My Review
Jade is the third novel in the Wildflowers series written under the name of V.C. Andrews. While I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this one because I don’t care much for books that focus on law or legal … Continue reading
Tag Archives: young adult
Synopsis
Jade had listened to Misty and Star tell their stories. Now it is her time to speak. But she can't. For while the others in Dr. Marlowe's therapy group had exposed their hidden pains and secret pasts, they are nothing like Jade. They don't know what it is like to be a pawn in a courtroom battle too hateful to ever forgive. Or that escaping the madness had lured Jade into an ordeal too traumatic to forget....
Synopsis
In the second volume in the Wildflowers quartet, Star hides her nightmarish secrets from the other girls in her therapy group, until she gradually reveals her story to Dr. Marlowe and the others, allowing her to finally confront the horrors of her past.My Review
After reading Misty, the first novel in the Wildflowers series by V.C. Andrews, I was really excited to dive into Star, because I wanted to see what her story entailed. I was so eager to read it, I read it in … Continue reading
Synopsis
"We lived in such a perfect world. Why were we so imperfect?" All Misty ever wanted was a normal family. But like so many others, Misty's parents didn't stay together. Now they use Misty to hurt each other, to deliver tiny cruelties in an endless stream. Misty knows her parents might love her. But Misty has an unspeakable secret that burns in the core of her very being: she hates them. Misty isn't as alone as she thinks. She's about to meet three other girls who are just like her -- each one with their own dark secrets to share.... The many millions of V.C. Andrews fans, and particularly the younger readers among them, will thrill to the first in a new, four-book series on the struggles and secrets of children of divorce. Misty is the tale of a young girl facing the trials of her devious, divorced parents and the terrors of a deeply-held secret. When she meets three other girls in therapy, also children of divorce, she learns that she's not alone -- and not alone in sharing secrets.My Review
My mom has always had a ton of books by V.C. Andrews in her bookshelf, and to be honest, I think the only one I ever read was Flowers in the Attic. I read that when I was probably like … Continue reading
Synopsis
True Detective meets The Exorcist in this gripping YA mystery debut about one girl’s exorcism—and her desperate quest to reunite with her demon.Clare has been miserable since her exorcism. The preacher that rid her of evil didn’t understand that her demon—simply known as Her—was like a sister to Clare. Now, Clare will do almost anything to get Her back. After a chance encounter with the son of the preacher who exorcised her, Clare goes on an adventure through the dark underbelly of her small Southern town, discovering its deep-seated occult roots. As she searches for Her, she must question the fine lines between good and evil, love and hate, and religion and free will. Vivid and sharp, The Good Demon tells the unusual story of friendship amid dark Gothic horror.
My Review
You know, I love books that give me the unexpected when I read them. I love books that are completely unlike anything else I’ve read, books that completely bend my mind into thinking other ways and give me a great … Continue reading
Synopsis
Someone will shoot. And someone will die. #1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins tackles gun violence and white supremacy in this compelling and complex novel.People kill people. Guns just make it easier.
A gun is sold in the classifieds after killing a spouse, bought by a teenager for needed protection. But which was it? Each has the incentive to pick up a gun, to fire it. Was it Rand or Cami, married teenagers with a young son? Was it Silas or Ashlyn, members of a white supremacist youth organization? Daniel, who fears retaliation because of his race, who possessively clings to Grace, the love of his life? Or Noelle, who lost everything after a devastating accident, and has sunk quietly into depression?One tense week brings all six people into close contact in a town wrought with political and personal tensions. Someone will fire. And someone will die. But who?
