Teen

Review: Slated by Teri Terry

| Tasha

slated

Slated by Teri Terry

Kyla is just about ready to be released from the hospital after being Slated, her memory erased after she committed a crime.  She is sent to live with a new family and in a new life, unable to find out about who she had been and what caused her to be Slated.  But Kyla is different.  She has horrible nightmares that may or may not be flashbacks to her past.  She can draw, with both hands, something that she realizes could cause problems if discovered.  She has a voice in her head, cautioning her about things and not revealing too much.  But because Kyla is different, she may also be in more danger than anyone else.  Can she continue to follow the rules and pretend to be just another happy Slated teen?  Or will the truth she discovers be too much to maintain the façade?

In her debut novel, Terry has created a dystopian science fiction future that is dangerously possible.  The setting is the United Kingdom, but one that has changed entirely to a police state where ideas that are dangerous to those in power are worthy of getting Slated.  Against that already tense background, the drama of Slated teens plays out, struggling to learn to live, to think for themselves, and to find their way.  Teens will see their own struggles here, relating quickly to the premise.

Kyla is an intriguing heroine, she realizes she is different, but has no perception as to why.  Terry allows Kyla to be a true enigma to herself and to the reader.  This makes for a compelling read, but the reveal is placed so close to the end of the book that it feels hurried.  I would have liked to see either another chapter after the final one to help with that feel or for more hints to have been given ahead of time and along the way.  But that is a minor quibble and I was happy to see that this is the first in a series.

This fascinating and dark look into a possible future is filled with foreboding and lifted by strong writing.  Fans of Hunger Games will enjoy this new heroine facing different challenges in an equally ferocious world.  Appropriate for ages 14-16.

Reviewed from copy received from Penguin.

Review: All My Noble Dreams and Then What Happens by Gloria Whelan

| Tasha

all my noble dreams

All My Noble Dreams and Then What Happens by Gloria Whelan

This sequel to Small Acts of Amazing Courage continues Rosalind’s story.  Rosalind lives in British-controlled India.  She is the only daughter in a well-off family, though she avoids the Club and all of the other British girls there.  Instead she runs a small school for the village boys, one that is not government sanctioned and so can continue to run.  She is a follower of Gandhi, something her father certainly does not approve of.  He wouldn’t approve of the school either, but he doesn’t know about it.  The book also tells of what happened to Hari, the infant that Rosalind rescued in the first book and how her aunts are now doing living in India.  As Rosalind gets drawn further into British life, she finds her two worlds colliding and the question is how she will remain true to herself and the cause she believes in so fiercely.

I simply adored the first book in this series and am so happy to say that the second is just as wonderful.  Whelan captures the period of British rule in India very clearly, never flinching from the harsh realities of the period, including the injustices of the British, the selling of child brides for money, and the severe poverty brought on by the caste system.  It is a book that is filled with the dust and clamor of the streets, the laughter of close trusted friends, and the grandeur of a prince’s visit. 

Rosalind shows a lot of growth from one book to the next.  In the first book, she would rush headlong into trouble.  Here the trouble she gets into is still there, but much of it she walks into with her eyes open and understanding what she is doing.  She is a radiant character, filling the pages with her passion for change and her love of India.  It is Rosalind who carries the story, because one never knows quite what will happen to her next.

A worthy sequel to the first gem of a book, fans of the first will welcome this second story of Rosalind and India.  Appropriate for ages 12-16.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.

Review: Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen

| Tasha

nothing can possibly go wrong

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks

Released May 7, 2013.

Nate and Charlie are friends, but mostly it’s about sharing a ride to school.  Then when the cheerleaders threaten Nate’s robotics competition, Charlie is caught up in the middle of the conflict.  Nate decides to run for Student Body President and Charlie’s cheerleader ex-girlfriend forces him to run against Nate.  Things quickly get out of control in this jocks against the geeks sort of storyline that ends with both groups stripped of their school funding.  Now the only way forward is to work together to fund and build a robot that can win the robot death match.  And of course, just like with all plans, nothing can possibly go wrong.

The storyline could have been cliché, but it steps away from that fairly quickly and into much more intriguing collaborative efforts.  Shen and Hicks have created a great gang of characters here.  Nate is laid back and really the normal one of the group.  Charlie is alpha-geek, neurotic, ballsy and intellectual.  Mix in the cheerleaders who are clearly at the top of the popular food chain, and this is regular high school on steroids.  While some of the characters are left as stereotypes, Charlie and Nate are well developed and interesting. 

The art is hip and fun.  Done in black and white, the images play up the funny moments beautifully and often the dance of words and image is sheer perfection.  It’s hard to believe that it was done by two people rather than just one.

