Agnes is a teenager living with her younger sister Beth and other even-younger siblings in a crowded mobile home in Red Creek, a fundamentalist Christian settlement in the desert Southwest modeled somewhat after that described in Carolyn Jessop’s memoir ESCAPED…. Read More ›
Violence
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
So here’s the long-anticipated prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy. Coriolanus Snow is in his final year at the elitist Academy, training ground for future leaders of Panem. He is fortunate to be there because although he is charming, intelligent… Read More ›
This Is How I Lied
Eve is a 15-yr-old girl living with her mother Charlotte and 13-year-old sister Nola in small-town Grotto, Iowa. They don’t have much. Her mother works but doesn’t bring in a lot, and she is one cranky, self-centered mom. Like in… Read More ›
The Children’s Bible: A Novel
The bare bones of this story: Eve/Evie is a high school girl with a 9-year-old brother, Jack. Her family goes in with several other families of long-friendship-duration to rent a large, historic estate on the East Coast for a summer… Read More ›
crave
Grace Foster is a high school girl living in San Diego whose parents die suddenly. She is shipped off to a remote part of Alaska where her Uncle Finn runs a boarding school and her cousin Macy is a student…. Read More ›
They Went Left
In August 1942 Zofia Lederman and her family, who are among the remaining Jews in the Polish town of Sosnowiec, report to the local soccer stadium, where they are sorted into two groups, one headed for death camps and the… Read More ›
The Shadows Between Us
Alessandra is the second daughter of a baron in need of a big infusion of wealth to pay off debts and sustain his estates. Her older sister Chrysantha is their father’s favorite. Actually, she seems to be just about everybody’s… Read More ›
One of Us Is Next
This book is a sequel to the author’s book ONE OF US IS LYING. However, I have not read that book and I found that, while fairly frequent references were made to the previous story, the current book stands perfectly… Read More ›
Winterwood
Nora Walker is living alone in the family homestead that nestles close to the bottomless lake and the lush forests of Fir Haven, while her mother has taken off towards the west coast to make sales calls for the special… Read More ›
The End and Other Beginnings
This book is a collection of six short stories by science-fiction writer Veronica Roth that focuses on brief episodes in the lives of characters in different worlds and times. As I read them, I frankly saw them more or less… Read More ›
Before You Buy YA 