Death – Page 4 – Sneak Peek Books

Tell

David isn’t sad that his stepfather is dead. However, he didn’t expect to become the prime suspect of his murder. The detective investigating the case is convinced that David is keeping secrets—and he’s right. David knows the truth about his stepfather’s death. But can he convince the police that he’s not guilty of shooting his stepfather and leaving him to die?

Tell, published by Orca Book Publishers, is specifically written for teens who want to read short, high-interest novels. The story focuses on David and his struggles with his stepfather, Phil. The easy-to-read story shows the harsh realities of life without going into graphic descriptions. Even though David tells his own story, the mystery of his stepfather’s death leaves the reader wondering if David is actually the murderer.

The suspenseful story has a dark undertone. David struggles with his brother’s death, his mother’s deceit, and his stepfather’s manipulation. As David interacts with his mother, her uncaring and lying nature becomes obvious. In the end, Tell shows that sometimes the monsters in people’s lives are the ones living under their own roof. The sad ending can lend itself to some good discussion between parent and child.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

David’s brother, Jamie, “drowned when he was eight years old.”
David thinks Phil intentionally let his brother die. David said, “Phil could have saved him. Phil was right there. He was a good swimmer. He could have saved Jamie, but instead, he did nothing.”
After Phil goes to an ATM, a man approaches him. “Phil shoved him away and swore at him. He turned away from the guy. Then I saw the guy take out a gun. He pointed it at Phil . . . The guy shot him.” When David approached Phil, “he was making a sort of gurgling sound . . . Then Phil stopped making that noise. . . and I ran.” David didn’t get Phil help because Phil didn’t help his brother.

Drugs and Alcohol

Throughout the story, people talk about how David’s stepfather would drink beer. Sometimes he goes to the bar and drinks. He would also play poker with his friends and they would drink beer.
David said that Phil carried the picture of his dead brother around because “he got a lot of sympathy from it. One time he told me he got a lot of free drinks too . . .”
Jack, a friend of David’s mother, “took a quick gulp of beer” while he was talking to Dave. Jack is also seen drinking beer several times in the story.

Language

Profanity is used a few times. “Ass” is used once. “Damn” and “pissed” are each used twice. When Phil gets home from work, his stepson would act up, which “really pissed Phil off. . . “
A character said Phil could be a “jerk.” Later, David said he “wanted his mom to know what kind of jerk she married.”
Phil calls David a “pain in the ass.”
“Oh my god” is used as an exclamation once.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

Girl at the Grave

When Valentine was a child, her mother murdered a wealthy man. After her mother was hung at the gallows, Valentine was left in the care of her neglectful father. Forced to learn to care for herself, she lived in a ramshackle house and spent most of her time alone.

Now Valentine is a senior at the prestigious school, Drake Academy. Even though she has earned excellent grades, her mother’s death still haunts her. An outcast among the other students, Valentine relies on Sam’s friendship especially when a local man is murdered and people begin whispering that Valentine may be a murderer like her mother.

As Valentine searches for the truth behind her mother’s death, she soon finds that powerful people will do anything to keep their secrets. Unexpectedly, Rowan Blackshaw, the son of the man her mother murdered, begins spending time with her. Because of Rowan’s interest in Valentine, the other members of her school begin to include her in their group. Valentine longs to be accepted by society, but is acceptance worth burying the secrets of the past?

The first chapter grabs the reader’s attention by setting up the mystery, hinting that Valentine’s mother might have been innocent. Valentine and her two love interests are all well-developed. Because the story is told from Valentine’s point of view, the reader has the ability to understand and care about her struggle. Rowan’s character is an unexpected delight because he does not conform to the rich boy stereotype.

As Valentine begins to unravel the mystery of her mother’s death, her discoveries show the different motivations of some of the characters, which adds interest. When Valentine’s father and another woman disappear, the town sheriff, Valentine, and other town people seem uninterested in their disappearance, which seems unrealistic. The lack of drama that surrounded their disappearance made the discovery of their deaths anticlimactic.

The middle part of the book spent so much time on the love triangle that the mystery faded into the background. The ending of the book contained several surprises, which highlighted how far people will go to protect those they love. The fact that Valentine chooses to follow an unexpected path instead of marrying the boy of her dreams is an added bonus. In the end, what drives the story is Valentine’s personal struggle. Even though the story lacks danger and suspense, Girl at the Grave is an entertaining book that is worth reading.

Sexual Content

When Valentine pulls away and won’t let Sam kiss her, he says his brothers, “think I’m a right fool, letting you lead me around on a leash. They kiss a different girl every week.”
Valentine learns that her father “has a woman across town. When he’s not home, that’s where he is.”
Valentine spends time with Rowan. Once while he was at her house, he “reached around my waist. . . I tilted my head, making room for him at my shoulder, and he lingered there . . . If I moved at all, he would do the rest. I felt him wanting it, his lips poised over my skin, his heart only inches from mine. But my body sways with uncertainty.” They don’t kiss.
Valentine and Sam kiss twice. The first time, “I leaned forward and touched my lips to his in the kiss that should have happened a long time ago . . . our lips soon warmed and softened, our heads tilting into one another, his arms sliding around me.”
Rowan and Valentine kiss several times throughout the story. “He leaned closer and brushed his lips against mine. Just a touch, then drew back. . . Then he kissed me again—and this time our mouths immediately molded to one another, warm and perfectly fitted, as if our lips had been made for this purpose, for this tasting and breathing and exploring one another.”
When Valentine tells Rowan she loves him, he kisses her. He “drew me into his arms, kissing me before I could catch my breath. A desperate kiss. A starving kiss. . .”

Violence

Valentine’s mother shot a man. She was hung on the gallows three days later. Throughout the story, Valentine revisits the memory. When Mr. Blackshaw was shot, the sound of the shot came from “everywhere, jolting my bones and filling my nostrils with the burning stench of gunpowder. . . I see Mr. Blackshaw sway on his feet, looking startled, then topple slowly backward, landing hard on the walkway, his arms sprawled.
Valentine remembers when her mother “hangs by her neck from a rope, her head tilting and her eyes staring fixedly, her hands clasped behind her back. Her boots dangle motionlessly at the bottom of her best black dress.”
When Valentine was younger, the Frye boys would torment her by “chasing me in the schoolyard. . . They’d tied me to trees and stolen my mittens.”
Valentine finds Mr. Oliver on the floor with a gash in his head. Valentine, “held his cold cheeks and felt his life sliding away beneath my hands, his face sagging, his body relaxing.” Later, she finds out he was poisoned.
Mr. Fry hits his wife and kids. Valentine thinks, “I’d seen what a punch from one of his enormous fists could do; Sam had outgrown them, but not Mrs. Fry and the younger boys.”
Valentine finds her father’s dead body. He is “on his back, staring upward, his eyes wide but seeing nothing. Icy and damp, both frozen and thawed.” Later she finds out he was poisoned, probably when someone gave him “a swig of liquor.”
Birdy’s body was next to Valentine’s father’s body. “A dark gash split the back of her head, separating her thatch of short hair.”
A woman attacks Valentine. “She grabbed a kitchen knife and lunged. . . She lunged with a furious screech . . . her knife sliced my upper arm.” They both grab for the knife and fight for control of it. Valentine pushes the woman, and “she stumbled back with a cry, blood flowing from a deep gash above her eye.” The woman falls, “hitting her head with a loud crack, then she crumpled to the floor.”

Drugs and Alcohol

Alvina Lunt’s “drunken father had broken both legs.” While he was in the hospital, Alvina learned about the unfair treatment of “lunatics.”
Sam takes his mother to visit her brother. When his brothers took his mother, “they got drunk and beat up the neighbor.”
Someone calls the doctor a “drunken fool.”
When Valentine was ill, Mrs. Blackshaw drugged her, so she would keep sleeping.

