The Year of the Beasts by Cecil Castellucci and Nate Powell YP FIC CASTELLU

Tessa and her younger sister Lulu always had a sibling rivalry, but it turns to outright jealousy when Lulu starts seeing Tessa’s secret crush, Charlie.  Tessa starts to feel like an outcast and a monster and finds herself drawn to Jasper, a troubled loner.  Jealously builds resentment and resentment builds to a tragedy that could destroy them all.

Told in alternating chapters with one being a realistic fiction and the other being a graphic novel that shows Tessa and all her friends as mythological creatures, the book starts a tad jolting.  There isn’t an immediate explanation for the difference and it through me for the first few chapters.  “So is she a medusa lady or not!?” I guessed at first that it was all to do with the idea that “we all feel like monsters at one time or another as teens,” or something like that, but it has a deeper meaning that reveals itself as the book goes on.  This is definitely a “not for everyone” title.  It mixes realistic fiction and graphic novel storytelling in a unique way to tell a story in an original way.  It really does pay off for readers that stay with it.  It makes the tale both modern and timeless and explores the nature of tragedy in an utterly believable way.  I found myself really believing Tessa’s’ character and feeling her pain, even though throughout I wished she’d make different choices.  Of course, that’s the very essence of tragedy, Also Nate Powell is one of the most expressive and interesting artists working in graphic novels for teens today.  He does haunting looks at the pain of adolescence like nobody’s business! I highly recommend it to any reader that wants to branch out into more adult and mature graphic novels, or to try books that tell stories in new ways.  

You can check our catalog for The Year of the Beasts here.

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver YP FIC OLIVER

In a future where love is a disease Lena risked everything to FEEL something.  Then she lost everything.  She’s learned the price of love and run away from everything she has ever known.  She’s buried her old self and all her feelings.  Now she has a mission, but Lena is about to learn that you can’t bury yourself or your feelings and they’ll surprise ypu when you least expect it.

This is sort of funny.  I have the exact opposite problem with Pandemonium as I did with Delirium. In my review of Delirium I mentioned that it took too long to get started, the middle dragged, and that is picked up steam and the ending was powerful and surprising.  This book is much better in every respect, except for the ending.  I can’t get into details without spoiling it, but it just felt like they wanted a big surprise to go into the third novel.  So if you loved Delirium you may not love Pandemonium, but if you were lukewarm on Delirium, then you may quite like Pandemonium. I know, confusing. The novel splits into ‘now’ and ‘then’ segments. ‘Then’ is right after the end of the first book and tells us how Lena coped and got to ‘now’, where she is on her secret mission to subvert the Evil Government that Hates Love.  The back and forth works well to build tension and it drew me in.  Oliver, as usual, writes excellent prose, with great descriptions and dialogue.  I just still two books in wonder if dystopia was the best idea.  There are 332,862 dystopias published every month (give or take), so the Delirium trilogy seems to have way too much competition.  Again, I think this is a very good, but not great book in what is turning out to be a well written, interesting, and flawed series. This is definitely one of the better dystopia series and if you aren’t so tired of them that you are actually wishing the world would end, then give this series a shot.  Regardless, definitely read Oliver’s first book Before I Fall (I reviewed it here).  It’s absolutely excellent and truly unique.

You can check our catalog for Pandemonium here.

Brooklyn Burning by Steve Brezenoff YP FIC BREZENOF

Kid loved a junkie named Felix until he disappeared and left Kid with nothing more than pain and the questions of who started the fire.  Scout comes along and gives Kid a shot at reclaiming the life, love, and music Kid that had disappeared forever.

This is a true original.  Kid is our narrator and he always talks directly to ‘you’.  However, in this case ‘you’ isn’t an imaginary, unnamed audience.  ‘You’ is Scout.  We learn all about Scout through Kid’s eyes and eventually more about Kid.  This is not only a way to keep the reader wondering about who the characters are, but also allows for the story to be very ambiguous in a wonderful and surprising way. We NEVER find out the gender of Kid or Scout.  The book never reveals if Kid is male or female or Scout is male or female, so this story is universal.  No matter gender or orientation, you can see yourself as a reader in Kid, Scout, or both.  This doesn’t just feel like a gimmick, because the story is all about identity, love, loss, and how easy all three get mixed up together.  Kid feels like Felix took away love, music, and Kid’s identity.  They are all rediscovered in Scout.  I liked Brezenoff’s previous book The AbsoluteValue of -1 or l-1l for short, but found it sometimes lacked focus with the multiple narrators, but Brooklyn Burning is a perfect and original use of the single narrator.  This book is honest, gritty, and raw.  It would be good for fans of edgier contemporary fiction.

