Reader: Allen D.
Age: 15
Title: Dreamstrider
Author: Lindsay Smith
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Pub Date: 10/06/15
Galley: Yes
Top 25: Yes
Convince us to read the book: This book is powerful in many ways. Their is a monotheistic religion that is powerful and almost believable. The writing is smooth and is almost so perfect it's hard to put it down.
Memorable or Forgettable: It was memorable by how the author made the story flow real nicely. I didn't like some parts of the religion though. She really could've moved it from realistic to OMG!
Cover: The cover actually deflected me. I didn't understand the point of it and to be honest, only picked up the book so I could stay on TKB.
Age Range: 14 through 17
Quality: 4Q - Better than most
Popularity: 2P - Only for special interest
Annotation: Dreams turn into Nightmares in Dreamstrider. In Livia's world she feels a Darkness tugging at her from the shadows, and the nightmares are continuing to grow larger.
tags: fantasy / action / political intrigue / ya lit
Reader: Caroline H.
Age: 12
Title: Charmed Deception
Author: Eilis O'Neal
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pub Date: 10/27/15
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: This book was very suspenseful; it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading it. The character development was kind of weak at first, but it became stronger as the story went on. The plot was kind of predictable (girl with forbidden power finds someone else like her, the other girl is imprisoned, her new guy friend helps her break the other girl out without the evil forces finding out, etc.) but other than that it was a great book. My only other complaint is that the dialogue was kind of sappy at times.
Memorable or Forgettable: This book was memorable, but there were many clichés, including the addition of the extremely clingy guy character and the protagonist with the forbidden power who goes against the odds to bring equality to the world. The dialogue seemed somewhat fake at times. The story was pretty well done, though, and all in all I enjoyed reading it.
Cover: Personally, I really don’t like this cover. It actually reflects the contents pretty well, but the design and colors are kind of unattractive.
Age Range: under 12 through 18 and up
Quality: 4Q - Better than most
Popularity: 3P - Some teen appeal
Additional Comments: Maybe it's just me, but this book sounds like Harry Potter...
tags: fantasy / magic / romance / ya lit
Reader: Eli S-M
Age: 16
Title: Illuminae
Author: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Pub Date: 10/20/15
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: This is an interesting and highly original book that features a unique format, setting, and plot. The setting, a convoy of company and government spaceships on the run from the fleet of a rival company, is original and exciting. The plot manages to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the book's 600 or so pages by constantly throwing new challenges and danger at the characters. Illuminae does suffer from a lack of clear explanation surrounding some of the events at the end. It seemed as though some things happened just so that the book could have an exciting climax.
Memorable or Forgettable: This book was extremely memorable, mainly because of the unique format. The story is told as a series of ship's logs, security camera footage summaries, and emails between main characters. This format has its advantages, but also its disadvantages- it's very hard to get into the character's heads and understand their motivations. It did, however, certainly make the book memorable.
Cover: The cover was somewhat interesting, and neither tempted me nor turned me away. It did not accurately reflect the book's contents - I had absolutely no idea what it would be about until I started reading.
Age Range: 12 through 18 and up
Quality: 3Q - Readable
Popularity: 4P - Broad general teen appeal
tags: science fiction / dystopian / suspense / ya lit
Reader: Simon D-S
Age: 15
Title: dotwav
Author: Mike A Lancaster
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pub Date: 11/24/15
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: This book had some semi-realistic teen characters, interesting and different plot, and some technology problems. The teen characters in this book are semi-believable and realistic, with one of them having an anger management issue, which is a real thing that happens. The reason I include "semi" is because he has this problem essentially go away because of this weird brain chip which I will talk about later. The plot is kind of unrealistic, with one of the main characters having a hacker/musician uncle and that uncle having a friend who has something like a photographic memory and a huge library. (I want that library.) The plot has good pacing however, allowing for a good read. Where the book has its most interesting issue is with technology. The author has the agency that one of the characters works for just give him this little brain chip that allows him to a) get rid of his anger management issue and b) just be a pro at everything. This got a little stupid at times, as the character would be like "Accessing kung fu files...." and I was like "no."
Memorable or Forgettable: The idea of the different sound waves was really cool and the author used it well. I will probably remember this book for its straight up trippy ending. You are totally just putting the book down and going "Whaaaaaaaa....?" I went to bed questioning my sanity the night I finished reading it.
