Teen

Matched: A Dystopian Romance

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Matched by Ally Condie

Released November 30, 2010.

An enticing mix of dystopian science fiction and romance, this is the first book in a trilogy.  Cassia trusts the Society with her entire life.  She trusts it to pick the best job for her skills.  She trusts it to decide who she will love.  She trusts it to decide when people die.  So when she attends her Matching ceremony and the face of one of her best friends is shown as her ideal match, she knows it is meant to be.  Xander is handsome, clever and kind.  That’s what makes it all the more confusing when Cassia looks at his data and she momentarily sees the face of another boy she knows.  Ky is quiet, a mysterious handsome loner who moved to their area from the Outer Provinces.  Cassia finds herself drawn to Ky and starting to think outside of the rules of the Society.  Learning to write in cursive, a skill lost for the people of her city, Cassia discovers a longing to create things for herself outside of the limits assigned by the Society.  Their love itself is forbidden, and something that could bring them to the attention of the Officials at any moment.  Now Cassia must choose between the comfort of life as she has always led to or the danger of the unknown and love.

Condie has created a society that is detailed and fascinating.  Within the Society, she asks questions that modern teens should be considering about privacy, personal choice, and the public good.  These questions are present in the book, but offered up in a subtle way.  The world building here is logical.  Condie excels at slowly revealing the horrors of this world, at first allowing readers to see the world as Cassia does, one with few troubles and many answers. 

Cassia is a great protagonist.  Even though this is a romantic novel, Cassia is strong and brilliant.  A large part of the success here is that Cassia is not concerned about her looks, but more concerned about looking beyond the glossy surface of perfection.  Happily, both of Cassia’s love interests are equally interesting, kind and bright.  This is not about a villain vs. a hero.  It is far more nuanced than that, as are all of the choices that Cassia faces in the novel.

I look forward to the next in this trilogy.  This first book finished with just the right amount of unanswered questions to keep readers intrigued for the next book and not so many as to be frustrating.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from ARC received from Penguin.

You: A Fast-Paced Chiller

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You by Charles Benoit

A brutal and honest portrayal of an adolescent in trouble, this novel is a gripping and fast-paced ride.  The entire book is written in the second person, making the reader the protagonist, Kyle Chase.  And you are in serious trouble.  You know it right from the start because of the all of the blood and he won’t stop screaming.  Then the book flashes back to where it all started.  You find out about your crush on a girl in your class whom you are too scared to approach for fear of rejection.  You are used to being sent to the office regularly, and even though you hung out with friends at one point who were achievers, you now don’t try at all.  Your parents ignore you most of the time and you spend your free time hanging out with other boys who also dress all in black with hoodies.  You don’t have much in your life to be happy about.  But then a new kid comes to school.  He helps you with your bully problems and invites you to a party that is fairly cool.  So how in the world, did you get to that place?  The one with the blood and the screaming?  You will just have to read it to find out.

This book completely absorbed me, not letting me go until I turned the final page.  It is a compelling read, one filled with angst and threat.  There is so much here that is mundane, this is the life of a teen who has given up.  A teen like so many are who is distant from almost everyone, yet not a loner.  He is just Kyle, a screw-up and nothing special.  It is that day-to-day plotting that makes this book work so well.  There is dread around every activity, fear at every encounter.  Will this one be it?  How about this one? 

Benoit is skilled with the difficult second person, a device that brings the reader directly into being Kyle and feeling what he is feeling.  It allows the reader to bring who they are, who they know to populate the world, making it all the more tense.  Benoit also excels at pacing, slowing things down to intensify the book and reaching almost breakneck speed at the end.  The secondary characters are given short shrift here, partially because of the tense the book is written in.  I would have liked to have known more about them.  At the same time, I recognize that one of the reasons this book reads so well is that details do not slow it down.

Highly recommended, this is a book that will speak to many teens who will also be unable to put it down.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

 

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Crazy: Compelling and Hopeful

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Crazy by Han Nolan

Jason is trying his best to cope.  His mother died of a sudden stroke, leaving him caring for his mentally-ill father.  With no money coming in, Jason struggles to feed them both and heat the house.  There is no time for caring for the house itself or even for himself.  Jason has no friends and is spending a lot of time with the imaginary friends in his head.  He can’t tell anyone about them though, because he’s afraid that they are proof that he is crazy like his father.  He is also very frightened that if anyone finds out his father’s condition, they will put him away and Jason will have no one.  After another run-in with a teacher, Jason is required to spend his lunches with the school’s counselor and a small group of students.  Jason finds himself slowly opening up to them, and even allowing them to help him when his father disappears one wintery night.  But his fears may not have been unjustified as Jason’s carefully constructed world falls apart around him.  Written with great humor and warmth, this is a compelling story about a boy struggling under the tremendous weight of mental illness.

