Topic: Death

Joseph Stalin

In 1917, Russian workers shocked the world by overthrowing their emperor and ending centuries of tyranny. The leaders of the Russian Revolution proclaimed a new nation—the Soviet Union—and promised to build a just society run by and for the common people.  

Instead, they gave the world Joseph Stalin. 

Stalin turned the Soviet Union into a world power—at an almost unimaginable cost. He uprooted millions of peasants and starved millions more to death. He executed his enemies, real or imagined, and filled a notorious system of prison camps with Soviet citizens. He was more ruthless than any of the previous Russian emperors.  

Joseph Stalin takes readers through Stalin’s life, from his troubled childhood until his death. The book adeptly includes enough detail to provide context and color to each chapter without overwhelming the reader with facts. From Stalin’s childhood to his time as a revolutionary and finally to his span as leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin’s life is fraught with violence. 

Reading about Stalin is not for the faint of heart. From bombs to gulags, mass executions to deliberate starvation, the information in this book—while not described in graphic detail—is disturbing in the extreme. Each chapter contains one to two black-and-white historical photographs. In addition, there is a seven-page photo collection in the middle of the book. While the illustrations are often grainy enough to obscure any gory details, the images of corpses, skeletons, and violence may be disturbing.  

Joseph Stalin is written at a high reading level, with some challenging vocabulary. Each chapter is only four to six pages long, making this a short read for those interested in learning about this dark chapter in history. The story is engaging and quick-paced, perfect for readers who do not want to get bogged down in endless details. Readers don’t need to know much about Stalin in order to understand this non-fiction book, but enough facts are included that those familiar with Stalin’s life will still learn something new. The book ends with a timeline of Stalin’s life and a glossary that includes definitions of both Russian terminology and some of the more difficult vocabulary.  

While the short chapters and illustrations will help readers engage with this disturbing tale, the difficult vocabulary and extremely violent content make this book a good fit for more mature readers. Teaching our youth about dark chapters in history is essential in educating and empowering the next generation; however, this book may give sensitive readers nightmares. Readers who would like to learn more about Stalin’s time period without disturbing details should instead read Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin. 

Sexual Content  

  • None

Violence  

  • A flood near Kolpashevo unearths a mass grave. “As the current eroded the riverbanks . . . human skeletons began to tumble from the ground. Half-frozen, mummified bodies surfaced in the layer below the skeletons. Many of the remains slid into the river.” 
  • The secret police “forced local residents to tie weights to the bodies and sink them in the river.” The KGB said the bodies were “military deserters executed after World War II . . . but the people of Kolpashevo knew the truth . . . In the late 1930s, friends, relatives, and neighbors . . . were shot in the back of the head and shoveled into a mass grave” by the local secret police. A black-and-white photograph of a mass grave accompanies this chapter.  
  • When Stalin was a young boy, he “once threw a knife at his father in order to protect his mother from a beating.”  
  • When Stalin was twenty years old, he joined the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party, where “he organized protests, strikes, and riots. At one point, he was suspected of setting a fire in an oil refinery.”  
  • In 1905, during protests across Russia, “peasants lashed out at their landlords, burning their estates to the ground and torching police stations . . . [Stalin] and other revolutionaries created battle squads to harass and kill tsarist troops.” Afterwards, the “tsar allowed vigilante death squads called the Black Hundreds to roam the countryside and crush all signs of public protest.”  
  • When Stalin started working for Lenin and the Bolsheviks, he “took up life as a gangster . . . [he] robbed banks, trains, and mail ships. In one murderous assault, [his] gang blew up two horse-drawn carriages.” Forty people were killed. 
  • The Bolsheviks “sent squads of assassins armed with rifles, pistols, and homemade bombs into Russian cities. Between 1906 and 1909, the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary groups killed more than 2,600 police and government officials.”  
  • There are many references to people being “shot” and “executed,” often “with a bullet to the back of the head.” For example, the NKVD in Stalinabad “ended up shooting more than 13,000 [people].” Not all instances of executions are listed here.  
  • A Red Army newspaper said, “Without mercy, without sparing, [The Red Army] will kill our enemies in scores of hundreds. Let them drown themselves in their own blood.”  
  • Lenin (the leader of the Communist Revolution in Russia) said, “How can you make a revolution without firing squads? If we can’t shoot [enemy] saboteurs, what kind of revolution is this?” 
  • Stalin had many slave-labor camps called gulags. “Prisoners . . . lived on starvation rations and received little medical care. They were purposely worked to exhaustion. They died by the thousands. . . At least one million would die in the gulags,” the book says, though many think the number is much higher.  
  • Gulag survivor Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote about how prisoners were “singled out for bad behavior” and thrown into a “bedbug infested box.” When the bedbugs swarmed the victim, “he waged war with them strenuously, crushing them on his body and on the walls, suffocated by their stink. But after several hours, he weakened and let them drink his blood without a murmur.”  
  • Stalin created a massive famine where “peasants were dropping dead of starvation.” Millions starve, and “once-lively villages [became] ghost towns with skeleton-thin corpses lining the street.” 
  • The famine gets so bad that “reports of cannibalism leaked out from the worst affected regions. In the city of Poltava, children started mysteriously disappearing from the streets. Before long, fresh supplies of meat appeared in the normally barren city markets. Upon inspection, the meat was found to be human flesh.”  
  • Sergei Kirov, a rival of Stalin, is “shot dead in Leningrad by an assassin.” Many suspect “that Stalin had ordered Kirov’s murder to get rid of a dangerous rival.” Trotsky, another rival, was later assassinated by “a blow to the head with an ice pick.”  
  • Two rivals of Stalin are “dragged from their cells and shot. Afterward, the bullets were removed from their brains and kept by NKVD chief Genrich Yagoda as souvenirs.”  
  • Many times during Stalin’s reign, “mass graves were dug.” Several photos of dead bodies and skeletons are included in the book.  
  • During World War II, Red Army officers received orders to “execute deserters and troops who fled from battle. More than 150,000 soldiers were shot in 1941 and 1942 alone.”  
  • The chapter on World War II includes a photograph of two Soviets being hung by Nazis. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Stalin’s father “was an angry man who drank heavily and beat his wife and son.”  
  • It is said that “Georgians had a reputation for drinking hard, singing loud, and settling feuds with punches if not daggers,” and Stalin “fit right in.”  

Language   

  • A politician praises Stalin’s Five-Year Plan, saying, “Damn it all . . . you just want to live and live—really, just look what’s going on.”

Supernatural  

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • Stalin’s mother was “determined to see [Stalin] wear the long black robes of a Russian Orthodox priest.” Stalin enrolls in Tiflis Spiritual Seminary but is kicked out.  

Ground Zero

September 11, 2001, New York City: Brandon is visiting his dad at work, on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. Out of nowhere, an airplane slams into the tower, creating a fiery nightmare of terror and confusion. And Brandon is in the middle of it all. Can he survive — and escape? 

September 11, 2019, Afghanistan: Reshmina has grown up in the shadow of war, but she dreams of peace and progress. When a battle erupts in her village, Reshmina stumbles upon a wounded American soldier named Taz. Should she help Taz — and put herself and her family in mortal danger? 

Two kids. One devastating day. Nothing will ever be the same. 

Ground Zero focuses on Brandon and Reshmina’s perspectives. Although the time period is different for the protagonists, the chapters switch perspectives every other chapter. This makes both characters’ conflicts feel immediate and allows readers to see the parallels between Brandon and Reshmina’s stories. Even though both of the protagonists are young, they are forced into life-and-death situations that show the evils of terrorism. In addition, both Brandon and Reshmina lose an innocent family member who is killed due to no fault of their own.  

Brandon’s and Reshmina’s stories explore the complicated relations between Afghanistan and America. Neither of the protagonists understands why the violence is happening to them. All they know is that violence has caused death and destruction for those around them. One issue that is briefly discussed is how “big countries made money selling weapons to little countries [Afghanistan]. Who they killed with those weapons wasn’t any of the big countries’ concerns.” In the end, Ground Zero leaves the reader wondering if the United States has become a “bully” to Afghanistan. 

Readers will feel compassion for Reshmina and come away with a new understanding of how girls are treated by the Taliban. Even though Reshmina lives in a village where girls have few rights, she still dreams of becoming an interpreter. This dream propels her to study hard and gives her hope for the future. When Reshmina sees a wounded American soldier, she is reluctant to help. But when the soldier asks for assistance, Reshmina takes him home and her family agrees to give him refuge. This causes a myriad of problems for Reshmina’s family and village. Afterward, Reshmina wonders if helping the soldier is the right thing to do. This experience helps her realize that, “Moving forward was scary. Sometimes you make mistakes. Sometimes you take the wrong path. And sometimes, even when you take the right path, things could go wrong. But Reshmina realized that she wanted—needed—to keep moving forward, no matter what.”  

Ground Zero helps readers understand the events of 9/11 and the lasting impact 9/11 had on Afghanistan. While both Brandon’s and Reshmina’s stories are compelling, Reshmina’s side of the story makes readers question the nature of war. Both protagonists describe violence, and some of the descriptions are graphic and disturbing. After reading Ground Zero, readers will be able to visualize what happened in the Twin Towers after the planes crashed into them as well as the destruction of Reshmina’s village. Since Ground Zero explores how 9/11 changed America and Afghanistan, younger readers may have difficulty processing the difficult topic.  

Mature readers will find Ground Zero compelling and thought-provoking. However, readers who are interested in learning more about 9/11 without the graphic images may want to read Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes, Molly and the Twin Towers: A 9/11 Survival Story by Jessika Fleck or I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 by Lauren Tarshis. 

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • Because the story focuses on the terror attacks and a war, not all of the book’s violence is described below. 
  • A boy at school brought “these Wolverine gloves to school, like from the X-Men movie. And Stuart Pendleton stole them and wouldn’t give them back!” Brandon hits Stuart Pendleton in the nose. Brandon said, “Once I saw his nose was bleeding, I helped him up and took him to the nurse’s office.” 

World Trade Center, 2001 

  • A group of people are stuck on an elevator that keeps sliding down the shaft. A woman decides to run through a fire to get out of the elevator. “The woman burst into flames. She screamed and beat at her burning hair as she collapsed to the floor. . .” The woman rolled and a man “beat the last of the flames with the wet shirt he carried.” The woman’s “hair was gone, and her hands and arms were burned. Badly. . . The burned woman wept. Blisters were forming all over her body.” The scene is described over two pages.  
  • After the woman gets out of the elevator, it falls. “The four people in it were surely dead.” 
  • Brandon watches as an airplane flies into the South Tower. “Suddenly a bright orange fireball erupted from the side of the South Tower facing them.” This is when people began to realize that it wasn’t an accident, that instead the planes had purposely flown into the towers. 
  • Several times, Brandon mentions people falling to their death. As Brandon is leaving the tower, “Out on the plaza between the North Tower and the South Tower were bodies. And parts of bodies. Broken, bloody things too awful to think about. . . A piece of metal crashed into the plaza—SHANG!—and Brandon flinched. The big beam was immediately followed by something white and blue and brown plummeting down from above, and it hit the ground with a sickening THUMP!” 
  • In the lobby of the tower, Brandon saw “dozens, hundreds of bodies were lined up in rows across the floor. Some of them were missing limbs. Others had open wounds. Paramedics moved the burned, broken, and dying people, doing what they could.”  
  • When the tower falls, “with a roar like a garbage truck, a blast of smoke and dust lifted Brandon off his feet and hurled him into darkness.” 
  • When Brandon gets out of the tower, he sees people falling from the North Tower. “People were still jumping from the tower, falling ninety floors to their deaths. They dropped out of the thick black smoke that engulfed the top of the building with alarming speed, arms and legs flailing. Brandon saw one man reaching, grabbing as he fell, too far from anything to stop himself, his tie sticking straight up in the air above him.”  

Afghanistan, 2019  

  • When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, “the Taliban beat men for not growing beards, massacred families, burned down schools, and put on public executions in the soccer stadium in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. . . [they] beat women who left their houses without a male family member, and sold girls into slavery.”  
  • Reshmina’s sister, who was only 16, is killed on her wedding day by an American drone. Reshmina watched as “something small and black detached from the drone and streaked out toward the front of the parade. Toward her sister in her beautiful wedding dress, surrounded by all her friends. Reshmina remembered the whoosh of the missile, the gray trail of smoke behind it and then—” 
  • The Taliban lures the American army into Reshmina’s village. When the army attacks, Reshmina runs home. “THOOM. The ground rocked from a nearby explosion, and dirt rained down from the ceiling. . . Gunfire erupted close enough nearby to rattle the dishes, and Reshmina and Marizia huddled together against the wall. . . The shooting and explosions didn’t seem to bother the baby. He was already used to it.”  
  • Reshmina gets into an argument with her mother. Afterward, Reshmina’s grandmother explains: “When your mother was six, her father was killed by a missile while he was praying in his backyard. When she was your age, her older brother was killed by the Taliban for no reason that has ever been explained to her. Her husband—your father and my son—had his leg mangled by an old Soviet mine right after they were married. . . . Hila was killed by an American bomb.”  
  • After a battle between the Taliban and the Americans, Reshmina finds an injured American soldier. “His face was charred like a scorched pot, and there were dark, wet spots on his uniform. Blood, Reshmina realized. . .”  
  • When Reshmina’s brother decides to join the Taliban, she follows him in order to stop him. While they are arguing, a helicopter appears. “A rocket streaked from one of the Apache’s wings straight toward the ridge where the Taliban had been standing moments before, and F-THOOM!—the hillside exploded. Boulders broke loose from the mountain and tumbled down toward Reshmina.”  
  • The Taliban shoots at the helicopter. “The helicopter descended, getting closer and closer, and the sound of bullets hitting the hillside got louder and louder. . .” The attack is described over seven pages. It is unclear if anyone died.   
  • Reshmina tries to physically stop her brother, Pasoon, from leaving to join the Taliban. “Pasoon hit her hard on the side of her face with his open palm. The blow was so sudden, so brutal, it sent Reshmina to her hands and knees. Rocks cut into her palm. . . Reshmina tasted blood where she’d bitten her own tongue, and her face burned. . .” Pasoon leaves. 
  • The Taliban and Americans battle in Reshmina’s village. “An assault rifle barked, and another fired back. The villagers screamed. . . Taliban bullets struck the guard, and he fell to the ground, dead. . . Huge blasts rocked the village above them, and three more houses exploded in clouds of rock and splinter.” The villagers hide in a cave while their homes are completely destroyed. The battle is described over six pages.  
  • The Taliban dropped a bomb on the cave and “the whole ceiling fell in . . . Reshmina explored the rockfall, looking for a way through. She stopped when she saw the legs of some poor soul sticking out from under a boulder, the rest of the woman’s body crushed in the cave-in.” Later, Reshmina learns that “a few died,” but most of the village survived the cave-in.   

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Reshmina discovers a field of Poppies. “People didn’t grow poppies for their pretty pink colors. Poopy seeds had a gummy substance that was the raw material for heroin. . . For many Afghans hurt by decades of war, it was the only kind of medicine they could find to erase the suffering—and their awful memories.” 

Language  

  • When the elevator swings back and forth, a man says, “What the hell—.” 
  • When Brandon was trying to find his father, his path is blocked by debris. Brandon repeats “crap” six times. Later, a man says, “Holy crap.” 
  • Oh my God and Good God are used as exclamations several times. 
  • Jesus, damn, and dang are all used once. 
  • Reshmina calls her brother a snake, an idiot, a cowardly worm, stupid, and son of a donkey. 
  • An American soldier has a tattoo that says, “Damn the Valley.” He explains, “This valley [where Reshmina lives]—it kills our friends and ruins our lives.” 
  • An American soldier says, “Dadgum.”  

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • While leaving the Twin Towers, a woman says, “God bless you,” to a firefighter. 
  • When the Taliban and Americans fight near Reshmina’s village, Reshmina prays, “Dear God, please keep Baba and Pasoon safe out there.”   
  • When Reshmina finds an injured American soldier, she thinks about leaving him to die. But when the soldier “specifically asked her for help,” Reshmina is conflicted. “Just as Pashtunwali gave her the right for revenge, it also said that when a person asked for help or protection, no Pashtun could refuse—no matter who was asking, friend or foe.” Pashtunwali is the tribal code of the Pushtan people from Afghanistan, which Reshmina follows. Reshmina allows the soldier to follow her home.  
  • A textbook from Reshmina’s school said: “J is for Jihad. Jihad is the kind of war that Muslims fight in the name of God to free Muslims and Muslim lands from the enemies of Islam.” 
  • While hiding from a battle, Reshmina and her brother hide with a group of Nomads called the Kochi. When the Kochi pray, “Reshmina and her brother felt obligated to join them. . . God was forgiving and merciful and would still accept their prayers if He willed it. Better to pray than to not pray, their father always told them.” 
  • As Reshmina prays, she asks, “Please help turn my brother’s heart from revenge. Please show him another path.” 
  • Reshmina asks God for a du’a. “A special request in a time of need. . . God promised to answer a du’a in one of three ways. The first. . . was when God gave you what you asked for. . .The second was to give you what you prayed for, but at some later date. The third was to not give you what you asked for at all, but instead to prevent some other hardship or injury from happening to you.”  
  • After several villagers die, Reshmina’s father says, “To God we belong, and to God we return.”  

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe

When Sal Vidón meets Gabi Reál for the first time, it isn’t under the best of circumstances. Sal is in the principal’s office for the third time in three days, and it’s still the first week of school. Gabi, student council president and editor of the school paper, is there to support her friend Yasmany, who just picked a fight with Sal. She is determined to prove that somehow Sal planted a raw chicken in Yasmany’s locker, even though nobody saw him do it and the bloody poultry has since mysteriously disappeared. 

On his very first day at his new school, Sal meets Gabi Reál, “student council president and obviously one of the smartest kids in school,” and Gabi is absolutely set on understanding how Sal performs some of his most difficult magic tricks.  

Sal feels a bit singled out because of his diabetes, and there are a few instances when Sal struggles to manage his blood sugar. But Sal also has a secret, he can reach into other universes. Sal explains, “We are not alone in the universe my friends . . .There are countless other universes above and beneath our own like pages in a book.” Sal has the unique ability “to see these other worlds” and access them.  

After reaching into another universe, Sal realizes, “All the holes I’d made so far usually didn’t last long . . . [This] hole wasn’t gone yet. That was bad. Until a hole was closed, there was a risk that stuff I didn’t intend to bring over from the other universe would come through on its own.” Sal and his new friend, Gabi, discover that she can also see the holes in the universe, and Sal explains, “I’d never met anyone else who could see [the holes].” Sal and Gabi team up, on a mission to learn more about how to close the holes into other universes.  

Though Hernandez’s novel centers around Sal and Gabi learning more about other universes, as well as how it impacts their universe, Sal’s diabetes is an important theme as well. Sal had to go explain his condition to the principal on the first day of school. Sal’s principal admits, “We’ve never had a student with diabetes before,” but that she will instruct her teachers to learn “how to meet [Sal’s] needs.” Readers will likely learn a great deal about diabetes and readers with diabetes will appreciate being represented by Sal.  

Readers will relate to Sal as he starts at a new school and tries to make new friends. Sal is an empathetic character who puts time and effort into his passions, one of which is magic tricks. Sal consistently makes Gabi and other characters in the book laugh when they are feeling down. Sal explains, “I started studying magic when my mami died. It was a way for me to cope with the pain and to try to take back control of my life . . . That’s why I love performing tricks now. I love to see people’s eyes fill with wonder.” Sal always does his best to make other characters feel happy, saying, “Sometimes, when [life’s] too hard, when it hurts too much, only silliness can save us. And I’m all about doing whatever it takes to help people make it to tomorrow.” 

A major theme of the story is coping with the pain of losing a loved one. Sal often reflects on how much he misses his mom. When Sal is struggling with grief, Sal’s dad reveals, “[Mami’s] death was the worst thing that’s ever happened to either of us . . . I thought my life was over when she died . . . I thought it would kill me, you know. Literally stop my heart.” And when Sal asks his dad what helped him keep going while he was grieving, Sal’s dad says, “You, mijo.” Sal and his father’s bond is a positive force throughout the novel, and they are able to support each other after the loss of Sal’s mother. Readers will learn from this novel to “trust in the people that love you,” and this will help you during the hardest times in life.  

Readers who enjoy fantasy, reading about alternate realities, or magic tricks will adore this book. Hernandez showcases a heartwarming and strong friendship between Sal and Gabi. Sal explains that he and Gabi bonded over embracing the nuances of each other’s families: “Months later, [Gabi] told me the way I had met her interesting, complicated family, pleasantly and without judgment. . . made her think I was the most mature seventh grader she had ever met.” This book discusses more sensitive topics such as grief and struggling to manage type one diabetes, but throughout the novel Sal and Gabi showcase strong friendship, humor, and kindness toward others, and in this way the book maintains an uplifting tone.  

The ending perfectly sets up the second book in the series, Sal and Gabi Save the Universe, as Gabi and Sal have used Sal’s ability to reach between universes to save Gabi’s sick, newborn brother—but they do not know what the consequences of this interference will be. Readers will be on the edge of their seats to see what happens in Sal and Gabi’s next adventure. 

Sexual Content  

  • None 

 Violence  

  • Sal encounters a bully on his first day at school. The bully, Yasmany, “slapped [Sal’s] diabetes bag out of my hands. It hit the ground with a glassy crunch. My stomach crunched right along with it.” Yasmany does eventually apologize to Sal.  
  • Sal and Gabi discover that Yasmany has run away from home because he feels unsafe. After Sal and Gabi help him and take him to eat and stay with Gabi’s family, Sal asks Gabi, “Is Yasmany’s papi a bad guy?” Gabi reveals, “The bad guy is his mom.”  

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • Sal explains a Cuban insult to Gabi, saying, “‘Sapingo’ is a classic Cuban insult. It’s basically how you tell the person whom you are insulting that they’re about as smart as a day-old skid mark.” 
  • At his previous school, the majority of students are white while Sal is Cuban. Sal says, “kids were telling me to ‘go back to brown town’ all the time.”  
  • Sal explains, “‘Cacaseca’ is the word Miami talk-show hosts use instead of BS. It literally means ‘dry poop,’ but it really means ‘Dude, your poop is so played out. Don’t try to play me with your played-out poop.’” 
  • While walking home from school, Sal is nearly hit by a car. Sal explains, “I never even flinched. Not because I am very badass or anything. I was paralyzed. Classic deer-in-headlights syndrome.”  

Supernatural 

  • When doing a magic trick, Sal reaches into another universe and creates a hole. He “made a pretty big rip in the universe inside that locker.” Because of this rip, Sal and Gabi are briefly able to see into another universe, where there is a chicken factory. But the hole does eventually close, and they go back to their own universe.  
  • Because of his ability to reach into other universes, Sal has been able to bring other versions of his Mami into his world. For instance, Sal says, “I had [brought] Mami Muerta back from the dead five times since [her death]. Six including this one.” However, Sal recognizes how each of these versions of Mami is very different from the Mami he knew as a child.  
  • After Sal uses his abilities to reach between universes to save Gabi’s sick, newborn baby brother, Gabi reveals that she thinks her brother has become “a wormhole to another universe.” This sets up the plot for the second book in the series, Sal and Gabi Save the Universe.  