Language

Sam calls someone an “arrogant ass” twice.
Someone tells Valentine that she was “spawned by that tramp of a woman.”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

Devotionals are part of the school day on Fridays. During devotionals, Mr. Oliver reads from the Bible. “Man in his natural state . . . unassisted by the grace of God.”
When Valentine finds Mr. Oliver, she prays, “Father who art in heaven. . . Please, God. Please help Mr. Oliver.”
One of the characters could not get pregnant, and “she’d pleaded with the Lord for twenty years before her precious Philomena arrived, and her husband’s death soon after had only magnified the value of the blessing.”
When Valentine’s mother is hung, Mr. Oliver tells her, “But take comfort, for your mother confessed her sins. She is in God’s hands now, and he knows all.”
Some men think having a woman run a bank “is against God’s law.”

Fire the Depths

Thirteen-year-old Max Tilt’s life changes in a moment. When his mother becomes ill, his cousin Alex comes to care for him. When Max discovers his parents are in danger of losing their home, Alex and Max want to find a way to help. They head to the attic to find items to sell and discover Max’s great-great-great-grandfather Jules Verne’s unfinished manuscript The Lost Treasures. What begins as a quest for artic items becomes a treasure hunt as Alex and Max learn that everything Jules Verne wrote in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was true.

As Alex and Max begin their journey, a strange skunk-haired man named Spencer Niemand appears. He’s determined to steal The Lost Treasures’ manuscript and claim the treasure as his own. However, he needs the kids’ help. Can Max and Alex outwit the devious man who is willing to use violence to gain the treasure?

There is a lot to like in Max Tilt: Fire the Depths. Right from the start, the story is fast-paced and interesting. Although the story is a bit far-fetched, especially the part where his parents leave knowing the electricity will be turned off and the house repossessed, these events explain why Max and Alex are willing to go on a dangerous treasure hunt in order to help.

As the two cousins begin their journey, they don’t realize the danger that follows. As the two follow Jules Verne’s path, they use clues he left behind, but they are soon trapped in a submarine with a villain. As they struggle against an evil villain, they dive to a city beneath the ocean, explore an ice cave in Greenland, and fight a giant squid. This page-turner keeps readers engaged using suspense, adventure, and a bit of humor.

The interplay between Alex and Max helps readers engage in the story. Throughout the story, the two cousins build a friendship and learn to rely on each other in dire situations. Each shows their bravery in different ways. Alex is unique in that he has synesthesia (where one sense substitutes for another) and the effects of synesthesia are shown in a simple, unique way.

Although this adventurous story is written for the ages of eight and up, the story is more appropriate for middle school students because of the violence and the truly evil villain. Although the violence is not described in graphic detail, the villain kills others in order to satisfy his greed. The action-packed plot takes Max and Alex on a submarine ride to an epic adventure that will engage students and teach that, “Sometimes you can’t be ready to do the things you really need to do. You just do them. And that makes you ready.”

Sexual Content

None

Violence

When a man grabs Niemand’s wrist, Niemand, “drew a knife from his pocket, and slammed it downward. As the man yanked his hand back, the blade sank into the tabletop.”
In order to eliminate witnesses, Niemand locks people into a warehouse and then sets off explosives. Niemand tells the event from his point of view, “on four, he heard sudden shouting and frantic footsteps inside the building. They finally realized. Good. Let them know there was no escape . . . On seven, the warehouse exploded.”
Niemand throws hot coffee in someone’s face. The man, “was squirming in pain on the worship floor.”
When bullies steal Max’s lunch, he uses a drone to get his lunch back. The drone hovers over the bullies’ heads and Max hits the release button. “The apple conked Dugan in the head. As he screamed and jumped aside, Max guided Vulturon downward, where Claw #3 grabbed onto his lunch bag.”
When a bad man tries to grab Alex, she hits him. The man, “recoiled with a howl of pain. But his reflexes were quick enough to wrap one beefy hand around Max’s throat.” Someone grabs the man’s foot and he lost his balance, “falling to the floor. His head smacked against the solid-steel edge of the Tilts’ coffee table.”
A man shoots at Alex and Max, but someone stops him before anyone is hurt.
In a letter, Verne writes about how Captain No One destroys an underwater civilization. “With a flash of fire, the carapace was breached. A hole shattered the thick material, jagged and mean as a lightning bolt. An explosion turned the sea to red.” Captain No One looted the city, and when two crew members tried to steal, they “were shot for their greed.”
A man falls from an icy ledge, “and then came the scream—deep, raw, animal-like—as Basile fell off the ledge and into the teeming white mass below.” Later, he is discovered alive.
Niemand ties Alex and Max to a snowmobile. “He circled it around each of them individually. He tied it down to various places on the snowmobile . . . Niemand flipped the lever to Drive. And he walked away.” The kids then fall into the frozen ocean, but they do not die. When the squid grabs Alex, Basile “swung the ax at the appendage that held Alex . . . The blade split it in two, the top part skirting upward in a violent spray of milky liquid.” The squid finally retreats.
A giant squid attacks the submarine and is able to get inside. Basile, Alex, and Max fight the squid in a battle that lasts eight pages.
When Niemand tries to capture Alex and Max, Max fights back. “As André approached, Max thrust himself off with his hands and kicked upwards, landing a solid hit on André’s chin. The scraggle-haired man fell backwards, arms flailing.” André grabs Alex and tosses her “like a bale of hay. Max saw her body fly over a thick copse and smack against a tree trunk. He heard her head thump and saw her limp body drop down to the forest floor.”
Niemand tells Alex to dig his own grave, but before he can get the work done, Alex hits Niemand on the head with a shovel. The kids are able to get away.

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

“Crap!” is used once.
Max tells someone that they are about to feel like “asses.”
Someone yells at a bad driver, “Watch where you’re going, idiot!”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

While hiking, a character thinks “if God had meant for humans to live among hills, he would have made them goats.”
After defeating the squid, Alex said, “Thank God it’s over.”

The Stolen Crown

When Ellie and the League of Archers save Maid Marian from execution, the group hides in Sherwood Forest. They dream of helping the poor by building a farm in the middle of the forest, where the baron cannot reach them. In order to make their dream come true, Ellie and the League plan on stealing from the rich.

Ellie and her friends keep Robin Hood’s legacy alive, by stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. However, everything changes when Ellie witnesses King John’s murder. As Ellie flees the castle, a boy helps her escape and pleas to be allowed to join the League of Archers. When Ellie leads him to the heart of Sherwood Forest, he causes conflict among the members.

Then rumors reach Sherwood Forest—the baron plans to kidnap the crown prince. Will the League be able to unite in order to stop the baron’s plan?

The second installment of the League of Archers has less action than the first. The majority of the plot focuses on the power struggle between Ellie and the new member of the group, Stephen. The infighting of the group and the group’s thuggish behavior make the story less enjoyable.

Like the first book in the series, The Stolen Crown’s plot is difficult to believe because Ellie has the responsibilities of an adult but does not show the maturity and insight of an adult. Even though Friar Tuck and Maid Marian are both invested in building a farm for the poor, Ellie is left to make decisions better left to the adult. The two main adults in the story are not well developed and have little interaction with Ellie, which makes the story seem shallow.