Geeks and jocks alike will enjoy this one, after all who doesn’t love to see a robot death match!  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from copy received from First Second.

Review: Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

| Tasha

dark triumph

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

Sybella has been forced to return to her family after fleeing to the convent for safety.  There she learned the art of assassination, but nothing prepared her for returning to the family that abused her for years.  Now she has to play the dutiful daughter while waiting to see if the marque of Death will appear on her father’s body.  She has been promised the right to personally murder him.  Around Sybella, politics are being played out.  Loyal to the Duchess, unlike the rest of her family, Sybella is able to send a message to warn them and turn the result of a battle.  When the convent orders her to rescue a valuable prisoner from under her father’s nose, Sybella risks losing her entire protective disguise.  She doesn’t realize that she risks losing her heart as well.

I adored the first in the Fair Assassin series and looked forward to this second book.  The heroine in this book is Sybella rather than Ismae.  While the first book was awhirl in the politics of 15th century Brittany, this one is much more about a person and her own personal history.  Sybella is a compelling and rich character.  As the abuse she suffered is slowly revealed, readers will discover more and more about the incredible strength of this girl turned killer. 

Sybella also questions her own loyalties and ties to Mortain, the God of Death.  She wonders whether the convent may be wrong about things or if perhaps she herself has overstepped and lost the God’s favor.  These questions of faith against the dark stain of familial abuse add to the depth of the novel.  As with the first book, there is a passionate romance that rings true and honest.  Sybella slowly falls in love, so gradually that she doesn’t notice until she is fully intoxicated with it.  It is beautiful and glorious, especially as she is accepted as she admits the entire truth about her life.

A killer book, this is a strong sophomore book in a riveting series.  Not for the faint of heart, this book has abuse, murder and true tragedies in its pages.  Appropriate for ages 16-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

2013 RITA Best YA Finalists

| Tasha

Romance Writers of America announced the 2013 RITA finalists.  Winners will be announced on July 20th.  They have a YA category that has four nominees:

Young Adult Romance Finalists

Bound The farm Grave mercy Pushing the limits

Bound by Erica O’Rourke

The Farm by Emily McKay

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Review: Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher

| Tasha

obsidian mirror

Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher

The author of Incarceron has returned with the start of another series.  This is the story of Jake whose father has disappeared.  Jake knows his father is dead and blames one person, Venn, the idiosyncratic wealthy man who was his father’s best friend and is Jake’s godfather.  So Jake gets himself expelled from his posh Swiss boarding school and sent back to Venn’s home in England.  When he gets there, he learns about the mirror that allows people to travel through time.  He also finds out that his father is not dead, but lost in time.  At Venn’s house, others are arriving.  There is a girl from the future with a tie to the mirror, a man from the past who used to own the mirror before it was stolen from him, and a boy tied to the Faerie World and living long past he should have died.  All of them have purposes for the mirror, but not everyone will succeed in their dreams.

Fisher is a consummate world builder.  Here she has created a decaying but splendid abbey that is located on the border of a vast woods.  It is a lonely and wild place, perfect for experiments with time since it seems to be timeless itself.  Readers are also invited into a faerie world and on journeys through time where honest depictions of the past offer real insight into places like Victorian England.  The mirror is the hub of this complex book, with everyone’s lives revolving around controlling and using it. 

Fisher also excels at creating complex characters and she has several in this book.  Jake himself is not completely likeable except in his devotion to his father.  Everyone has their own personal agendas and reasons for acting.  Because she creates characters who have an opportunity to really show how complex they are, the book does slow at times.  Yet it is this attention to detail and character that makes her books so intriguingly rich.

Get this in the hands of teens who loved Incarceron.  They will enjoy the twists of time travel and revel in the striking characters and vibrant world building.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from ARC received from Dial Books.

Review: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

| Tasha

just one day

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Allyson has always been the good girl, following her mother’s expectations of her completely.  That’s why she’s on a whirlwind tour of Europe.  Allyson is the girl who follows the rules, rarely goes out in the evenings with the others, and fades into the background next to her flashier best friend.  So when Allyson suggests that they go see an underground performance of Shakespeare and cut out of the tour, it’s very out of character.  When she discovers one of the actors, Willem, on their train the next day to London, the two of them just click.  Quickly, she and Willem decide to head to Paris together for just one day before they both have to return home.  As they travel together, the spark they had on the train becomes something even stronger.  So when Willem is gone the next morning, Allyson struggles to figure out what happened even as she returns home and starts college.  But the memory of Willem won’t leave her, coloring everything she experiences.

Forman is the author of If I Stay and Where She Went.  Here she explores the world of a sheltered teen girl who decides to take a huge risk and break free of her confines if only for just one day.  Forman captures the fatigue of travel where one day blurs into the others and the way that tours can dull the wonder of even the most amazing places.  She then shows the difference between that way of travel and the travel of discovery and serendipity where your entire being is caught up in experiencing things.  Forman writes of Paris and then also the Netherlands with a true affection, creating moments that are splendid and transformational. 