Spiritual Content  

  • Sal’s classmate, Gladis, wears a necklace with an “ojo turco.” Sal explains, “An ojo turco is a piece of blue glass with a blue eyeball painted on it. People wear them on necklaces and bracelets to protect them against the evil eye.”  
  • Sal explains that Mami would “tell me stories about how a brujo [witch] could make you sick, make your cows give blood instead of milk, turn your hair white, age you in five seconds, all sorts of stuff.” 
  • When Sal takes Gabi into another universe for the first time, the people living in the other universe think Sal and Gabi are “evil spirits, or devils, or something. She says she is going to kick us in the butt three times and send us back to hell.” Sal and Gabi convince the lady from the other universe that they are “good spirits.” 
  • Even though Gabi’s newborn brother is in the NICU and does not have a positive prognosis, Gabi’s mom says, “I lost my faith for a while, too. Do you know how I got it back. . . God is just another word for ‘goodness.’ Every time we do a good thing, God grows. Inside us.” 

Breaking Stalin’s Nose

Ten-year-old Sasha Zaichik wants nothing more than to join the Soviet Young Pioneers. After all, he has had their laws memorized since he was six years old: 

  • A Young Pioneer is devoted to Comrade Stalin, the Communist Party, and Communism.  
  • A Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade and always acts according to conscience.  
  • A Young Pioneer has a right to criticize shortcomings.  

But the night before Sasha is to join the Young Pioneers, his father is arrested. Sasha knows this is a mistake. His father, after all, is a devoted communist. But as bad turns to worse and events spin out of control, Sasha begins to realize that not everyone’s life is full of faith in Comrade Stalin.  

As Sasha begins to see how the Soviet Union treats those who are not in favor—those with family who have been arrested, those who refuse to be a snitch and give the Secret Police names or those who simply do not obey fast enough or fervently enough—Sasha begins to doubt that he wants to join the Young Pioneers after all.  

Eugene Yelchin’s first-hand experience living in the Soviet Union shines through in this intimate and heart-breaking story about Sasha. The details of daily life in the Soviet Union will fascinate readers: from living in a communal apartment to admiring pictures of Stalin and singing Communist songs. But the heart of the story comes from Sasha’s relationship with his father and his emotional journey once his father is arrested.  

Readers will relate to the deep love and trust Sasha has with his father. When he is arrested, Sasha does not doubt his father for a moment. Sasha knows the arrest was a mistake, and trusts Stalin will soon realize this and release his father. It’s only as events continue to unfold—and new facts come to light—that Sasha begins to lose the rose-colored glasses with which he has been taught to view the world.  

Breaking Stalin’s Nose is a wonderful story that will help readers understand life in the Soviet Union. It provides a glimpse into how fear, propaganda, and glorification of Stalin led so many people to obey the Communist reign. Sasha’s authentic voice and deep love for his father make him a relatable narrator. While Sasha fully believes in Stalin at the beginning of the book, his emotional journey to deciding for himself if it’s right to join the Young Pioneers emphasizes the importance of thinking for oneself and not blindly accepting people in authority.  

In the end, Sasha chooses to follow the path that he feels is right. While the future seems bleak, Sasha is at peace with his decision and has hope that one day there will come a better future for the Russian people. For anyone interested in the Soviet Union, this story is a must-read. Its plot takes place over two days yet is packed with cultural and emotional punch that will stay with readers long after they turn the final page.  

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • State Security comes to arrest Sasha’s father in the middle of the night. “When I get to the room, Dad is sitting on the floor, holding his ear. The officer’s leather belt creaks as he turns to look at me . . . this close, I see [my father’s] ear is bleeding.”  
  • Sasha tries to get into the Kremlin to ask Stalin to release his father. When the guards see him, one “swears, steam bursts out of his mouth, and he plunges his enormous mitten into my face. I duck under and run. The guard blows a whistle and the other whistles join in. Suddenly, guards are everywhere. One slips and falls, and his pistol goes off like a whip crack.” Sasha is unharmed.  
  • At school, the students gang up on a kid they call “Four-Eyes” during a snowball fight. “Vovka is lifting a snowball, but he doesn’t throw it at me. He throws it at Four-Eyes. Several kids join Vovka and line up into a firing squad. They hurl snowballs at Four-Eyes and he covers his face to protect his glasses.”  
  • Sasha doesn’t feel like throwing snowballs at Four-Eyes, but other kids cry, “Traitor! Enemy of the people!” Vovka declares that “Who’s not with us is against us.” Sasha gives into the pressure and “before I know what I’m doing, I grab the snowball from Vovka’s hand and throw it at Four-Eyes. There’s a loud pop as it hits him in the face. The eyeglasses snap, glass splinters and one shard cuts his cheek.”  
  • Vovka takes a banner from Sasha and “jabs me in the stomach.”  
  • To quiet a crowd, a man “pulls out his pistol, and points it at the ceiling.” He does not fire the weapon.  
  • When the students are walking in a line, Sasha stops and “someone punches me in the back” so that Sasha will “fall in with everybody again.”  
  • After being repeatedly taunted by his teacher—Nina Patrovna—Vovka “flies at Nina Patrovna, grips her by the throat, and begins strangling her. Nina Petrovna’s face turns red and her eyes bulge. She makes gurgling noises and starts kicking up her legs. Nina Petrovna and Vovka knock things to the floor and bump into desks.” Vovka is dragged off to the principal’s office.  
  • While at the principal’s office, Vovka “bumps into Nina Petrovna, who is walking out; she shrieks and leaps back. Vovka gives her a nasty grin and goes in.”  
  • Sasha climbs on a desk with a banner and sings “A Bright Future Is Open to Us.” The teacher chases him, trying to get him to stop. The teacher “tries to grab my foot, but I’m faster. I hop from desk to desk, shouting the song and waving the banner. Nina Petrovna chases after me. Everyone’s laughing. Then I miss a desktop and go down, and right away she’s on top of me, screeching and wrestling the banner out of my hands.”  
  • When the teacher is accused of breaking Stalin’s statue, State Security guards “twist Nina Petrovna’s arms and drag her to the door. She screams and kicks and tries to hold on to nearby kids. They duck under her arms, laughing.”  
  • When Sasha goes to visit his father in prison, a guard yells “Step back!” The guard “aims the rifle at me. He looks like he’d shoot a kid, so I stop.” The guard directs Sasha to get in a line. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • The nose is accidentally broken off of a Stalin statue; Sasha imagines the nose is talking to him. “By the window hangs a cloud of tobacco smoke so thick, I can’t see who is talking . . . the smoke drifts away, and now I see who’s sitting in that chair—Comrade Stalin’s plaster nose, and it’s smoking a pipe!”  
  • When speaking to a State Security Senior Lieutenant, Sasha thinks “this close, I can smell him. Tobacco, sweat, and something else. Gunpowder, I decide.”  

Language  

  • When Sasha’s father is awarded the order of the Red Banner, Comrade Stalin calls him “an iron broom purging the vermin from our midst.”  
  • Sasha is called an “Amerikanetz” because his mother was American. The term is considered an insult.  
  • A Jewish kid is mocked and called Four-Eyes. “Four-Eyes is Borka Finkelstein, the only Jewish kid in our class . . .we call him Four-Eyes because he wears eyeglasses. Anybody who’s not a worker or a peasant and reads a lot, we call Four-Eyes.”  

Supernatural  

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Heart of a Champion

From the day Seth Barham first learns about earning run averages, slugging percentages, and walks-to-strikeouts ratios, he and Jimmy Winters are best friends. Over the years they eat and breathe baseball, and it seems as if nothing can ever break their bond. But as Seth discovers, gifted athletes like Jimmy are rarely perfect idols but rather complex, unpredictable people in their own rights. Here is a heartfelt tribute to those friends who come but once in a lifetime – the kind that change one’s life irrevocably and can never be forgotten. And here, too, is a moving testimony to the strength and courage that grow out of loss.  

Seth and Jimmy first connect over baseball and are soon inseparable friends. However, Heart of a Champion is told strictly through Seth’s eyes. This point of view allows the reader to see Seth’s insecurities and his inability to stand up for what he believes. Although Seth is a sympathetic character, his self-deprecating attitude becomes annoying, especially since Seth often reflects on how an athlete can be hardworking and dedicated but still “never amount to anything.” Seth doesn’t believe he can be a great player because he does not have natural talent. This allows Seth to put Jimmy on a pedestal, even though Jimmy is not always a good friend. 

Baseball fans will be entertained with the play-by-play baseball action as well as the discussions about famous baseball players like Babe Ruth. The story also focuses on the father-son relationship. Seth’s father died when he was a young child, and his death has left a deep hole in Seth’s life. Even though Seth doesn’t remember his father, he misses having a father in his life. In comparison, Jimmy sometimes wishes his father was dead because his father is an alcoholic who makes promises he can’t keep. Even though the story doesn’t go in depth about the psychological effects of having a broken father-son relationship, readers will relate to both boys who desperately need a strong father figure in their life. 

Heart of a Champion also shows the dangers of alcohol. Others talk Seth into drinking, and at first, Jimmy has the strength of character to keep sober. As the book progresses, Seth realizes that when it comes to moral issues, such as drinking, “You don’t decide anything important once. . . What really happens is that you have to decide again and again, every day, every hour, every minute.” Jimmy eventually dies after he gets drunk and drives into a tree. But since the reader doesn’t see Jimmy’s struggle with alcohol, his death doesn’t have a strong impact.  

Sports fans will enjoy Heart of a Champion because of the sports action as well as how Seth and Jimmy connect over baseball. Because the story describes many of the boy’s baseball games, Heart of a Champion is best suited for readers who have a general understanding of baseball. The well-written story weaves in important life lessons about honesty, friendship, and the dangers of alcohol. While the story’s conclusion is tragic, it reminds readers that one decision can lead to unintended consequences that affect everyone around you. Baseball-loving readers who want more baseball action should read The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz and Heat by Mike Lupica. However, if you want a sport-related book that deals with hard-hitting issues like depression, drinking, and difficult family life, grab a tissue and the Hazelwood High Trilogy by Sharon M. Draper. 

Sexual Content  

  • When Jimmy and Seth try out for the baseball team, the coach says, “I want you here — on the baseball diamond — not out drinking or getting your girlfriend pregnant.” 
  • Jimmy’s father begins dating a string of young women. 

Violence  

  • Jimmy and his mom move to another town. Jimmy explains, “Two nights ago my father pounded on the door about midnight. When my mother opened it a crack, he shoved his way in. He screamed that she had a guy with her, and that he was going to kill them both. . . Then he grabbed her and started shaking her. She has bruises on both her arms.”  
  • During the summer, Jimmy and Seth play baseball at the park. A kid named Dayley begins playing with them. The other players were afraid of Dayley because “he was big and strong and mean. Everyone said that in a fight he once pounded a guy’s head into a wall and knocked him unconscious.”  
  • During a game, Jimmy intentionally runs into Comin, another player. Seth describes the incident: “I can still see Comin pivot. I can still see Jimmy barreling in on him. And I can still see Comin pinwheeling into the air. But most of all I can remember Comin landing, and the weird way his knee bent under him, and the sound it made, a popping sound I’ve never heard before or since. . .” Medics arrived and “lifted him onto the stretcher, his lower leg flopping like a strand of cooked spaghetti.” Comin has to have surgery, but the readers don’t learn if Comin has lasting injuries.  
  • A car full of teenagers hits a dog. “The spaniel was thrown fifteen, twenty feet in the air. . . the driver burned rubber as he tore away. . . [the dog] was lying on his side, panting heavily, blood trickling from his mouth. . . He blinked a few times, closed his eyes, opened them once more. Then the breath went out of him for the final time.” The dog’s owner assumed the driver was “some drunk high-school kid.” 
  • During a game, Franks, one of the players, intentionally runs into the catcher. “Instead of sliding, Franks put his shoulder down and barreled into the catcher. When the dust settled, the catcher was rolling around in the dirt holding his shoulder and moaning.” The coach benches Franks. 
  • Todd, another one of the baseball players, confronts Jimmy about his drinking. In response, Jimmy calls Todd names. Then, “Todd took a swing at Jimmy, catching him on the top of the head and knocking him back over the bench.” Two other players break up the fight. 
  • During a game, Seth is batting and he lets a ball hit him. “I took the fastball square in the back. The pain roared up my spine, and filled my brain, bringing me to my knees. I don’t know what it feels like to be shot, but it can’t feel a whole ton worse than being hit by a ninety-mile-an-hour fastball.”  
  • Jimmy and some of the guys from the team go out drinking. Jimmy left first. Later, two guys, “were driving home when we saw his Camaro piled into a tree. . . The police were there. . . but the Camaro didn’t look all that smashed up.” Jimmy dies. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Jimmy’s father, Mr. Winter, is an alcoholic, who often drinks beer around Jimmy and Seth. For example, when Seth visits Jimmy, “Mr. Winter was stretched out on the sofa, a beer in his hand and a slew of empties on the floor.” Despite this, Mr. Winter drives Seth home. 
  • Tustin, a high school student, takes Jimmy and Seth to his hideout in the woods. When he offers the boys a cigarette, Seth takes one. Then, “Tustin reached behind him, opened up an old box, and pulled out a six-pack of Budweiser.” Seth drinks the beer, but Jimmy refuses to drink.  
  • While at the hideout, Tustin says, “Sometimes, I come up here in the afternoon and take off my clothes so that I’m nice and cool and comfortable. Then I lie back on this mattress and drink a few beers and flip through those [pornographic] magazines.” 
  • One of Seth’s teammates invites some of the guys to his house. “Todd kept asking Jimmy if he wanted a beer. The more Jimmy said no, the more Todd pushed.” Eventually, both Seth and Jimmy get drunk. Afterward, Seth pukes all over himself and has a terrible hangover; however, the players begin drinking together every week or two. 
  • Jimmy’s father eventually goes into “some alcohol treatment program” and stops drinking. 
  • Jimmy and Seth go to a wedding. As they leave, Jimmy takes “a couple of bottles of champagne.” The boys drink the champagne, get drunk, and then Jimmy drives Seth home. 
  • Jimmy begins drinking regularly and skipping school. One of Jimmy’s teammates says, “Jimmy’s found some hole-in-the-wall grocery where he can buy beer. He’s been hounding guys to go drinking with him.” 

Language  

  • In order to play on the same team, Jimmy asks Seth to lie about where he lives. When Seth’s mom refuses, Jimmy says, “Your mother is a total bitch.” 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • During a game, Seth prays that a pitcher would be yanked from the game.  
  • During Jimmy’s funeral, “the minister started by talking about what a tragedy it was. . . and how God might have had Jimmy die so other kids might learn, and how it might actually be for the better.” 

Always Isn’t Forever

J.C. Cervantes’ novel follows Ruby and her long-time boyfriend, Hart. When Hart suddenly passes away in a drowning accident, Ruby struggles to figure out her new plans for the future—a future without the love of her life. Unbeknownst to his friends and family, Hart experiences a miracle, as his soul comes back to life in the body of someone else. Unfortunately for Hart, his new body is that of Jameson Romanelli, a football player at his school that Ruby describes as “arrogant, selfish, [and] obnoxious.” Because Jameson is in a coma after a car crash, an angel named Lourdes is able to put Hart’s soul into Jameson’s body. Lourdes explains to Hart that Jameson’s soul is about to pass on, and this is what allows her to put Hart’s soul into his body.  

Hart must try to reckon with his new body and he can’t tell anyone who he really is. This allows him to grow and experience new things. For instance, Ruby describes Hart as a bit of a “worrywart. . . when we were kids, he wouldn’t climb the monkey bars or anything more than four feet off the ground, he started a petition for seat belts on the school bus.” In addition, Hart is “a stickler for the rules.” But that changes when Hart has to learn to convincingly do things that Jameson would normally do, in order to not clue anyone in about his divine intervention. For instance, Hart needs to learn a lot about football, as Jameson is a top athlete at their school and he is under a great deal of pressure from his father. Being in Jameson’s body allows Hart to understand that people face pressures we have no way of knowing about from surface-level encounters. Hart explains, “I’ve only lived in Jameson’s body a day and I already feel like shit. Imagine how bad he felt living his whole life under this kind of pressure.” 

Because Hart (referred to as Hart/Jameson later in the book), now in Jameson’s body, is not able to tell Ruby what happened, Ruby feels completely confused as to why Jameson is suddenly reaching out to her and being nice. Eventually, as Ruby spends more time with this “new” Jameson, she starts to feel that “I couldn’t stand [Jameson] and then he woke up from a coma and I felt this weird connection and then I hung out with [Jameson] and to be honest he wasn’t that bad; he was nice.” Ruby feels conflicted about enjoying her time with Jameson, but says, “I felt like . . . like we’re connected by something bigger.”  

Always Isn’t Forever switches points of view at the start of each chapter, which will help readers relate to each of the characters individually. Though Hart initially judges Jameson, Hart grows as a character because he can feel Jameson’s emotions. For example, Hart discovers that Jameson had a serious girlfriend who “had a rock-climbing accident and died.” Hart is able to feel Jameson’s grief: “I feel an ache deep between my ribs that shoots into my heart.” Hart recognizes that this grief is what drove Jameson to alcohol. Hart learns about how the pain of grief can affect people who may seem hardened on the outside, like Jameson.  

Even though the book’s characters are extremely empathetic, the situation regarding what happens to Jameson’s soul when Hart’s soul is put into his body is not explained in detail. This causes confusion especially because Jameson’s memories begin taking over Hart. For instance, Hart lost some of his memories. He explains, “I have no idea how to sail this boat that evidently, I bought and fixed up and don’t remember a damn thing about.” However, Hart regains all his memories at the end, and though this leaves a happy ending for Ruby and Hart, the reader might be confused as to why the angel did not just give Hart all of his memories to begin with.  

Overall, the theme of processing grief is extremely pertinent in Always Isn’t Forever. Readers will empathize greatly with Ruby as she explains how she feels after Hart’s death: “At first, I let [grief] have at me. I knew the grief was eventually going to swallow me up. And I wanted it to.” Later in the novel, Ruby recognizes that her grief has caused her to give up things she used to enjoy. She reflects that she’s “given up what I love: the water, my dreams to travel—even myself. I guess a part of me is terrified that if I let myself want again, it’ll just be one more thing ripped away. But how is a life without desire worth living?” Eventually, Ruby is able to open up to Jameson and share her feelings, which allows her to refocus on her dreams of travel and college that she had put aside in the depths of her grief.  

Sexual Content  

  • Hart and Ruby share a quick romantic moment. Hart says, “[Ruby] gives me a kiss, meant to be a peck, but I’m greedy, and in a nanosecond the kiss is deeper, our bodies pressed so close I think we could melt into this mattress.” But the kiss ends abruptly, with Hart saying, “Sometimes I wish we had never agreed to wait to have sex until college.”  
  • To test her theory that “a part of Hart is inside Jameson,” Ruby approaches Jameson and kisses him. Hart/Jameson describes, “[Ruby] pulls me closer, opens my mouth with her own. Every nerve in my body is on fire. I let go. I deepen the kiss, feel its heat, its desire, and all the questions it’s asking . . . our erratic breathing matches the rhythm of the kiss now, frantic, out of control. As if this is the last kiss we’ll ever have. I want more of [Ruby]. All of her.” 
  • Ruby and Hart/Jameson spend a romantic evening together. Ruby says, “Each kiss more urgent than the second before, the longing growing, growing, growing.” 
  • Ruby asks Hart/Jameson if he wants to be intimate with her. Ruby explains, “We’d sworn we’d wait until college. But now. . . if this is my only chance. It was always going to be Hart. It was, is, and forever will be—Hart.” But they stop before they go any further than kissing because Hart/Jameson says, “No, not like this.” 

Violence  

  • When a little boy accidentally falls overboard during a storm, Hart goes out into the dangerous waters to rescue him. Even though the boy is saved, as Hart attempts to get to the boat’s ladder, “My fingers trace its edges just as a colossal swell sucks me under. The waters are dark . . . violent. I fight my way to the top, but it’s not there. I have no idea which way is up.”  
  • Hart’s drowning is described over a page, including Hart’s feelings about dying: “They say our life passes before our eyes right before we die, but it isn’t true. I think two things in that moment: I should have spent that extra minute with my dad. I should have chosen to spend tonight with Ruby. The water closes in . . . Water rushes into my nose and mouth, floods my lungs.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • It is briefly mentioned that Jameson’s car accident was caused because he was driving under the influence. Later, Hart explains that Jameson’s long-time girlfriend passed away. “That’s why [Jameson] started drinking.” 

Language  

  • Ruby refers to Jameson as a “two-faced son of a bitch”  because he cheated off her schoolwork and toilet-papered her house.
  • Occasionally, characters use words like asshole, shit, and damn.  
  • Rarely, characters use the word fuck.  
  • When frustrated, Ruby exclaims, “I swear on the baby Jesus that I am not a violent person.”  
  • Gabi, Ruby’s sister, exclaims, “Holy Santos,” when she discovers “a part of Hart is somehow inside of Jameson.” 

Supernatural 

  • Lourdes, an angel, explains to Hart that he “can go back to a human life; you can live out your days until your actual scheduled time to die . . . All we have to do is find a body that is on the verge of death.” 
  • As Hart’s soul enters Jameson’s body, Hart explains, “I stare out of Jameson’s eyes. The world looks different . . . I thought [Jameson] might tell me to get the hell out of his body. But no. You want to know what he said? What his last words were before he checked out for good? ‘Don’t waste it, man.’” 
  • Gabi, Ruby’s sister, tells Ruby that she has a theory about Jameson. Gabi says, “What if . . . [Jameson] has a message from the other side, from Hart . . . because he was so close to death?” 
  • Initially, when Lourdes uses her angel powers to put Hart’s soul into Jameson’s body, she explains that Hart will not be able to tell anyone exactly what happened to his soul. Lourdes explains that in order for Hart to be able to explain the truth of what happened to his soul to Ruby, Lourdes will “use the only power I have that is great enough . . . I will give up a single wing.” Lourdes’ sacrifice allows Hart to be able to explain what happened to his soul, so that Ruby can understand what happened to his soul after he drowned.  
  • Lourdes tells Hart, “When the death angel came for me . . . I asked to use my last wing to give you back your memories.”

Spiritual Content  

  • Lourdes tells Hart that she used her abilities as an angel on him. “You’re not in heaven, and you’re not exactly dead . . . I saw you struggling and I knew [drowning] was going to be painful, so I pulled your soul out early to save you from all of that.”  
  • Ruby’s sister, Gabi, does a card reading for Ruby. The cards that have been passed down through generations in their family. Gabi says the cards are “a special gift from the ancestors.” Gabi “takes the World card in her hands, closes her eyes, and meditates for as long as necessary until she gets that ‘message’ from our ancestors.” Gabi explains that she “heard a single whisper; it said, ‘message?’” 

Light it Up

Told in a series of vignettes from a myriad of points of view, Light it Up details a community’s reaction to a police officer killing a thirteen-year-old Black girl. An outraged city demands change, but quickly the outside world, and some white nationalists, take notice. As tensions escalate between the citizens of Underhill, and as the white nationalist group White Out arrives in the city ready to counterprotest, the lives of the residents are thrown into further disarray. 

Light it Up is the second book in her series, coming after How it Went Down, which is also about the killing of an unarmed Black teenager in the same community. It is not necessary to read How it Went Down first, but there are overlaps between the fictional setting and the characters. Each book makes sense on its own, as the focus is on different tragedies that happen to different characters. 

