Things pick up where they left off in book 1. Ryan is out and about more, but still hasn’t started back to school yet after the accident which left hiThings pick up where they left off in book 1. Ryan is out and about more, but still hasn’t started back to school yet after the accident which left him laid up with a broken leg. His dad’s friend, Henry, is still a house guest and his communication with his best friend, Sarah, is still secret. The book opens with the directive to first view a video of Ryan and Sarah visiting the abandoned gold dredge in the middle of the night. From there Ryan begins his investigative work, looking into the list of suspicious people he compiled in book 1, including his own father. Sarah continues to visit places in the middle of the night and upload videos to her website, which readers can view along with Ryan.
There’s a bit more sciency stuff in this book, especially about alchemy and three famous scientists who supposedly believed in it. By the end of the book, rather abruptly actually, Ryan and Sarah put all the clues together and solve the mystery. There’s no cliffhanger like book 1. Makes me wonder what book 3 is all about since it seems to be over. I’m sure it wasn’t hard to convince Carman to resurrect the plot for another go.
Recommended for horror/mystery fans. Videos are super creepy. FYI....more
I’ve been wanting to read this book for a long time, Newbery winner and all, but for some reason it kept getting pushed to the bottom of the pile by oI’ve been wanting to read this book for a long time, Newbery winner and all, but for some reason it kept getting pushed to the bottom of the pile by other books. The time finally arrived and gotta say I was pleasantly surprised.
Three middle school friends, Zach, Poppy and Alice, have been acting out fantasy scenarios with action figure dolls for a long time. Thinking it babyish, Zach’s dad steps in and throws out his favorite pirate action figure. Not wanting to tell his friends the truth, Zach lies and says he’s outgrown it and doesn’t want to play anymore. Poppy and Alice are miffed.
So Poppy steals her mom’s antique bone china doll, aka Queen, and concocts a story about it being made of a deceased girl’s bones that needs a proper burial in a cemetery a few towns away. She convinces Alice and Zach to catch a bus in the middle of the night so they can get there, do the deed, and catch the bus back before Alice’s grandmother notices, and grounds her for the rest of her life. Things get disrupted by a creepy character on the bus, so they end up sleeping in a park, sailing across a river, and breaking into a library all in an effort to get to the cemetery. Poppy has upped the game on their playacting adventures.
What makes this book so respected by the library industry (i.e. Newbery committee) is the 3-dimensionality Black puts into these characters. Yes, the plot is interesting and exciting, but the personalities of these characters, especially the narrator, Zach, are well done. You really get to know them. What makes them tick. What makes them do and say the things they do and say. The arguments, the persuasions, the lies, the hidden truths, it’s all understandable and believable.
As for being scary…not really. The doll isn’t evil. She’s mischievous if anything. In the end, you’re not really sure if the doll was anything more than a doll personified by overactive imaginations. In general the book gives off good fall vibes. Recommend reading around Halloween....more
Cody's neighborhood is an embarrassment. Everyone is weird and artsy and has tattoos or colored hair. They do a bang up job of Halloween, however, so Cody's neighborhood is an embarrassment. Everyone is weird and artsy and has tattoos or colored hair. They do a bang up job of Halloween, however, so he figures this is his best shot to win over his crosstown, soccer-playing friends, Aiden and Jiao. The pressure is on for him to make his family and friends seem as "normal" as possible. All ends well. His friends have a great time and want to visit again.
But things are going awry in his town. Cody's artwork is getting darker. Classmate Sweetie's music is losing its flow. Creeping shadows are skulking around. Vandalism is on the rise. Aiden is convinced it has something to do with a popular video game called Kama's Game. It's so addicting that people are willing to do crazy stuff to get points and level up. They don't even notice their town falling apart around them. It's up to four kids to figure out what's going on and restore order.
