Tag: young adult fiction

Book Review: I Am the Cage, by Allison Sweet Grant

Title: I Am the Cage
Author: Allison Sweet Grant
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

Fish Creek, Wisconsin—Beautiful. Quiet. Isolated. Anonymous. It’s all that nineteen-year-old Elisabeth needs, and everything she wants. Cloistered in her tiny cabin, Elisabeth is determined to be alone, hiding from her memories and making sure that no one can ever hurt her again.

But when a massive snowstorm strikes, plunging the town into darkness, Elisabeth finally allows herself to accept help from her neighbor, Noah, the town’s young sheriff. Forced to show him more vulnerability than she ever intended, Elisabeth realizes she can no longer outrun the scars of her childhood, and facing the darkness might be exactly what she needs to let the light in.

I have a hard time with passive people who just let life—and people—happen to them. What Elisabeth went through as a child was horrific and is something no child—or anyone else—should ever have to go through. What the doctor did, and what her mother let happen, was terrible. And what kind of mother lets her child be tortured like that?

But Elisabeth as an adult kind of got on my nerves a bit for a while, with her passivity and hiding from the world and everyone in it. You do not have to let things that have happened to you control your life—you can move past them and grow stronger from them. For a long time, Elisabeth was content to live in the shadow of her past without attempting to heal from it, and that was very hard for me to read. I was glad when she started to embrace who she was now without clutching the horrors of her past around her like a protective cloak.

Allison Sweet Grant lives in Philadelphia. I Am the Cage is her new novel.

(Galley courtesy of Penguin Group/Dutton in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: A Better Nightmare, by Megan Freeman

Image belongs to Scholastic/Chicken House.

Title:   A Better Nightmare
Author: Megan Freeman
Genre: YA
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Emily Emerson is nearly sixteen, finally a senior at the Wildsmoor Facility. But so is Meera, isn’t she? Meera, who is nineteen and has been a senior for as long as Emily can remember? Here, the students live each day as shadows, one day blurring into the next, hardly aware of life passing them by while the symptoms of the Grimm Cross Syndrome that afflicts them all is trained out of them. Rules. Order. Repetition. Medication.

Emily was eight when she started showing signs of the disease. Odd dreams, hallucinations – impossible things that happened around her. Unconscious thoughts that could be set free into the world—flowers that covered the house, thick like a forest and sowed with nothing more than her unconscious thoughts. It was beautiful until it turned evil, when Emily did her first bad thing and found herself here. Now, she’ll do anything to get better and get back to her life. She’ll be more quiet and obedient than everyone else.

Until she meets Emir.

Emir isn’t like the other kids at Wildsmoor. He’s quicker and livelier. He says things that he shouldn’t – dangerous things. Emir is electric, magnetic in more ways than Emily can know.

When Emir introduces her to The Cure, a secret society for kids who believe that The Grimm isn’t a disease at all, but a gift, Emily starts to wake up, and so do her strange abilities. The outcome is a dream come true. But sometimes the best dreams and the worst nightmares have the same people in them.

This wasn’t a bad book, but Emily didn’t really do anything: she just let everything happen to her. Emir was a jerk, and so were several of the other main members of the Cure. His sudden change of heart wasn’t very believable, and I feel like so much that could have added depth to this story was just glossed over, leaving me feeling like I was reading a summary and not an actual story. This is a miss for me, unfortunately, as the premise is great and I was interested to read it. The execution just didn’t live up to it, though.

Megan Freeman is from Cornwall. A Better Nightmare is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Scholastic/Chicken House in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: All Better Now, by Neal Shusterman

Title: All Better Now
Author: Neal Shusterman
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

An unprecedented condition is on the rise. It behaves like a virus, with the first symptom being a fever, but those who contract it experience long-term effects no one has ever seen utter contentment. Soon after infection, people find the stress, depression, greed, and other negative feelings that used to weigh them down are gone.

