Reviews of Teen Books

This graphic novel follows Tom Jensen, the author's father, as he hunts the Green River Killer. The story oscillates between the story of catching the Green River Killer (mostly set in the 80s in Seattle) and the post-catching pre-trial interviews with Gary Ridgway. Needless to say, it's a fascinating perspective.

I tend to prefer graphic novels with color, but I thought the artwork in this was great. The artist manages to capture the expressions of the different (real) characters, which led to some very chilling panels. However, the story jumped around in such a way that was confusing - it would often take me a few panels to realize that there was a time jump or perspective switch or whatever.

Overall, this was a pretty gripping read. I'd recommend it to fans of true crime novels.

Many people in the Witchlands are witches - folks born with magic. Most have some sort of elemental magic (water, wind, fire, earth), although some have powers based in the "aether" or the "void". Our two protagonists are a Truthwitch - she can tell if someone is telling the truth or not, and this is super rare/desired in this mythology - and a Threadwitch, which is someone who can see connections between people. At the start of the book, they upset a very powerful and rare Bloodwitch, these witches can control other peoples' blood, and spend the rest of the book on the run from him and other nefarious foes out to exploit the Truthwitch's rare powers.

This is a perfectly good fantasy series opener. It's got a very conventional system of magic (elemental magics aren't exactly a new concept), and while one of the main characters was one of those magical beings that men just die over, which, ick, I did enjoy the two main characters. Their strong female friendship was at the heart of the story, and I think that's great modelling for young women. The magic wasn't inventive, but there were a few fun new critters (sea foxes!) that I really enjoyed reading about. Fairly standard fantasy fare, but a solid first outing. I'd check out the sequel, and would expect the series to improve going forward. For the most part, I liked it.

I don't always like the first volume of a graphic novel series as the world-building can be confusing - but I really enjoyed this one! Volume 1 tells a nice story with a beginning, middle and end, and it's a great intro to the Captain Marvel story. Captain Marvel's origin story was rather hilariously told by Kit, a child, in 4 panels at the end of the first issue, and it just sounds nuts. But even with almost no previous exposure to the character, I was immediately hooked and was able to fall in line with Carol Danvers and and her crew with minimum confusion. Also, Danvers has a cat (or possible ferkin). Named Chewie. Be still my heart.

Mare Bellow's blood is red, which marks her for a life in poverty at best, and a brutal death on the front lines of a war she didn't ask for, at worst. She lives under the harsh rule of the Silvers, folks with special powers (mostly elemental, though some are X-men like). Later, surprise surprise, she finds out that she has special powers too and her life is upended.

Confession: I tried to read this book like 5 times. I finally got through it. I should've stopped trying. This book is one big, cliched, full of plot holes mess, there's a seriously stupid, unlikable, mean (and not even in a fun way) main character. In addition to an unoriginal plot and vapid characters, the writing is not stellar. I can see a certain type of reader enjoying it, but it certainly wasn't for me.

Olive Silverlock is back at Gotham Academy after a summer off - a summer that she barely remembers. With the help of her ex-boyfriend's little sister "Maps", Olive and crew are trying to oust a mysterious ghost before the ghost makes Gotham Academy uninhabitable for the living.

I wanted to like this title more than I actually ended up liking it. It started out with a bang - I found the first issue to be delightful - and then stumbled a bit after that. Even though I enjoyed the art, premise and
characters, I found the story itself to be wanting. Lots of potential here, and hopefully it will be more fully realized in future volumes.

Blue Sargent is not a psychic. Her mom is a psychic. Her aunts are all psychics. But Blue has another skill - she can amplify psychic power. So every year on St. Mark's Eve, she accompanies one of the "real" psychics to
greet the ghosts of the people who will die in the next year. Usually, she sees nothing. But this year, she sees the ghost of a boy: Gansey. Later, Blue and Gansey have a meet-not-cute, and Blue finds herself swept along with Gansey and his friends Noah, Adam and Ronan on an epic quest to find a long lost Welsh king...because Blue thinks that this king might be the only thing that can save Gansey.

