Fiction

Yunjae lived his whole life wondering what it was like to be “ordinary”. Diagnosed with alexithymia at a young age, Yunjae never felt or understood human emotions. Despite his mom’s efforts to teach him, no Post-it note could ever truly turn him into the “normal” kid she wanted.

However, after witnessing a terrible incident on Christmas Eve — which is also his birthday — he had only himself to rely on. Or so he thought.

After the incident, Yunjae meets new people like Gon, the new troublemaker in school. Although opposites of each other, the two unordinary teens form an unexpected

15-year-old Xiomara Batista never felt heard from the people around her. Although she hated it, her body did all the talking. With an overly religious mother and the judging stares of other people, Xiomara felt trapped, unable to break free from her problems. Due to her overwhelming emotions, she turned to writing poetry to manage her feelings.

When Xiomara finds out about a slam poetry club at her school, she is filled with curiosity. She eagerly wants to join, but the poetry club meetings overlap with her church’s conformation class, which is her mom’s number one priority for her. Will

The Cellar, by Natasha Preston, is a fiction thriller novel. It is about a young girl named Summer who gets kidnapped and taken to a cellar. With several other girls she is forced into a pretend life. While in the cellar she has to cook, clean, look good, and entertain Colin. The novel shows her, her family, and friends’ perspectives throughout Summer’s time inside the cellar. Will she ever be able to escape the cellar?

This novel deals with some mature topics such as rape and abuse, so the audience should be mature. This book is one of my all-time favorite books. Throughout the entire

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, is a mix of Romance/Victorian Literature.  Jane starts her story while living with her Aunt Reed. Poor Jane; no one truly loved her at her Aunts’. Though she still is abused by her Aunt and cousins, Jane leaves to Lowood to receive education. She stays there for some while until she is eighteen. Eventually, she takes upon a job at Thornfield. Her boss, Mr. Rochester, is a harsh man. At first, she disliked him. Is her love for Mr. Rochester true, even with the difference of age?

I enjoyed reading Jane Eyre. It is a little hard to understand, but most of the

Restart is an amazing book to read if you like reading for fun. In Restart, the story is about a boy named Chase and he falls off his roof and forgets everything. He remembers how to speak the language he speaks but he does not remember anything else. When he gets to school there are many kids who are scared of him and many athletes who like him. Over time Chase learns that he was a bully and a jerk to many students. Chase takes the opportunity of forgetting everything and tries to learn how to make himself anew person.

I loved reading this book and I recommend this book to many teens

Based on a true story, Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell, focuses on the main character Karana who enjoys life on an island with her tribe in the middle of a sea of dolphins. One day, Russians unexpectedly raid her island and attempt to make a deal to share the supply of fish equally with the islanders. Surprisingly, Chief Chowig, the main chief of the island, agrees, and after working together for some months, the Russians abruptly decide to take the entire island’s population back to Russia.  However, they accidentally leave Karana’s brother, Ramo, behind. Realizing his dire

Finding My Voice by Marie Myung-Ok Lee focuses on17-year-old Ellen Sung, the only Korean girl in her small, all-white school in a small, all-white town. While grappling with her parents’ high academic expectations, Ellen also experiences blatant and implicit racism. Time and time again, she catches hissed remarks or sly smirks from other students, yet she doesn’t seem able to speak up against them. To further complicate her school year, Ellen earns the chance to pursue a relationship with her crush, Tomper Sandel, but her parents would never approve of dating a non-Korean boy. Ellen only has

If I could, I would give this book more than a five-star rating. I think that my favorite book will never change because I do not think anyone can make a storyline better than this. The first book I read in the DC icons series was Batman Nightwalker and I liked that. I thought that was going to be my favorite book forever until I read Catwoman Soulstealer. This book is more than a masterpiece because of its storyline, plot, writing, and characters. I learned a lot from this book about Catwoman that I did not know.

In this world Catwoman trained with the League of Assassins and came back to

If you are looking for an adventure, mystery, and friendship book, this is the book that you are looking for. Notorious is an amazing book about Keenan and ZeeBee who investigate how ZeeBee’s dog was murdered by a person who tried to break into her house. ZeeBee believes that there is treasure on the island that one person wants for themselves. Keenan does not believe it as much as she does but he goes along with it and they become friends. They investigate who killed ZeeBee’s dog when someone entered her house and they then look for the treasure. This book is not only a murder mystery but an

This book is by far better than Ungifted, in my opinion. I liked how Donovan was one of the main characters in this book but I really liked how they switched the role and made Noah the second main character. In my mind I thought if Gordon Korman was going to make a second book Donovan would be the main character but it was surprising how Noah got to be a main character in this book more than he was in Ungifted. Supergifted is about how Donovan saved a family and he could not take the credit for it so then Noah took the credit for it and thought he was helping Donovan. Overtime that got to Noah