The ending of the story is predictable and unsatisfying because the baron is not severely punished for his crimes. The one positive aspect of The Stolen Crown is the message that everyone deserves a second chance. Unfortunately, the League of Archers series will be easily forgotten once it is read.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

The king is murdered. When the king was poisoned, “one brawny hand was propped on the table, the other was clutched around his neck. . . He groaned again, fingers clawing at his throat, then slumped over the table, eyes and mouth stretched grotesquely wide.”
Ellie is caught trying to steal and a soldier tries to capture her, but she “parried the blade away with her poker, sending it flying toward a knot of shocked nobles.” After a chase, Ellie is able to escape unharmed.
Ellie and the League of Archers attempt to stop a coach and steal valuables. A group of men tries to stop the kids. When a man tries to grab one of the League of Archers, he “loosed an arrow into the unprotected spot under his arm. . .” The fighting takes place over four pages, but no one is seriously injured.
When a nun tries to lock the League of Archers in the convent and hand them over to the baron, another nun, “pushed Mary Ursula so hard she fell backwards onto a pile of flour sacks.
Ellie and the League of Archers break into a man’s house in order to steal from him. When an elderly man sees them, one of the league hits the man on the head. “There was a hard, sickening thump. The old man’s eyes went empty and he slumped to the ground.” One of the league points an arrow at the man and threatens to kill him if he doesn’t hand over the valuables. The man complies.
When Ellie and a group of her friends attempt to steal a valuable crown, there is a brief battle with soldiers. Ellie hits one soldier with an arrow.
Ellie and Stephen sword fight. In order to win the fight, Ellie fires a shot, and “her arrow shot clean through the flesh part of Stephen’s sword hand, between thumb and index finger. A fine spray of blood fizzed up.” As Ellie begins to walk away, Stephen shoots an arrow, but it hits another girl instead of Ellie. The girl is injured, but not seriously.
When the baron sees Ellie, he tells her, “But I won’t show you the mercy I gave to your mother—no quick drop and a broken neck for Elinor Dray. You’ll hang on a short rope, so I can watch you die slow.” The baron then throws a dagger at Ellie. When the dagger misses, the baron uses a sword, and “the sword ran through the cloak this time, pinning Ellie to the wall.” The fight goes on for four pages, and Ellie is able to escape.
When Ellie and the League of Archers try to free a prisoner from the baron’s castle, the guards try to stop them. A guard tries to choke a girl, and “Ellie stopped him with an arrow just below his throat, serious enough to scare him, but not deadly.” The group is able to escape the castle without anyone dying.

Drugs and Alcohol

When a noblewoman talks badly about the king, her companion warns her to stop. The noblewoman replies, “Oh, he’s too drunk to hear us.”

Language

None

Spiritual Content

Several of the characters live in a convent and the life of a nun is described including going to prayer.
One of the nuns blesses the baron. She says, “May the Lord guide you on the road to Nottingham! May he make our path straight, though it be winding, and may the king be as honored by your illustrious presence as we are.”

Not If I Save You First

When they were ten, Maddie and Logan were best friends. Maddie thought they’d be friends forever. Maddie never cared that Logan was the president’s son. But fate dealt their friendship a deadly blow. When her Secret Service Agent father almost dies trying to save the president’s son, everything changes.

After he almost dies, Maddie’s father exchanges the White House for a cabin in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. Maddie had no phone. No internet. No friends. And no Logan. When she first moved to Alaska, Maddie wrote letter after letter to Logan, but he never replied.

Six years later, Logan appears outside of her cabin and Maddie wants to kill him. Before she can take action, an assailant appears, almost killing Maddie and dragging Logan off into the wilderness. Maddie could go back for help, but the weather is treacherous and getting worse. Maddie goes after Logan, but she’s not sure if she’s going to save him or kill him.

In typical Ally Carter style, Not If I Save You First begins with suspense and leaves the reader turning pages until the very end. Maddie is a strong heroine who doesn’t need to rely on a guy—not even the Secret Service men—to save the day. She hides her strength and smarts behind a girly persona, which makes her incredibly likable. Her conflicting emotions regarding Logan add interest and suspense to an action-packed story.

Unlike her other books, Not If I Save You First contains violence that is often described in bloody, but not gory, detail. The storyline revolves around a kidnapping, which is a more realistic storyline than Carter’s previous books. Because of this, readers can put themselves in the character’s situation. The story has several plot twists that will surprise readers and the ends with an epic fight between good and evil. When readers finish Not If I Save You First, they will feel as though Maddie is a new friend.

Sexual Content

When Maddie kisses Logan, he wishes he wasn’t in handcuffs because he “couldn’t hold her, touch her, pull her close and keep her near and never, ever let her go.” He’s disappointed when he discovers that she kissed him, so she could give him the keys to the cuffs.
Logan and Maddie kiss several times. One time, “he was growing closer and closer and then her lips were on his again, warmer now. She tasted like snow and berries and it was the sweetest thing that Logan and ever known.”
When Maddie and Logan are at school, Logan kisses her, “right there in front of their school and his Secret Service detail—right in front of the world. So she kissed him back again. And again. And again.”

Violence

Russian terrorists attempt to kidnap the president’s wife. In the process, one of the terrorists shoots at the president’s son. Maddie’s father jumps between the man and the president’s son and shoots at the terrorist. The terrorist, “looked down at his chest, at the place where blood was starting to ooze from beneath his ugly tie, and he dropped to his knees. Then the floor. He didn’t move again.”
While trying to protect the president’s wife and son, Maddie’s father is shot. Even though he is hurt, he tries to go help the first lady, and “he was still dragging himself toward the box. Blood trailed behind him. . .” During the altercation, the president’s son was shot too.
A man kidnaps Logan and in the process, hurts Maddie. “And Maddie spun just in time to see the butt of a gun slicing towards her. She actually felt the rush of air just before the sharp pain echoed through her face, reverberating down to her spine.” When she tries to get up, the man kicks her, “a sharp pain slammed into her stomach.” The man then pushes her off a cliff and leaves her to die.
Logan attempts to escape, knocking the man to the ground. “The two of them rolled, kicked and tangled together. Logan managed to strike the man in the stomach, but it was like he didn’t even feel it.” Logan stops fighting when the man has him pinned down.
Logan attempts to escape again. Even though his hands were cuffed, “he slammed them into the man’s gut, pounding like a hammer with both fists. . .” The man pulls a knife and begins “cutting into the soft flesh between his pinkie finger and its neighbor. . . then he saw the bright red drop of blood that bubbled up from his too-white skin.”
Logan tries to take a satellite phone from the man. “Logan elbowed him in the ribs, but a moment later he was pinned against the ground. . . Facedown in the mud, the cold seeped up from the ground and into Logan’s bones. . .” When Logan’s face is pushed into the mud, Maddie appears and the fight stops.
To prove that he doesn’t value Maddie’s life, the man, “pulled back his hand, and hit her hard across the face. Her head snapped and Logan actually heard the blow. . . His hand was around her throat, fingers not quite squeezing, but close.”
The man shoots a ranger. “He fired. Once. Twice. And the ranger fell.”
In a plot to escape, Maddie blows up a bridge. “. . . the old ropes and wood exploded in a wave of color and fire and heat. . .”
The man recaptures Maddie and, he “jerked Maddie against him, sliding the barrel of the gun along the smooth skin of her cheek like she needed a shave.” Logan tries to help her and the two men fight, so Maddie “kicked Stefan’s shin, right where the bear trap must have caught him, because he howled in pain, dropping the gun and bringing both hands to his legs.”
Another bad guy surprises Maddie by grabbing her and “the man pulled her back against him and squeezed her tight, his own gun suddenly pressed to her temple.” Later Maddie, “dropped to the icy ground and kicked at his legs, knocking him off balance. . .” She shoots at the trees causing limbs to break and fall on the man. “. . .When the ice-covered limb landed atop him, he didn’t move again.”
The climax takes place over several chapters in which punches are thrown, people are shot, and Maddie’s father has a knife held against his throat. In order to save a life, Maddie throws a knife at a man, and, “he looked from the knife in his own hand to the blade that was stuck hilt-deep in his chest, right where his heart would have been if he had one.” The man dies.

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

Freaking is used twice.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

The Sin Eater’s Daughter

As a young girl, Twylla is brought to live in the castle because she is the Daunte Embodied, daughter of two gods. As Daunte Embodied, it is Twylla’s duty to bring justice to the kingdom. She is the executioner; anyone that she touches, dies.

Twylla thought life in the castle would be different. But the privileged life she leads is lonely and becomes more a prison than a home to her. The kingdom’s people fear her. The queen demands absolute obedience from her. And Merek, Twylla’s betrothed, confuses her.