Almost everyone revels in this mass unburdening. But people in power—who depend on malcontents tuning into their broadcasts, prey on the insecure to sell their products, and convince people they need more, new, faster, better everything—know this new state of being is bad for business. Soon, campaigns start up convincing people that being happy all the time is dangerous. There’s even a vaccine developed to rid people of their inner peace and get them back to normal because, surely, without anger or jealousy as motivators, productivity will grind to a halt and the world will be thrown into chaos.

It’s nearly impossible to determine the truth when everyone with a platform is pushing their own agendas, and two teens from very different backgrounds who’ve had their lives upended in different ways by the virus find themselves enmeshed in the center of a dangerous power play. Can they reveal the truth?

I found this to be an unsettling read. Not just the whole pandemic thing, but the people fighting so hard against people trying to help other people, people being positive, and against people just being content. That doesn’t say anything good about us as human beings, does it? This was an entertaining enough read, and the little vignettes of different people in the short chapters reminded me a bit of The Stand, which I always enjoyed.

Neal Shusterman is a bestselling author. All Better Now is his newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Simon and Schuster in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Capitana, by Cassandra James

Image belongs to HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books.

Title: Capitana
Author: Cassandra James
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

Ximena Reale has spent most of her life training at La Academia to join the Cazadores, seafaring hunters who track down pirates. But her future is uncertain, thanks to her parents’ questionable reputation. They were traitorous pirates, and though they were executed when Ximena and her sister were young, they permanently damaged the Reale name in the eyes of the Luzan Empire.

Ability alone won’t make Ximena a Cazadoro—or earn her the coveted Cazadoro cloak. So, when the legendary pirate Gasparilla returns and captures the Empire’s queen, Ximena offers to bring back the queen and the notorious pirate in exchange for a cloak. But there’s a catch: Only one cloak is available, and Ximena’s competition is Dante, an infuriating yet handsome classmate with mysterious motives.

With their futures on the line, Ximena and Dante set out on a dangerous quest across the high seas. But no matter how far Ximena sails, her family’s legacy haunts her, and her exposure to a world outside of la academia leads her to question the very laws she’s always fought to uphold. Is it possible she’s been on the wrong side all along?

I have mixed feelings about Ximena. She is so single/narrow-minded about pirates, the Law, and the Empire that she refuses to see anything that doesn’t agree with her worldview—to an extent that’s a little ridiculous. I like her determination, but her willing blindness, not so much. Despite this being billed as historical fiction, women seem to have full rights and opportunities, and they hold positions of power, so that’s a positive. I’d like to know more about the Empire and its oppression of people, as the generalities given in the story were a bit vague, but on the whole, I enjoyed this read. I couldn’t buy the Dante/love angle, though, because that came out of absolutely nowhere.

Cassandra James lives in Florida. Capitana is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: What the Woods Took, by Courtney Gould

Title: What the Woods Took
Author: Courtney Gould
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

Devin Green wakes in the middle of the night to find two men in her bedroom. No stranger to a fight, she calls to her foster parents for help, but it soon becomes clear this is a planned abduction—one everyone but Devin signed up for. She’s shoved in a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where she’s dropped off with a cohort of equally confused teens. Finally, two camp counselors inform them that they’ve all been enrolled in an experimental therapy program. If the campers can learn to change their self-destructive ways—and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness—they’ll come out the other side as better versions of themselves. Or so the counselors say.

Devin is immediately determined to escape. She’s also determined to ignore Sheridan, the cruel-mouthed, lavender-haired bully who mocks every group exercise. But there’s something strange about these woods—inhuman faces appearing between the trees, visions of people who shouldn’t be there flashing in the leaves—and when the campers wake up to find both counselors missing, therapy becomes the least of their problems. Stranded and left to fend for themselves, the teens quickly realize they’ll have to trust each other if they want to survive. But what lies in the woods may not be as dangerous as what the campers are hiding from each other—and if the monsters have their way, no one will leave the woods alive.

