Teen and Staff Reviews

Born a Crime is the story of comedian Trevor Noah who portrays his upbringing in apartheid-era South Africa, where his existence was illegal due to the government ban on interracial relationships. The book consists of a collection of stories from Noah's childhood and early adulthood. It explores his family's experiences under apartheid, his mother's determination to provide a better life, and his own journey of self-discovery.

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager is a suspenseful thriller that follows the story of Maggie Holt, who inherits the infamous Victorian mansion known as Baneberry Hall. Decades earlier, her family fled the house in the middle of the night, claiming it was haunted. Maggie, now an adult and a skeptical home renovator, decides to return to the house to confront her family's past and debunk the supernatural stories that have plagued her family for years.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia is a young adult fantasy novel that follows the story of Ethan Wate, a small-town teenager who becomes infatuated with Lena Duchannes, a mysterious girl with supernatural powers. As they uncover the dark secrets of their town of Gatlin, South Carolina, and Lena's family history, they find themselves entangled in a curse that has haunted their families for generations.

Eyes of the Storm is a graphic novel, the third book of a 7-book series called Bone. At the end of the second book, everyone at the cow race were in disarray as the cows and rat creatures barged into the crowd, with Grandma Ben leading. Everyone survived and got home safely. Grandma, Thorn, the Bones, and Lucius(the local bartender who is a good friend of Grandma's) rebuild the house that was destroyed by the rat creatures in the first book.

Do not miss out on E. Lockhart’s gripping novel, We Were Liars. The story begins with 17 year old Cadence, who spends the summer every year on her wealthy family’s private island on the coast of Massachusetts. She enjoys her summer with her cousins, the “liars,” and a boy who is a friend of the family. The group of them spend hours away from their mothers who are feuding over ownership of the property and inheritance of the wealth from their eccentric grandfather.

Renegades, by Marissa Meyer, is an amazing book that blurs the lines of good and evil. In a society where super-powered people, or prodigies, were once oppressed, the Renegades have risen to power, portraying themselves as guardians of the people and bringers of hope. Nova sees things differently. She sees the Renegades as power hungry murderers who failed the city they promised to protect.

I rated The Hate U Give a 5 out of 5 for a few reasons. This book follows Starr Carter and her journey as she has two different personalities, she lives in a poor neighborhood but goes to a white school with rich people. The book is also about how she fights for justice for her friend Khalil who gets shot by a police officer unjustly. At first, she is afraid of speaking out but then she realizes that she must stand up for her friend as he would have done the same for her.

Nine Liars, Maureen Johnson’s newest entry in the Truly Devious series, is a weak companion to the books that came before it, yet still managed to retain some of the charm of its predecessors. The novel takes place between two time periods: one being the 1990s in England, following a group of nine friends in a rural house, and the other being a modern-day continuation of the lives of Stevie Bell and her friends.

At its best, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a poignant, bittersweet portrayal of a teenage boy’s coming of age. Throughout most of the novel, however, it reads as a loosely connected web of teenage trauma that’s held together by an empty shell of a protagonist.  The book follows Charlie, a shy, fifteen-year-old boy who recounts his life in letters to a never[1]identified friend.

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham offers an interesting premise but falls entirely flat in its execution. The novel takes place after a sort of zombie apocalypse called “The Hollowing” that turned a small part of the population into “ghouls”, feral creatures who crave human flesh.