THE TEEN BOOKWORM

HOW TO BEHAVE IN A CROWD, Camille Bordas

2017-12-24T18:13:00.003-08:00

This book was wonderful: hilarious, wry, philosophical. The characters are all unique and lovable, even when they're tearing dinner guests apart. The narrator is especially lovable, from his eleven-year-old frame of view, and carries the book wonderfully, through the friends he meets and the family he encounters. Highly recommended.

THE LESSER BOHEMIANS — Eimear McBride

2017-10-10T19:23:00.000-07:00

THE LESSER BOHEMIANS threw me for a loop. McBride's prose style is so unique, fragmented and bizarre. Her characters leap off the page, fleshed out by past traumas and present experiences. After reading this book, I immediately went back to McBride's A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING—I could not get enough.

HAG-SEED — Margaret Atwood

2017-08-07T11:32:00.001-07:00

Margaret Atwood's retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest, HAG-SEED, had no reason to stun me, as I have no attachment to the source material. I should have known, however, that I was in great hands: Margaret's writing stuns, from sentence to sentence, from page to page; she has crafted an engaging, beautiful read, with wonderfully imagined characters. Captivating.

HUMAN ACTS by Han Kang

2017-04-13T14:56:00.002-07:00

HUMAN ACTS

han kang

Han Kang's HUMAN ACTS is brilliant and beautiful. It read quickly, pages turning as if the font were twice its size, but not easily—there is much to parse here. Kang's style breaks from tradition, but is vivid and evocative. The story, vicious and unrelenting, broke my heart. I can't wait to read THE VEGETARIAN and Kang's future offerings.

TRAFFICK by Ellen Hopkins

2015-11-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

TRAFFICK

by Ellen Hopkins

released November 3, 2015 by Simon & Schuster

_____

Five teens victimized by sex trafficking try to find their way to a new life in this riveting companion to the New York Times bestselling Tricks from Ellen Hopkins, author of Crank.

In her bestselling novel, Tricks, Ellen Hopkins introduced us to five memorable characters tackling these enormous questions: Eden, the preacher’s daughter who turns tricks in Vegas and is helped into a child prostitution rescue; Seth, the gay farm boy disowned by his father who finds himself without money or resources other than his own body; Whitney, the privileged kid coaxed into the life by a pimp and whose dreams are ruined in a heroin haze; Ginger, who runs away from home with her girlfriend and is arrested for soliciting an undercover cop; and Cody, whose gambling habit forces him into the life, but who is shot and left for dead.

And now, in Traffick, these five are faced with the toughest question of all: Is there a way out? How these five teenagers face the aftermath of their decisions and experiences is the soul of this story that exposes the dark, ferocious underbelly of the child trafficking trade. Heartwrenching and hopeful, Traffick takes us on five separate but intertwined journeys through the painful challenges of recovery, rehabilitation, and renewal to forgiveness and love. All the way home.

_____

I read Tricks five years ago. I remember, strangely enough, being absorbed in its pages in my eighth-grade algebra class, ignoring my teacher's lecture, preferring to be enveloped in Hopkins's gorgeous, dark words. (Maybe that's why I'm so bad at math.) Point is, it's been a long time since I read the first book.

It takes talent to restore compassion for completely forgotten characters. That's what Hopkins does here: even though I couldn't remember a thing about these five narrators (aside from what Hopkins tells us in smooth reminders), I found myself caring about them immensely.

When I read Tricks, I remember being satisfied with the ending. Maybe I'm recalling incorrectly, but I remember not feeling the need for another book. But now that it's here, I understand why Hopkins wrote it. It's filled with her signature character development, her beautifully edgy ideas, and, most of all, her lyrical, enveloping writing. I was hooked in pages, not because I remembered the characters, but because Hopkins's words pulled me along, from line to line, page to page, all the way to the beautiful ending. I'm pretty sure the pages were flying fast enough to start a fire.

For fans of Hopkins's previous material, Traffick is a must-read. For those who haven't heard of Hopkins before (although I'm wondering how that's possible), or haven't read any of her books, give her a go. And when you're blown away: I told you so.

THE SECRETS OF LAKE ROAD by Karen Katchur

2015-07-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

THE SECRETS OF LAKE ROAD

by Karen Katchur

published August 4, 2015 by Thomas Dunne Books (St. Martin's Press)

_____

A haunting story about the destructive power of secrets, this accomplished and gripping suspenseful women's fiction debut is perfect for fans of Lisa Scottoline and Heather Gudenkauf

Jo has been hiding the truth about her role in her high school boyfriend’s drowning for sixteen years. Every summer, she drops her children off with her mother at the lakeside community where she spent summers growing up, but cannot bear to stay herself; everything about the lake reminds her of the guilt she feels. For her daughter Caroline, however, the lake is a precious world apart; its familiarity and sameness comforts her every year despite the changes in her life outside its bounds. At twelve years old and caught between childhood and adolescence, she longs to win her mother’s love and doesn’t understand why Jo keeps running away.

Then seven-year-old Sara Starr goes missing from the community beach. Rescue workers fail to uncover any sign of her—but instead dredge up the bones Jo hoped would never be discovered, shattering the quiet lakeside community’s tranquility. Caroline was one of the last people to see Sara alive on the beach, and feels responsible for her disappearance. She takes it upon herself to figure out what happened to the little girl. As Caroline searches for Sara, she uncovers the secrets her mother has been hiding, unraveling the very foundation of everything she knows about herself and her family. The Secrets of Lake Road by Karen Katchur is a riveting novel that is impossible to put down and hard to forget.

_____

Karen Katchur's debut novel, The Secrets of Lake Road, isn't something I would've picked up at a bookstore. From the opening sentence, however, the novel intrigued me, buried deep into me, hung with me until the second I finished it.

I must commend Katchur for her wonderful characterization; for a novel like this with as many characters as there are, it's easy to get them confused in your head, but Katchur painted them all differently to where that confusion never happened for me. Along with a set of unique characters is a gripping mystery, a group of lingering secrets from the past, and a thrilling reading experience.

