Month: March 2023

After the first settler on Titan, one of Jupiter’s moons, trips her distress signal, neither remaining country on Earth can afford a rescue on its own, so two sworn enemies are unknowingly installed in the same spaceship. Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor, with no memory of a launch. His brooding shipmate, Kodiak, has barricaded himself away. Nothing will stop Ambrose from making his mission succeed—not when he’s rescuing his own sister. In order to survive the ship’s secrets, Ambrose and Kodiak have to work together and learn to trust one another. Once they discover what they are truly up against, love is the only way…

“Intimacy is the only shield against insanity. Intimacy, not knowledge. Intimacy, not power.” ― Eliot Schrefer, The Darkness Outside Us

Throughout this dystopian sci-fi there is a ton of mystery surrounding the mission, but all of that is overshadowed by the ridiculous relationship between Ambrose and Kodiak that only occurs because of the stereotypical exceptions that teenagers can’t not have sex. As much as I tried to dislike this book for its romantic aspects, it was quite likable. The plot was the typical apocalypse but with new twists and turns that were fun even if some were predictable.

“This lifetime is yours to make what you will of it” ― Eliot Schrefer, The Darkness Outside Us

This book was a finalist for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature. Which is awarded to books of the highest quality written by Americans and published by American publishers. While Schrefer does have an interesting writing style, his word choices and sentence structure are unique, this book is not outstanding by any other definition. Nothing was captivating, I never felt like I couldn’t put it down. Truly exemplary books are hard to put down. This was a good fun read with amazing character development. It did have a slow start which was very well done. I would recommend this book to fans of apocalyptic sci-fi, fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope, and fans of Aiden Thomas.

“‘Well, we’re hardwired not to accept our own demise. Daffodils are a lot more chill about it.’
‘Okay, but we can be like daffodils together.”  ― Eliot Schrefer, The Darkness Outside Us

Year of the Reaper by Makiia Lucier is a fascinating book written in a world very similar to our own. The two main characters Cas and Lena go through a lot together in a very short amount of time. They become close friends and like everyone else had their own personal struggles. Cas and Lena meet each other in less than ideal circumstances and didn’t exactly start off on the best foot with one another. As the book progresses they become closer and get to know one another. Lena is a hothead who does what she wants and doesn’t like to listen to other people. Cas is a quiet person who has his own trauma. The book contains multiple genres including fantasy, romance, mystery, and historical fiction.

I greatly enjoyed this book and it was a fairly easy book to read without being short. The characters are all unique to themselves and very interesting. The books reflects on our world as well in a way. The people in this have to deal with a plague that they call the pestilence that kills many people. There are also many plot twists in this story that are both unpredictable and predictable afterwards. I felt like the pacing of the book was perfect. It wasn’t a book that took super long to read but it wasn’t necessarily an easy book to read either. It was also long and that helped to make up for the difficulty of it.

While the characters in Year of the Reaper are all very different amongst themselves, there are multiple scenes where they are very stereotypical. At the beginning of the book, Lena is attacked by an animal and Cas swoops in and saves her like a prince charming, like in a fairy tale. Also while some of the plot twists are very good and not predictable at all, there are a few that after reading them it’s hard to know how you missed them beforehand.

I think that the people who would enjoy this book are people who like the following genres: mystery, fantasy, romance, historical fiction, and books targeted toward young adults. This book is packed with adventure and deception and mystery.

Turtles All the Way Down follows Aza Holmes as she navigates her life as a 16 year old. Aza is dealing with her anxiety and OCD, she often has intrusive thoughts or is distracted by overwhelming thoughts about bacteria. With the possibility of a $100,000 reward, her best friend Daisy pulls her along to investigate the possible fraud committed by a missing billionaire. Searching for the truth Aza gets closer to Davis, the billionaire’s son and begins to wonder if she should keep searching. As Aza receives more clues about the billionaire’s location she must also balance her relationship with his son, and wonder if she has the possibilities in her life to have both.