Magoon’s book takes place in a fictional city, but the unarmed killing of Black people in the United States is real, and she heavily borrows from real-life situations to bring her narrative to life. Magoon mentions the names of Black people killed by police in the United States including Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and Martin Luther King Jr. She also includes a fictional white nationalist group, White Out, that is heavily based on real-life groups, and the KKK also makes a brief appearance. These moments serve to show how close her narrative runs along our reality.

Light it Up primarily tackles conversations about race relations in the United States from a variety of perspectives. Magoon addresses the nuances through many different points of view, including from a little girl who only speaks in simple poems, the daughter of a police officer, local nonprofit organizers, a gang leader, and many more. Each piece tells part of a larger story about the Black girl who was killed, but the lives of the other characters also shine through. Although this story is a tragedy at its core, it’s also about a community fighting the same fight day after day, and doing as much as they can to live somewhat normal lives. 

There are also segments of the book that show the scripts from news broadcasts and social media comments, which brings in extra context from outside the city of Underhill and paints an even broader picture of the conversations surrounding police brutality and racialized violence. Light it Up takes a stance that is clearly shown in one news segment in particular. A guest tries to justify the viewpoints of white supremacists, saying that their views are equally valid, and the news commentator points out, “The minute you accept the premise that intolerance is a valid point of view, you lose freedom.” This is a succinct look at one of the book’s main themes. 

Light it Up has mature content, including heavier language usage, violence, and sexual suggestions than some other young adult novels; however, its themes about race relations and community are powerful and certainly worth reading about. Additionally, most of the characters, unless otherwise specified, are college students or adults. Readers should take note that extreme bigoted language is used, but in context, the language shows the reality of white nationalists in the United States. This book is important to read because it helps illustrate the many facets of racism, and it does so in an intelligent and empathetic manner. There is not a happy ending after a child is killed, and the community can only do its best to grieve and continue the fight for a better home, despite the terrible obstacles. This is not a joyful occasion and the only way out is through. 

Sexual Content  

  • The characters in this book engaging in sexual content are exclusively adults. 
  • One character, Jennica, used to be in a relationship with a man named Noodle, and he still comes around her place sometimes. Jennica describes how Noodle says, “‘Hey, gurrrrrl.’ He drags the word out so long it sounds dirty.” When she rebuffs him, he says, “I wanna keep doing you.” Jennica also mentions that what she misses about him “has nothing to do with sex.”  
  • At another point, Noodle texts Jennica, “You look hella sexy in that apron.” Jennica is not amused. 
  • While drunk at a party, Noodle sexually assaults Jennica. Jennica narrates, “My back is against the wall and Noodle presses up against me with his whole body. His hands push up my skirt. His mouth is on my neck, my chest. When I try to wriggle away, he takes hold of my wrists, pinning them beside my head.” After a page, he is stopped by a man named Brick, whom Jennica then kisses despite Brick saying no several times. Jennica notes, “When our mouths meet, I taste salt and beer and breath. It’s one quick moment, or it lasts a hundred years. He tears his face away.” 
  • While she is drunk, Jennica makes a sexual pass at Brick. Jennica notes that Brick pushes her back a step, but she also notes, “But his eyes say different. His fly says different.” Nothing happens between them. Later, she articulates her attraction, saying, “[Brick’s] muscles. I’m kinda turned on and I hate it because it reminds me of last night. Of Noodle’s hand going between my legs.” 
  • Brick notes that he can have “any woman [he] wants.” He says, “I could lose myself in [the party], find some honey to wriggle against me, soft and warm. The one in the hot-pink mini skirt. Damn. The one with the shaved head and earrings like Olympic rings.” This is the extent of his detailing of his sexual desires. 
  • Community organizer Zeke is talking to community volunteer Kimberly at the community center as folks are seeking shelter from the police outside. Zeke gives Kimberly a blanket and notes, “She smiles up at me. So pretty. Sleepy eyes are kinda sexy, I guess.” 
  • It is insinuated that a character named Melody has sex with Brick. The only description of this is from Melody, who remembers, “my memory rings with the sensation of his muscles against me. His breath on my cheek. The quick, hard rhythm as we rise together. The way his arms wrap me tight as we lay together. His sweet whispers.”  
  • Brick and Melody have sex again. Brick’s usual dating method is: “We screw, we snuggle, then we go our separate ways. No hang-ups. I sleep careful. I sleep smart. No drama.” He says this as Melody wakes up in his bed. Brick sees Melody, “her shirt is off and the covers are pulled up right underneath her excellent rack…She’s right there, and willing, and it feels good.” They have sex again that morning, though no further details are given. 
  • Kimberly and Zeke are attracted to each other. Kimberly mentions that Zeke “is fine.” Zeke mentions that Kimberly “is fine. Can’t tear [his] eyes from that big, sexy behind of hers. Why is she wearing cute pants like that to the office? Nobody needs to look that good while filing correspondence.”  
  • Kimberly likes Zeke, but she insinuates that she may have had a relationship with another man that they mutually know. Kimberly says, “Zeke can’t ever know what happened between me and Al. Reverend Sloan. The senator.” She doesn’t elaborate about what happened further. 
  • Senator Al Sloan has a history with Kimberly, and she doesn’t like how he seems to speak in double-entendres. Kimberly notes that when he says, “I still think about that week,” she understands it as him saying, “I wouldn’t mind getting in your pants this time, if you’ll let me.” Kimberly manages to rebuff him at each opportunity. 
  • Kimberly and Zeke kiss. Kimberly describes, “His lips are soft. It’s not unpleasant. But I don’t know what to do… My hands find his fingers. His tongue plunges in and out and I try to move mine in response.” Kimberly explains to Zeke that she’s never had sex before, and after a couple of pages of discussion, it is insinuated that they do have sex, but nothing is shown. The sequence lasts for several pages. 

Violence  

  • The book’s central discussion is about police officers killing unarmed Black people. The characters reference real life examples listing, “Look at Watts in ‘65, look at LA after Rodney King, Ferguson after Michael Brown, Baltimore after Freddie Gray.” Later, students at a demonstration at their college campus, named other victims like “Emmett Till, Martin Luther King Jr., Sandra Bland,” and many others. 
  • One day, walking home from school, an unarmed Black girl, Shae Tatum, is shot and killed by a police officer. Descriptions throughout the book detail her death. For instance, after she’s shot, “the curb is dewy with blood.” Later, a police statement notes that “the child was running away and got shot in the back.” 
  • Shae’sdad comes running to the crime scene, and another character, Brick, stops him because, as Brick notes, “The next five minutes play out in my mind in sped-up slo-mo fashion: He’ll run at them. Try to bring them down with his own hands. Then he’ll be laid out beside her and they will feel justified.” Brick stops him, but the grieving father “pummels [Brick].” With the cops pointing guns at them, Brick requests that a paramedic “sedate [Shae’s dad]” and they do as he asks. The scene is described over a couple of pages. 
  • At a crime scene, the police tear gas the crowd. One cop notes, “The line we held firm for hours is shattered. So long, tenuous peace. The string of yellow tape bursts and drifts to the ground as people run and scream.” 
  • Brick seriously considers and plans to organize his gang against the cops, and he tells part of his plan to one of the women who’s attracted to him. She tells others that, “He’s talking it. Panther-level action, taking guns against the cops.” 
  • The young daughter of the police officer who killed Shae is being abused by other students at school. She notes, “When I am not looking, other kids reach out and pinch me as hard as they can. I say nothing. Like I’m supposed to.” 
  • The daughter of the police officer has a classmate who says to her, “I bet [your dad] beats your mom. All cops are beaters.” The classmate then “pounds his knuckles into the other palm,” and the daughter has flashes of what are presumably memories. She thinks, “The smack of skin on skin. Beer bottle against the wall. The boxing bag hanging from the garage ceiling… I know how to throw a good punch.” It is insinuated that she punches this classmate. 
  • It is insinuated that the police officer who killed Shae Tatum beats his wife. Their daughter notes, “[Mom’s] shirtsleeves taper smoothly to her wrists such that everything is covered.” 
  • Much of the book details the actions of the white supremacist group called White Out, but the book also details the history of white supremacist groups. One author on a news program explains, “The image of white people marching with torches by night evokes more than a belief. It evokes intent. Historically such images are associated with lynchings. The Klan and its members passed extra-legal judgment on any black people they had it in for. The image evokes hatred and represents an absence of due process. Forces that this country has been working for a century to overturn.”  Historical explanations of violence like this are explained throughout the book, but this is the end of this description. 
  • One college student, Tyrell, is having a conversation with his white classmate, Robb. Robb doesn’t understand that white supremacists and racism have always existed, and he asks Tyrell if there are white supremacists in his neighborhood. Tyrell thinks, “You mean like the cops who put us into walls, the teachers who tell us we won’t amount to anything, the cabbies who won’t stop for us, the bankers inside their bulletproof glass cages? You mean like the guy who shot my best friend?” Robb doesn’t understand that this is a system that he, as a white man, benefits from. 
  • One police officer watches the White Out rioters descend upon the city. He thinks to himself, “There is no one I hate enough to bring a torch to a park and chant in the dead middle of winter. I think hard about it. There’s no one. Well, terrorists, I guess. The kind of man who straps a bomb to his chest and walks into a school to set it off. I hate guys like that enough to set them on fire.”  
  • One white college student is driving his two black classmates to the protests, and he’s driving over the speed limit. The other two are worried about getting pulled over, and their white driver refuses to slow down. One of them then reaches “up from behind and takes his shoulder. Pinches his fingers as hard as he can into his soft tissue.” This convinces the white driver to slow down and be serious. 
  • The college students in the fray see a cop beat a young Black woman who tripped and fell during the protest. The cop’s “baton, already raised and ready, comes down hard on her. Crack! She screams as the cruel metal tube strikes her shoulder. She falls to the ground. The cop spins, putting his back to us, and brings the baton down on her again.” The white college student tries to stop the cop. The student’s “hand goes out, grabs the officer by the collar with one hand. His other hand knocks the baton aside and away from the woman on the ground.” This scene lasts for a couple of pages. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Shae’s parents bring out the mulled wine, presumably for the people who are of-age. Mr. Tatum says, “My sister-in-law’s been making it like no tomorrow.”  
  • After police-mandated curfew hours, Brick considers staging a protest. Noodle tells him it’s a bad idea, saying, “The whole point is they come after us for nothing now. We can get high and forget about it.” 
  • Zeke is on a date with Kimberly and he offers her beer as “it looks like we’re out of wine.” 
  • A character notes that Brick’s parties involve a lot of “dancing and drinking and being all loud.” 
  • Jennica shows up to one of Brick’s parties angry. She says, “I came anyway. In time to see Kimberly and Zeke sitting right up where I used to sit. Holding court with Brick. I’m holding court with Jose Cuervo.” It is confirmed that Jennica is drunk. 
  • One college student, DeVante, checks his white classmate’s car he’s in for “errant weed,” as DeVante knows full well that he and Tyrell would be the ones that the cops would blame for it being in the car. 
  • DeVante and his white classmate Robb have been friends since the start of college. DeVante notes that, “We’ve talked about girls and kept each other from getting too drunk, or walked each other home when we’ve occasionally missed the mark.” It is implied that they are in their first year of college, but nothing else is described. 

Language  

  • Profanity is used frequently. Terms include hell, ass, God, goddammit, shit, fuck, and bitch.  
  • One character known for being insensitive reads about the murder. He tells his roommate, “Cops shot a girl. Only thirteen, and retarded or something.” His roommate responds, “Don’t say retarded.” This is the extent of the conversation. 
  • Robb refers to a woman news anchor as “the hot chick with the big lips.” He later says, “Can we get a scroll bar with her number?” The other people around berate his rudeness. 
  • Robb regularly makes microaggressions against Black people. For example, he notes that there are mostly white people at his college. He says, “Everyone in the room is white, except DeVante and two Asians. I mean, a Filipino and a … I forget. Chinese, maybe. Whatever — he grew up in Portland.” These comments come up semi-regularly. 
  • In one of the online forum posts, a presumably white person uses the N-word. The comment reads, “Fuck these n—-. We’re gonna take it to them where they live.”  In another post, the same commenter says, “You n— can’t keep a good cop down.” The term is written out in the book. 
  • White supremacists show up at Shae Tatum’s funeral, declaring that she deserved to be shot and that this incident was a “war on cops.” Zeke notes a photo that he sees at the funeral, describing, “The focus is on a small girl, not more than ten, standing at the front of the group. Her long blond pigtails fall over her shoulders, framing the hand-lettered sign at her chest: SHE HAD IT COMING.” Many more incidents like this occur throughout the book. Another sign at this event reads, “[The cop who killed Shae] DESERVES A MEDAL, NOT A PUBLIC LYNCHING.” 
  • A guest activist on a television program discusses the phenomenon of counterprotests. They say, “There’s a history of counterprotest. Remember, the ‘God Hates Fags’ contingent showed up at Matthew Shepard’s funeral.” This is the extent that this term is used. 
  • One newscaster notes that on social media the counter-protesters were trending the phrase, “The only good n– is a dead n–.” The newscaster doesn’t say the word but instead indicates it with the n– instead. 
  • Another person on a social media thread comments about the black protesters, “Like monkeys in the zoo. Making sounds and throwing feces. Ooh Ooh. Fenced in! Tear gas! Tase their asses!” 
  • Brick sees that his friends are being arrested for protesting. He thinks to himself, “Cops and n–s in a game of chicken- who’s more afraid of the dark?” The word is spelled out in the book. 
  • Jennica and Melody stand with the protestors against White Out. One of the white supremacists yells at the group, “Oooh oooh ooh! Go back to Africa, you motherfucking apes!”  
  • After getting Shae’s dad away from the police officers, he is sedated and lying in the back of a car. Another man is trying to keep him upright but is struggling, and he says, “Fuckin’ Christ.” 
  • Brick swears in surprise at Jennica when she’s drunk and she kisses him. He says, “Jesus, fuck.” 
  • One of the cops is complaining about paperwork. He says, “Christ, look at all these arrest reports.” His co-cop says, “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, for God’s sake.” They both laugh at his joke. 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • Someone on a news forum comments saying, “Why r u up here talkin bout blessings? Ain’t no GOD in this mess.” Many other people give their “thoughts and prayers” to the community. Another comment states, “You trippin. Prayers aint enough.” 
  • Shae Tatum’s funeral is held at a church. One little girl notes, “Ladies, ladies / loud ladies / big ladies / chewing ladies / sipping ladies / humming, Lord Jesus / humming, my baby / humming all the way to the cathedral sky.” 
  • The cop who killed Shae Tatum sits with his family at their home, holding a vigil for Shae. His wife lights a bunch of candles and says to her family, “Let’s pray.” The scene lasts for half a page. 
  • A news show discusses the intersection of faith, liberty, and rights. The guest on the program notes, “When a serial killer says God made him do it, we don’t let him off the hook for his crimes. Are we supposed to accept murder as a protected aspect of faith?” This discussion lasts for several pages. 
  • A commenter on a social media forum says about the verdict, “Life and death, reward and punishment, is the purview of God Almighty. Righteousness has been on our side from day one. #HeroCop.” 
  • One of the college students is deeply upset and is thinking of his friend who was killed by police. He thinks, “Don’t know what to make of a world without justice, of a God who turns our best intentions into the dark.” This point is not elaborated on more. 

Who was Edgar Allan Poe?

Filled with broken hearts and black ravens, Edgar Allan Poe’s ghastly tales have delighted readers for centuries. Born in Boston in 1809, Poe was orphaned at age two. He was soon adopted by a Virginia family who worked as tombstone merchants. In 1827 he enlisted in the Army and subsequently failed out of West Point. His first published story, The Raven, was a huge success, but his joy was overshadowed by the death of his wife. Poe devoted his life to writing and his tragic life often inspired his work. He is considered to be the inventor of detective fiction and the father of American mystery writers. His work continues to influence popular culture through films, music, literature, and television.

Who was Edgar Allan Poe? begins with his early childhood which was filled with hardships. Edgar’s father abandoned the family. Soon after, his mother died of tuberculosis. Edgar and his siblings were sent to live with different foster parents. In his early years, several women influenced Edgar—his mother, his foster mother, and one of his friend’s mother, Jane Standard. Unfortunately, all of the women’s lives were cut short by tuberculosis. The grief over the women’s deaths affected Edgar’s writing throughout his life.

Who was Edgar Allan Poe? has an easy-to-read format with large font. Large black-and-white illustrations appear on almost every page. Many of the illustrations include people and places that were important to Edgar. While the wide array of illustrations and the short chapters will help keep readers interested, some may have difficulties with the book’s advanced vocabulary. The text does explain some of the terms readers may be unfamiliar with. In addition, some pages explain historical information such as West Point’s background, important people in Poe’s life, as well as tuberculosis, and the development of a vaccine. The back of the book also includes a timeline of Edgar’s life and a timeline of the 1800s.

Because of the many hardships in Edgar Allan Poe’s life, many of his poems and stories are gloomy and discuss death. Even though some of Edgar’s stories were popular during his time, Edgar didn’t live long enough to see how his writings influenced many other writers. Learning about Edgar’s life will give readers a better understanding of the man and his literary work. Plus, the book would be a good starting point for those who want to research Edgar. 

While many readers will recognize Edgar Allan Poe because of his short and often scary stories, the book explains that he “was a complex man who struggled to overcome a series of sad events to become a major American writer. He influenced so many writers after him that his work is still studied in high schools, colleges, and universities more than 165 years after his death.” Who was Edgar Allan Poe? will entertain and educate readers who want to learn more about the author who created the first gothic, gloomy stories and poems.

Sexual Content 

  • None

Violence 

  • Poe wrote a novel that “told tales of suffering and death, and even cannibalism.” 

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • As an adult, Edgar had a drinking problem. “When he had a good job at a magazine, he lost it by drinking too much.” Edgar’s drinking was a habit which caused him to switch jobs frequently. “Sometimes he didn’t get along with his bosses. Other times, he was fired for drinking.” 
  • Edgar’s father, David “began drinking too much and quarreling with [his wife].” David eventually abandoned his family.
  • Edgar’s foster father was a successful merchant. “The company bought and sold tobacco. . . but it also sold a variety of other goods, including books, frying pans, wine, and even tombstones!”
  • In his stories, Poe “sometimes wrote from the point of view of a crazy person. Some of the characters in his stories were drug addicts.”

Language 

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content 

  • None

Wait Till Helen Comes

Molly and her brother, Michael, agree that their new stepsister, Heather, is a spoiled brat. Mom wants Molly to watch out for Heather, since she’s only seven. But Heather only wants to make trouble for Molly and Michael. She lies and tattles and misbehaves, and somehow they get the blame. They know she’s trying to drive a wedge between her father and their mother, who recently married, so she can have her father all to herself—and it seems to be working. To top it off, Heather starts talking to a ghost named Helen, and Heather warns Molly and Michael that Helen is going to come for them. 

It appears that things can’t get any worse—but they do when Helen comes. 

The story focuses on Molly, the only person other than Heather who can see the ghost of Helen. No one believes Heather has made friends with a ghost—not even after Heather almost dies. Death is often mentioned and at one point, Molly worries what will happen after she dies. She’s afraid that when she dies, “My skeleton. My bones. Someday they would be all that was left of me. They would lie all alone in the dark and the cold while the years spun past, years I would never see. . . All my memories would die with me, all my thoughts and ideas.” The morbid thoughts about death may terrify some readers. 

Wait Till Helen Comes has plenty of scare factors that could give readers nightmares. The ghost of Helen is truly frightening, especially because she has led several children to their deaths. It turns out that Heather has been alone for a century, and the lonely ghost longs to have a friend in the spirit world. While Heather’s situation is understandable, the idea that a person can get stuck in the spirit world is frightening. When Helen tries to lead Heather to her death, Molly jumps in to save her bratty stepsister.  

A scary ghost, a near-death experience, and a spooky graveyard combine to create a chilling ghost story that readers will devour. While the story focuses on the ghost of Helen, many will relate to Molly’s struggles to get along with her stepsister. To make matters worse, no one believes Molly when she tries to warn them about Helen. One negative aspect of the book is the dysfunctional family dynamics. Molly’s brother, Michael, is allowed to roam the wilderness unaccompanied, the parents only appear when they are scolding the kids, and Molly is tasked with the responsibility of watching Heather, who is a pro at disappearing. Readers will empathize with Molly, who struggles with the conflicts that her dysfunctional family cause. 

Wait Till Helen Comes is a scary tale that will leave readers contemplating what happens when someone dies. Readers will find a lot to like about Wait Till Helen Comes, including plenty of heart-thumping scenes, a fast-paced plot, and an unexpectedly happy ending. Readers who love a good scare will enjoy Wait Till Helen Comes. For more frightening tales, check out the Small Spaces Quartet by Katherine Arden.  

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • When Heather was three, she saw “her mother die in a fire.”  
  • Helen destroys Michael, Molly, and their mom’s belongings. “Everything that Michael cherished lay in a heap of rubble in the middle of the floor. His books, his specimen cases, his fossils and rocks, his microscope, his aquarium—all were smashed, ruined.” The adults think a robber broke in and ransacked everything. 
  • After finding his room destroyed, Michael grabs Heather and “shook her.” He also calls her a little creep. 
  • Helen leads Heather into the pond, in the hopes that Heather would join her in death. When Molly jumps into the pond to save Heather, Helen is “sobbing and moaning, clutching at Heather with icy fingers, she begged me to give her back. . . I felt a terrible chill as her fingers seized my ankles.” Molly drags Heather out of the pond. 
  • After nearly drowning, Heather wakes up and runs back toward the pond. Molly describes, “Catching up with her at the water’s edge, I tackled her and threw her flat on her face in the weeds. She fought me, her wet clothes and skin making it hard to hold on to her.” Heather stops fighting Molly, who takes her into an abandoned house to warm up.

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language    

  • Michael tells Molly, “Don’t let that brat [Heather] scare you with make-believe, Molly. You’re acting like a real dope.” 
  • Molly calls Michael an idiot. Later, she calls Heather a little monster. 
  • Heather tells Molly, “Your mother is a witch. . . I wish she were dead, and you and Michael, too!” 
  • Heather’s father calls Molly a little monster. 
  • Heather’s father says “good God” once. 
  • Molly’s mother says, “Oh, my God.” 

Supernatural 

  • A ghost befriends Heather. When Heather calls to Helen, Molly sees “the glimmer of blue light shape itself into the figure of a girl . . . She wore a white dress, and her hair, dark as Heather’s, tumbled in waves down her back.” 
  • Molly and Michael go to the library to research ghosts. Michael reads about poltergeists who “throw furniture and destroy stuff, and scientists don’t have an explanation for them.” 
  • The man who cares for the graveyard is the only person who believes Molly has seen a ghost. The man tells her, “But my own sister was convinced that our cousin Rose was led to her death in Harper Pond by the very spirit you’ve described to me. . . my sister went to her grave convinced that Rose was possessed by Helen Harper.” 
  • Heather and Molly fall through the rotting floor of an abandoned house. In the old cellar, they see the skeletons of Helen’s parents. Helen kneels by the skeletons. “Another figure appeared in the cellar. From mist it seemed to form itself into a woman. . . smiling, she drew Helen to her feet and embraced her, comforting her, stroking her hair, rocking her gently.” The ghosts shimmer and then disappear.  