Cover: The sound wave image is pretty cool. It also pulls off the effect of going through the ears.
Age Range: 14 through 17
Quality: 3Q - Readable
Popularity: 4P - Broad general teen appeal
tags: science fiction / techno-thriller / ya lit
Reader: Sam T.
Age: 16
Title: The Beast of Cretacea
Author: Todd Strasser
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pub Date: 10/13/15
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: I liked the book a fair amount; it was a good story that was interesting and riveting and kept me on my toes. I also liked the characters, as all of the different characters and character groups were very interesting and I felt a connection with them due to good characterization and good use of emotion and backstory. Finally, I also enjoyed the adventure and danger aspects of the novel, and I found the fight over the serum and the hierarchy of their future society interesting.
One thing that personally irked me off a little as a science nerd was that the book's depiction of the Cretaceous Period was often inaccurate. The author made up a fictitious stingray-like creature, and added in creatures that did not exist yet such as bats and deer. (It would be like setting a book in the 1940's and including iPhones) Scenes like the pterosaur picking someone up would also have been impossible in real life. Popular culture depictions of prehistory are almost always wildly different than reality, and I'd desperately hoped that this book would be different. Of course, it is important to mention that the book was written well enough so that my belief was mostly suspended, but the fact that the author did not do his homework bugged me at the back of my mind as I read. Overall, it was a good and interesting story, and the concept was great, although some parts of it were flawed. I also thought the ending was a little bit of a letdown - he never finds his brother nor his parents.
Memorable or Forgettable: It was memorable and interesting because it did a very interesting, unexpected and original retelling of a famous book, Moby Dick, that I have never read. I thought it was a unique enough concept that it stood out somewhat.
Cover: The cover was okay. I feel that maybe it gives a little too much away about the beast and prevents readers from imagining it themselves. Although it could have been a little better, I thought it was still interesting enough to warrant my attention.
Age Range: 12 through 17
Quality: 4Q - Better than most
Popularity: 3P - Some teen appeal
tags: science fiction / maritime adventure / coming of age / Moby Dick / ya lit
Reader: Chloe B.
Age: 14
Title: When You Leave
Author: Monica Ropal
Publisher: Running Press
Pub Date: 04/07/15
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: This book was a mystery and, unlike some mysteries, in the beginning it wasn't too slow paced and still managed to give you a good idea of characters and their personalities. Good characterization. I also really enjoyed the plot of this book - towards the end of the book I really couldn't put it down. In the beginning of the book where the main character, Cassie, was dating Cooper was adorable and romantic. Although I found the fact that Cassie's best friend Mattie was mute sort of unnecessary and tedious. A few times there was some wording that I found confusing. Also, at one point in the book, Cassie mentions falling in love with Mattie and I felt like that exact statement should've been elaborated on more - it wasn't really brought up again until towards the end of the book.
Memorable or Forgettable: Like I said, this book had a very good plotline and good character development. And I did enjoy reading it. However, it isn't one of those books that I'd read over and over again.
Cover: I'm pretty impartial to the cover. In this book the main character has a lot of struggles but I feel like the cover of the book makes it look more sad than it is. It doesn't really have too much to do with the plot.
Age Range: 14 through 15
Quality: 3Q - Readable
Popularity: 4P - Broad general teen appeal
tags: mystery / romance / ya lit
Reader: Dana F.
Age: 14
Title: The Court of Fives
Author: Kate Elliott
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pub Date: 08/18/15
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: I really liked the setting because it was creative and detailed, and the characters because they had depth and were all pretty well developed. The plot points, however, were a bit lacking. There were several different things going on, the Fives, some magical elements, family drama, and romance that were never really tied together. It felt like a bunch of random points were just thrown in.
Memorable or Forgettable: I really liked the idea of this book, but I felt like it wasn't very well executed. It was kind of confusing and a lot of the time I was wondering why that whole part was necessary. I thought this book was about something other than what was given to me.
Cover: I like the colors and design of the cover. It sort of reflected the contents.
Age Range: 12 through 15
Quality: 2Q - Needs more work
Popularity: 4P - Broad general teen appeal
tags: fantasy / adventure / ya lit
Reader: Sam T.
Age: 16
Title: Sweet
Author: Emmy Laybourne
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Pub Date: 06/02/15
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: I more or less liked the characters, even if they were slightly annoying. After a while I kind of got sick of hearing Viv complain about her weight and Laurel fawn over Tom. The only likable character was Cubby the cameraman, and he's dead. And maybe Derek.
