Reviews of Teen Books by Genre: Fiction

The book Plague Land is a new disease that is trying to wipe out life on earth. Over in England a family has to try and learn ways to outsmart and escape this disease. This book is very fast paced and a little gruesome. I really did enjoy this book. If you are fascinated with disease then I would highly recommend this book.

Overall a really amazing book about a boy with cancer who decides to climb up a mountain despite his decreasing health. Though he faces many challenges on his journey but his dog, Beau, helps him through it with unconditional love and support. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, never wanting to set it down. This book could be a challenging read for some, as you switch around perspectives multiple times, along with some particularly advanced work usage.

This graphic novel is about a girl named Raina who couldn't wait to be a big sister but once Amara is born she realizes that sisterhood isn't the sunshine-rainbow-cakewalk she thought it would be. This book explores the big sister little sister relationship like no other book has done before. Family love, life lessons, and learning what it truly is to be sisters. Amazing #1 New York Times bestselling, Eisner Award-winning book that's definitely worth taking the time to read.

This book is a heart-wrenching story about how you don't need a fairy tale situation to fall in love. Mr. Green's descriptions in this book are so good then even weeks after reading it, you could still have vivid images of the characters and settings. You may need a tissue or even book club friends to help you get through some of the moments and chapters in this book.
Overall A+ amazing book with exciting adventures and life lessons

In the book Strange Fire it went over a story of two brothers who are fighting over different causes years after most humans died off. When I first started reading the book I was a little confused about the plot but as I kept reading I started understanding the plot of the book. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is willing to read it. I would even read the book again when I am just looking for a good book to read.

This book follows the three teens, Jack, Bree, and Ally. With all different backgrounds and personalities, they are brought together by seeing an eclipse of the sun all while realizing their true destinies and priorities of life. Very great book if you like an adventure, but with some emotion behind it. It may be a challenging read if you cant follow perspective changes by chapter.
Overall very heartfelt yet exciting and adventurous.
8th grade

15-year-old Matt Gratton and his two best friends, Sean and Coop have been friends since kindergarten and have set summer goals for themselves since they can remember, though this year that goal almost seems impossible.

Trying to reach it gets them into situations and adventures you couldn't imagine happening to just some Lower Rockville Razorbacks of the Rockville Swimming Association.
I find this book a really great choice for a summer read, very relatable for most teens and also funny beyond all beliefs. It can get a little inappropriate for those under 15, though if you are comfortable with that kind of humor, it is hilarious. It is also a very great book for a swimmer to read, though you do not have to be a swimmer to understand everything or enjoy the book.

I really enjoyed the concept of this book. The idea of reading old diaries to find out secret information about your mother is a super interesting concept and it reminded me of the musical Mamma Mia at first. The book seemed to have a lot of potential at first but the more I read, the less interested I was. I don't know if it was the character of Lina or the plot in general, but the book seemed to lose steam which was really disappointing. I had hoped this would become one of my favorite books. I'm glad I read this book though because I really did like the concept of it and I'm hoping the sequel, Love and Luck, will manage to keep me entertained throughout the entire story though.

I think this book could easily be one of my all time favorite books.
I love the "and if anyone asks you how it ends, just lie" was a really cool concept that I didn't get until the end. I'll admit there were parts of this book that felt like weren't anything groundbreaking and like it could've been like any other book on my bookshelf, but probably around the last fifty to seventy five pages, there was no way I could put it down. At the beginning of the book it truly does seem like it'll be just another teen-beach-romance story but it truly is so much more and there's so much more than I could've ever expected to happen in a rather short book like this. I always have a hard time reading stand alone books because it always leaves me wanting more, but I feel like this book doesn't need anything else. It was a super easy read too, I believe I read it over the course of two days. I even recommended it to a friend who doesn't like reading at all, and she said she truly loved it and would read it again. If that's not enough to convince someone to read this book, I don't know what is.

The Romantics is one of the cutest rom-coms I've ever read. The book is unique because the narrator is Love, who goes into detail about the different types of people when it comes to relationships. The Romantics revolves around a character who I immediately adored. His name is Gayle and he's had a good relationship with his girlfriend Anika. When Gayle told her he loved her, she freaked out because she obviously hadn't quite felt the same way about him.
One day Gayle decides to bring flowers to Anika as a kind gesture where he finds her looking at his best friend Mason but not in an ordinary way. She is looking at Mason intimately as if they were about to kiss. Gayle's heart is shattered into a million pieces. He spends his time watching movie after movie, trying not to think about any of it. This book is about moving on, forgiveness, and love in unexpected places. Many times we don't realize someone we are meant to be with even if they're standing right in front of you. I enjoyed Leah Konen's creativity of using Love as the narrator because it really put things in perspective and shows how different love is viewed from every person's perspective. Read this book, you'll fall in love with the characters and the twists and turns and will ultimately be unable to put it down.

