Teen and Staff Reviews

Teen Review
Blank Confession by Pete Hautman

Blank Confession

By Pete Hautman
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Anonymous
Nov 18, 2021

A teenage boy walks into a police station with a bleeding leg and a determined face.

Face-to-face to an officer named Rawls, the young boy named Shayne brazenly confesses to a

murder he may or may not have committed. The story is told through multiple perspectives

forcing the reader to decipher what is true and what is fake. The catalyst of the story is when

Mikey, a short boy who loves to wear suits, is framed for holding drugs. From there the story

takes off.

Teen Review
When We Were Them by Laura Taylor Namey

When We Were Them

By Laura Taylor Namey
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Marium K.
Nov 18, 2021

3 friends, Willa, Britton, and Luz were inseparable for years, until Willa ruined their friendship. Now, Willa is a week away from graduation and is reminiscing on the past to try to piece together the causes and events that caused her to betray her close friends.

Teen Review
Where There's a Whisk by Sarah J. Schmitt

Where There's a Whisk

By Sarah J. Schmitt
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Marium K.
Nov 18, 2021

Peyton Sinclaire is a chef with big dreams stuck in a small town. When she gets the chance to participate in a reality tv cooking show, she jumps at the chance, hoping to pursue her dream. When she is at the set, she realizes it isn’t what she hoped it would be like, she wonders how far she is willing to go to make her dreams a reality.

Teen Review
Mystic City by Theo Lawrence

Mystic City

By Theo Lawrence
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Anonymous
Nov 17, 2021

This book is about a girl who loses her memory and becomes engaged to her father's enemy. However, she does not remember loving him. Doctors tell Aria that she has lost her memory. Therefore, Aria goes looking for answers, and meets a boy named Hunter. Can she find the answers as to why she lost her memory?

Teen Review
The Martian

The Martian

Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by
Marrick N.
Nov 17, 2021

Matt Damon plays Mark Watney in Ridley Scott’s science fiction film, The Martian, made in 2015. Mark is abandoned on Mars after a big storm comes through the crew’s camp. His fellow astronauts including Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan), escape Mars safely, but leave him behind after coming to the conclusion that he had died due to debris. Mark makes contact with the crew and with NASA back on Earth and communicates with them to try and get him off the barren planet.

Teen Review
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

Lock Every Door

By Riley Sager
Star Rating
★★

Rated by
Lisa J.
Nov 17, 2021

Jules came to New York City with big dreams and hope for the future. But now that her funds have been depleted, she is desperate for any source of income. Luckily, the perfect opportunity presents itself — Jules is offered a job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of the most glamorous yet mysterious buildings in the city, for an exorbitant amount of money.

Teen Review
American Street by Ibi Zoboi

American Street

By Ibi Zoboi
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by
RIshi S.
Nov 17, 2021

When Fabiola and her mother are trying to move from Haiti to Detroit to go live with their family there, her mother tragically gets detained. Fabiola is presented with an opportunity to get her mother back, but it results in a messy entanglement in crime and dirty family matters.

I enjoyed this book a lot because the character development and plot kept the story surprising. The main development shown is that Fabiola learns to cope with loss and I think the overall moral is to keep good company because she gets involved in things like drug dealing and gang violence.

Teen Review
A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

A Kiss in Time

By Alex Flinn
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by
Anonymous
Nov 17, 2021

Princess Talia, who is woken by Jack, comes to the future. She realizes that she has slept for three-hundred years and does not know what the new world is.  Princess Talia believes that she can escape her village and live with Jack, whom she must seduce to fall in love with her. However, she must do so before the witch takes her away.

Teen Review
The Lonely Dead by April Henry

The Lonely Dead

By April Henry
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Shreya A.
Nov 17, 2021

The Lonely Dead is a thrilling and wondrous mystery novel by April Henry. This book is about a girl named Adele who can see the dead. Adele's grampa takes her to the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist told her that she has a disease where she could see things that weren't there. One day she finds her ex-best friend (Tori) calling out to her and pleading for her to tell her parents that she is dead. When Tori’s body is reported to the police, they lead an investigation to figure out who murdered Tori.

Teen Review
Count Me In by Varsha Bajaj

Count Me In

By Varsha Bajaj
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Shreya A.
Nov 17, 2021

Count Me In is a heartwarming and eye-opening fiction novel by Varsha Bajaj. This book is about Chris and Karina who were not friends until Karina's grandfather started tutoring Chris. On the way back from the tutoring session, Karina, Chris, and Karina's grandfather get attacked by an immigrant hater. That attack left Karina outraged. She and Chris tried to change the world’s perspective to look at immigrants not as terrorists but as good people.

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