Clockwork Angel

Summary: When sixteen-year old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks, and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep the order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, who are members of a secret organization called the Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length…everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realized that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world…and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

Review: Let me just note that that summary is way too long. Anyways, onto the book! So…I seriously love Cassandra Clare’s world. The Shadowhunters and the downworlders and all that happens in it, is truly fascinating. As you all know, I loved Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series…and I think I actually am enjoying the Infernal Devices more. She has grown as a writer. I mentioned that the Mortal Instruments series was borderline really good fanfiction. This has no fanfiction tone to it at all, she has emerged as one of the strongest voice in the Young Adult world.

Will is like Jace(His descendant, by the way), but more imperfect. Will is sarcastic and witty like Jace, but with Jace I never believed his anger. I never really felt anything but love towards Jace. Will is more volatile and his mood swings seem more real to me. I still loved him, but there were times I could see what the characters in the books said about him. Jem was possibly the sweetest characters in the book, he certainly has me on his side!

As for the plot it moves quickly and the five-hundred-something page book seems like only one-hundred. You, in short, will not be disappointed in this book! As usual, Clare has left us with a cliffhanger ending and all of us hanging at the edge of our seats waiting eagerly for the next segment.

Rating: 5/5 Duh!

Reviews from the pros:

A century before the events of Clare’s Mortal Instruments trilogy . . . this crowdpleaser’s tension-filled conclusion ratchets toward a new set of mysteries." - Kirkus Reviews

"Mysteries, misdirection, and riddles abound. . . . Fans of the Mortal Instruments series and newcomers alike won't be disappointed." - Publishers Weekly

"Compulsively readable . . . Packed with battles, romantic entanglements, and tantalizing foreshadowing, this will have readers clamoring for the next installment." - Booklist

"Top Pick! Readers will be thrilled and amazed with this prequel to The Mortal Instruments, tearing their way through a beautifully constructed story of action, magic, mayhem, and romance. Fans and newcomers alike will be enchanted by Clare's fantastical world and left begging for more!" - Romantic Times Book Reviews
Truly happy reading everyone!
-She Who Reads A Lot

Hunger

Summary: Food ran out weeks ago and starvation is imminent. Meanwhile, the normal teens have grown resentful of the kids with powers. And when an unthinkable tragedy occurs, chaos descends upon the town. There is no longer right and wrong. Each kid is out for himself and even the good ones turn murderous. But a larger problem looms. The Darkness, a sinister creature that has lived buried deep in the hills, beings calling to some of the teens in the FAYZ. Calling to them, guiding them, manipulating them. The Darkness has awakened. And it is hungry.

Review: Just as good as its predecessor. It keeps you at the end of your seat the entire time and there were definitely moments when I gasped out loud, unable to believe what just happened. Grant does a suburb job of weaving you into his world and making you connect with his characters. It’s fascinating, quite frankly. It shows how kids act and it also shows a darker side of childhood even when broaching the subjects of their past lives before the FAYZ.

It is full with raw emotions. You will not be able to put it down, can’t wait to get the third book!

P.S. Sorry for the short review, I am exhausted! College is exhausting!

Rating: 5/5

Reviews from the Pros:

“Readers looking for intense, nearly nonstop action and emotional drama will find lots to enjoy.”-Publishers Weekly

“Like Gone this novel is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.”-School Library Journal

“Readers will be unable to avoid involuntarily gasping, shuddering, or flinching while reading this suspense-filled story. Some of the questions from Gone are answered, but they leave new questions in their wake. The story is progressing with smart plot twists, both in actions and in emotions.”-VOYA (starred review)

Gone

Summary: Gone. Everyone except for the young. Teens. Middle Schoolers. Toddlers. But not a single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Gone, too, are the phones, internet, and television. There is no way to get help.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.

It’s a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen and war is imminent.

Review: I couldn’t put it down. Gone was creepy, scary, and filled to the brim with raw emotions. Grant sugarcoats nothing. He puts these children in this situation and has them respond accordingly, there is no delusions of everyone coming together and living happily ever after. In fact, most kids don’t even want to come together. All they want are their parents. It is like a modern day Lord of the Flies with some sci-fi thrown in just for kicks.

Sam is an easily relatable character. He becomes the leader and hero of the people, even though he wants nothing more than to just disappear. You will be rooting for him the entire way. And what would the story be without the charismatic villain and his sicko sidekick to hate? Drake Merwin is truly disturbing, but Caine (Ironically Caine and Abel huh? You will have to read the book to get why this is so true for Caine) is charismatic and believable, you know there is something just wrong with him, but can’t quite put your finger on it.

