Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is a thrilling dystopian sci-fi novel set in the year 2044, where most of humanity seeks escape from their bleak reality through a massive virtual reality universe called the OASIS. When the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, passes away, he leaves behind a challenging Easter Egg hunt within the virtual world. The first person to find the hidden Easter Egg will inherit Halliday's vast fortune and control over the OASIS.
Cadence Sinclair is a perfect girl in a perfect family, but nothing is as it seems. During one vacation at her family's beach house Cadence gets in an accident, causing brain trauma and memory loss. She goes through a year of avoiding her family, and any reminder of her accident. However, she is called back to the beach house for another family vacation. Instead of sitting at home in denial she goes back to her perfect family for the summer to find out more about her accident and what she's forgotten.
The Smartest Kid in the Universe, Evil Genius is a riveting book about middle schooler Jake, who gained lots of intelligence through secret jellybeans. He was deemed the smartest kid in the universe, but what if the jellybeans wear off? After a new batch of smarty beans goes missing, Jake worries about not being the smartest anymore. Through a series of puzzles, his friends help him search for treasure to prove his theory wrong.
Beyond: A Ghost Story was published in 2012, and was written by Graham McNamee. The protagonist here is Jane, who lives in a dark and rainy town on Canada’s coastline. She was born dead, as the doctors found no pulse in her heart. Something eerie happened during this short time, just before the doctors managed to fix her heartbeat. The course of her life changed… for the worse. After several near-death experiences, Jane starts to suspect that her bad luck is no coincidence.
I took a deep breath after I finished the last sentence of this novel… because I was on the edge of my seat! A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is packed with many turns, twists, and traps that I, as a reader, was drawn and manipulated into. I’ll be honest, when I read the first 20 pages of this book, I felt as though I would be underwhelmed by this murder mystery. However, I was hooked when I got to the halfway point.
It’s been ten years since Laurel Mack’s daughter, Ellie, went missing. It has also taken ten years for the police force to find any evidence linked to Ellie’s disappearance which included clothing, a passport, and Ellie’s human remains that had been presumably run over by a car. Laurel decided ten years ago that Ellie had run away even though she had the perfect life. As Laurel forces herself to move on, she meets Floyd, a man she met at a diner who was divorced and had two daughters of his own.
The Woman in Cabin 10 features Laura “Lo” Blacklock who has been suffering sleepless nights due to paranoia as a result of a robbery in her house. Laura has also been offered a trip on the Aurora, a luxurious cruise ship that would survey the northern lights, which Laura’s work as a journalist focuses on. She decides to go for hope that a small vacation will soothe her paranoia. On the Aurora, there are other passengers with interests of their own, as well those who may not have right intentions.
She’s Gone by David Bell is a young-adult mystery thriller novel about Hunter Gifford who wakes up in the hospital and finds out that he and his girlfriend, Chloe, were in a car accident. He soon finds out that Chloe’s blood was found in his car but she’s nowhere to be found. Hunter can’t remember anything about the crash or what happened that day. Back at school, everyone blames him for Chloe’s disappearance and accuses him of murder.
Five Survive by Holly Jackson is a mystery novel about 6 friends going on a road trip together. The night takes a turn when their RV breaks down in an isolated place with no cell phone reception or anyone near to help. After weird things start happening, the friends find out that it wasn’t just an accident, but that someone’s targeting them in the shadows. Little do they know that not all of them will survive the night, and that one of them has a secret that the murderer would kill for.
Based on the true events of a trial in Hungary in 1882, a girl named Julie learns that her friend has gone missing. She watches as the Jews in her town are falsely accused of murdering the servant girl Esther. Julie tries to help make things right by learning the truth despite the odds being against her.
