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Ararat

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Ararat by Christopher Golden
Format:  Book
Who it’s For:  Adults

After a huge avalanche forces Adam Holzer and Meryam Karga, a couple climbing Mount Ararat, to hunt for shelter in one of the mountain’s caves, they stumble upon what they believe to be Noah’s Ark. Thrilled by their finding, the couple visions of turning their luck into a best-selling biography. Inside the ark is a great coffin that rapidly becomes the primary interest of the crew. Speculating who might be inside, with theories stretching from Noah himself to other biblical figures–the crew, after a passing disagreement, makes the choice to break open the coffin. But instead of discovering Noah, a horrible, evil-looking, horned cadaver rests inside.

What could go wrong?

Quite a lot. Particularly when an invading strangeness runs its nails down everybody’s back; when the crew turns abnormally malicious, needy, or fearful. When the crew awakens screaming, mysteriously overwhelmed by long-buried childhood terrors. When people disappear.

Find Ararat in the catalog!

Uglies

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Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Format: book
Who it’s for: teens

In a future civilization, the government offers its citizens on their sixteenth birthday dramatic plastic surgery to turn them into ‘pretties,’ who will then live a carefree life of relaxation and parties.  Tally Youngblood is eager for her modifications, but Shay, another ugly, talks to Tally about the opportunity of rebelling against the social standards of physical beauty.  On the day of Tally’s operation, she is given a proposition: assist the authorities in tracking the rebel Shay down, or never undergo the “pretty” surgery.  Tally ultimately chooses to help the authorities in pursuing the rebels.  Through some twists and turns in the story, the rebels soon reveal to Tally that the operation also contains surgery that makes them easier to control–ultimately altering their brains.  Tally and the other uglies join together to resist their transformation and to discover a remedy for those already turned ‘pretty’.

Series order:

  1. Uglies
  2. Pretties
  3. Extras
  4. Specials

Find Uglies in the catalog!

The City of Ember

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The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Format:  Book
Who it’s for:  Kids and Teens

Ember is a city in everlasting darkness and is only lit by its progressively unpredictable electric system.  Other systems are falling apart as well, and stores of food and necessities that have lasted hundreds of years are dwindling.  The city was only meant to last 220 years, and now it has been 241.  But the messages the “Builders” left have been misplaced and forgotten.

Lina Mayfleet finds the messages, but not before her little sister chewed them to shreds. Now she and her pal Doon Harrow must decipher the few disjointed messages before the city falls to pieces.  Their determination leads them to discover long-overlooked mysteries about the creation and purpose of Ember, and what the “Builders” envisioned.  They want to spread their findings with the people of Ember — but only if the shady mayor and his guards don’t stop them first.

Find it in the catalog!

Six of Crows

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Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Format: Book, eBook, Audiobook
Who it’s for: Teens, Adults

In Ketterdam, a center of international trade, Kaz Brekker and his crew fight to survive in the underworld of the city. At its core, Six of Crows is a heist story. A wealthy merchant offers an obscene amount of money if Kaz and the others can travel to a nearby nation, break into the Ice Court, and free a scientist being held prisoner. Complicating matters is disagreement among the crew about what should be done with the prisoner when (if) they get him out.

The crew is Jesper, Matthias, Wylan, Nina, Inej, and Kaz: “a gambler, a convict, a wayward son, a lost Grisha, a Suli girl who had become a killer, a boy from the Barrel who had become something worse.” The story is told in alternating viewpoints and you really get to know these characters and their backgrounds. Six of Crows takes place in the Grishaverse, the same fantasy world featured in Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy, and some of the characters will be familiar to those who’ve read her other works.

Six of Crows is the first book in a duology. It ends in a cliffhanger – be ready to immediately dig in to Crooked Kingdom! Netflix is creating a series based on Bardugo’s Grishaverse, so these characters will soon be making their way to our television screens as well.

Find Six of Crows in the catalog.

Renegades Series

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Renegades by Marissa Meyer
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Teens, Adults

What if superheroes were real? The Renegades are an organization led by the heroes who saved the world from anarchy, and made up from prodigies who are humans with extraordinary abilities. The Renegades are champions of justice and peace, a symbol of hope and courage to most – just not the ‘villains’ who they overthrew to gain power.

Nova is a prodigy on a mission for vengeance. The Renegades weren’t there for her when she needed them most, and therefore she wants to show the world who they truly are. As she infiltrates the ranks of the Renegades, she learns that not everything is as it seems and that it’s hard to paint anyone as all hero or all villain.

Book 1: Renegades
Book 2: Arch Enemies
Book 3: Supernova

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The Power of the Dark Crystal

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The Power of the Dark Crystal
Format: eBook, Book
Who it’s for: Teens, Adults

If you’re a fan of the classic Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal and/or the Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance you will be pleased to know the story of The Dark Crystal does not end (or begin*) there.

The Power of the Dark Crystal graphic novels are a sequel to the film. Jen and Kira have ruled the mystical world of Thra for a great many trine [off and on] but their hard-earned peace lies in jeopardy when the fireling Thurma, arrives from a subterranean world and threatens to crack the Crystal of Truth and release the evil Skeksis upon the land once more. Thurma has only one ally, the gelfling Kensho, who trusts that together they can save both their worlds from destruction. Much like the original film, this series is a story about love, overcoming obstacles, and the importance of environmental stewardship.

If you enjoy The Power of the Dark Crystal, Kensho and Thurma’s saga continues in the graphic novel series Beneath the Dark Crystal.

And if you really can’t get enough of The Dark Crystal you might try J.M. Lee’s YA series of novels about Thra, starting with Shadows of the Dark Crystal, which features several characters from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and seems to take place concurrent with the TV show.

*There is also The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths shedding light on how the world of Thra began. Witness the birth of Aughra, and her son Raunip, the arrival of the urSkeks, as well as the Great Division, among other “historical” events.

See everything The Dark Crystal in our catalog.