Category: Young Adult

One day, when Reggie is picking up her prescription for depression medication, she meets Snake. Snake has a tattoo on his neck and dark hair hanging in his eyes (to Reggie, he looks like an “emo” poster boy). But Reggie and Snake have something in common: depression. They see each other a couple of days later when Snake starts working at the same ice cream parlour where Reggie works. Though Reggie isn’t ready to let anyone in, she begins to “hate” Snake… in a good way. Her mixed feelings become even more complicated when she discovers that the popular girl at school, Carla, is pregnant with Snake’s child.

I loved this story because it has a unique plot. It deviates from a traditional love triangle, since two of the people are having a child together, though they aren’t necessarily “together.” Though most of the book deals with these serious issues, there is some comic relief with the caricatures of their parents. Reggie’s extremely religious mother and Snake’s lesbian moms provided some moments of relief between the dark discussions and therapy sessions.

This amazing debut novel explores what it means to be depressed, what it means to be lonely, and how to learn to love.

This is the first book in the Lunar Chronicles series. It is a modern retelling of Cinderella, but with a twist.

Cinder is a cyborg, living in New Beijing. She was adopted by Linh Garan but he died soon after, so she lives with his wife and their two daughters. A plague is taking over the country which soon claims the life of their emperor. Cinder meets his son, Prince Kai, when he gets his personal android repaired by her at the market. This leads to her going to the palace where she finds Dr. Erland. After running some tests, he discovers that she is from Luna, the planet of their enemy. She is also immune to the plague since she is Lunar. Being Lunar is more dangerous than ever now, because the Queen of Luna is vying to become Prince Kai’s wife. The plague is brought close to Cinder’s heart when her favourite stepsister, Peony, becomes ill. Cinder has to decide how to use her secret of being Lunar to save the people of New Beijing and prevent Prince Kai from marrying Queen Levana.

This story and the following books in the series (Cress, Scarlet, Winter, Fairest, and Stars Above) are also very diverse, featuring characters from different backgrounds. The other books also have lead characters that are based on classic fairytales but they are all set in the same world.

This is one of my favourite new series! I hope you enjoy it too!