Reviews by Category: Fiction

Fifty years ago in a town barely more than a pinpoint on a map, a deadly tornado swept through the local drive-in and took a whole generation of teenagers with it. In the present, there are too many coincidences: another tornado, the now ruined drive-in, and the same teens roaming as Spirits. 

Lena Wise is your average high school book nerd, just coasting through life until college, always looking for tomorrow to be better. Though she faces some complications in life with her dad, and beside the fact that she is in love with her best friend, Lena's life is pretty normal. That is until tragedy strikes and Lena begins to realize that for some people, there is no tomorrow.

The most compelling part of this book was the way it approaches teen drinking and survivors guilt. I was happy with the ending and the way all of the events progressed.

Dino's ex-best friend, July, just died. Or so Dino thinks. Dino's family owns a funeral home, and Dino's family tries to make dead people look like they're peacefully resting in their coffin before their burial. Dino is preparing for July's funeral, putting make-up on her, doing the usual, when suddenly, July bolts upright and starts screaming. She's not dead, but she's not quite alive, either. Dino then learns that July's awakening has made it so that nobody, and I mean nobody, is able to die anymore! This compelling, coming-of-age story about friendship will suck readers into it.

Zach Mays is notorious for having the worst luck in Orilly, a small oil town. His father has died and left him and his older brother to care for the family. Zach is lost trying to put his bleak life together until Vanessa, a confident, radiant girl who's planned her whole future, comes into his world.

Analee in Real Life is about a teenage girl who recently lost her mother. Soon after, she loses her best friend as well. About the only friend she has is in an online game. His name is Harris, and she has a crush on him. So when the most popular boy in the school, Sebastian Matias asks her to pose as his girlfriend to make his ex jealous, she agrees.

The Similars is a fantastic literary tale of understanding actions and feelings of others while simultaneously exploring the concept of clones that may be a future reality. Emma is dealing with the aftermath of a friend's suicide when six clones, dubbed 'The Similars', begin attending her high school. One of them wears the face of her recently deceased friend, but she is quick to understand that he is not Oliver and will never be Oliver.