The Nightingale

The Nightingale  by Kristin Hannah

WWII is on, the Nazis have invaded, and France is occupied.  Elder sister Vianne is committed to surviving and to keeping her daughter safe.  Younger sister Isabelle is outraged, and determined to join the Résistance and beat the Germans.  The siblings rarely agree and are separated by time and politics for almost the entire duration of the conflict.

The point is made several times during the story that "war stories" are almost always about (and told by) men, and that the Nazis often overlooked the role of women in warfare, sometimes to the tremendous detriment of the Third Reich. 

Not everything goes well, of course.  Some of the wrong people are taken away, some of the characters that readers attach to come to grievous harm.  Very few of the characters would be objectively considered "good people"...and yet, the details of their lives are so compelling that the book is difficult to put down.

Written for adult audiences but with plenty of teen appeal, especially for readers of Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire.  Sexual situations are mostly off-page, but some of the violence (and torture) is not.

Highly recommended for readers ages 14 to adult, and especially for book discussion groups.

Exquisite Corpse (graphic novel)

Exquisite Corpse  by Penelope Bagieu

translation by Alexis Siegel

Twenty-something Zoe is stuck in a dead-end job, with a deadbeat boyfriend and no prospects for a better future.  She doesn't read much, either, which is the reason she doesn't recognize that the oddly reclusive writer she meets by chance.  

It's also the reason that she doesn't know that the author she meets is supposed to be dead.

Sexy, poignant, and silly in spots.  The ending made me laugh.  

Though written and marketed for adults, mature teens will enjoy it.  

The Martian

The Martian  by Andy Weir

audiobook ready by  R.C. Bray

Everybody figured that Mark Watney was dead.  The Martian astronaut's space suit was pierced by a flying piece of equipment during a sandstorm.  The suit erroneously reported that his vital signs were flat, and nobody could figure out where his body had fallen.  So the crew of Aries III left the Red Planet without him.

But Mark isn't dead.  Not yet.  He might die of starvation, or of carbon dioxide poisoning.  He might get lost on the surface with no way to find his way back to the equipment that will help him survive.  He might even die of loneliness or despair.

But he isn't dead yet.  

Apollo 13 meets MacGyver meets Robinson Crusoe in a fast-paced and believable survival story.  The audiobook read by R.C. Bray skillfully portrays the voices of a widely diverse cast of character--not just Mark Watney on Mars, but also the Aries III crew, the politicians at home in Washington, the team leaders at NASA, the orbital science geeks at JPL, and more.

Be aware that the narrative contains a sh*tload of cussing. If you were stranded alone on Mars, you'd probably cuss too.  

Highly recommended.  This book is not written for teen readers but will have lots of teen appeal, especially when the film starring Matt Damon is released in October 2015.

Station Eleven

Station Eleven  by Emily St. John Mandel

On an ordinary, snowy Toronto night, 8-year-old Kirsten Raymonde is onstage watching a famous actor playing King Lear die of a heart attack.

Three weeks later, almost everyone else present in the theatre that night is dead of a virulent mutant Swine Flu.

Four weeks later, almost everyone else in the world is dead of the virus.

Fifteen years later, the Earth is only sparsely populated by survivors of the virus and the social collapse that followed.

Kirsten is one of the survivors.  Twenty years after the flu epidemic, Kirsten is a member of the Traveling Symphony, a ragtag group of musicians and actors on a never-ending tour of the surviving settlements, performing Bach, Beethoven, and Shakespeare because, as the motto written on the first caravan says, "Survival is insufficient"  (a quote borrowed from "Star Trek: Voyager)

This is not a gentle apocalypse.  Some survivors have banded together in peaceful villages.  Others are drawn to Doomsday cults.  Some cling desperately to the glorious history of humanity, telling whispered tales of flying machines, air conditioning, and antibiotics.  Others eschew the past, wanting to spare their children the ugliness of the now-gone world.

The tale bounces back and forth along the timeline, from pre-apocalypse to various points in the collapse, which might be confusing but isn't.  Throughout the novel, the lasting power of art and literature lend small amounts of grace and strength to the characters. From Sartre's "Hell is other people" to Miranda's "Brave new world, that has such people in’t," this novel will deeply affect the way readers view their technology-enhanced world...and each other.

Although written and marketed as a book for adults, this story is highly recommended for readers ages 14 to adult.  Sexual situations are tactfully off-stage, violence is on-stage but not gory.

Far Far Away

Far Far Away   by Tom McNeal

audiobook read by W. Morgan Sheppard

What follows is the strange and fateful tale of a boy, and girl, and a ghost.  The boy possessed uncommon qualities, the girl was winsome and darling, and the ancient ghost...well, let it only be said that his intentions were good.

