The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Welcome to Prentisstown, or as all the “other” settlements call it; that cursed town. A town where boys turn into men at the age of 13. Meet Todd, the last boy of Prentisstown, where there are no women, just men, and Noise. Everything Todd knows about Prentisstown changes when his guardians tell him to run away and take his dog Manchee with him. Scared and more than confused, he runs, and meets Viola. Tired and on the run, Todd and Viola will do nothing to stop running from Prentisstown, and get towards Haven. With Manchee by their side, Todd and Viola run and don’t stop, no matter how hurt they are. What’s a girl from space, a talking dog, and a boy who has Noise, supposed to do? Find out what happens next in this first book of the Chaos Walking trilogy.

Reviewed by:
Rachel B.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Arthur Dent wakes up to an average Earth day, and does his average morning routine. Mere seconds before his house (not to mention the whole Earth) is demolished, Arthur is zapped up onto the attacking alien ship. His friend Ford (really an alien) had hitched them that ride. Remember to take the simple words of the Guide and “Don’t Panic” because Arthur is in for a bumpy ride.
Surprise, adventure, and a hopelessly depressed robot named Marvin, make the first book in the five-part series worthwhile.
Reviewed by Bri c.

Night Star by Alyson Noel

"Night Star" is the fifth installment in the addictive Immortals series. Ever learns a dark secret from her and Damon’s past lives. She needs to protect Jude and stop Haven from revealing their secret. Can she learn to forgive and learn her destiny in round five of the series?
These books are ideal for anyone who loves magick, the afterlife, and action as themes in books.
Reviewed by Bri C.

The Haunted by Jessica Verday

Spoiler Alert! This is the second book in the series, the review for the first book is called "The Hollow".

In this thrilling sequel to "The Hollow", Abbey returns home to Sleepy Hollow after recovering from her “mental breakdown”. In the time that it takes to convince herself that Caspian does not, can not, exist, a new romance sparks between her and Ben. In the second installment of the series, Abbey accepts Caspian, learns more about his past, their future, and the cause behind Kristin’s early demise.
Reviewed by Bri C

The Hollow by Jessica Verday

Abbey is your average teenage girl with her goals and ambitions set. The only thing is, last summer, her best friend Kristin disappeared. On the day of Kristin’s wake, Abbey meets Caspian, a blonde, attractive, and mysterious boy. Through the novel she falls in love, makes new friends, and reconnects with her lost friend’s family. She unearths Kristin’s deep secret, she finds her friends aren’t everything they appear to be, and she learns the impossible truth about Caspian. Abbey needs to discover what’s real in the town of Sleepy Hollow.
These books are great for anyone looking for love, action, and a little bit of the supernatural, in a book.
Reviewed by Bri C

Everything Sucks by Hannah Friedman

Hannah has gone through life known as “That Monkey Girl”. With Amelia, her older monkey sister, an annoying little brother, up tight mom, and has-been rocker dad, her social life is nonexistent. Hannah goes on the "quest for cool" at her new boarding school, Brentwood, when drugs, boys, and body image issues get in the way. Artistic and scholastic ambitions plus self discovery make the perfect foundation for this short memoir that anyone can connect to.
Reviewed by Bri C.

Dawn-Kevin Brooks

Have you ever thought about killing something you knew you couldn't really kill? Have you ever had a parent disappear out of your life for 2 years? A girl named Dawn has. This is about how she deals with her father leaving one day. And how she thinks she can kill God when he doesn’t exist on earth.

The day Dawn’s dad comes back is when she hears about the trouble her dad got their family into by crossing the wrong guy. Then her mother does something drastic that most mothers would probably do if they felt their child was endangered.

I really liked this book by Kevin Brooks because it was really interesting how Dawn was strong through all the things that were going on in her life and how she didn't let things bother her. I liked how it was a mystery as to what would happen next. One reason I choose this book was because the author’s other books were really good too. Some of his other books are: “Kissing the Rain”, “Lucas”, “Road of the Dead”, and “Being”. I would recommend this book even if you haven’t read his other ones. This was an easy and funny read of 199 pages.

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Isn’t getting big packages in the mail exciting? It was for Clay…until he found out what was in it. Clay was just a high school student who was at the time, struggling to accept the fact that, due to his friend’s suicidal death, his friend was never coming back. When he opened the package that was addressed to him, he only found seven tape cassettes with a number on each side of each tape, adding up to the number thirteen. As he listened to each of the tapes, he listened to his friend explain all the events leading up to her death.

This book was so touching; it will haunt me for the rest of my life. I would like to recommend this book to everyone because it was so amazing, but it could also be disturbing to some people. It evokes some strong emotions such as: anger, sadness, happiness, ECT. But over all, the book was beyond five star criteria.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Would you ever be embarrassed about seeing your mom in a dumpster looking for food? Well, Jeanette has, and it wasn’t pretty. One day in New York, Jeanette was in a taxi on her way home from work and she spotted her mother digging in a dumpster.