On the other hand, I wasn't as enamored of Katchur's writing. It lacked any and all sense of style, read like an unenthused grocery list. A novel of this sort would've been propelled beyond proportion with a little more flair to its prose, but it delivered in so many other areas that it feels silly for me to pick on it too much.

Overall, Katchur's debut is a tense exploration of a lake and the devastating secrets it may hold, intertwined with a thrilling mystery. I'll be keeping my eye on Katchur in the future.

LOVE LIES BENEATH by Ellen Hopkins

2015-07-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

LOVE LIES BENEATH

by Ellen Hopkins

published July 21, 2015 by Atria (Simon & Schuster)

_____

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Collateral comes a gripping novel about a woman caught in a love affair that could be her salvation...or her undoing.

Tara is gorgeous, affluent, and forty. She lives in an impeccably restored Russian Hill mansion in San Francisco. Once a widow, twice divorced, she’s a woman with a past she prefers keeping to herself.

Enter Cavin Lattimore. He’s handsome, kind, charming, and the surgeon assigned to Tara following a ski accident in Lake Tahoe. In the weeks it takes her to recover, Cavin sweeps her off her feet and their relationship blossoms into something Tara had never imagined possible. But then she begins to notice some strange things: a van parked outside her home at odd times, a break-in, threatening text messages and emails. She also starts to notice cracks in Cavin’s seemingly perfect personality, like the suppressed rage his conniving teenage son brings out in him, and the discovery that Cavin hired a detective to investigate her immediately after they met.

Now on crutches and housebound, Tara finds herself dependent on the new man in her life—perhaps too much so. She’s handling rocky relationships with her sister and best friend, who are envious of her glamour and freedom; her prickly brother-in-law, who is intimidated by her wealth and power; and her estranged mother. However perfect Tara’s life appears, things are beginning to get messy.

Writing in beautiful prose, Ellen Hopkins unveils a new style while evoking her signature poetic form that readers fell in love with in Collateral and Triangles.

_____

This is my first adult novel from Ellen Hopkins (I have Triangles on my shelf, too, but I haven't gotten to it yet). It is also her first novel ever written in prose. Those of you who have been with Hopkins as long as I have--back since good ol' Crank, a decade ago--were probably surprised by this development. I was, too, at first, but after reading Love Lies Beneath, it makes complete sense.

Tara is forty years old, smokin' hot, affluent, white . . . and privileged in most other ways you can think of. Basically, she's got everything going for her, until a ski accident at Lake Tahoe tears a bunch of stuff in her knee and renders her useless. Fortunately, her doctor is smokin' hot like she is.

I think you can see where this is going.

But that's where Hopkins gets you. Where the conventional romance goes is not where this novel goes. Even if you expect it. Even if you don't think anything else could possibly happen.

And you're kind of right. There is some romance, some wild sex, some of the stuff you expect. But after a certain point, Hopkins takes convention and throws it out the window. What results is an unexpected thrill ride, a tense, edgy build to an shocking ending that left me reeling.

In some ways, Love Lies Beneath is signature Hopkins: dark, suspenseful, and psychological. It also breaks new ground, as it's written in a new style, but it maintains Hopkins's beautifully poetic nature.

In other words: sign me up for Hopkins's next novel, because this only confirms how much I love her writing.

THE 5th WAVE by Rick Yancey

2015-07-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

THE 5th WAVE

(THE 5th WAVE, #1)

by Rick Yancey

published by Putnam

_____

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker.

Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

_____

Some of my reader friends loved this, and some of them weren't so sure what all the hype was about.

I'm right in the middle.

The 5th Wave is an engrossing sci-fi novel, there's no denying that. As to anything beyond that, I'm not sure. I didn't find all of its characters standouts, and I was a little annoyed with the super-speedy romantic development. I mean, yeah, it's the end of the world, and I know you'll be sorry if you didn't get some, but that doesn't mean it's logical for declarations of love to be made within thirty pages of a character's introduction.

I did enjoy many of the characters' distinct personalities, including Ringer, Zombie, Sammy, and Cassie (although the latter had the potential to become a bit . . . much from time to time). The first few chapters of this novel really hooked me, and from there, it was smooth, mindless sailing.

I haven't read any other Yancey books (although Monstrumologist has been heavily recommended), but I'll be damned if I don't get a copy of the second book soon, now that it's out.

ALL THE RAGE by Courtney Summers

2015-07-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

ALL THE RAGE

by Courtney Summers

published in April 2014 by St. Martin's Press

_____

The sheriff’s son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything—friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time—and they certainly won’t now — but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.　

With a shocking conclusion and writing that will absolutely knock you out,All the Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women after an act of sexual violence, forcing us to ask ourselves: In a culture that refuses to protect its young girls, how can they survive?

_____

You should read this book.

Don't think you can handle it?

You should still read it.

Think it'll be too intense?

You should still read it.

Don't have enough time?

You should still read it.

Don't like reading?

You should still read it.

Don't know how you found yourself on this page?

Hey, here's an excellent book for you to read. It's called All the Rage, by Courtney Summers. More information about it can be found in the summary above. Yeah, you should totally read it.

Yes, it is a brutal look at rape culture in today's society. Yes, it draws our attentions to things most of us would rather not think about. Yes, it is dark, disturbing, able to burrow into the most hidden recesses of your mind and stay there long after you put it down. But it is such an important story, one that has needed to be told.

Not only is it thematically important, but it is of such high quality. Summers's prose is crackling and vibrant: the story will draw you in, and the writing will keep you hooked. Romy may not be the most likable character in all of young adult literature, but she is a realistic look at the effect of trauma on human behavior. Some of her reactions are unreasonable, some of her choices irrational, but it just makes her story that much more heartbreaking.

This book has been boiling inside of Courtney Summers for years. Do me a favor--do us all a favor--and read it. Take breaks if you have to, cry if you are inspired to. But read it. You won't regret the experience.