So begins the unusually compelling story of Jeremy Johnson Johnson (not a typo, his parents both were named "Johnson"), who can hear the ghostly voice of Jacob Grimm, one of the famous collectors of fairy tales.  Jeremy and his father live in a small mid-western town where nothing of interest ever happens...except that an unusual number of young people have gone missing over the years.  

Jacob Grimm narrates the story from beyond the grave, noting the folkloric elements that seem, coincidentally, to exist in Jeremy's town:  the disappearing children, a hooded woman, an enormous oven, a forbidden door, and a mysterious dwarf-like man who may (or may not) have dark intentions.  And yet, the darkness implied by the fairy tale motifs is not a coincidence.  Something dark and horrible is at work in the town, and Jeremy is the innocent who is slated as the next sacrifice.

I had hoped for a lighter, happier book, but the dark and awful qualities of this story were more fascinating than I had imagined.  Those readers (like me) who want a "happy ever after" ending will not be dissatisfied, but be warned: the path to that ending is long and harrowing and might not  be exactly what the reader imagines.

No cussing, no sex.  A few kisses (kisses are important in fairy tales) and some violence including bullying and some scary forcible abductions.  

Recommended for readers ages 14 to adult.

Lexicon

Lexicon  by Max Barry

audiobook narrated by Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman

Are you a cat person, or a dog person?

Choose a number between 1 and 100.

What is your favorite color?

Do you love your family?

Why did you do it?

For reasons he (and the reader) do not understand, Wil Parke has been attacked in an airport restroom, asked several nonsensical questions, and then kidnapped at gunpoint by an enigmatic man who calls himself Tom Eliot.

In a time shift, street hustler Emily Ruff is asked the same nonsensical questions and eventually recruited to a mysterious organization that promises to teach her to be more persuasive.

How do these things come together?  

Explosively.

Using a volatile combination of action sequences interspersed with scientific (but never boring!) explanations about brain research and neuro-linguistic programming, the author drags the reader deeply into this deeply violent, disturbing story of modern life and the power of words as weapons.  

This book was included on the 2013 School Library Journal "Best Adult Books 4 Teens" list. It will definitely thrill some teens, but readers are warned that violence and cussing completely saturate the story.

Recommended for readers who can survive the cussing and who enjoy action, suspense, and contemporary dystopic fiction.

To Be Perfectly Honest : a novel based on an untrue story  by Sonya Sones

How can you tell

if Colette is lying?

Her mouth

is open.

Colette is a truly unreliable narrator.  She continually lies (she likes to call it "reimagining reality") to make her life seem more interesting...and to annoy her movie-star mother, who rarely pays attention to Colette and her little brother Will.

When Colette's summer plans change from "Paris with friends" to "San Luis Obispo with mom and Will and Mom's new co-star," she gets mad...and the lies start to stack up.  

In the middle of this comes Connor, Colette's first real boyfriend.  If only she could stop lying to him!  

HERE AT LAST is a book with a believable main character who actually says "NO, I don't want to have sex with you (yet) and sticks to her decision throughout the book.  Not because she isn't attracted to Connor--she is.  But because she really doesn't feel ready for sex.  

Connor is not prepared to accept "no" as a final answer from Colette...and he's prepared to lie through his teeth to get what he wants.

This book is a quick, fun book-in-verse filled with enjoyable--but unreliable--characters.  

No sex, but a few steamy close calls, some minor cussing, and some underage drinking and drug use.  The adults are easy to dislike at first, but they (especially Colette's mom) really redeem themselves at the end.

Recommended for readers ages 14 and up.

Ready Player One

Ready Player One  by Ernest Cline


The year is 2044 and 18-year-old Wade Watts, like almost everyone else in the world, regularly escapes from grim reality to spend most of his waking time in OASIS, the online community that has grown up from early beginnings as a network of online video simulation games.  Wade is a "gunter", a game player dedicated to locating the elusive "Easter Egg" hidden somewhere in the nearly-infinite OASIS.  The creator of OASIS was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980's, and left hundreds of clues for gunters hidden within 1980's movies, books, music, television shows and even commercials  The first to find the Egg will inherit a fortune in cash and controlling interest in the OASIS.  Unfortunately, there are some unscrupulous bad guys who don't mind cheating--or even killing--to win the Egg.

Anyone who has ever gotten immersed in a book, a movie, a video game, or a face-to-face session of Dungeons and Dragons will relate to Wade's experience in OASIS.  Anyone who can recite the entire script of Monty Python and the Holy Grail,  knows every line ever spoken on Star Trek (original series and/or any of the prequel/sequel/spin-off series), played PacMan or Joust for uncounted hours, or who ever rolled for damage to an imaginary monster will revel in the retro-geekiness of the narrative.  Anyone who wants a fun, action-filled dystopian adventure is advised to hide this book from family members who might grab it for themselves and demand a roll of the dice to determine ownership (as happened to this reviewer).