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

The Red Ghost

Jenna finds the perfect gift for her sister at a neighbor’s garage sale—a beautiful old doll dressed all in red velvet. Jenna can’t believe her luck. Not only does Mrs. Tate seem happy to be rid of the doll, she even gives it to Jenna for free! But when Jenna takes the doll home, trouble begins. First, her best friend gets a creepy feeling whenever she’s around it. Then, the family cat hisses at the doll, and at night Jenna thinks she can hear it moving around in her closet. Finally, when Jenna gives the doll to her sister, she won’t take it. Could the red velvet doll be haunted? And if it is, what can Jenna do? 

In this companion book to The Blue Ghost, Newbery Honor winner Marion Dane Bauer creates a spooky story that may scare young readers. At first, Jenna is taken in by the doll’s beauty, but soon after taking the doll home Jenna is frightened because the doll’s eyes seem to be talking to her. The unnatural demeanor of the doll is reinforced when Jenna’s sweet-natured cat attacks it. The doll also scares Jenna’s friend, who thinks the doll can talk. To make matters worse, Jenna’s sister Quinn refuses to take the doll because it is “full.”  

Not wanting to throw the doll in the garbage, Jenna tries to return the doll to her neighbor, Mrs. Tate. The old woman refuses to take the doll because it belonged to her dead sister. However, instead of being sad at the thought of her sister, Mrs. Tate is angry and bitter. Mrs. Tate complains that her mother “used to sit and rock that thing all day long . . . all night, too. Like she was rocking Hazel.” After Hazel’s death, her mother “didn’t seem to care about anybody except Hazel. And when Hazel was gone, she cared about that silly doll instead.” Readers who are dealing with grief may be upset by Mrs. Tate’s anger at her mother and confused when they discover Hazel’s ghost was trapped within the doll.  

From the start, Quinn knew there was something that filled the doll. Later, she explains that the doll held the ghost of Hazel, who was “Happy to go, you know?” Quinn doesn’t know exactly where Hazel went, but Quinn “made ‘away’ sound like a very pleasant place.” The Red Ghost doesn’t explain what happens after death or how Hazel became trapped in the doll. Despite this, the idea that a person’s spirit can become trapped may frighten young readers.  

Even though The Red Ghost is part of the Stepping Stone’s Mystery Series, it creates a creepy mood especially because Jenna is afraid of the doll. The Red Ghost has short chapters, large font, and illustrations. The black and white illustrations appear every three to six pages and will help readers understand the story’s plot. The Red Ghost book is part of the Stepping Stones Series that is specifically written for beginning readers. The series allows readers to explore different genres such as history, humor, mysteries, and classics. 

Readers who are ready for a creepy ghost story will enjoy The Red Ghost’s fast pace and suspense. Readers will relate to Jenna, who isn’t sure what to do with the doll but doesn’t feel it is right to throw her in the garbage. In the end, Jenna doesn’t understand why Hazel’s ghost was trapped in the doll, but she is happy to know that Hazel has moved on and that the doll has a new home with Quinn’s other dolls. 

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • When Jenna brings the doll into her bedroom, her cat Rocco attacks it. “Rocco’s yellow eyes were slits. . . Rocco sprang! He swiped at the doll’s face. His claws caught in the lace edge of the bonnet. They caught and held.” Jenna hides the doll in her closet. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language    

  • None 

Supernatural 

  • Jenna hears the doll crying.  
  • The doll says, “Help me!”  
  • When the doll falls and cracks, “something red was drifting through the crack. . . It seemed like red smoke. The red smoke shaped itself into a girl. . . The red girl stayed joined to the broken doll at first. . . Then slowly, slowly, she broke free.” The girl floats out the window and disappears. 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Towers Falling

Ten-year-old Dèja Barnes doesn’t like living at the shelter. She doesn’t like that her dad doesn’t work. And she definitely doesn’t like her new school, where they asked her to do projects on their homes and families. Dèja knows her dad is unwell and prone to violent mood swings, but it’s not until her class learns about September 11th that she begins to understand her dad has been hiding something from her. 

In Towers Falling, the reader is taken on an introductory journey through the events and aftermath of 9/11 through the eyes of Dèja and her friends and family. Through Dèja’s friend, Sabeen, the reader learns about Islam and Islamophobia in the United States post-9/11. Through Dèja’s father, the reader witnesses the fear that enveloped that day, as her dad escaped the North Tower but lost his friends and colleagues. 

Although much of the book is about American history, the most prominent recurring theme is community. Dèja makes connections and learns that community can be what you’re born into, like being American or feeling community with her family. But community can also be found, like in her friends or her school. Since Dèja’s story is also about poverty, she especially wants to be accepted by her classmates even if she pushes back at times. Ultimately, the book ends with Dèja feeling comfortable in her found communities and more connected to her dad when he finally shares his experiences.

Towers Falling helps readers understand the events of 9/11, especially for younger readers who were born after 9/11, much like Dèja and her friends were. Although the book doesn’t go too deep into exploring a lot of the discrimination that Sabeen’s family has experienced, Rhodes gives enough information for the reader to understand some of the inner workings of Islamophobia. The same can be said for Dèja’s dad’s mental health issues – although they’re mentioned, they aren’t the primary focus.

Towers Falling is a good story about community and it will inspire readers to explore these events in US history further. Dèja finds her communities and learns to embrace them, loving them for what they are. Through her, younger readers can start to understand what it means to treat others with compassion, regardless of skin color, nationality, religion, or any other difference. Readers who want to learn more about 9/11 should add Molly and the Twin Towers by Jessika Fleck and Somewhere Among by Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu to their reading list.


Sexual Content 

  • None. 

Violence 

  • Dèja hates her family’s cramped living situation. When her mom says that there’s no use complaining, Dèja thinks, “But it makes me want to burst, hit or break something.” Dèja has feelings like this throughout the book, as she’s frustrated that her family can’t do anything about their situation.
  • While living in the homeless shelter, Dèja is always on edge. She says, “I walk the halls with fists ready.”
  • During lunch, Dèja, Sabeen, and Ben share what they know about slavery and the genocide of the indigenous people of North America. Dèja mentions, “Apache. They were overrun. Killed. Their land was stolen.” The kids continue this conversation for several pages.
  • Dèja accidentally scares her siblings when she mentions, “Pop doesn’t hit, but he’s still scary when he’s mad. And he can be mad about anything – coffee too cold, rain or no rain, wind, too little or too much, even paint on a shirt.”
  • Towers Falling details the history of the events of 9/11 and how they connect to Dèja’s family. There are descriptions of violence and death associated with the events throughout the book. When Dèja asks about the Twin Towers, one student says, “Dead. They’re dead.” Another student says, “Like my cousin. I didn’t know him.”
  • Ben shows Dèja videos of the Twin Towers burning. He says, “Terrorists attacked the Twin Towers on 9/11.”
  • Dèja describes the contents of the 9/11 videos, saying, “Flames – yellow, orange, and red – bubble and lick . . . there’s no sound, but I know there must be people inside the tower hurt, screaming.” The video description lasts for several pages.
  • Dèja is sent to the principal’s office and she thinks they’ll physically punish her. She thinks, “Maybe that’s where they have straps and whips? Paddles to punish kids?”
  • Some kids bully Ray, Dèja’s younger brother. Dèja describes, “Sometimes one of them grabs Ray’s arms and swings him like a tetherball. Ray’s too terrified to scream. I’ve got to rescue him. Punch the big kid on his shoulder, yelling.”
  • Dèja hears her dad crying at night. She thinks, “Last time I heard such a sound was when Mrs. Anderson’s son got shot by a drive-by. She was in the street, holding Eddie’s body.”
  • Dèja, Ben, and Sabeen watch the planes crash into the Twin Towers. Dèja narrates what she sees, saying, “On the cell phone, the explosion is soundless, but I can imagine sounds – screaming, tearing, slicing through concrete, steel, and glass.” When the second plane hits, Dèja says, “People are falling – no, leaping – out windows. Escaping fire, heat. Suffocating heat.” This scene continues for a few pages.
  • Dèja’s history class goes over various attacks made on American soil. The teacher, Mr. Schmidt, writes about the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and Pearl Harbor as examples. He also writes about the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Mr. Schmidt clarifies for the class, saying it was “with a truck bomb. It failed.” This scene lasts for a few pages.
  • Dèja’s dad tells her about what happened when he was working in the North Tower on 9/11. He says, “One, two, four, five, eight, ten flights of stairs. I was exhausted. Lungs aching. Still folks coming down, sounding like an elephant herd. Two men were carrying a man in a wheelchair. . . ” The description of his experience that day lasts for several pages.

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • Dèja talks about her experience in homeless shelters. She says, “Shelter gangs aren’t about guns and drugs. They’re about roaming, stealing, keeping an eye out for what can be taken.”
  • Dèja describes the folks milling outside the homeless shelter. She says, “A few are a mess – dirty and stinky. Loud. Drinking beer wrapped in a paper bag.” Dèja occasionally describes some of the other homeless folks as “drunk.”
  • Dèja’s dad takes aspirin for his illness, which is unnamed but related to his mental health issues and being in the Twin Towers when they were collapsing. Dèja mentions that “when we can afford it, he uses an inhaler.”
  • At school, Dèja and her classmates build towers out of art supplies. Her friend Ben picks up a pipe cleaner and says, “Sherlock Holmes cleaned his pipe with these. Between smokes.” Dèja replies, “Sounds worse than cigarettes.” 
  • Dèja and Ben see a sign on the subway that says, “Have you spoken to your kids about drugs?”

Language 

  • Mild language is used often. Terms include dumb, loser, shut up, and nerd.
  • Sabeen discusses her experiences with Islamophobia. Sabeen says, “When I’m at the store by myself, the cashier sneers, ‘Go back to Saudi Arabia.’ Turkey’s closer to Greece, two countries away from Saudi Arabia.”
  • Dèja thinks about discrimination. She narrates, “I knew blacks were discriminated against. Also, poor people, homeless people. I didn’t know Muslims were too.” 
  • In history class, the teacher explains, “Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. We call them terrorists because they are not representative of a single nation. Instead, they’re ideologues . . . narrow-minded people, incapable of independent thought and critical thinking. America has been engaged in a new kind of war . . . a war on terror.”

Supernatural

  • Ben frequently mentions the media. At one point, he mentions that he wants to watch the Broadway musical Wicked, which is “about the witches of Oz.”

Spiritual Content 

  • One of the girls in Dèja’s class, Sabeen, “wears a headscarf.” Sabeen’s mother is described as being “covered head to toe in black cotton. Only brown eyes show.”
  • Sabeen is asked why her mom wears all black. Sabeen explains, “It’s a niqab. For modesty.”
  • As this book deals with the events of 9/11, there are somewhat frequent discussions about Islam. They are somewhat detailed, and often they revolve around the treatment of Muslims in the United States post-9/11. One student in Dèja’s class declares, “Muslims did it.” Dèja’s friend Sabeen, who is Muslim, says, “That’s not true. I mean it is but it isn’t true.”
  • Sabeen shows Dèja and Ben a drawing of her family’s house. She says, “Home is divine. Blessed by Allah.” She then explains to Dèja that Allah is Arabic for God.
  • Dèja mentions her own relationship with religion. She says, “Pop doesn’t believe in church. But before moving to Avalon, Ma would take me, Ray, and Leda to church.”
  • Miss Garcia has the students list the social units they are part of, and the students list things like, “Church, Synagogue, Girl Scouts” and so on and so forth.
  • Ben has to explain to Dèja that “it was terrorists. Muslim terrorists” that flew planes into the twin towers. This comes up because Dèja doesn’t understand why Sabeen is upset about 9/11.
  • Sabeen has Dèja over to her house, and Sabeen’s family makes traditional Turkish food, and some discussions of Islam take place. For instance, Dèja is asked if she prays, and Dèja responds, “No. Just when Ma takes me to church . . . But I wish for things.”
  • Ben makes a reference to C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series. When Dèja and Sabeen ask what it is, Ben explains to Sabeen that “It’s pretty Christian.” Sabeen responds, “A Muslim can’t read Christian stories? A Christian can’t read about Muslims?”
  • Dèja’s dad talks about his experience in the North Tower on 9/11. He mentions a lady who always wore what he called church hats because they looked like “any second she was going to sing gospel.”

The White Giraffe

The night Martine Allen turns eleven years old is the night her life changes completely. Martine’s parents are killed in a fire, so she must leave her home to live on an African wildlife reserve with a grandmother she never even knew she had. When Martine arrives, she hears tales of a mythical animal living there – a white giraffe. They say no one has ever seen the animal, but it does leave behind footprints. Her grandmother insists that the white giraffe is just a legend, but then, one stormy night, Martine looks out her bedroom window straight into the eyes of the tall, silvery animal. Could it be just Martine’s imagination, or is the white giraffe real? And if so, why is everyone keeping its existence a secret?

The White Giraffe is the perfect book for anyone who has ever dreamed of going on an African safari. After tragedy befalls Martine, she gets sent to Africa where she is overcome with a sense of wonder at the beauty of Africa’s wildlife. However, she is also frustrated because she knows the adults in her life are keeping secrets from her. St. John brings Martine’s story to life with a mix of joyous encounters with wildlife and the confusion of being surrounded by secretive adults. The blend of suspense, suspicion, and surprises will keep readers flipping the pages until the very end. 

Even though Martine isn’t necessarily a relatable character, she is interesting and likable. Like many, Martine struggles with loneliness and the desire to have friends; unfortunately, the kids in Martine’s class are bullies who harass classmates who are different. Plus, Martine’s struggle to understand her own power is made even more difficult because of her classmates’ taunting, and her grandmother’s strange silence. Despite these difficulties, Martine is willing to put her life in danger to care for injured animals. This, along with the strange prophecy about a white giraffe, highlights Martine’s love of animals. 

While the story’s pacing is fast with both action and adventure, The White Giraffe clearly shows the greedy nature of humans who poach and capture animals for material gain. In addition, the story gives a brief look at racism when Tendai, who works at the animal reserve, shares his personal experiences of police brutality. Because of this experience, Tendai realizes that “only a man can crush you inside, in your heart, for no reason other than the color of your skin.” Despite this, Tendai has forgiven his abusers because “sometimes the thing that hurts your enemies most is to see that you are not like them.”

The White Giraffe takes the reader into the African bush and leaves them with a sense of wonder. Readers will gain a new appreciation of the people who strive to save wildlife. The story also has important life lessons, including showing that no one is perfect. When Martine makes a mistake, she is not chastised, instead her friend says, “We all make mistakes, chile. That’s human. But not everybody had the courage to admit what they done and go out into the world to try to mend things.” Readers who love animals and would like more exciting stories about helping animals should add the Vet Volunteers Series by Laurie Halse Anderson and the Zoe’s Rescue Zoo Series by Amelia Cobb to their reading list.

Sexual Content 

  • None

Violence 

  • Martine learns that her grandfather, Henry, died but “the events surrounding it were still shrouded in mystery. The police theory was that Henry had stumbled upon a gang of poachers trying to steal a couple of giraffes or maybe kill them for trophies. . . There had been a struggle. When it was over, Henry had been fatally wounded.”
  • On a field trip, Martine’s classmates chase her, intending to cause her harm. However, she is able to hide and stay safe.
  • Tendai tells of a time when he was beaten because of his skin color. Tendai’s “back and broad chest were crisscrossed with fifty or sixty thick, raised scars. It was as if someone or something had tried to cut him into a million pieces.” 
  • After Martine sees Tendai’s scars, he tells her about a police officer who “tore my shirt. . . I’m sorry to say I punched him as hard as I could. After that, Tendai remembered very little. When he regained consciousness, he was in a prison hospital covered in welts.”
  • Martine and Tendai are watching a kudu when “a bullet ripped into the tree trunk above Tendai’s head, simultaneously spraying him with splinters and terrifying Martine. . . a second bullet hit the kudu in the throat. Blood spurted from his neck in a fountain and he dropped to the ground and lay still.” 
  • Martine’s classmates torment her by writing witch “all over her books, and on another occasion she opened her pencil case to find a hairy baboon spider—an African tarantula—lurking inside.”
  • One day, the kids at school surround Ben and start saying that “he’s a waste of space,” a “runt” and a “mongrel.” One boy says, “You’re like one of those sad-looking dogs you find down at the shelter.”
  • Someone captures the white giraffe, Jemmy. When Martine finds him on a cargo ship, “Jemmy was lying on the floor, his legs at odd angles. His white and silver coat was covered in cuts and matted blood.” 
  • When Martine and Jemmy get to the deck of the cargo ship, the poacher, Alex, yells “Raise the gangplank!” Jemmy “swept across the deck, striking Alex a glancing blow with his hoof as he went. Alex dropped like a stone.” Martine and Jemmy escape.

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • A woman teaches Martine how to use healing herbs. 
  • When Martine finds the giraffe on a cargo ship, she also sees two leopard cubs that “were clearly drugged.” Martine leaves them behind. 

Language 

  • Because Ben won’t talk to the other kids at school, they say he is “deaf, stupid or a nutcase.” One of the girls calls Ben “Bonkers Ben.”
  • Martine’s grandmother calls a woman a “crazy old magic woman.”

Supernatural

  • An African legend believes that “the child who can ride a white giraffe will have power over all the animals.” Martine learns that she is the child in the legend.
  • When Martine touches an injured, dying goose, her hands “heated up to the point that they were practically glowing. After a few seconds, the Egyptian goose jerked and its eyelids flickered. She loosened her palm. It shook out its wings and flew into the darkening sky.” Afterwards, Martine’s classmates think she’s a witch that used voodoo or black magic to heal the goose.
  • When a kudu is shot, Martine helps it. “Martine places her hot hands over the kudu’s dying heart and began pressing down every few seconds. Under her touch, the beat grew stronger and the kudu’s skin became warm.” A few minutes later, the kudu “gets on his feet . . . and bounded weakly away.” 
  • A woman named Grace uses bones to tell the future. Martine’s grandmother explains, “Africans with second sight throw bones the way Western fortune tellers use crystal balls and tarot cards.” The woman told Martine’s grandmother that “the bones had told her that a tragedy would bring [Martine] back to Sawubona. . . She said that if you came of your own accord, the gods might be appeased and the tragedy would be averted.” After the woman’s prediction, Martine’s parents were killed in a fire.
  • Grace takes out a pouch and dumps out “a collection of small bones, a portion of porcupine quill, a guinea fowl feather, and a couple of elephant hairs.” Then “a thin spiral of blue smoke rose from the objects on the floor. It flattened out and blurred images began to flash across it.” The vision helps Martine save the white giraffe.
  • When Jemmy is injured, Martine “put her hands on the white giraffe’s heart. Unbidden, technicolor memories of their time together came flooding into her mind. . . Martine was aware of her hands becoming hotter and hotter and a pure feeling, like love, flowing through her.” Jemmy recovers and they are able to escape.

Spiritual Content 

  • None

Contingency Plan

When Sandra Sinclair, recently widowed and the mother of twelve-year-old Jane, meets wealthy lawyer Joe Gillette, he wins her over with his kind and conscientious attitude. Falling in love faster than she ever thought possible, Sandra agrees to marry him. But soon after they move into their new home, things begin to change, and Joe’s controlling behavior causes Sandra to question her decision. When her new husband becomes seriously abusive, Sandra decides she and Jane must leave.

When Joe makes it clear that he will not just let Sandra walk away, she discovers it’s quite likely Joe arranged his first wife’s death and that Sandra is now part of his “contingency plan.” She soon realizes that even the law is no defense against this meticulous and egotistical man. Fleeing to an old family cabin on a remote lake, mother and daughter prepare to live off the grid. But when Joe tracks them down, Sandra must come up with a contingency plan of her own.

Contingency Plan is part of the Orca family of Rapid Reads books which are intended for a diverse audience, including ESL students, reluctant readers, adults who struggle with literacy, and anyone who wants a high-interest quick read. Since Contingency Plan focuses on Sandra, who was recently widowed, younger readers may have a difficult time connecting to her. While readers will empathize with Sandra’s grief, she is not necessarily a dramatic character that will keep readers’ interest. Much of the story is told in the past tense, which limits the suspense, and the ending of the book is anticlimactic and unsurprising. 

Some teen readers may reach for the book because they are interested in Sandra’s daughter. However, Sandra’s daughter rarely plays an active role in the story, which makes it difficult to emotionally invest in her. Plus, Joe has very little interaction with Sandra’s daughter. 

Even though Joe is very controlling, his abusive behavior is rarely physical, which may lead some readers to wonder why Sandra feels she cannot stay with him. Unfortunately, Contingency Plan isn’t a compelling story and fails to teach any life lessons. Reluctant readers who are looking for a story that focuses on family and will appeal to teens have many good options, including In Plain Sight by Laura Langston and Tell by Nora McClintock.

Sexual Content 

  • Sandra goes on an overnight trip with Joe. While having dinner, Joe smiles at her and Sandra proclaims, “the chemistry took my breath away. But it was more than sexual attraction.” Later, his “tender mouth nuzzled my ear, sending a tingle to forgotten places. . . We wouldn’t need that second bedroom tonight.” 
  • After being married for a while, Joe says that Sandra treats sex “like a chore.”
  • Even though Sandra is beginning to hate Joe, she feels that she has to pretend like she loves him. One night, “our lovemaking earned a solid-gold Oscar for me. For him, the usual silver star for excellence. My body responded in spite of itself.”

Violence 

  • Joe gets angry at Sandra. Sandra describes, “he gave me a shake that rattled my teeth. But he didn’t slap me.”
  • A private detective investigates Joe because while backpacking in the wilderness, Joe’s first wife died. Some people believed Joe intentionally got lost and caused his wife’s death. 
  • Sandra takes her daughter and hides out in an old hunting cabin. Sandra knows Joe is in town asking questions, so she comes up with a plan to kill him. When Sandra hears Joe’s snowmobile, she jumps on her own snowmobile and drives towards a partially frozen lake. Both Sandra and Joe break the ice and fall into the freezing water, but because she is prepared, Sandra is able to make it out. “He bobbed to the top. . . Joe’s gloved hand flipped up his visor and he splashed. ‘Help me! For god’s s-sake, S-sandra,’ he splashed.” Sandra leaves him in the water and thinks, “At 15°C, it wouldn’t take long for the ice to refreeze.” 

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • Joe and Sandra drink champagne several times.
  • After getting married, Joe and Sandra have dinner with the family. One woman gets “tipsy” while “the wine and brandy were making everything a bit unreal.”
  • After their marriage, Joe often drinks alcohol. 
  • When running from Joe, Sandra stays in a cheap hotel where someone has a drunken party.
  • On a long trip, Joe takes amphetamines to keep awake.

Language 

  • Hell is used three times. For example, after looking at Sandra’s computer chat history, Joe yells, “What the hell are you doing gossiping on the computer with those bitches?”
  • Joe tells Sandra, “I have every right to know what my goddamn wife is up to.”
  • Joe calls Sandra’s car a “shitbox.”
  • Bullshit is used once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content 

  • After getting married, Joe says, “May God hold you in the palm of his hand.”
  • After going on her honeymoon, Sandra tells her dead husband, “Thanks for your blessing, Andy.”
  • Occasionally Sandra prays simple prayers. For example, after lying to Joe, Sandra “prayed that [Joe] couldn’t feel my heart breaking out of my chest.”

