“Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she…
Tag: Young Adult
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Let’s not mince words: this book is going to rip your heart out. Don’t expect last-minute reprieves for the characters you will come to love. Death comes for everyone, and the message of this book is that since you never know when it’s going to happen, you shouldn’t waste your life. In the case of this story, yes, Mateo and Rufus get an extra day to accomplish some of that living, but the endgame is still the same. Rufus wanted to travel and take photos, and Mateo wanted to be an architect. Neither will get to live their dreams, and no amount of living in the course of less than 24 hours can make up for that. One of the things that this book does extremely well is in highlighting the relationships in our lives and what they can mean to us. Each boy has people in their lives whom they love, but not in the sense of romantic love, and when they finally get to express that love, the sense of freedom is palpable. I especially liked Mateo’s deep connection with his friend Lidia, seeing how the two loved each other in a way that transcended any attempts to pigeonhole it. I have just such an opposite-sex friend myself, one who means the world to me, and seeing something similar in a story was so heartwarming. I felt connected to this book on a really personal level, because in many ways, I identified with Mateo. He was someone who holed up in his room a lot, watching movies and playing online, and he wasn’t one to get out and experience the world. I was like that myself for a long time, but I’ve been able to change that in recent years. In fact, I’m in the middle of planning a trip to Ireland; as a result Mateo’s journey towards life, and his realization that it’s okay to have a place to feel safe, is one that I can vouch for as accurate. I haven’t said as much about Rufus, but not because I didn’t like him. I just identified more with Mateo. But Rufus is a portrait of someone who is heading down a darker path and is lucky enough to be able to turn his life back around. The fact that it takes place in less than 24 hours doesn’t make it any less true. That’s another message from this book: the amount of time that something takes is less important than the fact that it happens. Mateo and Rufus find each other when each has less than a day to live. That in no way invalidates what they do for each other, and what they become for each other. The experience is what counts, in whatever form you want that experience to take. I hope that this book gets widespread attention, because with all the fears and uncertainties of life lately, a story with a message to get out and live is so incredibly vital. They Both…
Waste of Space by Gina Damico
“Cram ten hormonal teens into a spaceship and blast off: that’s the premise for the ill-conceived reality show Waste of Space. The kids who are cast know everything about drama—and nothing about the fact that the production is fake. Hidden in a desert warehouse, their spaceship replica is equipped with state-of-the-art special effects dreamed up…
The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett
“Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare. Literally. Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a…
Dark Companion by Marta Acosta
“Orphaned at the age of six, Jane Williams has grown up in a series of foster homes, learning to survive in the shadows of life. Through hard work and determination, she manages to win a scholarship to the exclusive Birch Grove Academy. There, for the first time, Jane finds herself accepted by a group of…
The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
“Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it. When her older sister, Anna, was murdered three years ago and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best. The language of violence. While her crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people, even…
Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
“Twelve-year-old Emily is on the move again. Her family is relocating to San Francisco, home of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, creator of the online sensation Book Scavenger, a game where books are hidden all over the country and clues to find them are revealed through puzzles. But Emily soon learns that Griswold has been…
The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics
“Lucy Acosta’s mother died when she was three. Growing up in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They’re inseparable—a family. When her aunt Penelope, the only mother she’s ever known, tragically disappears while walking in…
Wrecked by Maria Padian
“Everyone has heard a different version of what happened that night at MacCallum College. Haley was already in bed when her roommate, Jenny, arrived home shell-shocked from the wild Conundrum House party. Richard heard his housemate Jordan brag about the cute freshman he hooked up with. When Jenny formally accuses Jordan of rape, Haley and…
A World Without You by Beth Revis
“Seventeen-year-old Bo has always had delusions that he can travel through time. When he was ten, Bo claimed to have witnessed the Titanic hit an iceberg, and at fifteen, he found himself on a Civil War battlefield, horrified by the bodies surrounding him. So when his worried parents send him to a school for troubled…