New Books for April 2016 (part 8)

The Steep and Thorny Way by Cat Winters

Historical Fiction 

1920s Oregon is not a welcoming place for Hanalee Denney, the daughter of a white woman and an African-American man. She has almost no rights by law, and the Ku Klux Klan breeds fear and hatred in even Hanalee's oldest friendships. Plus, her father, Hank Denney, died a year ago, hit by a drunk-driving teenager. Now her father's killer is out of jail and back in town, and he claims that Hanalee's father wasn't killed by the accident at all but, instead, was poisoned by the doctor who looked after him--who happens to be Hanalee's new stepfather. The only way for Hanalee to get the answers she needs is to ask Hank himself, a "haint" wandering the roads at night.

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Mystery 

Jamie Watson has always been intrigued by Charlotte Holmes; after all, their great-great-great-grandfathers are one of the most infamous pairs in history. But the Holmes family has always been odd, and Charlotte is no exception. She's inherited Sherlock's volatility and some of his vices--and when Jamie and Charlotte end up at the same Connecticut boarding school, Charlotte makes it clear she's not looking for friends. But when a student they both have a history with dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Danger is mounting and nowhere is safe--and the only people they can trust are each other.

Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington

Contemporary Fiction 

Love can be a trouble word for some people. Crazy is also a trouble word. I should know. You've never met anyone exactly like twelve-year-old Sarah Nelson. While most of her friends obsess over Harry Potter, she spends her time writing letters to Atticus Finch. She collects trouble words in her diary. Her best friend is a plant. And she's never known her mother, who left when Sarah was two. Since then, Sarah and her dad have moved from one small Texas town to another, and not one has felt like home. Everything changes when Sarah launches an investigation into her family's Big Secret. She makes unexpected new friends and has her first real crush, and instead of a "typical boring Sarah Nelson summer," this one might just turn out to be extraordinary.

Sword and Verse by Kathy McMillan

Fantasy 

Raisa was just a child when she was sold into slavery in the kingdom of Qilara. Before she was taken away, her father had been adamant that she learn to read and write. But where she now lives, literacy is a capital offense for all but the nobility. The written language is closely protected, and only the King, Prince, Tutor, and Tutor-in-training are allowed to learn its very highest form. So when she is plucked from her menial labor and selected to replace the last Tutor-in-training, who was executed, Raisa knows that betraying any hint of her past could mean death. Keeping her secret guarded is hard enough, but the romance that's been blossoming between her and Prince Mati isn't helping matters. Then Raisa is approached by the Resistance--an underground rebel army--to help liberate the city's slaves. She wants to free her people, but that would mean aiding a war against Mati. As Raisa struggles with what to do, she discovers a secret that the Qilarites have been hiding for centuries--one that, if uncovered, could bring the kingdom to its knees.

Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach

Paranormal 

"Was this story written about me?" I shrugged. "Yes or no?" I shrugged again, finally earning a little scowl, which somehow made the girl even more pretty. "It's very rude not to answer simple questions," she said. I gestured for my journal, but she still wouldn't give it to me. So I took out my pen and wrote on my palm. I can't , I wrote. Then, in tiny letters below it: Now don't you feel like a jerk? Parker Santé hasn't spoken a word in five years. While his classmates plan for bright futures, he skips school to hang out in hotels, killing time by watching the guests. But when he meets a silver-haired girl named Zelda Toth, a girl who claims to be quite a bit older than she looks, he'll discover there just might be a few things left worth living for.

Thanks for the New Books! ~ November New Books Part 2

Can't Look Away by Donna Cooner

Sixteen-year-old Torrey Grey's YouTube videos on fashion and beauty for teenagers were famous, but when her younger sister is killed by a drunk driver during a filming her world falls apart--cyber bullies are attacking her, her father moves them to Texas, and she does not know who to trust at her new school or whether her cousin is really a friend.

Chloe by Design: Making the Cut by Margaret Gurevich

In this compilation of four separately published books, sixteen-year-old Chloe Montgomery gets a chance to travel from Santa Cruz to New York City to compete in Teen Design Diva, a competitive game show for aspiring teenage fashion designers.

Clariel by Garth Nix

Clariel is the daughter of one of the most notable families in the Old Kingdom, with blood relations to the Abhorsen and, most important, to the King. She dreams of living a simple life but discovers this is hard to achieve when a dangerous Free Magic creature is loose in the city, her parents want to marry her off to a killer, and there is a plot brewing against the old and withdrawn King Orrikan. When Clariel is drawn into the efforts to find and capture the creature, she finds hidden sorcery within herself, yet it is magic that carries great dangers. Can she rise above the temptation of power, escape the unwanted marriage, and save the King? This epic fantasy adventure is destined to be a classic, and is perfect for fans of Game of Thrones. 

The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters

In Portland, Oregon, in 1900, seventeen-year-old Olivia Mead, a suffragist, is hypnotized by the intriguing young Henri Reverie, who is paid by her father to make her more docile and womanly but who, instead, gives her the ability to see people's true natures, while she secretly continues fighting for women's rights. Includes timeline and historical photographs.

