Tap Out by Eric Devine YP FIC DEVINE

Tone knows the rules.  Keep quiet. Keep hidden.  Try to survive.  That means ignoring the cries of his mom’s latest boyfriend beating her, the drug dealing biker gang next door, and all the pain and horror that he sees on a daily basis.  But his one and only friend has found something that seems to actually make him happy.  MMA.  And when Tone gets pulled into the world of sport fighting he starts finding things in himself he thought were long dead.  Things like pride, respect, and even hope.  But those things can get you killed in Tone’s neighborhood.  Now Tone has to make a choice between hope and survival, and he’s not sure that he has a choice at all.

This book is a dark, bleak, gritty, and hard.  It felt like a punch to the gut, or maybe repeated hooks to the head and knees to the face.  Something very painful and violent anyways. That being said, I think it’s a great read.  The characters are sort of straightforward and the language is simple and direct, but all that works for the world this book describes. The action scenes are clear, direct, and brutal.  They will leave you pumped for the MMA style fighting and feeling beat and disgusted at the street violence.  The contrast between the two was a clever way to show the difference between violent sport and violence at home. The action scenes are wisely spaced far apart and the book focuses on the day to day drudgery of Tone’s life. This may not make you feel sunshiney and bright, but it is a real slice of what all too many teens have to face in the real world. Now, that’s an entire subgenre of realistic fiction and I can understand wanting to take the occasional break from the dreariest corners of the world and read about vampires and whatnot too.  However, if you want a hard knock book that will keep you hooked then this is a really solid title.

You can check our catalog for Tap Out here.

Nickel Plated by Arc Davis YP FIC DAVIS

Nickel lives life like a coin flip.  At 12 he is a survivor of horrid abuse and a runaway.  He lives by drug dealing, blackmailing online predators, and working as a private detective (but the first two are really to pay for the PI gig).  He takes on a case of a missing sister of a pretty girl named Arrow.  When he starts investigating the safe suburban streets she lived on he finds dark secrets hidden there and grown men more than willing to kill a 12 year old private eye to keep them.

Finally! A young adult noir that is actually true to noir.  Too many pretenders have come and gone copying the dialogue style of noir but forgetting how to put the hard in hard boiled. Nickel Plated is a dark edgy book that doesn’t flinch from showing that sometimes the most horrible things happen to the most vulnerable people: kids.  Nickel survived all that and learned how to navigate a world of crime to achieve a higher justice.  He is an original anti-hero that needs a series of his own. He isn’t just a street smart gumshoe that noir has had far too many of, he has a genuine warmth and heart that comes from never wanting to see anyone else hurt the way he was.  Besides having my favorite breakout new character of the year, the plot is fast paced and suspenseful, the characters appropriately scummy and menacing, and the dialogue is fresh and snappy without ever seeming like a send up of classic noir.  This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea due to the violence, criminality, and a good deal of darkness, but I think readers should give it a chance. 

Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves YP FIC REEVES

Kit and Fancy Cordelle are best friends, sisters, and partners in crime. Their father was the infamous Bonesaw Killer, so it seems murder runs in their blood. They decide their bloodlust should only be satisfied with those who truly deserve it, but what to do with those pesky bodies? When Fancy discovers a doorway to a mysterious world the girls think they have the perfect spot to torture evildoers, but budding romances and emerging supernatural powers within the girls threaten to rip their happy family apart in this deliriously twisted companion novel to Bleeding Violet.

Brrrrrrr. This book gave me shivers of the creepiest kind. This si sort of a fantasy meets Dexter for teens. The girls are murderous sociopaths, but of bad guys…with magic! The kids are sick and twisted and delight in torture and blood, and they’re the heroes of the book! So clearly this violent and dark fantasy is not for everyone, but it has a weird appeal. Kit and Fancy’s madness and bloodlust is sort of fascinating in a bizarre way. You actually believe them as real (insane) people and their relationship is the core of the book. The two boys they fall in love with never seem as vibrant or original as the sisters, so their plotline kind of drags. The fantasy world is very well described and I wish there was more time put into the back story, like there was in Bleeding Violet, but the magical element does go very well with the sisters’ insanity. The main thing that will determine if you enjoy Slice of Cherry is if you like twisted, violent tales filled with bad people getting away with bad things.

Bruiser by Neal Shusterman YP FIX SHUSTERM

Tennyson can’t believe his sister would date a thug like Bruiser and makes it his mission to keep them apart. Brontë thinks Tennyson is more of a thug and bully than Brewster could ever be and wishes he would give him a chance and stop calling him Bruiser while he’s at it. Brewster just wants the people he cares about not to hurt and hies an extraordinary secret that will change all their lives forever in this novel about first impressions, second chances, and the healing power of love.

This was a tough novel to get into at frst because while Tennyson is a witty guy he is an absolute jerk. It is hard to read things from his perspective and watch him treat everyone like dirt without realizing it. Fortunately, Tennyson makes some big character changes and develops into a really likable character. In the end, him being SUCH A JERK at first makes his changes more interesting to read about. We also get the story told from the POV of Brontë, Brewster, and Brewster’s little brother, so it lets the reader discover different ways of looking at the same events. It really helps draw the reader into the story and makes the build up of Brewster’s secret and past pay off even better. This is a really good story with plenty of strong character’s and interesting twists. If you like character centered books with a twist, then you should really like Bruiser.

Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams YP FIC WILLIAMS

Hope and Lizzie are as close as sisters get. So when hope finds Lizzie with a shotgun in her mouth and her finger on the trigger she is left wondering why. She begins recalling their lives with their prostitute mother and realizing that Lizzie had pulled away more and more from her. When she discovers the reason why then nothing will ever be the same.

Told in verse, this novel packs the power of a sledge hammer. Hope and Lizzie are wonderful characters that you only get to know piece by piece. This leaves the reader wanting to keep going and the beautiful poetry of the novel makes it rewarding. It also works because what the book is really about is how much and little can be shown with just a glimpse. It asks the reader to look deeper to find the truth in art and in life. I’m always impressed when a book can pull that off. The reveal of Lizzie’s secret at the end is heartbreakingly sad. Know that this is a tough and gritty read, but the ending is hopeful without seeming unrealistic. If you like verse novels like this you should also check out Ellen Hopkins' books like Crank and Identical in YP HOPKINS.

Dawn by Kevin Brooks YP FIC BROOKS

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Dawn Bundy is 15 years old, but there is another Dawn that is 13 years old and lives in a cave in Dawn’s head. On the first of January she decides (even though it’s definitely NOT a New Year’s Resolution) to kill God. Dawn lives with her alcoholic mother and hasn’t seen or heard from her father since he disappeared two years ago leaving a green duffel bag filled with cash and a gun. She refuses to talk about why her dad left and why there is a 13 year old girl living in her head, but soon everything she’s trying to hide from in life will come crashing down around her.

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Dawn is a dark look at a teen in enormous pain, but Dawn’s humor and likability make it enjoyable to read. Dawn is a great narrator because she keeps the reader wanting to know more about her by only revealing a little at a time. She organizes her world in lists and sometimes speaks in short fragments which really bring you into her disjointed mind. The plot starts slowly but things pick up pretty quickly and the book becomes really suspenseful. There is always a sense that something terrible is going to happen and when it finally does it is ends up being very sudden and surprising. Dawn is probably best for older readers because it deals very frankly with some very tough issues.

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Kevin Brooks has been awarded several times for his past novels like Candy and Black Rabbit Summer and this novel stands strong beside them. You can check out his other books in YP FIC BROOKS.