Category: Young Adult

Title: Scythe
Author: Neal Shusterman
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Purchased
Release Date: November 22, 2016
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Review:

I loved this story!

I got into the world of the Scythes right away. It takes place in the distant future, when people no longer die natural deaths. There are no more diseases or accidents. Scythes must choose who dies and “glean” them. Considering how much technology has advanced over the past centuries, it almost seems possible. Many diseases are now curable and everyday activities are no longer dangerous, so perhaps one day we will have healing genes so that we can’t die naturally.

I really felt immersed in this world. There were so many twists from the beginning to end, and I couldn’t predict what would happen. I also liked that there were only a few main characters, so they were much more developed. Many contemporary YA fantasy novels have ensemble casts, so there are a lot of people to keep track of. But this one focused on a few main ones.

I just loved this book. I’m so glad that I won’t have to wait long to read the sequel. Thunderhead comes out in a couple of weeks, and I will be reviewing it then!

Title: Siege and Storm
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Source: Purchased
Release Date: June 4, 2013
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her–or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

Review:

This is another great book in the Grisha Verse!

I love the way that Leigh Bardugo has built a world, but she doesn’t explain it too much. We are just thrown into it and have to learn our way around. But it feels so much more real this way.

Alina’s story moved very quickly in this book. It takes place in a short amount of time, compared to the first novel. She really changes and develops as a character.

The Darkling is such a mysterious character. He’s strange and hard to understand, but I want to learn more about him. Hopefully more will come to light in the next story.

I can’t wait to keep reading through all of Bardugo’s books!

Title: Chasing Odysseus
Author: S.D. Gentill
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Pantera Press
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: February 28, 2011
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

1 girl, 3 brothers… 4 daring young heroes…

Treachery, transformations and a deadly quest.

A thrilling adventure of ancient myth, monsters, gods, sorcerers, sirens, magic and many evils…the fall of Troy and a desperate chase across the seas in a magical Phaeacian ship…

Hero and her three brothers, Mac, Cad and Lycon, go on this exciting and dangerous quest to prove their murdered father’s honour, the betrayal by King Odysseus and the loyalty of their own people to the conquered city of Troy.

Review:

I love Greek mythology! I’m always looking for retellings or adaptations.

This story is a great continuation of The Odyssey. It has a logical place in the storyline. It tells the perspective of the herders and the effects the Trojan War had on them.

The theme of an odyssey is very present in the story. The four siblings go on their own odyssey by chasing Odysseus to find out why the Trojans are mad at them. The gods are also important to the story, because Hero is very pious and always praying.

One problem with this story is that since it relies so heavily on The Odyssey, I think readers would struggle if they hadn’t read it. This could be problematic since it’s aimed at a young adult audience and they may not have been exposed to Homer’s epic poems yet. I did not read them until university, so I wouldn’t have understood the story when I was a teen.

Otherwise, I enjoyed this story. Fans of The Odyssey should definitely check it out.

Title: Right Text Wrong Number
Author: Natalie Decker
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Swoon Romance
Source: Author
Release Date: July 11, 2017
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Cheerleader Layla and football player Tyler are complete opposites. She thinks he’s the biggest jerk in school and he thinks she’s too high on her horse to even be worth a second glance. When the two of them are near one another, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. They can hardly endure speaking, let alone dating.

But when Layla unknowingly sends Tyler a smack-down text meant for the girl sending naked photos to her then-boyfriend, Adam, Tyler has no idea it’s Layla and decides to play along. After all, Tyler cannot resist messing with the pissed off girl firing off texts about junk pictures, cheating, and girl code.

As the fallout from Adam’s scandalous texts plays out in front of the entire school, Tyler and Layla secretly continue to text each other using fake names. But as days and weeks pass, things take a turn for the serious between them, and suddenly, their texts mean more. Maybe it’s time to come clean about who they are and risk taking the relationship from texts to dates, then kissing, and maybe more.

They say there’s a thin line between love and hate. Can reality live up to the fantasy, or will Layla and Tyler be forever offsides?

Review:

I read some good reviews of this book, so I wanted to read it. I really enjoyed it.

The story was great and easy to read. I flew through this book. It really took me back to high school days, with all the drama and nasty kids. But the romance brewing between Layla and Tyler was very special.

The story was realistic. It’s so easy to text the wrong person, and Layla’s dyslexia really makes texting difficult for her. That’s something I had never thought of before this story. Texting is so natural these days, but I didn’t even think about how hard it would be for someone with dyslexia. This disability added some depth to the story, since it gave Layla, who seems like a princess at first glance, a challenge in everything she does.

I recommend this story for anyone looking for a light young adult romance. I’m looking forward to reading the second in the series in the next couple of weeks!

