Teen and Staff Reviews

Staff Review

Before I Fall

By Lauren Oliver
Star Rating
★★

Rated by Kate M.
Sep 18, 2013

I have recently had two very drastically different experiences with audiobooks. The first was Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, about a popular girl at school who dies in a car crash and relives the last day of her life over and over, trying to fix what she has broken.

Staff Review

I Am Legend

By Richard Matheson
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jul 11, 2013

Robert is the last man in New York City after a massive epidemic that turned everyone into vampires. By day he sharpens stakes, makes runs to the abandoned grocery stores for dry goods, and maintains his generator and the protections around his house. By night they come. Crowding around the doors and windows they call to him, begging him to come outside. The loneliness is enough to drive a man insane, but to have to listen to them every night is almost too much for Robert.

Staff Review

The Testing

By Joelle Charbonneau
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jul 3, 2013

Everyone has felt the pressure around standardized tests. The thought, real or imagined, that how you perform in this one moment will decide the rest of your life. While we may be lending a dramatic flair to our own examinations, that fear is real for Cia. She has been chosen along with 3 other classmates from the 5 Lakes Colony to participate in The Testing. Every year, the best and brightest high school graduates are brought to Tosu City to undergo a series of exams that will decide who goes on to University.

Staff Review

Don't Turn Around

By Michelle Gagnon
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jun 19, 2013

Noa's life has been looking up. She ran away from the foster care system that failed her, set up a fake foster care family using her amazing hacker abilities, and has been working odd jobs to stay afloat. But that all changes when Noa wakes up on a cold metal table in an abandoned warehouse with a mysterious incision in her chest. Noa barely manages to escape the men in black suits who pursue her out of the warehouse and through the back alleys of Boston's southside.

Staff Review

Soulbound

By Heather Brewer
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jun 19, 2013

In a world ruled by Barrons, magically gifted fighters, and their soulbound Healers, Kaya grew up in a small unskilled village. The daughter of two Barrons-in-hiding, as Barrons are not meant to marry each other, Kaya knows nothing of the hierarchy of Barrons and Healers that keep the countryside safe from Graplars (large dragonlike creatures) until one attacks at the village fair, killing her best friend. By killing the beast, her father draws attention to the family and Kaya is forced to attend Shadow Academy to become a healer.

Staff Review

Eleanor & Park

By Rainbow Rowell
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jun 19, 2013

Set in 1986, this story is filled with acid-wash, walkmans and punk music. Eleanor just doesn’t fit in, her red frizzy hair and eclectic wardrobe choices make her stand out like a sore thumb. Park’s goal is to fly under the radar, never at the bottom of the social ladder, but with no ambitions to climb to the top, he strives for mediocrity. But Park stands out when Eleanor climbs onto his bus one morning. With nowhere else to sit, Eleanor and Park become unwilling bench-mates. Over time, and without speaking the two begin to get to know each other.

Staff Review

Eleanor & Park

By Rainbow Rowell
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Becky C.
Jun 19, 2013

I typically roll my eyes at romance novels--they are so fake! But Eleanor & Park is different. Perhaps because Eleanor and Park are different. Eleanor Douglas and Park Sheridan--the lead characters in this romance--are different from most romance novel characters, but also just different. Different from their boorish peers. Different from their lame teachers.

Staff Review

Black Helicopters

By Blythe Woolston
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jun 19, 2013

Black Helicopters are the harbingers of death and destruction for 15 year old Valley and her brother Bo. If they knew their hiding place, Those People, who control the helicopters, would kill them like coyotes, just as they killed her parents. Valley is determined to make the pay, no matter the cost to herself. Using the skills for survival and explosives their father taught them, Valley comes up with a plan to enact vengeance on Those People. By turning herself into an explosive message.

Staff Review

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong

By Prudence Shen and Faith Erin
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jun 7, 2013

Charlie and Nate have grown up on the same street. The two, forced into play-dates as children, could not be more different. Charlie, kind and a little shy, is the captain of the basketball team. Nate is the outspoken and geeky president of the robotics club. Although not even on the same social ladder, the two have always been on good terms...until now. When the school announces that the decision about funding the robotics club's trip to a national competition or new uniforms for the cheerleaders will be left up to the student council, Nate decides to run for Student Body President.

Staff Review

Parasite Rex

By Carl Zimmer
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Apr 12, 2013

Catch me reading one of these books and most likely I will be cringing and wincing. The best books inspire curiosity, these books will give you more information that you would ever want to know about a topic. But, like a car crash, you can't look away. You will be hooked!

Parasite Rex: inside the bizarre world of nature's most dangerous creatures by Carl Zimmer

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