There’s a solid level of creepiness going on here. Like, I won’t be walking in the woods with my overactive imagination anytime soon. Solid writing and descriptions, and I enjoyed the relationships between the characters, who had all just met, so the growing camaraderie and trust was done well. Devin was a bit too…pushy and brash for me, but I did enjoy this read and thought the secondary characters were great.

Courtney Gould lives in Salem, Oregon. What the Woods Took is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Heist Royale, by Kayvion Lewis

Title: Heist Royale
Author: Kayvion Lewis
Genre: YA
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

It’s been six months since the end of the Gambit. Instead of winning an impossible wish, Ross has the threat of her family’s execution hanging over her head. Devroe, the only person Ross thought she could trust, could wish the Quests into oblivion at any time. Shockingly, despite his betrayal, Devroe is still making a play for Ross’s heart as the two work together pulling jobs for the Organization. But Ross has learned her lesson: A Quest can only trust another Quest.

When Ross finds herself at the center of a power struggle within the Organization, she sees her chance to change her fortunes. As a new deadly Gambit develops for control of the criminal underworld, Ross strikes a risky deal to guarantee protection for herself and her family.

In this final clash, Ross will square off against a ruthless opponent who will stop at nothing to seize power, and in their corner will be not only Devroe but his mother, who wants to destroy the Quests at any cost.

This was a lot of fun to read! I actually enjoyed it more than the first one. Non-stop action, danger, and tricky situations kept me glued to the page, and the different characters and their intrigues kept me invested. This was just solidly fun.

Kayvion Lewis lives in Louisiana. Heist Royale is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Penguin Group in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Midnights With You, by Clare Osongco

Title: Midnights With You
Author: Clare Osongco
Genre: YA
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

“Where were you thinking of going?”

“Nowhere.”

“Great,” he says lightly, putting the car in gear. “Then we’ll go there.”

Seventeen-year-old Deedee’s life is full of family ghosts and questions she can’t ask. She longs for an escape, but guilt holds her back—that, and the fact that her strict Filipino single mom won’t let her learn to drive. But one sleepless night leads Deedee down a road she never thought possible: secret driving lessons with the new boy next door, Jay, whose turbulent family life also keeps him up until sunrise.

As midnights stretch into days, Jay helps Deedee begin to unravel her past, and as shared secrets blossom into love, Deedee starts to imagine a life where happiness is possible. But the deeper she digs into the trauma that has shaped her, the more that trauma threatens to tear Deedee and Jay apart. Together, these two must decide if the pain they’ve both inherited has the power to choose their fate, or if they have the power to choose for themselves.

Deedee’s mom was pretty horrible through most of this—and a liar, to boot. I didn’t care for that, but Deedee wasn’t entirely a sympathetic character either. She was self-absorbed and selfish and had moments of bitterness that were off-putting. I felt like this was very slow in some parts, and was never really fast paced, so my attention wandered a bit. I liked Deedee, but she was sometimes hard for me to read.

Clare Osongco lives in L.A. Midnights With You is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of Disney Hyperion in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Rules for Camouflage, by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Image belongs to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Title: Rules for Camouflage
Author: Kirstin Cronn-Mills
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

Evvie Chambers is doing her best to skate through the last month of high school to graduation. The only thing standing in her way is a biology report on foxes—and her teacher, Mrs. Audrey Dearborn. The same Mrs. Dearborn who’s been a thorn in Evvie’s side for years, refusing to acknowledge or accommodate her neurodiversity. Evvie would much rather be doing her report on Aretha, the octopus she cares for when she volunteers at the Minnesota Zoo but deviating from the exact assignment isn’t allowed—and Mrs. Dearborn isn’t going to make following the rules easy.

Evvie’s only escape from high school hell is the Lair: a safe haven for kids whose brains need some time away. But when Mrs. Dearborn refuses Evvie’s pleas to finesse the final report assignment to her strengths, and persistent bully Vandal McDaniel directs his harassment toward Lair members, Evvie finds herself more desperate than ever for stability and support.