I didn't much like this book. I thought it was going to be a scary book about Halloween and ghosts. Instead it's a statement about societal woes. Our society has much to be concerned about. I just don't like the way this book handles it. Yes, we need to be concerned about video game addiction and it's affect on creativity. Yes, we need to accept everyone, tattoos and all. Yes, we need to be concerned about the plight of the small business owner. But this book throws it all in your face in an overly dramatic, and at the same time, nonsensical way. It starts off kind of cute, but by the end the plot has spiraled out of control. I just don't think kids will go for it.
Merged review:
Cody's neighborhood is an embarrassment. Everyone is weird and artsy and has tattoos or colored hair. They do a bang up job of Halloween, however, so he figures this is his best shot to win over his crosstown, soccer-playing friends, Aiden and Jiao. The pressure is on for him to make his family and friends seem as "normal" as possible. All ends well. His friends have a great time and want to visit again.
But things are going awry in his town. Cody's artwork is getting darker. Classmate Sweetie's music is losing its flow. Creeping shadows are skulking around. Vandalism is on the rise. Aiden is convinced it has something to do with a popular video game called Kama's Game. It's so addicting that people are willing to do crazy stuff to get points and level up. They don't even notice their town falling apart around them. It's up to four kids to figure out what's going on and restore order.
I didn't much like this book. I thought it was going to be a scary book about Halloween and ghosts. Instead it's a statement about societal woes. Our society has much to be concerned about. I just don't like the way this book handles it. Yes, we need to be concerned about video game addiction and it's affect on creativity. Yes, we need to accept everyone, tattoos and all. Yes, we need to be concerned about the plight of the small business owner. But this book throws it all in your face in an overly dramatic, and at the same time, nonsensical way. It starts off kind of cute, but by the end the plot has spiraled out of control. I just don't think kids will go for it....more
Jennifer Barnes is one of my favorite YA authors. Good characters. Good dialogue. Good plot. Good twists. There’s usually something to figure out and Jennifer Barnes is one of my favorite YA authors. Good characters. Good dialogue. Good plot. Good twists. There’s usually something to figure out and she keeps you guessing.
Sawyer has grown up without a dad and any contact with her mother’s extended family. She’s 18, works as an auto mechanic, and gets along fine with her bartender mom. Then, out of nowhere, her estranged grandmother arrives with a proposition. If Sawyer will do the whole debutante thing for a year, her grandmother will give her $500,000 for college.
Since her mom is galavanting around with her new beau, Sawyer decides she has nothing to lose. She might even be able to figure out which of the dads of the current debutante and squire class, might be her dad also. There’s a whole slew of cousins who are going to show her the social ropes while she does her detective work. There’s a subplot involving two of the cousins which adds layers to the complexity but all ties in by the end.
For cousin books, I prefer E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars. It has a more impressive range of personalities, a setting that enhances the mystery, and a feeling of truly holding back. But you can never go wrong with Barnes. I liked this one enough that I could be convinced to read the sequel....more
Let me start off by saying this is not quite as good as A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, which I also gave 4 stars. But it's better than the crime novelLet me start off by saying this is not quite as good as A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, which I also gave 4 stars. But it's better than the crime novels I give 3 stars. This is the challenge when the scale only goes to 5, rather than 10. In any case, I'm quite surprised that this book is so far behind AGGGTM in readership. The plot style is very similar. A girl decides to solve a murder and she goes about it very methodically, tracking down all the clues and eliminating suspects. Much better than the cops, I might add. The author sends the reader down rabbit holes, totally misdirecting, ultimately revealing the murderer to be someone no one suspected, which, every decent murder book does.
The title of the book comes from the fact that Alice is a huge Agatha Christie fan. Her crime solving knowledge comes from studying detective Hercule Poirot. When her ex-best friend goes missing, she and her new tutor, Iris, switch into detective mode to find her. After they find her dead at the bottom of a seaside cliff two days later, it then becomes an investigation to find the murderer. Told in alternating perspectives of Alice and Iris, the girls create the timeline and suspect list. Beginning with the altercation which took place at a Halloween party, to Iris spotting her fleeing down the road, to her teacher/father's unemotional response the following day, the girl's follow all leads. Ultimately, they rule out the boyfriend, who the police have charged with the crime, and it becomes a race to clear his name.
