Weekly Reads: Everything Everything

Everything, Everything is Nicolas Yoon's debut novel. Everyone and their pug has already read this book, but I was at a point where I was sick of the "sick incurable disease teen trope" that was very prevalent in YA books at the time. I was also dealing with all of the real life incurable disease crap in my real life, so I didn't need anything added to it. Also this book was spoiled to me several different times. And YET here I am still reading it. I got asked to cover a co-worker's book club and this was the book on the schedule. I read it in 75 minutes, it was SUCH a fast read. And I loved it! Definitely one to pick up, I love Nicola Yoon's writing style and can't wait to see what else she comes up with.

My rating: 5 stars


Summary from goodreads:

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

Weekly Reads: I Crawl Through

A.S. King can do no wrong in my opinion. She is an author that churns out unique/amazing/weird/awesomeness with every book she writes. I Crawl Through It is her newest and I received an electronic advanced reader copy of this book back in May and started reading it immediately.

It.
Was.
Weird.

But in a most delightful way. Per usual.

Read it, and everything else she has written. You won't regret it.

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

A boldly surreal novel from one of the best YA writers working today.

Four talented teenagers are traumatized-coping with grief, surviving date rape, facing the anxiety of standardized tests and the neglect of self-absorbed adults--and they'll do anything to escape the pressure. They'll even build an invisible helicopter, to fly far away to a place where everyone will understand them... until they learn the only way to escape reality is to face it head-on. 

Weekly Reads: Let's Get Lost

Let's Get Lost  is a book that's been on my list to read for quite some time. I volunteered to read it for a YA book committee I'm on, so I was finally able to commit to reading it as the deadline to have it read and reviewed is looming over my head. I started reading it, and was immediately glad that I did. It's told in 4 parts and each part is incredibly endearing and delightful to read. The stories come full circle at the end, and wrapped up in a satisfying way, imo.

Great teen read.

My rating: 4 stars

Summary from goodreads:

Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost. 

Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most. 

There's HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday—and a few stolen goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endings…until his own life goes off-script. And SONIA worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost the ability to love. 

Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila's own 4,268-mile journey that she discovers the most important truth— sometimes, what you need most is right where you started. And maybe the only way to find what you're looking for is to get lost along the way.

Weekly Reads: The Carnival at Bray

I checked out The Carnival at Bray from my library the Friday before the ALA Printz Award was announced, so I was pretty thrilled to have it in my possession once it was announce as a Printz Honor. I tend to stay away from historical fiction because it's just not my cup of tea, but this book was set in the 90s and for some reason that seems like just yesterday! This book was an amazing read that tugged on my heart strings and reminded me of the struggle of just being a teen and trying to grow up. Throw in family tragedy, and it becomes much much harder.

Great book.

My rating: 4.5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

It's 1993, and Generation X pulses to the beat of Kurt Cobain and the grunge movement. Sixteen-year-old Maggie Lynch is uprooted from big-city Chicago to a windswept town on the Irish Sea. Surviving on care packages of Spin magazine and Twizzlers from her rocker uncle Kevin, she wonders if she'll ever find her place in this new world. When first love and sudden death simultaneously strike, a naive but determined Maggie embarks on a forbidden pilgrimage that will take her to a seedy part of Dublin and on to a life- altering night in Rome to fulfill a dying wish. Through it all, Maggie discovers an untapped inner strength to do the most difficult but rewarding thing of all, live.

Weekly Reads: Afterworlds

I received an e-ARC of Afterworlds a few months ago, and despite being super excited to read a new book by Scott Westerfeld, I could not bring myself to tackle a 600 page book on my e-reader. Something about giant books on an e-devices make you just feel like you're reading FOREVER. It helps me to see physically how much further I've gotten into the book, I think. And then once the e-copy expired off of my device, I started to hear ALL of the excitement surrounding the book. And then I was super mad that I didn't just buck up and read it. Luckily my library purchased it right away and I decided to pick it up to read during the month of November. During NaNoWriMo, I allowed myself to read during breaks at work, but free time out of work needed to be spent writing. What better book to inspiring my novel writing than a story that includes a girl who wrote her first breakthrough novel during NaNoWriMo.

