Young Adult Archives - Page 16 of 16

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly: Book Review

Mattie Gokey is an intelligent high school senior living in rural New York in 1906. As this book unfolds, we are following two different, intertwined arcs of Mattie's life: the earlier months when she is desperate to get to college and the later months when she's working at a summer lake resort where a young couple has just gone missing. I have neglected writing this review for about two weeks now. I loved this book, and I know that I'm never going to do it justice. First of all, there's Mattie herself. Do all readers adore books where the main character is reader also, or is it just me? Mattie is a beautiful writer; a voracious, hungry reader; and a word collector. I just loved her. The book is written in first person, and her voice is authentic and beautiful. The edge of my book is a flurry of post-it flags marking quotes that I loved. You know I'm going to quote them at you at the end of this review, right? She's at that age when the world is open before her, but she has ties tugging her back. You know that feeling that your soul is bigger than your body and you just have to stretch your wings? Mattie describes it perfectly. A lot of the book centers around the choice that Mattie must make between what she wants and what's expected of her. She's torn and I was so worried about her, all the way through. I desperately wanted her to choose what would make her happy. I just love characters that do that to me. As Mattie is making her decision, she's reading letters left behind by the lady who is missing. These are real letters from a real crime committed in NY. The contrast between…

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery: Book Review

My favorite book growing up was Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. It's still one of my all-time favorite books. I have to confess that the first time I tried to read it, I thought it was boring. I'd seen the movie somewhere and grabbed the book at the library, and I think the language was just a little too difficult for me at the time. I couldn't have been ten years old. But I tried once again, and that time I fell in love. I wanted to be friends with "Anne-with-an-e" and the ever-loyal Diana and share in their adventures. If I'm honest, I still want to be friends with them! They just became real to me. My family used to go to the beach every summer, and there was this one little bookstore that always had a big selection of L. M. Montgomery books. My library only had the first two Anne books, so it became a tradition for my mom to take me to that bookstore so I could get one or two more of Montgomery's books to read. I was always impatient for more, but now I'm glad I got to stretch all those books out over such a long period of time. The anticipation was delicious. One of the books, Jane of Lantern Hill, was actually out of print, so I didn't complete my collection until I was somewhere in my twenties and my husband bought that one for me online. I was thrilled! I don't have any new-to-me L. M. Montgomery books to look forward to now, but I've re-read everything she wrote countless times, and I get something new out of them every time. I'm thinking it's getting to be time to do another re-read. Synopsis from GoodReads: As soon as…

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Book Review

Most of you have probably already read The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, but it's my very, very favorite book right now and has been for a while. Liesel Meminger is a ten-year-old girl living in Nazi Germany and being sent to live with foster parents when her younger brother dies. This is the first time she comes to the attention of Death, our narrator. This is also the first time she steals a book. It's entitled The Grave Digger's Handbook. She learns to read using this book, and she begins to feel the power of words. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll keep the rest of this vague. She continues to steal books, she lives, she loves, she endures more loss, and she somehow manages to surround herself with shining souls in a world that is being lost to the dark. I would give this book more stars if I could. I was trying to tell my husband how fantastic this is and I was reduced to a stuttering mess of, "So good...power of words...just...you know... so good...I loved it...she just, you know...I mean...I loved Papa...did I mention that I loved this book? No, I mean, I really loved it." That's how I feel, staring at this big, empty review box, trying to find the words to say why everyone has to read this book that I loved. Just read it. Good enough? Also, this is marketed as a YA book. In all honesty, this is a book that anyone could revisit time and again at different stages in his or her life and pull something different from it every time. Don't be put off by the YA label. I promise you, you'll regret it if you dismiss this as a book for teenagers. It probably actually…

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale: Book Review

As luck would have it, the day Dashti enters the service of a lady is the very day said lady is bricked into a tower for seven years to learn obedience. Dashti goes along with her to keep her company and take care of her. Between fighting off rats, Lady Saren's torpor, and the unsettling attentions of Saren's two very different suitors, Dashti has her hands full. And that's just the beginning. I love Dashti. She grows so much in this book! She starts off a simple girl from a simple way of life, unquestioningly following the laws of the land, and she becomes a strong woman, confident in herself and her abilities. The book is really Dashti's diary, so it was interesting to see her thinking and even her writing style change as she grows into herself. Dashti's is the most obvious transformation, but Lady Saren quietly undergoes some drastic changes. She starts out a weak, irritating, ineffective girl who seems to be nothing but a chain around Dashti's neck, but sometime when you aren't looking she becomes something... more. This is my first time reading Shannon Hale, and if this is any indication of the rest of her work, it won't be my last. I sat down to get started on this before spending a little time on the computer, and the next thing I knew I was finishing it. Seriously. One sitting. There was one part that started to drag just a little bit, but somehow a book about two girls in a tower became a page turner. I enjoyed how Dashti's "voice" changed as she changed, and I'm very impressed with Hale's skill in pulling that off. I was thrilled to read a young adult book with a strong female lead and no love triangle in…

