Young Adult Archives - Page 8 of 16

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman: Book Review

Seraphina is working at the royal court when a prince is murdered. Even though her country has been at peace with the dragons for decades, many people believe a dragon killed the prince. Tensions start rising in the city just as the dragon ruler is due for a state visit to celebrate the signing of the peace treaty. Seraphina starts investigating what happened to the prince and following up on rumors of a rogue dragon in the countryside. But can she hide her own secrets while ferreting out someone else's? I honestly hadn't heard of this until my husband decided to buy it for me for my birthday last year. He's a brave man; choosing books that I haven't asked for can go terribly wrong but he picked a winner! I really liked Seraphina. She's trying so hard to do the right thing for everyone and the secrets that she's keeping are some big ones. She feels bad for lying all the time but she doesn't see any way around it. In her shoes, I wouldn't either. She's a smart girl though and she's much braver than she gives herself credit for. She might not decide to be brave on her own behalf but she's a lion when it comes to looking out for the underdog. I love that about her. Of course there's a love interest. I'll keep his name to myself. But I loved him too. He's also brave and curious and trying to do the right thing. He has some major twists and turns to deal with and I found his reactions to be pitch perfect. Not immediately accepting but not close-minded either. I like him a lot. I did not see the ending coming at all! I'm so happy nowadays when I can say that! There's…

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak: Book Review

Ed Kennedy is an underage cab driver with no prospects. He's the very picture of your average young man. But someone has chosen him to carry out some tasks that require him to be anything but average. I was incredibly nervous about reading this book after reading The Book Thief. That book immediately became my favorite. I knew there was no way this one could live up to it. But after starting Messenger, I realized that the books are so very different that there was no way and no need to compare them. Basically, Zusak is telling us that we can all make a difference in other peoples' lives. If ordinary Ed Kennedy can do it, so can we. And he makes it clear that it doesn't really take a lot of effort to do so. Granted, Ed gets some huge assignments, but mostly they boiled down to taking the time to notice others and having the courage and the compassion to act on the needs he sees. "It's not a big thing, but I guess it's true--big things are often just small things that are noticed." While not as consistently beautiful as The Book Thief, (sorry, I can't help it), there were moments of aching clarity and beauty in here. Zusak seems to be reminding us to look for the beauty in small, everyday moments. "Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are." And that brings us to my biggest complaint. The short, one-sentence paragraphs drove me up the wall. There were passages like the one above every page or two, if not more often. I eventually overlooked it and saw it as Ed's style, but at the beginning, it was killing me. Overall, this was a quick read with…

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer: Book Review

4 Stars. I didn't like this quite as much as Cinder but I definitely still enjoyed it. By introducing Scarlet, Marissa Meyer managed to avoid my common complaint that the second book in a series is just filler. Had she stayed exclusively with Cinder's story, I'd probably be complaining. By shifting the focus, she fills in a lot [...]

Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison: Book Review

Georgia Nicolson is fourteen and full of typical fourteen-year-old girl drama. Through her hilarious diary entries, we learn about her disastrous attempt at plucking her eyebrows, her fantasies about a guy she calls the Sex God (even though she doesn't seem very clear about what sex actually involves), her fights with friends, and her triumphs at school. Oh my gosh. I giggled all the way through this, feeling about 14 myself. Georgia just cracked me up. My poor husband couldn't get me to put it down and had to listen to me laughing and snorting to myself as I read. Oh, Georgia, you did my poor downtrodden, immediately post-Grapes of Wrath heart good. I recognized Georgia, and I think most of us will. I know some girls bypass the giggly, boy-obsessed stage completely, but I was not one of them. I was quiet about it, horrified at the idea that a boy might actually think I liked him, even if it was true, but at home I had my magazines and my walls were pretty much wallpapered with photos I'd ripped out of them and pinned up. My poor parents had no idea what happened. And that's where Georgia is in life. She comes across as pretty fearless. I was first shocked by some of the things she did but then I would giggle away again. It's all pretty harmless though. I don't know if I would like Georgia in real life (she's the type who would immediately tell a boy that you liked him), but on the page, I adored her. She is irrepressible, funny, insecure, sarcastic, and a nightmare of a teenage girl. Teens and adults who can relate and who aren't afraid of Georgia's crude sense of humor should absolutely pick this up. It was just what…

