Parenthetical

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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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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Teenie’s best friend Cherise has always been a little wild. Now that she’s accepting money from a guy she met online (who goes by the totally non-sketchy name “Big Daddy”), though, Teenie is really worried. Teenie herself is much more straight-laced and studious, but when a few new clothes get her the attention of hot [...]

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This was the other book in our Nerds Heart YA round, against Toads and Diamonds. We ultimately selected that one to go on, but here is my review of Tall Story. Andi adores basketball, and is devastated to learn that her new London school has no girls’ basketball team. Meanwhile, in a small village in [...]

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“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.” So begins this lushly imagined tale of “forbidden love, an ancient and epic battle, and hope for a world remade.” The real story opens with Karou, blue-haired and tattooed Prague art student. She is the human foster child [...]

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For years, ever since right before her parents’ death, Emerson has seen ghosts. She can interact with them, but no one else sees them and they pop if she touches them. Desperate to help, her much-older brother/guardian Thomas sends her to one last specialist: the young, mysterious, and (surprise) devastatingly sexy Michael Weaver. Man. I [...]

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In the third book about differences in perception, Mia is not autistic but synesthetic. Her whole life she’s seen letters and numbers in particular colors, and seen colored shapes when she hears loud noises. She learned to hide it at a young age, but now that she’s thirteen she wants to be honest about who [...]

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The bones of this story are pretty standard YA. Unable to deal with a baby, Hope’s mom Deena dumps her with Deena’s big sister Addie. Addie is a transient diner cook, so Hope grows up working in restaurants up and down the east coast. At the beginning of the book, Hope and Addie are about [...]

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Gittel is a Chassidic Jew in modern Brooklyn, but in many ways her life looks — by design — like something out of Fiddler on the Roof. Everything is prescribed by law and tradition: what to wear, what to read, how her husband will be chosen.* To Gittel this feels perfectly safe and secure, until [...]

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