THE DEATH CURE by James Dashner

2015-07-06T01:09:00.002-07:00

THE DEATH CURE

(THE MAZE RUNNER, #3)

by James Dashner

published by Ember

I don't know what Dashner was thinking here. I have no clue.

The first two books promised answers. Good ones. Answers that made suffering through two books worth of questions worth it.

Those promises were not fulfilled. The answers we got were shitty. They didn't make sense. They didn't line up, didn't conclude things properly.

THIS BOOK! Gah. I'm pretty pissed right now.

I totally expected to see something like "APRIL FOOLS the actual last installment is coming soon. Thank you for participating in this frustrating prank!" on the last page. However, no such message was there, confirming my worst fear: this shit show is the real conclusion to the trilogy.

Like usual, let's start with what I liked:

What I Liked

Dashner's writing was as strong as ever here. Two scenes in this book were visceral and engaging, really proving Dashner's writing ability. Unfortunately, the rest of the book failed to live up to the challenge. Those scenes warranted this book half a star.

(That's all I liked.)

What I Didn't Like

This book really drove something home for me: there is very little internal dialogue, very little speech within Thomas's head. This is one of the primary reasons, I think, that Thomas's character development wasn't quite there. So little is said inside that when traumatic things happen and when revelations are made, we never really see him grow; we just get to witness the effect it has on the group. Some of the reactions were implausible, the recoveries too quick. Dammit, Thomas. I wanted to like you. I identified with your ugliness. I hoped we'd get along.

In addition, the plot was all the fuck over the place. I feel like Dashner's trilogy pitch to his editors read, "Book 1: inside the Maze. Book 2: the Scorch. Book 3: ??? TBD LOL." That's sure what this book felt like--Dashner needed to write a conclusion, so he strung a bunch of random shit together and tried to pass it off as a "conclusion." You may have fooled some people, Jimmy, but I am not one of them.

This next section is very spoiler-y but must be addressed. Viewer discretion is advised. Highlight for spoilers. I don't know, how about the fact that THE ENTIRE FUCKING TRILOGY COULD'VE BEEN AVOIDED HAD AVA REALIZED HER MISTAKE A SECOND EARLIER???In the epilogue, she basically says "The whole trial shit failed, but that's okay (!!!), because I had this other cool plan where none of it actually fucking mattered and the immune people can go off and recreate civilization and guarantee a happy future for humanity!!!" Okay, that makes sense: so basically, what you're trying to say is the thousand fucking pages I just read were unnecessary had you just realized your whole agency was just a bag of dicks??? That's perfectly fucking plausible.

In other, less spoilery, words: the shitty ending.

Another thing that made me feel manipulated was the fact that the entire love triangle was unnecessary. Nothing came out of it, and no character development occurred because of it (shit, one of the girls died). It could've been erased. It served no purpose, it was contrived, it was stupid and the drama was unnecessary and AGH.

The villains were cardboard. The hero was cardboard. ALL THE CHARACTERS WERE SO CARDBOARD. Although, somehow, the deaths were affecting, so something right must've happened. Can't figure out what.

This book was action-packed. (Isn't that normally a good thing?) Although that is true, it was also incredibly boring. How? The action was boring. Why? I really didn't care what happened to anybody. (Level of attachment: when Thomas was going to die, I got really excited.) Why? Dashner never gave me any reasons to.

Ugh. Writing reviews about painful books is exhausting.

Verdict: This is the Mockingjay of the Maze Runner series. But worse. I think that says enough.

THE SCORCH TRIALS by James Dashner

2015-07-06T01:01:00.002-07:00

THE SCORCH TRIALS

(THE MAZE RUNNER, #2)

by James Dashner

published by Ember

Heads up: I'm writing this review in the wake of the third book, which was a massive disappointment, so I'm still a bit bitter.

This book, the middle one, is where things start to go haywire. It's subtle, but if you listen hard enough, you can actually hear the sound of the avalanche that starts in this installment and continues into the massively-fucked next one.

Once again, let's start with what I liked.

What I Liked

Just like in the last book, Dashner's writing is perfect for the style. It's brisk, but it's got style. It's not Dickens, but it's not stupid, either. It conveys information and it grips. If nothing else, this series as a whole is at least written well.

The plot, for the most part, held onto its bearings and didn't go all haywire (*cough* book three), although things do start to get a bit implausible here.

For example:

What I Didn't Like

The mess that is/was the "love triangle." (I use both "is" and "was" because, at this point, I'm still not sure whether what I read was or was not a love triangle, whether it actually existed, whether it only existed for a brief period of time, whether it was a figment of my imagination...

What the hell?

I'm going to spoiler-tag the rest of my discussion about the "love triangle" because I'll actually get a bit more in-depth (highlight the text to read): (This is a spoilery zone. Are you aware of that? Just checking.) Okay, what in the hell is up with the fact that Brenda comes in and literally(I wish I were joking) says "I like you" in her first conversation with Thomas and is considered a legitimate love interest within thirty pages? What happened to female characters, or any characters for that matter, having substance? What happened to real love triangles? What is this garbage??? Also, the fact that there are so many cheek-kisses cracks me up.

Okay, diatribe over.

This book was kind of a mess compared to the first one, but Martha-Stewart's-kitchen organized compared to the third.

Verdict: Really, you could live without this one. You really could. If you were really into the first one, though, it wouldn't hurt to go on, I suppose. Just don't say I didn't warn you when you get to the last book.

THE MAZE RUNNER by James Dashner

2015-07-06T00:56:00.004-07:00

THE MAZE RUNNER
(THE MAZE RUNNER, #1)

by James Dashner

published by Ember

Heads up: I'm writing this review in the wake of the third book, which was a massive disappointment, so I'm still a bit bitter.

The Maze Runner trilogy has, thus far, not been an enormous waste of my time. The first book wasn't too bad, in fact.

Let's get into what I liked before we talk about what was bad.

