The Only One Left by Riley Sager is a fictional thriller that tells the tragic events of Lenora Hope’s past at Hope's End through her caregiver, Kit McDeer. Lenora is not the only one with a tragic past involving murder; Kit also has a mysterious story to tell. Throughout the book, more and more murders take place while Kit tries to uncover the secrets of the past and present. This book keeps readers interested by slowly revealing clues of Lenora’s past.
Your Brightest Life is an uplifting, positive and overall just an amazing self-help type of book. The author of this book has laid out all the questions, insecurities, anxieties and thoughts every young woman has had running through her head since she left the princess dresses and animal crackers behind. I especially appreciate the tie-in of religion and how it has helped her navigate her very, very exciting and adventurous life.
Thanks for Listening is a realistic fiction young adult novel that follows the high school senior, Mia, through her last high school musical. She finally got the position of stage manager, but no one will listen to her! That is, until she finds her voice as an anonymous help channel on social media. Through this journey, she falls in love with the mysterious new girl, and has to navigate the challenges of dating someone with lots of rumors swirling around them.
Written in 1993, Parable of the Sower is a piece of speculative fiction that’s set in a post-apocalyptic world of the year 2025. Lauren Olamina is a young African American woman living in a world of constant terror. As California burns due to the effects of climate change and social inequality is at an all time high, Lauren lives in the safe bubble of Robledo, a gated community where she and her family live separately from the chaos outside.
June Hayward was supposed to be a successful author, just like her best friend, Athena Liu. While Athena publishes book after book, June can’t sign a successful deal with a publishing company. So when Athena tragically passes away, June steals Athena’s newest novel; the rough draft for a book about the unseen work of Chinese laborers in World War I. So even when June decides to publish the book as her own, and even allows her publisher to rename her so she seems more ethnically-ambiguous, she still can’t escape Athena.
This book follows narrator Richard Papen as he reflects on his time in college. Richard moves to Vermont to attend Hampden College, a small liberal arts college in New England. When he arrives, he finds himself entranced by the classics program led by a charismatic professor. He desperately wants to befriend the other students who are wealthy and educated, everything Richard feels he is not. Richard feels that he will do whatever it takes to fit in with the others, even as things become drastically more dark. I would highly recommend this book.
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon is a love story between a girl named Natasha and a boy named Daniel, except it’s an improbable one. Natasha is a girl who doesn’t believe in concepts like love or destiny, especially since her life at the moment consists of being deported to Jamaica. On the other side, Daniel is a Korean boy who deals with his parents’ high expectations for his future, clashing with his dream of becoming a poet.
Frank Li is a Korean-American teenager who is very aware of the cultural gap between him and his parents. At the same time, he wants to be in a relationship with a girl who isn’t Korean, which doesn’t mesh well with Frank’s family. So, Frank plots a plan in which he and one of his childhood friends, Joy, can both make their lives somewhat easier. It follows the fake-dating trope mixed with unexpected outcomes and a wonderful navigation of cultural differences in new generations of teens.
Malcolm Gladwell builds off the success of his first 2 books with Outliers. This novel is about what patterns appear when major success stories are examined. In the first part of the book, he discusses different examples of how our environment and specific opportunities lead to success. Gladwell gives examples like how hockey players born in January have a tangible advantage over their younger peers because of how youth hockey is organized.
Alexis has been studying for this test for over a year, since a good score will secure her a spot in the most prestigious college in the post-apocalyptic world of gods and titans in which she resides. Her goal is to make a better life for her and her adopted younger brother, Charlie, the two of whom have been homeless since their abusive parents died when they were young. After the longest test of her life, Alexis is required to drip her blood on the page. Instead of only staining the page red, the paper begins to disintegrate, revealing her blood is not what she thought.
