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Recommended for Teens

The Hate U Give

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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Format: Book, eBook, Audiobook, eAudiobook.  Movie version available DVD or Blu-Ray
Who it’s for: Adults, Teens

Sixteen year old Starr is living a double life.  One Starr lives in a black, lower income neighborhood and feels like she doesn’t quite fit in.  The other Starr attends a private, mostly white school and feels like she can never quite be herself.
One night, Starr is riding in a car with her childhood friend Kahlil when they get stopped by police. After a short but tense exchange, Kahlil is fatally shot leaving Starr as the only witness.
A whirlwind of events send Starr’s two worlds crashing into each other so she is left with no choice but to find her voice and decide who her one true self is and what she stands for.

 

The audiobook was amazing and the movie was a very good adaptation of the book although they did have to condense some characters.  I read the book first and it helped to better understand some parts of the story that I might have missed otherwise.

Find it in the catalog

 

Hysteria

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Title: Hysteria by Megan Miranda
Format: Book
Who’s It For? Adults and Young Adults

Mallory remembered that her boyfriend Brian was dead. Yet she didn’t remember that she had stabbed him. The police didn’t charge her with the crime. Brian, from his history, was probably the aggressor. If only she could remember. Meanwhile, Mallory took a sleeping pill at night.

To give her a fresh start, Mallory’s parents sent her to a private prep school: Monroe. At first, she was making friends, including Reid. Reid and Mallory’s fathers attended Monroe years ago. Yet, when her roommate moved out, Mallory figured that word of her past had spread. Mallory frequently heard a loud thumping noise at night. And when she woke, her shoulder was bloody and blistered. Was someone tormenting her? Or was Mallory losing touch with reality? She had to find some answers before it was too late.

If you enjoy a suspenseful tale with flawed characters, I highly recommend this author.  While Hysteria is my favorite Megan Miranda book, I would also suggest The Perfect Stranger and All the Missing Girls.

You can find Hysteria here.

The Shadows Between Us

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The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller
Format: Book
Who it’s for:  Young Adults, Adults

Alessandra is the second daughter and must wait until her older sister is engaged before she can attend any royal social gatherings.  While she waits for her turn, she plots.  She wants to marry the Shadow King and then kill him so that she can take over the kingdom.  She plans how she is going to catch the eye of the King – what she will wear and how she will act.  When she does, she soon learns that she is not the only one trying to kill him.  She gets to know him and even begins to like him.  Liking the King was not part of her plan.

Alessandra is not your ordinary noblewoman.  She likes to design her own outfits and she doesn’t follow society’s rules.  She does as she pleases which includes having some relationships before she is married.  She is determined to do her own thing and her goal is to change the way women are made to follow the rules made by men.  And, if someone displeases her, she just might kill them.

Someone on Good Reads described this as a “Slytherin Romance” and I think that is a good description.  You want to hate Alessandra because she is so unapologetically evil, but you like her anyway.  She knows what she wants and she is going to get it!

Find it in the catalog.

Anna Dressed in Blood

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Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Format: Book and Eaudiobook
Who it’s for: Teens

Tis the spooky season, which I believe calls for something about the things that go bump in the night. I found that in Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. It is the first of its ghostly series, and put eloquently: “It’s the old boy-meets-girls story. if the boy is a wry, self-destructive ghost hunter bent on avenging his father and the girl is a homicidal ghost trapped in a house full of everyone she’s ever murdered.” – Holly Black, New York Times bestselling author of Red Glove.

It’s perfect for people who want a light and easy paranormal read that happens to be a teen urban fantasy, rather than a teen urban fantasy that has paranormal elements. I like ghost stories, and while this one isn’t particularly scary (in my opinion. You may find otherwise.), it does manage to be fun, full of magic, a bit of mystery, and interesting characters. Find it in the catalog!

The Song of Achilles

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The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Format: eBook, Book, Audiobook
Who it’s for: Adults, Teens

The Song of Achilles is a retelling of the story of Achilles from the point of view of Patroclus, his best friend and eventual lover. Miller takes the stories we know from The Iliad and fills in the blanks, starting with Achilles’ childhood and the beginnings of his relationship with Patroclus. Achilles is a complicated figure. More than the arrogant, brash man who fought in the Trojan War, he is depicted as often unsure of himself, kind, and capable of love. 

We follow Achilles and Patroclus from childhood to their adolescence, during which they travel to train under the centaur, Chiron, to young adulthood. Through it all, Achilles’ mother, Thetis, appears often to express her displeasure with her son’s relationship with Patroclus. We see Achilles and Patrolcus grow closer over the years, ultimately falling in love before the story turns to the more familiar Trojan War years. Although you may know what happens next, Miller’s writing makes the entire series of events gut-wrenching.

The Song of Achilles is for anyone with even a passing interest in Greek mythology, or anyone who likes a well-written romance with a dash of war and vengeful gods. Also recommended is Miller’s second novel, Circe, a retelling of the life of Circe, a daughter of Helios.

Skyward

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Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
Who it’s for: Teens, Adults
Format: Book, eBook

Epic space battles, a nearly-sentient AI-powered ship, a strange yellow and blue slug that mimics voices and sounds, and a teenager who wants to claim the stars – that’s Skyward in a nutshell. Brandon Sanderson is an excellent world-builder and it shows in the first of a four part series.

Spensa is trapped on a planet called Detritus with what remains of humanity. They are frequently attacked from above by unknown forces they call the Krell. Spensa dreams of being a space pilot to defend her home. But when she was young, her father was branded a coward, and now the entire family bears the label. Fighting her way into flight school, Spensa works to prove that she’s not a coward (and that her father wasn’t either), and that she can help in the fight against the Krell. 

Outside of school, M-Bot, the abandoned AI-driven ship with a personality, and Doomslug. Spensa, with the help of her friend Rig, repairs M-Bot and takes him for a spin. M-Bot has been programmed not to fight, and when he believes Spensa would fly him in battle, he shuts down.

Fast forward to the most epic of epic battles – can Spensa save Detritus from destruction, or will what happened to her father happen to her too?

Starsight, book two of four, is also out now, so there’s more to come when you reach the cliffhanger at the end!

Find Skyward in the catalog.