What I Liked:

I appreciated the amount of action in The Maze Runner. And all of it contributed to a thorough plot~~, unlike in future books~~. The action was engaging, it was fresh, it was fun. A large part of this was Dashner's writing style. It's engaging and crisp without being dumbed down, descriptive without being too flowery. It's perfect for the action-y style Dashner was going for.

A lot of things were wrong/frustrating/flat-out dumb about this book and series, but I still view the first installment in an I-liked-it kind of way. Something was done right here to achieve this, and I think it's the engaging plot. (It certainly isn't anything else.)

I also appreciated the way everything felt resolved at the end, but then wasn't. Just when we thought the characters were going to find happiness at the end of the tunnel, everything was fucked up and we were left dangling at the mercy of the second installment. This was effective, and it kept me engaged in the second book.

A big shout-out to Dashner for the repetitive statements that Thomas is ugly. THANK YOU FOR FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGING THAT YES, UGLY PEOPLE DO EXIST AND, YES, THEY CAN BE PROTAGONISTS IN BOOKS. We appreciate your inclusion of our culture. So many protagonists in YA nowadays are fucking perfect looking, and it's getting on my nerves. I literally said "Thank you, James" when I read the first statement. (But fuck Hollywood for casting Dylan O'Brien. HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE UGLY, NOT A TEEN WOLF.)

Now, moving on to what I wasn't crazy about.

What I Didn't Like

Too many questions, not enough answers. This can be effectively mysterious, but here, it was just overbearing and ridiculous. We had no answers for 90% of the book, and when we were finally informed of some things, it was in the form of the Antagonist Lecture trope that we in the reading community are all so tired of. In the second book as well, we are provided with startlingly few answers, just enough to get us to the next page with the slightest hint of plausibility.

Also, the romance made zero fucking sense. Insta-love to the max, and it didn't even make sense.

Maybe it would've made sense if it were clear we were reading about people, with distinct personalities, distinct differences and habits and favorite ice cream flavors. But alas, there were none to be found. The only distinct thing about the characters was their startling lack of character. When I began the book, I had an extremely difficult time differentiating between the characters, considering all of them were males/spoke with the same stupid slang (which I, surprisingly, got used to)/felt like the same person. They all blended together so much. (I was surprised they all fit in the blender. [Too dark?])

And although Thomas was established as ugly, he was still a total Gary Stu. Come on, guys--when are we going to get over the whole "the hero can do anything and get away with it/be perfect/never fuck up" thing? It's exhausting and should be done away with immediately.

In addition, the fact that the only female characters were love interests/villains kind of sucked. Women actually can be valuable to society and do cool things.

Ughhhhhhhh.

At this point, it may sound like I hated this book. I really din't, somehow. A lot of things confused/frustrated me, but I was really engaged the whole time, enough to willingly read the next ones. It was pretty mindlessly engaging (mindless being the key word here).

Verdict: If you're looking for the optimal Maze Runner reading experience, my advice would be to skip the last two chapters of this book and pretend everything ends nicely for the characters. You can live without the extremely-similar second book, and it only gets worse from there. Also, don't think too hard.

hey!

2015-07-06T00:41:00.003-07:00

hey, all!

I'm going to start incorporating some changes to the blog.

1) first of all, if you've noticed, I've changed the header and the background! I really like the new images--I feel like they're more sophisticated, which my blog will become with the integration of more adult fiction reviews, in addition to YA.

2) I'm incorporating a new rating system! I've grown tired of the standard 5-star (or, in my case, owl) system, so I'm switching to a 10-point scale, with images like this:

I made these images myself out of a colored circle by adding the text. I'm looking forward to integrating these changes and revamping the blog!

leave a comment if you feel like it and let me know what you think about it!

-hayden

THOSE GIRLS by Chevy Stevens

2015-07-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

THOSE GIRLS

by Chevy Stevens

to be released July 7, 2015 from St. Martin's Press

_____

Chevy Stevens is back with her most powerful, emotional thriller yet— a story of survival…and revenge.
Life has never been easy for the three Campbell sisters. Jess, Courtney, and Dani live on a remote ranch in Western Canada where they work hard and try to stay out of the way of their father’s fists. One night, a fight gets out of hand and the sisters are forced to go on the run, only to get caught in an even worse nightmare when their truck breaks down in a small town. Events spiral out of control and a chance encounter with the wrong people leaves them in a horrific and desperate situation. They are left with no choice but to change their names and create new lives.
Eighteen years later, they are still trying to forget what happened that summer when one of the sisters goes missing and they are pulled back into their past.
This time there’s nowhere left to run.
As much of a thriller as it is a deep exploration of the bonds among sisters, THOSE GIRLS is an unforgettable portrait of desperation, loyalty, and evil.
_____

Thanks to St. Martin's for the review copy!

I know, I'm kind of making myself look like a Chevy Stevens mega-fan over here, having read everything she's put out and chomping at the bit for this latest title . . .

THOSE GIRLS is about a group of sisters who are on the run from their abusive father, looking to start over in a new place. On the way to their dream city, however, their truck breaks down, and a pair of innocent-looking truckers who offer help turn out to be quite unhelpful. The first third of the novel tells this relentlessly gripping section of the story. From there, we are brought into the present, when the sisters are now older, some with children. When one of the sisters disappears, the past catches up with them and they are sent on a wild chase.

It's clear here that Stevens has the suspense thing down. THOSE GIRLS will make you a nail-biter if you weren't one before. Half of my fingers hurt from biting my nails down to the quicks. This novel is suspenseful, and its subtle magic affected me, if you couldn't tell by the fact that i read this in a solid four-hour chunk (the only break for dinner, because a dude's gotta eat).

My list of issues was short but strong, namely the teenage protagonist that emerges halfway through the novel. Her name is Skylar, and she's a flaming idiot. I'm not going to go into plot details, for those of you who are waiting to read, but Skylar makes one less-than-smart choice after another and winds up in an awful situation. As each awful development occurred, I found myself more and more disappointed in her. I don't think it can be attributed solely to the fact that she's a teenager (and I hope that's not what Stevens is implying).