Good Girl, Bad Blood

After unearthing her town’s secrets and investigating and solving the murder of Andie Bell and Sal Singh, Pip Fitz-Amobi swears she is not a detective anymore.

Even though Pip has released a viral podcast about her investigation, with the help of her boyfriend Ravi Singh, she has put her investigating days behind her. Pip is still haunted by her past involvement in solving the case. “I almost lost everything,” she explains, “I ended up in the hospital, got my dog killed, put my family in danger, [and] destroyed my best friend’s life.” After seeing the lengths she went to investigate Andie’s and Sal’s murders, the obsessive, reckless, almost selfish person she became, and the damage it caused her and the people she loves, Pip never wants to be pulled back into investigating.

But the morning after the six-year anniversary of the deaths of Sal and Andie, the brother of Pip’s friend Connor, has gone missing. She feels she has no choice but to help find him. This time as Pip looks for Connor’s brother Jamie, she uncovers more of her town’s secrets, and now everyone is listening.

Good Girl, Bad Blood is a fantastic sequel to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Like its predecessor, this book has fantastic twists and turns. Similar to the first book, Good Girl, Bad Blood has an interesting use of storytelling, combining the more traditional third-person narration with interview transcripts, Pip’s notes, images, maps, newspaper clippings, and more.

Picking up where A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder left off, Good Girl, Bad Blood deals directly with the events of the last book. Unlike other books in the murder mystery genre, this book examines the impact of traumatizing events on Pip and her friends and family. After Pip’s world has been turned upside down by uncovering the secrets surrounding Andie and Sal’s deaths, Pip is a changed person. She is more protective of those she loves and more careful with her actions. But Pip is also traumatized and scared, and she is haunted by the events she witnessed. Pip tries to make it seem like she is fine so she can support those around her, but in reality, Pip is lost. She is unsure of who she is and who she is becoming.

In the end, while Pip and her friends rescue Jamie and uncover a larger, more sinister plot in the process, Pip comes to terms with many of her flaws. She is not a “good” girl. “Maybe I’m selfish,” Pip says, “maybe I’m reckless and obsessive and I’m OK with doing bad things when it’s me doing them and maybe I’m a hypocrite, and maybe none of that is good, but it feels good. It feels like me . . .” Pip also recognizes that she needs more time to heal. She accepts that it’s okay to be angry at the injustices in the world, and it’s okay to not have a perfect answer to every problem. As Pip comes to terms with who she is, she is also shattered from witnessing violence and death as she watches someone get shot and then, unfortunately, fails to save them. Although Pip is forced to accept the cruelty of the world and the people in it, she is still traumatized and terrified by her experiences.

Overall, Good Girl, Bad Blood is a great sequel, with a dark, suspenseful story full of twists and turns and a fantastic cast of characters. Pip is strong-minded, courageous, and independent, but she is also flawed and broken. She continues to show readers that one does not have to fit into the perfect model society expects from you. It is okay to be angry at the world and its injustices and to grieve the loss of others, and to also grieve who you once were. 

Sexual Content 

  • Ravi picks Pip up for dinner. Ravi is dressed nicely, and Pip “could smell aftershave too, as he stepped towards her, but he stopped short, didn’t kiss her on the forehead nor run a hand through her hair.” The pair begin to talk, and Ravi “[places] one hand on her waist, his warm fingers dancing up her ribs.” The scene cuts out before anything else happens between the two. 
  • The night of Ravi’s brother’s memorial, Ravi greets Pip and “[presses his] words into her forehead with his lips.”
  • After an argument, Pip confronts Ravi about her feelings, explaining why she has been so distant lately. “She had barely finished speaking, but Ravi’s hand was against her face, cupped around her cheek, his thumb rubbing the rain from her bottom lip. He moved his fingers down to lift her chin and then he kissed her. Long and hard, their faces wet against each other, both trying to fight a smile.”

Violence 

  • Picking up where the first book in the series left off, Good Girl, Bad Blood, references much of the violence of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder including the disappearance and death of Andie Bell, the murder of Sal Singh, and the kidnapping of Isla Jordan. Andie Bell was having an affair with her history teacher Elliot Ward, and when she went over to his house to talk one night, “an argument ensued. Andie tripped, hitting her head against his desk. But as Ward rushed to get a first aid kit, Andie disappeared into the night” and was declared missing. 
  • Thinking Andie must have died from her head injury, Ward killed Sal, Andie’s boyfriend, making “it look like suicide and planted evidence so police would think Sal killed his girlfriend then himself.” Months after this, Elliot Ward found who he thought was Andie on the side of the road, disheveled and incoherent. Ward kidnapped Isla, who he thought was Andie, for five years to continue to cover up his crimes. 
  • Andie was actually not killed directly by Ward, in fact, she was able to make it home that night, only to be confronted by her sister, Becca Bell. Becca had been drugged and sexually assaulted by Max Hastings (who is revealed to be a serial rapist), and later finds out that the drugs Max used were sold to him by her sister. The two “started arguing, pushing, until Andie ended up on the floor, unconscious and vomiting. . . Becca froze . . . watching Andie die, too shocked, too angry to save her sister’s life.” Becca hides Andie’s body “because she was scared no one would believe it was an accident.” 
  • After Pip tells the police about how important it is to look into Jamie’s disappearance, the police say, “We’ve got an actual high-risk case: an eight-year-old abducted from her backyard.” It is later revealed that the abduction was only a domestic dispute. 
  • After publishing the podcast, Pip’s life changed. “The anonymous death and rape threats still came in weekly, comments and tweets calling her an ugly, hateful bitch.” Pip explains internet trolls comment on almost everything Pip posts. These hateful comments continue after she posts about Jamie. Pip gets comments saying “I killed Jamie Reynolds,” “Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?” and “I killed Jamie and I’ll kill you too, Pip.”
  • As Pip goes to the old, abandoned farmhouse on the edge of town in search of Jamie, she remembers this is “the place where Becca Bell had hidden her sister’s body for five and a half years. Andie had been right here all along, decomposing in the septic tank.”
  • As the investigation into Jamie’s disappearance continues, theories pop up online about what happened. Connor angrily tells Pip about what he is reading. “They think my dad killed Jamie . . . They’re saying [Connor’s dad] took the knife from our house and followed Jamie down Weevil Road. Killed him, cleaned and dumped the knife, and hid his body temporarily. That he was still out when I got home around midnight because I didn’t ‘actually see’ my dad when I got in. And then he was absent last weekend because he was out disposing of Jamie’s body. Motive: my dad hates Jamie because he’s ‘such a fucking disappointment.’”
  • Six days after Jamie goes missing “a dog walker discovered [a] body at about six a.m. . . . in the trees beside I-95, between Fairview and Stamford.” The radio reports “Officers are still at the scene. The deceased is as yet unidentified but has been described as a white male in his early twenties.” Worried, Pip rushes to Connor’s house to see if the body is Jamie’s, but they find out it is not. 
  • It is revealed that Jamie was kidnapped by Stanley Forbes, who is in the witness protection program because his father was a “serial killer. He killed children. And he made his young son, Child Brunswick [Stanley], help him lure out the victims.” Over the years “six children disappear . . . Their burned remains were later discovered buried along the shore of Lake Ontario, all within one mile of each other. The cause of death in each case was blunt force trauma.” 
  • As Pip questions him, Stanley explains that Jamie confronted him about his identity. Stanley explains, “the next thing I know, Jamie lunges at me with a knife. I managed to get out of the way and knock the knife out of his hands. And then we were fighting, out by those trees beside the house . . . I push Jamie off, into one of the trees, and he hits his head, falls to the ground. I think he lost consciousness for a few seconds and after that he seemed a little dazed, concussed.” Not wanting to have to move again, Stanley kidnapped Jamie because he “just needed time to think about what to do. I was never going to hurt him.”
  • Charlie, the brother of one of the victims who was killed by Stanley’s father, tricked Jamie into helping him. Charlie made Jamie believe he was a girl who had a stalker “threatening to kill her.” In reality, Charlie is trying to have Jamie kill Child Brunswick (Stanley) for him. 
  • Charlie finds Pip and Stanley talking in the old barn and Charlie pulls a gun on Stanley. Three months after his sister was found, Charlie explains how his “dad hanged himself. I was the one who found him, after school. My mother couldn’t cope and turned to alcohol and drugs to numb everything out. I almost starved. Within a year I was removed from her care and sent from foster family to foster family . . . By seventeen, I was living on the streets.” 
  • As Charlie holds Stanley at gunpoint, Pip steps in front of Stanley, pleading to Charlie, “Please don’t shoot.” To protect Pip, Stanley pushes her away. Pip pleads with Charlie more, but he does not budge. “Charlie looked at [Pip], watched her crying. And then he lowered the gun. [Charlie] took two heavy breaths. . . then Charlie fired. The sound ripped the earth out from under Pip. . .  He fired again. And again. And again. Again. Again. Until they were just empty clicks. Pip screamed, watching Stanley stagger back off his feet, falling hard against the floor.” Pip tries to save Stanley by performing CPR and placing pressure on the wounds. As she tries to help him, the building bursts into flames and smoke fills the room. “The smoke was getting lower and darker . . . Pip coughed with every breath. But she didn’t let go of him. She held on and she pulled” Stanley out of the burned building. Outside, on the grass, she continues to perform CPR, trying to save Stanley, but unfortunately, Stanley dies. This scene is rather vivid and lasts over a few pages. 

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • On her podcast, Pip recounts the trial of Max Hastings and how he drugged his victims. An “expert witness . . . [talked] about the effects of benzodiazepines like Rohypnol . . . The drug acts like a sedative and can have a depressant effect on the body’s central nervous system . . . It feels almost like being separated from your own body, like it just won’t listen to you, your limbs aren’t connected anymore.” Two women who were assaulted by Max, explained they “both only had one or two alcoholic drinks the nights of the” attacks.
  • The night after the memorial, Cara, Pip’s best friend, went to a party and “was so drunk she couldn’t speak in full sentences, not even half sentence, or quarter, broken up by cries or hiccups.” Pip picked up a “drunken, sobbing Cara.” The next morning, Cara texts Pip: “Urgh, been throwing up literally all day.” 
  • The night he went missing at a party, Jamie “went outside to have a cigarette.” 
  • People send Pip videos of the party Jamie went to. One video showed two of Pip’s classmates “downing two bottles of beer” and later playing beer pong. 
  • When Pip tells her parents she is investigating Jamie’s disappearance, they are angry. Pip’s mom reminds her, “you ended up in the hospital, Pippa, with an overdose. They had to pump your stomach.” 
  • Another witness tells Pip they saw Jamie after they “went to [their] buddy’s house on Weevil Road for some takeout and beers.”
  • As Pip stakes out the abandoned barnyard, she encounters three teenagers who regularly hang out there. Pip recognizes one who was “buying drugs from Howie Bowers last year.” She sees all three of them smoking cigarettes. After questioning them, Pip learns that they “carry drugs across state lines” for a local drug dealer and in return get “weed for free.” 

Language   

  • Profanity is used often throughout this book. Profanity includes shit, fuck, bitch, and ass.

Supernatural 

  • None

Spiritual Content 

  • None

The Astonishing Color of After

After her mother died of suicide, Leigh Chen Sanders is only sure of one thing—when her mother died, she turned into a large, beautiful, red bird.

Days after her mother dies, Leigh feels “colorless, translucent . . . [like] a jellyfish caught up in a tide, forced to go wherever the ocean willed.” She begins sleeping on the downstairs sofa, farthest away from where her mother died. The night before the funeral, Leigh hears a “sharp rap on the front door.” She is greeted by a “red-crowned crane . . . with a long feathery tail” where “every feather [is] a different shade of red, sharp and gleaming.” “Leigh,” the bird cries out, in the voice of her mother. Suddenly, the bird flies away and all Leigh is left with is “a single scarlet feather.”

Leigh tries to explain to her father what she has seen, but he is dismissive of her. After the bird delivers a package and note from Leigh’s maternal grandparents, asking Leigh to visit them in Taiwan, he still doesn’t fully believe her. Eventually, after Leigh’s father is visited by a strange wind and even stranger red feathers, he finally books himself and Leigh two plane tickets to Taiwan.

In Taiwan, Leigh meets her maternal grandparents for the first time. It’s awkward because even though she is half Taiwanese, Leigh does not speak Mandarin Chinese and knows very little about her grandparents. To make matters worse, after an argument with Leigh’s grandparents, her father decides to leave for Hong Kong, leaving Leigh alone with them.

But Leigh decides to take advantage of being in Taiwan. She is determined to find her mother—as the bird—and search for answers about her mother’s death. She asks her grandmother and her grandmother’s friend, Feng, to take her to every place her mother loved, in the hopes of finding traces of her mother and of the bird. On Leigh’s journey, she finds a box of incense. Every time Leigh lights one of the sticks of incense, she is brought through space and time into memories of the past—some are her own memories, but others are her mother’s and grandmother’s memories. As Leigh enters each memory, she learns more about her family history and their secrets, including memories about an aunt that Leigh never knew she had, and memories about her mother’s illness and the pain she went through. Through her search for her mother, Leigh connects with her grandparents and eventually finds comfort in their support and love.

As she grieves, Leigh also comes to terms with her mother’s suicide. While her mother was taking her own life, Leigh was kissing her long-time best friend, Axel. In a way, she not only feels responsible for her mother’s death but also for ruining her friendship with Axel. As Leigh travels through time and memory, she also traces her friendship with Axel, wondering where they went wrong and why their friendship was “crumbling.”

The Astonishing Color of After is a story about loss and grief, but also about love and growing up. In the end, Leigh never truly catches her mother, the bird. Yet as Leigh is grieving, she learns to remember her mother during both her illness and during the happy moments. Leigh realizes that catching the bird will not fix the pain she feels. She learns to accept that, when grieving, it will hurt for a long time.

Since The Astonishing Color of After deals with difficult topics of suicide, depression, and mental health, it is better suited for a high school audience. Leigh explains, “[My mother’s] illness was something I’d been afraid to look at head-on . . . There was also the fiery, lit-up version of my mother. How could a person like her be depressed?” Leigh discusses the stereotypical image she had of a depressed person, that made her “think of this group of kids at school who wore all black and thick eyeliner and listened to angry music and never showed their teeth.” Leigh comes to understand that depression is a disease, and her mother’s illness did not have a singular cause, that no one is to blame for her suicide. Leigh learns, “We can’t change anything about the past. We can only remember. We can only move forward.”

Overall, The Astonishing Color of After is a fantastic book. Though it deals with serious issues, it also works to break down barriers surrounding mental health. Leigh is a great leading character who is a flawed, complex person, who struggles to understand the world around her. But she is also incredibly strong and brave as she works through grief and tragedy. She shows readers that even in one’s darkest times there is hope, not necessarily for things to return to normal, but to move forward. With beautiful prose, terrific characters, and great use of magical realism, The Astonishing Color of After is a must-read.

Sexual Content 

  • Axel, Leigh’s long-time crush and best friend, kisses her. “Instead of bursting into sparks, my body froze.” Then, “Axel’s hands stretched around my back and unlocked me. I was melting, he had released my windup key, and I was kissing back hard, and our lips were everywhere and my body was fluorescent orange – no, royal purple – no. My body was every color in the world, alight.”
  • Caro, Leigh’s good friend, complains to Leigh about her family’s snowboarding trip. Caro exclaims “My grandparents were killing me . . . half the time they sat in the lodge making out.”
  • Leigh and Axel join Caro and her girlfriend Cheslin at a photo shoot. “At one point, Cheslin began to shed her clothes. Off came the shorts, the tank. She unhooked her bra–.” While Axel and Leigh are slightly bothered by her actions, Cheslin shrugs saying, “It is, after all, just a body.” Eventually, Axel and Leigh walk away from the photo shoot. They comment on Caro and Cheslin’s intimacy, saying “It was almost like we were watching them have sex or something.”
  • After almost seeing Axel naked, Leigh is flustered. Thinking about that specific memory, Leigh explains, “My right hand ended up down between my legs and I wondered about sex. I thought of all the skin you saw in R-rated movies and the way bare limbs just slid together like they were made to be entwined. I thought of Axel, imagined us sitting on his couch and taking off our clothes.”
  • During a school dance, Leigh is talking to a senior. He asked her if she had “ever been kissed” and she replied no. He then leans in and Leigh thinks, “I knew what was coming. His face loomed close, his lips first finding the edges of mine before sliding in toward the center. He was eager with his tongue, and he didn’t taste great.” When he leaned in again, Leigh “moved aside before he could make contact,” and walked quickly away.
  • When Leigh asks Caro how her relationship is going, Caro confides in her that she and Cheslin have “decided [they’re] ready to . . . y’know. Go all the way.”
  • After Axel and Leigh discuss their feelings for each other, Leigh does “possibly the bravest thing I’ve ever done: I close the space between us and kiss him hard. He’s surprised for only a fraction of a second. Then my hands are at his face, peeling his glasses up over his head and tossing them on my nightstand. My body, drawing him down onto the bed. His lips, between my teeth. Our legs, sliding against each other.”

Violence 

  • The premise of this book surrounds the topic of suicide, as Leigh’s mother kills herself. The act is not described in great detail, as Leigh “never saw the body up close.” She explains, “All I could see were my mother’s legs on the floor” and a large pool of blood.
  • Suicidal thoughts are briefly mentioned. In a memory, Leigh sees her mother “rising from her bed in the middle of the night. She walks quietly, slowly avoiding the creaks in the floor. Down in the garage, she slides into the sedan and sits in the driver’s seat, car keys biting into her palm. She’s thinking. Debating. If she turns on the car. If she doesn’t open the garage door. If no one in the house wakes, and she falls asleep at the wheel. The vehicle doesn’t even have to move. She could sleep forever.”

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • Before she dies, Leigh’s mother takes “a bottle of sleeping pills.”
  • When searching for a note left by her mom, Leigh and her father find “a pile of capsules. . .  Mom’s antidepressants” in the garbage; they hadn’t been taken in weeks.
  • Leigh’s mom was taking medicine for her depression and Leigh often sees her mom with a yellow pill bottle next to her. At one point, Leigh’s dad explains her mom has “tried so many medications. They work well for a lot of people, but they haven’t really worked on her.”
  • In a memory, Leigh sees her mother “in the basement, holding a bottle of OxyContin and a jug of bleach. She heard once that it takes ten seconds for something swallowed to reach the stomach.” Before Leigh can see more, the memory moves on. 
  • During a school dance, Leigh goes outside for air and sees a senior. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a steel flask, “unscrewed the top and took a swig.” He offers some to Leigh, but she declines. 

Language   

  • Profanity is used sparingly. Profanity includes goddamn, shit, and bullshit.

Supernatural 

  • One visit, the bird delivers a box, saying “The box is from your grandparents . . . bring it with you.” The box contains “yellowed letters, neat in a bundle. A stack of worn photographs, most of them black-and-white . . . [and] an intricately carved [jade] cicada” necklace, the necklace Leigh’s “mother wore every single day of her life.” Later, Leigh finds out her “grandparents put this package together [and] they burned it. . . They burned it so that your mother could have these with her on her next journey.”
  • One night “some strange, unexplainable compulsion makes” Leigh “roll out of bed and walk over to the dresser.” She finds “a curved Winsor red feather. And a slim, rectangular box [she’s] never seen.” Inside are “long sticks smelling of smoke and wreckage and used-up matches . . . incense.” Holding them, Leigh explains, “It’s strangely hot, like it’s been warming in the sun. And then: the whispering. The tiniest, most hushed of voices. It’s coming from the incense.” When lit, “the smoke that rises is inky black, drawing lines through the air . . . The smoke fills the room, until there’s only black.” By lighting each incense stick, Leigh is brought back in time, visiting memories. 
  • One night, as Leigh tries to fall asleep, she begins to see odd things. Leigh explains, “It happens in a flash, in a blink: My eyes close, and when they open again, the room is bright as day, the ceiling so white it’s glowing—except for the inky cracks branching off in all different directions about me. . . The in-between lines so thin, so black – like there’s nothing beyond that layer of ceiling but a gravity-defying abyss.” In the subsequent days, Leigh notices that the cracks on her ceiling are “widening, spreading farther. They’ve stretched across the entire surface and begun fissuring down the walls. An entire corner’s missing, like someone just took out a chunk of it. There’s nothing to be seen there, only oblivion made of the blackest black.” 
  • As Leigh wonders if her mother is a bird, something happens. “It’s as if my thoughts summon some kind of magic. The colors of my room begin to deepen their hues, like flowers blossoming. Crimson in the corners. Cerulean along the southern crack. Indigo by the window. Bioluminescent green tracing the creases of the wall closest to the bed. The things that are already black somehow take on a truer shade, pitch dark and empty.”
  • At a restaurant with her grandmother, Leigh finds a note stuck to the bottom of a dish, it has a few lines of an Emily Dickinson poem on it. Fred, who is helping Leigh, explains “This came from a ghost.” He sends the note back by burning it. Fred tells Leigh that this poem was burned for the wedding. Leigh questions him asking “what wedding?” Fred replies, “When I married the ghost of Chen Jingling. ” Chen Jingling is Leigh’s aunt. Fred married her aunt because Leigh’s grandparents were “grieving. So they could have peaceful hearts if they know their daughter has a husband.” He continues, “It’s like a normal wedding, but they made, like, a doll for her. Using bamboo and paper. She wears real clothing and jewelry. And afterward, everything was burned. We send it all to the spirit world.” Leigh asks Fred if he’s ever seen her ghost or spirit. Fred responds, “I see and hear and feel enough to know she is there.”
  • Fred explains that in Jilong, during Ghost Month, the Ghost Festival “is so big it brings the attention of many ghosts. And because of higher concentration of ghosts, they are more noticeable to the living . . . When ghosts come up here, they become more visible.” 
  • When Feng and Leigh are in a park, they see a young child and her mother. “The girl says she sees their grandfather. Her mother’s saying that’s impossible. . . Children know the truth . . . they hadn’t learned to walk around with a veil over their eyes. That’s a habit that comes with adulthood. Kids always know what they see. That’s why ghosts can’t hide from them.”
  • On the forty-eighth day after her mother dies, Leigh awakens to a weird smell. As she steps into the hall, the “scent gathers . . . [reeling her] in, down the hallway and toward the bathroom . . .”  As she opens the shower curtain, Leigh sees “in the bottom of the tub is a thick layer of feathers, dark and drenched, sticky and shining red.” Leigh calls her grandmother, but her grandmother does not see what Leigh is seeing. 
  • After the final memory Leigh sees, she “land[s] on the moon. Not the whole moon, but just a patch of it.” She is greeted by her mother, the bird. Her mother tells Leigh, “Goodbye.” Then, the “bird rises higher and higher. She turns and arcs. [Leigh] watch[es] as she burst[s] into flames . . . She burns like a star.”
  • Weird things happen to Leigh’s phone. For example, it begins to play music randomly – music Axel made for her. Leigh has been getting emails from Axel, he later explains while he wrote them, he “didn’t send those emails,” but instead kept them in his drafts. But magically they were sent to Leigh, and in their place in his draft inbox is a picture of a bird’s shadow. 
  • Towards the end of the novel, Leigh finds out the true identity of Feng. She was not Leigh’s grandmother’s friend. In fact, no one even remembers Feng’s existence. Feng is revealed to be the ghost of Jingling, Leigh’s aunt. She was there as Leigh’s guide “during the most difficult times,” after Leigh’s mother’s passing.

