Teen and Staff Reviews

Teen Review
Book Cover: The Infinite Noise, A lively but dark illustration surrounds two high school teenagers with their backs facing. One teen is smaller, almost nerdy, and illustrated blue. The other is taller, yellow, and is wearing a football uniform.

The Infinite Noise

By Lauren Shippen
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by
Megan B.
Mar 1, 2021

The Infinite Noise is a perfect blend of teenage abnormal normalities, presenting common issues such as social pressure, mental healthiness, and sexuality while also bringing the twist of the much rarer gifts of an empath, or one that can feel everyone's feelings around him. Following Caleb, the football player empath, and Adam, the lovable social outcast, The Infinite Noise is an enticing, delightful read that I struggled to put down.     

Teen Review
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Beauty Queens

By Libba Bray
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Rana S.
Feb 28, 2021

Beauty Queens follows a simple concept: what if a plane full of beauty queens crash-landed on a deserted island, a la Lord of the Flies?

Except it’s not quite so simple as that. This is the story of the survivors, fourteen typical (and atypical) beauty queens who must work together to stay alive and keep their pageant skills sharp until help arrives.

Teen Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

By V. E. Schwab
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Lisa J.
Feb 27, 2021

It is France, 1714, and a young French village girl named Addie kneels on the forest floor on the eve of her wedding and prays for freedom from an arranged marriage. She forgets, though, that it is after dark, and the gods that answer after dark never play fair. In a moment of desperation, she makes a bargain with the devil himself — freedom to wander, to explore, to dream, but with one catch: she will be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Teen Review
Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles

Where Dreams Descend

By Janella Angeles
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Rana S.
Feb 26, 2021

Janella Angeles’s Where Dreams Descend follows ambitious showgirl Kallia as she fights to compete for a spot as the headlining magician of the Conquering Circus.

The competition takes place in Glorian, a city full of secrets. While competing, Kallia encounters Daron Demarco, the enigmatic young judge with a hidden past. Kallia, too, wishes to forget her past — but Jack, the owner of the club she left for the competition, won’t let her get away so easily.

Teen Review
Nightshade by Anthony Horowitz

Nightshade

By Anthony Horowitz
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by
Lisa J.
Feb 25, 2021

Nightshade is the twelfth installment of the Alex Rider series. When a secret agent is killed by a ruthless 16-year-old assassin in Brazil, teenage MI6 spy Alex Rider is sent to Gibraltar, a maximum-security prison, assuming the identity of his lookalike nemesis, Julius Grief. His mission? To bond with and extract information from the assassin, Freddy.

Teen Review
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy

By Bryan Stevenson
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Brooke G.
Feb 24, 2021

Just Mercy is a first-person account of Bryan Stevenson, a black lawyer, who helps prisoners that did not receive fair trials as part of a non-profit organization. Stevenson writes about various clients that he has worked for over the years and how the justice system has failed them.

Teen Review
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Don Quixote

By Miguel de Cervantes
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by
Eric S.
Feb 23, 2021

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is a comedy/tragedy following the adventures of Alonso Quixano, aka Don Quixote. Enchanted by the stories of medieval knights, Don decides, to go out, with his neighbor and squire, Sancho, into the world and imitate the stories of chivalry that he so adores.

Teen Review
The Bird and the Blade by Megan Bannen

The Bird and the Blade

By Megan Bannen
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Brooke G.
Feb 22, 2021

The Bird and The Blade is set in the ancient Mongolian empire. Jinghua, our protagonist, is a slave in the Khipkhak Khanate, that is, until the kingdom is taken over by enemy forces and the only people able to escape are the Khan (King), the prince, and Jinghua. Together they journey across the kingdom, fleeing pursuing forces. With no other options, Khalaf plans to marry Turandokht, the cunning and beautiful daughter of the Great Khan. Easier said than done.

Teen Review
Max Einstein The Genius Experiment by James Patterson

Max Einstein: The Genius Experiment

By James Patterson
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by
Sriha P.
Feb 20, 2021

Twelve-year-old orphan Max Einstein is a smart girl. She has a brain just as big and creative as the legend Einstein. She loves Einstein and has a passion for him. She is living above a horse’s stall, and learning at a college. One day she is taken to the CMI: Change Makers Institution, and is chosen to become a team leader to save the world. Max and her friends go to a place trying to solve the problems in cities around the world. But, the problem is that Dr. Zimm and his team, Corp, is trying to find Max Einstein, and take her away from the CMI.

Browse by Tag