Thursday Teen Book Review: Fresh Ink (YA anthology)

From the publisher: 

In partnership with We Need Diverse Books, thirteen of the most recognizable, diverse authors come together in this remarkable YA anthology featuring ten short stories, a graphic short story, and a one-act play from Walter Dean Myers never before in-print.

Careful--you are holding fresh ink. And not hot-off-the-press, still-drying-in-your-hands ink. Instead, you are holding twelve stories with endings that are still being written--whose next chapters are up to you.

Because these stories are meant to be read. And shared.

Thirteen of the most accomplished YA authors deliver a label-defying anthology that includes ten short stories, a graphic novel, and a one-act play. This collection will inspire you to break conventions, bend the rules, and color outside the lines. All you need is fresh ink. 

My thoughts:

Such great stories here; an eclectic mix of diverse authors writing for teens of today. Some of the stories were a bit rougher than others, but overall the collection feels honest and fresh.

This is probably one of the best YA books I've read, since it truly reflects all teens today. I have a few teenagers in the house; these stories really resonate, and don't pull punches.

Recommended if you want to try some new authors--I've added a few names to my list for sure.

**NetGalley provided copy for review**

Thursday YA Book Review: Subway Palliatopia by S.W. Lothian

Publication Date: 04 Apr. 2018

From the Publisher:

EVERYTHING HAS A PRICE.

In a world that’s self-obsessed, every moment is shared and every move is posted. If you don’t follow you don’t care. Those who don’t care aren’t worth the time.

The city of New York grows by half a million people per annum. Each year over 20,000 go missing - that's more than 50 per day. Of these, 6,500 are runaways, 12,700 are found alive, and 1,400 are never found.

Does anyone notice?

What happens to them?

My Thoughts:

I really liked S.W. Lothian's books for younger readers, so I was very happy to hear this long-awaited YA was finally available for me to read.

I was not disappointed. S.W. Lothian knows just how to suck you right into the story, setting the scene for this eerie scenario where the population is so enthralled with their FEED, they don't even see what's happening under their noses.

We follow Wil, whose girl Cas has disappeared, a scary trend that has largely gone unnoticed in the city. In his search for the truth, Wil quickly gets into what seems to be a terrible subway accident, which in turn has him captured by a mysterious organization. He's trapped in Subway Palliotopia, where nothing is as it seems.

I don't want to spoil the plot, so I'll just sum it up this way: readers of The Hunger Games and Scott Westerfeld's novels will like this YA dystopian. The writing is superb and very accessible, the characters so relatable--I can't wait for the next in the series to come out. Subway Palliatopia is one of those books that transcends the YA genre. Highly recommended.

Check out the trailer for Subway Palliatopia:

You can order the book right here 

And find out more about S.W. Lothian here.

Thursday Teen Book Review: This Is Not A Love Letter by Kim Purcell

Release date: Jan. 30, 2018

From the Publisher:

One week. That's all Jessie said. A one-week break to get some perspective before graduation, before she and her boyfriend, Chris, would have to make all the big, scary decisions about their future--decisions they had been fighting about for weeks.  

Then, Chris vanishes. The police think he's run away, but Jessie doesn't believe it. Chris is popular and good-looking, about to head off to college on a full-ride baseball scholarship. And he disappeared while going for a run along the river--the same place where some boys from the rival high school beat him up just three weeks ago. Chris is one of the only black kids in a depressed paper mill town, and Jessie is terrified of what might have happened.  

As the police are spurred to reluctant action, Jessie and others speak up about the harassment Chris experienced and the danger he could be in. But there are people in Jessie's town who are infuriated by the suggestion that a boy like Chris would be a target of violence. They smear Chris's character and Jessie begins receiving frightening threats. 

Every Friday since they started dating, Chris has written Jessie a love letter. Now Jessie is writing Chris a letter of her own to tell him everything that's happening while he's gone. As Jessie searches for answers, she must face her fears, her guilt, and a past more complicated than she would like to admit.  

My thoughts: 

The writing in this book is superb--from the first pages, instead of telling you the story in some over-the-top, grab-your-attention way, the author drops you in the middle of the action. Jessie's boyfriend Chris has gone missing, and we follow her like a fly on the wall in the hours that follow: in the chaos, the finger-pointing, the immediate sense that everyone has something to hide.

The story delves deep into teen drama in a way that is very accurate: the harassment of a black boy in a predominantly white town, the girl backstabbing, the complexity of teen relationships. Jessie feels guilty in a way we can all relate too, as she looks back at her relationship with Chris and what she might've done different. The love letter angle didn't do much for me, but I could see teen readers enjoying it.

