This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really love author Courtney Summers but I just don't love zombie books. Sloane Price is one of 6 students who is barricaded in her high school when the world has ended and the zombies are trying to get into the school. Everyone in the high school wants to live but they do not know that Sloane has a pact to die and she is just biding her time until she can take her own life. Why? Her sister, Lily ran away 6 months ago and she promised she would take Sloane. Why? Their misreable father maliciously beats them on a daily basis and Lily was going to run with Sloane to a better life and then Lily ran away and the apocalypse struck! What happens inside the school is totally creepy and scary, I couldn't put the book down. I liked watching characters who gradually stepped up and changed during their time in the school while others deteriorated, turned on others and were just palin human during a truly terrifying time. I so enjoyed watching Rhys become someone Sloane grew to care about; Rhys knew how to handle Sloane (even when he found out she wanted to kill herself)and it was totally maniacal when they decide to run "outside" and make it to a center for aid. Summers does not allow the reader any time to think in this book because there is constant paranoia, dread, and fear. Intense and utterly scary, what will happen to Sloane?

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Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Wither by Lauren DeStefano
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked this book and really felt like I was withering along with all the other "brides" of Linden. Imagine a world where women do not live past the age of 20 because of faulty genetic engineering; there is a master race but now boys only survive to age 25. Rhine Ellery had wonderful parents and a twin brother but her parents are dead now and at age 15 she is stolen off the streets of Manhattan and forcibly taken to Florida to be one of the 3 wives of Linden Ashby. Rhine's narrative is strong but very conflicted; she plots to escape and return to her twin brother but she lives like a prisoner in Ashby's mansion. His father, HouseMaster Vaughn is sincerely scary, trying to find the perfect antidote. Rhine sees/finds that he is experimenting on anyone who dies but cannot share this information with anyone. Through Rhine's eyes we see how cold, fake, and eelike Vaughn is but she knows how to lie and play his game. Linden is sheltered, awkwar,d but a husband to 3 women and the love of his life, Rose dies making Rhine promise she will look after him. I really had a tough time liking Linden. He was weak, and he never knows his father is evil incarnate---but his father was experimenting on Rose after she dies, to try and get that perfect antidote. Somehow Vaughn knows everything that goes on in his home. He knows that Rhine is growing closer to the house servant, Gabriel. He knows she tried to escape during a storm and he isolates her and continues to badger hee and stress her importance in keeping Linden happy. The title of the book Wither was so apt and it is part of the Chemical Garden series. DeStefano does a thorough job of creating a world that is in chaos with a perfect Master Race racing against time to save the children that science has doomed. Since I downloaded the 2nd book on my Kindle, I will be reading it, but I am glad to give myself some distance from the ache of the decay in this first book.

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Every Day by David Levithan

Every Day by David Levithan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, I just really loved this book, A. and Rhiannon, and the many other people A is each day. But I was also very sad, because when A falls in love with Rhiannon, you want everything to be possible for them, like their first day together when they spend the day at the ocean. Even though it may seem fantastical that A. isn't a person, but someone who becomes another person for just 24 hours. Levithan's A. is sympathetic, has had to get used to something he cannot control since he was born...waking up every day, somewhere else, a male or a female, black, white or any other culture, happy, sad, a jerk, suicidal, fat, geeky, etc. But the day he wakes up as Justin, A, isn't really a fan of Justin, until he meets Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. She seems tentative around Justin and A. just falls for her niceness, her smile and decides to throw all his caution to the wind and spend a very special day with her. The day at the ocean is perfect. It is only later, in another body, another day that A. becomes driven to see Rhiannon, even if it is 5 hours away. At some point, A tells Rhiannon who he is and Rhiannon, being touched by the special person A is, decides to (a little unwillingly) meet up with A, whenever possible. Will they find true love? Well, there is alot more going on in this book, so you have to read it to find out. But I think teens will love this book! It is full of yearning, honesty (even amongst the lies)and I see it as probing the teen uncertainties---when A. is fat, when A. is a girl, when A is black---how does Rhiannon act towards him? I think teens will see the many possiblities and keep on turning those pages, I know I did! I can't wait to discuss it with my boys and girls because I think both will see the good in A. and Rhainnon. Enjoy this YouTube video of many YA authors who are different characters in this wonderfully compelling story, High recommended!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZjSHv...


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Irises by Francisco X. Stork

Irises by Francisco X. Stork
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just love Francisco Stork's style of writing and this 3rd book was moving, difficult, and you so want Kate and Mary to survive what life is throwing at them. Kate and Mary are two sisters with a strict minister father they love and a mother who has been in a vegetative state for two years since a car accident. Kate and Mary's lives are changed after their mother's accident and when her father refuses to keep her in a facility, she comes to their home; with some outside help to care for their mother. Mary has always been a gifted painter but finds it difficult to paint since the accident. Kate has secretly applied to Stanford; her wish to become a doctor and help others. Suddenly their father dies and they are pressured to make decisions about their mother, their home and their life. Stork uses imagery and the sister's thoughts, words, and actions to describe their lives before his death. As Mary and Kate struggle with their love and faith, they will meet people who help them deal with the crises that demand decisions during their time of sorrow. Mary and Kate have such different personalities but their love for each other and their mother are steadfast. It is how they choose to move forward that is so compelling. This is a gripping yet beautiful story of the Romero sisters, I highly recommend this. It is deep and I know some students I am definitely going to book talk this to in September.

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White Cat (Curse Workers #1) by Holly Black

White Cat by Holly Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Since I really enjoyed the Tithe Series, I knew I was going to love this first book in the Curse Workers series! Cassel "lives" with his two brothers, Phillip (who is married with a baby) and Barron (who attends Princeton) while his mother is in jail. We find out Cassel Sharpe's family are curse workers, but Cassel is not a worker at all. But Cassel apparently killed his friend, Lila; but he doesn't remember anything but standing over Lila and lots of blood. Their mother is in jail for conning a millionaire and Barron is trying to get her out. While she is in jail, Cassel attends a prep school and tries to be normal but he is a bookie and enjoys some small fame. Until he sleep walks and wakes ups on a roof at school and can't get off. Cassel can't remember how he got there but in his dream he was chasing a white cat. While he has been suspended from school, his grandfather comes to help him clean out his house that sounds alot like a hoarder's home with all the junk they are wading through. As his best friend, Sam keeps the bookie business going at school, Cassel sees the white cat and it seems to be "telling" him, he is responsible somehow and must do something. This is a suspenseful, lots of twists and turns novel with Cassel as a very likable hero who at times really hates his worker family; even more when he realizes they are erasing his memory and working him. Holly Black's world of the paranormal is edgy and gritty and students will enjoy Cassel's predicaments, his schemes and how he WORKS his own family! I am really lookng forward to Book 2 Red Glove.

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