To put it simply: Gone is amazing. You will be flipping pages as quickly as you can to see what happens to all the characters you have become so attached to. You’ll desperately try to figure out how they will survive.
Just go read it. It is not only a great piece of fiction, but also a moving tale on human, and kid, nature.

Rating: 5/5

Reviews from the Pros:

“Intense, marvelously plotted. A tour de force.”-ALA Booklist (starred review)

“If Stephen King had written Lord of the Flies, it might have been a little like this.”-VOYA (starred review)

Destiny's Path

Summary: Branwen refuses to take orders from anyone—even the Shining Ones, the ancient gods whose power is feared throughout the land. They want her as their Chosen One, destined to save her country from the Saxon’s. But Branwen doubts she’s truly ready to be a leader.

Then a messenger from the skies shows her a vision of a bleak and violent future—a future in which Branwen has abandoned her destiny, and those most dear to her suffer unspeakable horrors. There’s a blurry line between good and evil, and those Branwen trusts the most are capable of the greatest betrayal. The Shining Ones have spoken. Will Branwen answer their calls?

Summary: I think this was a significant improvement upon Warrior Princess. It might have been that I am now used to Jones’s writing style, or that I am more acquainted with the characters, but I connected a lot more with Branwen in this adventure than the previous one. I understood her character and the adventures were thrilling. They were not so gripping that I was glued to the book.

As with the previous one, I flipped ahead to read what would happen. It was enjoyable and the characters were more easily relatable all around. It has the makings of a great heroic war story. The kind of tale that bards sing of. (The graphic description of the battle were albeit disgusting, very welcomed as realistic). One thing Jones does seem to excel at is ending the book so that you can’t wait to get your hands on the next one.

Rating: 4.3/5 It was a significant improvement upon the first.

Reviews from the Pros:

“Despite graphic depictions of battle scenes, Branwen’s compelling story leaves readers waiting for the sequel.”-Booklist

Happy Reading!
-She Who Reads A Lot

An Abundance of Katherines

Summary: When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun—but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself by Printz medalist John Green.

Review: So I have successfully read all John Green books to date, except for a Christmas one that was jointly written with a group of authors. However, with the finishing of An Abundance of Katherines I have read all his solo works. :) This makes me happy. Now onto the review! This Green book was a little slow to start off. It took me about halfway through the book to start laughing all the time and be able to not wait to read again and see what happens. The natural wit and great story-telling that is very John Green-esque is rampant throughout the story, but it takes a little while to connect with Colin (the sort-of washed up child prodigy with an affinity for girls name Katherine). Once you make the connection to Colin though, it is easy to get wrapped up in his world and his journey to Gutshot and to himself.

So, overall it is a pretty good book. Not John Green’s best work, but still admirable and fun. The characters are true and real and the dialogue is raw, witty, and very natural feeling (not forced at all). By the end of the book you will find yourself rooting for Colin and smiling along as they grow in this one summer. It is so very easy to fall into John Green’s books and characters. Very easy to get attached. I recommend you read not only this book, but all of his other books as well.

Rating: 4.5/5 It got a little slow at some parts, but overall a great book.

Reviews from the Pros:

“Fully fun, challengingly complex and entirely entertaining.” -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Laugh-out-loud funny... coming-of-age American road trip that is at once a satire of and tribute to its many celebrated predecessors”. -- The Horn Book Magazine, starred review

“The narrative is self-consciously dorky, peppered with anagrams, trivia, and foreign-language bons mots and interrupted by footnotes that explain, translate, and expound upon the text in the form of asides. It is this type of mannered nerdiness that has the potential to both win over and alienate readers. As usual, Greens primary and secondary characters are given descriptive attention and are fully and humorously realized. While enjoyable, witty, and even charming,”-School Library Journal

“The laugh-out-loud humor ranges from delightfully sophomoric to subtly intellectual, and the boys' sarcastic repartee will help readers navigate the slower parts of the story, which involve local history interviews. The idea behind the book is that everyone's story counts, and what Colin's contributes to the world, no matter how small it may seem to him, will, indeed, matter.”-Booklist

Max

Summary: Someone—or something---is decimating ships and sea life off Hawaii’s coast, and Max and her flock find themselves sucked into the Navy’s top-secret investigation of the catastrophe. Their objective: Rescue Max’s activist mom from a wicked subterranean enemy. The hitch: They must dive deep into dark waters, where gruesome evil dwells…and for high-flying Maximum Ride, could there be anything more terrifying than being trapped in the great abyss?