First, I love the way Stiefvater writes. She manages to imbue whimsy and/or something otherworldly (and often slightly sinister) into almost every paragraph, and her descriptions are often at once hilarious and spot on. For example:

April was a bad time for the Aglionby boys; as it warmed up, the convertibles appeared bearing boys in shorts so tacky that only the rich would dare to wear them.

or

Ronan kept staring at Whelk. He was good at staring. There was something about his stare that took something from the other person.

Great, unique descriptions. I just love her writing and her ability to make the reader feel like they've known the characters forever.

On top of that, the plot is simply and uniquely marvelous. I had never heard of Glendower (our long lost Welsh king), and this story felt really fresh, even though I was reading it for the third time. A colleague thought it was boring, and I will concede that it gets off to a bit of a slow start to allow
for world-building and character development, but I DARE you to try to read the last 100 pages or so in more than one sitting.

It's just soooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

5 unreserved stars. J'dore.

I read the book because I loved the Netflix series, and while I'm not sure that I loved the graphic novel series, I'm totally enjoying it so far. It's similar to the Netflix series in character, though pretty different in plot. Matt Murdock and Luke Cage show up, as does Captain America (Steve Rogers flavor). Sadly, there's no Patsy so far. Carol Danvers (AKA Captain Marvel) seems to be fulfilling that role for the time being. Overall, I found it to be an enjoyable noir graphic novel series with a strong female protagonist.

Rashad Butler, ROTC student, budding artist, and black teenager walked into a local corner store to get some chips one day. A lady next to him getting beer tripped over something and fell into Rashad. Next thing Rashad knows, he's on the sidewalk getting crap beat out of him (in a loses consciousness/internal bleeding sort of way) by the white policeman installed at the corner store.

Quinn Jones, a white boy, witnesses the entire thing. And the policeman who beat up Rashad for no discernible reason? Well, that's Quinn's bestie's big brother, Paul. And Paul was almost like a big brother to Quinn growing up, as Quinn's dad died in Afghanistan when he was only 7. So Quinn has some thinking and deciding to do - does he betray Paul (and this is how its put to him by Paul) and quell the truth, or does he go to the police?

All American Boys is obviously a social justice book, and it's a timely and important one. I tried to read it, but didn't get very far due to having trouble with the vernacular (it didn't feel authentic), but when I listened to it? Wow. The narrators were fantastic. It was powerful, and made me cry on my way to work several times. I was left with the overall impression that everyone should read this book - if I were a teacher, I'd teach it in my classroom. 5 stars.

This was a very interesting Sherlock Holmes update. The story follows Jamie Watson - great great grandson of THAT Watson - as he accepts a rugby scholarship at a prep school in Connecticut. This prep school coincidentally (yes, they pretend its a coincidence, though it's pretty transparently NOT a coincidence and I wouldn't consider that a spoiler, because...duh) is where The one Charlotte Holmes - great great granddaughter of THAT Holmes - is attending school. Pretty soon, both Charlotte and James find themselves being implicated in Sherlock Holmes copycat murders, and they team up to find the murderer and clear their name.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, though I could've done with a more interesting mystery. The writing was perfectly fine, the mystery familiar (again, it's a Holmes copycat), but the characters were definitely the best part. They didn't feel like Watson and Holmes carbon copies, but there were some clear similarities. The mystery was fairly subpar - I like my mysteries to be a
bit more...mysterious...but the ending left the series open for a fun sequel that I might someday read.

Delilah Dirk. Globetrotting troublemaker. If that doesn't grab you, move on.

This is a really fun adventure story. Set in the early 1800s in Turkey, the book begins with Delilah Dirk springing herself from a Turkish prison, recruiting her prisoner as an adventurer, and then heading off (on a flying ship, no less) to get vengeance on an evil pirate overlord.

I rated it 4 stars because I couldn't always follow the action sequences, but overall, the art is gorgeous and the characters well-developed. If you haven't tried a graphic novel before, this could be a great one with which to start!

For whatever reason, Sarah J. Maas has mastered the second book slump that seems to hit other authors. Thus far, the second books in her series have been my favorites (tied with book 4 in the ToG series).

I basically didn't like the first 2/3 of the last book (A Court of Thorns and Roses), and LOVED the last 1/3, and I'm here to report that book 2 is consistently awesome throughout. Without getting too spoilery, there was a relationship that really bothered me in the first book due to the male character being super controlling and emotionally abusive, but that thing implodes within the first 50 pages or so, and then the rest of the book is just funfunfun. 5 stars, and I can't wait for the next one.

