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In 2071, everything on Earth will change. On one fateful day, the lives of billions of people will end, suddenly, without warning and without explanation.  Certain cities will be spared, but they will be ruled by the terrifying fear that their fate will be the same as the “Silent Cities”: an instantaneous electrical pulse that will wipe out every living, mechanical, and fabricated object in its periphery.  The pulse comes from an Icon, embedded in the center of each “surviving” city by The Lords, an unseen race of alien life that is colonizing Earth and using what remains of the human race for slave laborRead More →

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Fred Hiatt‘s Nine Days is so much more than an action-packed thrill ride.  Don’t get me wrong, it is an action-packed thrill ride: a story that zips along at a breakneck speed, fueled by a cliff hanger at the end of every short chapter, rife with danger, and near death scrapes. But at the same time, Nine Days is also a story that explores freedom, social justice, human rights, and complex, real world problems.   I found it completely engaging and unexpectedly thought-provoking, enjoying the successfully executed thriller inspired by Ti-Anna Wang, the real daughter of a jailed Chinese dissident. 16 year old Ethan has beenRead More →

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How would you feel if you had to constantly move, change your name, appearance, and high school? Sadly, this is a feeling that Anna Boyd and her family know all too well. Anna’s parents and little sister are in Witness Protection and have had six identities in less than one year. Moving around is hard enough, but Anna has no idea why she and her family are in Witness Protection to begin with. Not only does Anna have to pick a new name and memorize her “childhood memories”, she is constantly being placed and taken out of various high schools during her senior year. HerRead More →

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If you received an email from an unknown person, would you reply? Most people would delete the message without even opening it…but what if that email held the fate of your future love life? Ellie O’Neill receives an email from GDL824@yahoo.com. While the email address is unfamiliar to her, curiosity forces her to read it. The email was accidentally sent to her but the topic of the message piked her interest. This mystery person was telling Ellie about his pet pig and was unaware that he sent it to the wrong person. Ellie informs GDL824 about his accidental message to her, yet their conversation does not end there. WeeksRead More →

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Isis Ann Murray, known by her friends as Ice or Icie, loves language, Starbucks, smart-ass T-shirts, horror films, her iPhone, and Tristan.  With her best friend Lola, Icie engages in linguistic creativity, creating Ripples—words that lose their individual identities when they swirl into new forms, adding flavor to conversation.  Freaking idiot, for example, becomes fridiot, and terrifically boring becomes borrific.  Icie’s life is flowing as smoothly as life can for a seventeen-year-old whose dad is a nuclear physicist and whose mom works for the federal government, but she learns that, regardless of life’s banality or beauty, Psycho-style surprises can erupt. When Tristan—two weeks before prom—dumpsRead More →

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The bond between brothers is at the heart of Michael Harmon‘s latest, Under the Bridge.  Tate’s younger brother, Indy, is probably the best skateboarder in Spokane.  The guys in the crew, Indy, Tate, Pipe and Sid, are tight like brothers and they live to ride.  Their neighborhood is on the fringe of the seedy underbelly of the city where drugs and crime are rampant and murder happens almost every day, and just last year they lost one of their own to an overdose.  Tate’s the crew’s unofficial leader and he feels an obligation to protect his brothers as much as he can.  And its notRead More →

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Identity theft has been the top consumer complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the past twelve years in a row.  According to the FTC, identity theft, which happens when someone steals your personal information and uses it without your permission, is a serious crime that can wreak havoc with your finances, credit history, and reputation — and can take time, money, and patience to resolve. This is the topic of Anna Davies’ new book, Identity Theft, the second installment in the Point Horror series.  Davies’ novel features senior Hayley Westin, who has more awards than friends.  As a freshman, she took down herRead More →

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Readers of alien invasions, apocalyptic fiction, or exhilarating action-thrillers will not be disappointed with Rick Yancey’s latest novel, The Fifth Wave.  Reminiscent of Steven King’s The Stand , of P.D. James’ futuristic political-fable novel Children of Men, or of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, Yancey’s book is super- intense and rich with nearly nonstop action.  In grand genre-blurring fashion, Yancey writes a book that is equal parts science-fiction and thriller, the first in a trilogy that promises to rival the popular  Hunger Games series. When aliens invade earth, their presence is felt in waves: Lights Out, Surf’s Up, Pestilence, Silencer, and the Fifth Wave.  After losing the powerRead More →

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Have you ever wished the rich gave a small amount of their money to the poor? Or even to the less unfortunate…?  Ash and Benjamin do just that in the story, Money Run, by Jack Heath. When Ash’s mother leaves with most of the money, Ash and her father are struggling to make ends meet. Her father begins working multiple jobs, but the income is not enough. Trying to pay the bills each month was hard enough but when their house is burglarized  everything changes. Ash comes home from school to find that the television, couch, computer, phone, her bed, and other furniture pieces have beenRead More →