The first time I read this book I did not like it. I could not even finish it. I now realize the topics were too real for me to handle at the time. Now that I have reread Turtles All the Way Down I enjoy it more than I first did. While it is still not my favorite book, and I don’t always enjoy books by John Green, I can now say it is not a terrible book.

The book ends with Aza realizing she has endless possibilities in her life and she is not controlled by anything other than herself. This is a good book of self-discovery and growth. John Green also navigates teenage relationships and the conflicts that come with well. Turtles All the Way Down may appeal to those who also struggle with anxiety or OCD that can find themselves in Aza’s character. Anyone who enjoys a personal growth story as well as a mystery would enjoy this book.

“Sometimes all a girl really needed was a very bad idea.”

The Hawthorne Legacy is the second of four in Jennifer Lynne Barnes’ series: The Inheritance Games. It picks up after Avery, a seemingly normal teenage girl from New England, inherits the fortune of a Texas billionaire with no explanation as to why. By the end of the first book, Avery has moved into the Hawthorne’s mansion, now technically hers, found herself at the center of a love triangle with the grandsons of her bequeather, and made it to the end of an elaborate puzzle left for herself and the Hawthornes. 

In The Hawthorne Legacy, Avery has to face the complicated relationship she has with her father, who has made every attempt to steal her fortune, including murder. She grapples with the possibility that he may not even be her father. This set Avery and the Hawthorne grandsons–Grayson, Jameson, Xander, and Nash–on a wild goose chase for answers. Barely dodging attempts at her life and remaining in the public eye as a spectacle; Avery does her best to solve the next puzzle. Who is her real father? Which Hawthorne will she choose? How will she survive?

The Hawthorne Legacy is a plot driven, dramatic, and fast-paced work, and Barnes is an expert in twisting stories around in the mind of the reader; she lets us believe we’ve almost solved the puzzle before turning it on its head. This worked well in The Inheritance Games, where Barnes got the timing just right, but it didn’t flow in the same way with The Hawthorne Legacy. The former was easy enough to follow, and plot twists were often shocking but rarely confusing. The latter did have great plot twists throughout, but the biggest one was poorly timed. It came in the last few pages of the book, and made the characters’ established motives, and efforts to solve the puzzle, largely irrelevant. 

As a sequel to The Inheritance Games, it was somewhat disappointing, but as an independent work, The Hawthorne Legacy was thrilling and left me wanting more. If you’ve already finished the first book and are considering finishing the series, I definitely encourage it. Despite its banal young adult tropes and belated twists, The Hawthorne Legacy is worth the read for its bracing plot and twisting mystery.

N34RLY GONE by Elle Cosimano follows the story of Nearly Boswell as she nears the end of her senior year. She’s racing for a scholarship against her best friend, Anh, losing her other friend Jeremy because she doesn’t return his feelings for her, all while being framed for murders and trying to figure out who is responsible.

Nearly finds clues for these murders through the Missed Connections ads in the newspaper. Each murder that occurs targets one of her tutoring students, leaving a number marked somewhere on the body of the victim. Nearly feels as though she’s running in circles; she has all these numbers but no clue what they mean. Each ad that appears in the paper is like a countdown, testing her to see if she can decipher the clue in time to stop the murder from happening.

As all of this is going on, she’s falling in love with a police informant who is working on the case where she is the main suspect. Reece Whelan is the token bad-boy, except he’s working to fix his record. He wants to be a better person and fix the mistakes he’s made in the past- but he also wants to keep Nearly from being wrongfully convicted of multiple murders (or killed).

This book was awarded the ITW Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel, as well as the Edward Award Nominee for Best Young Adult, both in 2015. I think this book is definitely deserving of the Thriller Award, based on the fact that it keeps the reader on the edge of their seat and is definitely a page-turner. The Edward Award seems to be pretty general, like any YA novel could win it. I do definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in murder mysteries with a little bit of drama mixed in.