Twylla believes her life is set in stone until she is appointed a new guard. This guard doesn’t fear her as so many others do. He sees past her role as Daunte Embodied, and sees her as a person. As they spend more time together, Twylla begins to wonder if there is a different path she could follow. But such a path would go against her loyalty to Merek and the kingdom.

Confused and lonely, Twylla soon learns that the queen has a deadly plan of her own—and Twylla is in the way of the queen getting her desire. Will Twylla be able to survive long enough to choose between two men—one who needs her, and one who claims to love her?

The Sin Eater’s Daughter takes the reader into an interesting world ruled by an evil queen. The queen is the strongest character in the book. She is willing to kill anyone, including her best friend who dared to become pregnant while the queen could not. The king, who appears infrequently, is seen as a kind, but powerless man. Merek, who does not agree with his mother’s cruel ways, seems desperate and unkind, which makes it difficult for the reader to feel sympathy for him. Even Twylla, who is the heroin, is difficult to relate to. Although her situation is difficult, she seems to be content to sit in her tower and feel sorry for herself.

Although the world created in The Sin Eater’s Daughter is interesting, it is often violent and disturbing. Death is seen often and is described in graphic detail. There are many adult topics that appear including the mention of incest, killing a child in the womb, and seduction.

Sexual Content

During a sin-eating ceremony a woman’s father, who is under the influence of poppy tears, confesses that “she said no but he [himself] put a baby in her.” The Sin Eater says that when the man dies she will not “take that sin.”
Twylla and her guard kiss often towards the end of the book. In one scene she tells him that she loves him and then, “he devours the words right out of my mouth, pressing his own against mine and swallowing my worries. I let him, willing to sacrifice my questions temporarily for the taste of him, for his hands on my waist.”
Twylla and her guard plan to run away together. They again kiss. “Our mouths move gently, brushing together, our lips opening and closing against the other’s, our eyes locked. It makes me dizzy and I allow mine to flutter shut, concentrating on the feel of him against me, his tongue dancing gently with mine.”
Twylla and her guard have sex several times. The act is not described, but afterward they, “lie with our legs and arms twined, breathing softly, his breaths becoming my breaths. Our skin is damp and we stick together, as though nothing could separate us.” After one time together, the queen finds them in bed together and has them both thrown in jail.
The tradition in the kingdom is for the queen to give birth to one boy and one girl, and then the two children are married when they are adults. The goal is to keep the bloodline clean. Because the current queen has only one living child, a male, she plans to kill the king and marry her son.
At the end of the story, Twylla discovers that her guard was hired to seduce her.

Violence

One of the rituals in the book is when Twylla, as Daunte Embodied, kills condemned people with a touch. “Moments after I’ve touched them, they are slumped against the top of the table, blood streaming from their noses and pooling on the already-stained wood. I watch as thin red rivers flower over the edge, spattering the bolts that pin the chairs to the floor. . .”
When the guard and Twylla are found together he is clubbed in the back of the head with a sword. When he falls down, “two of them begin to kick him, bringing their boots back and swinging them into his ribs and spine.” The queen orders the beating to stop when the guard “has stopped moaning and grunting, finally unconscious.”
The queen has people killed throughout the book. Her favorite way to have them killed is to send the dogs to rip them apart. In one scene, the queen tells Twylla, “I have a mind to make you watch the dogs eat your lover first . . . Do you think he’ll try to shield you from their jaws when they tear your heart out . . . Do you know what my father used to do? He used to slice across the ankles of the wretches we were hunting. He’d cut them and leave them in the trees. He’d give them an hour to try to escape . . . it might be time to bring it back.”
The queen backhands Twylla across the face and threatens to kill her, “for opening your legs to another man while my son planned to wed you.”
In the end, the prince tells his mother, “I sentence you to hang by the neck until you are dead.”

Drugs and Alcohol

At dinner, one of the lords becomes drunk and upsets the queen so she has him killed.
When someone is sick, they are given poppy tears to help control the pain.
When a woman wants to “lose a child” they take an herb that will make them “lose a child.”
The queen uses poison to kill her husband.

Language

The queen calls Twylla, “a little slut,” a “whore” and a “harlot.”

Supernatural

There is a tale of a Sleeping Prince who is an alchemist. The prince was put under a spell that made him sleep forever. The queen has a totem that can call the Bringer, who is said to be able to bring the prince back to life with the death of a young girl. The queen believes that she can control the Sleeping Prince if she has the totem.

Spiritual Content

Twylla is told she is Daunte Embodied, the reborn daughter of the Gods. “The world has always been ruled by two Gods: Daeg, Lord of the sun, who rules in the day, and his wife Naeht, Empress of Darkness, who rules the night. . . She (Naeht) hatched a plan and seduced her husband, tiring him so much he couldn’t rise. Then she took the skies for her own and ruled alone, plunging all the world into darkness. Nothing lived, nothing thrived, and death was everywhere without the Lord of the Sun to light the world and give warmth and joy.” The God’s daughter was said to bring Daeg from his sleep and whenever Lomere needed the daughter, she would return as a symbol of hope.
As Daunte Embodied, Twylla is taught that she must, “strike down those who would hurt us. You will go and do your duty. You don’t want to anger the Gods do you?”
Twylla believes the Gods have chosen her path, and she must, “obey the Gods.”
When someone dies, a person’s soul, “will linger near the body for three days and nights after a death. During that time, the Eating must take place so the soul can ascend, otherwise it will drift to the West Woods to join its damned brothers and sisters in the trees. . .” During this time the sin eater must eat a particular food for each sin the person committed.
When Twylla’s mother talks about a woman taking an herb to lose a child, Twylla, “shook my head, not understanding. Losing a child wasn’t a sin; everyone knew the Gods could take away as they saw fit and sometimes they called an unborn back to the Eternal Kingdom.”
Twylla’s guard tells her that the religious rituals they perform are all lies and that her beliefs are, “just to scare people into obedience.” He explains that “We used to have Gods, too. And now we don’t and yet the country doesn’t falter; it thrives without them…It’s all made up. You are not beloved by the Gods—there are no Gods.”
Twylla tries to figure out what she believes and she thinks, “Neither my mother nor the queen have ever said they believed in the Gods. My mother needs them because if there are no gods, then there is no Eternal Kingdom and that makes the Sin Eater nothing more than a prop for mourning. The queen needs them because the fear of death is what makes people obedient, and kind, and good, and sorry.”
Twylla’s guard tells her that, “I don’t believe there are any [Gods] at all, but I believe there are men and woman whose lives are made easier by believing someone is watching over them.”

No True Echo

In a strange twist of events that he doesn’t understand, Eddie relives the same day over and over. The first time Eddie lived through the day, his mother died when he was an infant and his only plan was to spend his school break climbing trees with his best friend and trying to find a way to talk to the new girl. As Eddie continues to relive the same day, he is also attempting to figure out what is causing the strange occurrence, why the new girl keeps asking about his dead mother, and if there is a way he can change the day’s events.

As Eddie navigates his unexpected time-travel, Eddie tries to figure out who he can trust. And in the end, he must decide if telling the truth is the right thing to do, even if it means losing someone he loves.

No True Echo weaves a gripping story that leaves the reader wondering what will happen next. The story revolves around Eddie (and others) being shot which adds suspense and intrigue. The shooting scenes are described with little detail which allows the reader to imagine as much or as little as they like.

However, what really drives the story is the characters. The story is told from Eddie’s point of view as well as a police officer’s point of view which adds depth to the storyline. The adults are not portrayed as perfect, but with problems of their own. Eddie’s best friend Angus adds humor. The new girl Scarlett adds suspense and a bit of romance. The interactions between the characters are realistic and emotional. In the end, the story shows that the connections people make are what really matter in life.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

Eddie is shot several times, but it is not described in detail. The first time Eddie is shot, he jumps in front of a girl to protect her. “All I knew was the agony of the bullet ripping into my chest. And the shock. And the fear.”
Another time Eddie is shot, he “shut my eyes in agony as the bullet tore through my body, but the pain vanished as though it had never been there.” Later when discussing the shooting, he is told that “he (the shooter) knew that the timeline would be destroyed anyways, so I’m not sure that counts (as murder). He also knew I would save you.”