In the end, the book delves deep into mental illness in a very teen-centric way--somewhat dramatically, but I think very appropriately so considering how the story ends. I spend a lot of time with teens who deal with mental illness, and I'd highly recommend this book to anyone dealing with this type of tragedy, which is difficult to understand.

**NetGalley provided review copy for honest review**

Thursday YA book review: I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak

From the publisher:

protect the diamonds
survive the clubs
dig deep through the spades
feel the hearts

Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.
That's when the first ace arrives in the mail.

That's when Ed becomes the messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?

My thoughts:

Although The Book Thief is Zusak's hit novel, I really like his earlier books. It's hard to find YA with a strong guy protagonist, and Zusak nails these every time.

I Am The Messenger is gritty, and would technically fall in the New Adult category here in the States (Ed has graduated high school, even if he sort of stalled out since). I liked the mystery of the cards, of the messages, and of the muscle dudes coming to beat Ed up. There's plenty of humor, and the whole novel hinges on character, which is what makes it so great.

Loved Ed's dog, the Doorman.

I Am The Messenger is one of those books that transcends genre classifications like YA, mystery, whatever. It's just a great book. Highly recommend for anyone over fourteen.

Thursday teen book review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

From the publisher:

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

My thoughts:

I actually read a YA romance! I didn't think I would read the whole thing, but Eleanor & Park surprised me. The romance feels real and not girly--I could see a boy reading this book, too. It helped that there was a good amount of mystery surrounding Eleanor's lousy home life. It made me hurt for her. The story did run a bit long for my taste toward the middle, making me skim to get to the meat of the story.

What teens might find a bit tough is that the book is set in the 1980s but not advertised as such; I've seen this pop in YA and MG a few times now, and I think it's a little bit of a sneaky cheat, probably to avoid dealing with today's technology.

Ample language and mature situations in this book, so probably not for your middle schooler. But also a nice read for us kids from the eighties.

Thursday teen book review: Russian Roulette by Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider #10)

From the publisher: 

Alex Rider is actually the end of the story.
Yassen Gregorovich was the beginning.
Alex Rider’s life changed forever with one bullet and the pull of a trigger.

It was the cold-blooded contract killer Yassen Gregorovich who changed Alex Rider's life. Aged just fourteen, Alex was thrust into the chaos of international espionage—the world’s only teenage spy. The two have been mortal enemies since.

Yet, as a boy, Yassen was mentored by someone very much like Alex. What turned him into such a ruthless assassin? In some ways, Alex and Yassen are mirror images of each other. One chose to be a hero. The other chose evil.

This is Yassen’s story. A journey down a darkened path.

My thoughts:

This was an excellent book. Although Alex Rider wasn't much more than a footnote in this one, it was great (and unusual) to watch the birth of an assassin. I think I held my breath for the first third of the book, as Yassen tries to escape his doomed Russian village.

Things slowed a bit later in the book as he was held captive, but overall, the story held my interest, big time. I had a bit of an issue with a spider plot point in the end--I won't spoil the story for you, but if you catch what I'm talking about, let me know. Still, loved this, and think I'll re-read it at some point, it was that well-written. As an aside, I'm glad Horowitz took the risk to tell Yassen's story. It's a great stand-alone novel.

For parents, teachers, and librarians: there's some underage drinking, in case you're considering this for your middle-grade readers--though in context of Russian culture, it fit the story.

Where I found out about this book:

I'm an Anthony Horowitz fan, so when I heard this book was coming out, I pre-ordered it. Glad I did.

Thursday Teen book review: Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig

From the publisher:

Willa’s secret plan seems all too simple: take from the rich kids at Valley Prep and give to the poor ones.

Yet Willa’s turn as Robin Hood at her ultra-exclusive high school is anything but. Bilking her “friends”-known to everyone as the Glitterati-without them suspecting a thing, is far from easy. Learning how to pick pockets and break into lockers is as difficult as she’d thought it’d be. Delivering care packages to the scholarship girls, who are ostracized just for being from the “wrong” side of town, is way more fun than she’d expected.

The complication Willa didn’t expect, though, is Aidan Murphy, Valley Prep’s most notorious (and gorgeous) ace-degenerate. His mere existence is distracting Willa from what matters most to her-evening the social playing field between the have and have-nots. There’s no time for crushes and flirting with boys, especially conceited and obnoxious trust-funders like Aidan.

But when the cops start investigating the string of burglaries at Valley Prep and the Glitterati begin to seek revenge, could he wind up being the person that Willa trusts most?