When a shocking act of violence pushes the whole mess over the edge, Evvie, with the help of her friends and the others who love her, will have to figure out how to find her place in the wide world, while remaining true to herself.

I enjoyed this read—especially the scenes with Aretha, who was absolutely magical. I liked seeing how Evvie’s mind worked, and to a certain extent, the other kids in the Lair, too. I didn’t really care for a couple of scenes where Evvie and some of the other kids thought their neurodivergent brains meant the rules didn’t apply to them. While I didn’t care for Mrs. Dearborn and her ugly personality, Evvie’s refusal to follow the rules of the assignment was glossed over and made to seem sympathetic, but, yea, it’s not. This was a solid, entertaining read.

Kirstin Cronn-Mills lives in Minnesota. Rules for Camouflage is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Streetlight People, by Charlene Thomas

Title: Streetlight People
Author: Charlene Thomas
Genre: YA
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

For most, Streetlight is a dot on the map you pass on your way to somewhere else. But if you live there, you’re either a Have-Not, like Kady, or a Have-Lot like her boyfriend, Nik, who also happens to be a member of the exclusive social club, The IV Boys.

Known for their powerful families and the coveted ball they host for a selective guest list, The IV Boys have always refused to accept Kady regardless of how much Nik loves her. All the Boys except for Aaron, who didn’t grow up in Streetlight and is one of the few who knows that life—real life—exists outside of it. But his stepmom has the kind of wealth and power even IV Boys can’t resist.

With Nik at college, Aaron stands by Kady’s side. But all Kady really wants is Nik, and when a chance encounter on Halloween hands her the power to twist and hold time, she doesn’t hesitate. Now she can keep Nik close for as long as she wants.

While Kady tries to relive her best moments with Nik, the IV Boys have her in their sights. A rumor’s spreading that Kady and Aaron are much more than friends—and not even twisting time is enough to defend against the power that the Boys were born with.

The more Kady changes the clock, the more dizzying reality becomes, until she stumbles upon a truth darker than anything she could have imagined. Streetlight is filled with monsters—and maybe she’s always been one, too.

This book. Part of me was like, “What is happening here?” All of me was completely engrossed in the story and finding out what the heck was going on! I loved Kady and her friends—they were so much fun, and their friendship felt authentic and was something I wanted to be a part of.

I actually liked Nik, too, for the most part. I enjoyed the parts of his and Kady’s relationship that we saw, and I understood her happiness—and her frustration. Streetlight itself gave me the creeps—that whole small-town, everybody-in-your-business thing is not for me—but it felt real. I highly recommend this read!

Charlene Thomas is from Maryland. Streetlight People is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Penguin Group in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Thieves’ Gambit, by Kayvion Lewis

Title: Thieves’ Gambit
Author: Kayvion Lewis
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

At only seventeen years old, Ross Quest is already a master thief, especially adept at escape plans. Until her plan to run away from her legendary family of thieves takes an unexpected turn, leaving her mother’s life hanging in the balance.

In a desperate bid, she enters the Thieves’ Gambit, a series of dangerous, international heists where killing the competition isn’t exactly off limits, but the grand prize is a wish for anything in the world–a wish that could save her mom. When she learns two of her competitors include her childhood nemesis and a handsome, smooth-talking guy who might also want to steal her heart, winning the Gambit becomes trickier than she imagined.

Ross tries her best to stick to the family creed: trust no one whose last name isn’t Quest. But with the stakes this high, Ross will have to decide who to con and who to trust before time runs out. After all, only one of them can win.

This reminded me of Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ The Inheritance Games—and that’s a good thing. This was a lot of fun from the very beginning, except Ross’s mom is a lot. I always feel really not smart when reading books like this, but they’re also fascinating, seeing how someone else’s mind works. I loved the action in this, but the different characters and their personalities were the real stars of the show. This is a great weekend binge read!

Kayvion Lewis is from Louisiana. Thieves’ Gambit is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Penguin Group in exchange for an honest review.)

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