Nolan writes in punchy sentences that carry so much more emotion than one might expect.  Jason’s imaginary friends add a large amount of humor to the book, despite the fact that they may be a symptom of mental illness.  Readers will related to Jason as a character, understand his motivations immediately.  He is a likeable and believable protagonist who has survived amazingly well.  The three friends he makes are also very interesting characters, a girl dealing with her mother dying, a boy trying to handle his parent’s brutal divorce, and another boy dealing with a parent’s addiction.  Each gives readers a glimpse of their own situation.  Nolan nicely equates mental illness with other issues, exposing what can be considered a shameful secret alongside those that are more accepted in our society.

I don’t want to give much of the story away, but Nolan deals very well with the aid that Jason receives both at school and outside of school.  This book offers a view of the system that is often lacking: it is a system with rules but that can also work to remove a teen from an impossible situation into a much improved one.  She offers hope here.  Both a hope for true friends and a hope for family.

Highly recommended, this is a book of despair and hope.  Pair this with another great read about parental mental illness: A Blue So Dark.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from NetGalley digital galley.  Read on the iPad.

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Monsters of Men – An Amazing Conclusion

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Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

In this thrilling conclusion to the ground-breaking series, readers will finally find out what happens when the indigenous Spackle army arrives to do battle and what effect the arriving ship from the convoy will have.    Both Todd and Viola have obstacles to overcome in this novel, ones that drive them apart.  Todd learns to control his Noise, making him almost silent in a world where men’s thoughts are heard aloud.  But there is a price for that silence and it could be his relationship with Viola.  Viola is battling an illness that has her feverish and weakened due to the marking band on her arm.  Women are dying from the infections the bands cause, and nothing seems to be working.  So Todd keeps Viola at arm’s length so that she doesn’t know how close he is growing to Mayor Prentiss.  Viola keeps Todd away so that he doesn’t know how ill she is.  All of this sets up the riveting conclusion to this series.  This book brings war directly into the reader’s view.  There is no turning away as beloved characters are threatened, surrounded by battle, scarred and even die.  Everyone is faced with terrible choices that will decide the future of the planet as a whole.

As readers of the first books know, Ness is not an author who can be trusted to keep characters readers love alive.  He breaks the rules, brings back villains, and returns characters thought lost to life.  Through it all the effect of Noise and information is felt.  The Spackle use it to communicate as one and the humans struggle with its impact and how it is being used.  It is a world of constant contact and sharing, one that overwhelms and frightens.  It is a brilliant play on our over-connected online worlds and the effect they are having on all of us.

Ness has built a world here that is less about the land itself and more about the people who live on the planet.  While the setting is critical, it is mostly because of the unique effects of it upon the humans and Spackle who live there.  Ness excels at creating characters who are interesting, conflicted and true to themselves even as they grow and change.  The other thing he excels at is action sequences, terrifying changes to circumstance, and pacing.  This all creates a book that is impossible to put down.

I finished this book with tears rolling down my face and my eyes red from trying to read through my weeping, because I just could not stop reading long enough to wipe my eyes.  It is a series unlike any other and a finale that will shock and thrill.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

Reviewed from library copy.

Reviewed on many other blogs.

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The Winds of Heaven

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The Winds of Heaven by Judith Clarke

An amazing book that takes a deep look at love, depression, sisterhood, and life.  Clementine and Fan were opposites in many ways, but that just drew them closer.  They were more sisters than cousins, pulled together over the summer they spent at Fan’s house in Lake Conapaira.  Clementine was dull and regular next to the wild and amazing Fan.  But Fan’s life was not good, living alone with her abusive mother now that both her father and older sister had left.  Fan longed to head to the blue hills that she could see from her room, knew that there was something special out there waiting for her.  As time went on, both young women faced decisions that would change their lives, fears that would overwhelm them, and responsibilities that weighed upon them.  This is a book about the two very different friends, who both relied on each other despite their distance from  one another and the small choices that forced them even further apart.

Clarke’s writing is incandescent in this novel.  My book bristles with bookmarks, marking passages where the writing is astounding and staggeringly lovely.  Here is one of my favorites from early in the book where Clementine is describing how different Lake Conapaira is from her home:

You could even smell the difference: a mixture of sun and dust, wild honey and the smoky tang from the old kerosene fridge on the back veranda.  And you could smell feelings, too – Clementine was sure of it: you could smell anger and hatred and disappointment and jagged little fears.  The anger smelled like iron and the disappointment smelled like mud.