This was a great book that I loved. This book is about the children, the orphans and and the abandoned children of Venice, Italy. As Bo and Prosper find their way into the city and into the arms of the generous Thief Lord they find that all is not as it seems. Secrets, plots, and magic rule this labyrinth of of canals and allies. What will happen to these children as this plot of deception unravels its self? And what lengths will they go too, to survive?

Trying to write a review on any of Laini Taylor’s works, but especially this lovely beautiful book, that does the book justice, is like trying to fit a round nail into a square peg. It simply cannot be done. But I will try to do the best I can. I first came upon this work through goodreads first, as several of the people I followed recommended it, and also through a friend. When I saw what it was about, and that it combined all of my favorite elements of a fantasy, including librarians, books, magic, god’s, ghosts, monsters, angels, and a fantastical journey to an atmospheric and magical place, I jumped at it, and it did not disappoint.

Lazlo Strange is an orphaned junior librarian who resides in the city of Zosma. Like any librarian he spends his days among the stacks of dusty volumes in the library of Zosma, and like every librarian he also has dreams that he wants to follow. Since he was small, he has dreamed about a mythic lost city called Weep, whose real name has been erased from history, and whose stories are only told and remembered in the dusty old volumes of fairy tales and histories that have all been but forgotten. Reading and writing and dreaming about Weep, Lazlo naturally wishes one day to visit this mythic lost city. But honestly never expected his dreams to amount to much. Until one day, by chance, a group of warriors led by someone called the Godslayer, from none other than the mythic lost city, visits Zosma, seeking a delegation of people to go back with them to the city of Weep to help solve a problem. And suddenly Lazlo gets the chance to pursue his dreams in a way he never thought possible. On this journey he meets many people, including a half human goddess named Sarai, the Godslayer’s long suffering wife Azareen, and the prince Thyon Nero, among others, has many fantastical experiences, and many mysteries await him. Including: What is this mysterious problem in Weep that none of its delegates seem to want to reveal? What happened to Weep to hide it from the rest of the world? What creatures call themselves gods? And how could have Lazlo dreamt of a blue skinned goddess before he even knew she existed?

The themes running through this beautiful piece of fiction are vast and dense, and intense. This story is about many things including chasing your dreams and the importance of never giving up on those dreams. It’s about relationships and the difficult and painful things we can do to those we love and don’t love. It’s about war, and the tolls, both emotional and physical, it takes on everyone involved. It’s about hate, and the damage revenge can do on both those that give it and the ones receiving it. It’s about love, the different kinds of love we all
experience, and what we will do to protect those we love. But most importantly, at it’s heart this story is about identity, both individual, and the crazy journey, our hero Lazlo, takes to find it, and group identity in how we see those different from us and how we react to those differences. These themes are inter-mingled to form a compelling intense and beautiful narrative.

Where Taylor really shines through here is her prose. She really uses prose brilliantly to make each character take an emotional journey of their own, which serves to display and inter weave those narratives beautifully. And the words were so brilliantly chosen, that whenever a character spoke about a difficult subject, it was like I was there with them and felt what they did. When you have that strong of an emotional connection, that to me, says the author was doing their job. The atmospheric, dreamy, quality of the prose, also made the world’s, both dream and fictional, come alive in a way that I have seen few authors really achieve.

This brilliant beautiful adventure story about a junior librarian, should be on everyone’s to read lists. The emotional intensity of it… I felt like it ripped my heart out of my chest and then put it back again. If you haven’t yet, run, don’t walk, to put it on hold or check it out. This story has something in it for everyone, and you won’t be disappointed!

This was a really good book in the Maze Runner Series. It keeps the reader hooked for a long time. All of the characters have to make it across a long stretch of the brightest and hottest place on Earth. They also only have two weeks. On the way there, they have to go through buildings of people who are going crazy, called cranks. They also have a limited amount of food and must get food from those buildings. Thomas, the main character is also abducted by who he thought was his best friend. But will they make it?