Drugs and Alcohol

Eddie’s mom has a “large glass of wine” with dinner.

Language

None

Supernatural

In this time period, people can time travel by going back into their younger bodies. At one point in the story, Eddie travels into his infant body so he can watch his mother’s death in order to determine if her car accident was an accident or a murder.

Spiritual Content

None

Paper Covers Rock

Alex narrates his story through diary entries and poetry. At the beginning of the school year, Alex and his friends are drinking and decide to jump off a tall rock into the river. Thomas, one of Alex’s best friends, dies. With that death comes terror—the terror of someone finding out that they were illegally drinking. The terror that Mrs. Dovecott saw more than she is letting on. The terror that Thomas’s last words will shatter someone’s life.

Alex life is full of secrets. He splits his time between daydreaming about his crush on Mrs. Dovecott and wondering how far Glenn will go to keep their secret. Paper Covers Rock revolves around Thomas’ death and the boys wanting to keep their drinking a secret. Glenn wants Alex to tempt Mrs. Dovecott into kissing him so that she will get fired. And Alex reluctantly goes along with the plan.

The storyline of Paper Covers Rocks does not always ring true. The boys’ lives are full of lies, deception, and sexual content. As Alex paints the story of his life, it is hard to connect with someone who is willing to lie to everyone around him in order to hide the fact that he was drinking when his friend died.

Sexual Content

Alex spends a lot of time fantasizing about his English teacher, who he thinks he is in love with. In one scene he thinks, “I wish there were punch, I wish it was spiked, I wish that Mrs. Dovecott would drink a gallon of it and make crazy love to me.”
When talking about the culture of the school, the narrator explains that there are not a lot of employees at the school who are hot. “If you want to have a crush on a Burch bitch . . . there are not a lot of options. You’ve got your dining hall employees, but they’re inbred. . .”
The narrator mentions that his roommate is, “jacking off every night.”
The narrator wonders if his friend is gay. At school there, is no worse label than being gay.
One of Alex’s friends tells him, “Your brains are in your crotch.”
The boys play a version of Would You Rather. “Would you rather watch Mrs. Davido give a blow job to Buddha or Mr. Lyme? Would you rather watch Miss Dovecott give a blow job to Gaybrook or Everson?” Then they talk about if Mrs. Dovecott could get Gaybrook “off” and if Everson would “sploodge in about two seconds.”
Alex is glad that his mom isn’t coming to parents’ weekend because she will be labeled as a FUM, “boarding-school speak for (f^ckable mom).”
The boys wonder if a teacher is a lesbian.
Alex thinks about how he, “fondled a girl’s breast once. Her nipples were tiny, but her tits were huge . . . She laid the sweater across my crotch and slid a hand underneath it . . . I moaned and came in my shorts.”
Someone tells a story about girls kissing another girl’s breast and practicing kissing on each other. “I had heard before that girls practice kissing with one another so that they know what they’re doing when a boy kisses them for real.”
Alex thinks about the faculty members’ daughters who are sent away to go to school. He thinks that the girls who stayed would all have sex with his friend Glen, if Glen wanted to have sex with them.

Violence

At a dance, someone talks about how a student committed suicide. “This teacher’s theory is that the boy took all those pills because he was struggling with his sexuality . . . He might have been gay.”

Drugs and Alcohol

While drinking, Alex and his friends jump off a rock and into a river. His friend Thomas, who was “shit-faced” from chugging vodka, hits his head on a rock and dies. The boys are afraid that if the school finds out, they will be expelled.
There is drinking at a football game that the alums go to.

Language

Alex says someone is, “full of shit.”
The narrator says that parents pay “shit-loads” of money to send their sons away to boarding school.
An “ass-hole” who lived in Alex’s dorm room before he moved in burnt holes in the carpet with cigarettes.
Profanity is scattered throughout the book. The profanity includes bullshit, f^ck, smart-ass, and damn.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

The school’s reverend, “is a hypocrite. He preaches on the sin of homosexuality at least once a trimester, he quotes the Scriptures, twists it so that it fits his message. . .The good reverend says that we are made in God’s image. God is perfect. Therefore, God is not gay. If you engage in the sin of homosexuality, then you will contract gay cancer and die a very slow, very painful death.”
In one sermon the reverend says, “You will come to learn that God shows His mercy in small ways . . . God is with us, and under His watch, all things are good.” Alex doesn’t agree.
Alex’s father told him that, “religion was a human invention.” Alex thinks that more educated people don’t, “need religion to make sense of the word.” Therefore Alex does not believe in God.
The reverend says Thomas, “did not die in vain; he was part of God’s plan.” Alex thinks, “Even God does not have the power to intervene in a world where centuries of evil have rooted beneath the surface of everything . . . My father is right: humans made god up to satisfy their own needs.
Mr. Parks preaches that “God is programmed into our DNA, so He’s there under our skin, biologically there, to connect us to a force larger than ourselves.” Alex wonders if homosexuality is programmed there too.

ADRIFT

Matt went to the party to see a beautiful girl. He never expected that decision would alter his life forever. In a strange turn of events, Matt and John end up adrift in a boat with three rich kids. They assumed they would be rescued quickly. They assumed wrong.

Matt and John are used to banding together to help each other. By when five people are fighting for survival, it’s difficult to know how far each person will go to stay alive. When Matt begins to fall in love with Driana, conflict builds. The group needs to work together to stay alive, but growing mistrust makes that impossible. After all, no one wants to be the first to die.

Adrift is a gripping tale that will capture readers’ attention right from the start. Even though most of the action takes place on a boat in the open sea, there is plenty of suspense to keep the story interesting. The story doesn’t only focus on the struggle of being lost at sea, but sprinkles in mystery because something happened in the past—something bad—and that secret has shaped both Matt and John.

Besides being an entertaining story, Adrift is easy to read and shows the complicated nature of humans. Although the story explores the idea of killing a sick person to save oneself, in the end, the characters act with compassion. One positive aspect of this story is that characters show the importance of telling the truth—even if the truth is ugly.

Sexual Content

Matt and Driana kiss twice. The first time Driana, “kissed my eyes and then my lips . . . We kissed and kissed.” The second time Driana, “kissed me fast and then pulled away, and then she leaned in for a longer, harder one and lingered, and then she pushed away really hard. . .”

Violence

One of the characters tries to hug a dolphin. “It bucked, and its tail kicked up into the Windsurfer. . . Maybe I only imagined the bones crack, but her arm from her elbow down was facing the wrong way, and a slick red bone tip pierced her skin. . . blood pulsed from the rip in her arm . . . ”
John and Matt were told about a character whose, “mother was gunned down in front of her. . . A drug deal went bad and Stef’s mom was hit in the cross fire. . . Stef was holding her when she bled out. She was five years old, and she remembers it like it was yesterday.”
Throughout the story, the death of John’s father, Mr. Costello, is talked about. In the beginning of the book, the reader gets snatches of information such as, “When his father’s blood spattered my face.”
Several years before the story begins, John’s father is shot. The incident is described over several pages. Matt tells the story. He said, “It wasn’t the blood that freaked me out. . . Mr. Costello took all three bullets fired into the front seat. His body is pinned against the driver’s side door.”
At a baseball game, there is a group of men who are spitting at the coach. “Mr. Costello helps him up. He drags him to the ball-field exit and throws him into the parking lot.”
John tries to kill a baby porpoise, so they can eat it. John hits him with a harpoon, drags it onto the boat, and then hits it one the head with a hammer. “I heard a popping sound, and then another one when John swung the hammer into the porpoise’s temple. The porpoise writhed and bucked and flopped right out of the boat.”
When a shark tries to eat one of the boys, John hits it with a hammer.
One of the boys goes “out of his mind.” Dri is trying to comfort him when, “He screamed and flung her off. Her head smacked the bench cabinet. Blood drops hit the water on the deck and spread out like exploding red stars.” Matt steps in between the two and, “Drove the heels of my hands into JoJo’s chest. . . JoJo came back at me with a fist to my shoulder. The force of the punch tumbled into my spine, my legs. . . I hit the floor of the boat hard enough to see stars. . .”
JoJo jumps into the open ocean and is eaten by sharks. “. . . a shark bit his shoulder and shook him to tear away the skin. He didn’t have time to scream before another shark clamped its mouth over his head.”
John hits Matt. “When I turned back his fist smashed my face. Lights out.”