My thoughts:

This was very much a girl teen book, something I don't normally go for, but it had me hooked. The girl character Willa is quirky and fun, and deals with your typical teen peer pressure stuff to do with status/money--and I could imagine myself making some of the same mistakes at that age. Great voice, strong setting, fast-paced narrative... I read this book in just two sittings, I was so into it.

The second in the series comes out early 2014, looking forward.

Extra points: 

My teen girl loved it, and she's a critical reader.

How I found out about this book:

The author, Elisa Ludwig, is a blog mate of mine over at Sleuths, Spies and Alibis. Shame on me for taking this long to discover this series.

YA Edgar Nominee Review: The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall

My last read for the Edgar nominees for best YA is The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall. This one was darker than the others at the opening: we're sitting in the court room with Hope while her brother Jeremy is on trial for murder. Not your light YA fare.

Against her better judgement, Hope testifies to their rough childhood so Jeremy, who no longer speaks, can be declared insane. In dark and clipped prose--my favorite--we learn that their mother is an unfit one, and an alcoholic too. But Hope (as her name implies) doesn't give up, and keeps looking for evidence to clear her brother's name. We delve deep into family history, small-town scandals, so the only way this mystery will be solved is by opening every can of worms.

This story was gripping, and the author didn't pull any punches when it came to the stakes. The resolution was a bit over-staged, but why not--I was right there as Hope revealed the killer. My only gripe was with the at times heavy religious message and quoting of scripture, particularly toward the end. It made the resolution very moralizing, and took away from the great grit this mystery has. Still, solid plotting, and a good murder mystery.

Verdict: a good mystery, could appeal to both boys and girls. Some religious overtones.

Mystery Quotient: 5 out of 5. Plotting a bit on the stretchy side, but done with heart.

YA Edgar Nominee Review: The Girl Is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines

The next book in my YA Edgar nominees read-o-rama is The Girl Is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines. As the cover hints, this YA mystery takes us to the forties, when Iris is struggling with the familiar YA stand-by: new school, new people.

But in the historical context, this YA cliche became fresh and interesting. Iris goes from a private to public school after her mother dies, and finds herself hanging with not-so-popular Pearl. To make matters worse, her P.I. father, an injured war veteran, is hanging on by a thread financially--which is what prompts Iris to help him with his cases. Her stubbornness is endearing, and her search for belonging in her new life recognizable.

Iris' quest shifts when a boy at her new school goes missing, and she begins her amateur sleuth quest for his whereabouts. We quickly get caught in some girl-drama, 1940s style. The historical detail in setting, dialogue and social mood were spot-on; big kudos to the author for getting the details right. This historical context got in the way of the story though, and the mystery's resolution felt a little disappointing to me. Still, The Girl Is Murder is a very solid P.I. mystery, well-plotted, and a unique read.

Verdict: recommended for a teen-view of the 1940s in America, probably better-suited for girls.

Mystery Quotient: 5 out of 5; a solid P.I. mystery.

YA Edgar Nominee Review: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

The third book in my kid lit Edgar nominees read-a-thon gave me a change of pace. After the fast-paced thrillers by Harlan Coben and Todd Strasser, Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star felt like a slower ride. But the book was no less interesting and gripping, just more of a mystery. There's a puzzle to solve, so settle in and enjoy the journey, was what this book seemed to say.

Rory, a teen from Louisiana, gets to spend a year at a London boarding school. Okay, so I rolled my eyes a little when I saw this boarding school angle--let's face it, it's been done. But Johnson obviously did her homework, because the details of the British school system and the colorful way she described Wexford made me regret my initial reaction. I quickly got to love Jazza, Jerome, and the rest of the Wexford population.

The book opens with the usual mystery body discovery, but then it took a while to get back to the dunnit--largely because Johnson took a good amount of time to let us watch Rory scramble to adjust to Wexford. But eventually, it becomes pretty clear that the story is not just any mystery, but a ghost hunting expedition as well.

I won't spoil the rest of the book, because you really should read it yourself. Despite some pacing and revelation hiccups, The Name of the Star is such a smart, well-written story that I didn't care that I had to watch Rory get settled at Wexford before the mystery got hot. Great YA voice, too. It's Agatha Christie meets Ghostbusters meets YA. If that makes sense.

Verdict: Perfect YA. Girl protagonist, but not a girly book, so recommended for guys too. Smart. Cool.

Mystery Quotient: 4 out 5 because of the supernatural element. But pacing more like a traditional mystery.

Side-note: This is just the sort of book I wish had been around when I was a teen.

Review: Lake of Secrets by Lael Littke

Carlene’s family just moved back to Lake Isadora, the place where her brother Keith went missing fifteen years ago. Even though Carlene has never been to Lake Isadora, she begins to have memories of the place, and of things that happened there long ago.