Scarlett Epstein writes fanfic for her favorite show, Lycanthrope High (think...Buffy. Or maybe Teen Wolf or something). But when Lycanthrope High is cancelled, Scarlett goes into a teensy tailspin, and tries to find value in new/exciting things.

My feelings about this one are very mixed. For the most part, I think that Scarlett is a very likable character. She's witty, sarcastic and feminist, but she does make inconsistent and sometimes bizarre decisions. For example, wants to get out of her small provincial town, but won't do a thing about it. She would constantly complain about how she was going to graduate high school
and be stuck working at Target or something, but then she got terrible grades out of what seemed to be laziness. No sympathy for ya there, girl. Her internal monologues were generally spot on and funny, and she's definitely the best part of the book. Aside from her bestie, Avery. I really liked Avery. Oh yeah, and her much older neighbor Ruth was freaking great. I loved Ruth.

The love interest was the woooooooorst, I had no idea what she saw in that jerk. It felt realistic though, I guess most of us probably date a few jerks in high school. And college. And post-college. Anyway, all parts featuring Gideon (her love interest) made me want to toss the book across the room.

Finally, the story is interspersed with Scarlett's fan fiction, which was...reaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllly bad. Like almost painful to read bad.

Oh, and there is a plot line involving Ruth which you see coming from like 293874832787 miles away and it ends up reading like an after school special.

Anyway, while this book had a TON of problems, it was saved by a (mostly) likable cast of characters and some really funny lines.

The Hidden Oracle is kind of one of those books you’ll read just because you’re a huge Riordan fan (like me). The plot of is not the best; it’s the standard action/fantasy plot of a character fighting monsters with friends and maturing along the way, along with some good old-fashioned betrayal. It does have some redeeming points, though. First of all it’s written with typical Riordan humor. Also the story had a unique point of view, since it is about (and narrated by) the ex-god Apollo, who Zeus made mortal after his involvement in the war with the giants in the previous series. Apollo, of course, does not handle this well, especially after he is tied to the annoying demigod Meg and forced to go on several dangerous quests. This book is also a MUST read for Riordan fans because it ties off several loose ends from the Heroes of Olympus series and also has several references to the Magnus Chase series. However if you’ve never read any other books by Riordan you’ll be fine because the references aren’t major plot details.

Reviewer Grade: 11

The epic Percy Jackson saga comes to a close, concluding the journey aboard the Argo II - facing the earth goddess Gaea in their final battle.

This book was excellent. Nico, one of my favorite characters, has a POV for the first time. Although it is the final book (which tend to be rather depressing), this one is filled with lots of humor and adventure. The ending felt a bit rushed, but I still adored this book. Rick Riordan allowed his readers to say goodbye to his characters with one last excellent adventure.
Reviewer Grade: 9

In my opinion the book Lost was a terrible book. Lost is a book about emotions and feelings. Ug, I thought this would be about a lost dimension or something. Not a book about a girls work and love life. I felt this story dragging on forever, what felt like reading hours was only mere minutes. I read the back cover and it looked like a good book. Never judge a book by it’s cover, the story inside was so bad I wanted to slam the book down and say “That’s it!” Also, It was written like you were in the story, such as refences to you. Like “You are singing!” Unless you like playing along and doing what a book says at 10 at night, do NOT read this book.
Reviewer Grade: 7

Sabriel's titular character is a teen studying magic who must investigate a mysterious message from her father, a famous necromancer known as Abhorsen. Abhorsen is a unique necromancer in that he banishes the dead, instead of summoning them. However, finding him may prove more difficult that Sabriel hopes.

Best Parts (No Spoilers): Sabriel treats death seriously, and this is one of the things this book does best. It is difficult to explain this without spoiling the book, but grief of many kinds is throughly explored here.

Sabriel also presents a richly detailed high fantasy world. Many people know Charter magic, a kind of all purpose magic, and Sabriel encounters all kinds of fantastic creatures. These range from a flying paper airplane big enough to carry Sabriel and her friends; Mogget, a sassy cat; and terrifying horrors from the Gates of Death.