There are some weaknesses , like Alice's disappearance the summer before. It's a distraction because it's significance is not fully developed. But since it's mentioned, Alice's over-reaction to finding out that Iris is planning to leave, makes no sense. In general, the loose ends and distractions are what make the book less impressive as AGGGTM. I liked the touristy seaside town setting and wish that had factored in more. I'm a sucker for maps and the map at the beginning of the book is a big plus. Mostly a satisfying read and an easy recommendation to Holly Jackson and Maureen Johnson fans....more
Wow. April Henry must be out of ideas. This book is such a stretch, it’s an insult to those who just want a decent plot. It starts off well with a solWow. April Henry must be out of ideas. This book is such a stretch, it’s an insult to those who just want a decent plot. It starts off well with a solid MC, Milan, a senator’s daughter, who keeps getting kicked out of boarding school. On her latest expulsion, her mother (the senator) picks her up in her private plane, which then crashes in the Cascade mountain range near Portland, OR. But there are other POVs and the plot quickly goes south.
After several confusing chapters from the POVs of a dairy farmer and assassin, we learn that the fracking industry has serious environmental concerns and there are people who will do anything to keep it under wraps, including killing a senator. Lenny, the hitwoman, brings down the plane with a bomb, deploys a drone to inspect the crash site, then analyzes the video to conclude one person survived. She wrongly assumes it’s the pilot. The dying senator advises her daughter to “stay dead” until she can reach the “only person who can be trusted” with the information about fracking. Lenny eventually figures out the truth and tracks down Milan, leading to a bunch of absurd, unrealistic scenes that made it a challenge to see this book through to the end.
So much is off with this book. Milan has too much survival instinct for a mere girl with no training. The assassin switches from sympathetic to sociopathic tendencies too frequently. In trying to throw off the ending, the author devises an absurd villain, which I should be used to by now since the author does this a lot. The ending is so contrived, not even in the realm of possible, and truly feels like it’s written by an amateur, rather than someone who’s had lots of authorship practice.
For people who have read A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, Truly, Devious, or One of Us Is Lying, this book just isn’t going to cut it. For a first step into teen mystery, for 6th graders, this book might have a small audience and for that I give it two stars rather than one....more
Love the cover on this one. It perfectly captures the vibe of the story. However, the title does not. I wish the author had put more thought into it. Love the cover on this one. It perfectly captures the vibe of the story. However, the title does not. I wish the author had put more thought into it. The story itself is typical Lindsay Currie. A ghost from the past is unsettled and chooses to reveal itself to a kid, hoping she will uncover the truth and put it to rest. Lindsay Currie MO.
Claire is the daughter of a ghost obsessed dad. He operates a ghost tour in Chicago. Claire wants none of it, and tries hard to keep her friends out of the know. But when the tour’s scheduled bus driver calls off, Claire must step in to assist her dad. While on the tour, a strange boy appears out of nowhere, attempts to communicate with her, and then vanishes. But that isn’t the end. Suddenly back at home she’s hearing noises, seeing the number 396, and having odd encounters with water. She’s convinced the boy is haunting her. With the help of her brother and two friends, she uses her science skills to solve the mystery of who the boy is so she can put his ghost to rest.
As I mentioned, not super original. I did appreciate that the boy ghost is based on a real person and a real ship disaster that happened on the Chicago River in the early 1900s. I’m a sucker for history. I also appreciate the inclusion of the friendship triangle between Claire, her longtime BFF Casley, and the new girl Emily. This was worked into the story well and gives a solid example to girls of how to properly handle this type of friend issue. All the characters, including the brother, are nice. No bullies. No jerks. But still believable. I did like this story moderately better than Currie’s other ghost stories, and since her books circulate well in my library, I’ll probably purchase. Her books are a good intro into the horror genre for younger middle grade readers....more
I like the way this author begins by going back to a crime from decades before and telling it as if it's the present. I personally love summer camp stI like the way this author begins by going back to a crime from decades before and telling it as if it's the present. I personally love summer camp stories. Add a murder in the mix and it's hard to put down. Must be all those years of Friday the 13th.