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman: Book Review

Synopsis from GoodReads: Steel Magnolias meets The Help in Beth Hoffman’s New York Times bestselling Southern debut novel, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her mother, Camille, the town’s tiara-wearing, lipstick-smeared laughingstock, a woman who is trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen of Georgia. When tragedy strikes, Tootie Caldwell, CeeCee’s long-lost great-aunt, comes to the rescue and whisks her away to Savannah. There, CeeCee is catapulted into a perfumed world of prosperity and Southern eccentricity—one that appears to be run entirely by strong, wacky women. From the exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper, who bathes in her backyard bathtub and uses garden slugs as her secret weapons; to Tootie's all-knowing housekeeper, Oletta Jones; to Violene Hobbs, who entertains a local police officer in her canary-yellow peignoir, the women of Gaston Street keep CeeCee entertained and enthralled for an entire summer. A timeless coming of age novel set in the 1960s, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt explores the indomitable strengths of female friendship, and charts the journey of an unforgettable girl who loses one mother, but finds many others in the storybook city of Savannah. As Kristin Hannah, author of Fly Away, says, Beth Hoffman's sparkling debut is packed full of Southern charm, strong women, wacky humor, and good old-fashioned heart." I wish I had reviewed this closer to the time that I read it. I loved little CeeCee--brave and tough and asked to be too strong too early. I've written a whole blog post about how I loved her. I think the rest of the book suffered from my personal Southern lit overload. I do love my Southern books and my Southern authors but between another lady and me, our book club was reading a…

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: Book Review

Jacob Portman grew up believing every word of his beloved grandfather's fantastic stories--the levitating girl, the invisible boy, the strong children. Grandpa Portman claimed to have grown up with them all in a special orphanage in Wales. As Jake grows older though, he realizes that the stories can't possibly be true. After Grandpa's shocking death, Jake has a hard time. He witnessed everything and he can't believe what he saw. He's either going crazy or the world is a scarier place than he realized. He feels that the answers to his questions lie back in that Welsh orphanage. He convinces his father to take him for a visit, and Jake finds much more than he expects. I loved this! It was so different and quirky. I feel pretty safe saying that if the cover and a quick flip through the pages entice you, you'll love it as well. The one thing that knocked my rating back a little is that it occasionally felt as if the weird old photographs were dragged in. They didn't always present anything that was necessary for the story, so it pulled me out of the flow a little bit. But mostly it worked very, very well. I liked Jake, but the peculiar children...I really liked them, especially Emma in the end. Their peculiar abilities were very cool to read about, especially after seeing their pictures. I really didn't have a clue where the plot was going so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. It took some very unexpected twists and turns and I have to say that I'm looking forward to the next installment. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes a taste of the inexplicable in their fiction. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review. The paperback…

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray: Book Review

Gemma Doyle is living in India, but she desperately wants to move back to England. As 16-year-old girls will do, she's bickering constantly with her mother over it. One day, in the midst of an Indian market, tragedy strikes and Gemma gets sent back to England. But she also starts having strange visions. Can the mysterious young man who has followed her from India help explain anything to her? At the right age, I would probably have given it more. But from where I am now, the basic premise of girl-fighting-to-fit-in-with-the-popular-crowd has been done too often. I give the author props for giving it some fantastical overtones that caught my attention, but that doesn't hide the fact that this has sort of been done before. I think part of my problem with the book also comes from the fact that I don't know a whole lot more about these visions now that I've finished the book than I did when I started. This was obviously written to be a part of a series because very little is actually explained. I'm definitely curious enough to keep reading, but I'm a little irritated that so little was revealed. I hope the rest of the series clarifies more. Reviewed March 30, 2009 If you're wondering, I still haven't read any further in the series and don't think I'm going to. Read an excerpt. Find author Libba Bray on her website, her blog, Facebook, and Twitter. Buy A Great and Terrible Beauty at Malaprop’s | Better World Books Friday Flashback Reviews are a weekly feature here on The Introverted Reader. These are old reviews I wrote on GoodReads. Thanks to Angieville and her Retro Friday Reviews for the inspiration and encouragement! I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in…