The book took a turn for the ridiculous halfway through. It was a wild ride, but I can't call it "good", either by comedy standards or by non-comedic ones. I know it's sort of supposed to be funny, but parts of it are too disgusting to make it so. Reading the book is sort of like watching Sharknado- you can't really take it as a serious book, even if the writing was better and less sassy. The book is too ridiculous and childish for older readers but too gory for the youngsters.
The constant parenthetical statements were kind of annoying, and I got a little tired of hearing Laurel talk. That being said, the author doesn't really craft different narrative voices for Tom and Laurel; the hallmark of a good book is one where you can take a sentence and immediately know which character said it. This book does not do that. Tom sort of narrates like a Laurel clone.
The book is supposed to be a social commentary, but I'm not sure who it's targeting. Celebrities? Fat people? People who shame fat people? Skinny people who think they're fat? American society? To be honest, I don't really know and I don't really care.
Killing off America in the last chapter was a gutsy move, and I have to applaud the author for bravery, but it still really really disappointed me. Sometimes making a risky, original plot development makes a book more interesting; sometimes it ruins it. This ending was the latter.
Memorable or Forgettable: This book was only memorable for its campy ridiculousness. Otherwise it was more or less dull. The story seemed recycled, the characters were thin and flat, the story was outlandish. In addition, it was not nearly funny enough to be a comedy but not serious enough to be taken seriously. Overall, it was generally not amazing, but surprisingly not a complete failure.
Cover: The cover was a little confusing. It was hard to tell if I was holding the book upside down or not.
Age Range: 16 through 17
Quality: 2Q - Needs more work
Popularity: 3P - Some teen appeal
Additional Comments: The quality rating is probably more like 2.6 or 2.7, but there were no intermediate options. At points I'd say that it actually reached maybe a 3.4 or 3.5 but the overall average was probably around 2.6.
tags: horror / romance / ya lit
Reader: Sam T.
Age: 16
Title: The Rig
Author: Joe Ducie
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pub Date: 10/06/15
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: I liked the characters, even if they were a little cliched at times. I really felt connected to them. I also thought the dialogue was okay, although everyone (regardless of country) sounded a little British at times. I thought, however, that the superpowers seemed a little over-the-top, unrealistic and ridiculous, and the "magical meteorite" was not a very original nor interesting idea. Overall, I liked the book, although I was also disappointed by most of it.
Memorable or Forgettable: It doesn't really seem that memorable, besides the superpowers thing. It seems to rely on the "genius escape artist kid" trope too much, which is unfortunate because that is far too overused.
Cover: The cover was okay and more or less seemed to reflect the contents.
Age Range: 12 through 15
Quality: 3Q - Readable
Popularity: 3P - Some teen appeal
tags: science fiction / supernatural / dystopia / suspense / action / ya lit
Reader: Sam T.
Age: 16
Title: After the Red Rain
Author: Barry Lyga, Peter Facinelli, and Robert DeFranco
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date: 08/04/15
Galley: Yes
Top 25: No
Convince us to read the book: I really liked the characters, and felt attached to them, although I thought some of the romance was a little cliched. I really liked the storyline, and thought it was supenseful, although it seems like the authors made Rose a little too powerful and gave him a little too many different abilities. However, I really did like the idea of a plant-human hybrid, although some of the other genetic hybrids, like blue rats and tooth-weeds, seemed a little too outlandish.
I was also frustrated that there seemed to be some unexplained inconsistencies, such as: if Deedra was rescued from the Red Rain machines as a baby, and the Red Rain happened a long time ago, why isn't she super old? If it happened more recently, why don't people remember what it was like more clearly?
Memorable or Forgettable: It was mostly memorable for the unique storyline and the plot twists, although it frustrated me that it left some questions unanswered. Although it had a unique idea, it also seemed to rely a little too heavily on conventional tropes of the genre.
Cover: The cover was somewhat interesting and mostly related, although I'm not quite sure what the spiky things that she's standing on are. Also, the general image of the cover seems sort of familiar, as I believe I've seen similar covers on other post-apocalyptic books.
Age Range: 14 through 17
Quality: 4Q - Better than most
Popularity: 4P - Broad general teen appeal
tags: action / dystopia / post-apocalyptic / romance / ya lit