The mystery of Keith’s disappearance is slowly revealed through Carlene’s visions of the past. Carlene tries to figure out where the visions come from, all while connecting with the players in Keith’s disappearance, to figure out if his death was an accident.

I liked this. It was a cozy with a supernatural element—well executed with this moody, Lake Isadora setting. It reminded me a bit of my friend Deb (a great writer)’s work. A solid supernatural mystery—I give it a 4.5.

2010 YA Edgar Review: Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low

I like to think of myself as a pretty open-minded reader, but Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone truly stumped me. The book felt like some Victorian English play, with lines like, “Although one may have stacks of money, not to mention an impeccable social position, there are times when one wishes for the homely pleasure of encircling parental arms.”

This book was hard for me to read, something entirely my flaw, no doubt. Anyway, here’s the plot, in short: 16 year-old Petronella’s guardian Uncle Augustus has started eating bugs at her party. There’s police, ransom notes, and she has to solve the mystery.

As much as I hate to cop out, I’m going to refrain from scoring this one, because I don’t feel I’m qualified. One thought did come to mind: how many teenagers are into Victorian-style dialogue? All the same, it’s a rightful Edgar nominee with a solid mystery.

2010 YA Edgar Review: The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford

Christopher has a job at the morgue for the summer. He cleans part-time, and finds the job pretty uneventful, until the body of Mitch Blaylock shows up at the morgue. That same day, Christopher finds $15k in cash in the medical examiner (his boss)’s office. He quickly figures out that something’s not right about the investigation into Blaylock’s murder. He joins young reporter Tina (who’s also hot) to find out why Blaylock’s murder is being covered up.

With a solid mystery and suspenseful plot turns, The Morgue and Me is a great read. Although this is an older YA (Christopher has just graduated; there’s some boozing and sleeping over going on), the voice really nails the genre, in my opinion. I give this a 4.5 out of 5—great read.

2010 YA Edgar Nominee Review: If the Witness Lied by Caroline B. Cooney

I always look forward to a Caroline B. Cooney novel, since hers are strong YA mysteries in a genre where straight mysteries are hard to find. If the Witness Lied starts strong, with Jack, Smithy and Madison as our siblings lead characters, and Diana, who babysits three year-old Tris in the family. Aunt Cheryl is the kids’ guardian, after their father died in an accident that has been blamed on little Tris.

Cleverly using shifts, Cooney uses a trail of clues to uncover who killed the kids’ father. Meanwhile, Aunt Cheryl is determined to get the family on TV, painting Tris as an evil child.

Although the mystery in this book is solid, the ‘bad guy’ was so glaringly obvious from even the book jacket description, I felt like putting the book away pretty quickly. Still, nicely plotted, and I might be a too-seasoned mystery reader for this book. I give If the Witness Lied a 4 out of 5.

2010 YA Edgar Nominee: Reality Check by Peter Abrahams

First on the list of this year's Edgar Nominees, Reality Check has a solid premise: girl goes missing, and now the mystery is where she went. Our lead is Cody, Montana football player with torn knee, who has just dropped out of high school when his girlfriend goes missing at her boarding school in Vermont. He drives to Vermont to find out what happened, and gets caught in rich family drama and Vermont town secrets.

Reality Check took a while to get started—it wasn’t until roughly 100 pages in that Clea goes missing. But then the suspense gets pretty good, with a fair amount of mysteries for Cody to solve. The ending was a good one, suspense-novel style (won’t give it away).

This is definitely an older YA, where the characters bordered on adult in their behavior and interactions. Though Reality Check is a strong contender for an Edgar, I think it would be an even stronger contender if International Thriller Writers had a YA category. I give it a 4 out of 5.

Review: Somebody by Nancy Springer

Another book with a skinny spine! I know, it sounds like I’m a lazy reader, but I really want to see how authors do when using fewer pages.

Somebody tells us about Sherica, who’s keeps moving and gets a new name with each place she and her father and brother move to. She’s 15, and is beginning to question what her father has been telling her. Is her mother really a floozy who ran out on them?

Sherica (her real name) finds out through an internet search that she’s a missing girl, and that her mother has spent the past 10 years looking for her. Now she’s caught between her father, who is determined to fatten her up, her brother, who only worries about their father winding up in jail, and her own self-worth.

When I started reading, this seemed like a fairly simple, clean (no swearing, etc.) YA—good for even a younger crowd, possibly older middle-grade. But as I continued reading, Sherica’s character struggles went deeper, and there was even some symbolism (won’t go into detail; you’ll just have to read it). And all that in 117 pages.