Comic book violence and some off-stage "real world" violence, cussing, and two paragraphs of non-graphic virtual sex with an ultimately unsatisfactory anatomically-correct haptic doll, plus some awesome friendships and a sweet romance.

Highly recommended for readers ages 14 to adult, maybe especially for adults who were teens in the 1980's...but since this book was given to me by a 16-year-old boy, I must recommend it also for those who weren't even a naughty notion in the 1980's.

Living Dead Girl

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

How would you react if an authority figure in a uniform stepped up to you on a field trip and told you to follow him? You were loitering, after all, and your group moved on. How about if you were ten?

Of course Alice believed him, just as, at ten, she also believed that if she didn’t do what he asked, he would kill her family and burn down the house.

But her name isn’t Alice.

He changed that. Just as he changes her into his sex slave.

This horror story of a sexual perversion reaches the “euuuww” factor in a hurry. Never graphic, the obvious sex is both beyond horrible and very believable.

Recommended for readers in high school and up; this book is not for all readers, and not for the faint of heart. It is a short story that will haunt you for a long time.

Confessions of a Serial Kisser

Confessions of a Serial Kisser by Wendelin Van Draanen

Evangeline has just been keeping her head down since her parents separated. She didn't try out for the vollyball team, she refuses to talk to her dad at all (since the separation was his fault and she will never forgive him!); instead, she concentrates on doing her homework and trying to keep the condo tidy so her mom can relax a little. While sorting through the laundry, Evangeline discovers her mom's secret stash of bodice-ripper romance novels. Intrigued, Evangeline reads one of the books and decides that what she needs most is a fabulous, passionate kiss like the kisses between Delilah and Grayson in The Crimson Kiss.

Evangeline's search for the perfect kiss quickly gets out of hand, and soon she has a reputation as a "serial kisser." Will she ever find passion and happiness?

The pink cover art and chick-lit plot are misleading. This is actually a carefully-crafted, well-told story about a teen's search for identity and love. The unexpected ending was a delight.

Recommended for readers 12 to adult. No cussing or violence, and no sex...but plenty of kisses!

After the Moment

After the moment
by Garrett Freymann-Weyr

The story of two 15 year olds in love really begins when they are 21 and have a chance meeting at a dinner party. It is then told in flashbacks, although it will suddenly move into the present while it takes the reader some time to catch up.

Leigh has lived with his mother in a tiny apartment. He has always been a good student, a good son, a great girlfriend, and loves his step-sister, a child from his father’s second marriage. When her father dies, Leigh goes to help her because the family is aware that their father is emotionally withdrawn. There he meets Maia, an anorexic who also is a self-mutilator. And falls in love. As his mother’s boyfriend says, “That’s a beautiful girl screaming trouble. I doubt that there’s a man alive who can resist that at seventeen?”

Leigh, more than anyone we have met, wants to help. For a time, it works well and Maia recovers, but ultimately it does not turn out well. Leigh needs to break up with his girlfriend, and while he is away, Maia goes out with a former boyfriend, gets drunk, is raped, and videotaped. When Leigh eventually finds out who taped the rape, beats the guy senseless and beyond. This complicated plot is hampered by the fact that Maia’s reaction to Leigh’s being gone one weekend is totally out of character. We ultimately do not feel much for Maia. Sure, we feel bad about her problems, but ultimately she is not a strong character. Leigh is the character we care about, who can’t seem to see beyond himself, not matter how he tries to help the people around him, but as the story slogs along at times, I question just who the audience is. This seems to be a more adult-oriented story.

Throughout the story too, runs a theme about Iraq where Leigh questions the concept of violence. This sets the story, but does not add to the story.

Recommended for high school to adult readers

Flash Burnout

Flash Burnout
by L.K. Maidigan

15 year old Blake wants to be a photographer, his specialty being gritty photos. In fact, he takes a picture of a homeless woman passed out in an alley. While showing it in class, his classmate and friend Marissa reacts with recognition: this is her addict mother, and the photo spurs the friendship to a new level, which creates an obvious conflict with his girlfriend. When Marissa’s mother is later believed to be dead, the two find the common connection of sex as a result of dealing with death.

Unfortunately there are other circumstances and events that lead Blake to understand the unintended consequences of his actions.

Blake’s parents are wonderful and real and funny- his dad works as a coroner- rife for jokes. Blake also wants to be a comedian and is constantly trying his one-liners on everyone, often getting a laugh from readers as well.

A best read for this year!

Recommended for readers in high school to adult due to mature themes and sexual content.