Stevens's brisk writing style really contributes to the suspense. She doesn't waste time and meander around the plot--she goes in with a knife, and it's really effective.

Anyway. It may not be perfect, but THOSE GIRLS is Stevens's most addictive page-turner yet. From the immediate action to the bittersweet final scenes, you'd better allot a decent chunk of time to get lost in this novel, because once you start, you won't want to stop.

OBLIVION by Kelly Creagh

2015-04-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

OBLIVION (NEVERMORE, #3)

by Kelly Creagh

to be published July 28, 2015 by Simon & Schuster / Atheneum

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy!

"But . . . ," Isobel murmured, her voice quavering, suddenly weak, "you wouldn't. I know you wouldn't. I know you."

"For your sake, my dear Isobel, I very much hope you do. Because we certainly no longer recognize ourselves."*

Kelly Creagh's Nevermore is one of my favorite books of all time, and with Oblivion, the finale of the beloved trilogy, I am reminded why. Filled to the brim with constant pulse-pounding action, there is not a dull moment as we race to Isobel's and Varen's conclusion.

As always, Creagh's writing is absolutely mesmerizing--I found myself occasionally forgetting to pay attention to what was being said because of how beautifully it was being said.

I am sad to see Isobel's and Varen's beautiful story end, but I know it's for the best. I will be reading the amazing Nevermore trilogy many times over in the future.

"This place, wherever it was - whatever it was - equated to insanity."*

*These quotes are taken from the advance copy of Oblivion and may change before print.

THE WALLS AROUND US by Nova Ren Suma

2015-03-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

THE WALLS AROUND US

by Nova Ren Suma

to be published March 24, 2015 by Algonquin Young Readers

The Walls Around Us is a ghostly story of suspense told in two voices—one still living and one long dead. On the outside, there’s Violet, an eighteen-year-old dancer days away from the life of her dreams when something threatens to expose the shocking truth of her achievement. On the inside, within the walls of a girls’ juvenile detention center, there’s Amber, locked up for so long she can’t imagine freedom. Tying these two worlds together is Orianna, who holds the key to unlocking all the girls’ darkest mysteries.

We hear Amber’s story and Violet’s, and through them Orianna’s, first from one angle, then from another, until gradually we begin to get the whole picture—which is not necessarily the one that either Amber or Violet wants us to see.

Nova Ren Suma tells a supernatural tale of guilt and innocence, and what happens when one is mistaken for the other.

Some things in life just aren't fair. A prime example is the amount of talent Nova Ren Suma has in her fingertips.

"We went wild that hot night. We howled; we raged; we screamed. We were girls--some of us fourteen and fifteen; some sixteen, seventeen--but when the locks came undone, the doors of our cells gaping open and no one to shove us back in, we made the noise of savage animals, of men."

In The Walls Around Us, Suma introduces us to two characters who each spin their own narrative. There is Violet, a prima ballerina with some skeletons in her closet, and Amber, a prison-trapped girl with a bucketload of secrets. Both have moments of likability and unlikability, but ultimately, I fell hard for these characters. Their unraveling story drew me in from the start and kept me hooked until the beautiful, lingering ending.

The Walls Around Us is Suma's best offering to date. Every single word is deliberate, every sentence immaculate. I cried, I laughed, I raged while reading this book, and I cannot cannot cannot wait for more.

THE RUBY CIRCLE (Bloodlines, #6) by Richelle Mead

2015-02-11T15:03:00.004-08:00

THE RUBY CIRCLE

by Richelle Mead

published February 10, 2015 by Razorbill

_____________

The epic conclusion to Richelle Mead's New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series is finally here...
Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.
After their secret romance is exposed, Sydney and Adrian find themselves facing the wrath of both the Alchemists and the Moroi in this electrifying conclusion to Richelle Mead’s New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series. When the life of someone they both love is put on the line, Sydney risks everything to hunt down a deadly former nemesis. Meanwhile, Adrian becomes enmeshed in a puzzle that could hold the key to a shocking secret about spirit magic, a secret that could shake the entire Moroi world.

_____________

Caution: This review contains spoilers for the other books in the series!

Wow. Really, Mead? Way to defy all worries and freakin' deliver with your last Bloodlines book.

Sydrian is in deep doodoo now that their illicit romance has been exposed to the world, and with the disappearance of someone they both love, they must hunt down a former nemesis and risk everything. Pretty high stakes, right? Both their lives and their love are at risk, and it shows: The Ruby Circle is tense and suspenseful. It is a bit shorter than the other books, clocking in at 348 pages, which works to its advantage -- it moves a lot quicker and is a lot more gripping than the first few books in the series.

From the adorable opening to the emotional epilogue, The Ruby Circle is a stunning feat both in convincing romance and in taut suspense. The best Bloodlines book, and one of Mead's overall best novels to date. I'll miss Sydney and Adrian!

ALWAYS WATCHING by Chevy Stevens

2015-02-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

ALWAYS WATCHING
by Chevy Stevens

published by St. Martin's Griffin

________________________

She helps people put their demons to rest.But she has a few of her own…In the lockdown ward of a psychiatric hospital, Dr. Nadine Lavoie is in her element. She has the tools to help people, and she has the desire—healing broken families is what she lives for. But Nadine doesn’t want to look too closely at her own past because there are whole chunks of her life that are black holes. It takes all her willpower to tamp down her recurrent claustrophobia, and her daughter, Lisa, is a runaway who has been on the streets for seven years.When a distraught woman, Heather Simeon, is brought into the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit after a suicide attempt, Nadine gently coaxes her story out of her—and learns of some troubling parallels with her own life. Digging deeper, Nadine is forced to confront her traumatic childhood, and the damage that began when she and her brother were brought by their mother to a remote commune on Vancouver Island. What happened to Nadine? Why was their family destroyed? And why does the name Aaron Quinn, the group’s leader, bring complex feelings of terror to Nadine even today? And then, the unthinkable happens, and Nadine realizes that danger is closer to home than she ever imagined. She has no choice but to face what terrifies her the most…and fight back. Sometimes you can leave the past, but you can never escape.Told with the trademark powerful storytelling that has had critics praising her work as “Gripping” (Kirkus), “Jaw-dropping” (Publishers Weekly) and “Crackling with suspense” (People magazine), ALWAYS WATCHING shows why Chevy Stevens is one of the most mesmerizing new talents of our day.

