YA Fiction
MARIAM SHARMA HITS THE ROAD by Sheba Karim
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As soon as Mariam sees the billboard in Times Square, she knows that Ghazala is in big trouble. It’s not surprising that Ghaz signed up for the modeling gig, but did she know that those images would be appearing in public where someone was bound to see? It’s not long before word gets around the Pakistani community, and Ghaz is labeled a “slut,” and locked in her room by her parents who are threatening to send her to Pakistan to find a husband. So Mariam and Umar do the only thing good friends can do. They help Ghaz sneak out in the middle of the night and take off on an epic summer road trip from New Jersey to New Orleans. But the trip turns out to be more than just a rescue mission for Ghaz or a wild way to spend a college summer vacation. Mariam learns new things about her father and must come to terms with her family’s past. Umar wrestles with how his homosexuality fits in with his devout Muslim faith. The fallout from Ghaz’s billboard and her family’s reactions continue to follow her. And all three of them are have their own assumptions challenged as they face various levels of racism throughout their journey into the Deep South.
This coming-of-age story features strong and engaging characters grappling with serious issues against the fun backdrop of a road trip plot. This novel will certainly appeal to older teen readers of realistic fiction.
MONSTROUS BEAUTY by Elizabeth Fama
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Hester has resigned herself to a life without love. Her mother died days after giving birth to Hester, as her grandmother died days after giving birth to her mother, and her great-grandmother. . . . All Hester knows is that for the women in her family, love kills. But when Hester meets a mysterious young man at the beach, she begins to uncover a dark tale from the past–a story of love and loss, of humans and sea-folk, the living and the lingering dead. And something in this past may have an important connection to Hester’s future. In her desperation to learn more about the past and free herself from her curse, Hester overlooks the very real danger lurking in the present.
Based on the jacket summary, I had expected this novel to be a paranormal romance. It is definitely not! Although there are some romantic moments in the book, the focus of the novel is on the journey of a young woman to uncover her ancestral past, break a curse, and find the strength to free herself from the weight of past tragedies and forge her own destiny. It is suspenseful and powerfully written with a rich, history-inspired fantasy woven into a quaint, contemporary, small town. Fama’s extensive research shows in the realism of her past and present settings and the authenticity of her characters without ever leading to copious explication. I highly recommend this novel to historical fiction readers and fantasy readers who enjoy gripping, character-driven stories. I had trouble putting it down!
The audiobook is phenomenal. I highly recommend it.
THE WIZARDS OF ONCE by Cressida Cowell
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Xar, the son of the wizard king, is known for being a troublemaker–disobedient, destructive, leading his ragtag entourage of sprites and snow cats into all kinds of danger. And the fact that at thirteen his magic still hasn’t come in makes him even more unruly. Wish, the warrior princess, is downright weird. Her limp, her eyepatch, and her odd interests make her hardly fit to call herself a warrior. But the mischief of these two sworn enemies reaches new heights when two forbidden errands collide in the Badwoods. Xar has come to set a trap for a witch, the darkest, most evil magic creature ever to exist, which everyone believes are extinct, but whose magic Xar hopes to steal. Wish enters the Badwoods chasing her pet, an iron spoon that must be magic and is therefore thoroughly forbidden (much to her young Assistant Bodyguard’s anxiety). She also has a magic sword she found near her mother’s dungeon that has an inscription claiming that it kills witches. And unfortunately for both Wish and Xar, that sword may be blood-curdlingly necessary.
As much as this novel is the thrilling start to a creative and engaging new fantasy series, it is a coming of age tale for two very different protagonists, each struggling to find a place in their respective society and to work through a complicated relationship with their respective intimidating parent. I suspect that the cheeky omniscient narrator would have annoyed me had I not been listening to the brilliantly performed audiobook. But otherwise, I loved everything about it. Can’t wait for the next installment!
I highly recommend the audiobook (performed by David Tennant), a well-deserved Odyssey Award Honor recording.
THE GENIUS PLAGUE by David Walton
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It has always been Neil’s dream to follow in his father’s footsteps in the NSA. Unfortunately, he’s not quite the ideal candidate, with no college degree, no computer coding experience, and a seemingly disasterous set of missteps in his interview process. Yet somehow he lands a job on the team of NSA problem solvers tasked with cracking the impossible codes no one else can solve. At first the work is tedious, but as certain bizarre messages begin to come through, the team realizes that people all over the globe have somehow been infected with the same fungal virus that Neil’s brother, Paul, brought back from a harrowing ordeal in Brazil. Paul and the other victims exhibit advanced intelligence, but also display other behavior changes that connect them to group of Brazilian terrorists. As Neil and the team try to make sense of the seemingly impossible events unfolding around them, an international conspiracy emerges that could threaten the survival of the human race.
Fun, fast-paced, and full of interesting tidbits about mushrooms. I thoroughly enjoyed this sci-fi thriller! It’s light on the sci-fi, so a good fit for thriller fans, adult and teen!
THE ARRIVAL by Shaun Tan
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A man travels to a foreign country, seeking a better life for his family. He arrives in a strange new land with bizarre language, buildings, and creatures. Even food is unrecognizable. As he begins to find his way, he encounters immigrants from other places, each with a different story of how they came to this unfamiliar land. By the time his wife and daughter are able to join him, he is ready to help other new arrivals navigate the world he once found so unnavigable himself.
