Parenthetical

Ok, let’s get through this as quickly and painlessly as possible. There’s a series of books called The Clique. If you know Gossip Girls, it’s basically the same deal, only for middle schoolers: shockingly privileged, entitled girls who only care about fashion and popularity bitch at each other and name-drop their favorite brands. This book [...]

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A friend and I just saw Young Adult, a movie in which Charlize Theron plays Mavis, the alcoholic ghostwriter of a popular YA series called Waverly Prep (Gossip Girls, more or less, with less brand name-dropping). Her life is miserable and empty, so she decides to return to her hometown to get her high school [...]

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Cammy is a “loser” in typical high school novel style: she’s awkward, shy, the butt of jokes, and only has one friend — Gerdi, the perpetual Danish exchange student. When she starts receiving mysterious texts promising to help her get revenge on her popular classmates, she does what the texts say, of course. Before she [...]

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J was born Jessica, but it never felt right. Inside, he knows he’s a boy. No one in his life gets it: his mother, his father, his somewhat self-absorbed best friend Melissa. He runs away from home to live as a man, but of course he can’t hide his secret forever. I can’t talk about [...]

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Martin Maple and his dad live alone on an island. Mr. Maple spends all his time building a mysterious machine that he says will bring hope. When the machine is almost done, he rows off to the mainland to bring back the final piece. He never returns, nor do the vacationers who come to the [...]

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Six intersecting stories, from a mid-19th century ship in the South Pacific to a post-WWI European castle to 1970s California to modern-day England to future Korea to even-further-future Hawaii. The characters are all connected mysteriously… or maybe not so much. The stories interrupt each other along the way to the future, and then pick back [...]

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Briony Larkin is a witch. Her stepmother told her so before she died, a death for which Briony feels responsible. Briony’s youthful temper and magic also caused her twin sister Rose to be developmentally disabled. Briony avoids the swamp and the Old Ones that call to her, sullenly cares for Rose, and hides from the [...]

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Rory, a small-town Louisiana girl, is about to start her senior year of high school at a boarding school in London. Not just any school, though — this one is right in the middle of the legendary Jack the Ripper’s hunting grounds. When a copycat killer strikes, Rory’s school is once again in the middle [...]

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I wrote this review when I read the book back in the spring, but as I talk about some spoilers below, I wanted to wait until it comes out. Which is tomorrow! I think Karen Healey is one of the best current YA authors, period — up there with Melina Marchetta and John Green. Don’t [...]

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You may recall that I reviewed a whole raft of September books back at the beginning of the summer, right after BEA. Hey look, I’m back at work, apples are starting to appear at the farmers’ market… it must be September! Get your library requests in now for: Shut Out, by Kody Keplinger All These [...]

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