Sabriel leaves the reader wanting more of this fantastic world. The beginning takes its time, letting the reader soak in the mysterious events and landscape Sabriel encounters on the way to her father's house. However, after the main characters discover a nefarious plot, they rush back through this scenery. I assume Nix did this to make his ending fight scene seem more dynamic, but I wish the Deus Ex Machina did not feature so heavily in the ending.

Read More: Thankfully, Nix has written other great books set in the same world, although around 20-30 years after Sabriel. Liriel is one of them and features another intriguing animal companion. The Charlie Bone series could also be a series for readers interested in similar themes.

Score: I had read Sabriel before and wanted to revisit it. I read the paperback edition, featuring new cover art (the previous cover art was done by the award-winning duo Leo and Diane Dillon) of a fiery symbol. I guess this is supposed to be a Charter Mark, which Charter Mages have on their foreheads? The book was just as good as when I read it years ago, and I actually think I appreciate it more reading it now. This is why I suggested Adults read this book as it does deal with some mature themes (Death, desire for power, grief). There is a hint of romance, though it does not play a major role in the book. Sabriel is a strong female heroine. I did not rate this book 5 stars since it isn't perfect (the ending felt rushed), but the series as a whole is definitely Curiosity Mars Rover Awesome!

The Demigod Diaries is a fun collection of short stories that bring you back into Percy Jackson's world with new adventures. Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, tells his story for the first time in "The Diary of Luke Castellan". Argo II members Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, and Piper McLean go on a search for a missing item and wind up finding trouble within the forest of Camp Half-Blood. Rick Riordan's son, Haley, also includes a demigod story of his own.

Overall, this book was lots of fun. Each story was interesting, adventurous, and packed with humor. I especially loved hearing more about Luke's past, as his character in the first series didn't have much time to tell his story. Leo's adventure is hilarious and fun. Haley's story was well-written, but I felt it was a little serious, considering the rest of the stories are more light-hearted. Nevertheless, this book is wonderful. I highly recommend it if you are a fan of the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series.

Reviewer Grade: 9

Actual Rating: 4.3

I originally discovered this book on a list of titles recommended by John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska. Katherine Boo’s incredible work revolves around “life, death, and hope in a Mumbai under city.” It follows several characters as they struggle to survive life in rural India: Abdul, a Muslim teenager who provides an income to his large family through collecting and selling trash, Asha, a woman with dreams of escaping poverty through politics, Kalu, a scrap metal thief, and dozens of others who live together in a small village built near the Mumbai airport. While this book may not be as relateable as many that are popular now, it brings humanity to a group of people we tend to see as “other” due to their distance and situation. This book changed the way I look at people below the poverty line, and I highly recommend it.

Reviewer Grade: 9

The Kiss was as supernatural as Wisteria and Whitford Allgood. I couldn't put this book down as Wisty took us on an emotional journey through a boyfriend and a few betrayals. Whit carries us up and down mountains and on the way a few deaths place a few more burdens upon his heavy shoulders. Though it lost action in the beginning, it quickly picked up the pace with some magic and a mysterious biker boy. Another fight, another betrayal, and a fearful mother trying to protect her son.

But it doesn't end there, the last book The Lost sits waiting for me to read and I can't wait to see what happens to Whit, Wisty, and their city. After the horrific events that took place on the mountain above the city, I wonder what will happen next. I would recommend this book for ages 12+, and I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Reviewer Grade: 6

Imagine waking up from a high school party to find that all of your friends now littering the house around you attracting flies. Then you hear a noise and realize you are not alone. Upon exploring the house you discover your friend chained to a bed and a vampire chained beside him—just out of reach. What happened while you were blacked out in the bathroom is a chilling story. Readers might find it shocking, but for Tana vampire attacks are an all-too-common occurrence. Not all of the monsters can be contained in the Coldtowns created to preserve the vampires and protect the population. The all-night parties within the walls are streamed live as reality entertainment that gives the vampires a rock-star quality. Those who escape are featured on the daily bounty hunter programs. These parallels to real life, as well as the characterizations of the vampires make them seem approachable and almost amiable. How close can Tana get before she is in danger?