Reviews

Nikki Kill has synesthesia, a rare disorder that causes her senses to overlap. In Nikki’s case, she sees colors tied to specific emotions in her environment. So when the number of a popular, uber-rich girl she barely knows pops up on her phone in orange (the color of emergencies) the night she’s nearly beaten to…

The Cane family embodies dysfunction: an absent military father, a depressed mother who self-medicates, and five daughters left to fend for themselves. Each of the sisters struggles with their own demons, including the oldest with a biting temper and the middle sister, Mona, the narrator and a fifteen-year-old alcoholic. But the family shares a mutual…

The Frankenstein family hires Elizabeth Lavenza to befriend their toxic, unhinged son, Victor. Abused and penniless as a child, Elizabeth soon realizes that to survive, she must manage Victor’s temper and psychotic behavior. But she is hardly the victim. Elizabeth is a nuanced, morally gray character who makes difficult decisions, knowing her survival depends on…

The unnamed, fifteen-year-old narrator of Go Ask Alice accidentally takes LSD that someone slipped into her drink at a party. For the next two years, we follow her very rapid descent into drug use, promiscuity, and sexual abuse. She has several failed attempts to clean up, but can’t seem to return to her “normal life.” The…

Arman is a self-loathing high school senior who’s been medicated for as long as he can remember. So when a mysterious man named Beau invites him to leave his meth-head stepdad, find enlightenment, and live up to the potential no one else can see, Arman eagerly accepts. Beau’s compound in the California Mountains is populated…

In the not-so-distant future, aliens unleash a series of catastrophes (waves) to Earth in order to ready it for occupation. During the 4th wave, Cassie Sullivan is separated from her brother. So as the fifth and final wave begins, she is desperately trying to reconnect with him when she meets the mysterious Even Walker, who…

Celia and Marco are bound together in a decades-long, magical game. Unfortunately, they were chosen as children, had no choice in the matter, don’t know the rules, and aren’t sure how to win. Their shadowy benefactors give them only vague guidance. The venue for this game is Le Cirque De Reves, a circus that opens…

Being a cyborg means Cinder is a talented mechanic who can tell when people are lying, but it also means she’s a second-class citizen in this sci-fi fairy tale reboot complete with an evil stepmother who resents her, two stepsisters, and of course, a prince. The backdrop to Marissa Meyer’s dystopian retelling is a plague-infested…

Gardnerville is a magical town where no one gets sick and everyone has a long life, but every fourth year, teenagers go on a killing spree with their newly developed superpowers. At the heart of Gardnerville is an ominous reformatory that claims to help the town’s troubled youths. And your guide through this strange and…

His entire life, Jacob’s grandfather wove fantastical tales about his time spent in a magical orphanage with its “peculiar” residents. So when Jacob witnesses his grandfather’s death under suspicious circumstances, his dad agrees to take him to the remote Welsh island to investigate the source of the stories he grew up with. The first in…