Though its pages are few, this wordless graphic novel contains a wealth of meaning in its detailed and imaginative illustrations. The artist has captured the alien feeling of being isolated in a new place through fantastical cityscapes, while moving his character through a chain of interactions with other immigrants that builds a sense of community and universality around the immigrant experience. This beautiful story is not one to rush through. I’d recommend it to teens and adults who enjoy graphic novels and character-driven historical fiction.
GRIT by Gillian French
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Rhiannon’s disappearance is still leaving its mark this summer. There’s an air of suspicion, especially around Darcy. It makes sense. Everyone’s always suspicious of the town “slut,” whatever that means. And Darcy does have a secret–one she’s keeping for someone else. But when someone nominates both Darcy and her cousin Nell for Bay Festival Princess, Darcy can’t help but wonder who is out to get her. Is it a joke meant to humiliate her? Does someone know Darcy’s secret? Or does it all come back to Rhiannon and the town’s darkest secret of all?
I thoroughly loved the voice of this novel. Darcy is an authentic, flawed character who really gripped me from the opening pages. And the suspenseful plot made it difficult to put down. I highly recommend this book to teen fans of realistic fiction and suspense.
If you liked E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, definitely check this one out.
CHARM AND STRANGE by Stephanie Kuehn
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Andrew has felt dead inside for a long time. He couldn’t explain exactly why he smashed that kid in the face with a tennis racket when he was nine, and he can’t explain why he would rather be alone in the forest than talking to the new girl at his boarding school. But something about Jordan draws him out in a way that his other classmates have not. He finds himself at a party with Jordan and his former roommate, Lex, on the night of the full moon. Which is a bad idea because he is certain that tonight will be the night that he changes. He has known it would happen, ever since that summer in New Hampshire when his older brother, Keith, told him that the wolf lived inside all of them. As he waits for the change, memories of Keith and their sister, Siobhan, intertwine with Jordan and Lex’s attempts to break through his shell.
This book is intense. Suspenseful, horrifying, and beautifully written. Did I mention intense? Kuehn weaves hints of fantasy through the novel, enough to make a reader hope that maybe it is a fantasy. Maybe the wolf is real. All the while, the fantasy echoes heighten the horror of the real story and help the reader find herself in the mindset of a traumatized child. If you like dark realistic fiction, this book is excellent. But be forewarned: intense. (Trigger alert: CSA)
SKINK, NO SURRENDER by Carl Hiaasen
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When Richard’s cousin (and best friend) Malley disappears, a little amateur detective work confirms his worst fear: she has run off with the man she met on the Internet. While the police try to track her down, Richard heads down to their favorite getaway on the beach where he meets a seemingly insane, homeless environmental activist named Skink. It turns out that Skink is the former Governor of Florida, and that he faked his own death years ago, before becoming a vigilante for endangered turtles, among other things. When Richard gets a cryptic phone call from his cousin that seems to indicate that she is in danger, he and Skink take matters into their own hands and travel into the wild waterways of Florida to rescue Malley.
An exciting teen thriller that is difficult to put down, this novel will not disappoint readers who are looking for an engaging plot, well-developed characters, thematic depth, and plenty of surprises. I highly recommend it!
LABYRINTH LOST by Zoraida Córdova
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For years, Alex has tried to hide her powers. She doesn’t want to be a bruja–not after what happened the first and only time she let her magic slip out. But when her best friend is in trouble, she can’t help but take on the bully, and suddenly, her magic is no longer a secret. In fact, it seems she is the most powerful bruja of them all: an encantrix. As her mother and sisters joyfully plan her Deathday ceremony and celebration, Alex plans a counter-canto–one which she hopes will take the burden of her magic away forever. Unfortunately, her canto goes wrong, and Alex must rely on the help of a brujo boy she hardly knows to reach the Tree of Souls and rescue her family from the Devourer.
A compelling blend of myth and modern life, the world of the Brooklyn Brujas will entrance readers. Alex’s struggle to come to terms with her magic is inextricably tied to her struggle to find her place in her family and community. One of the most engaging books I’ve read lately; I highly recommend it to teen fantasy fans!
DIAL EM FOR MURDER by Marni Bates
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Emmy has been spending countless hours at Starbucks trying to write a romance novel. It isn’t going well. All of her dialogue seems stilted and the high- stakes plot isn’t at all believable. But when a stranger tackles her to the ground and dies on top of her, Emmy is thrust into an unbelievable thriller of her own. It seems like the old man may have taken a bullet that was meant for her, and before he died, he slipped a password-protected tablet into her pocket. The police seem ready to put her into “protective custody” when the dead man’s grandson (and inconveniently Emmy’s best friend’s ex-boyfriend’s best friend), Sebastian, shows up with a clandestine alternative: enroll in an extremely expensive and extremely well – guarded private school. Sebastian seems to have his own secret motives for wanting Emmy close, but Emmy knows that this might be her only chance to break into the tablet and achieve her own secret agenda. The old man mentioned her father, and Emmy is determined to find him.
This thriller kept me engaged from start to finish. I won’t call it a mystery since there weren’t really clues that the reader could unravel, but it is certainly mysterious. I’m still on the edge of my seat wanting to figure out what’s going on. Too bad I have to wait for a sequel! Highly recommend it to teens who enjoy thrillers.
If you liked Dial Em for Murder, you might like The Name of the Star.
Susan the Librarian 