Category: Reviewed by Chrissie

Maggie is suffering from memory loss, but she isn’t really sure whether she wants to get back those missing memories.  Why?  Because those memories would fill in the details of exactly what happened immediately before and after her boyfriend, Joey, accidentally fell to his death.  The story her friends gave her [and the police] is that Joey died as the result of a cliff dive gone wrong… but Maggie is afraid there might be more to it than a mere slip.  Could it have been something *she* did wrong?  After all, Joey had jumped from that cliff countless times, and he was supposed to be helping her with her first jump.  Her best friends — Adam, Shannon, and Tanna — are doing the best they can to support her, but they’re having a hard time even managing with their own grief in this tragic time.  A perfect blend of mystery and contemporary realistic fiction, especially if you’re in need of a good cry.

In this alternate history of World War I, the German forces [called Clankers] used steam-powered war machines like tanks and the Allied forces [called Darwinists] utilized living creatures as war machines.  The Leviathan, for example, was an airship made from a living whale-like creature.  Though it looked much like a Zeppelin, it was MUCH cooler because it depended on a complex ecosystem in which the waste-products of smaller organisms [living inside]  provided the helium-like substance that made it float.  Add that to the fact that people were walking around inside the beast/ship, and it’s not hard to understand why a science geek like me was just as enthralled by the Darwinists’ creations as I was with the whole rest of the story!  If you like action and adventure, and you’re not opposed to possibly learning something about world history, this is a book you should probably read.  (Just be sure to check out the author’s note in which Westerfeld explains which events/facts were true to history and which he created for the sake of his story.)

Verity was a passenger in British spy plane that was shot down over Nazi-occupied France.  When she looked the wrong way before crossing the street, and almost got hit by a van, she was picked up by the Gestapo.  In order to get Verity to reveal her mission and any other pertinent information about the British war effort, the Gestapo subjected her to a wide variety of tortures.  Verity’s confession gives an account of both what she endured and what she told the Gestapo, but it never explains whether it is completely truthful or if it contains any lies.  Compounding this confusion, of course, is the inclusion of this quote in the beginning of the book:

‘Passive resisters must understand that they are as important as saboteurs.’
SOE Secret Operations Manual
‘Methods of Passive Resistance’

Only by reading the second half of the book, told from the perspective of Verity’s pilot friend Maddie, can readers ascertain the truth.  This would be a good story for you if you want to learn more about some of the lesser-known facets of WWII, enjoy suspenseful stories, and appreciate heart-wrenching tales of friendship and devotion.

Sometimes I go into a book knowing pretty much what is going to happen but just curious about how the whole thing plays out.  This book, on the other hand, was one of those “everyone says it’s great, so I’m going to read it even though I don’t remember what the reviewer said about it back when I decided to order it” kind of books.  I put myself on the waiting list and then, when it showed up, I started reading without so much as a glance at the summary.

I usually like going into a book completely blind because I can enjoy the story better if my experience is not tainted by another person’s opinion.  When I first started reading this book, I thought the story was going to be a healthy serving of “coming-of-age in a small town” with a side order of “gay older brother.”  Boy, was I wrong!  When the tragic twist happened somewhere near the middle of the book, I felt like someone had punched me in the gut.  I immediately flipped to the back of the book and then looked inside the front cover to see if there had been any kind of indication or warning about it in the summary.  Yup…  I guess there was.  Part of me is glad that I wasn’t able to steel myself against the shock, so I could react more naturally to the story, but part of me wishes I had known something was going to happen so I didn’t have to fight so hard not to cry while I was reading in the middle of the pediatrician’s waiting room before my son’s check up!  I refuse to give anything away, but I will say this much — read this book somewhere you can feel free to let the tears flow and be sure to have a hanky or a tissue handy.