________________________

4.5 owls

Almost five owls to a Chevy Stevens novel. And it's about time.

I knew this would happen, really. The first one was good, the second was really good, so I figured it was only a matter of time until one was great. And that's this one!

(Although I do have a couple of minor gripes, but those will come later. Let me bask in my happiness first.)

Always Watching is about Nadine, the therapist mentioned in the last two books. Now that Stevens doesn't have an excuse to write ~~lazily~~ conversationally anymore, she doesn't. And boy, is it great! It's exactly what I've been waiting for! There are similes!And metaphors! And adjectives!!!! I am so happy about this! In fact, the writing is the most steady and wonderful improvement over the last two books. Also the fact that Nadine seems to have a brain. That's also pretty cool.

Overall, this book made me very happy. (Not sure if I've made that clear yet.) It wasn't as engrossing as the last book, but so many other things made me so much happier about it than the last one, so that's okay, namely characterization, writing, and emotion. And writing.

Nadine has mostly healed from the traumatic events brought upon her by her last two clients and is now working at a hospital. When a new patient brings back memories from Nadine's past, a whole heap of old problems arise and suddenly Nadine's life is a chaotic mess. It's pretty entertaining to read about, but we are now brought to my one minor gripe: this book could've been condensed a tiny bit. Some of the scenes felt redundant, and at one point I felt like I was reading in circles, if such a thing is even possible! My issue is minor, though: it's not like 1/3 of this book needed to be removed. Just a couple scenes here and there, to make the plotting even tighter.

Good job, Ms. Stevens. This was an awesome book. I'm moving on to That Night now. It better be good.

NEVER KNOWING by Chevy Stevens

2015-02-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

NEVER KNOWING

by Chevy Stevens

published by St. Martin's Griffin

* * * * *

The second novel by Chevy Stevens, author of bestseller Still Missing.

At thirty-three Sara Gallagher is finally happy. Her antique furniture restoration business is taking off and she’s engaged to a wonderful man. But there’s one big question that still haunts her — who are her birth parents? Sara is finally ready to find out.

Sara’s birth mother rejects her—again. Then she discovers her biological father is an infamous killer who’s been hunting women every summer for almost forty years. Sara tries to come to terms with her horrifying parentage — and her fears that she’s inherited more than his looks — with her therapist, Nadine, who we first met in "Still Missing." But soon Sara realizes the only thing worse than finding out your father is a killer is him finding out about you.
Some questions are better left unanswered.
Never Knowing is a complex and compelling portrayal of one woman’s quest to understand where she comes from. That is, if she can survive…

* * * * *

4 owls

okay, chevy. i think i know where you're going here.

you're working your way up toward "amazing," aren't you?

i boarded the chevy stevens train with her much-lauded debut, still missing. unfortunately, i wasn't as completely enthralled by it as some of my friends had been. still, i saw lots of potential in ms. stevens and impulsively bought her other three published titles.

at the moment, i am not regretting that decision.

never knowing, stevens's second publication, tells the story of sara, a woman who is desperately curious about her birth parents. (i know, i know, adopted daughter wants to know who really birthed her, trolololol so much originality, etc.) sara becomes desperate enough to hire a private investigator to find out more about her mother. sara clumsily uses the excuse that she wants her medical records (although, hilariously, she seems to have forgotten about this little request by the end of the novel). eventually, she finds out that her father is a serial rapist/killer, and that she is the byproduct of a traumatic rape.

what. (i almost spoiler-tagged this detail, but then decided not to, since it's in the cover copy.)

sara now has to deal with having a killer's blood in her body, patching things up with her mother, and, oh, i don't know, escaping the serial killer that is now interested in her because he knows who she is.

although stevens's characters may not be the brightest, they sure make for good reading. i was basically glued to this book from the time i started to the time i turned its final page (except for eating, because, you know, food). if there is one things stevens is great at, it's creating a whip-fast plot that hooks you gradually until it's three hours later and your forehead is sweaty and your hair is a mess and you're left wondering how a bucket of words did this to you.

i did have a problem, though. i had a pretty big problem with never knowing, just like i had a problem with stevens's last book. that problem is the writing. oh boy, does stevens need to take a basic class on the art of creative writing, because she's making it feel like a science. amanda hocking also has this effect on me, where i feel like if i were to read the book again, i would not find a single simile, metaphor, or creatively-placed adjective.

i also didn't particularly like sara gallagher. i feel like the narrator in still missing had more character. but the weird thing is, i like that i didn't like sara. i feel like the characters we don't like are the most human ones. how can we relate to perfection? how can we learn anything from characters who don't make any mistakes for the sake of being likable? hell, sara made a bunch of stupid mistakes (like, a bunch), but i know that if i were trying to stop a serial killer i wouldn't be a mastermind, either. sara's story was an interesting one, and even though i didn't feel particularly inclined to like her, i still wanted to read on and see what would happen to her.

this book is still getting four owls because i rate based on enjoyment, and i really enjoyed this book. i just wish stevens would trust her readers more.

TUNNEL VISION by Susan Adrian

2015-01-31T14:54:00.000-08:00

TUNNEL VISION
by Susan Adrian

published in 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin

* * * * *

Jake Lukin just turned 18. He's decent at tennis and Halo, and waiting to hear on his app to Stanford. But he's also being followed by a creep with a gun, and there's a DARPA agent waiting in his bedroom. His secret is blown.

When Jake holds a personal object, like a pet rock or a ring, he has the ability to "tunnel" into the owner. He can sense where they are, like a human GPS, and can see, hear, and feel what they do. It's an ability the government would do anything to possess: a perfect surveillance unit who could locate fugitives, spies, or terrorists with a single touch.