It’s taken me so long to write this particular review because I honestly don’t have much to say about this book. Overall, it’s alright. The story follows the summer of camper-turned-counselor Goldie Easton as she navigates the murder of her ex-boyfriend, which took place on camp grounds. It’s a very cliche book; the summer camp is elite, with all the secrets and mysteries all coming back to money. The book shows the relationship between Goldie, coming from a working-class household, and her camp-friends, Ava and Imogen, who come from upper-class Manhattan families. They all have their own secrets that they keep from each other, though they’d always promised to tell each other everything. Goldie’s hiding the fact that her entire life had been upturned on New Year’s Eve the year prior, Imogen didn’t get into college, and Ava’s father is a big-time scammer on Wall Street. Ava and Goldie’s problems are a lot more related than either of them could have guessed in the beginning.

The book ends with everyone pretty content with their lives; the murder was figured out, Goldie and her friends stopped lying to each other, etc.. Happily ever after, you know, all that stuff. It was just a very quick and predictable read, one that I’d recommend if you need to get an assignment done quick but not if you want to have a lot to write about.

Charlotte Davis is a total wreck. She has already dropped more weight at the age of 17 than most individuals do in their lives. Yet she’s gotten good at forgetting. The anguish is washed away by the broken glass until only peace remains. You are not required to consider your father or the river. Your closest friend has passed away. Or your mother, who is powerless to help.

Charlie’s heart gets a little bit harder with each fresh scar, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts so much that you stop caring, which is sometimes necessary before you can pull yourself back from the edge.

A truly touching depiction of a girl struggling to put herself back together in a world that owes her nothing and has taken so much from her. The debut book by Kathleen Glasgow is brutally honest and heartbreakingly real. You won’t be able to take your eyes off this tale.
I knew I had to read Kathleen Glasgow’s Girl in Pieces as soon as I read the summary. I enjoy reading novels about mental illness a lot. I adore how unpolished they can be. Fortunately, Girl in Pieces did not let me down.

Girl in Pieces has a very raw plot, but it is masterfully written. Because she is a cutter and cut very badly the last time, the novel opens with Charlie at Creeley, a mental hospital. She is initially a selective mute but soon resumes speaking. We find out that Charlie has had a really difficult existence. She has experienced homelessness, been assaulted, pretty much lost her best friend, and she has a terrible home life. Charlie is thrown back into the real world far earlier than anticipated when the money for her stay at Creeley runs out. She is left on her own to manage. To be with her friend and crush, she relocates to Arizona, but things don’t go as planned. To avoid losing herself again, Charlie must learn to live and recover on her own. Girl in Pieces made me feel like anything might happen to anyone at any time since it was so realistic and relatable.

Girl in Pieces’ characters all had a really raw and vulnerable feeling to them. These were flawlessly crafted and seemed to be written by people I know and have known. Experiencing Charlie’s journey from the highs to the lows was fascinating and enlightening. There were numerous occasions when I wished that I could be friends with Charlie so that I could encourage her and let her know when she was making a mistake. After the mistakes were made, I wanted to be there for her and reassure her that every day offers a fresh opportunity to start over. I adored Blue’s lighthearted demeanor. Riley had a fascinating personality and I wanted him to succeed in life. For Charlie’s sake as well as her own, I wanted him to improve. Linus was also a truly remarkable person. I also admired Julie’s authenticity. Each and every one of the characters in this book had a significant impact on Charlie’s life, and I adored how superbly each and every one of them was written.

Girl in Pieces has a pretty fast tempo to begin with, which I found to be enjoyable. As Charlie leaves the hospital, it does slow down a little, but it still moves along nicely. The book does occasionally become a little too slow, but it swiftly starts back up not too much later.

There are numerous triggers in Girl in Pieces because it is such a dark, gritty, and honest book. The entire book might serve as a trigger. Self-harm, self-mutilation, cutting, drug usage, drinking, suicide, death, violence, physical and emotional abuse, mental illness, dark thoughts, profanity, and sexual acts and references are some examples of the many triggers in this book.

Girl in Pieces is a fantastic book all around. Although it is incredibly gloomy, it is realistic and beautifully written, with great characters. If you prefer reading dark, gritty books and are at least 14 years old, I would absolutely suggest Kathleen Glasgow’s Girl in Pieces.