Dystopian sci-fi is a genre that I can’t seem to get enough of…  But this book was a bit too realistic and definitely freaked me out!  I actually had plans to go to the mall and told my husband that we’re just going to shop online for a while!  The blurb on the back of the book may very well be one of the shortest blurbs I’ve ever read, but it summed it up very well:

“It’s just another Saturday in a busy suburban mall. But not for long.”

When a kid named Marco stumbles upon a small device with a red, blinking LED, he just knows it’s a bomb.  When the bomb squad gets called in, things take a turn for the worse.  The entire mall ends up on lock-down because the bomb was in the HVAC [heating, ventilation, and air conditioning] control room and it may or may not have spread some form of contagion through the mall.  Alternating perspectives between two guys and two girls, this book lays out the details of a terrifying possibility — being quarantined in a mall, with limited supplies, for an indeterminate amount of time.  [shudder]  The worst part for me, though, was finding out that this is only book one and I have to wait to see how it all ends!

Kyra is 13 years old and has never known life outside of the compound.  Her family belongs to a strict, polygamous, religious cult where the men take on many wives, and the women are considered property — first of their fathers, and then of their husbands.  Kyra’s father has three wives and 21 children (soon to be 23), and Kyra is of an age where she is about to be promised to a man.  Back when the group first settled in this location, the girls were matched with boys only a few years older.  Now, it seems like all of the girls are being given to the older men — and Kyra is horrified to find out that the Prophet has matched her with her own uncle, who already has six wives.  She has accepted most of what she has been told her whole life, but things are getting less and less palatable by the day.  Will she be able to change the Prophet’s mind?  Will she run away?  Or will she have to marry her uncle, an awful prospect even if he wasn’t so closely related, and obey his every command? If you find this book interesting, you might also want to read Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka.

After a global economic meltdown, resources were so scarce and people were so scared that violence and crime skyrocketed.  Leaders of Canada, the USA, and Mexico decided that they would be better equipped to rein in the criminals if they worked together, and thus formed the UNA (United Northern Alliance).  Citizens of these countries were angry about the alliance and rebelled, which led to massive riots.  Then Roland Harka came along.  Using both charisma and force, he took over the UNA and appointed himself Prime Minister — for life.  With freedoms and civil liberties taken away, communication restricted, and severe penalties for people who disobeyed, order was restored.  As a result, all 16-year-olds now have to take the GPPT (Government Personality Profile Test).  During the GPPT, teens’ brains are scanned to reveal which teens are predisposed toward a life of violence and crime.  Those who fail, often referred to as Unanchored Souls, are sent to Prison Island Alpha, also known as The Wheel.

Alenna wasn’t really worried about failing the GPPT, so she was completely taken by surprise when she woke up on The Wheel.  She knows she is not crazy, and she has never been prone to violence or crime, so she thinks there must have been a mistake.  But, how does she even begin to contact people back home so she can try to get herself off the island?  Unless she manages to align herself to one of the two “tribes” of teens who already live on the island — and who constantly battle one another — she might not survive long enough to try and escape.  This book, the first of a trilogy, is a worthy addition to our If You Liked the Hunger Games list!

London and Zach traveled the world with their missionary parents all throughout their childhood, so it was easy for the siblings to become best friends.  Now that Zach is gone, though, it means that London has a hole in her heart AND her life.  She simply doesn’t know how to exist without her brother and best friend.  [Is it OK to smile or to laugh when your brother has killed himself?]  Even worse is the fact that her mother hasn’t talked to, looked at, or hugged her in the more than six months since Zach died.  London expects that it’s because her mother thinks it’s her fault.  With the help of friends, old and new, London is doing her best to pick up the pieces of her heart and move on with her life.