Jeanette has three siblings Lori, Brian, and Maureen. In this book, Jeanette describes her childhood moving from town to town and dealing with poverty, an alcoholic father, and a mom who acts more like a child than a parent. Very often they were starving because their dad would rather spend money on alcohol. Later in the book, all the kids realize that their parents didn't do a very good job at raising them. They decide that they want to live a better life than what they had growing up. This is when the kids decided on their own to move to New York.

I thought this book was very interesting. Even though Jeanette’s childhood was lousy, she was very intelligent. For instance, when Jeanette was in elementary school she already knew how to code math by using a computer number system called binary.

At first I didn't know if I would like this book because it is a biography. I was thinking, why would I want to read about some else’s life? I wasn’t sure if I could relate to the author, Jeanette, but I really could. I thought it was a slow read at first but it started to pick up when she begin talking about her childhood.

This book has funny parts and some serious parts. The read was 288 pages. I think a lot of people would like this book even if it's not a genre you would normally read.

Kissing Annabel by Steven Herrick

This book is about a high school teenager named Jack, how he deals with life without his mother who died of cancer, and how his sister acts like their mom and watches out for him. This book is also about a journey he takes with his girlfriend Annabel.

Jack has a hard time dealing with the death of his mother who dies of cancer and how he keeps thinking he sees her ghost. Desiree is Jack’s older sister. She helps him understand things about life, sex, and love. Since his mom died, Desiree is like a mother figure to him. That’s how she helps him understand those three subjects. Also, she’s kind of going through the same things herself.

At the beginning of Jack and Annabel's journey they were driving along and the car started to stall. They ran out of gas and became stranded in a place they weren’t really familiar with and had no money for gas. A man name George came along and saw that they needed help. George needed help on his peach orchard so he asked them if they would like to work at the orchard.

I have a question for some of you interested readers. Would you ever think about going on a road trip with your boyfriend/girlfriend when you’re both still in high school? Or have you ever felt like doing something spontaneous? This book might be for you.

I think overall this was an okay book. It wasn’t a challenging read but an easy one. My opinion after I read it was that it actually had some useful insight on relationships and the struggles that come along with it and how love can really make you do crazy things. There are 137 pages in this book. If you like Ellen Hopkins books than you might also like this book because it's written in poetry form.

Break

Written by: Hannah Moskowitz

Did you know that when you break a bone it grows back stronger? Jonah found this out after he got into a car accident. He was on a mission to become stronger even if it did mean he had to break all 208 bones in his body. Jonah seems to have the average 17-year-old's life. Until he becomes over obsessive with breaking his bones.

Jonah has a best friend, Naomi, also known as his partner in crime. She is always right behind Jonah with the camera when he is breaking a new bone. Then there is Jesse, Jonah's little brother who is 16. Jesse is allergic to everything and Jonah feels like it is his responsibility to take care of Jesse. Jonah's other brother Will, is 8 months old and has a severe case of colic.

In Jonah's family, they have parents that fight all the time, a 16-year-old who is allergic to everything and is obsessed with body building, and Will who does nothing but cry. To Jonah it feels as if they will never be a “normal” family. But little does he realize what makes his family abnormal is what makes them special.

Then there is Charlotte, who happens to be Jonah's non-girlfriend. They act as though they are boyfriend and girlfriend, but they go without the labels. Charlotte notices what Jonah is doing to himself and soon gets worried. Soon enough, Jonah's secret is out. There are a number of events that happen throughout this book starting with one of Jesse’s allergic reactions to Jonah breaking another bone.

When I picked up this book I didn’t know what to expect, the cover kind of made me a little edgy. But as soon as I read the first page I didn’t want to put it down. Each page brought a new shock. This book was a very good page turner. I was pleased with the way it ended. 262 pages of pure suspense. The way Hannah Moskowitz wrote this book, made me want to go on a search for more books written by her. I know you won’t be disappointed.

Reviewed by: TL

Something Girl

Written by; Beth Goobie

“Stupid, no good, nothing girl.” Ever feel like that? Ever feel like everything you do isn’t good enough or that you aren’t loved? Live a day in the life of Sophie Hawthorne. A 15 year old teenager who feels as though she isn’t good enough to be loved. She goes through the being-late-for-curfew and the usual teenage break ups. But Sophie has to deal with punishments worse then groundings.

Sophie used to babysit a little girl and she called her Jujube. Jujube, now 12, is Sophie’s best friend. They spend nearly every day together and tell each other everything. Jujube is the only one that knows about Sophie’s dad's punishments.

Sophie is on probation for stealing, she has to go and see her probation officer every two weeks to check up on how she is doing. When she goes and visits Ms.Lee her PO, she notices that things are changing with Sophie. She doesn’t make it to school on time or sometimes doesn’t even bother showing up.

Reading this book, I have come to realize that everyone has some sort of problem at home. Some worse then others. I picked this book up and finished it in the same day. I recommend this book to anyone who likes the kind of book that you want to keep turning the pages. The beginning was a shock but the ending wasn't nearly as shocking. But yet, 105 pages doesn’t seem nearly enough.
Reviewed by: TL