Review: City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

Publication: August 28th 2018
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 272 pages
Source: Bookmobile
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal, Middle Grade
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

“People think that ghosts only come out at night, or on Halloween, when the world is dark and the walls are thin. But the truth is, ghosts are everywhere…Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there,” (Schwab 1).

So begins Schwab’s foray into the middle grade genre, and she does so as spookily and addictively as ever.

Advertisement

Review: Broken Things by Lauren Oliver

Publication: October 2nd 2018
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages:  408 pages
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult, Thriller, Contemporary
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

“That’s the problem with lies. They aren’t solid. They melt, and seep, and leak into the truth. And sooner or later, everything’s going to muddle,” (Oliver 144).

Lauren Oliver is a writer who always seems to be pushing herself and her boundaries as an author. Her stories are consistently unique in their plots from telling the story of a haunted house through the perspective of the ghosts/house who move it or looking at a world where love is illegal, I’m always eager to see what new ideas Oliver will come up with.

Review: A Room Away From The Wolves by Nova Ren Suma

Publication: July 31st 2018
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages:  384 pages
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult, Thriller, Contemporary
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤

“But when there’s one speck of truth in the lie, no matter how tiny, it can make all of it seem real,” (Suma, Nova Ren 233).

I had a lot of hopes for this book and I wouldn’t say I’m exactly disappointed by it, but I’m not all that satisfied with it either.

Review: The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

Publication: July 31st 2018
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages:  384 pages
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult, Thriller, Contemporary
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤

“Pain isn’t supposed to teach you anything. It only exists to hurt you,” (Thomas, 5).

I’d been looking forward to reading The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas for a while. It was the cover that got me, I love me some minimalism and the beige with the cheerleading skirt and splashes of blood sold me on it before I even knew what the story is about.

Review: Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

Publication: June 5th 2018
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages:  327 pages
Source: Bookmobile
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Psychological, Science Fiction, Fantasy
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤

“No one ever heeded a warning sign when it came,” (Pessl 5).

I fell in love with Marisha Pessl’s writing when I read her book Night Film. It was a strange and addicting read and I knew I had to keep her on my radar. And there she came on my bookstagram, through one account and then another. As soon as I saw that she had written a new book and her first for YA, I knew I had to read it and was lucky to get on the hold list at my library at just the right time.

Review: Sorority by Genevieve Sly Crane

Publication: May 1st 2018
Publisher: Scout Press
Pages:  293 pages
Source: Bookmobile
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Anthology
My Rating: ⛤⛤

“Men will kill you with their idiocy but women will kill you with their brilliance,” (Crane 205).

I really really wanted to like this book. The article for it on Bustle Books made it sound like something right up my alley, dark and mysterious, something feminist. But all I got was a disappointing book about mean girls that only had the vague outlines of darkness and greatness it could have been.

Review: Surfacing by Margaret Atwood

Publication: January 1st 1972
Publisher: McClelland and Stewart Lmtd.
Pages:  192 pages
Source: Bought (Used Bookstore)
Genre: Fiction, Canadian, Mystery
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤

I’ve read a lot of books by Margaret Atwood, but none of them have been as strange as Surfacing was.

I heard of Surfacing a few years back when I was just getting into Atwood. My dad had read the book way back in university not long after it had been published. He hadn’t liked the book, had said it was confusing and strange, and it had completely put him off of Atwood until this year when he read The Blind Assassin and recognized how great a writer she really is (I kind of like Margaret Atwood okay!). I had just finished reading the Maddam series and couldn’t believe he’d said such a thing about such a Canadian icon, so when I found Surfacing in a used bookstore of course I had to buy it and prove my dad wrong.

Except it is kind of weird, and strange, and confusing, at least at the end. But it didn’t put me off Atwood!

Review: This Fallen Prey by Kelley Armstrong

Publication: February 6th 2018
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Pages:  359 pages
Source: Bookmobile
Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

“Don’t rely on me. Just don’t. I will do what I can, everything I can, but please do not rely on me. Do not give me that responsibility. I will fail” (Armstrong 191).

I absolutely adore Kelley Armstrong. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, probably many times on here and multiple times on bookstagram I know of, but the world needs to know she’s amazing! I was first introduced to Armstrong’s books when I was in high school and read her Darkest Powers trilogy. Since then I’ve read everything I can get my hands on by her, because she’s an amazingly diverse writer ranging from fantasy to young adult and now to thrillers. And it isn’t like Armstrong excels in one genre more than another, she excels in ALL genres!

So I guess it’s time to stop gushing about Armstrong and start gushing about the newest book in the Casey Duncan/Rockton series, which really means I’m not about to stop gushing about Armstrong for the whole review.

Review: Beautiful Broken Girls by Kim Savage

Publication: February 23rd 2017
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux Inc.
Pages:  336 pages
Source: Bookmobile
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery
My Rating: ⛤⛤

“Everyone wanted to touch us. Including you. So remember the seven places you touched me. That’s where you’ll find the truth. In my words.
Start at the beginning” (Savage 12).

Oh boy, where do I begin.

The synopsis of this book offered so much. It sounded like a mix of Thirteen Reasons Why and The Virgin Suicides when ultimately it doesn’t hold a candle to them (or at least The Virgin Suicides. I haven’t read Thirteen Reasons Why. Yet.).

Review: Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Publication: January 24th 2017
Publisher: Katharine Tegen Books
Pages:  387 pages
Source: Bookmobile
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

“‘Well, people tend not to think clearly when a black girl is suspected of killing a little white girl.'” (Jackson 222).

Mary Addison killed a baby when she was nine-years-old. Allegedly. She never hardly spoke when questioned or at the trial, and when she did she said she didn’t remember what happened to baby Alyssa, and that was enough to lock her in jail for six years before she was released into a group home, which is where the reader first meets Mary.