teens

Before she was even born, Nyx was sold by her brutish father to the demon Gentle Lord that rules over Arcadia. He made a bet with the Gentle Lord, and lost, like many other foolish people in Arcadia. It has suffered for almost 1000 years under the Gentle Lord's rule and the demons that escape his castle from time to time. When a person lays eyes on a demon they either die or go insane. So things don't look too good for Nyx. She arrives at his castle, ready to kill him, as she has been trained, but things of course don't go according to plan.



Nyx is not the average female heroine. She is

Okiku is a vengeance spirit. Her story is the one that inspired countless Japanese films and horror stories, and now it's her turn to tell it. Okiku spends her days traveling the world seeking out child-murders and giving them her form of justice (often involving drowning and/or the ripping off of heads). She's content with this existence until she meets Tark. The boy with the strange tattoos and the demon on his back. Tark ignites feelings that Okiku hasn't experienced in over 300 years, and she's not about to let some demon take them away so easily. 



I loved the Japanese folklore and the

Blue Lily, Lily Blue takes place shortly after the events of The Dream Thieves, with the characters recovering from their fight against Kavinsky. Summer is over and school is starting, but the raven boys and Blue have many other things on their minds, particularly Blue who has been searching for her mother lost in the tunnels following the ley line. Unlike The Dream Thieves, which was a heavily focused Ronan novel, Blue Lily, Lily Blue focuses on all the raven boys and Blue. They are closer than ever to finding Glendower, now the only questions are, who will survive and what will they wish for

On a day like any other day, the Others arrived. Their mothership lit up the sky and the human race was forever changed. The Others came in waves taking away electricity, bringing upon the world a plague, sending out evil drones to take care of the survivors, and now, they have taken on the form of humans. The idea of trust (or lack thereof) and the depths that humans will sink to survive are constantly replayed over and over through the actions of the multiple protagonists that Yancey introduces in the story. We meet the main protagonist, Cassiopeia “Cassie” Sullivan when she is at her lowest

Mare Barrow's fate is sealed. She is a lowly red, born to work hard and serve the ruling silvers. With her birthday approaching and no job prospects, Mare will be conscripted in to the army like her older brothers. Fighting in an endless war, Mare will surely die on the battlefield. Desperate and out of options, Mare takes a big risk to sneak into the castle for a chance to pick pocket from the rich and powerful silvers that hold her fate in their hands. Stealing from silvers isn't as easy as it sounds as each is gifted with an ability due to their silver blood. Some can read minds, some

I know this is a somewhat older title with a copyright of 2006, but I missed it back then and every year since. Why? Why did I wait SO long to read it? And why can I only give it five stars? I want to give it ten on scale of one to five!

Taylor Markham lives at the Jellicoe boarding school in Australia. She was abandoned in a Seven Eleven on Jellicoe Road by her mother when she was 5. She never knew her father. Five minutes after her mother left, a woman named Hannah who lived by the Jellicoe school and sometimes took the students under her wing, came by and picked her up. Taylor and Hannah

Combining world travel, video games, puzzles, archaeology, advanced technology, mysterious parents, growing danger, and a group of ambitious teenagers, this is quite the adventure.

Ben's drill sergeant, never impressed Uncle Henry scoffs at his ambitions of becoming a basketball star, saying if Ben really wants to do something worthwhile with his time he should solve the video game Henry gives him. If Ben can do so in a week, Henry says, he'll get to join his uncle and parents on one of their expeditions as reward. Ben's parents are irate--about both the game and the promise--but Henry says

Camp Merrie-Seymour for Boys is the home to Ariel and Max for the summer. Six weeks without technology, living in the Jupiter cabin (all the cabins are named for planets) they quickly realize they are different from everyone else at camp. Sent there not to overcome their addiction to technology (the advertise goal of the camp) Max and Ariel are there because their father works for Merrie-Seymour and camp tuition is free for employees. The only ones not obsessed with getting a sweet taste of the internet, the boys of Jupiter quickly begin to win the cabin competition. But when the boys of

There is no delicate way to tell a person that he is holding a container full of the incinerated remains of his own body.

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"Grow apart." So often, when two people are asked to explain why their relationship has changed and isn't working out, at least one of them will say that they have simply grown apart. They have grown in different ways so that they have less connection and less in common than they once did. Sometimes it's not so much a matter of growing in different directions as growing at different rates.

Noggin is the ultimate tale of growing at different rates. Travis was dying

Eighty years after German super-soldiers crushed the Allied forces in World War II, Zara works as a maid at a Nazi cadet academy in the Easter American Territories. Zara can't escape the Nazi's constant obsession with the Aryan ideal, with a Japanese father and American mother she doesn't fit in with the occupying forces. Although she can't hide her lineage she can hide another genetic gift from her father, the ability to control wind. If the Fuhrer knew about her ability, she would be eradicated. 

