Everyone has felt the pressure around standardized tests. The thought, real or imagined, that how you perform in this one moment will decide the rest of your life. While we may be lending a dramatic flair to our own examinations, that fear is real for Cia. She has been chosen along with 3 other classmates from the 5 Lakes Colony to participate in The Testing. Every year, the best and brightest high school graduates are brought to Tosu City to undergo a series of exams that will decide who goes on to University.
Noa's life has been looking up. She ran away from the foster care system that failed her, set up a fake foster care family using her amazing hacker abilities, and has been working odd jobs to stay afloat. But that all changes when Noa wakes up on a cold metal table in an abandoned warehouse with a mysterious incision in her chest. Noa barely manages to escape the men in black suits who pursue her out of the warehouse and through the back alleys of Boston's southside.
In a world ruled by Barrons, magically gifted fighters, and their soulbound Healers, Kaya grew up in a small unskilled village. The daughter of two Barrons-in-hiding, as Barrons are not meant to marry each other, Kaya knows nothing of the hierarchy of Barrons and Healers that keep the countryside safe from Graplars (large dragonlike creatures) until one attacks at the village fair, killing her best friend. By killing the beast, her father draws attention to the family and Kaya is forced to attend Shadow Academy to become a healer.
Set in 1986, this story is filled with acid-wash, walkmans and punk music. Eleanor just doesn’t fit in, her red frizzy hair and eclectic wardrobe choices make her stand out like a sore thumb. Park’s goal is to fly under the radar, never at the bottom of the social ladder, but with no ambitions to climb to the top, he strives for mediocrity. But Park stands out when Eleanor climbs onto his bus one morning. With nowhere else to sit, Eleanor and Park become unwilling bench-mates. Over time, and without speaking the two begin to get to know each other.
I typically roll my eyes at romance novels--they are so fake! But Eleanor & Park is different. Perhaps because Eleanor and Park are different. Eleanor Douglas and Park Sheridan--the lead characters in this romance--are different from most romance novel characters, but also just different. Different from their boorish peers. Different from their lame teachers.
Black Helicopters are the harbingers of death and destruction for 15 year old Valley and her brother Bo. If they knew their hiding place, Those People, who control the helicopters, would kill them like coyotes, just as they killed her parents. Valley is determined to make the pay, no matter the cost to herself. Using the skills for survival and explosives their father taught them, Valley comes up with a plan to enact vengeance on Those People. By turning herself into an explosive message.
Charlie and Nate have grown up on the same street. The two, forced into play-dates as children, could not be more different. Charlie, kind and a little shy, is the captain of the basketball team. Nate is the outspoken and geeky president of the robotics club. Although not even on the same social ladder, the two have always been on good terms...until now. When the school announces that the decision about funding the robotics club's trip to a national competition or new uniforms for the cheerleaders will be left up to the student council, Nate decides to run for Student Body President.
Catch me reading one of these books and most likely I will be cringing and wincing. The best books inspire curiosity, these books will give you more information that you would ever want to know about a topic. But, like a car crash, you can't look away. You will be hooked!
As a librarian I try to be widely read, sampling a little from column A, a little from column B. But like many readers, I have a literary home, a place that I come back to when I need support, or rest, or inspiration. And that place has always been books about kick-ass girls. It started when I was about ten years old and discovered Alanna, Tamora Pierce's cross-dressing heroine. Alanna, the daughter of landed gentry, is relegated to learning sorcery after being told that girls cannot become knights.
I have begun to notice a disturbing trend in my media habits of late...serial killers are on my mind. And I thought, why should I have to suffer through this dark mire alone? So I'll bring you down the rabbit hole with me!
