Young Adult Archives - Page 13 of 16

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins: Book Review

If you haven't read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, you shouldn't read this review. I have avoided Mockingjay spoilers. Katniss is living in District 13. The Capitol has sought revenge for the rebels' assault on the Hunger Games in a brutal, unbelievable way. The rebellion is gaining momentum, and the leaders are begging Katniss to become their figurehead--the living Mockingjay. This was still good, it just wasn't exactly what I expected, and I think the biggest reason I say that is because of Katniss. I felt like I'd lost her. She's so heartsick. She feels responsibility for so many deaths. She spends a large part of the book wandering around lost. There are flares of the Katniss that I love, but they aren't consistently there. Do I buy her reaction? Absolutely. Am I happy about it? Obviously not. Katniss's fire is what has drawn me to these books, and she's down to embers. Otherwise, the book twisted and turned and I had no idea what to expect or who to trust. I was thrilled to get to see more of Gale. I've always felt like he hasn't had a fair chance with Katniss, and he does get his chance here. There are so many losses, my heart just broke over and over again. There were losses in Catching Fire that I still hadn't reconciled myself to, so these new ones just felt terrible. That should say something about how lost I get in this world, shouldn't it? I'm still mourning. I still love the series, I still recommend it, I just want fiery Katniss back. Buy Mockingjay on IndieBound | Book Depository | Better World Books I have an affiliate relationship with IndieBound, Book Depository, and Better World Books and will receive a small commission at no cost to…

Annexed by Sharon Dogar: Book Review

In Annexed, author Sharon Dogar imagines what life in the Annex with Anne Frank must have been like for young Peter. We know all about Anne's thoughts and feelings, but surely Peter needs a chance to tell his side of things too. The novel begins as Peter is dying and looking back on his life, desperate to tell someone his story. The first part of this book was really about 4 stars for me. It wasn't anything hugely different from what I would have imagined, but it was nice to see a different perspective on the other housemates. Anne frequently used her diary as a place to vent, so we tended to see the worst parts of everyone. In this book, Mrs. van Pels is shown as a caring mother who frequently says inappropriate things to help draw attention away from shy Peter. She steals the Franks' sheets to help him out too. His dad makes his awful jokes as a way to try to break tension. Mr. Frank is a wise, understanding mentor. Margot is inscrutable, but Mrs. Frank and Mr. Pfeffer are still pretty difficult to live with. Anne herself isn't always easy to live with, with her high ideals and mercurial personality, but she always makes life interesting, even within the confines of the Annex. The second part left me feeling shattered. Anne Frank's diary is a difficult read, because you do know how the story ends. But the diary just stops and, in the edition I read anyway, there was a very dry summation of what happened to the inhabitants of the Annex after their capture. If you've read any Holocaust literature at all, you can fill in the blanks, but it's easy just to not think about it and feel sad that Anne didn't live…

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld: Book Review

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR LEVIATHAN Now that Great Britain has officially entered World War I, Deryn and Alek find themselves official enemies. Alek knows that he has to escape the Leviathan before his secret is out and he becomes an ultra-important prisoner of war, and Deryn knows that she has to let him go. The two find themselves in Constantinople (or is that Istanbul?), where the Germans are making trouble for the Brits, and developing a weapon that could be devastating for the Leviathan. Can Alek prevent a war, and can Deryn save her beloved ship? I am still loving this series. Deryn is such a feisty character. She's super-intelligent, practical, and not afraid to do the right thing. She's also finding it harder and harder to keep her identity a secret from Alek. Her solutions to problems are always ingenious and she just leaps off the page for me. I don't have quite as much to say about Alek. I like him, but compared to Deryn, he's kind of boring. A new character, Lilit, is introduced in this book, and I loved her too. She's a lot like Deryn, but she's able to live as a girl and still show the boys a thing or two about driving Clanker machines. She's fantastic and I hope we see more of her. The action just didn't let up, and I was always interested to see how things were going to work out. The ending was a bit weak because I thought it just stopped. I actually flipped forward and backward a few times on my nook to make sure I hadn't missed anything. As far as I can tell, I didn't. It just ended. Not exactly on a cliffhanger, but just in an odd place. I received an e-galley from the publisher,…

