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Calling to mind the sometimes surreal, often dreamlike, and always visceral way that Francesca Lia Block infuses the City of Los Angeles with a pulsating life of its own in her many young adult novels, M. Beth Bloom‘s debut, Drain You, creates a city simmering under the summertime sun,  blown dry by the desert winds, and fully alive while we spend the endless nights wandering the streets of a city built on dreams, shadows, illusions and secrets.  The scene is so perfectly set, the place so vividly imagined and described, it’s very easy to lose yourself to the siren call of a city that isRead More →

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The Right and the Real by Joëlle Anthony contains the typical adolescent girl themes: romance, friendship, and finding one’s own voice or identity, but it transcends those themes to explore the impact of poverty, addictive personalities, and religious organizations that border on cultish behavior.  Seventeen-year-old, Jamie Lexington-Cross fears being sent back to her drug addicted mom when her alcoholic dad stops attending therapy and trades one addiction for another, the Right and the Real church. Brainwashed by the petite Mira whom he takes as his bride and by the loud and certain preacher who considers himself Jesus, Robert Lexington-Cross evicts his pragmatic daughter from theirRead More →

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In Sangu Mandanna‘s The Lost Girl, Eva is a fifteen year old girl living in London who has a life completely different than anyone she knows. She is an echo; a creation made by a group of individuals called the Weavers. She was created to prepare if her ‘other’, Amarra, were to die. Eva would take her place and continue to live Amarra’s life in India with only Amarra’s parents knowing she is an echo and not their true daughter. Eva looks identical to her ‘other’ and has been trained since birth to walk, talk, dress, and act like Amarra. Eva is convinced nothing willRead More →

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Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard holds true to the title. Eleanor Fitt is the young protagonist living in 1800’s Philadelphia dealing with the usual problems of a young woman including fitting into a corset, being married off by her mother, and escaping zombies?! That’s right! When Elijah (Eleanor’s brother) does not get off his train in Philadelphia, Eleanor and her mother begin to worry. To make it worse, a zombie has hand delivered a note to Eleanor written by Elijah telling her not to worry and he will be home when he can. Philadelphia is being over run by zombies and Eleanor hasRead More →

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Tackling some of the same powerful questions he did in his stunning debut You, Charles Benoit’s latest for young adults is Fall From Grace. High school senior Sawyer’s life is already neatly planned out for him: finish his above average high school career, packed with all the right extra-curriculars and volunteer work, go to the local liberal arts college and major in accounting for a career as an insurance actuary, and after college marry his beautiful, perfect high school sweetheart.  And until the day at the Mock United Nations assembly when he meets Grace, Sawyer has never bothered to question the plans his parents soRead More →

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The Temptation by Alisa Valdes doesn’t feature the vampires or werewolves of a Maggie Stiefvater or Stephanie Meyer novel, but the character list does include shape shifters and a ridiculously handsome, courageous, and devoted male protagonist.  The plot also revolves around a paranormal romance with sequels to follow. This first installment of the trilogy—a magical and mystical romance set in Albuquerque, New Mexico—tracks the story of sixteen year old Shane Clark and her love interest, Travis Hartwell, a revenant who alternates between human and ghost forms.  Shane drives a fancy car, attends a fancy school, owns a fancy dog, and listens to fancy music untilRead More →

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Budget cuts at Julius P. Heil High in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, ignite a testosterone exodus as athletes seeking programs that will lead to scholarships leave in droves.  Flynn Meaney’s novel The Boy Recession takes up the story of how Julius students make the best of a bad ratio.  Although the story revolves around typical high school drama with its myriad of personalities, the spotlight falls on sixteen year old Hunter Fahrenbach, Kelly Robbins, and their immediate circle of friends. Fahrenbach, a slacker with ambitions for little besides sleep and music, eventually proves he has depth when he performs on Open-Mic Night.  His guitar/vocal solo landsRead More →

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First impression suggests that Robin Wasserman‘s Book of Blood and Shadow has a lot of similarities to Jennifer Donnelly’s fantastic Revolution:  a modern American teen girl whose brother has been tragically killed; a family torn apart by their overwhelming grief and inability to deal with the loss; finding solace in the letters (journal) of a seemingly inconsequential teen girl hundreds of years ago; and discovering clues to a long-forgotten mystery.   In The Book of Blood and Shadow, high school senior Nora thought she was signing up for an easy honors extra credit project – working with an eccentric Medieval Studies professor translating old LatinRead More →

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The latest from National Book Award Finalist Julie Anne Peters, It’s Our Prom (So Deal With It), is a sometimes comical and often insightful look at a high school rite of passage. Prom is, was, and always will be an event meant for the popular kids, the jocks, the socials and the kids with money –  the geeks, freaks, and uniques have never felt welcome.  Forget about attending if you don’t have a date, can’t afford the dress, tux, limo, or high ticket price.  And even if you do go, it’s just a boring dance where the school’s most popular kids elect each other asRead More →