Ice

Ice by Sarah Beth Durst

Cassie grew up on an arctic research station raised by her grandmother, her father and the other scientists. She loved to hear Gram tell the fairy tale of the Polar Bear King and the North Wind's Daughter...until, on her 18th birthday, she discovers that the story is true: her mother, the daughter of the North Wind, has been captured by trolls and can be rescued by the Polar Bear King.

The price of the rescue is simple: Cassie must agree to marry the bear.

This retelling of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a less-complicated version than East (Pattou) and Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow (George), but readers of the genre will welcome this contemporary, quick-paced interpretation of the old story.

No cussing or blood; tactful sexual situations are mostly off-page (Cassie is pregnant when she embarks upon her own quest to save her husband in the second half of the book).

Recommended for readers ages 12 to adult.

Marcelo in the Real World

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

17-year-old Marcelo is on the very high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, and his classes at Paterson have taught him many skills for living in the "real world." However, his high-powered lawyer father isn't satisfied with Marcelo's progress, and insists that the boy take a summer job at the law firm, rather than working with the ponies in the therapeutic riding center at Paterson.

At the law firm, Marcelo meets people from all ends of the "real world" spectrum, including musically-talented Jasmine in the mail room, snobbish personal secretaries, and the lecherous son of one of the lawyers. Marcelo also becomes personally involved in the law firm's biggest cases when he discovers the photograph of a victim in the trash, and decides that he must take action.

Marcelo's strong, distinctive voice tells the unusual story of a self-possessed teen who is eager to fit in without sacrificing his own values and interests. No cussing or kissing; however, there is much thought and discussion about sex and sexual attraction (the whole concept baffles Marcelo), but no action on-page.

Highly recommended for readers ages 14 to adult. Those who enjoyed the voice of Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Haddon) will love reading about Marcelo's adventures in the real world.

Along for the Ride

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
In the summer between graduating high school and beginning college, Auden leaves her mom's house to spend some quality time with her dad, his new wife, and their new daughter Thisbe in the little beach town of Colby. Auden's hopes of spending the summer studying college textbooks and having meaningful discussions about life with her father are quickly dispelled: the baby cries continually and her father insists on keeping distance between himself and the other family members so that he can finish writing his book.

Left to herself for much of the summer, Auden wanders the streets of town at night and meets up with Eli, another teen with time on his hands. Together, Auden and Eli do the things that she never did as a kid: bowling, food fights, and delivering newspapers. But just because she learns to ride a bike doesn't mean Auden has really changed, does it? And will her family ever change?

A sweet story of friendship, families, and growing up. The book contains some kissing and a tactfully-vague "hooking-up" scene on the beach, but no cussing or violence. Fans of the author will enjoy the cameo appearances of characters from earlier books.

Recommended for readers ages 12 to adult.

The Color of Earth

The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa

Ehwa is seven years old on the first page of this beautifully illustrated manhwa, interested in bugs, flowers, and her own body. As she grows and matures, she discovers the physical differences between boys and girls, grows into young womanhood and undergoes her first confusing experience with romance and sexuality. Her mother, the keeper of a small tavern in rural Korea, also experiences changes as a traveling artist reawakens her affection, and mother and daughter are able to share their experiences in a lovely, open, and age-appropriate manner. Themes of love, sexuality, and natural beauty abound in this attractive volume, which is first in a trilogy translated from the Korean by Lauren Na.

No cussing or killing; nudity and sexual situations are portrayed. According to the notes at the end of the story, the popularity of this series in Korea is surprising because it is written by a man and read by both men and women there.

Recommended for readers ages 12 and up, even those who do not normally read graphic novels. The next books in the series continue telling the story of Ehwa's maturation into adulthood.

Twilight

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

For reasons of her own, 17-year-old Bella chooses to move to her dad's house in the rainy town Forks, Washington, rather than go with her mom to Florida. Bella describes herself as pale, average, and awkward, but that is clearly not how she is viewed by her new classmates--especially Edward Cullen, a gorgeously graceful and handsome senior who seems oddly fascinated by Bella and her tendency towards clumsiness. Then Bella discovers that Edward and his family are vampires--members of a clan which has chosen to hunt only wildlife instead of humans. But just because Edward doesn't want to feed upon humans doesn't mean that Bella is completely safe with him....

This quick-paced, locally-based vamp novel is cool, tense, and scary. We know from the first page that Bella will be confronted with a hunter intending to kill her--but which hunter? And why?

Descriptions of the dreary weather in Forks may be considered exaggeration by non-locals, but native northwesterners will recognize the truth of life on our wet peninsula, and the joy inherent in sunbreaks. And a climate lacking sunshine really would be attractive to vampires, wouldn't it?

Recommended for readers ages 14 and up. No cussing; violence is mostly implied and threatened rather than carried out "onstage", and though sexual tension runs high between the girl and her vampiric boyfriend, their relationship is necessarily cautious!