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer: Book Review

Calla Tor is the alpha of her teen Guardian (werewolf) pack. She knows the rules and she enforces them. So why does she break them multiple times in one day by saving a normal teenage boy and letting him see her shift? And why are her masters, the Keepers, so interested in this same guy? Oh, I'm torn on rating this one! On the one hand, I tore through it, eagerly waiting to see what was going to happen with Calla, Shay, and Ren. On the other hand, I'm tired of teenage love triangles, and I'm really, really sick of cliffhangers. I liked Calla as a protagonist, but I can't say that I bought her as an alpha personality. We're told that she's an alpha, but we only see her at a time when she's starting to question everything she knows about her life. That leaves her a little insecure. Maybe I'm just thinking that alpha=bitch (Hee hee! It should in a werewolf!), but she doesn't seem to have a whole lot of control over her pack. She's pretty clueless about what they get up to. Her younger brother knows more about their lives than she does. That's not the sign of a great leader. Shay and Ren were great, but they were almost interchangeable to me. Calla lusted after them both, they both lusted after her, they both constantly challenged her, but I didn't see her offering a whole lot of challenge in return. They were both able to convince her to do what they wanted pretty easily. I liked them both, so I can't come out as Team Ren or Team Shay. I'm kind of left thinking that if she feels so similarly about both of them, neither of them should be the guy for her. I got…

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly: Book Review

Andi has pretty much hit rock bottom and kept falling. She's a gifted musician and student, but her younger brother's death has sent her into a destructive downward spiral. When her mostly-absent father finds out that she's in danger of flunking out of school, he hauls her off to Paris with him for winter break, in order to monitor her progress on her all-important senior thesis. When Andi finds Alexandrine's diary, she feels an instant connection to this young woman from another time. Alexandrine was a born player, or actress, living during the French Revolution. Will Alexandrine's diary help Andi with her own problems or will they make them worse? The biggest thing that stands out to me is the one drawback I found in the novel. The set-up showing exactly how bad Andi's life has gotten lasted about twice as long as I had the patience for. That's an entirely personal thing, so don't let me dissuade you from reading this book based on that alone. I have a low tolerance for "the earth is a black pit of despair" attitudes and that's where Andi is at the beginning and periodically throughout the book. I won't deny that she had ample reason to feel that way, I'll even admit that I would probably feel the same, but as a reader, it just went on too long for me. On to the good stuff. I just love Donnelly's writing. I read A Northern Light last summer and it immediately became one of my favorite books. There's just an unnameable beauty or grace to it that shines through, even when she's describing this dark, dark period of Andi's life. There's a lot going on in this story. There's guilt, grief, family problems, mental illness, following your dreams and not selling out,…

The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez: Book Review

Lucía Álvarez is your typical teenage girl. She has a crush on cute Manuel, she and her best friend Ivette are interested in all the latest fashions and movies, and she's trying to fit in at school. So when Fidel Castro cancels classes, her only thought is enjoying her unexpected freedom. She slowly realizes how dangerous things are becoming in her country. Finally, her parents break the news that Lucía and her younger brother Frankie are being sent to America, where they don't know anyone, all alone. My father-in-law is Cuban and he was about Lucía's age when he left Cuba on one of the so-called Pedro Pan flights. He was fortunate to have family waiting for him in America. Because of him, I am fascinated by this country's history. To think that my father-in-law lived through a revolution and is part of a community that still in large part considers themselves to be exiles 50 years later. It just blows my mind. So when I came across this book, I knew I had to read it. I loved it. It works precisely because Lucía is the girl next door. There's nothing that really stands out about her, and I don't mean that in a bad way at all. She's a nice girl just trying to grow up and worrying about her first dance. Most of us can probably relate. As the revolution insidiously intrudes on her life, she is horrified and terrified. She sees things that no 14-year-old girl should see. And then she's in America alone with her seven-year-old brother. She speaks very little English and doesn't know anyone. So now there's the immigrant experience as she learns about a new culture and new people and tries her best to fit in at a new school. And she's…

The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan: Book Review

Annabeth and the goddess Artemis are missing. Percy, Thalia, and Grover embark on a quest to find them before the winter solstice, just a few days away. Artemis is needed to vote at a meeting of the gods about the Titan issue. And well, Annabeth is Annabeth, and her friends are worried about her. I've waited too long to write this review! I hate it when that happens! This is another page turner in the Percy Jackson series, and it took lots of twists and turns that I did not see coming. I loved getting to know Thalia better. I had figured out some basic things about her, just knowing her background, but getting to see her in action was great! She and Percy are a little too much alike to click together well, but they're still friends and they still look out for each other. Annabeth was largely absent though, and I did miss her a lot. There is some setup for the rest of the series, and I am curious to see where all this is going. Oh, and the monster everyone is worried about? What a shocker that was! Highly recommended for fans of the series, and everyone should be a fan of this series!