After solving the decades old crime at Ellingham Academy, Stevie is asked to do the same for a summer camp cold case in Massachusetts where four counselors were murdered in the woods in 1978. She's joined by her friends Janelle and Nate, also Ellingham students. Was it a serial killer? Was it drugs? Was it boyfriend trouble? Stevie follows all the leads, but what she really needs is a missing diary. She soon realizes that someone will do anything to make sure she doesn't find it. That someone is probably the killer. And that someone is willing to kill again.
This story had all the makings of a winner. Unfortunately, the ending is a let down. I feel like the author got lazy by having Stevie read pages and pages of the diary to figure out the motive. The only sleuthing she did was to figure out where the diary was hidden. Everything else was handed to her via the diary. Kind of boring. So not a stellar mystery, but good enough.
I do think MJ has a problem with gay character overload. Three couples are gay and they are all extraneous characters that could be eliminated without missing a beat. They barely have a presence. If there's ever a book checking boxes this is it.
Note on YA content for anyone wanting to know. Medium amount of profanity with a couple f bombs. Couples make out, but fairly tame. ...more
This one was hard to rate. I rounded up. I can see why teens enjoy this. It's a mystery. It happens at a boarding school. It's got some interesting chThis one was hard to rate. I rounded up. I can see why teens enjoy this. It's a mystery. It happens at a boarding school. It's got some interesting characters. And there's two mysteries, which happened 80 years apart. It reads a bit like a Jennifer Lynn Barnes book.
The book opens with the 1936 mystery which happened on the grounds of a wealthy financier's home and boarding school in a remote Vermont setting. It then jumps to the present, which is the main focus of the book, although it flashes back to the 1936 investigation intermittently. Stevie has been admitted to the school, despite having what most would consider an unremarkable talent. She's a crime sleuth. What better place to put her skill to work?
I actually enjoyed the characters and dialogue more than I thought I would. There's quite a few characters to keep up with, many of them minor and mostly irrelevant. It's the students living in the Minerva House dormitory that make up the bulk of the action. Of course, there's Stevie, but also Janelle, a mechanical type who dates girls, and Elle, an artist who drinks too much. I would say the three boys, mysterious David who Stevie falls for, book writer Nate, and social media actor Hayes, are more front and center in the plot than the girls. In any case, I found the characters' voices to be well differentiated and the conversational banter to accurately represent real teen conversations. I thought the pacing was good and the setting well described.
The crime itself was ok. I didn't find it to be totally satisfying and the big, fat "To Be Continuted" on the last page, is a pet peeve. No resolution irks me. For librarians: mild swearing with a few f-bombs thrown in for good measure. Making out, but nothing major. I would place this at grade 8 and up....more
First of all, love the cover. That alone is an easy sell for upper elementary girls looking for summer adventure on the New Jersey shore.
Half-sisters First of all, love the cover. That alone is an easy sell for upper elementary girls looking for summer adventure on the New Jersey shore.
Half-sisters Stella and Josie reunite every summer to hang with their dad. This summer is the lead up to 9th grade and New Yorker Stella is hoping Australian Josie will be into fashion and coolness like she is. But Josie is more interested in figuring out why the pier seems unstable and the medusa jellyfish are dying. It's a mystery with an exciting literary tactic. Chapters tell the whole story by alternating between the present narration and a future police interrogation recalling an "incident." This tactic makes the book far more addicting.
Some of the things I like...The setting on a oceanfront boardwalk. Girls having the freedom to hangout there all day and just have fun. A menagerie of other characters, especially the three lifeguards-in-training, two of which are boyfriend potentials for Stella and Josie. It's a fun first boyfriend kind of book for girls who are starting to notice boys. All totally innocent. ...more
A well-written murder mystery that will keep you guessing til the end. You're guaranteed not to figure it out before the protagonist.