Review: So, I have come to the conclusion that I have outgrown Maximum Ride books. It was good, but there were points where it was actually kind of painful to read. I would roll my eyes at the gushy love scenes between Max and Fang. They were so cheesy, I wanted to gag. Angel was annoying and diabolical, and I didn’t like her character at all. I still love Gazzy and Iggy. The idea that the bird kids are trying to save the world environmentally still kind of irks me.

The book is meant for 4th-7th graders and it is probably a really great book for that age group. It helps inform them about the environmental issues with cool superheroes that are kids just like them. Not the best book to read at 18. I kind of still want to read Fang, but I won’t be spending any money on buying it, that’s for sure. I will have to reread the Maximum Ride books to see if I have truly outgrown them, or if the series just went way down hill.

This was an improvement on the last one, that’s for sure.

Rating: 3/5

Reviews from the Pros:

“A masterpiece!”-Avi Arad, executive producer of Iron Man and Spider-man

“Max narrates with a precocious, snarky voice, but makes it relatively easy to jump into her complicated tale midstream. Not surprisingly, the open-ended conclusion begs for a follow-up; it's also little wonder that a movie franchise is in the works.”-Publisher’s Weekly

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

It’s not that far from Evanston to Naperville, but Chicago suburbanites Will Gryason and Wil Grayson might as well live on different planets. When fate delivers them both to the same surprising crossroads, the Will Graysons find their lives overlapping and hurtling in new and unexpected directions. With apush from friends new and old—including the massive, and massively fabulous Tiny cooper, offensive lineman and musical theatre extraordinaire—Will and Will begin building toward respective romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most awesome high school musical.

Review:

John Green is AMAZING. I can’t really reiterate this enough. Combine him with David Levithan and you get a whole new level of awesomeness.

It’s hard for me to rightfully review this book because it is just great. It is such a simple concept, and one that is becoming more and more common in our real world. It is about two boys, who don’t know each other. One a young homosexual who struggles with depression and a not-so-stellar home life who has fallen in love with a boy named “Issac” online and is beyond nervous and ecstatic when Issac says he wants to meet him. The other boy is the quiet and some-what dramatic best friend of possibly the "world's largest person who is really, really gay" Tiny Cooper. The two boys live in separate towns near Chicago and have never heard of each other. They share one thing: their name. One fateful night they end up meeting, at all places, a porn shop. From there on out they are somewhat involved as they both grow into themselves and find love and true friendship. All the while helping, in some way or another, Tiny Cooper put on an amazing play about love.

It is so simple. It’s life! There are no dragons, no wizards, no psychopaths, or serial killers, there is nothing out of the ordinary. The fact that it is life and that John Green and David Levithan capture it so completely is what makes this book just astounding. They capture that feeling between wanting to jump over the edge and full head into a relationship, but at the same time wanting to pull back because you’re afraid you’ll get hurt. They capture the feeling of wondering if your friendship is real and struggling to be yourself and sometimes just to get through one day. These raw emotions that teenagers go through, they are capture so perfectly in this novel that it’s scary.

That’s what makes this book great combined with great writing, real side characters, a simply story, and two amazing leading teenage boys. It is life and it is captured perfectly in this book about finding love, finding ourselves, and finding friendship.
In all seriousness, everyone should read this book at some point. Everyone feels the way both Will Graysons do in this book, and this book lets you know it is normal.
By the way the book was hilariously funny at some parts, and so I included some quotes below. Though, they are probably funnier in context.

Amazing quotes:

“o.w.g: you know my name, and I love you, Tiny Cooper. Although not in the same way that the guy in the pink pants might love you.”

“I awake to the sound of my alarm clock, blaring rhythmically, and it seems as loud as an air siren, shouting at me with such ferocity that it sort of hurts my feelings.”

Rating: 5/5 Obviously.

Reviews from the Pros:

“Based on the premises that "love is tied to truth" and "being friends, that's just something you are," this powerful, thought-provoking, funny, moving, and unique plot is irresistible. Told in alternating chapters from each Will Grayson's point of view (one in lower case, effectively individualizing identities), complete with honest language, interesting characters, and a heartfelt, gritty edge, this quirky yet down-to-earth collaboration by two master YA storytellers will keep readers turning pages.”-School Library Journal

“makes a rousing and suitably theatrical finale for a tale populated with young people engaged in figuring out what’s important and shot through with strong feelings, smart-mouthed dialogue, and uncommon insight.”-Booklist

"An intellectually existential, electrically ebullient love story that brilliantly melds the ridiculous with the realistic." --Kirkus

"A wonderfully campy, sweet, romantic gesture in the spectacular style that readers have come to expect from these two YA masters." --VOYA