I had an amazing time reading this book. When I started reading about Donovan Curtis it seemed like he was just a prankster and could not change. The book is about how Donovan makes a terrible prank and then gets transferred, accidentally, to a higher-level school. He tries really hard on all of his tests so that he doesn't get transferred to the school he was supposed to get transferred to. He meets new people at his new school and it takes a while for Chloe to like him but I did like how Noah, another character, had a role in this book but later in the second book he had a bigger role. This

Level 13 is an amazing book and sequel to the original Slacker novel. I loved the original novel and wondered if Gordan Korman was ever going to make another book about Cameron Boxer. I was confused when I heard the name “Level 13” but when I read the book I understood more about how level 13 in a video game in the book was a big mystery and how it was weird when we found out what was the disastrous thing that was placed into that level that made it banned in many states. The storyline was amazing and the way the book taught people how they should never get hooked into streaming a video game

Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie, is a Mystery/Thriller.  After Midnight, the Orient express stops due to heavy snowfall. The trains stop overnight, and the passengers fall asleep. The train is full of passengers until the following day. One person is killed in his compartment. He was stabbed twelve times. The detective must solve the case before the killer strikes once more.

I think this is by far the best book I have ever read by Agatha. I love her books because they are about crime and mysteries. So far, my favorite is this because the setting is on a train. Murders on

And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie, is a Mystery/Thriller. Ten strangers were invited to spend time at a coast in Devon. Each of them have a deep - dark secret. While everyone is at the private house, the host is nowhere to be found. One by one, the ten guests begin to die. Until there iso ne left and then there were none…

I believe that this is a very interesting book. It reminds me of the book Ten. In most ways, the books are similar. I like this book because the plot was fabulously done. I prefer And Then There Were None more than Ten because the plot line is better. The murder

Slackers was by far one of the best books I have ever read. This was the first book I read in the series and the first book I read that Gordon Korman wrote. I love all the books that he writes because they are entertaining and interesting. Cameron Boxer is the main character in Slackers and he loves playing video games. My favorite part about the book is how he likes playing video games so much that he would create a group at school to fool his parents that he was doing something else instead of video games. This book has a lot of lazy people in it and I love how every chapter is a new

Twelve Angry Men was a confusing book in my mind. The play was written differently than many others but once I understood how it worked, I loved how these characters fought about everything. There were Twelve Jurors and each of them had a different opinion on the case. After many days of a court proceeding, they were deciding if a boy killed his father. There was much evidence towards guilty but Juror 8 was more of a protagonist and defended this boy. He thought there was a reasonable doubt.

I loved how this book took into consideration how these Jurors would think. I never understood what

The House on Mango Street represents a perspective of someone whom you would never think of. I liked how this book took into perspective how Esperanza lived in her community and how she was looked at by certain people. This book shows a lot of realistic events that seem very meaningful and makes the book very interesting to read. I gave this a five-star rating because I liked how this book was written. It is very intense in Esperanza's feelings but also very truthful about what happened to her. My favorite part about this book was how it was very hard to read and understand what was going on

 Monster, by Walter Dean Myers, is a realistic fiction novel about a teenager who is charged with felony murder. The main character, Steve, is abruptly put into prison because he is accused of being part of a plan that went wrong and accidentally killed a store owner. Steve continuously tries to explain to the judge and the jury that he wasn't present at the time of the crime, but because of racial injustice and the people he hangs out with, they find it nearly impossible that he is innocent. This book shows the entire process of the case in much detail with some plot twists.

Overall, I

This story is set in 1995 and locations ranging from Colorado to the West side of America, nine teens’ perspectives playing out against a background of missing girls, destructing fires, and a wayward priest. Each of these story’s weave and connect to create a web of amazing romantic, and expressive stories. This story portrays how communities look normal but on the inside are brutal, romantic, and mysterious. Each story is amazing and the way it is spun together makes it even more interesting and fascinating to read. We have all heard of magicians and maybe the real magician here is Bonnie-Sue

Both Alice and Celia are twins. After Alice’s boyfriend, Jason, died in a fire, she was committed into a mental psych ward. Alice hates it there, but after meeting a kid, Chase, she begins to wonder if her sister is in the ward too! She asks Chase, a mysterious boy, for help. But in the process, Alice begins to rethink everything. Can she trust Chase? Is anyone going to help her? All Alice wants to know is the truth. What happened to Jason? Where is Celia?