For Pippa's senioA well-written murder mystery that will keep you guessing til the end. You're guaranteed not to figure it out before the protagonist.
For Pippa's senior capstone project she decides to research the case of a teen who was supposedly murdered by her boyfriend 5 years earlier. The boyfriend appeared to have confessed to the crime and then committed suicide in the woods, but from what Pippa knows about him, this is way out of character. So, working with his brother, she interviews people, follows leads, creates a list of suspects, jumps down rabbit holes, and finally finds the truth. Her sleuthing is thorough and impressive. For anyone who says it isn't plausible, I say anything's plausible as long as all the clues line up and nothing's left out. Something I can't say for authors like Natasha Preston. Holly Jackson is far more talented. If you love crime novels, crime podcasts, or crime shows, you can't go wrong with this book....more
Ugh! An utterly forgettable book by one of my favorite authors. This book doesn't come close to the creativity of The Goldfish Boy. It reads like so mUgh! An utterly forgettable book by one of my favorite authors. This book doesn't come close to the creativity of The Goldfish Boy. It reads like so many other 'meh' plots out there. And trying to market it as a sequel, or rather companion novel, to The Goldfish Boy was a fail. Sorry to be so harsh. But for real. This was a major let down.
The MC is the goldfish boy's friend Melody. I'm not going to rehash the GB plot, as the author unsuccessfully tried to do, but basically, Melody, Matthew (goldfish boy), and Jake all live in a cul-de-sac with about 9 houses. Next to this neighborhood is a graveyard, which as Melody discovers early on, has a decrepit, old house behind the brick fence. Turns out, centuries before, it was a plague house. And this, by the way, is a fact that goes nowhere.
On one visit to this house, Melody discovers a boy named Hal living there. He claims to be a spy for M18 (British spy agency) staking out a criminal who comes to the same gravesite every day. Melody is totally duped. Some other plot points: Melody's mom has put their house on the market. Melody is still dealing with her dad walking out on them. Jake is being bullied by the gym teacher who also lives in their culture-de-sac. By the end we get the truth about Hal. It has The Light Jar vibes. And that's all folks.
The author is quite clever, shrouding her main point in a cutesy murder mystery, kicking things off by explaining that all members of the Swift familyThe author is quite clever, shrouding her main point in a cutesy murder mystery, kicking things off by explaining that all members of the Swift family are named at birth with a randomly chosen word from the dictionary. Case in point, Shenanigans, the narrator. Her personality, much to her chagrin, is a foregone conclusion, because we all know names appallingly influence personality. All Swift family personalities are a product of their names, except nonbinary cousin Erf, who renamed him/her theirself.
In many ways I was happily entertained by this eccentric family and its Agatha Christie like murder investigation, until I realized that I was actually being duped into supporting the moronic gender identity ideology that’s wreaking havoc on kids’ mental health. And besides, don’t we love books that make kids think about things way beyond their understanding? Shame to the books that just seek to entertain without some sort of ideological conclusion. Even better, this book gives suggestions for naming kids, which is to say, just don’t name them. Burden’s off. We can just call them “Thing 1” and “Thing 2” until they figure out their genders so they can choose for themselves.
Solid advice I never expected from a quirky kids murder mystery. Not....more
Update January 2025: Despite what I thought, my students love this book, and I will be purchasing Book 2.
This book is somewhat similar in plot to the Update January 2025: Despite what I thought, my students love this book, and I will be purchasing Book 2.
This book is somewhat similar in plot to the YA book The Inheritance Games, but the characters aren't nearly as interesting and mysterious. I guess my biggest disappointment with this book is Gerber straying from the medically challenged characters and plots we've come to expect from her. I'm not sure my students are going to be on board with this switch. Braced is one of the most popular books in my library. Not only is this book different in that it's a rather far-fetched mystery, but the sport, competitive sailing, is relatively unknown.