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston: Book Review

I'm taking a break from all my Banned Books Week reviews to post about an excellent book that is being released tomorrow! Check it out! What if the Big Bad Wolf was framed? That's all the synopsis I want to give, but I'll give you more. Henry Whelp is a good wolf. He's never gotten into any trouble. Nevertheless, he finds himself in juvie after he breaks a truck window. His father is the Big Bad Wolf of Little Red Riding Hood fame, and everyone is just waiting for Henry to go bad. Henry eventually finds out that his father believes he was framed. See, George was working for Dust City's version of the mafia. They make their money by selling synthetic fairy dust to the population now that the fairies have disappeared. But what exactly caused them to disappear in the first place? I love the whole idea of this book. The synopsis reminds me a little of Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime series. I enjoy those, so I thought this could be a winner for me and it was. Henry is a nice guy who just can't get a break. He ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time pretty frequently. He tries to do his best, but no one is looking for that; they're only looking for his mistakes. He finally just has to take matters into his own hands and start following the clues to their conclusion. Along the way he meets a female wolf, Fiona. Fiona is a smart little hottie. She actually sees the best in Henry. Her brother is a real trouble-maker, but he actually has some good points, so she's used to looking for the good in people. The mystery twisted and turned and I had no idea where it was…

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones: Book Review

Abdullah is the son of a carpet merchant in the city of Zanzib. His inheritance wasn't much, but he's getting by pretty well. The rest of his extended family picks on him, but it's only once a month and he can take that. One day, a mysterious stranger shows up and sells him a magic carpet. That night, Abdullah falls asleep on the carpet and wakes up in a beautiful garden with a beautiful princess named Flower-in-the-Night. As you would expect, Abdullah and Flower-in-the-Night fall in love over several nighttime visits and plan to run away together. Then an evil djinn kidnaps her. Abdullah swears to rescue her at all costs. So it's not quite Howl's Moving Castle. It was still a very engaging story with characters that I liked. Abdullah is the plucky protagonist who can only be likened to Aladdin. He's by far the poorest suitor a princess could have, but he's also the most faithful. He's the only man to go in pursuit of the evil djinn. He hits some big snags and faces down danger to save his lady-love. Flower-in-the-Night was great! She's an intriguing mixture of innocence and wisdom. She's so protected that she's never seen a man except for her father. She's spent a lot of time reading books though, and learning about the world around her. When everything starts to reach its resolution, she's the one with the ideas. The soldier was completely unexpected. He was a bit of a trickster figure and I could never put my finger on whether he was good, bad, or indifferent. He's a good guy to have on your side in a scrape, but he has a great big soft spot for the kitties. The book itself was one great big magic carpet ride of a story.…

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer: Book Review

Mary "Jacky" Faber is an orphan in eighteenth-century London. She actually came from a good family, but when both her parents died of illness, there was nowhere for Jacky to go but the streets. Luckily, she made her way into one of the gangs of street orphans, groups of children who watch out for each other and share whatever they manage to find or steal. Jacky eventually decides she needs to do something to improve her life before she ends up dead. She disguises herself as a boy and starts wandering London on her own. She immediately realizes how much easier life is for boys, even orphan boys. She soon finds herself at the docks, where she lands a position as ship's boy in the Royal Navy. Adventures follow, with Jacky worried about someone finding out her secret the whole time. I loved Jacky! She is such a strong, true female character! I was thrilled to find her in a YA/MG book. She's not unrealistically tough either. She has her fears, and when she gets scared she starts crying and screeching like a banshee. She admits that she's not very brave--except that she mostly is. She has her own fears, as we all do, but she does things that most children, or adults for that matter, would be terrified to do. When she finds herself in a tough spot, she doesn't just give up; she solves her problems the best way she can, and she's very smart about it. Whether it's a matter of survival or bullying, nothing fazes Jacky for long. Jacky writes her own story, and the beginning is written in a very--cockney?--way. I thought it was pretty fun and didn't have a problem understanding it at all. If you find yourself reading this and you're put off…