Hiding in the shadows, Zara longs to join the Resistance, and push the Nazis out of her country

Now Charlie’s dead and I’m here in the kitchen—on my way to school, and then to work. It’s my senior year and I still have no idea what I want to do with my life. I am motherless, and in the last year, I lost my best friend twice, fell in love with a guy I shouldn’t have (twice), got beat up by a skinhead Nazi, and had things thrown at me, including beer cans, money, and dog shit.

Quietly understated, leaving much unsaid under the surface, yet visceral, tangible, and intense--Smith’s storytelling in Ghost Medicine is like his characters.

Troy lives in a remote ranching community at the base of the mountains in the west. The son of a teacher who doesn’t quite fit in, he loves the ranch life and is rarely separated from his Stetson or horse, Reno, yet only wears tennis shoes and t-shirts along with his jeans. The summer before he turns 17, Troy’s mom finally loses her battle with cancer and he runs away on Reno into the mountains, living off the land for a few weeks

Jude and Noah are twins who share more than just the same birthday, they share the world. The two are incredibly close and share their secrets, friends, talents and more. A novel told from two perspectives, in two different times in the twins' lives, I'll Give You The Sun shows the rift that came between the twins, then shows the reader the trauma that began their separation. 



In middle school, Noah and Jude prepare their applications for art school at the urging of their mother, an art journalist. When their mother praises Noah's art without even looking at Jude's the twins know who is her

In her debut novel, Natalie C. Parker brings together a unique southern gothic mystery in the thrilling Beware the Wild. One day, after a particularly awful fight, Sterling's brother Phin runs into the mysterious swamp outside their home and never returns. Instead, a strange girl named Lenora May emerges and the entire town (including Sterling's family) treat her as if she's always been Sterling's sister and that a boy named Phin has never existed. Only Sterling remembers her brother and she is determined to get him back from the dark swamp. 



I never knew where Parker was going to take the

Hazel lives in an out-of-the-way town where faeries are real. The locals know enough lore to stay safe and be respectful, so for the most part the magical creatures leave them alone. Not so much with the tourists, who come because of the stories and to see the horned boy who has been sleeping, unchanged, in a glass coffin in the forest for generations and who sometimes end up dead. So everyone knows the fae are not to be messed with; sometimes it can't be avoided, though. Hazel and her family have had faerie contact in the past that has shaped them in ways they keep secret--sometimes secret

Veda lives in India and is a classical (Bharatanatyam) dancer. She lives and breathes dance, has for as long as she can remember. She plans to make dancing her career, despite her mother continually pushing her toward engineering. She is amazingly talented and has just won first place in a major competition. After the competition, the bus taking the competitors back home crashes. She wakes in the hospital with her right leg missing below the knee. Talk about a strong female protagonist! This girl simply will not give up! She is determined to dance again with her artificial leg, even when her

Beginning at midnight on Sunday August 13, 1961 the German Democratic Republic, communist East Germany, ran coils of barbed wire fencing through the center of Berlin. By morning, East Berlin was completely cut off from West Berlin. After the wire came the wall and the Stasi – the East German state security service, one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies to ever have existed.

Now it’s 1983. Little has changed. West Berliners can apply for visas to make day visits on the East Berlin side, but the East Berliners are still watched and restricted. Some

When his mother began cancer treatments, Connor started experiencing nightmares: screaming, darkness, howling winds, slipping hands and a monster. But tonight is a little different because when Connor wakes from his nightmare, he hears something calling his name. It really is a monster, in the shape of a yew tree, slowly approaching his window. It wants something from him, something Connor is not ready to give.

A Monster Calls is illustrated in black and white images that beautifully complement the text. This book is extremely intense, I was completely engulfed by the story. How do you

Katie is the talented young chef running the kitchen in a critically acclaimed restaurant. But she is ready for the next adventure...starting her own restaurant. She has a partner, she has the building, now she just needs to make her dream a reality. But things just keep getting messed up! A delay from the contractor renovating the building throws a wrench in the works, overdue bills and collectors calling, her partner not picking up his phone! Everything begins to fall apart until Katie is visited by a house spirit who offers her a chance to change the past. Eat a magic mushroom, write her

Falling into Place is the story of Liz Emerson. Liz has just driven her car off an icy road and tumbled down a cliff. Everyone believes it was accidental. It wasn't. Liz planned her suicide in such a way that no one would know that she actually wanted to die. Even her best friends didn't know how unhappy she was, how much she loathed herself and her life. Liz is the pinnacle of popular at her high school. She is THE beautiful, mean girl. Liz has left immeasurable ruined reputations, relationships and lives in her wake. Some she has ruined through ignorance and self-centeredness, some she has