The story begins with Weatherby in a two-person sailing regatta in Boston. After winning the race, she realizes, to her dismay, that she should disqualify herself because her sail was larger than regulation allows. Before she can speak up, the headmaster of a prestigious Boston private school offers her a sailing scholarship. Wealthy Jack Hunt, the one she beat in the race, is not happy to see her at his school, getting preferential treatment at sailing practice.
Jack and Weatherby soon make amends, while everything else starts to fall apart. The money for the much anticipated island overnight trip is stolen. The regatta boats are sabotaged. Harper's house is broken into. And five students including Jack and Weatherby receive mysterious letters calling them out for something they are each hiding. Who's behind it? What's the connection to Jack's brother and Uncle? What's the Hunt family hiding?
A far-fetched plot, nothing like Gerber's other books. The characters are too nice. I would have liked a little more contention. Instead of the conflict being between the characters, it's between the kids and a corporation. I will be passing on this book for now....more
This book proves that young adults have not read enough books to distinguish good writing from bad writing. Somehow Preston has found a magic formula This book proves that young adults have not read enough books to distinguish good writing from bad writing. Somehow Preston has found a magic formula for combining suspense, teen culture, and gore without deploying any creative effort. It doesn't matter how flat the characters, how stilted the dialogue, or how banal the plot. As long as the language is straightforward with no metaphors, the plot moves quickly, and the ending is always in question, you have all that's needed to keep a teen reader engaged. I personally need much more. I don't require Stephen King level of writing. That would be unfair. But I do require some depth to my characters so I know why they do the things they do. I need plenty of description, which means staying in a scene long enough to make it believable. And I need no, I repeat, no, inconsistencies.
The book opens with teens discussing a social media prompt asking people to write what they believe is the worst way to die. Main character, Izzy, reads what everyone has written, but decides not to respond. Later that evening, while leaving a party in a snowstorm, her car comes upon the dead body of a classmate who apparently fell from a building. Immediately after that, another classmate is found drowned. Several more classmates die by the method they stated in the social posting. Every 5 or so chapters we get a chapter from the killer's perspective as he plans out the next killing. Since Izzy is present for the aftermath of most of the killings, she's constantly thinking about who the killer could be, and she's narrowed it down to two classmates.
I'm very pragmatic. It causes me to overanalyze books. That's a killer (no pun intended) when it comes to YA books. When they don't follow the patterns we see in real life, they lose all credibility with me. Point 1: Teens don't have the expertise to be a serial murderer. For Izzy to suspect one of her classmates right off the bat is not realistic. Point 2: Not explaining important details, is just downright lazy. Julia not giving a full account of her escape, then not recognizing Tristan's voice when she's discovered by him is a flaw. Likewise, no details about the girl found in a field make it a wasted plot point. Izzy seeing the tied hands of the back seat passenger in the SUV following her, but unable to give one detail about the driver isn't believable. Point 3: Good authors can evoke emotion through detailed description. When Izzy bumped into a person in the school hallway during the blackout, I should have been like "Oh @#$%." Instead I was like, "Well that sucks." I wanted to feel like Jamie Lee Curtis being chased through the hospital by Michael Myers. And by the way, she bumps into someone like three times in the book. I just wanted a little originality. Point 4: Character inconsistencies are inexcusable. When Tristan and Izzy are arguing over going into the barn to look for Axel, Tristan first says "You talk and then get back in my car. You got it?" Less than a page later he says, "You wait in the car while I talk to him." I can accept a change in character if it's explained.
Aside from that, and believe me I could go on with plot and character failures, some of the dialogue is atrocious.
Talking about where the librarian is: "I passed her outside. She said something about going to the staff room to borrow coffee. Not sure how you borrow that." Ugh.
In the cafeteria, waiting out the snowstorm: "I shake off the uneasy feeling in my stomach and grab a styrofoam cup. We're not trying to save the planet today I see." Double ugh.
In the cafeteria, waiting out the snowstorm: "I want to ask who Helen is, but she walks over to Principal Beckett and that pretty much answers that one for me. It's weird to think that teachers have real names." Triple ugh.