Spiritual Content 

  • In Taiwan, Leigh, her grandmother, and Feng visit Leigh’s mother’s favorite Taoist temple. Her grandmother explains to Leigh that her mother “would come here when she needed guidance when she was looking for an answer.” In “the heart of the temple, people bow before a crowned statue with a face of black stone, and dressed in imperial reds and gold.” 
  • In the temple, a young man is tossing things into the air. “In Taiwanese they’re called bwabwei. He’s asking his god a question. If one lands faceup and the other lands facedown, the answer is yes. If both land facedown, it means the god doesn’t like what he’s asking. If both land faceup, it means the god is laughing at him.”
  • Leigh, her grandmother, and Feng also visit a Buddhist temple, where Leigh’s mother spent most of her time and “where her spirit is.” There are hundreds of wooden plaques “painted in the color of marigolds. . . [The] yellow tablets bear the names of the dead,” including Leigh’s mother. There is a ceremony and “after a person’s death, they have forty-nine days to process their karma and let go of the things that make them feel tied to this life—things like people and promises and memories.” 

Open Mic Night at Westminster Cemetery

When sixteen-year-old Lacy Brink finds herself in the Westminster Cemetery late one night, she is dazed and confused. For, according to the strangers she meets, Lacy is dead. 

At first, Lacy is convinced this must be an elaborate prank or one of those game shows, and that the ghosts around her simply are committed actors. But Lacy soon realizes she truly is dead and is stuck in this cemetery with a bunch of constrictive rules: no cussing, return to your grave before daybreak, perform your “job without complaint,” only smile if “you have remarkably fine teeth,” and many, many more. There are over 250 rules that every resident of Westminster Cemetery must follow. If Lacy breaks three rules and earns three strikes, she will be suppressed—that means she will be unable to come aboveground and will be stuck in her grave “every single night and do nothing but listen to the goings-on above.” 

While trying to fit into her new surroundings and carefully trying not to gain three strikes, Lacy is also curious why she is here, what happened, and why she is even dead in the first place. 

In Westminster Cemetery, famous for being the resting place of the poet Edgar Allan Poe, Lacy meets a funny and interesting cast of characters who help guide her on her journey. This includes Sam, a lonely poet who is constantly looking for company, but “the sad truth is that there is no one in the cemetery [he] would call a friend.” Sam embraces Lacy and finds hope and friendship in her presence.  

There’s also Mrs. Steele, a stringent rule follower, who is the pseudo-leader in the cemetery and makes sure everyone is in line with the guidelines. Mrs. Steele sees Lacy as a nuance and a problem that is ruining the cemetery’s order. There are also a pair of star-crossed lovers “suffering from forbidden love,” as one of them is suppressed and the other is in charge of suppressing residents of the cemetery. There’s a doctor who is “dying for stimulation and misses teaching.” Lacy also meets Edgar Allan Poe, his wife Virginia, and his mother-in-law Mrs. Clemm. Lacy even meets the Raven who inspired Poe’s famous poem. 

While the residents help Lacy come to terms with her death, she helps them realize the potential of the afterlife. Through hosting an open mic night, Lacy creates a space for the residents of the Westminster Cemetery to express themselves and speak about their wants, their regrets, and their hopes. Together the group confronts Mrs. Steele and the strict rules governing them. Lacy, through her constant resistance, inspires the rest of the residents to stand up for themselves and to live their afterlife freely. While the cemetery’s rules try to apply perfection and order amongst the Dead, Lacy and the others realize “we’re all flawed.” The residents would rather embrace these flaws than continue to pretend they are perfect. 

Mary Amato has uniquely crafted Open Mic Night at Westminster Cemetery, blending prose, plays, and poems together. In the introduction, the book is presented as “no ordinary novel,” for it is a “stage play” full of “oddities.” Furthermore, there is an omniscient narrator who often, hilariously, and sarcastically, breaks the fourth wall, talking directly to the audience. For example, during the play’s intermission, the narrator suggests the reader “ponder what you think might happen next or which character you identify with most.” The narrator continues by saying that “you could even discuss the philosophical questions that the work raises thus far with numerous friends and acquaintances and encourage them to purchase copies of their own.” 

Open Mic Night at Westminster Cemetery is a great book and a must-read. Lacy and the other residents highlight the importance of embracing ones flaws and not following constrictive, oppressive rules. Furthermore, they show the importance of found family. While Lacy loses her mother and sister through death, she gains a loving, caring family in the residents of the Westminster Cemetery. With its great messages about found family and embracing one’s flaws, its fantastical worldbuilding and its incredibly unique structure, this book is a must-read.  

Sexual Content  

  • Two of the residents of the cemetery, Owen and Clarissa, love each other and have been separated because of the cemetery’s rules. When given the opportunity to bend these rules, “Owen tiptoes to Clarissa’s grave. She steps out before he can knock . . . Starry-eyed, they kiss.” Virginia, the wife of Edgar Allan Poe, explains in the afterlife “everything I long for is forbidden.” She further says, “I want to laugh too loud and dance too long and make love until inhibition is gone.” Addressing her husband, Virginia says, “I had admired you. But I had never felt that kind of desire for you.” 

Violence  

  • In a dramatic fashion, frustrated about his poetry, Sam “puts his journal back into his satchel, pulls out a knife, and stabs himself in the heart. He staggers around dramatically and then finally falls to the ground near [Edgar Allan Poe’s] monument with a thud.” Because Sam is dead and a ghost “the laws of physics . . . work differently among the Dead,” and stabbing himself did not hurt him in anyway but is rather for dramatic show.  
  • To prove to Lacy that she is really dead, Dr. Hosler “pulls a long surgical knife out of his bag and plunges it into her heart.” Lacy is “shocked, the knife sticking out of her chest, realizing that she feels no pain.” Lacy “removes the knife, feeling nothing. She examines her chest for blood but there is none. She checks to see if the blade is designed to collapse or play a trick.” But it is not. “Lacy hesitates and Dr. Hosler takes her hand with the knife and plunges it into his own chest.” Again Dr. Hosler is trying to prove to Lacy that she really is dead, and this is not a game. 
  • Lacy reminisces about the independence she had in middle school, such as being able to “ride city buses by herself.” With this independence, Lacy explains, she was exposed to “challenging moments” of life, like seeing “creepy guys who would unzip their pants, and once even the stabbing of a man by a woman impaired by opiate consumption.” 
  • In annoyance at the fact that she is dead, Lacy “knocks her head against the marble base. Once. Twice. Three times. LACY: It doesn’t even hurt. She does it again. Once. Twice. Three times.” 
  • Lacy explains to Edgar the theories surrounding his death. Edgar was found “delirious and destitute, wandering around in someone else’s clothing. Lacy says, ‘Some say you were drunk, others say you had been robbed and suffered a beating!’ Lacy continues, “Another theory is that you were kidnapped by a gang to be used as a straw voter in a local election.’” Lacy goes on to explain that Edgar was “taken to the hospital, where you lapsed in and out of consciousness” and later died.
  • Peter, one of the residents of Westminster Cemetery, reveals he killed himself. Peter says, “I died by my own hand, a knife to my wrist.” To have him buried in the cemetery, his mother lied and said Peter “died by accident while [he was] cleaning fish.” 
  • Henry Steele, Sam’s father, explains his faults and wrongs during the open mic night. Henry says as he “got deeper into debt and deeper into drink . . . it made me do things I didn’t want to do. I beat [my wife, Gertrude] and I beat [my sons].” When Sam was four, Henry explains, “Sam was scared to go to bed, and I wanted him to shut up, so I took him out back with a leather strap. He was like a little fawn, he was so small. Gertrude begged me to stop and I hit her harder than I ever had and told her to shut up . . . I was going to kill him. She could tell. So she did what she had to do. As soon as I felt the blow on the back of my head, I knew.” Mrs. Steele killed her husband, afraid for her son’s life and for her own.  
  • Lacy died in a car crash. “The light was turning red and a blue pick-up truck gunned into the intersection just as a black car turned from the left . . . The truck hit the car . . . and then the car spun and started rushing toward [me].” Lacy explains “at first I had this false sense of security because I wasn’t standing in the street, you know, I was standing on the sidewalk, pretty far from the curb. But then the car jumped the curb, and in that second before impact, I knew I was going to die.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Sarah, a resident of the cemetery and the President of the Food and Drink Committee, explains, “Mrs. Steele doesn’t allow alcohol.” To which Dr. Hosler points out “is ridiculous since it has no effect on us.” 
  • Olivia, Lacy’s sister, visits Lacy’s grave and shows up “drunk” many times. One night when Olivia comes, she was drunk and had taken a painkiller “she stole out of the medicine cabinet at Zane’s dad’s house.” Olivia explains, “she knows that neither the drug nor the booze will be able to soften the cold, hard shell that now defines her.”  
  • Another night, Olivia arrives with “a bottle in her left hand—not even bothering to hide it—and her right hand is wrapped in a makeshift bandage . . . Half an hour ago she took a second painkiller too close to the first and washed it down with vodka that she sweet-talked an old man into buying for her.” After a while, Olivia’s mom comes to pick her up and takes her home.  
  • Lacy explains to the other residents at Westminster Cemetery that often at an open mic, “tea and coffee or beer and wine” is served.  
  • Edgar Allan Poe is regarded as someone who “drank and gambled.” During the open mic night, Edgar says, “So the drunk keeps drinking / though he wants to be sober. / And the lover keeps cheating / though insisting that it’s over. / And the gambler who has guilt / runs to place another bet / while his family tries to live on / cold soup and regret.” 

Language    

  • Profanity is used often. This includes fuck and ass.  

Supernatural  

  • The premises of this novel is based on the existence of ghosts. The story is set in Westminster Cemetery in Baltimore, where Edgar Allan Poe is buried. At night, many of the residents rise and socialize with each other, “enjoy[ing] appropriate recreation.”  
  • The Dead cannot feel pain and are not affected by mortal needs like eating or sleep. Furthermore, those who are alive cannot see, hear, or feel the ghosts, “so all those ghost stories about spirits knocking on walls and creaking about in attics and blowing curtains and extinguishing lights . . . those aren’t true.” 

Spiritual Content  

  • Sarah, one of the residents of Westminster Cemetery, exclaims, “who says God loves being silent?” 

by Mikaela Querido 

Aftermath

Three years ago, Skye’s older brother Luka was implicated as one of three perpetrators in a school shooting that claimed the lives of four victims. Though Luka never fired a weapon, the police saw him walk out of the bathroom holding a gun, and when he didn’t drop it, they shot him dead. The evidence that he was a willing participant could not be more damning than that, though Skye cannot fathom how her “kind and thoughtful brother . . . joined his friends in a school shooting.” In the wake of endless harassment and her father walking out on the family, Skye and her mother moved away to live with her grandmother.  

However, a turn of events forces Skye to move in with her aunt back in the town she grew up in. She knows that while much of the country has forgotten the shooting, “the people here will have not forgotten. They will not have forgiven.” She finds herself going to school surrounded by peers who were personally impacted by the shooting. One of these peers is her former best friend, Jesse, who lost his older brother that fateful day. Skye had anticipated the isolation, dirty looks, and cruel comments. However, strange events start occurring and it seems Skye is being given cryptic clues that there is more to the story of the tragedy. Skye and Jesse end up reconnecting and teaming up to uncover the truth. Could Luka have been innocent? More urgently, could the true third perpetrator still be out there, planning another attack?  

Aftermath is largely told from Skye’s perspective. She is a well fleshed out narrator and the reader is able to sympathize with the shame and defeat she feels as the sister of a school shooter. She struggles with misplaced guilt over the lives lost due to her brother. It’s heartbreaking to see her suppressed grief over losing Luka. As she puts it, “You aren’t allowed to grieve for someone like Luka. It doesn’t matter if he was an amazing brother.” However, the book falters in the chapters that are told from Jesse’s perspective, which are in third person. The perspectives do not alternate evenly and Jesse’s point of view is shared less frequently. Moreover, the reader might feel a disconnect with his character due to the different perspectives. Unfortunately, Jesse’s narrations end up feeling unnecessary and they disrupt the narrative’s flow. 

Though Skye is a well-rounded protagonist, there are areas of her character that will leave the reader wanting. For instance, her relationship with her deceased brother is not adequately explored. The novel states that they were close, and offers a couple memories, but not enough depth for readers to understand their strong bond. In addition, Skye’s romance with Jesse falls quite flat. Since the two friends were developing an attraction to each other before the shooting, it’s rather predictable that the flame will be rekindled once they cross paths again, but their romance ends up feeling like an unnecessary addition to the story.  

Aftermath is well written and easy to follow; plus, it has interesting twists and turns. Though some of the events that take place admittedly stretch the suspension of disbelief, young readers will likely be too wrapped up in the story to care. As the sister of an apparent school shooter, Skye’s perspective is intriguing and not one commonly found in stories that handle this type of subject matter. Unfortunately, the book loses some of this uniqueness when Luka is revealed as having been innocent, even heroic. As such, Skye is given an easy out from her shame and her struggle to balance mourning her brother while also accepting that he took part in the tragedy. 

Even though Aftermath is a well-told story that manages to stand out among other YA novels that handle shootings, it is undeniably flawed. Despite this, Aftermath is definitely worth reading for those interested in crime fiction, especially if they are interested in viewing crime from a unique perspective. However, readers might end up being let down by the conclusion’s reveal, which feels like a bit of a cop-out. Readers who want to explore the grief associated with school shootings may also want to read Every Moment After by Joseph Moldover and Shooter by Caroline Pignat. 

Sexual Content 

  • After the shooting, Skye read message boards where someone suggested that Skye should be sexually assaulted. The post reads, “‘I hear one of those bastards has a sister. . . Maybe someone should take her and –’ I won’t finish that sentence. . .”  At the time, Skye was thirteen and she was “reading what some troll thinks should be done to me and wondering how that would help anything.” 
  • Skye recalls being thirteen and playing basketball with Jesse. She says that Jesse’s older brother, Jamil, looked her “up and down in a way that [made] me want to hug the ball to my chest.” 
  • Jesse recalls the same incident mentioned above, adding that his brother watched Skye leave with “his gaze glued to her ass . . . [saying,] ‘She’s gonna be hot someday, little brother. I’m gonna be thanking you then, for keeping her around.’” 
  • Skye is harassed by a group of older boys, and one of them tells her, “You’ve got a smart mouth. How about I show you a better way to use it?” Nothing ends up coming from this threat. 
  • Skye remembers her father being away on business trips, speculating that he was “screwing his business partner.” 
  • When Skye and Jesse kiss for the first time, Skye describes “[pressing her] lips to his,” but the two of them are interrupted before things escalate further. 
  • Skye and Jesse begin kissing passionately. She says, “I’m finally kissing Jesse . . . his arms tighten around me, the kiss deepening, igniting a spark that is definitely not for middle grade Skye.” 

Violence 

  • The shooting that took place three years prior to the events of the book is referenced several times. Skye recounts that the police saw her brother with a gun and that “they told him to drop it. He didn’t. They shot him. . . [Luka’s friends] Isaac and Harley opened fire elsewhere. When it was over, four kids were dead, ten injured. Harley was arrested. Isaac had fled. He was found two days later – dead, having saved the last bullet for himself.” 
  • An anonymous number sends Skye illegally obtained footage taken by students during the shooting. The first video she receives is of a victim “under her desk, sprawled and there’s blood . . . her dead eyes staring.” She receives videos of the other victims’ bloodied bodies as well. 
  • Skye joins the newspaper at school and finds several notes about her, one of them saying, “I hope someone puts a bullet through Skye Gilcrist’s head.” 
  • Skye finds herself locked in the newspaper room and someone shoves paper and lit matches under the door causing a fire. Skye says, “I feel heat on my leg and look down to see sparks scorching through my jeans. I smack them out and stay down . . .[I] grab the metal [door] handle and fall back, hissing in pain.” She finally manages to break out and pull the fire alarm, having escaped any real damage from the flames. 
  • Jesse, troubled since his brother’s death, apparently got in trouble for a series of fistfights, “culminating in an attack on a younger boy.” 
  • A group of football players—Grant, Duke and Marco—harass Skye on the street. Jesse sees and runs over to defend her, causing a fight to break out. Skye narrates that Jesse “grabs Duke by the jacket and throws him down . . . Grant aims a kick straight at Jesse’s head . . .  [his] boot hits him in the face.” A bystander intervenes and the fight is stopped. Jesse is left with a bloody nose. The scene is described over five pages. 
  • At school, a boy starts intimidating Skye and Jesse, and the situation escalates into this boy attacking Skye. Skye describes, “his hand slams into my shoulder, and I fly into the lockers. Jesse grabs the guy by the back of the shirt and yanks him away . . . I grab the guy’s arm. As he yanks away, my nails rake down his arm.” Someone intervenes shortly afterward. 
  • While Skye and Jesse are investigating clues at a park, someone attempts to abduct Skye at knifepoint. Skye describes him locking his arm “over [her] throat… [she] can’t breathe.” She fights him off. He lets go and takes a knife from his belt. The blade “slashes through [her] jacket. Slashes through skin and into flesh.” He shoves her into a pit but flees when Jesse finds the two of them. Skye’s cut is quite severe, and she is later treated by a doctor. 
  • In the book’s final chapters, Tiffany, the girlfriend of one of the perpetrators of the shooting, is revealed to have been the true mastermind behind the massacre. She breaks into Skye’s apartment with a gun and sedatives. She has a confrontation with Skye where it is revealed that Tiffany sedated her aunt and is planning to kill her and frame Skye. Skye manages to drive a knife “into her, just enough to make her drop the weapon and try to grab me, but I have her by the wrist. . . and two seconds later, I have her on her knees, arm pinned behind her head.” This all takes place over the course of eight pages. 

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • A group of high school football players that are harassing Skye is implied to be drunk. Skye tells them, “It seems like you’ve already had a few [drinks].” 
  • Jesse has been taking steroids at the recommendation of his track trainer, unbeknownst to his parents and the school. He eventually confesses and is kicked off the team. 
  • During the kidnapping attempt, Skye’s would-be abductor attempts to put her to sleep by putting a chloroform cloth over her mouth. 
  • Skye’s friend Chris is a weed smoker. 

Language 

  • After the shooting, Skye says someone wrote: “DIE, BITCH” in her locker. Bitch is used on multiple other occasions. 
  • Some refer to Skye’s lesbian aunt as a dyke. 
  • Shit is used twice. 
  • Profanity such as damn, hell, and ass is used often. 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content 

  • Skye says that people have told her that they hope her brother is “rotting in hell.” 
  • As she arrives at the airport near her hometown, Skye describes “praying that [she isn’t] recognized.”  

The Iron Tomb

When Sam Force goes to Egypt to spend the summer with his Uncle Jasper, he is ready for the usual vacation filled with museums and lessons about pharaohs and ancient gods. Instead, Sam arrives at the airport and learns that his uncle is missing and wanted by the police.

After narrowly escaping his own arrest, Sam sets off to find his uncle using a series of clues that Jasper left behind. But a group of mysterious men is hot on his trail, and Sam knows they’re willing to do whatever it takes to track down Jasper and whatever he was looking for.

Now all Sam has to do is find him first.

With the help of his new friends, Hadi and Mary, and using knowledge of ancient Egyptian history, Sam makes his way across Egypt determined to find his uncle. And if he does find Jasper before it’s too late, he may also uncover the secret of the Iron Tomb. . . a secret that could change Sam’s life forever.  

The Iron Tomb starts off with instant suspense as Sam gets to Egypt and is forced to hide from the police. Since Sam doesn’t know anyone from Egypt, except for his uncle, he must rely on Hadi and Mary, two teens he just met. Despite just meeting them, Sam puts his full trust in them which is unrealistic considering their unusual behavior. For example, Sam is riding in the back of a delivery truck and the police are hot on his trail. Mary suddenly calls and tells Sam to move to the truck’s roof. Then, Mary and her ‘handler,’ fly over the truck in a helicopter and save Sam. Despite this, Sam doesn’t question Mary’s motives until he overhears a phone conversation where Mary reveals that she is sure Sam can lead them to his Uncle Jasper. 

Even though many of the events are unrealistic, middle-grade readers will enjoy the non-stop action and unexpected twists. Learning about Egyptian history is a bonus. Black and white pictures are scattered throughout the book. The illustrations show maps and clues, and help readers picture some of the complicated plot points. Readers who enjoy ciphers and deciphering clues will enjoy trying to solve the mystery along with Sam.  

Even though The Iron Tomb focuses on the mystery of Jasper’s disappearance, the book doesn’t shy away from bloody violence. For example, when Sam is going through the sewers, two men dump a body into the water and a hoard of rats begins feasting on the corpse. The scene is graphic, bloody, and doesn’t advance the plot. In addition, one man kills another, then drinks his blood in order to survive. The graphic descriptions of violence will upset some readers.  

Despite the book’s flaws, readers eager for a dangerous adventure with plenty of surprises will find The Iron Tomb an entertaining read. While Sam is too trusting, he is also a smart, determined boy who doesn’t give up. Sam’s bravery and determination can be admired even though he often makes mistakes. Even though The Iron Tomb solves the mystery of Jasper’s disappearance, the conclusion clearly sets up another mystery that will take Sam to Belize in the second book of the series, Bones of the Sun God. Readers who want to learn more about Egyptian history should trek to the library and also grab a copy of The Curse of King Tut’s Mummy by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld. Readers who are up for more action-packed adventure should also read Charlie Thorne and the Curse of Cleopatra by Stuart Gibbs and Addison Cooke and the Treasure of the Incas by Jonathan W. Stokes.  