***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY***

In S.A. Chakraborty’s debut novel, The City of Brass, we find some of the standard tropes that seem to be the foundation of the Young Adult genre. There are snippets of works like Harry Potter and Twilight that seem to leak through, their influences helping to shape the world that the author has created. However, while some of these tropes might be tired in any other setting, they are used to great effect here, as the author has created something grounded in culture and traditions that helps to enhance the fantasy world that lies just beyond our own.

While I did enjoy reading this book overall, there were a few weaknesses. The start of the story was action- packed and hooked me right from the get-go, but then the section leading up to the second half of the plot seemed to be bogged down with lots of exposition and world-building. It also wasn’t necessarily clear to me why the main character needed to go to the titular “City of Brass,” other than her brief hope that she’d be trained there. I also didn’t get the sense that the journey took months, as the traveling companions didn’t seem to be as exhausted from the trek as I thought they should be.

Despite this semi-minor weakness, the characters and the world were well developed and well thought out. I had to roll my eyes at the “love triangle,” mostly because it’s a cliché of the genre, but the three main characters involved in such romantic entanglements were unique and interesting individuals that made me want to keep reading. This book uses a lot of specific terminologies that took a little bit to pick up, especially from the perspective of a reader who isn’t as familiar with Middle Eastern languages. I was still able to pick it up via
context, only needing the glossary at the end to confirm my suspicions.

An excellent debut that pulls from a rich and unique culture to create its fantasy, I give The City of Brass 4.0 stars out of 5.

My friend recommended this book to me and I was a little weary after hearing her description. Once I actually managed to pick the book up and read it, I instantly fell in love with this book. The subject matter is super heavy as the main character, Lia, struggles with an eating disorder and self harm but this book still managed to have me laugh once or twice. The story follows Lia after she finds out the news that her former best friend had died from her own eating disorder. I think this book is truly an amazing read because not only is it a good source of entertainment, it manages to help people who haven't gone through what Lia has get a better understanding of eating disorders and self harm. The way that Lia's calorie intake is marked in the book and her hidden thoughts helped to make the book stand out and be unique from other novels I read. While I can fully admit this isn't a book that everyone can stomach, it's a book that managed to make its way to my top ten favorite books of all time. I'm glad my friend recommended it to me and I would gladly recommend it to someone else.
Reviewer Grade:12

This summer, I had the chance to read many new great books. One of my absolute favorites was 3 Willows. This is a sweet book about friendship, and how even though people continue to grow and branch off, your roots will always be intertwinded with those who were with you since the beginning. Ama, Polly, and Jo are great friends who met in second grade, running off from the school after waiting for what seemed like hours for their parents to pick them up after school. In third grade, they planted 3 willow trees together, and as they grow, so do their symbolic trees. All three of the girls go through very different struggles the summer after 8th grade, and they began to branch apart.
Ama strives to be as great at academics as her sister, who attends a ivy league school. She is book-smart, but the wilderness is not her strong suit.
After winning a grant after doing great on an academic contest, she was expecting to get to go to a cool class on what she loves, academics. However, she instead gets picked to go to a wilderness expedition camp, which she struggles with.
Polly still acts like the sweet girl they all were when the three were younger. Wanting to act older and fit in, she attends a modeling camp, where she learns a lot about herself, while coping with her mother's alcohol addiction.
Jo spends the summer at her beach house and gets a job as a busboy at a local ressteraunt with a new crowd that she tries to fit in with. As Jo deals with falling in love, being betrayed by her friends, her parents divorce, and the death of her little brother, she realizes who true friends are.
The three realize as they grow apart, you can't get rid of where your roots begin, or untangle them from your past. This heartwarming sweet book is one of my favorites, and Ann Brashares magically tells this beautiful story.
I recommend this book for anyone who loves coming of age stories, or can relate to any of these girls at some point in their lives.
Reviewer: Grade 6