I give this one a 4.5, and goes on my mystery list. Somebody is a great book for a somewhat reluctant reader, or someone who just likes it when an author gets to the point. Somebody like me, I guess.

Review: Ten Mile River by Paul Griffin

I picked up Ten Mile River in passing at my library. The cover looked cool, NYC in blue-ish tint, so I put it on the pile. And I'm glad I did.

Ten Mile River is the story of two juvenile delinquent teens; the book opens with "Ray is bigger, but Jose is boss," which sums up perfectly what it's all about. Ray is smarter (he reads Scientific American), but feels obligated to Jose, who is his foster brother. The two are hiding out in an abandoned stationhouse in NYC's Ten Mile River Park, surviving by stealing, hiding out from the worldf and the law in particular.

But then Ray meets beautiful Trini, who wants the foster brothers to go straight. The rest of the book follows their struggle with loyalty to one another while trying to find their own identity.

I have to admit that it took me a bit to get used to the dialogue ("Howzabout our money?" and "Git up," and those were the clean lines), and think it got in the way of the story sometimes. But the solid characters (Ray is golden), and gritty storytelling were right up my alley. No mystery, but I think it qualifies as crime fiction. Ten Mile River gets a 4.

Review: Walking on Glass by Alma Fullerton

I picked up Walking on Glass because I thought the cover looked pretty—yes, I am that shallow sometimes. And my shallowness got me a really deep, moving read.

Walking on Glass is a skinny book, 131 pages of free verse told from the perspective of a teenager whose mother tried to commit suicide. She’s now in a coma, and he struggles with his feelings of anger, guilt, and longing to be free of his mother’s illness. We follow him while he tries to find his way through hospital visits, bullying (he’s the bully), and his father’s grief and inability to let go.

I’m not much of an expert on poetry, don’t know how to write any myself. But I do know short fiction, and this book reminded me of a good short story: the way every word matters, and certain sentences can send a chill up your spine.

This was an excellent book, one that I’ll read again. No crime, but somewhat a mystery; I give it a 4.5.

Review: DopeSick by Walter Dean Myers

Another book with a skinny spine, which you probably know I’m a fan of. And since this one was written by Walter Dean Myers, I hoped it would pack just the punch I love. I wasn’t disappointed.

In DopeSick, Lil J is having a really bad day. He’s running from the police, hiding inside an abandoned building (at least he thinks it is) with a gunshot wound to his arm. His friend Rico has already been arrested, and now there’s a manhunt for Lil J.

Inside the abandoned crack house, Lil J finds Kelly. Kelly is watching TV, with strange images of Lil J’s past and future. At the start of the book, we get the impression Lil J is just at the wrong place at the wrong time, but as we read on, it becomes apparent that Lil J has something of a skewed perception of himself. Kelly confronts him with his past mistakes, with the bad decisions he’s made to get him where he is: wounded, running from the police, destined to wind up dead.

DopeSick, in its simplest definition, is A Christmas Carol meets the ghetto. The story is terse, immediate—and what surprised me most was how this book made me take a closer look at my own beliefs. At the start of the book, I wanted to believe Lil J was a stand-up guy with some tough breaks. When our lead was exposed as a ghetto stereotype: an unemployed drug user, failing in high school, and a baby mama he wasn’t supporting, I didn’t know what to make of Lil J, or my own disappointment in him.

The end of the book is poetic, though I have to admit that it was Lil J’s flaws that kept me thinking long after I turned the last page.

Read this book. Let me know how you experienced it.

Review: How They Met and Other Stories by David Levithan

Some of you probably know: I’m a big fan of the short story. I cut my teeth as a writer while attempting to craft shorts, and still love to write a short or two. Many of my favorite books are short story collections.

This is the first YA short story collection I read, one I picked up after enjoying Nick&Norah's Infinite Playlist, which was co-authored by Levithan. How They Met is essentially a collection of love stories; according to the jacket flap, Levithan starting writing these to entertain his friends.

I won’t go into the individual stories too much here, since that would take forever. Each of these love stories was very different from the other—not easy to pull off in a collection, where any lazy plotting or recurrent characters would be easily revealed. And there’s none of that in this collection.

What struck me most about the writing was that despite the somewhat wry look on life, these are all very hopeful love stories. Some of them even border on schmaltz—and I like it (amazing, I know).

I highly recommend you pick up this book, if you’re into YA, and like a story you can finish in a single sitting. You’ll have 18 really great ones in How They Met. This book seems like the perfect present for someone you love.

On a side-note: I’m adding a category on the YA Sleuth blog for YA short story collections, because I love shorts so much. Even if they’re not mysteries—I mean, nobody’s perfect, right?