Twin Spica by Kou Yaginuma YP FIC YAGINUMA

Thirteen year old Asumi Kamogawa dreams of the stars.  Now that she has applied to the first class of the Tokyo Space School she feels like her dreams may actually be in reach, but it’s hard to defeat gravity.  All around her are memories and ghosts of the suffering caused by a rocket ship tragedy that deeply marked her home town and family. If she can escape the Earth will she escape its ghosts?  Does she really want to?

This could very well be a new classic in manga.  It even has a timeless art style that looks as much like an 80s manga as a modern book.  What makes the book stand out is a mix of melancholy, hope, wonder, and whimsy, so it probably isn’t going to compete with Naruto. Asumi is like many quiet and shy manga protagonists with painful pasts.  I think what made me respond to her over the multitude of others is that her sense of earnestness and wanderlust is tied to a very well realized tragic past.  Just about everything dealing with plot and character is well realized.  All the supporting characters have their own stories and drives and Asumi’s ability to look closer at people allows them to be uncovered. This is a wonderful love letter to friendship, hope, family, exploration, and dreams that never becomes sappy or sentimental.  Manga fans looking for something original and heartfelt should give this gem a chance.

Recovery Road by Blake Nelson YP FIC NELSON

Madeline has anger issues and a drinking problem and is in treatment at 16. In treatment she finds that she actually WANTS to be well. She also finds Stewart and love. When she gets out first she spends a month waiting, but their reunion isn’t as happy as she suspected. Can two addicts ever be good for each other? Can she recover from recovery?

This is the Best! Novel! About! Addiction! for Teens! I! Have! Ever! Read! Far too many novels about addiction either end with treatment or have it as an epilogue. Or maybe treatment will be the final third or half. What about after treatment? That is one of the most difficult (and therefore dramatic) times for addiction! Blake Nelson clearly understands this and delivers a knockout novel about pain, guilt, grief, loneliness, boredom, and all the other horrors of getting better and what (and who) we have to leave behind to do it. Madeline and Stewart are so real it hurts to read about them. Their pain and struggle is true to life and beautifully told. Blake has short straight forward chapters all from Madeline’s view. It is a personal style that feels like a diary or a confession, which fits the recovery plotline perfectly. I love that we get a lot of time after treatment and inside Madeline’s recovery. It doesn’t end too quickly or gloss over how long or difficult recovery is. Finally, besides being an honest and interesting look at recovery it is also a universal look at love and loss. A great read for any fan of realistic fiction.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman YP FIC FORMAN

The companion and sequel to If I Stay, Where She Went gives us Andy’s side of Mia’s story. For starters Andy did not…take…it…well. Fortunately he parlayed his mix of guilt, grief, rage, loneliness, and sadness into songwriting and has become a rock star. Unfortunately, its three years later and he still has all of that guilt, grief, rage, loneliness, and sadness. At the same time as he is living it down in LA, Mia is a rising star at Juliard. When chance gets Andy stuck in New York they intersect for one night. As Mia shows him the city their past, present, and future collide and leave both wondering where to go from here.

Told in first person in a similar straight forward style as If I Stay, this book has all of the lyrical strength of the first book. It’s very different in tine, however, as Mia was usually sad, wistful, happy, or longing and Andy is usually bitter and angry. His moodiness may put some readers off, but I found it gave the book an edge and drive that was unique from the first title and made his voice refreshingly different than Mia’s. I honestly picked this book up a little hesitantly. If I Stay had the Big Decision to drive the plot: Will Mia Live or DIE!!!? was quite the hook. I was worried a book about hanging around a city and talking wouldn’t compete. But it totally does. We get to learn about how Andy dealt with the events of the first book and see the results of Mia’s decision. The question of “How can they possibly fixed their broken relationship?” is just as compelling a Big Question. This is a perfect companion to the first book and has just as much to say about life, grief, and the power of love.