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • Five years prior to the book, Sam’s parents were murdered “in a hotel room robbery.”  
  • While in his uncle’s apartment, a man grabs Sam. “A thick woolen sweater snaked itself around his chest and wrenched him away from the sink. Sam cried out in surprise as he was pulled back against the body of a large man.” Sam is able to escape. 
  • A man with short hair is following Sam, who tries to hide in a store. When the man finds him, Sam throws jars of olives at him. “The Short-Haired Man laughed as the first one smashed near his boots. . . But the laughing stopped when the second bottle of olives exploded on the wall, showering Sam’s target with olives and shards of glass.” In order to escape, Sam pushes a shelf unit onto the man. “The ceiling-high wall of goods crashed on top of him. . . Sam could hear the man screaming and cursing.” The scene is described over two and a half pages. 
  • To escape the Short-Haired Man, Sam goes into the sewers where a “furry mass” of rats follows him. Sam shoots a rat and then “tiny fangs flashed in the light as the mob attacks their wounded comrade.” 
  • When Sam is in the sewer, someone throws a body into the water. “Sam watched with sick fascination as the rats went to work on their floating buffet.”  
  • One of the men who disposed of the body goes into the water after the man’s wallet. “Using the flashlight as a club, he belted the rats out of the way, grabbed the wallet, and waved it triumphantly. . . The wallet was covered in so much blood it looked like it had been pulled out of the victim’s chest. . .The blood dribbled down the man’s arm as he held his prize in the air.” 
  • When the rats attack the man with the wallet, he “howled and swatted one of his attackers with his flashlight. . .Rats began launching themselves at the terrified Egyptian, who dropped the wallet and began swatting rats. . .” The rat scene is described over two pages. 
  • When Sam tries to escape the sewer, the killers go after him. Sam throws his flashlight at the men. “The thud of metal on flesh triggered a stream of harshly spoken Egyptian, but the figure kept climbing. . .” The man grabs Sam, but Sam is able to escape. 
  • Sam, Bassem, and Mary try to escape two men on motorcycles. “Bassem took one step back and flicked the rod up like a samurai presenting his sword to his opponent. As the first bike came toward him, he swung down and across in one smooth, vicious motion that caught the rider in the middle of his chest.” The man crashes to the ground. Sam and his companions flee. 
  • The other biker continues to follow Sam and his companions, who hide in an open-air market. When the biker is in the middle of the crowd, Bassem throws smoke bombs into the crowd. “Chaos had exploded in the square. High-pitched shrieks from goats, donkeys, and men combined. It was like a bomb going off on Noah’s Ark.” Sam and his companions escape into the desert. 
  • When Sam finds his Uncle Jasper, Jasper looks like a “lifeless, blood-splattered body.” At first, Sam thinks Uncle Jasper is dead, but later Sam finds out the blood was from Jasper’s bloody nose. 
  • The Short-Haired Man slaps Sam. “The lighting-fast slap across the face sounded like a snapping stick in the confines of the dining room. His vision clouded; his eyes watered.” Later, the man slaps Hadi, a boy who works for him. “Hadi eyed his attacker through blood-covered fingers as he tried to stem the gush coming from the pulpy mess that had been his nose.” 
  • In an effort to kill Sam and Uncle Jasper, the Short-Haired Man causes an explosion that leaves Sam and Uncle Jasper buried underground.  
  • Sam finds a letter about how two men—Jason and Thomas—were trapped in a boat that got caught in a storm and buried by sand. The two men fight, and Jason “drove the wooden stake into the jugular vein and watched as his life force spilled out of him. . . A rich red pool, creeping out from his body across the floor. . .” Later, the man confesses that he “fed upon another” and drank the dying man’s blood. 
  • The Short-Haired Man plans to kill Hadi because Hadi knows too much. The man “straightened his arm and took aim at the back of Hadi’s head. The boy’s whimpering died away. . .” Sam distracts the man and saves Hadi’s life. 
  • Sam tries to shoot the Short-Haired Man with an old flare gun. The man mocks him and pulls the trigger several times. When the flare gun doesn’t go off, the man puts the gun in his pants. Then, “Thick and white, the smoke belched from the Short-Haired Man’s jacket, and he began to scream. . . Fat red tongues of flame signaled the second stage of an explosion that was meant to happen hundreds of feet up in the air. The Short-Haired Man was transformed into a fiery ball of flailing arms and legs. . .” The man falls into a shaft. 
  • The Short Haired Man climbs up the shaft, and grabs onto Sam’s ankle. Sam sees “five bloody, burn-ravaged fingers were locked around his ankle . . . hovering in the white smoke coming out of the shaft, was barely recognizable as human—a burnt and swollen head coated in sand made wet by the weeping skin.” Eventually, the man falls into the shaft and is buried by sand. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • After breaking his ribs, Sam is given an “injection” to dull the pain.  

Language    

  • Pissed off is used twice. 
  • The Short-Haired Man calls Hadi “a sewer rat working for money.” 

Supernatural 

  • Sam is given a scarab beetle necklace because “it is good luck and will keep us safe.” 

Spiritual Content  

  • Akhenaten was named “the heretic king because he banned the worship of all the gods and decreed there would be only one. Aten, the sun god.” 

Jumper

Blair Scott has been “hell-bent on a career in wildland firefighting” since she was in high school. Being only nineteen, she and her longtime best friend, Jason, don’t expect to be recruited when the Forest Service calls for an additional class of smokejumpers. It’s a particularly rough fire season, though, and they are both accepted. The only thing holding Blair back is type 1 diabetes, and with Jason’s help, she is determined to hide her condition from their instructors.  

Training is strenuous, and both Jason’s and Blair’s families become more insistent that Blair tell the truth. They point out that the medical forms for the job say “‘diabetes may be disqualifying. It’s not an absolute.’” Blair doesn’t want to take any chances. Things are going too well to risk stalling the momentum. Eventually, however, things do begin to spiral out of control. When tragedy strikes, Blair is forced to pick up the pieces and decide where she goes from this point. 

Blair narrates the story, allowing for meaningful insights into her life and why she is so passionate about smokejumping. Also apparent is underlying guilt about Jason having to look after her. He is fiercely protective of her, to the point where Blair wonders if he would even be pursuing a job as a smokejumper if “he weren’t so committed to keeping [her] out of the ER.” This sentiment is most poignantly felt after a tragic accident that leaves Blair struggling to cope.  

The friendship between Blair and Jason is the highlight of the novel. It is refreshing to see Blair, who is a lesbian, enjoy a strong but purely platonic relationship with a man. Their dynamic is very enjoyable. At one point, Blair playfully muses that “Jason and I always fall for the same girls, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it’s him they want . . . If I were interested in guys, even a little, I’d probably join them.” The reader feels the connection between these two characters very deeply, and, as a result, the experiences Jason and Blair have together are impactful.  

Jumper is not a novel for everyone. The narrative is a slow burn that might be less than engaging for certain readers. A large portion of the story focuses on Blair and Jason’s training, and while it is undeniably an intense process and the risk of Blair having a health emergency looms, this part of the book is largely uneventful. In addition, Blair’s stubborn hotheadedness occasionally makes her difficult to like. Her ambitions are easy to empathize with, but her reckless nature can be frustrating as suspense is built around the danger she is putting herself in. 

Despite the aforementioned flaws, Jumper is a solid story about two friends fighting against the world. Readers who are interested in platonic male-female friendships will get a lot of enjoyment out of Blair’s bond with Jason. Additionally, those who are diabetic will relate to the protagonist’s struggles. The book also contains plenty of interesting information about smokejumping and just how difficult and dangerous the occupation is. The reader will be left with an appreciation for people in this line of work. Readers who enjoy Jumper should also check out the Peak Marcello Adventure Series by Roland Smith which takes readers into the suspenseful world of rock climbing. 

Sexual Content 

  • Blair is attracted to one of the female instructors, and Jason jokes that seeing the two of them run together is “orgasmic or something.” 

Violence 

  • In her childhood, Blair was bullied by a boy, so she retaliated by punching his nose “so hard, he squealed like a pig. Bled like one, too.” 
  • Early on, Blair and the other trainees are informed that a hand crew in Idaho “got caught between two walls of fire . . . there [were] no survivors.” 
  • In the Idaho fire, “members of the shot crew deployed to help clear an exit path sustained serious injuries that [grounded] some of them for the rest of the season.” 
  • Blair’s training is quite strenuous and results in minor injuries along the way, particularly when jumping. Blair describes: “[slamming] down on my already bruised hip . . . everything hurts, but I breathe into the pain. I can handle the pain.” 
  • One of Blair’s trainers stresses the importance of bending one’s knees when landing from a jump. He says, “you may have braces on your ankles. But there’s nothing to keep you from jamming your hip into the socket. I’ve only seen that happen once . . . I’d never heard a human being scream like that.” 
  • During a forest fire, Jason is killed in an avalanche when a boulder hits him in the chest. Blair hears “that meaty thwack of hard meeting soft, of expelled breath and crushed bones . . .  Jason is on the ground . . . There is a peculiar dent in his chest.” 

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • One of the trainers frequently chews Nicorette gum. 
  • After dinner, most of the recruits “head for the bar, while the four of us still underage park it outside the A & W next door.” Fellow underaged recruit Luís suggested joining the guys at the bar, saying “come on, goody-goodies, it’s only beer.” He convinces everyone but Blair to go with him. 
  • Blair uses insulin shots due to her diabetes. 
  • After a particularly rough landing, Blair says that she’ll have Advil with her dinner. 
  • Blair buys a “big bottle of ibuprofen” to lessen the pain caused by injuries sustained during training. 

Language 

  • Damn is said frequently.  
  • Occasionally shit, hell, and variations of ass are used. 
  • Blair says that Jason has a “natural resting-bitch face.” 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content 

  • A head trainer tells the newly minted smokejumpers, “‘If you’re the praying sort, ask for an early fall and a long, hard winter so we can regroup.’” 
  • During Jason’s funeral, Blair notes the pastor talking about Jason “like he was his favorite altar boy or something . . . Jason wasn’t religious. Why would they bother pretending he was?”

Just Three

Jillian is a teenage girl still reeling from the loss of her mother. But before her death, Jillian’s mom hired a woman named Rebecca to help out around the house. Two years later, Rebecca is still there, seemingly serving as a replacement for Jillian’s mother. When Jillian catches a romance beginning to blossom between her father and Rebecca, she panics and decides to set her dad up on a dating website. Her father is skeptical, but for Jillian’s sake, he agrees to go on three dates. Just three.

Chaos ensues. The first date ends in a chicken attack. On the second date, Jillian’s dad goes out with a pro biker and gets left in the dust. During the third date, Jillian and her brother spy on their dad’s picnic from the bushes and watch as it devolves into the woman yelling at him for cheating at chess. After witnessing the disastrous third date, Jillian realizes that Rebecca makes her father happy and that his happiness is what is truly important.

One of the main flaws of Just Three is that Jillian is not well-developed. Her primary character trait seems to be a strong dislike of Rebecca, who, in addition to being a blameless victim, is incredibly likable and described as having “this way of making everyone smile.” Jillian’s hatred for Rebecca is ostensibly balanced out by her love for her father, but she spends much of the novel attempting to sabotage his budding relationship. For these reasons, readers may find Jillian to be a somewhat unlikable character.

Just Three is told in first-person narration and alternates between Jillian’s matchmaking hijinks and her conversations with friends at camp. Like Jillian’s character, this second aspect of the story is not especially developed. The camp that Jillian attends is left unnamed and unexplained, and there is no clear arc within these conversations. The author hints at a romantic subplot between Jillian and a “nerdy” boy named Victor who she has a crush on, but this is not resolved in any meaningful way.

Meanwhile, Jillian’s matchmaking character arc is resolved suddenly in a single scene toward the end of the book. After the hostile third date, Jillian sees her dad with Rebecca and observes, “For some reason, [Rebecca] didn’t bug me so much this time. She was always so good-natured. I couldn’t imagine her ever screaming at my dad.” Given Jillian’s stalwart opposition to Rebecca up to this point, readers may find this emotional pivot to be rushed and unbelievable.

Despite the lack of character development, there are bright spots in Just Three. A key theme is learning to prioritize the needs of loved ones, even when it is difficult. While there is not an in-depth exploration of grief, children who have lost a parent or whose parents are dating other people may find Jillian’s actions relatable.

Released by Orca Current books, whose titles are written specifically for teens, Just Three ramps up quickly, but it’s a mixed bag. The easy-to-read story includes plenty of wacky scenes, which readers may find humorous. The book presents a surface-level exploration of grief and moving on. However, flat characters and a formulaic storyline detract from the quality of this premise. If you’re looking for a high-interest book written specifically for reluctant readers that explores family conflicts, you may want to start with In Plain Sight by Laura Langston.

Sexual Content

  • Jillian notes that all the girls at school “have the hots” for one of her friends.
  • Jillian’s father and Rebecca are described as “flirting” at several points throughout the book. This flirting mainly consists of laughing together or having lively conversations.
  • Jillian hears about a dating site and sets up a profile for her dad. He goes on three dates.
  • Jillian’s brother mentions that their dad “get[s] lots of attention from ladies” when he walks the dog in the park.

Violence

  • At a hobby farm, chickens attack Jillian. They surround her, “peck[ing],” “screeching,” and “flapping.” She emerges “covered in scratches.”
  • During a pool game, one of Jillian’s friends is accidentally hit “right in the face” with a ball.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Jillian’s brother calls her and a friend “geeks.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Naomi Brenden

The Hand on the Wall

Ellingham Academy must be cursed. Three people are now dead. One, a victim of either a prank gone wrong or a murder. Another, dead by misadventure. And now, an accident in Burlington has claimed another life. All three in the wrong place at the wrong time. All at the exact moment of Stevie’s greatest triumph. She knows who Truly Devious is. She’s solved it. The greatest case of the century.

At least, she thinks she has. With this latest tragedy, it’s hard to concentrate on the past. Not only has someone died in town, but David disappeared of his own free will and is up to something. Stevie is sure that somehow—somehow—all these things connect. The three deaths in the present. The deaths in the past. The missing Alice Ellingham and the missing David Eastman. Somewhere in this place of riddles and puzzles, there must be answers.

Then, another accident occurs as a massive storm heads toward Vermont. This is too much for the parents and administrators. Ellingham Academy is evacuated. Obviously, it’s time for Stevie to do something stupid. It’s time to stay on the mountain and face the storm—and a murderer.

The final book in the Truly Devious Series continues the fast-paced intriguing story that solves both the Ellingham’s kidnapping and the murders at the Ellingham Academy. Stevie is relentless in her desire to solve both mysteries and in the end, she is able to tie up all of the events in a satisfying manner. Even though the story ends in the typical detective story confrontation with all of the suspects together, the conclusion still has several surprises.

In addition to solving the mysteries, several of Stevie’s friends are able to find evidence of Senator Edward King’s corrupt behavior and come up with an ethical way to stop the senator from running for president. While his son, David, plays a part in King’s demise, David’s erratic behavior throughout the series makes him an unlikeable character who is difficult to relate to. While David had a difficult childhood, his bad behavior is never fully explained. And even though he treats Stevie with contempt and cruelty, in the end, she forgives him in order to give her a happy-ever-after ending.

The Truly Devious Series is highly entertaining and will keep mystery-loving readers on the edge of their seats. Even though the story revolves around high school students, the content has some gory details, some steamy scenes, and mature content. Readers who are ready for more mature mysteries should grab a copy of The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur or I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga.

Sexual Content

  • Francis and Eddie, two students from 1936, have sex. Francis thinks, “there were certainly other couples who had sex on the Ellingham campus—one or two. Those people did it giddy, bashfully, and wracked with terror. Eddie and Francis came to each other without fear or hesitation.”
  • While walking through the woods, Eddie tells Francis, “Once more. Up against the tree, like an animal.” Francis declines because she is late.
  • Francis hears that Eddie “fathered a baby once and the girl had to be sent away somewhere outside of Boston. . .”
  • At one point, Stevie and David kiss “over and over, each one renewing the last.” Then later, David “leaned down to kiss her, his lips warm against hers.”

Violence

  • The murders from the first two books of the series are summarized.
  • When a detective finds one of the kidnappers, he “punched him in the face, sending him crashing into some trash cans. When he was down, he flipped Jerry on his back and slapped a pair of cuffs on his wrists, pinning his arms behind his back. . .” The detective removes the man’s gun, binds him, and then ties him to the seat of a car.
  • When Ellingham’s wife was kidnapped, she was quiet for days. When a kidnapper let the “kid” play outside, the kid ran and hid. Ellingham’s wife “jumped” the kidnapper. “She jumped on top of me, dug her thumbs into my eyes. I dropped my gun. . . I grabbed a shovel or something from the wall and hit her with it, hard. There was blood, but. . . she was still standing. . .” When the other kidnapper sees what’s going on, he shoots and kills Ellingham’s wife. The scene is described over a page.
  • One of the kidnappers, Jerry, takes a detective, George, to where he left Ellingham’s daughter. The girl was left with a stranger in a remote location, where she died of measles weeks before the detective arrived. When George sees the girl’s grave, he picked “up the shovel, and was shocked by the first blow, which knocked him to his knees. They came fast, a flurry mixed with cries and gulps. The snow splattered with blood.” Then George kills the man who had been caring for the child; the murder is not described.
  • A man explains that when Ellingham died, most of the body wasn’t found. “We found three hands, a leg, a foot, some skin.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • While waiting for the birth of a child, a family friend drinks wine.
  • Ellingham’s wife was addicted to cocaine. Her friend noticed her “behavior was changing; she was fickle, impatient, secretive.”
  • Fenton, a professor at a local university was an alcoholic. She died in a suspicious house fire.
  • To help her through panic attacks, Stevie takes Ativan.
  • In 1936, some of the rich girls hid their gin and cigarettes in the walls.
  • At Ellingham’s wife’s funeral, some of the guests drank “countless glasses of champagne.”
  • While trying to track down a suspect, a detective goes into a bar and orders a “glass of whisky.” Later, he shares a drink of whiskey with a friend.

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, bitch, bullshit, damn, goddamn, fuck, hell, holy shit, pissed, and shit.
  • My God, oh my God and Jesus are used as exclamations frequently.
  • There is some name calling including dick, asshole, and jackass.
  • One of the faculty calls the students morons and boneheaded.
  • In a diary entry, a student calls Ellingham a “sanctimonious prick.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • One of Ellingham Academy’s students from 1936, “set up a ring of candles on the ground and drew a pentagram in the dirt. He was always doing things like that—playing at paganism.”

The Screaming Staircase

In London, ghosts haunt the living and only children have the ability to sense these otherworldly beings and remove them from our world. Lucy Carlyle and her co-workers, Anthony Lockwood and George Cubbins, are agents working for Lockwood & Co., an independent agency without adult supervisors. After an assignment goes wrong and the agency burns a client’s property down, the trio are forced to investigate the most haunted house in England: Combe Carey Hall.

The suspicious circumstances behind Combe Carey Hall might place Lockwood & Co. in even more danger than they realize, especially as they attempt to solve the mystery behind a decades-old murder. Will Lucy and her co-workers make it out of Combe Carey Hall alive? Can they help a restless spirit pass on? Or will they become just another one of the property’s victims? And what is the mysterious owner of the hall hiding?

The novel is written from Lucy’s point of view and, while she comes off as far more mature than the average teenager, her insecurities and snarky personality make her relatable without compromising her likability. The banter and trust between Lucy, Anthony, and George make each of the characters shine. Every character has strengths and weaknesses that complement each other, and this elevates their teamwork skills. In addition, the dynamic between the trio helps emphasize the importance of relying on others while also trusting in one’s own abilities. After the group escapes Combe Carey Hall alive, Lockwood even says, “I trust your talent and your judgment, and I’m proud to have you on my team.”

Stroud’s worldbuilding around the supernatural elements of this alternate London is extremely interesting and intricate. A variety of different ghosts are introduced, plus several government and private agencies that investigate the paranormal. Stroud deftly addresses how the appearance of ghosts would impact London on a wider scale. To help readers understand this complicated world, a glossary of new terms is used, which includes specific agencies and specters’ abilities.

The Screaming Staircase is an excellent introduction to more macabre horror stories, especially for tweenagers who love longer novels. The book’s grim atmosphere is more intense than most novels geared toward young children, with consistent descriptions of death and its central mystery being related to murder. However, the descriptions of violence never breach into anything too graphic, and Stroud’s light-hearted dialogue ensures that the book is never too grueling. Nevertheless, the horror elements, while toned down for a younger audience, are still present. Younger readers could easily get nightmares, so consider avoiding this book if your child is easily frightened.

A double-edged facet of the book is its lack of a true moral. The Screaming Staircase is not trying to convey any deep messages or complex ideas, but that lack of intention helps ensure the novel is a fun and down-to-earth read. The fun dynamic between Lucy and her co-workers, interesting ideas presented in a haunted London, and macabre elements make Lockwood and Co.: The Screaming Staircase an excellent introduction to YA horror.

Sexual Content

  • When George goes looking through Lucy’s armoire, he says, “Well, there’s nothing in here but some charming tops and skirts and. . . Ooh, Lucy-I’ve never seen you wearing that.”

Violence

  • When discussing the potential cause of a ghost’s manifestation, Lucy discusses how a man, “Fell down the stairs and broke his neck. . . He must’ve fallen with tremendous f-[orce].”
  • Lucy thinks about what happens to agents who forget to properly stock equipment. “A girl at Rotwell’s had died the previous week after forgetting to restock her magnesium flares.”
  • Lucy reveals that decomposed human remains are often the source of a ghost’s manifestation, “Most often. . . 73% of the time . . . it’s associated with what the Fittes Manual calls ‘personal organic remains.’ You can guess what that means.”
  • During an investigation, Lucy sees a corpse. She describes it as “a thing of bones, bared teeth, and shrunken skin, dark and twisted as burnt wood . . .”
  • Both of Lucy’s parents were abusive. Her father’s “hands were hard and swift in punishing any of his children who disturbed his usual taciturn indifference.” Lucy’s mother also “beat [her] sore.”
  • Lucy’s mother tells the story of a girl who committed suicide. The girl “waded out into the reeds, lain down in the stream, and drowned herself.”
  • Lucy and Lockwood discuss a variety of serial killers, including “the coin-in-the-slot killer” and the “one who kept heads in the fridge.”
  • When investigating the history of a house, George finds out that “in May 1926, the owner, a Mr. Henry Kitchener, had hung himself somewhere on the premises.”
  • The caretaker of Combe Carey Hall describes how a previous owner was a serial killer who decorated the hall with the skulls of his victims. “When he’d finished off each one, he set their skulls on the steps of the central staircase with candles burning behind the eye sockets.”
  • Lucy ponders the importance of securing a point of retreat while within Combe Carey Hall. She remembers, “two Grimble agents had been separated from their colleagues when the bathroom door blew shut on them . . . the two agents had been battered to death by whirling ceramics.”
  • While they’re in Combe Carey Hall, a thick, goopy substance called ectoplasm surrounds Lucy, Lockwood, and George. Lucy says, “It looks like blood, it smells like it. It’ll do as blood for me.”
  • Lucy finds the body of an agent who previously died in the house. “The neck was twisted at an odd, unnatural angle. One hollowed jacketed arm reached towards the hole as if it wished to drag itself forward and slip down into the dark.”
  • In an attempt to escape the torturous screaming of Combe Carey Hall’s staircase, Lucy nearly throws herself into the well. “Just a couple more strides and the screaming would stop. I’d be part of that silence too.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Lucy describes her alcoholic father. “His breath smelled of strong, brown beer.”
  • Lucy’s old mentor “chain-smoked cigarettes.”

Language

  • As Lucy tries to get someone’s attention, “he didn’t bloody respond.”
  • As she tries to follow Lockwood’s plans, Lucy thinks, “What the devil was Plan E?”
  • When Lucy collapses, George bursts into her room and says, “What the hell’s going on?”
  • Lucy calls the initial investigators behind a woman’s disappearance “idiots.”
  • George discusses how suspicious their assignment is by saying, “This whole thing is screwy.”

Supernatural

  • The premise of the novel is centered around the existence of ghosts and how to destroy them.

Spiritual Content

  • When London first got infested by ghosts, people visited various places of worship. “Churches and mosques did excellent business as people sought to save their souls . . . ”
  • Combe Carey Hall was initially “a priory, founded by a breakaway group of monks from one of the local abbeys.”
  • The monks who took up residence in Combe Carey Hall eventually, “turned away from God to the worship of darker things.

by Mia Stryker

 

The Queen Will Betray You

In the second installment of The Kingdoms of Sand & Sky series, Princess Amarande deals with the aftermath of her fateful wedding. Having killed Prince Renard of Pyrenee, Amarande brought war to the Kingdom of Ardenia. She must return to her home to restore order while her true love, Luca, will return to the Torrent to reclaim his title of Otsakumea, the rightful leader of the Otxazulo, the fallen kingdom that was taken over by the Warlord.