No one would be thinking insignificant stuff like this when their friends are being murdered and the murderer may be among them. Dialogue like this makes me think I could be a writer. I don't understand the appeal of Preston's books. Despite her success, I hope she aspires to a higher craft. In the meantime, try Jennifer Lynn Barnes, April Henry or Alane Ferguson....more
I waffled between 4 and 5 stars on this one. I ultimately gave it 5 stars for the depth of detail and command of language. I gave Matched 2 stars, so I waffled between 4 and 5 stars on this one. I ultimately gave it 5 stars for the depth of detail and command of language. I gave Matched 2 stars, so that pretty much tells you how I feel about this book. It kept me on my toes, never fully knowing what was going on, which didn't frustrate me like many readers. I found the short chapters with varying formats, bouncing back and forth between the present and past, with lyrical, poetic, almost cryptic language to be highly impressive. This is not a straightforward story with a clearcut plot. This is a story that requires you to think, to analyze, to put the pieces together. I was 3/4 finished before I started to figure out what was going on. Kudos to Condie.
The book opens with main character, July, walking through the woods where she regularly runs. Out of nowhere, everything changes. The beautiful sounds of the forest stop and when she gets back to the parking lot there's no one. There's no cars on the road, no one in any of the houses, and an invisible force that won't let her drive out of town. Sounds like a dystopian sci-fi. And it sort of is. Until you realize it isn't. The plot unfolds in the present as July tries to make sense of a series of clues, the main one being a message which first appears on the school's marquee which says "Get them back." But we also get a flashback to the summer events leading up to the present day, a summer including her family, her best friend Syd, her boyfriend Sam, and her "best friend/is he something more" friend Alex. She's trying to make sense of these relationships and why she lost them.
(view spoiler)[The entire story, you will eventually come to find out, is a metaphorical depiction of loneliness. July feels like all her friends have abandoned her and she has no one. Her look back is her attempt to make sense of how she got to this place. But in the final pages July comes to terms with her reality and everything returns to normal. It's a positive ending. But still poetic and a bit ambiguous.
"The deepest truth about running is that, when you run truly alone, it is not a race, it is not a story. It is you."
"We are all so strong. Every day that we do it. Every day that we choose it."
And the final words of the whole book:
"No matter how much you want to, you can't get them back.
Instead you let them go. And maybe you find each other again. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know what anything looks like except I'm not going to stay here alone anymore.
Who will be there? I don't know. But I open the door and let them in." (hide spoiler)]
Condie leaves the interpretation to the reader, like poetry, which I thought that was cool. The ending was positive. No one jumped. No one committed suicide. I interpreted it to mean that we can't depend on others for our happiness. We can't dwell on what was or what might have been. People will go, leaving us alone for awhile, but new people are just around the corner. To say this book needs a trigger warning is a complete exaggeration. In fact, I thought this book was gentle in its depiction of depression and loneliness.
My respect for Condie's writing has reached a new level and I hope she continues writing like this....more
A real page turner which cleverly captures all the things we want to forget about high school. It draws its characters from the 80s movie The BreakfasA real page turner which cleverly captures all the things we want to forget about high school. It draws its characters from the 80s movie The Breakfast Club. Five students are summoned to after-school detention. Bronwyn--the academic, Addy--the Homecoming Queen, Cooper--the athlete, Nate--the criminal, and Simon--the outcast. Fairly quickly after detention starts, Simon has an allergic reaction to something in his water and dies. The next day, Simon's social media gossip site reveals unflattering news about each of the four students present in the room when he died. The police immediately suspect one or all of them of murdering Simon to prevent the blog from being published. The investigation unfolds in the days and weeks that follow from the alternating perspectives of the four suspects.