Drugs and Alcohol

There are several detectives looking for the missing teens. A detective’s memo stated, “Also, Castello’s mother was hospitalized with alcohol poisoning. Apparently this wasn’t the first time.” Later Matt said, “After Mr. Costello was killed, she drank to the point she couldn’t work.”
One of the characters takes drugs for his depression. “One is pink, the other yellow, another light blue.”

Language

None

Supernatural

Matt occasionally sees a ghost. “I meet him [the ghost] in my nightmare. He lay in the front seat of the car with his skull smashed in. Mr. Costello opened his eyes and cried blood tears. The ghost had never spoken to me before, but that morning he said, Matt, it’s time to wake up.”
Matt says that Mr. Costello’s ghost is everywhere. “He looks so lost and sad. Like he wants to tell me something, but can’t talk because his neck is all blown out. His voice is gone.”
At the end of the story, Matt says, “. . . sometimes Mr. Costello is there . . . Once in a while he follows me. He doesn’t mean any harm, and he isn’t bleeding anymore. The wounds are gone. He can talk now, but he doesn’t.”

Spiritual Content

While looking at the sky, one of the characters says, “To get to see this? God loves us. Truly we are loved.”
A character asks Matt if he is a believer, then goes on to say, “I believe God sent you both. You especially. . . You have a talent for remaining calm. This is the way God made you.”
In a conversation, Matt is told, “God is watching out for us.” When Matt is asked if he believes, he replies, “Only when I’m taking a test I didn’t study for.”
There are several references to God such as, “Thank God we have more money than they do.”
One of the characters says, “The universe provides.” In response, John thinks, “For some people, the universe provides. The rest of us scramble.”

Where She Went

Three years ago, Mia’s life changed forever. Mia lost her family in a devastating accident. And when she woke up from a coma, she decided to walk out of Adam’s life. Forever.

Now Mia is a rising star at Julliard and Adam is a rock star, with a celebrity girlfriend. They live on different sides of the country, but fate brings them back together for one night. As Mia and Adam spend an evening exploring the city that is now Mia’s home, they revisit the past. But is one night enough time to open their hearts to each other? Can they build a future together or will Mia walk out of Adam’s life one more time?

Told from Adam’s point of view, Where She Went focuses on Adam’s emotional state. After Mia left, Adam relies on prescription drugs and sex to cope with life. The story is emotionally gripping but darker than the first book in the series. Where She Went deals with many adult topics and not all readers will be ready to dive into the book.

Sexual Content

A reporter asks Adam about his girlfriend. “. . . Are you and Bryn Shraeder having a baby?” Adam replied, “Not that I know of.”
Adam thinks about seeing Mia’s eyes, “in the eyes of every other girl I laid on top of.”
When Mia and Adam talk, she mentions staying the night at a man’s house. Adam feels “sucker-punched” and thinks, “You’ve been with so many girls since Mia you’ve lost count, I reason with myself. It’s not like you’ve been languishing in celibacy. You think she has.”
An actress was nominated for “The Best Kiss Award” but did not get it. She said, “I lost to a vampire-werewolf kiss. Girl-on-girl action doesn’t have the same impact it used to.”
Mia talks about her friend who would like to get married, but gay marriage isn’t legal in the state where she lives.
Adam and Mia go back to his place. “The minute the door clicked shut behind us, she’d pounced on me, kissing me with her mouth wide open. Like she was trying to swallow me whole . . . as she kissed me, my body had begun walking up to her, and with it, my mind had gone, too.” Before anything more serious happened, Mia started crying and then left.
Mia invited Adam to her grandparents’ place and she kissed him. “Not the usual dry peck on the lips but a deep, rich, exploring kiss. I’d started to kiss her back.” Adam remembered Mia’s tears the last time they were together and stopped.
When Adam is on the road with his band, he had sex with a string of different girls. One time, “. . . with Viv’s hand playing on the small of my back, I was rearing to go. I spent the night with her at her apartment. . .” The next morning one of his friends said, “Good thing I hit Fred Meyer for the economy box of condoms before we left.”
Mia and Adam have sex. The scene is described in detail over several pages. “I run my fingers along her neck, her jawline, and then cup her chin in my hand. . . And then all at once, we slam together. Mia’s legs are off the ground, wrapped around my waist, her hands digging into my hair, my hands tangled in hers. . .”

Violence

None

Drugs and Alcohol

Adam takes an anti-anxiety prescription drug when he’s feeling “jittery” and sleeping pills. However, he still has trouble sleeping despite “a medicine cabinet full of psychopharmacological assistance.”
When talking to a reporter at a restaurant, Adam orders three beers.
Adam thinks about famous rock stars who “drugged themselves into oblivion. Or shot their heads off. What a bunch of assholes. . . You’re no junkie but you’re not much better.”
Adam goes on a date with a girl and they “sat on the beach, sharing the wine straight out of the bottle.”

Language

Profanity is used often throughout Adam’s thoughts and characters’ words. Profanity includes: ass, crap, damn, dick, pissed, prick, shit, and fuck.
Adam thinks that “there is no fucking way” he will fly on Friday the thirteenth.
Adam gets angry with a reporter and yells, “This has fuck to do with music. It’s about picking everything apart.”
Someone calls Adam a “Prissy, temperamental ass.”
Mia said, “Your professor sounds like a dick!”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

If I Stay

In an instant, everything changes for seventeen-year-old Mia. A horrific car accident kills her family and leaves Mia struggling for her life. As her injured body is taken to the hospital, Mia hovers between life and death. Mia sees herself and is able to walk through the hospital and listen to the living.

Mia roams the halls of the hospitals and listens in on family, friends, and others. As she contemplates her life, she struggles with the loss of her family. In the end, she must decide if she will stay. Can Mia face life with possibly crippling injuries? Is her love of friends and family enough to make her stay? Is her life worth living if her family is gone?

Readers will be captivated as Mia reflects on her relationship with her family, boyfriend, and friends. Told from Mia’s point of view, teens will relate with her as she navigates the difficult decisions about college and boyfriends. If I stay is geared for older readers who are ready to read a book with mature themes and sexual material.

Sexual Content

Mia talks about her boyfriend. “. . . We hadn’t done much more than kiss. It wasn’t that I was a prude. I was a virgin, but I certainly wasn’t devoted to staying that way.”
Mia’s mom took her to Planned Parenthood to get birth control pills and told Mia to have her boyfriend get tested for various diseases. She gave Mia money to buy condoms.
Mia’s friend goes to a Jewish summer camp each year. Her friend calls it “Torah Whore, because all the kids do all summer is hook up.”
Mia’s mother talked about dating in high school. “There’s only so many times a girl wants to get drunk on Mickey’s Big Mouth, go cow-tipping, and make out in the back of a pickup truck.” Later on, the story talks about Mia and her boyfriend’s relationship. “It was nothing like the drunken roll in the back of some guy’s Chevy that passed for a relationship when I was in high school.”
A girl drops out of high school because she is pregnant.
At a New Year’s party, Mia’s boyfriend kisses her. “And I kissed him back so hard, like I was trying to merge our bodies through our lips.