Forman’s writing is assured and skilled.  Upon opening the novel, the reader knows that the book will be solid.  They will be delighted to also find that her writing is romantic and beautiful, truly recreating the experience of falling in love as a teen.  She has also created a very compelling teen heroine in Allyson, who struggles mightily with the expectations set upon her.  One roots for her to find her way free and also to find her way back to what she lost.

This exceptional teen novel is a whirlwind romantic trip to Europe that will have you wrapped up in its arms much faster than just one day.  Appropriate for ages 16-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Dutton.

Review: Stung by Bethany Wiggins

| Tasha

stung

Stung by Bethany Wiggins

When Fiona wakes up in her bedroom, something is very wrong.  All of her clothes are faded and there is dust and trash everywhere.  The house has obviously been abandoned for some time.  When Fiona looks in the bathroom mirror, she is not looking into her own face.  Yes, those are her eyes, but she suddenly has breasts and hips, not the flat thirteen-year-old body she had been expecting to see.  She also has a strange tattoo on one hand, a black oval with ten marks around it.  Monsters are walking the city, attacking people and others have banded together to fight them off.  Fiona recognizes people she knows, but they are not friendly.  Chased through the ruined city, Fiona takes shelter in the sewers where she discovers help that comes with a price. 

Wiggins has created such a compelling scenario here.  It is a story of human hubris, the death of the honeybees, human intervention and eventually the fall of society itself.  The details of society’s collapse is told tantalizingly slowly in the novel.  Readers learn of things as Fiona’s memories return, and the pieces click into a whole background that is believable and impressive. 

Fiona herself is a heroine who will appear immensely to teen readers.  She is completely out of place in the world, but through it all shows tremendous grit and determination.  The characters around her are equally fully depicted: her romantic interest, younger brother, and various villainous characters.  They are complicated enough that it is difficult to tell hero from villain at times, adding to the thrill of the read.

The writing is solidly done with a brisk if not breakneck pacing.  This book does not slow down, it simply moves forward from one evil to the next, slowing only for romantic moments that are natural and fully developed. 

Get this into the hands of Hunger Games fans who will find the same mix of romance, horror and action here.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from ARC received from Bloomsbury.

Review: The Sin-Eater’s Confession by Ilsa J. Bick

| Tasha

sin eaters confession

The Sin-Eater’s Confession by Ilsa J. Bick

Ben saw what happened to Jimmy.  Ben was the only witness except for the murderers who stoned Jimmy to death in the woods.  Ben shouldn’t even have been there, not after what Jimmy did to him by taking a sensual photo of him when he was sleeping. But Ben found himself drawn to Jimmy and understood that Jimmy had no one else to turn to.  His older brother was dead and his parents could not accept having a son who was suspected of being gay.  Ben wasn’t sure that Jimmy is gay, and he was not clear about himself either.  What he does know is that Merit, Wisconsin was not an easy place to be gay with prejudice still very evident throughout the community.  Ben had to decide what to do about what he witnessed, what to tell the police.  Now he has to grapple with the guilt that came from the decisions he made and what he intends to do moving forward.

Bick is the author of the Ashes trilogy and here writes a contemporary teen novel that focuses on several large issues.  Issues like parental pressures are huge in Ben’s life where his mother expects him to get into Yale and become a doctor.  Ben never goes out, has never dated anyone, and pours all of his energy into school and his part time jobs.  The book also covers prejudice and homophobia, along with domestic violence.  It’s a lot for a single book to deal with and at times some of the subjects seem to be there more for effect and to make a point than to really be part of the story itself. 

The book does suffer from slow pacing in some areas, though the underlying story is taut and almost mesmerizing.  Seeing into Ben’s thought process is interesting at first, but there are some layers to it that could have been left off to make the book even stronger.

What Bick really does well here is to create a compelling character in Ben.  Jimmy was interesting as well, but it is Ben who really is the soul of the story.  Through his eyes and his hindsight, readers are able to see the mistakes that Ben has made, the impossible decisions he has been forced into, and eventually his coming to terms with his own responsibility for what happened.  Bick has left large parts of Ben unexplained, which works well.  Readers will never be clear about his sexuality, which mirrors the questions about Jimmy as well, placing the reader right in the same place as the bigots in the community.  One has to start questioning why it matters so much to label someone.

A harsh and unflinching look at bigotry and one’s personal responsibility in a community, this book asks tough questions and then leaves the answers in the reader’s hands.  Appropriate for ages 16-18.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Netgalley and Carolrhoda Books.