The Devil's Intern by Donna Hosie

Seventeen-year-old Mitchell discovers a time-travel device that will allow him to escape his internship in Hell's accounting office and return to Earth, but his plans to alter the circumstances of his own death take an unexpected turn when his three closest friends in Hell insist on accompanying him back to the land of the living.  

13 Horror/Thriller Books

With Halloween coming up in just a few weeks, everyone has the creepy, spooky, and scary on their mind.  Take a break from your horror movies to try one of these thrilling, scary, or creepy YA reads!

*Ghosts & Hauntings*

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters (YA HIS WIN)

In San Diego in 1918, as deadly influenza and World War I take their toll, sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort and, despite her scientific leanings, must consider if ghosts are real when her first love, killed in battle, returns.

~ Fantastic ghost story with dramatic historical backdrop. 

~ Enough twists to make me gasp in shock while reading 

~ Very suspenseful, a bit gory in parts, somewhat violent. 

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (YA PAR BLA)

For three years, seventeen-year-old Cas Lowood has carried on his father's work of dispatching the murderous dead, traveling with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat, but everything changes when he meets Anna, a girl unlike any ghost he has faced before.

~ The plot of this book is quite dark and has its moments of creepiness but it lightens up whenever Cas puts in a thought or two (his humor really is quite good). 

~ This is definitely not your average ghost story! It's so much better!

~ Oh yes, this was a pretty scary one, especially when I was reading it at 2am and had to go to the kitchen for a snack break. 

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco (YA PAR CHU)

Okiku has wandered the world for centuries, freeing the innocent ghosts of the murdered-dead and taking the lives of killers with the vengeance they are due, but when she meets Tark she knows the moody teen with the series of intricate tattoos is not a monster and needs to be freed from the demonic malevolence that clings to him.

~ Wow this was an incredibly gripping and engaging horror novel; I could not put this book down. Parts of this horror book are very graphic and gory, so just a heads up. 

~ A deliciously creepy, but horrifyingly amazing, spook to keep you up into the wee hours!

~ An incredibly creepy and chilling paranormal/horror novel that weaves both ghost story and Japanese legend.

Insanity by Susan Vaught (YA PAR VAU)

The intertwining stories of three teenagers who find themselves haunted beyond imagining in the depths of a Kentucky mental institution.

~ When I was reading at night, and the creepiest villain of the bunch appeared, I could not stop shivering. 

~ A quick, dark, paranormal read

~  I found myself reading into the night to see what happened to the characters, only to stop reading for fear of what might invade my dreams from reading right before bed.  

*Fear & Murder*

Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz (YA ACT STO)

Seven super fans have won the trip of a lifetime to meet the master of horror, legendary film director Justin Blake. But things quickly go from delightfully dark to dangerously deadly, when Ivy, Parker, Shayla, Natalie, Frankie, and Garth find themselves trapped in an abandoned amusement park. To earn a ticket out, they must face their darkest demons one ride at a time.

~ Lock your doors, turn on all the lights and leave yourself a an escape route before you start this one!

~ It was a mash-up of all my favorite things horror and left me with chills.

~ This is one book that is all kinds of messed up and in a good way. It’s scary, strange and engrossing all in one...

This Dark Endeavor by Kennth Oppel (YA SFF OPP)

When his twin brother falls ill in the family's chateau in the independent republic of Geneva in the eighteenth century, sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein embarks on a dangerous and uncertain quest to create the forbidden Elixir of Life described in an ancient text in the family's secret Biblioteka Obscura.

~ The story itself isn’t gruesome exactly, but is quite dark and has a fairly grim ending.

~ 304 pages of dark, adventurous and gothic goodness. 

~ If you love dark and twisted tales, then this one is for you. 

Shadowlands by Kate Brian (YA ACT BRI)

Rory, a girl in witness protection, thinks the serial killer she turned in has found her and is killing people around her. But as she investigates, she discovers a dark, disturbing truth about her new hometown.

~ Whoa. This is different. And scary. 

~ I finished this in one day, because I simply didn’t want to put it down.

~ For the first ninety pages or so I was absolutely terrified and almost stopped reading because I wasn’t sure I could handle it. 

Ten by Gretchen McNeil (YA ACT MCN)

Ten teens head to a house party at a remote island mansion off the Washington coast . . . only for them to picked off by a killer one by one.

~ I was sucked into reading this book, and couldn't put it down until I finished and learned who the killer was.

~ Both thrilling and pretty frightening when it had to be.

~ Reading Ten was kind of like reading a horror movie in book form.

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (YA MYS LYG)

Seventeen-year-old Jazz learned all about being a serial killer from his notorious "Dear Old Dad," but believes he has a conscience that will help fight his own urges and right some of his father's wrongs, so he secretly helps the police apprehend the town's newest murderer, "The Impressionist."

~ A rather graphically violent story with plenty of psychological thriller to it.

~ Dexter fans will love it!

~ This is not a story for the faint of heart. 

*Monsters & Demons*

The Diviners by Libba Bray (YA HIS BRA)

Seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.

