't really do that... So anyways, thank you so much for reading my VERY FIRST BOOK REVIEW, and I hope that you found it at least a little interesting! You should be able to find this book in all normal bookstores***. This has been Great Books for Teen Girls!

I am still reading This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen, so that will be the next book that I review, as soon as I finish it.

*I am just saying that because it actually has a lot to do with the book...I think that it actually might say that on the back of the book, but OK!
**Well, I would give it some precise thing like 9.3 or 9.6 or something like that but, as I said, this is my first book review so I will just put a full number.

***Normal bookstores being Borders, Barnes and Noble...I don't really know of any other large bookstore companies.

Why I'm Starting This Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:48:00 +0000

Hello everyone! My name is Lauren and I'm 13 years old. This is Great books for Teen Girls! I am the kind of person who never gets tired of reading. No matter where I am or what it's like there, you can usually find me sitting on a couch, reading a book.
Now, you might be wondering where I'm going with this. You might be thinking, "Why do I care how often she reads?" Well, the reason I'm saying this is because, along with reading a lot, I also have trouble finding good books to read. If you are like me then you are always spending hours at a library or bookstore, staring at rows and rows of books and thinking that you will never find a book that is good enough or long enough to read. Thus, I have created this blog.
This blog, Great Books for Teen Girls is here to help you find a book or two that you will enjoy. Over the course of time that I write this blog, I will review books and tell you a bit about what happens in them so that you will know what to read. The kind of information about the books that I review that you will be able to find in this blog over the coming years is:

Title
Author (Who wrote the book)
Number of Pages
Genre of Book (Sci-Fi, Romance, Mystery, etc.)
Review
Rating (on a scale of 1 to 10)
(Possibly) A Short Excerpt from the Book

I hope that you will enjoy reading this blog, Great Books for Teen Girls and that you will hopefully find some books that you will enjoy.

Note: This is where I will post the book that I am currently reading (This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen), and the next book that I will review (Just Listen* by Sarah Dessen).

*Just in case you wanted to know, the official last book that I read was not Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, but The Pearl by John Steinbeck. I am not even going to bother reviewing The Pearl. Just know that it was boring. Unless you are into reading classic literature.
**Another thing that you probably don't really care about but might want to know is that I like using footnotes. So always look at the bottom of my posts for any.