Violence

Mia’s family is in a car accident. Her parent’s bodies are described in gory detail. Mia sees her father’s body. “. . . As I walk toward him, the pavement grows slick and there are gray chunks of what looks like cauliflower . . . Pieces of my father’s brain are on the asphalt.” She also sees her own injured body. “One of my legs is askew, the skin and muscles peeled away so that I can see white streaks of bone.”
Mia and another girl fight. “She charged me like a bull, knocking the wind out of me. I punched her on the side of the head, fist closed, like men do.” The two end up becoming friends.

Drugs and Alcohol

Mia’s father would get “wasted” to help him deal with stage fright. Her father said, “I don’t recommend that for you. . . Social services frowns on drunk ten-year-olds.”
Mia’s boyfriend can’t get into the hospital to see Mia. His friend suggests he “fake a drug overdose or something so you wind up in the ICU.” He replies, “this is Portland. You’re lucky if a drug overdose does get you into the ER.”
Mia and her boyfriend go to a New Year’s party where he gets drunk. Mia has one beer.

Language

Profanity is used often and includes asshole, bitch, crappy, damn, dicking, goddamnnit, piss, hell, motherfucking, fucking, and shitty.
A medic said that they need to get Mia to the hospital quickly even if they “have to speed like a fucking demon.”
Mia’s boyfriend tells her, “I love that you’re fragile and tough, quiet and kick-ass. Hell, you’re one of the punkiest girls I know. . . “
Someone asked Mia about playing cello with others. “I don’t mean to sound like an asshole, but isn’t that how you get good? It’s like tennis, if you play someone crappy, you end up missing shots or serving all sloppy. . .”
When Mia’s friends are in the hospital, they ask about another patient. Mia thinks, “I’ve never heard any of Adam’s friends talk so PG-13 before. It’s their sanitized hospital version of ‘holy fucking shit.’”
Mia’s mom said, “Love’s a bitch.”

Supernatural

Mia is in a coma and can see and hear living people. She must decide if she lives or dies. Her living is “not up to the doctors. It’s not up to the absentee angels. It’s not even up to God who, if He exists, is nowhere around right now. It’s up to me.”
Mia describes memories that she has from before she was born. Mia thinks of her grandmother and, “that maybe I was there as an angel before I choose to become Mom and Dad’s kid.”

Spiritual Content

Mia’s grandparents talk about guardian angels. Mia thinks, “maybe I’ll tell Gran that I never much bought into her theory that birds and such could be people’s guardian angels. And now I’m more sure than ever that there’s no such thing.”
Mia thinks back to a funeral that she went to with her parents. The person giving the eulogy, “concluded by reassuring us that Kerry was walking with Jesus now. I could see my mom getting red when he said that, and I started to get a little worried that she might say something. We went to church sometimes, so it’s not like Mom had anything against religion, but Kerry did. . .”

Can’t Look Away

Clothes. Make-up. Her Vlog. Popularity. Torrey cares about them all. While at the mall trying to film her newest Vlog, Torrey and her sister, Miranda, fight. Miranda leaves and is killed by a car. When her sister dies, Torrey’s life falls apart.

Because of Torrey’s popular Vlog, many bash her online. When Torrey goes to a new school, she wonders who wants to be her friend just because of her online presence. Things get even more complicated when the popular girls invite Torrey to be a part of their group. When Torrey begins to fall for Luis, who the popular girls hate, Torrey begins to wonder if being part of the “in crowd” is worth it.

Mixed into the conflict of trying to fit into a new school, Torrey is also trying to figure out how to deal with the death of her sister, Miranda. When Luis introduces her to the tradition of the Day of the Dead, Torrey wonders if there is a way to remember Miranda without the pain.

Even as Torrey’s family is dealing with the death of Miranda, Torrey’s focus is on herself. She feels guilty about how she treated Miranda, but Torrey also feels frustration that her mother is focused on grief instead of her. She also wants to prove to the online world that she isn’t as bad as some people think.

When Torrey begins attending a new school, she focuses on how to become one of the popular girls, and how to hide her growing feelings for Luis. At the beginning of the story, Torrey’s main concern is her image. Everything revolves around her.

As Luis introduces Torrey to his world, one where death is just a part of life (his father runs the local mortuary), Torrey begins to face her own feelings about death.

Luis is a welcome addition to the novel. Besides being a sweet love interest, he is a likable character who takes the reader into the world of the funeral business, which gives the story an interesting angle.

Can’t Look Away deals with the tough topic of death in a way teens can relate to. Although it deals with many teen issues—friendships, popularity, and family problems—the book doesn’t come across as preachy. Instead, the first-person narration allows the reader to see the difficult emotions that Torrey faces when she loses her sister. And in the end, Torrey realizes that true friend are more important than popularity.

Sexual Content

Torrey kisses Luis several times, but it is not described in detail. “When Luis pulls slowly away, I can still feel the touch of his lips on mine.”
At a party, Luis kisses Torrey. “He runs his fingers lightly through my hair. Then he kisses me. And I melt into mush.”
Torrey thinks about what it could feel like if Luis touched her.

Violence

None

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

There is a brief conversation about what happens to people after they die. One person says they believe in God and that “if some kind of afterlife exists, then dying wouldn’t be bad after all.”
When talking about death, one person says they think people can “stay around” after they die. “I think there could be reasons sometimes for them to stay . . . It’s a very small space between the living and the dead. Why wouldn’t there be some overlap?”
Part of the story revolves around the Day of the Dead. Torrey goes to her sister’s grave on the Day of the Dead in order to put her sister’s favorite things on her grave. “Whatever made the dead happy in life, they are to have it again.”

Glow

Julie’s future plans of going to New York for college have died. Julie is frustrated with her mother’s financial problems, a dead-end job, and a best friend who is moving on without her. When she discovers a series of antique paintings in a thrift store with hidden glowing images, her curiosity is piqued. As Julie looks for clues to the artist’s identity, she finds more paintings with increasingly nightmarish scenes hidden in the daylight.

Lydia’s story comes to life as she writes to her beloved who is on the front lines of the Great War. One hundred years before Julie’s time, Lydia is excited to join the girls in the factory painting luminous watch dials for soldiers. She is hoping that her factory job will help her struggling family, but when girls from the factory become seriously ill, Lydia wonders if there is danger lurking in the factory’s new scientific paint.

As Julie’s obsession with the paintings mounts, she discovers the truth about the Radium Girls. As she learns about the paintings, she also learns that relationships are more complicated than she thought. In the end, Julie realizes that when life’s obstacles destroy your plan, there can be a new path to finding your goal.

Megan E. Bryant tells a beautiful story of love, friendship, and broken dreams. Julie’s story is told in the first-person point of view, which allows her range of emotions to be highlighted. As Julie grieves the loss of her college dream, she also struggles with feelings of resentment towards her mother and envy over her best friend’s future. Teens will be able to relate to Julie’s frustration because life doesn’t always go as planned. However, in the end, Julie learns valuable lessons about the secrets that people keep.

Lydia’s story is told in letter format. Every other chapter of Glow focuses on Lydia’s life and concerns. The reader will learn about how life was for a young woman who lived during World War I. Lydia’s only wish is to have her soldier come home safely so they can be reunited. The unexpected ending of Lydia’s story is heartbreaking and will leave the reader in tears.

Glow captures the reader’s attention from the very beginning. The mystery of the paintings, as well as the captivating characters, make Glow a difficult book to put down. Although Glow is written for readers as young as 12, younger readers may be disturbed by the gruesome descriptions that are found hidden in the paintings. The story describes the horrific effects of radiation poisoning both in the paintings and in Lydia’s older sister’s slow death. Although there is very little sexual content, the story does show the shame of being diagnosed with syphilis during the early 1900s.