The reason the book is so giant is that it's essentially two stories in one. The first story is about Darcy, the young novelist who just sold her first book to a publisher and moves to NYC to work on the sequel. The story within the story (very meta, Scott Dub) is the story she wrote and published, where Lizzie slips into the afterworld during a devastating terrorist attack and falls in love.

Both stories were amazing and helped push me right along when I was reading it. The two stories alternated by chapter, and there was a black bar at the top and bottom of the page for the Afterworlds story to make it easier for the reader to differentiate the two stories.

This was a great book, and a must read.

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

Darcy Patel has put college and everything else on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. Arriving in New York with no apartment or friends she wonders whether she's made the right decision until she falls in with a crowd of other seasoned and fledgling writers who take her under their wings… 

Told in alternating chapters is Darcy's novel, a suspenseful thriller about Lizzie, a teen who slips into the 'Afterworld' to survive a terrorist attack. But the Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead and as Lizzie drifts between our world and that of the Afterworld, she discovers that many unsolved - and terrifying - stories need to be reconciled. And when a new threat resurfaces, Lizzie learns her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she loves and cares about most.(

Weekly Reads: Belzhar

I recently read Belzhar , written by Meg Wolitzer, as recommended as a potential candidate for the Printz award. I've read a book by Meg Wolitzer previously, and wasn't a huge fan, but I didn't hold that against her while reading this one. Belzhar is also her first dance with a YA novel.

I absolutely loved this book. I started it on my lunch break and felt utterly transported. To that time in high school when all of your emotions are felt with 1000x the normal force, and love is LOVE in 96 point font written on a skyscraper, and loss is the end of your existence. I just devoured the book.

Looking at the reviews, it seems that people are either completely infatuated with it as I am, or thinks it's terrible. Who are those people?!? So maybe it's not everyone's cup of tea, but man I really liked it.

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

If life were fair, Jam Gallahue would still be  at home in New Jersey with her sweet British  boyfriend, Reeve Maxfield. She’d be watching  old comedy sketches with him. She’d be kissing  him in the library stacks.

She certainly wouldn’t be at The Wooden Barn, a therapeutic boarding school in rural Vermont, living with a weird roommate, and signed up for an exclusive, mysterious class called Special Topics in English.

But life isn’t fair, and Reeve Maxfield is dead.

Until a journal-writing assignment leads Jam to Belzhar, where the untainted past is restored, and Jam can feel Reeve’s arms around her once again. But there are hidden truths on Jam’s path to reclaim her loss.

From New York Times bestselling author Meg Wolitzer comes a breathtaking and surprising story about first love, deep sorrow, and the power of acceptance.

Weekly Reads: Like No Other

Like No Other has been described as this year's Eleanor and Park, so of course I had to read it. It was told in a dual perspective and I really enjoyed learning more about Jaxon and Devorah, and especially Devorah's Hasidic upbringing.

The story didn't end as I was expecting, and that almost made me like it even more. Definitely worth a read, but E&P it's not.

My rating: 4 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

Fate brought them together. Will life tear them apart? 

Devorah is a consummate good girl who has never challenged the ways of her strict Hasidic upbringing. 

Jaxon is a fun-loving, book-smart nerd who has never been comfortable around girls (unless you count his four younger sisters). 

They've spent their entire lives in Brooklyn, on opposite sides of the same street. Their paths never crossed . . . until one day, they did. 

When a hurricane strikes the Northeast, the pair becomes stranded in an elevator together, where fate leaves them no choice but to make an otherwise risky connection. 

Though their relation is strictly forbidden, Devorah and Jax arrange secret meetings and risk everything to be together. But how far can they go? Just how much are they willing to give up? 

In the timeless tradition of West Side Story and Crossing Delancey, this thoroughly modern take on romance will inspire laughter, tears, and the belief that love can happen when and where you least expect it. 

Weekly Reads: The Perfectionists

The Perfectionists is the newest book series by Sara Shepard, author of the Pretty Little Liars series. I got this as an e-ARC to review as a librarian. I really liked the PLL book series, and also enjoy the show, but once the series was "done" and then more books kept being published, it lost my interest a bit.

This book follows the same formula as the PLL books: 5 high school girls, and unexplained death, except this time the girls have the motive for the murder and have to prove who the real killer was.