The high school drama includes college admission pressure, high achieving parents, negligent parents, drug dealing, sports doping, boyfriend/girlfriend cheating, right track/wrong track dating, popularity, fitting-in, negative social media, gay relationships, suicide. Unfortunately, these issues are present in every high school in America. McManus has come up with a clever way to get it all out in the open. More astute readers may guess the ending well in advance, but McManus doesn't easily give it away. Ends on a positive note....more
The thing that makes the Asylum series books so memorable are those dang creepy photos. It makes turning the page an adventure. Is there a creepy photThe thing that makes the Asylum series books so memorable are those dang creepy photos. It makes turning the page an adventure. Is there a creepy photo lurking on the next page?
After Dan, Abby, and Jordan encounter the mad doctor who performed deranged experiments on patients at the defunct Brookline asylum on the campus of New Hampshire College and survive, they think it's over. It isn't. Enter book 2, Sanctum. Dan is having weird dreams, his two friends are receiving weird pictures, and the mentally unstable roommate who tried to kill him is directing him back to New Hampshire College. So he and his two friends sign up for the prospective student weekend and the supernatural craziness begins again.
It all surrounds the house addresses Felix gave Dan and a revived Halloween carnival on the campus grounds. Dan and friends manage to slip away to search the abandoned houses for clues. Dan has a supernatural encounter with a carnival hypnotist and continues to have dreams about his deranged deceased great-uncle who bears his name. All the while they're being tracked by a secret society affiliated with the college and connected to Brookline asylum.
It's easy to see why horror-loving teens are drawn to this book. The photos are cool. The characters are fairly relatable. It takes place on a college campus. There's haunted houses, a creepy carnival, and an insane asylum. I didn't really care for the ending. I didn't find the whole professor angle satisfying. Didn't make sense to me. Too many pieces trying to come together and not quite succeeding. I preferred Asylum, but this is a decent second book....more
It's hard for me to get excited about books like this when you have competition like City of Ghosts and Serafina and the Black Cloak. I found this firIt's hard for me to get excited about books like this when you have competition like City of Ghosts and Serafina and the Black Cloak. I found this first book in the Fright Watch series to be plot-starved and low thrill, which amounts to 50 pages too long.
Quinn and Mike are convinced something is up with the old people living on their street. They act strange and never seem to age. One guy can outrun them and has a scar on his leg that looks suspiciously like Quinn's deceased father. The two friends decide an investigation is in order. Their research leads them to the funeral home owned by one of the "oldies." Things are getting dangerous for Quinn and Mike. The oldies have informed Quinn that they are onto her and will do whatever it takes to keep her from spilling the beans about what she knows.
Unfortunately there's a lot of filler that doesn't add much to the story. This is what happens with weak plots. Grandma Jane, Quinn's friends, Quinn fainting, middle school romance, hand in the water--all plot points that were either extraneous, not fully explored, or just plain distractions. Buy this series if you have younger kids who haven't developed an appreciation for good writing. Otherwise go for the suggestions already mentioned. ...more
I was all set to give this book 4 stars until the last 25 pages. It tanks with an unrealistic ending.
Piper Gray is hanging out in the cemetery in her I was all set to give this book 4 stars until the last 25 pages. It tanks with an unrealistic ending.
Piper Gray is hanging out in the cemetery in her new town when she notices the gravestone of a girl who died 17 years prior. Her name was Layla Trello. She was 17. A quick internet search reveals she was murdered.
So when Piper is informed that doing a "passion" project is a senior year requirement, it doesn't take her long to land on an idea. Given that she loves true crime podcasts, she decides to launch her own podcast about Layla Trello. Her new friend Jonas, already a podcaster, gives her all the tech knowledge and recording tips she needs to get started. With any luck, she'll be able to solve this cold case. But not if the killer has anything to say about it.
With true crime dominating the world of podcasting, this book is sure to be a winner with teens. All the journalistic research, interviewing techniques and podcast transcripts are spot on. I've listened to plenty of true crime podcasts myself to verify this. But the ending is botched. BAD. The person who ends up being the killer could have worked, but not the way the author writes it. The killer NEVER reveals him/herself to the investigator when he/she isn't even a suspect. Come on.
The good news is, this isn't a problem, because like I said, the book is practically over when the author hurls the book into the land of bad endings....more
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