~ There are parts of this book that are extremely creepy where you feel like screaming at the characters “No! No! Don’t go down into the creepy basement cellar.”

~ This book was full of creeping, brilliant horror, which I was absolutely not expecting.

~ Fantastic combination of horror with historical fiction. 

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff (YA PAR YOV)

Sixteen-year-old Mackie Doyle knows that he replaced a human child when he was just an infant, and when a friend's sister disappears he goes against his family's and town's deliberate denial of the problem to confront the beings that dwell under the town, tampering with human lives.

~ Think of the scariest movie you've ever seen, the sadest song you know, and the one fearless leader you've always looked up to. Put them into one book and you'll have Yovanoff's "The Replacement."

~ Awesome...I totally loved it! It certainly had a dark and haunting feel to it. (I mean...look at that cover!) 

~ An eerie book that kept me up late at night.

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry (YA SFF MAB)

In a post-apocalyptic world where fences and border patrols guard the few people left from the zombies that have overtaken civilization, fifteen-year-old Benny Imura is finally convinced that he must follow in his older brother's footsteps and become a bounty hunter.

~ I picked it up planning to start it, read a chapter or two, and go to sleep at a reasonable time. Then it was 5 a.m. and I was finishing it. 

~ I liked the characters, lots of actions, lots of suspense! 

~  Was on the edge of my seat a lot of the time. I just couldn't stop reading once I got started.

Zom-B by Darren Shan (YA SFF SHA)

When the news starts reporting a zombie outbreak in Ireland, B's father thinks it's a hoax-but even if it isn't, the two of them joke, it's only the Irish, right? That is, until zombies actually attack the school. B is forced on a mad dash through the serpentine corridors of high school, making allegiances with anyone with enough gall to fight off their pursuers. But when they come face-to-face with the ravenous, oozing corpses, all bets are off. There are no friends. No allies. Just whatever it takes to survive.

~ Prepare yourself for a couple of complete surprises and a really good cliff hanger.

~ It's an exciting, entertaining, fast read that is well suited to zombie fans

~ I would recommend to anyone who loves zombies and guts, or anyone who wants a quick read with some action.

**Review tidbits from the LION online catalog and from Amazon.com**

13 Creepy, Crawly, or Scary YA Novels to Read on Friday the 13th

1. Absent by Katie Williams - Seventeen-year-old Paige Wheeler died in a fall off the high school roof and now her spirit seems bound to the school grounds, along with Brooke and Evan, two other teen ghosts who died there--but maybe if she can solve the mystery of her apparent suicide they will all be able to move on.

2. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake - For three years, seventeen-year-old Cas Lowood has carried on his father's work of dispatching the murderous dead, traveling with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat, but everything changes when he meets Anna, a girl unlike any ghost he has faced before.

3. Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn - A year after vanishing from a party, screaming and drenched in blood, seventeen-year-old Annaliese Rose Gordon appears hundreds of miles from home with no memory, but a haunting certainty that she is actually another girl trapped in Annaliese's body.

 

4. Asylum by Madeleine Roux - Three teens at a summer program for gifted students uncover shocking secets in the sanatorium-turned-dorm where they're staying--secrets that link them all to the asylum's dark past.

 

5. Body Finder by Kimberly Derting - High school junior Violet uses her uncanny ability to sense murderers and their victims to try to stop a serial killer who is terrorizing her town, and although her best friend and would-be boyfriend Jay promises to keep her safe, she becomes a target.

 

6. Diviners by Libba Bray - Seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.

 

7. Frost by Marianna Baer - When Leena Thomas gets her wish to live in an old Victorian house with her two closest friends during their senior year at boarding school, the unexpected arrival of another roommate--a confrontational and eccentric classmate--seems to bring up old anxieties and fears for Leena that may or may not be in her own mind.

 

8. I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga - Seventeen-year-old Jazz learned all about being a serial killer from his notorious "Dear Old Dad," but believes he has a conscience that will help fight his own urges and right some of his father's wrongs, so he secretly helps the police apprehend the town's newest murderer, "The Impressionist."

 

9. In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters - In San Diego in 1918, as deadly influenza and World War I take their toll, sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort and, despite her scientific leanings, must consider if ghosts are real when her first love, killed in battle, returns.

10. Murmurings by Carly Anne West - After her older sister dies from an apparent suicide and her body is found hanging upside down by one toe from a tree, sixteen-year-old Sophie starts to hear the same voices that drove her sister to a psychotic break.

11. Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson – Rory, of Boueuxlieu, Louisiana, is spending a year at a London boarding school when she witnesses a murder by a Jack the Ripper copycat and becomes involved with the very unusual investigation.

12. Shadowlands by Kate Brian - Rory, a girl in witness protection, thinks the serial killer she turned in has found her and is killing people around her. But as she investigates, she discovers a dark, disturbing truth about her new hometown.

13. Ten by Gretchen McNeil - Ten teens head to a house party at a remote island mansion off the Washington coast . . . only for them to picked off by a killer one by one