Andrew “Ender” Wiggin was a third — a child who should not even exist in a society with a strict two children per family limit.  Why did he exist, then?  Because his parents had promised to hand him over to the government if he tested well and showed promise as a potential commander in the fight against the Buggers [an alien race with whom the people of Earth were at war].  Even though military leaders were excited by Ender’s progress at Battle School and thought he might possess the skill-set needed to save humanity, Ender was kept in the dark.  All he knew for sure was that Battle School offered him refuge from his sadistic older brother, Peter, while taking him away from the affections of the only person he has ever truly loved, his sister Valentine.  But ruining one kid’s life to potentially save the human race is worth it, right?

In this first book of the Chemical Garden trilogy, Lauren DeStefano introduces readers to a world in which scientists [whose intention was to cure all disease] have accidentally shortened the human life span.  Males only live to be 25, and females only live to be 20.  Some people have hope that the older generation [who still have a normal life span] will be able to fix the problem, though many have given up hope, and it seems as though the entire world is falling apart.  Young girls are routinely kidnapped and forced to work in brothels or to enter polygamous marriages so they can bear as many children as possible in an attempt to forestall the collapse of the human race.  This is how we meet Rhine.

Rhine’s parents were scientists, and they died in an explosion created by protesters.  She and her twin brother did their best to look out for one another, but she was still snatched off the street, transported several states away, and forced to marry a rich man named Linden.  Rhine is determined to escape from her new life, despite the riches and extravagance now at her disposal, because she would rather live the remainder of her short life in freedom and with her only remaining family.  She isn’t exactly sure how she might escape, let alone get back to her home and her brother, but Rhine knows she would rather die trying than give up and potentially become the subject of Linden’s father’s nefarious experiments.

I never really thought of myself as being old enough to have  historical fiction about my generation, but this book has changed my mind.  Computers with high speed internet have become so ingrained in my life that I sometimes forget how painfully slow dial-up used to be.  Kids today might not remember those AOL trial offer CD-ROMS that used to come in the mail and litter customer service counters, but I distinctly remember wondering what the internet would be like — then fighting with my parents about tying up the phone line when I started to use it!  And although I was introduced to chat rooms, IMs, and e-mail in much the same way as Emma and Josh, I was not able to peer into my future via a mystical connection with my [15-years-in-the-future] Facebook account.

Josh and Emma weren’t sure what to make of it at first.  Sure, the picture looked a lot like an older version of Emma… but it had to be a prank.  Right?  Once they started to believe that this could possibly be a glimpse into the future, it became increasingly tempting for Emma to try and change the future.  If Emma saw something indicating that she would become unhappy in the future, she tried to think of what she could change now.  And while Josh thought his future self seemed pretty happy, he wasn’t so sure about how to handle some of the things he learned about other people.  It reminded me a bit of Back to the Future 2 with ever-changing Facebook status updates instead of actual time travel.  A fun read that makes you think?  Awesome!

Forget what you think you know about mermaids.  They aren’t beautiful creatures with beautiful voices who long for nothing more than to be human… They are ruthless creatures who happen to be beautiful and have beautiful voices so they can better lure humans into the water in order to kill them and absorb their emotions!  Calder White is a merman whose family lives in Lake Superior.  He leaves his sisters and migrates to the tropics  during the winter, but his instincts and family bond force him to return to Lake Superior every summer.  Returning is especially important this year, though, because his sisters believe that they have finally found Jason Hancock.  ”Who’s that?,” you ask.  Oh, only the man responsible for their mother’s death.

When Jason Hancock was a baby, his father fell into the lake and was rescued by a mermaid [Calder’s mom].  In exchange for his life, he promised to give her his infant son [Jason] — but he left and took his family with him.  Calder’s mother was furious and, in her anger, was caught and killed in a fisherman’s net.  Not only do mermaids refuse to accept broken promises, but this family of mer-people wants revenge for their mother’s death as well.  Calder’s job is fairly simple.  He needs to find a way to get close to the family so that he can lure Jason into the water, where his sister’s will exact their mother’s revenge.  The only problem?  Calder starts to have feelings for Jason’s eldest daughter, Lily.  My favorite part of this book?  The end page that said a sequel would be out in 2013!