Clarke moves from dense writing like this that truly brings a reader into the scene and makes it real to lighter moments, dwelling on certain thoughts for awhile.  And beautifully, those are the moments that the reader carries with them, importantly through the book, the moments that must be remembered at the end.

This is an Australian novel that is steeped in Australia.  Readers will feel the red dirt in the pages, thanks to the vivid descriptions that Clarke offers us.  The sense of place is not only strong, it is inherent to the story.  Clarke set this book in modern time but the bulk of the story takes place in the 1950s and 1960s as Clementine and Fan grow up.  The time is important here too, reflected in the story.

The two characters, Fan and Clementine, are drawn with great care.  Readers learn about how they think, how they approach the world, and the way the world has shaped them in turn.  Though both girls are very different, they struggle with similar things.  They both have moments of weakness and shame, paired with moments of strength and empowerment.  They both see the other person as the strong one, the intelligent one, the beauty.  It is what brings them together and also what drives them apart.

This is a book about our journey through life and the choices we make.  It is a powerful book, one where even though the ending does not surprise is shockingly brutal at times.  Yet with the brutality comes a beauty as well.  Highly recommended, this is a book appropriate for good readers who will enjoy the prose.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.  Make sure you have some tissues around when reading the end.

Reviewed from copy received from Henry Holt.

StarCrossed: Uncover an Amazing New Heroine

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StarCrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Published on October 1st, 2010.

When I find a book that is entrancing and beautifully written, I want to linger with it.  So this book took me an awfully long time to read as I savored each page. 

Digger is a thief on the run after her partner is captured by the Greenmen.  Wounded and afraid, she finds escape from the city with a small group of aristocrats on a boat.  This turns into more than just a way to escape the city, as Digger, who now calls herself Celyn, is slowly drawn into their world.  She accompanies the family to a rebuilt fortress in the high mountains, even farther outside of the city.  There she finds herself looked after and cared for in a way that she never has been.  But as a thief, she cannot relax.  Her forays to find information get her blackmailed by one of the family friends, who wants to use her skills for personal reasons.  The more secrets Digger uncovers, the more alarming they are, as the country heads to war.

The world building in this fantasy novel is beautifully done.  The world is completely envisioned and brought to life for the reader.  Each piece makes sense, from the banning of the use of magic to the Inquisition itself.  The turning away from a pantheon of gods and goddesses to a single God makes for an additional layer to the story, adding to its depth. 

Digger herself is an incredible heroine.  She is strong, independent and smart.  At the same time, she doesn’t lose her femininity at all.  I really enjoyed a teen heroine who is not crushing on a boy, but rather is consumed with the mysteries before her.  While others do play a part in uncovering some of the mystery, Digger does all of the work.  As she uncovers each piece and is confused by the details, readers will be right there with her trying to puzzle it all out. 

Highly recommended, get this into the hands of fans of Tamora Pierce and Shannon Hale.  Appropriate for ages 12-14.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

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White Cat – Dark and Delightful

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White Cat by Holly Black

Curse working is illegal because it can so easily be misused and disguised.  Curse workers are able to change your memories, give you good or bad luck, change your emotions, and even change you into something else.  Cassel comes from a family of curse workers who continue to use their gifts illegally.  His mother is currently in prison because she worked someone’s emotions.  His brothers work for one of the crime bosses.  Cassel has deliberately created a life separate from his family.  But he can’t run from the fact that he killed his best friend a few years ago.  Cassel can’t do curse work but that doesn’t stop him from pulling a con.  At his private boarding school, he is a bookie for all sorts of bets.  But things start to fall apart when Cassel wakes up on the roof and can only remember following a white cat in his dreams.  The school sends him home and requires him to see a doctor before he returns.  As Cassel tries to find a way to game the system and return to school, more odd things start to happen, leading Cassel to figure out exactly what his mobster family has been up to. 

Holly Black has created a great mashup of mobsters and fantasy.  In this compelling novel, she has given us a clever and twisted world that is well-built and completely brought to life.  A large piece of her success is her protagonist.  Cassel is charming, intelligent and easily cons readers into liking him.  Thanks to being an outsider in the crime world, he is a great way to introduce readers to this skewed and amazing world that Black has created.  Equally successful is Black’s pacing and story.  The action sequences are inventive and taut, they are contrasted effectively with the slower, subtler moments of the novel.  It is beautifully constructed. 