Jake promised his dad he’d never tell anyone about his ability. But his dad died two years ago, and Jake slipped. If he doesn't agree to help the government, his mother and sister may be in danger. Suddenly he's juggling high school, tennis tryouts, flirting with Rachel Watkins, and work as a government asset, complete with 24-hour bodyguards.

Forced to lie to his friends and family, and then to choose whether to give up everything for their safety, Jake hopes the good he's doing—finding kidnap victims and hostages, and tracking down terrorists—is worth it. But he starts to suspect the good guys may not be so good after all. With Rachel's help, Jake has to try to escape both good guys and bad guys and find a way to live his own life instead of tunneling through others.

* * * * *

4.5 owls

Okay, okay, okay. I need the sequel now. Where is it?!

Tunnel Vision took me completely by surprise. Not a huge fan of the action genre, I expected this to be just another addition to a crowd already oversaturated with look-alikes. Turns out I was wrong, way wrong. Tunnel Vision is exactly what this genre needs: it's got a whip-fast plot, hooks you from page 1, but never sacrifices characterization or logic for its thrills. It's the bee's knees of YA. Oh, and it would make a perfect movie.

It's about Jake, a pretty regular teenager with a pretty irregular secret: he can "tunnel" into objects when he holds them, giving him all sorts of information about the person to whom the object belongs. Suddenly, the national government is on his tail, and Jake has nowhere to run. I think the publishers put glue on the pages, because I could not remove my eyes from the words. I was completely hooked reading this story.

And you will be too!

INVINCIBLE by Amy Reed

2015-01-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

INVINCIBLE (INVINCIBLE, #1)

by Amy Reed

to be published by HarperTeen / Katherine Tegen Books

5 owls

***

Invincible tells the story of Evie, a girl who is trapped in her own mind and struggling to find her identity after a miraculous recovery. She is stuck in a place between what others think of her and what she wants to be. With her miracle came a destructive tragedy, which only adds to her sense of emotional burden.

As a character, Evie is rarely likable, but she is real. Reed does not sacrifice truth to create likability, which I respect and admire. Evie has suffered, almost losing her life to cancer, and it shows. She has lost her sense of identity, and it shows. She makes bad decisions; she says mean things to people she loves; she is indecisive. These things forge Evie as a tangibly real person. She has leapt off the page and burrowed into my brain. She resonates. Reed gets adolescence more than most other YA writers.

Invincible is Reed's best book yet, and the first of a planned duology. I'm not going to say it's the next The Fault in Our Stars, because it's not; it's so much more than that. Reed touches on love, identity loss, hope, friendship, expectations, reality, depression, addiction, family, losing yourself, finding yourself choice, and recovery in one brisk novel. I may never read another book, if only because I'll be rereading Invincible over and over again.

ELEGY by Amanda Hocking

2015-01-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

ELEGY (WATERSONG, #4)

by Amanda Hocking

published by St. Martin's Griffin

4 owls

***

This review contains spoilers for the first three novels in the Watersong series! Read with caution!

You know, the length of this book kind of took me by surprise.

542 pages. For Hocking, this is abnormal; her Switched books were all short, clocking in at around 300 pages apiece, and the other Watersong books were each around that length, too. In a 542-page tome, I was worried Hocking would stray from the main mission and divulge too much side information. I was worried the series she has spent three books crafting would crash and burn with an overbearing fourth installment.

Those worries were definitely unnecessary.

In Elegy, Gemma is closer than ever to breaking the siren curse. With the scroll in her possession, she is almost there. With Penn's impending threats and a ticking clock, she needs to crack the case. The Watersong series ends with the best book, in my opinion. Family drama, sizzling romance, and a touch of the paranormal combine to make Elegy a spellbinding finale to the series. The characters read like your favorite TV family. The strongest offering of Hocking's and my favorite underwater series I've read yet!

STILL MISSING by Chevy Stevens

2015-01-08T15:41:00.005-08:00

STILL MISSING

by Chevy Stevens

published by St. Martin's Griffin

read via Kindle store

***

3.5 owls

First off, let's get this out of the way: my Kindle ruined, or at least severely tampered with, my reading experience with Still Missing. (Yet another reason why these blasted things should be read on paper. But, hey, I did read it on a Kindle; I'm the one at fault here.)

One of the most crucial design flaws of the Kindle is the way the extra crap hastily included at the end of books (reader discussions, interviews, and But Wait . . . There's More! teasers of the authors' next books) count toward the overall percent-read figures of the book. I expect to reach the 100% mark when I finish the last chapter and hit the acknowledgments, but because of all the extras at the end of the Kindle editions, the actual end of the book hit me at 85%. That means that a whole fifteen percent of this book was dedicated to excerpts from Stevens's other books and reading group discussion questions, which was severely disappointing when I expected that 15% to include more plot points. That's what screwed things up for me: my belief that something big was coming, that more things were happening, maybe a jaw-dropping twist at the very end to leave us guessing, something infuriating and rewarding. Because I had fifteen percent left, I expected more. What I got as a conclusion wasn't more: it was sadly less than what I hoped for.

I enjoyed the way Still Missing unfolded. I enjoyed how the story was told from the perspective of a bitter, traumatized woman looking back on her traumas. I enjoyed the blossoms of Stockholm syndrome strewn throughout -- the book was, for the most part, psychologically accurate. (Somebody did her research!) The plot kept me turning pages; even though none of it particularly surprised me, it still led to feverish, nail-biting reading. What I don't think was the smartest choice, however, was the storytelling method Stevens employed, wherein Annie conversationally accounted her tragedy to her "shrink." It gave Stevens an excuse to write lazily (so many clichés!) and didn't trust readers very much to pick things up on their own (for example, the way she explicitly spelled out the irony -- I think we got it).