Title: The Empress
Author: S.J. Kincaid
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: October 31, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

It’s a new day in the Empire. Tyrus has ascended to the throne with Nemesis by his side and now they can find a new way forward—one where they don’t have to hide or scheme or kill. One where creatures like Nemesis will be given worth and recognition, where science and information can be shared with everyone and not just the elite.

But having power isn’t the same thing as keeping it, and change isn’t always welcome. The ruling class, the Grandiloquy, has held control over planets and systems for centuries—and they are plotting to stop this teenage Emperor and Nemesis, who is considered nothing more than a creature and certainly not worthy of being Empress.

Nemesis will protect Tyrus at any cost. He is the love of her life, and they are partners in this new beginning. But she cannot protect him by being the killing machine she once was. She will have to prove the humanity that she’s found inside herself to the whole Empire—or she and Tyrus may lose more than just the throne. But if proving her humanity means that she and Tyrus must do inhuman things, is the fight worth the cost of winning it?

Review:

This was such an exciting sequel to The Diabolic.

There was a lot more background given for this world, such as their origin and their religious beliefs. These humans had to leave Earth to escape the mechanized beings that humans on Earth had turned into. They would inject machines into their skin to do everything for them. This seems possible today, since we are so reliant on machines and computers. I’m sure that injectable computers are an invention for the near future.

The story also spoke heavily about drugs. Drugs are used recreationally and for controlling others, by making them dependent on them. These two uses were interesting to read about, especially in the way that different people reacted to them. The effects of withdrawal were also portrayed in the story.

I loved the time travel portions of the story. Time passes at different rates in different parts of the Galaxy. What takes 10 hours in one place could be 1 year in another. I liked the way time would jump like this, so we could see the effects of time lapsing in the Chrysanthemum very quickly.

Some parts were so heart wrenching. There was love and loss. I felt so emotionally invested with the characters. Nemesis’s first person narration made me feel like I really knew her.

I loved this story! This is a fabulous series!

Title: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Source: Purchased
Release Date: November 10, 2015
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mark her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend–the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer’s national bestselling Lunar Chronicles series.

Review:

The fourth and final fairytale in The Lunar Chronicles is Snow White. I think Winter was a great addition to this cast of characters.

I loved that Winter was a girl of colour. It gives some more representation to this diverse group of girls. She also shows that beauty goes deeper than your skin.

Winter is another clever girl who has brought along her own romantic interest in Jacin. I was rooting for them from the beginning!

Though I was sad to see this series end, I was satisfied with the ending. I was glad to see that Meyer has created a spin off series of graphic novels, which I will have to get my hands on now!

My reviews for Cinder can be found here, Scarlet can be found here, and Cress can be found here.

Title: The Girl In The Glass Box
Author: Andi Adams
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Firefly Hill Press
Source: Xpresso Book Tours
Release Date: June 5, 2016
Rating: ★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A witch. An apple. A mirror. That’s all most people think of when they recall the story of Snow White. But the truth is rarely so simple. What if the Queen wasn’t born evil and the princess wasn’t always so pure of heart? Is it possible that these two women could have ended up in one another’s place?

The Girl in the Glass Box tells the story of Agrippine and Genevieve, two women who are not all that different, but who quickly learn through a series of choices, encounters, and devastating losses that the course of their fates can change in an instant. Through the influences of the people they love and lose, both are redefined as their stories head for a different sort of happily-ever-after.

Review:

This is a great adaptation of the Snow White fairy tale.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the story. It introduces Snow White’s stepmother, Agrippine, and tells how she became the Queen. It made me feel sympathetic towards her for a short time, though she eventually becomes the villain we all know. I also liked the background of the dwarves. I could tell who they were right from the beginning of the story, but it was a nice twist that I haven’t heard before.

The story was fast paced and easy to read. I enjoyed the narrator’s voice.

I wish this story had something unique that happened. It followed the Snow White tale faithfully, but I was waiting for something new to happen in the story. There were some surprising twists close to the end of the book, but it was pretty ordinary at the beginning. A unique twist would have made it original, instead of just another fairy tale.

Title: All The Crooked Saints
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Scholastic
Source: Purchased
Release Date: October 10, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Here is a thing everyone wants: a miracle.
Here is a thing everyone fears: what it takes to get one.

Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.

Review:

This book was amazing! It definitely lived up to my expectations.

I love Maggie’s style of writing. It’s so unique and mysterious. It has a fairytale quality to it, which makes you want to believe all the magical things that happen to the characters. The third person omniscient narrator also adds to this fairytale feeling, since the narrator knows everything about all of the characters.

The magical elements of the story make the plot unpredictable. It was exciting to see what would happen next.

What is so funny about Maggie’s books is that it’s hard to describe what they are about. This synopsis gives just a glimpse of what happens. There are so many strange things that happen, that it’s hard to describe much without giving away too much. But I highly recommend this book for fans of paranormal fiction!

I met Maggie earlier this week and she’s so awesome! I’ll write a post about that event later in the week.