Lament by Maggie Stiefvater: Book Review

Deirdre meets Luke at an audition one day. They play some amazing music together, and by the end of the day, Deirdre is more than a little infatuated. But Luke isn't the only stranger appearing in her life. All kinds of weird people and events start surrounding her, and it's obvious that Luke has something to do with it. First of all, can I just say that I don't read all that much YA, but I am sick to death of the inevitable love triangle. Sick of it! Lament was a little more low-key than others I've read but it was still there. I remember it being hard enough to get one guy in high school to like me. Now girls have to aim for two or feel like losers?!?! C'mon. Let's do something attainable here. Aside from that, I enjoyed this. I had a decent idea as to what Luke's story was going to be, and it frustrated me a little that super-smart Deirdre was being so clueless about it. But I did enjoy the give-and-take of Deirdre's relationships with Luke and her best friend James. Sure, they rode to her rescue a few times, but she rescued them too. Deirdre and Luke were pretty good characters, but I loved James! He's such a smartass, but underneath all that he's a very caring, understanding guy. Mostly he just cracked me up though. Deirdre and Luke enjoyed playing old ballads together, and I liked that this book had a similar feel to it. That said, the ending might leave some readers dissatisfied, but it stayed true to that ballad history. It also left room for the sequel, Ballad: The Gathering of Faerie. I have that waiting to be read too, and I have to admit that I'm more than ready…

Madapple by Christina Meldrum: Book Review

Aslaug has lived an isolated life with her mother in the woods of Maine. A disturbing story is revealed in alternating chapters. One set of chapters reveals the course of Aslaug's life in the summer of 2003. The other reveals Aslaug on trial in 2007, for a crime that isn't even revealed until very late in the book. These are some crazy *itches. I'm sorry, but that's the logical place to start this. Aslaug appears to be an innocent victim, living in a house with her mother where they don't have electricity and all the windows are boarded over. Is it to keep the world out or Aslaug in? When she finally starts to meet other people, she's woefully unprepared for what she finds. She doesn't understand a lot of modern technology, she's brilliant with languages but doesn't understand everyday slang, and she doesn't realize the evil that people can hold in their hearts. Well, evil probably isn't the right word. I'll try again. The evil that fanaticism can lead people to. Save us all from fanatics of any flavor. Is there anything scarier than someone who is doing crazy, hurtful things because they believe that God, Allah, the Easter Bunny, or anyone else has told them it's their sacred duty to do so? I can't say that I enjoyed this--I was too upset throughout most of it for that. But I'm still mulling over some of the religious history and characters' behavior that I read here. This is a book to get under your skin and unsettle you for a while. If you're in the mood for that, go for it. If not, steer clear.

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George: Book Review

The lass is the last child in a family of nine and the fourth unwanted girl. She is so unwanted that her mother doesn’t even bother to name her. When a polar bear comes crashing through the door one night and asks her to live with him in his castle for a while, she agrees on the condition that her family will be provided for. And her adventures begin. I really don’t think I’ve ever read East of the Sun, West of the Moon (the fairy tale that this is based on), but I truly enjoyed the book. Retold fairy tales obviously come in many shapes and sizes, and this book stayed very true to the feel of the old fairy tales. The characters were developed a bit more, but I still wouldn't say that they're well-developed. The story was more about "what happened next," and I kept turning pages to find out exactly that. I liked that the lass could talk to animals. It added an extra element to the story when her pet Rollo could tell her what the castle walls smelled like. There were some lessons to be learned here, such as not giving up and avoiding trying to be something you're not. I was going to give this four stars, because I really did enjoy it while I was reading it, but now that I'm trying to write my review a week later, I find that the book has already faded in my memory, so I'm going to bump it down to three and a half stars. I'll still recommend it, but I'll probably find myself searching out a different re-telling of this fairy tale to see how they compare. I just found and read the original fairytale, and Jessica Day George did stay remarkably true to…

Un Lun Dun by China Miéville: Book Review

Strange things start happening around best friends Zanna and Deeba. A fox appears on the edge of the playground, watching Zanna. They come across graffiti saying “Zanna For Ever!” A woman they don’t know approaches Zanna in a café and tells her what an honor it is to meet her. It all culminates one night when the girls are having a sleepover and notice a broken umbrella hanging off a window, spying on them. They follow the umbrella and eventually find themselves in a place…not London. UnLondon, in fact. I loved this! Loved it. The author acknowledgments should give you an idea as to what to expect. China Miéville writes, “As always, I’m indebted to too many writers to list, but particularly important to this book are Joan Aiken, Clive Barker, Lewis Carroll, Michael De Larrabeiti, Tanith Lee, Walter Moers, and Beatrix Potter. Particular thanks are due Neil Gaiman, for generous encouragement and for his indispensable contributions to London phantasmagoria, especially Neverwhere.” Miéville chose some big footsteps to follow and he absolutely pulled it off. This mostly reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, with a little side of Neverwhere. The sense of totally unpredictable fun that pervades Alice was alive and well in Un Lun Dun. There was crazy word play (Binjas! Gotta love ‘em!), fantastical creatures, and a world where the impossible has become the everyday. But underneath all the fun, there were subtle messages about loyalty, friendship, doing your best, having faith in yourself, standing up for what’s right, and even a little dash of environmentalism. None of this is at all heavy-handed though, so it really can be read as a fun adventure story. Miéville illustrated the book himself, and I loved the illustrations. They added a perfect note of whimsy to an already-whimsical book. My favorite…

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder: Book Review

5 Stars. I just loved Yelena. She is so smart, sarcastic, ever-hopeful, and talented in ways that even she doesn't realize. She's the biggest reason I rated this book five stars. So my question is, with all the kick-ass female characters out there for teen girls to read, why is whiny Bella the one that most seem to have latched [...]