I did not exactly love this book. It is an okay read. The book culminated nicely, but I easily guessed the twist. I could say that the

Tyrannosaurus Wrecks is about Teddy Fitzroy and his encounters with a tyrannosaurus rex skull. One day he receives a call from his friend, Sage, that a T-rex skull that was discovered in his backyard has mysteriously disappeared. Since Teddy has solved many mysteries in the past, he is the one tasked with finding out what happened to the skull. The mystery doesn’t make any sense, as the skull weighed 500 pounds and it had rained the night before, and there were no footprints. Meanwhile, he receives a call from the school bullies, Tim and Jim, that an anaconda is on the loose in their house

It’s no secret that pirates are good-for-nothing swindlers, assassins, and thieves — and Alosa may be the worst of them all. Trained personally by her father, the pirate king, she has learned to be cutthroat and ruthless, and will do nearly anything to get what she wants. When Alosa is tasked with retrieving a part of a legendary treasure map that happens to be on the ship of a rival crew, she facilitates her own capture to access the map. However, she’ll have to best the unexpectedly clever and wily first mate, Riden, before she can complete her mission.

This book was a fun read and I

The first book in Rachel Renée Russell’s Dork Diaries series, Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, captures what it’s like to be a tween/young teen girl. Nikki Maxwell must try to fit in at a new, preppy school that she attends on a scholarship. Nikki will have to navigate friends, crushes, and popular enemies, recounting it all in her diary.

While I am definitely older than this book’s target audience, I still found it endearing and entertaining. At first, I thought some aspects of the book and its characters were too dramatic; however, after some reconsideration, I think that the attitudes

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins, is the final novel in The Hunger Games trilogy. After being rescued from the Quarter Quell, Katniss must adapt to life in District Thirteen while mourning the loss of Peeta. Katniss, forced to be the face of a revolution that she does not lead, suddenly finds herself in the middle of political chaos as the rebels of District Thirteen aim to overthrow the Capitol.

This book was great in some places but boring in others; while it was filled with twists  and turns, especially near the end, it was pretty slow in the middle. I enjoyed how Collins chose to end her

Simone Garcia-Hampton is positive for HIV. Simone’s mother died when she was young. After moving from her old school, Simone made new friends and decides to start over. Simone is a really smart kid as well as being the student-director of her school play, Rent. At her school, Simone meets her crush, Miles. She loves him and dreams about kissing him, etc. But how will he react once she tells him she has HIV, while someone is threatening her to stop talking to Miles?

I think this book is really good for those struggling with something. Whether mentally or physically, I like how Camryn Garret

Bang! Bang! POW! Normal 16-year-old Starr Carter’s world is turned upside down after witnessing the traumatic shooting of her best friend, Khalil Harris. The incident quickly becomes the talk of the town and it is later revealed to the public that Starr was the witness of the shooting. Will Starr be able to speak out and uncover the truth behind Khalil’s death? Will Khalil be served justice? Dive into Angie Thomas’ young adult fiction novel The Hate U Give as Starr faces the harsh reality of racism, police brutality, and using her voice to speak up about what is right.

This book is a very

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is probably one of my least favorite books I have read in a while. The story attempts to paint trauma and mental illness in the eyes of a teenager. It tries to be relatable to the reader, and while I believe that this could have been achieved, the main character of the novel is quite frankly a horrible character.

The main character is a rich white girl by the name of Cadence Sinclair. You can already see how being relatable to the reader is going to be hard with this character. The author attempts this by trying to show her as a flawed character, who makes

The Deadly Sister by Eliot Schrefer is a mystery novel with complex twists and turns.  Abby Goodwin has always been the overprotective sister. Saving her sister, Maya, was almost like a part-time job for her. Unfortunately, as they grew up and matured, they started drifting apart. One day, Abby finds Jefferson Andrews, the popular, the smart, and the “perfect” boy at their high school dead. As she slowly unravels and follows the trails of clues, everything points to Maya and everyone suspects Maya. Will Abby be able to protect her sister one last time?

I enjoyed this book but not as much as

Olive Torres is and has always been notoriously unlucky. From getting stuck in a claw machine to getting fired from her job to being struck by lightning, it seems like something bad always manages to happen to her. So, it should come as no surprise when Olive is forced to go on her sister’s honeymoon with Ethan Thomas, her longtime archnemesis and sworn enemy, when a nasty bout of food poisoning takes out nearly everyone at the wedding. But posing as a married couple is a small price to pay for ten days of paradise in Hawaii, and all Olive and Ethan have to do is survive each other. What could

Cecila’s life was going well, until one day. She fell, and when she woke up she could not hear anything. She became deaf out of the blue. She had to go to a deaf school, and learn, which was hard for her. Instead she got a hearing aid, and she gets to go back to a normal school. But it did not feel as normal for Cecila. She looked different with the hearing aid, and it was harder for her to make friends. Do you think she will have a good and fun school year? Read El Deafo to find out!!

I enjoyed reading this book, but for me this is not the right book for me. I think that I am not a fan of