Returning to Ardenia, Amarande is shocked to find her mother, Geneva, also known as the Runaway Queen and Warlord of the Torrent, has returned to Ardenia with Ferdinand, the son of the late King Sendoa. Despite having raised him on her own, Ferdinand is not Geneva’s son, but the son of General Koldo, making him Amarande’s half-brother. Far from a cordial family reunion, Amarande is imprisoned by her mother and declared dead. With Amarande’s absence, Ferdinand takes over as King. To make matters worse, Queen Inés of Pyrenee has vowed to marry King Domingu of Myrcell to fortify their kingdoms and attack Ardenia.

Imprisoned and betrayed by her family with her true love, Luca, miles away, Amarande finds help from an unlikely ally, Prince Taillefer of Pyrenee. The same Prince who tortured Luca to near death in the first novel. Knowing this is her only option for escape, Amarande accepts his help and the two of them escape to the Torrent to be reunited with Luca.

Meanwhile, in the Torrent, Luca finds the Otxazulo resistance and convinces them he is the lost leader of the fallen kingdom. The proof rests in the black wolf tattoo upon his skin. While Luca leads the resistance, Amarande and Taillefer are captured by the regent Warlord, who was appointed by Geneva. Now, Luca must save Amarande and prove, once again, that their love will survive any conflict.

At the brink of war, Luca leads the Otxazulo resistance to Amarande where she is rescued, and the regent Warlord is killed. Taillefer also escapes to kill his mother and reclaim Pyrenee as his own. Only Geneva is left for Amarande to defeat. However, facing her mother in an intense duel, Amarande is wounded and Geneva flees, leaving Amarande and Luca with a broken kingdom they must rebuild in the next chapter of their story.

The second book in this series has another fast-paced, action-packed plot, making it very engaging and easy to read. There is, however, a significant amount of graphic violence making it more suitable for older readers. Like the first book, the novel deals with the themes of true love, but there is also an emphasis on the importance of loyalty and trust as Amarande must decide who to put her trust in and who is worthy of forgiveness.

Amarande and Luca are kind, dedicated, and inspiring protagonists, but their characters are still undeveloped. Their love story is clear but lacks depth. This is addressed when Taillefer asks Amarande, “is Luca really your true love or just all you’ve known?” While it is unclear why Amarande and Luca are together, the uncomplicated history of their relationship makes for a sweet and pure romance. Overall, this is a fitting read for fans of The Princess Bride who enjoy wholesome romance with lots of action and adventure.

Sexual Content

  • Safe and far away from Pyrenee, Amarande kisses Luca “softly, mindful of his wounds. But her love was stronger than he seemed and put gentle fingers in her auburn hair, pulling her closer, deeper.” Soon, Amarande pulls away. After discussing their next adventure, Amarande “dropped another kiss on his lips, then up the line of his jaw.”
  • Before saying goodbye, “Amarande kissed Luca one last time—hard. As hard as she wished she had before he was kidnapped. As hard as she did when it was clear they’d escaped Pyrenee alive. As hard as she could—this kiss would have to hold her for days, if not weeks, or months.”
  • Queen Geneva refers to General Koldo as a “whore general.”
  • Amarande recalls the time on the pirate ship “she’d slept next to the bed in the captain’s quarters, holding [Luca’s] hand from her spot on the floorboards. He would’ve lain there, too, if the pain weren’t so great. Her stubbornness won out yet again.”
  • Happy to be reunited with Luca, “Amarande kissed him then. Eyes closed, mouth hungry, her whole mess of a body folded into Luca’s warmth. His arms tightened around her, a hand snaking through her hair and to her neck.”
  • Before returning to the fight, “Luca pressed another fevered kiss to Amarande’s lips, the princess shutting her eyes and drinking it in until, with one last gentle sweep of a thumb against her cheek, he drew away.”
  • Before facing her evil mother, Amarande showers Luca with kisses “to his spine. His shoulder blade—one, and then the other. Up his neck. Again, behind the ear—one, two. She settled the curve of her throat over his shoulder, her chin coming to rest on his collarbone, parched lips at his ear.”
  • After the battle with Geneva, Luca visits Amarande who is recovering in bed. He kisses Amarande and when she decides she is “strong enough to kiss him back, she did so, moving her hands to his hair, keeping Luca where she wanted him until she realized they weren’t alone.”

Violence

  • When Queen Geneva reveals her plans to imprison her daughter, Amarande draws her sword to attack but is thwarted by a hand clenching her neck, “squeezing precisely on the artery that supplies oxygen to the brain. An arm gripped around her middle—an arm clad in garnet-and-gold regalia.” Amarande faints and is brought to her cell.
  • Ula offers to clean Luca’s torture wounds. Luca confesses, “the sting of the process was one of a thousand bees under the skin, but the pain was minor in comparison with what he’d felt in the past week. And the wound looked only a little better, the skin bruised and raw with inflammation that ran down the whole hand-length gash in the middle of his chest, just beside his wolf tattoo. The flat black sutures were tight, straining to keep the swollen edges of flesh together.” His wounds are slowly healing.
  • Trying to look out the window of her prison, Amarande hoists herself up the wall using a bit of cloth. However, the “cloth tore and before she could lunge for another grip or pull her feet from the wall, Amarande fell with a resounding thud, the back of her head bashing into the stone floor.” Amarande feels a bit disoriented from the fall, but she is more frustrated than hurt.
  • Amarande’s brother, Ferdinand visits her in her prison cell to make peace, but Amarande refuses his offer; “the moment he was in range Amarande’s boot struck out and made jarring contact with his kneecap.” Amarande tries to attack again but, “Ferdinand was ready, grabbing her boot and yanking at it, trying to wrest it off with both hands. She pulled back, but he held fast, even managing to keep the dagger in his grip. Amarande’s other foot shot out and clocked his left hand. His grip faltered, he dropped his dagger, and she drove her heel hard into his knee yet again.” Soon, Ferdinand gains the upper hand. As Amarande hesitates, he removes a dagger from his boot, throwing it through the air. “The knife pinning her right between the tendons that sewed her knuckles in place. Impaled, Amarande’s hand flew open, dropping the dagger.” Ferdinand then removes the blade from her hand. “He braced her wrist against the wall with the other hand and, in one smooth motion, removed the blade,” but, “Amarande didn’t cry out, even as stars swirled in her vision and blood began to pour from her hand.”
  • While traveling through the Torrent, some of the Warlord’s men try to capture Luca by attacking his crew with fire. Ula, however, wouldn’t let them and “a fist-sized fireball shot over Luca’s shoulder, plowing straight into the leader’s gut.” The man “fell back, tunic and skin suddenly aflame. His bandana slid down as he hit the dry ground behind him, his face distorted with panic as he screamed horrifically.”
  • Before the other servants of the Warlord could retaliate, Ula’s “blade cut the stout one down with a blow to his wide upper back, and his grip upon Luca immediately died as he fell away.” Urtzi and Osana, friends of Luca’s, come to the rescue as Urtzi hits the other two men “with his own bucket and the glass jug. The instant the caustic antiseptic made contact, the torches shuddered and exploded,” and “all three men suddenly were ablaze.” The Warlord’s men are burnt to death, but Luca and his friends escape.
  • Luca and his group come across the dead body of their friend, Erfu. Urtzi examines the body and describes a “dart in his neck and an assassin’s smile. Slowed him down and then sliced him open. His tunic is torn, too—they checked his tattoo. Carved an X through it.”
  • Escaping from her prison cell, Amarande takes out her guard who “only seemed to register Amarande in the split second before the hilt of her sword crashed down upon the guardswoman’s temple.”
  • While fleeing Ardenia with Amarande, Taillefer kills a guard. “In the twitch of a moment, Taillefer’s free hand seized the guard’s dagger from the sheath at his belt, and sank it into the soft meat of the boy’s side.”
  • Amarande and Taillefer come across several dead bodies that “lined the creek bank—two, three . . . no, five—and two more floated in the shallow waters. No blood stained their sun-bleached clothes, no stab wounds obvious, no wounds at all.” Amarande discovers the water had been poisoned.
  • In the Torrent, Amarande and Taillefer encounter members of the resistance. Not trusting Amarande, “a knife shot out of the man’s hand, and the princess dove to the side. She rolled to her feet, dagger out and ready. His companion immediately rushed at her, sword tip aimed straight at Amarande’s belly. The princess pivoted and flattened, and the woman crashed forward under the weight of her driving weapon. As she fell to the dirt, Amarande immediately smashed the blunt hilt of her dagger down upon the back of her skull, rendering her unconscious.”
  • While Amarande fought with the resistance group, Taillefer battles a wild wolf. The wolf’s “paws connected with Taillefer’s chest and shoved him to the ground. He struggled to push away the animal’s jaws as the whole of the wolf’s weight was on him now, the snarling beast holding all the leverage.”
  • Taillefer and Amarande escape their battle only when the man pushes Amarande into a sand hole. The man’s “boot connected with her twisting back. The blow knocked the princess off-balance and she stumbled forward, her exhausted body lunging for solid ground. Where there wasn’t any.” Amarande tumbles into a hidden cave and Taillefer follows. They are bruised and sore, but alive.
  • After poisoning King Domingu, Queen Inés “did not release Domingu’s chin as he thrashed, words burbling up through the white foam on his lips.” He dies moments later.
  • At one of the Warlord’s camps, Taillefer was lifted into the air by a giant man. Amarande tries to save him, “but the movement she’d anticipated didn’t come—the prince’s body was tossed vertically, not horizontally. And, as he plummeted back toward the cracked earth, the man’s leg shot out and his boot connected with Taillefer’s gut. The crunch of a shattered rib reverberated in the air, a cry escaping into the new dawn with it. Taillefer landed in a heap, blood rolling out of his mouth.” Taillefer’s ribs are broken.
  • Amarande and Taillefer fight with followers of the Warlord until “something thunked hard against Amarande’s temple, tossing her off-balance. Her opponent used that split second to roll onto the princess, driving Amarande’s face into the sandy earth as she sat atop the princess’s back, pinning her in a way that left all of Amarande’s fight useless.” Amarande and Taillefer are captured to be brought to the Warlord.
  • To prove her ruthlessness, the Regent Warlord orders those who do not comply with her to be burned in a fire pit. She will spare only one of them if they “fight to the death—disfigurement, loss of consciousness, and general injury do not count. You have to be the last living, breathing person standing.” From her confinement, Amarande watched the “human kindling. Hopes and dreams consumed nightly, reduced to flesh, fat, skin, and sinew, until there was nothing left to burn.” Then, she heard “the unmistakable sigh of a blade carving the breath from a man’s throat. One. Two. Two bodies draped gently on the ground. One. Two.”
  • When Luca reveals himself to the Warlord, more chaos erupts. There is “blood spray, bodies tumbling into the pit, the fire roaring and coughing smoke with each addition. Daggers and swords met in violent, reverberating clangs. Boots crunched bones, and live bodies, shrieking to the stars.” In the chaos, the Warlord “was sent headfirst into her own flames.” She is burnt to death.
  • Taillefer is fighting for his life against the Warlord’s men with his “hands in a fury, going for all the soft spots on the soldier’s face—ears, eyes, lips. The prince’s forearm caught the boy’s windpipe, and his head flew back with a crack, sucking cry escaping from his lips.” He escapes.
  • While escaping her prison cart, Amarande notices “her arm was bleeding from her shoulder through the length of her forearm, the wood of the fractured cart taking a sliding bite on the way down.” Ula stitches up Amarande’s wounds later.
  • To defeat his mother, Queen Inés, Taillefer stabs her guard and “twisted and removed a dagger from where it had been lodged in the soldier’s liver for hours on end.” The soldier bleeds out and dies. Taillefer then throws poison on his mother, burning her skin and killing her. “The tincture had dissolved the skin at her throat, the meat of her exposed, veins and capillaries burned back like parchment blackening and curling in flame before vanishing altogether.”
  • While Amarande converses with the Royal Council members, Geneva violently enters the room and “one guard and then another fell to the floor, assassin’s smiles carved across their throats, blood gushing onto the collars of their regal Ardenian uniforms.”
  • While fighting, Geneva thrust her blade “straight for the vulnerable flesh of Luca’s unprotected torso.” Luca is wounded but not killed. Next, Geneva turns to fight Amarande. “Geneva smashed her body backward, driving Amarande even harder against the wall, so hard that her skull thudded off the unforgiving stone with a terrific crack.” General Koldo attempts to save Amarande by attacking Geneva from behind, but she is thwarted when Geneva thrusts her into a table. “[Koldo] was bleeding from the head, a huge gash over her eye from where she’d made contact with the massive piece of scrolled furniture.”
  • When the action subsides, Luca notices he had accidently struck Taillefer in the neck with his dagger. Luca watches as “blood framed each of his teeth in stark red, as if he’d sunk them into a still-beating heart.” Luca then saw the “weak slice to the jugular.” Taillefer slowly dies from the loss of blood.
  • Amarande is stabbed in the leg by her mother. She tries to overpower Geneva with her good leg, but Geneva “thrust a thumb straight into Amarande’s leg wound, and the princess’s body seized as she cried out, vision fading to white. Her mother shoved Amarande and her blade aside, and scrambled free.” Amarande begins to lose consciousness with “all her adrenaline tapped, blood pooling under her body from her leg, arm, somewhere else.” Amarande survives, but her mother escapes.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Hell is used once. When Amarande is brought to the Warlord, she curses by saying “stars and hell.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Elena Brown

Thanks for the Trouble

Parker Sante has not said a single word in 12 years; not since he witnessed his father die in a fatal car accident. Instead, he writes out his thoughts in a journal and watches other people interact; studying their movements and actions until it is the perfect moment to steal something that others would never know is gone. That’s exactly what he is doing when he locks eyes with Zelda. The striking, silver-haired vixen who seems to entrap him with just one look. Suddenly, not only does he want to steal from her, but he wants to get to know her. To talk to her.  

However, Parker quickly realizes that Zelda isn’t everything he thought she would be. She’s a dream, but one that may be coming to an end very soon. When Zelda receives a mysterious phone call, she makes it clear she plans to end her life. While she won’t tell him the details, Parker knows he must change her mind. So, the pair spend the next few days doing everything that Parker hopes will make Zelda fall in love with life again. It includes one wild night at a Halloween party (a scene that is very unlike Parker), becoming the middleman in a very public breakup at the movies, and even letting Zelda convince him to apply for college. However, as time passes, Parker falls more in love with Zelda and is increasingly frustrated because he knows nothing about her.  

Zelda remains an enigma to Parker until he demands she tell him who she is and why she is going to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. But the story that Zelda begins to tell Parker is one he never saw coming. Instead, it is filled with unbelievable lies that Zelda insists are her reality; a reality that causes her to remain young forever. But Parker isn’t buying it. People didn’t just stop aging and live forever…or did they?  

As Parker races against time, trying to change Zelda’s mind, he realizes that maybe she isn’t the only one who needs saving. After all, Parker was living his life at half volume until Zelda came along, and now that she’s here, he doesn’t want to let his life slip away again. He just may have to figure out how to live life to the fullest on his own. 

The odd, yet endearing friendship between Zelda and Parker adds a vibrancy to the novel that immediately draws in the reader. Considering all the challenges Parker faces, witnessing his social progression throughout the story will leave the reader with a sense of pride. For example, by the end of the novel Parker begins to make real friends at school and starts to form the connections that he always wanted but never had. While Zelda shows some signs of vulnerability, an air of mysteriousness remains around her. There are moments where even the reader will question if what Zelda is saying is true or just another made-up story to help her conceal her identity. Because of this, the reader may find themselves frustrated by Zelda’s consistent games, but they will simultaneously be entranced by her.  

While Thanks for the Trouble contains a great plot line and immense character development, there is a heavy presence of suicidal thoughts. Multiple times, Zelda mentions that she intends to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, and she eventually carries through with the action. While Zelda discloses to Parker that she cannot age and that is why she intends to commit suicide, the reader is still left with a feeling of uncertainty around that reasoning. Therefore, it never feels like we get a complete reason as to why Zelda wants to commit suicide, which makes the novel heartbreaking. While Parker consistently attempts to get Zelda to rethink her decision to commit suicide, that is the only form of suicide prevention that is present within the novel. The novel does not discourage suicide, and it does not discuss methods of intervention.  

Aside from the heavy topic of suicide, the plot will keep readers on their toes and the mystery never lets up. Readers never know what will happen next, which makes Thanks for the Trouble a must-read. The story is heartbreaking and honest in a way that many novels for young adult readers are not. The novel plays on the impulsiveness of teenage feelings when it comes to love and relationships, creating a sense of understanding between the reader and the characters. Parker’s devotion to Zelda reminds the reader that love is the greatest kindness you can show someone. Once more, Zelda’s journey through the novel and her eventual death brings light to the idea that life is fragile in every form, and that we may never know how much time is left. All in all, the novel makes resounding commentary on how love, life, and death are the three sole things that can never be stopped, even if we wish they could be.    

Sexual Content  

  • Zelda guesses what Parker does in his free time. “Seventeen? What a horrible age. I bet you spend most of your free time playing computer games and watching pornography on the Internet.”  
  • Parker recalls his first kiss when he was in seventh grade. He was playing spin the bottle with a friend and “the bottle had landed on her first, then on me, then blam! I was kissed. Kisses are weird that way. They’re supposed to be performed by two people simultaneously, but they don’t have to be. We even have a term for it- a stolen kiss– which is really just a euphemism for full-on-oral assault. I can remember looking up from the open mouth of the bottle only to find another open mouth rushing at me. A crush of lip and tongue and saliva and the chorus of yowls from the onlookers.” 
  • Someone tells Zelda what a cougar is. “A cougar’s an older woman who gets it on with young men.”  
  • Zelda lies about Parker and her being lovers. A boy at the Halloween party “asked me if you were my community service project. I told him we’d been lovers for months. That you’d made me feel things I’d never felt before.”  
  • Zelda and Parker kiss at a Halloween Party. “I turned to smile at Zelda and she kissed me, right on the mouth this time, and I kissed her back.”  
  • As Parker walks around a museum with Zelda, he says, “Usually, the only thing that keeps me awake is all the nudity. Though not nearly as common as bowls of fruit, naked ladies tend to feature very prominently in your average museum.”  
  • Parker and Zelda passionately kiss in the Shakespeare Garden. “I moved across the dark distance between us and put my arms around her waist, pulling her into a kiss. I felt the cluck of her phone dropping to the grass. A moment later we were on the ground too. She rolled on top of me, pinning my arms behind my head, pushing against me in a way that made me forget every single problem I ever had or probably ever would have.”  
  • Parker’s mother gives him sex advice. His mom says, ” Try to do it mostly with people you love. Use protection. Don’t be an asshole.”  
  • Parker and Zelda have sex. “We finished undressing each other and got into bed. The house was just cold enough that it felt really good under the covers, skin to skin. And then we were kissing, and then it was happening, and I’ll leave the gory details to your imagination if that’s okay by you.”  

Violence  

  • Parker steals from a woman’s purse at the hotel. “I glanced around the room, and when I was sure no one was looking, I reached over and undid the clasp of the silver-haired girl’s little blue handbag. I pushed through a cloud of Kleenex and deep-sea dove into the mysterious mire of femininity until my fingers found the wad.”  
  • Parker describes his version of the sleeping beauty storyline. “He’s actually a douche-bag king—one who already has a queen by the way—and he rapes her. She wakes up pregnant, so the king’s wife tries to kill her, bake her into a pie, and feed her to the king. The happy ending? The king decides to have his wife burned to death so he can raise a family with Sleeping Beauty.”  
  • Parker writes a fairytale and describes one of the characters abusing his wife. “As a punishment, he beat his wife around the belly with a bent piece of barrel wood.”  
  • Zelda tells Parker about her plans of committing suicide. “I am waiting for a phone call. And when it comes, I’m going to give this money to the first needy person I see. Then I’ll take the trolley to the Golden Gate Bridge and jump off of it.”  
  • Parker describes the car accident that killed his father. His father caught the back bumper of another car when he was switching lanes and “we were flipped over in the middle of the highway and my dad was dripping onto the fucking roof, you know.”  
  • Parker recounts a character in one of his stories being hit by his mother. “His mother slapped him upside the head again. Go back to bed child!”  
  • Parker tells Zelda about how he got charged with assault in eighth grade from pushing his bully. “I pushed him back one time, and I wasn’t paying…this one car was driving way too close to the sidewalk, and so yeah, he ended up getting hit. Trevor’s parents pressed charges, and maybe because he was white and I wasn’t, I got this minor version of assault put on my record.”  
  • When Zelda finds out Parker declined the phone call she had been waiting for, Zelda slaps Parker. “Finally, I grabbed her shoulder, and she spun and delivered a stinging slap right to my bruised cheek. I was blind with pain for a few seconds, and by the time I recovered, she was gone.”  
  • Parker finds Zelda about to jump off the bridge. “Now, you might think it doesn’t really matter one way or the other—if a person wants to kill herself, she’ll just find some other way to do it, right? Wrong. It turns out that most people make these decisions pretty lightly, on the spur of the moment when the thought occurs, they often don’t do it at all.”  
  • Parker describes how Zelda looks before she jumps off the bridge. “Imperfect sadness maybe, which was another way of saying there was a little splinter of happiness in there too. I’d given her that at least. And then she jumped.”  

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Zelda pours rum into her drink. “She took a small leather flask out of her purse and poured some of it into her soda.”  
  • Parker goes to see his mom and she is drinking. “The eviscerated remains of a TV dinner were still in my mom’s lap, and she was holding a mostly empty glass of red wine.”  
  • Parker gets home and notices his mom is drunk. “My mom was clearly a little bit tipsy. . . ”  
  • Parker describes his idea of high school parties. According to Parker, high school parties are “a bunch of people getting together to be drunk, loud assholes, with a special emphasis on the loud. And another emphasis on the drunk. And a third emphasis on assholes, while we’re at it.”  
  • After being left alone at the party, Parker gets drunk. “I’ve never seen the appeal in getting hammered every time there’s alcohol on offer. But here I was at a party made up entirely of people I either didn’t know or didn’t like, so what else was I supposed to do?”  
  • Parker sees others at the party drinking. “Jamie Schmid, the host of the party, came running from the other end of the yard, a bottle of Budweiser gripped tightly in each fist.”  
  • Parker describes his mother’s bedside table. “Her drugs were on the bedside table – Prozac and Tylenol PM – alongside an empty bottle of wine.” 
  • Zelda confronts Parker’s mother about her alcohol use. Zelda says, “But you cannot expect your son to stand here and be lectured about self-control by an alcoholic.” 

Language    

  • Explicit language such as fuck, shit, and ass are used frequently. 
  • Parker says others describe him as “a thug.”  
  • A friend of Parker’s argues with him over who should go first in chess. “You’re Latino is what you are, son. And that whole white-goes-first bullshit is straight-up racist.”  

Supernatural  

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • Parker describes some of the artwork in the museum: “All those haloed saints and weeping Marys and bleeding Jeses (that’s the plural of Jesus, right?) and yawn-inducing landscapes and dead chickens.” 
  • Parker, Zelda, and his new friends discuss God. The friend said, “God and science are not incompatible. And Zelda just said herself. Nothing adds up unless you consider God.”  
  • Parker expresses his thoughts on the Bible. “That’s the problem with the Bible—or one of them, anyway—it doesn’t just tell you what to do, it tells you what to want. That’s too much to ask, IMHO.”  
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