My Review
Ellen Hopkins is known for her honest, gripping, and raw novels that combine different writing styles, characters, and harrowing experiences that are sure to shock you and will make you think. I fell in love with her writing back when … Continue reading
Synopsis
It's a perfect day for Lark's dream date with Alec from school. Blue skies, clear water, a canoe on the lake. Alec even brought flowers for Lark's birthday. Everything is just right ... until they hear screams from the edge of the water. Annabelle, a little girl Lark used to babysit, is struggling in the reeds. When Lark and Alec dive in to help her, Alec hits his head on a rock. Now Annabelle and Alec are both in trouble, and Lark can only save one of them. With that split-second decision, Lark's world is torn in two, leaving her to cope with the consequences of both choices. She lives two lives, two selves. But which is the right life, and which is the real Lark? Me and Me is about how it feels to be torn in pieces, and how to make two halves whole again. This mind-bending novel from Alice Kuipers, expert chronicler of the teenage heart, explores loss and love, music and parkour, all while navigating the narrow space between fantasy and reality.My Review
I want to start out by saying that I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about Me and Me. I hadn’t read anything by this author prior to going into this book, but once I started reading it, … Continue reading
Synopsis
When Coraline steps through a door in her family's new house, she finds another house, strangely similar to her own (only better). At first, things seem marvelous. The food is better than at home, and the toy box is filled with fluttering wind-up angels and dinosaur skulls that crawl and rattle their teeth. But there's another mother there and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and all the tools she can find if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life. This beloved tale has now become a visual feast. Acclaimed artist P. Craig Russell brings Neil Gaiman's enchanting nationally bestselling children's book Coraline to new life in this gorgeously illustrated graphic novel adaptation.My Review
I really loved the original Coraline – I’ll admit that I saw the movie before I read the book, but the movie prompted me to buy and read it, and I guess over the years I have read Coraline so … Continue reading
Synopsis
Everyone knows that Chelsea Knot can't keep a secret. Until now. Because the last secret she shared turned her into a social outcast—and nearly got someone killed. Now Chelsea has taken a vow of silence—to learn to keep her mouth shut, and to stop hurting anyone else. And if she thinks keeping secrets is hard, not speaking up when she's ignored, ridiculed and even attacked is worse. But there's strength in silence, and in the new friends who are, shockingly, coming her way. People she never noticed before. A boy she might even fall for. If only her new friends can forgive what she's done. If only she can forgive herself.My Review
Speechless was actually published a few years back, but I haven’t even known about it until recently, when I got it from Harlequin on one of their big sale days. Curious, I added it to my order, and it sat … Continue reading
Synopsis
Bina has never forgotten the time she and her mother ran away from home. Her mother promised they would hitchhike to the city to escape Bina’s cruel father and start over. But before they could even leave town, Bina had a new stepfather and two new stepsisters, and a humming sense of betrayal pulling apart the bond with her mother—a bond Bina thought was unbreakable.Eight years later, after too many lies and with trouble on her heels, Bina finds herself on the side of the road again, the city of her dreams calling for her. She has an old suitcase, a fresh black eye, and a room waiting for her at Catherine House, a young women’s residence in Greenwich Village with a tragic history, a vow of confidentiality, and dark, magical secrets. There, Bina is drawn to her enigmatic downstairs neighbor Monet, a girl who is equal parts intriguing and dangerous. As Bina’s lease begins to run out, and nightmare and memory get tangled, she will be forced to face the terrible truth of why she’s come to Catherine House and what it will take for her to leave...
My Review
Not having read The Walls Around Us (but I promise – I do own a copy!), I wasn’t prepared for the very amazing way that Nova Ren Suma can tell a story. Wow. I’m completely blown away by her almost … Continue reading
Synopsis
International bestseller White as Milk, Red as Blood, has been called the Italian The Fault in Our Stars. Leo is an ordinary sixteen-year-old: he loves hanging out with his friends, playing soccer, and zipping around on his motorbike. The time he has to spend at school is a drag, and his teachers are "a protected species that you hope will become extinct," so when a new history and philosophy teacher arrives, Leo greets him with his usual antipathy. But this young man turns out to be different. His eyes sparkle when he talks, and he encourages his students to live passionately, and follow their dreams. Leo now feels like a lion, as his name suggests, but there is still one thing that terrifies him: the color white. White is absence; everything related to deprivation and loss in his life is white. Red, on the other hand, is the color of love, passion and blood; red is the color of Beatrice's hair. Leo's dream is a girl named Beatrice, the prettiest in school. Beatrice is irresistible - one look from her is enough to make Leo forget about everything else. There is, however, a female presence much closer to Leo, which he finds harder to see because she's right under his nose: the ever-dependable and serene Silvia. When he discovers that Beatrice has leukemia and that her disease is related to the white that scares him so much, Leo is forced to search within himself, to bleed and to be reborn. In the process, he comes to understand that dreams must never die, and he finds the strength to believe in something bigger than himself. White as Milk, Red as Blood is not only a coming-of-age story and the narrative of a school year, but it is also a bold novel that, through Leo's monologue - at times easy-going and full of verve, at times more intimate and anguished - depicts what happens when suffering and shock burst into the world of a teenager, and the world of adults is rendered speechless.My Review
I had a really difficult time trying to figure out whether or not this book was for me, and even still, while I’m torn about it, I do have to say that White as Silence, Red as Song is definitely … Continue reading