Molly is driving back, but she doesn't know from where. And she doesn't know to where.  All she knows is that she should be in school, but she's in her car instead. Suddenly she sees a motorcycle speeding up behind her. Somehow she knows that he is coming for her. She passes through the intersection as the light turns red. The motorcycle keeps coming; it runs the red light. A truck enters the intersection, catching the back tire of the motorcycle, sending is spinning.  The rider flies through the air, over Molly's car and lands on the asphalt right in front of her. She brakes, screaming. She

Penelope has lost everything in the Earth Shaker that destroyed the Los Angeles area. Her home by the sea is in ruins, her family gone. There is no one left in the neighborhood. Penelope is trying to survive on what little food and water she can find in what remains of their basement pantry.  Then suddenly three men appear at her home.  She hides, knowing that they will kill her if they find her.  But one does find her and surprisingly he offers her secret help and a bit of hope.

The cover of this book is absolutely amazing, artistic and gorgeous. It is the reason, along with a very

A strikingly illustrated graphic novel featuring short horror stories told in bold blacks, reds, blues and whites. The stories are ones that will stay with you. Each story felt familiar to me, probably inspired by classic fairy tales but each has its own horrific twist. One of my favorites has tones of Little Red Riding Hood, about a girl traveling through the woods to her mother’s house. Her father warns her to travel fast to avoid the wolves in the forest. She travels over hills, between the trees and safely reaches her mother’s home. The reader, ready to celebrate her safe journey is jarred

Morgan measures her likeability by how many Twitter followers she has. Her goal is to reach 5000 and she is getting very close. If she has 5000 followers, she has to be likeable, right? Even if she doesn't have any real life friends, even if the father she's never known didn't like her enough to stick around and help raise her. She is currently tweeting about things she thought were true. For example, that working in an amusement park would be amusing (it's not), that heart disease happens to other people (how could HER mother be in the hospital with heart problems???), that rocking out to

Mysti Murphy is not having a good 7th grade year. Her only friend, Anibal Gomez, has developed a crush on a Cheer Squad girl and has decided to change his image in an effort to be noticed. Part of Anibal's "social experiment" is to develop a hipster persona that he thinks his new crush will admire. To see if his experiment works, he needs to ditch Mysti. Anibal decides that he and Mysti can talk and text in the evenings and on weekends, but they must have NO contact during school. Mysti has no other friends, so she now sits alone at the Loser Island in the cafeteria at lunchtime. At home

Things have been complicated for Hannah Wagnor since her best friend Lillian died six months ago, because her best friends ghost still haunts her, and because someone in their sleepy town is killing girls and leaving their bodies in the woods behind Hannah’s house. Lillian has become obsessed with the murders and to appease her friend’s spirit, Hannah begins to investigate the crime scene photos developed at the photo store where she works. The girls notice similarities between the murders that the police haven’t released to the public, a eerie paper valentine left with each body, the sign of

What a heart wrenching, yet inspiring, read this was! I listened to the audio book and couldn't tear myself away. It's been a long time since I found myself so immersed in a story, or since I have read a story so incredibly tragic and yet, at the same time so hopeful.

The main character is Carey, who believes she is 15 years old. She suffers abuse and neglect at the hands of her meth addicted, mentally ill mother who kidnapped her away from her father when she was five.  She has been hidden away in the Obed Wild and Scenic National Park in Tennessee, along with a six year old half sister. 

Finn Easton is like any other epileptic teenage boy with a famous author for a father who had a horse fall on him, break his back and kill his mother. Which is to say that Finn Easton is like no one you have ever met. The eerie resemblance between himself and the main character of his father’s best-selling book, has left Finn wondering if he is even real. Measuring time by the miles traveled by earth’s rotation, Finn has a different way of looking at things than anyone around him. Finn’s senior year brings opportunities to visit broken dams, see the world outside of California, kiss a girl, go

Ramsey Beyer grew up in small town Michigan, dreaming of going to art school in a big city. Although she loved growing up in a rural area, she longed for the diversity and challenge of an urban life. So when it came time to apply to schools she looked for art schools in her favorite big cities, eventually settling on a well-respected institution in Baltimore.

With her freshman year of art school and a move to a big city looming ahead, Ramsey began to worry that she would miss her rural life. Between rigorous foundation classes and learning to live with roommates, Ramsey kept meticulous

It's 1962 and the world is watching as President Kennedy and Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev face off. Tensions are rising day by day, the Cuban Missile Crisis is reaching its peak. Scott's father has built an underground bomb shelter and the family is the brunt of the neighbor's jokes. That is until the air raid sirens go off and suddenly only Scott's family has somewhere safe to go. Just as Scott's dad is about to close and lock the heavy steel door, some of the neighbors grab it and try to open it back up; they are desperate to survive. But Scott's dad has only stockpiled enough for the