It was a good quick read, and people that are in to PLL will like it.

My rating: 3.5 stars.



Summary from goodreads:

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling series Pretty Little Liars comes a thrilling new novel about five perfect girls who are framed for a murder they di dn’t commit. 

In Beacon Heights, Washington, five girls—Ava, Caitlin, Mackenzie, Julie, and Parker—know that you don’t have to be good to be perfect. At first the girls think they have nothing in common, until they realize that they all hate Nolan Hotchkiss, who’s done terrible things to each of them. They come up with the perfect way to kill him—a hypothetical murder, of course. It’s just a joke...until Nolan turns up dead, in exactly the way they planned. Only, they didn’t do it. And unless they find the real killer, their perfect lives will come crashing down around them. 

From Sara Shepard, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Pretty Little Liars series, comes another story of dark secrets, shocking twists, and what happens when five beautiful girls will do anything to hide the ugly truth.

Weekly Reads: Infinite Sea

One of my favorite young adult books is The 5th Wave . I have been waiting with bated breath for the sequel to come out, and so has every teen in my library that I have recommended read The 5th Wave. I finished The Infinite Sea in just a few lunch breaks and it was great. Yes, these books are about aliens, but it's a very believable alien invasion, which makes it just OMG GOTTA READ.

The 5th Wave summary from goodreads:
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker.

Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

My rating: 5 stars.

The Infinite Sea summary from goodreads:

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

My rating: 4.5 stars.

Weekly Reads: Anatomy of a Misfit

I'd heard a bit of buzz about Andrea Portes' Anatomy of a Misfit. It's her third novel, and her first go at YA. It's also based on a true life experiences. The quip I read about the book was that it's Mean Girls meets The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Well ok, I'm interested.

The story was amazing. There were many laugh out loud moments. I received an advanced reader copy of the book to review and promote to library customers, and midway through reading it, I texted my co-worker and reading bestie that she "OMG HAD TO REQUEST AND READ THIS BOOK ASAP!" because it was so great.

And then the book took a dark twist. And it was even better. Seriously. This is one of the best YA books I've read so far this year. I wish I could go back 15 years and hand this to high school Jerbear and let it help her understand that it doesn't matter what people think of you. Great message, even better delivery.

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

Fall’s buzzed-about, in-house favorite. Outside, Anika Dragomir is all lip gloss and blond hair—the third most popular girl in school. Inside, she’s a freak: a mix of dark thoughts, diabolical plots, and, if local chatter is to be believed, vampire DNA (after all, her father is Romanian). But she keeps it under wraps to maintain her social position. One step out of line and Becky Vilhauer, first most popular girl in school, will make her life hell. So when former loner Logan McDonough shows up one September hotter, smarter, and more mysterious than ever, Anika knows she can’t get involved. It would be insane to throw away her social safety for a nerd. So what if that nerd is now a black-leather-jacket-wearing dreamboat, and his loner status is clearly the result of his troubled home life? Who cares if the right girl could help him with all that, maybe even save him from it? Who needs him when Jared Kline, the bad boy every girl dreams of, is asking her on dates? Who?

Anatomy of a Misfit is Mean Girls meets The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Anika’s hilariously deadpan delivery will appeal to readers for its honesty and depth. The so-sad-it’s-funny high school setting will pull readers in, but when the story’s dark foreboding gradually takes over, the devastating penultimate tragedy hits like a punch to the gut. Readers will ride the highs and lows alongside funny, flawed Anika—from laughter to tears, and everything in between.

Weekly Reads: Falling into Place

Falling into Place is the debut novel by writer Amy Zhang. I received an e-ARC of the book to review as a librarian and the YA title received some strong buzz, so I was excited to tear in to it.

The story is told in a unique way. We find out about Liz's attempted suicide on page one, and then spend the rest of the book uncovering all the moments in her life leading up to that moment. It's also told from an interesting perspective. It was a fairly quick read, and I wanted to find out how it ended, but I didn't really connect with any of the characters, which was perhaps the intention? I'm not sure. I was floored to finish the book and read the author's note that it was written by a high school student in Wisconsin. Impressive.

My rating: 3.5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road. 

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.