Some of Annie's traumatic experiences really resonated, eliciting lots of emotion from me as I read. It got a bit graphic, but was all necessary to develop Annie's character. Overall, Still Missing functioned very well as a psychological thriller, delivered with a plot that engrossed (but ended, in my opinion, a little too bow-tied and perfect), and captured the facets of trauma very well from a psychological standpoint. People aren't the same after they experience traumas, and it can take years for them to return to how they were before, if they ever do. Stevens captured this beautifully.

Review: BURNING KINGDOMS

2014-12-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

BURNING KINGDOMS

book two of The Internment Chronicles
by Lauren DeStefano

to be published by Simon and Schuster
on March 3, 2015

read as an ARC

***WARNING: This book summary is SPOILEROUS in regard to the first book!***

After escaping through the bottom of Internment, Morgan and her fellow fugitives aboard the great mechanical bird land on the ground to finally learn what has lived beneath their floating island home all these eons.

The ground is a strange place where water falls from the sky as snow, and customers watch moving pictures and visit speakeasies. A place where families can have as many children as they want, their dead are buried in vast gardens of bodies, and Internment is the feature of an amusement park.

It is also a land at war.

Everyone who fled Internment had their own reasons to escape their corrupt haven. But caught under the watchful eye of another king that wants to dominate his world, they wonder if coming to the ground will drag Internment down with them.

***WARNING: This review contains spoilers for the first book in the series, Perfect Ruin!***

4.5 owls

"There is a need, in every world, to believe in things that cannot be seen."

This second installment of The Internment Chronicles is my favorite DeStefano book thus far: she takes the concept of the second-book slump and turns it on its head, filling Burning Kingdoms with intrigue, suspense, thrilling romance, and believable, almost tangibly real characters. This novel is a perfect example of why I love reading.

Fresh off the mystical, floating island of Internment, the one Morgan calls home, she finds herself in a new, strange land. (Hint: the ground.) Stranger than all is the war that builds in front of her eyes, brutal and terrifying.

"'That's the illusion of war,' he says. 'You think the world is over when your city comes down. But then you realize that you're just one city on a planet the size of ten million cities.'"

DeStefano packs her prose with gut-wrenching emotion, from vivid descriptions to soulful sociopolitical commentary. Her writing talent adds to the impact carried by the strong, steadily captivating plot and the believable, distinguished characters, creating a smart YA fantasy novel that packs emotional punches.

Even the included love triangle feels fresh. The issue of the love triangle is, to put it lightly, divisive among YA readers, but I am personally not against it if it works. In Burning Kingdoms, it works; I find myself rooting for both sides, something that takes characterization talent to accomplish.

The conclusion to The Internment Chronicles cannot come fast enough! I will be awaiting it with greedy, open arms.

REDEEMED by P.C. and Kristin Cast

2014-10-17T21:33:00.003-07:00

REDEEMED

by P.C. Cast + Kristin Cast

published on October 14, 2014 by St. Martin's Griffin

In the final electrifying novel in the HoN series, Neferet has finally made herself known to mortals. A Dark Goddess is loose on Tulsa and the world. No single vampyre is strong enough to vanquish her - unless that creature has the power to summon the elements as well as the ability to wield Old Magick. Only Zoey Redbird is heir to such power…but because of the consequences of using Old Magick, she is unable to help. Find out who will win and who will lose in this epic battle of Light versus Darkness.

Ladies and gentlemen... the House of Night series is finally over.

(I've been waiting to say that for years. Literally. Years. Although I hoped I would feel a little more sad about it.)

When P.C. announced that the series would be twelve books long, I became weary. Twelve books is a lot of pages to fill. Twelve books is a lot of plot that has to be present. Twelve books can become disastrous if there is nothing happening. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Pretty Little Liars, at sixteen and counting.)

Unfortunately, Redeemed falls into those hands.

I waited a few days to write this review because I was in denial. How could a series I loved so much at one point, with the hilarity and fun plot of Marked, Betrayed, Chosen, and Untamed, turn into something so... worn out? Weak and weary? Because let's face it: the last four or five of these novels have just been terrible. But now, I've got an honest review in my head, and I'm ready to say how I feel.

Although this novel is called Redeemed, it does nothing to redeem its past (and current) mistakes. I stuck around from book to book to book to book to book because I hoped, somewhat foolishly, that the steep decline in quality would somehow be able to fix itself. Even when Awakened felt like a waste of space, I remained hopeful. Even when Revealed did absolutely nothing, I stayed positive. Even when I realized in a soul-crushing moment that I no longer cared what happened to these characters, that I no longer gave a crap about who won and who lost in the "epic" battle of Light versus Darkness. Frankly, I started wanting Neferet to win.

The fact that the Casts felt the need to introduce new characters in the final installment proves their lack of ideas. I think that's what ultimately happened here: the Casts signed onto a large series deal naively, with no idea how to write one successfully. They got bored. They got lazy. (I think I counted five typos in this book, and that's coming from me, a fast reader, someone who rarely, if ever, catches mistakes.) Redeemed and the series's previous installment, Revealed, display a large lack of effort and interest. Neferet becomes a crazy, power-hungry lunatic, with absolutely nothing frightening about her, spending the novel worrying about entertainment, forging a slave out of some poor girl named Lynette. (Recognize that name? No? That's because she's a completely new character. Yep. In the twelfth freakin' book.) The gang is just as immature as always, which is nothing new. The only thing to elicit some sort of emotion out of me other than disappointment and slight annoyance was the presence of Aurox. His "Zo" calling brought about some reminiscence, as I thought about how much fun the series used to be, how much I missed the days when I enjoyed the House of Night tale.

The House of Night series could've been worthwhile if it weren't twelve books. Maybe the Casts would've taken some time and come up with original, fun plot events and characterization if they had had a smaller course load. But they didn't, and this is where they leave us: with a final installment that does nothing to atone for its previous failures.

If you're a new reader of the series and are a "series reader," meaning you need to know how it ends, read through book four (five if you're feeling patient, seven if you're a bit of a masochist) and skip to twelve. Or just try to find plot summaries online. If you haven't started, don't: there is nothing redeeming about Redeemed.

Color me vastly disappointed.

one owl