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith: Book Review

Cassandra Mortmain lives in a castle. Don't let that fool you--the castle is crumbling around her family's ears. Her father had the (mis)fortune to publish an incredible book early in his career and he hasn't been able to write another word since. In other words, the family is practically destitute. But then the owner of the castle dies and his American relatives inherit the property. Two young, handsome, and available relatives. Will one of them fall in love with Cassandra's older sister Rose and turn the family's fortunes around? I think that if I had found this book when I was about 15 I would have fallen in love with it. At 30, I really, really liked it. The story is told through Cassandra's journal, and she is brutally honest and funny. She's one of those characters that you wish you knew in real life. Really, I felt something for every character, whether I was amused by Cassandra's spacey stepmother, Topaz, or frustrated by Mr. Mortmain, they all got a response out of me. The story was enjoyable--funny, sad, reflective, and everything in between--and kept me guessing all the way through. I had no idea how everything was going to turn out. Primarily though, this is a story about Cassandra's coming of age. We watch her go from an innocent child swimming in the castle moat, to a young woman learning about herself and what she's looking for in love. Those parts were timeless and perfect. There can't be many women out there who don't relate to what Cassandra goes through in the course of the story. For that reason, I would recommend this to anyone who wants to relive a little bit of those years, as well as those who are going through that stage of life right now.…

Under the Jolly Roger by L. A. Meyer: Review

Jacky Faber finds herself working for the Royal Navy again after being mistakenly pressed into service. The ship she finds herself on is in bad shape, with a sick, evil captain who reigns with an iron fist and who has let his boat and his crew get into bad shape. Nothing can keep Jacky down for long though and she's soon making friends and plans in equal measure. I cannot express how much I love listening to Katherine Kellgren narrate this series. She doesn't hold anything back and narrates in a larger-than-life tone that is completely in keeping with Jacky's character. Kellgren sounds like she is having the time of her life reading these books and that makes me love them all the more. I would love them anyway because Jacky is such a great character. Why do we tend to love girls who dress up as boys and live the life they want? I probably just answered my own question. She's loyal and fierce and sly and intelligent and greedy and too big for her britches. She's a big mess of contradictions and that makes her feel so darn real. My one complaint about this book is that we have to travel down the road of an older man trying to prey on attractive young Jacky again. It's a different man, but, really. Teenage girls of any era do have things to worry about other than lecherous old men trying to have their way with them. It didn't take up as much of the book as I was afraid it would but as soon as it came up I rolled my eyes and thought, "Here we go again." Jaimy is starting to get on my nerves too. He's as fussy and as much of a stickler for the rules…

Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol: Book Review

Anya falls into an abandoned well one day and finds herself alone with a skeleton. Needless to say, she is terrified. Especially after the ghost of a girl about her own age shows up. Anya is rescued fairly quickly and tries to put the whole experience behind her. But she's brought something back out into the daylight with her--the ghost. And Emily has no intention of going back into the darkness. I was okay in high school. I really was. I had a group of awesome friends and we had a good time just doing our band geek thing. Still. I wouldn't want to be a teenager again. So books that bring those years so painfully to life just don't do much for me. And Anya's teenage years are painful to see. She's a second-generation Russian (I'm 99% sure) immigrant. She's so ashamed of it. She hates being around her family and seeing the ways that they're different from other families. She hates being around a boy her age who has only recently left Russia and so has a heavy accent. She's ashamed of the food they eat and the clothes she wears and even her sturdy Russian body. She's got issues. But Emily helps her to see exactly how ridiculous those feelings are. And not at all in the way that I expected. Emily just got freakier and freakier until she was downright scary by the end! She shows Anya exactly where her attitude could lead her and it is a dark, lonely, and psychotic place. I truly liked the artwork and I wish I had liked the story more than I did. It's just that teen angst thing. If you are more forgiving of it than I am, pick this up. It is a creepy little book that…