A crime spree of a novel, this book will have readers clamoring for the second one in the Curse Workers series as soon as they finish the first.  Don’t handle this one with kid gloves!  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.

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Half Brother: Stole My Whole Heart

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Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

In 1973, thirteen-year-old Ben moves with his family to Victoria from Toronto.  He not only has to deal with leaving his friends behind and moving to a new city and climate, but he has a new little brother.  His new “brother” Zan is a chimpanzee, taken from its mother when it was only days old and brought to Ben’s house to be part of an experiment conducted by both of his parents in whether chimps can learn language and how being raised as a human child will affect him.  At first, Ben is caught up in his own teen concerns: a pretty girl and how to be an alpha male in his new school.  But slowly he warms to Zan and eventually grows to consider him a real sibling.  As Zan learns to sign and communicate, the divisions between his parents’ two approaches become magnified and their approaches to parenting Ben as well.  All too soon, Ben is forced to confront the truth about the experiment and its result.  The question will be answered, what kind of brother will Ben be to Zan?

Oppel really had his work cut out for him here.  Bring the 1970s to life with all of its unique perspectives and style plus write a convincing teen boy character and finally create an animal character that rings true.  And he manages it all with great style.  The time period is deftly created from small touches, never hitting readers over the head with it.  Ben is a boy who is easily related to by readers.  He struggles in school, would rather be with his friends or outdoors, and has a big crush on a girl.  At the same time, he makes classic mistakes with the girl, frustrates his parents, and gets in plenty of scrapes.  Nicely, Ben’s crush echoes what is happening with his father and the experiment.  He’s not a perfect hero, but because of that he reads as a real person with plenty of emotional depth.

Zan, the chimp, is a wonder of writing.  By turns he charms, aggravates, frightens, bites, mauls, tantrums, and adores.  He is never written as a human child, never given human emotions.  Oppel never loses sight of the fact that Zan is pure animal, that loss of perspective is left to Ben.

The book is deep and haunting.  At times even before things unraveled, I read it with a pit in my stomach, knowing that something was going to unravel the Eden that was being portrayed.  It is a book that explores experimentation on animals, what makes us human, what the animals in our lives mean to us, and what it is that connects us all to one another.  It is a book of self exploration, the clarity of comprehension despite the pain, and what one must lose to do right by those we love.  In short, it is a glory of a novel.

A great read that is impossible to set aside, this book will stay with you long after you finish it.  If you are like me, you will finish it with deep gasping breaths, tears and great satisfaction.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

Paranormalcy – A Fresh Lush Paranormal Romance

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Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

I thought I’d had my fill of paranormal books for teens.  The last few I had tried were duds, given up only part way through.  Then I started hearing a buzz about Paranormalcy and I took one look at that divine cover and just had to read it.  Am I ever glad I did!

Evie has worked for the IPCA (International Paranormal Containment Agency) since she was eight.  She has a unique talent that no one has ever seen before, she can see through the glamours that paranormals put up to hide themselves from view.  When she looks at a gorgeous vampire, she sees the dead person beneath.  When she looks at a werewolf in human form, she sees the wolf eyes.  So she works as a paranormal hunter, tracking down rogue paranormals and containing them.  But now something is killing the paranormals and Evie has begun to have strange dreams that seem connected.  Plus her ex-boyfriend, a faerie named Reth, is trying to kidnap her and no one is taking him seriously.  Evie’s dull life of monster hunting is about to change, and it just may be all her fault!

White writes with a wonderful bite of sarcasm, a gift for description, and an ability to show emotion without telling it.  She has managed to take an over-extended genre and make it feel new and fresh.  A large part of that is the unique perspective of Evie herself, a character who is awed by the normal from being surrounded by the paranormal.  She is an innocent in our world, taking her own amazing world for granted.  She’s a great character to view the paranormal through.  Evie is a very strong female character.  She’s a monster hunter, a rule breaker, and someone who can use her brains to get out of a lot of scrapes.  She’s one tough girl.

There is plenty of romance in the story too.  The romance scenes in the book are sensual and tender without going too far.  White has created an amazing boyfriend for Evie combined with a very interesting ex-boyfriend.  Add this sizzling romance to the adventure and action and you have a book that is impossible to put down.

The cover of this book will sell it right off of your shelves, but if Twilight fans are looking for the next great fantasy read, get this in their hands.  Thanks to the strong female lead, I’d also hand it to Hunger Games readers.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from library copy.

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