Oh MY GOSH this book was incredible!! It reminded me a lot of the Boy in Striped Pajamas, because it's told innocently from the perspective of a child in WWII. It was heartbreaking. Few books make me cry, but I was on the verge of tears in this book. The characters had depth and complexity, they weren't 2d with one personality. They were like real people-- irrational, scared, kind, sly. I loved it so much, you won't understand until you read it.
So when Anna's Jewish father is killed when the Nazi's invade Poland, she finds herself in the care of the Swallow Man-- dubbed so because he reminds her of Soloman, but it wouldn't be wise to call him that in the time of WWII.
He insists on keeping up the pretense that they are father and daughter, because he is coping with the premature death of his daughter, who is around Anna'a age (7 years, I think). They travel across Europe on foot, with seemingly no predetermined destination. The Swallow Man says that keeping still makes it easier to be found, and one should never be found. It is better to be lost than to be found in times of war, he says. So the Swallow Man instills wisdom and new ideas into Anna, and teaches her how to survive by talking the language of Road, which is essentially not telling the whole truth, or maybe sprinkling in some truth to a big lie, or just convincingly lying to get what you want. So they pass checkpoints, borders, and strangers, talking Road and surviving. Then they find a Jew, who is used to horrors, but ignorant on how to avoid them. He entertains Anna with Jewish prayers and songs while they walk. The end leaves a lot to want, it was heart-wrenching and sad, but I won't give it away (you're welcome).
Reviewer Grade: 7

I LOVED this book! It incorporated a love and talent for storytelling perfectly, and infused it with a colorful and entertaining story. As an aspiring writer, I cherished reading about another storyteller, and how it changed her life.
Marjan is a young, crippled girl around the age of 13 in medieval Persia, where the there is a strict class contrast between prosperous sultans and poor beggars. She's loved telling stories, and admires Shahrazad. Her husband, the sultan, forcibly married a young girl every night and murdered the following morning, because he was convinced all women were despicable after his wife betrayed him. But Shahrazad stays alive by telling a story every night, keeping him intrigued and saving her life by morning, living another day. But after a thousand and one nights, she begins to run out of stories to tell, and so she enlists Marjan to find stories. Marjan seeks out a begging storyteller she saw in the market, and suddenly is thrust into a world where she has to become sneaky and smart in order to stay alive.
All in all, Shadow Spinner was really intriguing and I loved reading it.
Reviewer Grade: 7

The Axis Tour may be over, however Yael's journey is far from over. Blood for Blood starts right after Yael shot Hitler only to realize it was a skin shifter portraying Hitler. As Yael escapes SS men she can’t help but wonder how many skin shifters exist. Unsure who is real and who is a skin shifter she doesn’t know who to trust. Yael doesn’t even know if operation Valkyrie worked.
Luka witnessed Adele Wolfe shoot Hitler, or so he thought. The girl he thought was Adele Wolfe over the course of the Axis Tour was someone entirely different. In search of the true identity of inmate 121358ΔX Luka chases after her, whoever she may be.
Who is inmate 121358ΔX? How many other skin shifters exist? After a daring race around the world, and Hitler appearing dead, will the world fall apart?
Blood for Blood focuses so much on the relationships and development of the characters. Blood for Blood made me feel the characters emotions. The development of Yael over the series is incredible. At the beginning of this book Yael couldn’t face her history, but in the end of the book she conquers her fear and the past. I really enjoyed seeing different side of Luka and Felix. For example the feelings of Felix as he underwent interrogation. The ending was unexpected but fitting to the series. I highly recommend this book and series. I already want to read it again. If you have read Wolf by Wolf then you need to read Blood for Blood, it is totally worth reading.
Reviewer Grade: 9th

Serina has aimed to be a Grace her whole life. In a world where women aren’t allowed to learn to read, becoming one of the heir’s paramours is pretty much as good as it gets – otherwise she’ll be relegated to a life of work in a factory. When she’s selected to go to the palace to be considered for a position as a Grace, she’s beyond thrilled and takes her younger sister Nomi along as a handmaiden. But neither Serina nor Nomi are prepared for the backstabbing political machinations at large in the palace, and soon both girls will find their world turned upside down.

This was sold to me as The Selection meets The Handmaid’s Tale, which sounded super intriguing as I enjoyed those books for very different reasons - guilty pleasure and biting social commentary respectively. And one of the girls does have an arc that very much meets that description. Interestingly, I didn’t really like her story. Most of that has to do with the fact that we’re told that the character is smart and rebellious, but we’re mostly just shown her swanning around the palace making stupid decisions. The other sister has an arc that’s more Beauty Queens meets The Hunger Games, and I really enjoyed that one. It was a much more unique story, and the character experienced a lot of growth.

Because the sisters’ paths diverge, I feel that it’s fairly safe to say that at least one of the two stories will appeal to most YA dystopia and fantasy readers. If you like your dystopia with a dose of feminism, you’ll enjoy this slightly derivative series opener. I liked it. 3 stars.

Thanks to Little, Brown and Netgalley for the eARC, which I received in exchange for an honest review. Grace and Fury will become available for purchase on 31 July, but you can put your copy on hold today!