Sexual Content

Julie makes a wisecrack and then wonders if it made her sound “slutty.”
Lydia’s boss takes “liberties” with the girls. “A leering smile here, a sneering remark there, even a pinch from time to time . . . I do not smile when he is near, lest he think I encourage such behaviors.” Later in the story, Lydia discovers her sister and her boss, “locked in a tender embrace. His thick and calloused hand, pressed to her chest. . . “
A doctor diagnoses Lydia’s sister with Syphilis. Lydia “has never heard it spoken out loud before, just in whisper-hisses hidden behind hands when an uncharitable rumor spreads from girl to girl.” According to the doctor, Lydia’s boss said he had an affair with her sister. The doctor said, “We also understand that your sister is known for dangling her favors before a great many men. . .”
When Julie is upset, her friend Luke tries to comfort her. “I just leaned up and kissed him. His lips were as soft as I imagined they would be. . . his kisses were so good, just what I wanted, just what I needed, my fingers ran through his hair, and it was so soft, so silky. I couldn’t help pulling his face closer to mine, and I think he liked it. . . I tugged at his jeans, fumbled for the button, for the zipper. Luke was poised above me. I was ready. He was ready . . . He pulled away.”
Julie thinks back to her time with Luke. “When I thought about how ready I’d been to sleep with him, in the mud, on the worst night of my life, I wanted to pull my hair over my face and hide. I wanted to die of shame.”

Violence

None

Drugs and Alcohol

When Lydia’s sister breaks her leg, she is given morphine for the pain. After an operation, Lydia’s sister is again given morphine for the pain.
Julie remembers a time when she and her friend “got wasted.”

Language

Profanity is used rarely throughout the book. Profanity includes crap, holy crap, damn, goddamn
Julie uses Oh my God, God and Jesus as an exclamation often.
Julie tells her friend, “I have been to hell, and it is Triple-B on a Sunday in August. God, can you imagine?”
When Julie touches a painting, her friend yells, “Come on, Julie, you know this. Don’t touch the goddamn painting.”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

In a letter, Lydia writes, “I send my greatest hopes that the Almighty will protect you.”
When Lydia’s sister has surgery, Lydia thinks that “God willing the procedure will . . . offer a cure.”

Liesl & Po

Liesl’s cruel stepmother keeps her locked away in an attic. With nothing to do, Liesl spends her time looking out a tiny window and drawing. One lonely night, a ghost named Po appears from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are less lonely when they are together. When Liesl’s father dies, she is determined to take his ashes to a special place. With Po’s help, Liesl is able to escape and the two embark on a dangerous adventure to bury her father.

The alchemist’s apprentice, Will, leads a miserable life. His one joy is to look at the small girl in the attic window. Late one night, Will accidentally mixes up a major delivery. Now, the person who ordered the most powerful magic in the world will stop at nothing to get her potion that Will failed to send to her.

The lives of the children—Will, Leisl, and Po—intersect as they help each other avoid the adults who would like to capture them.

Lauren Oliver writes a beautiful story that shows the power of friendship. Although Liesl & Po is age-appropriate, the story shows a frightening version of the Other Side—a place where the dead lose their shape and their memories. Another aspect that may frighten younger readers is the terrible actions of the adults in the story. The alchemist verbally abuses Will. Liesl’s stepmother plots the murder of Liesl’s father and attempts to kill Liesl. The other adults (except one) in the story are just as vile. However, the story ends in a satisfying way, leaving the reader with hope.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

One of the alchemist’s apprentices was accidentally turned into a mouse, “just as the alchemist’s scrawny, always hungry tabby cat had come swishing in through the cat door.”
Augusta wants to kill her husband and stepdaughter, but she is afraid to kill both at the same time. Therefore, she uses poison to kill her husband because “the slow death of a middle-aged man is hardly likely to be attributed to poison, especially when the poison is administered teaspoon by teaspoon, a bit in the soup every day, over the course of a year.”
Will overhears a conversation when a factory worker says, “The problem is the boys. We’re running through ‘em! We’re running out! Boys are losing limbs, fingers, toes. One of the boys had his head chopped off last month.”
Someone tries to grab Liesl. “During her frantic struggles against the Lady Premiere, she had smacked her head against the door jam and gone as limp as a lettuce leaf.” Lady Premiere then locks Liesl in a room.
Augusta tries to feed Liesl soup that she has poisoned. When Liesl refuses to eat it, “Augusta, enraged, sprang to her feet. She grabbed Liesl by the shoulders and shook her . . . Augusta shook Liesl so hard that her teeth knocked together.” Augusta then tells Liesl she can eat the soup and die slowly or she can starve to death.
Two siblings are seen “hopping and twisting and slapping each other.”

Drugs and Alcohol

Po meets a ghost who died in a bar brawl.
Augusta kills her husband with poison.
Augusta says that her maid was, “dropped on her head quite frequently as a baby. Her mother was a hopeless drunk.”
An innkeeper thinks about a time when she served her customers “weak wine.”

Language

None

Supernatural

Po is a ghost who explains how death works. Some people go “straight on,” and others go to the Other Side. The Other Side is “vast and filled with ghosts.” When new people cross over to the “dark and twisting corridors,” people lose their shape and memories. When people first get to the Other Side, “they become a part of darkness, of the vast spaces between starts.”
When people die, they blend and become part of the Everything. “The ghost reminded itself that losing form was natural, and good, and the way things were in the universe.”
Po takes Liesl to the Other Side. “. . . She was aware of the sensation of Po inside her, urging her forward, like suddenly feeling a division down your middle and being two people . . .” Po leads Liesl through the Other Side, and then opens a passage so Liesl can go back to the living world.
When people first get to the Other Side they are often confused because they do not understand where they are. “All those new ghosts: All they wanted was to go back to the Living Side.” In order to help Liesl, Po tells the new ghost to follow him because the path would lead them home. Instead, they go to the Living World. “Because they were very new ghosts, they had not started to blend yet, and so were quite visible. . . Some had holes in their faces, or were missing arms or legs, where their physical selves had begun to dissipate and merge with the rest of the universe.”
Liesl’s father returns from the Other Side and accuses his wife, Augusta, of killing him. Augusta then reveals that the alchemist gave her “Pernicious Poison: Dead as a Doorknob, or Your Money Back.”

After helping Liesl, Po and Bundle appear as solid shapes. “They were golden—they’d been dipped in gold—no—they were made of gold. And then the golden Po-shape turned into tan brown arms and shoulders, a ring of curly yellow hair, and a laughing smile. . . ” Then he disappeared “to Beyond.”

Will works for an alchemist who makes spells. For one spell, Will “spent the whole day grinding up cow eyes, and measuring the blood of lizards into different-sized vials . . .”
The alchemist can make spells that “turned frogs into goats and goats into mugs of tea. He made people grow wings or third legs. Recently he had mastered a tincture that would make a person disappear entirely.”

Spiritual Content

None

A Plague of Bogles

Bogles don’t hide in closets; they hide in small, dark places where they lie in wait for children they can devour. Many adults don’t believe bogles exist, but Jem has seen a bogle. When a child is sent to fetch some sherry from a basement and never returns, Mable goes in search of help and finds Jem. Jem searches out the only person who can help, a bogler named Alfred.

In order to catch a bogle, Alfred needs some bait—a singing child. In order to get off of the streets, Jem agrees to be bogle bait. Jem and Alfred meet several interesting characters who have bogles that need eradicating. Soon they discover they need the help of Birdie, a gutsy girl with a beautiful voice.

To complicate the story, Jem is also trying to hide a secret. As Jem tries to help solve the mystery of why there are so many bogles in one area, he is also trying to find Sarah Pickles, the woman who sold him as bogle food.

The story begins with suspense and mystery that make it more interesting for readers, but the language may be difficult for younger audiences. For example, Jem says, “I never prigged a thing, save for that morsel o’ cheese.” The book also mentions debtors’ prisoners and homeless children. The complicated themes and adult nature of some scenes may not be suitable for all children.

Jem is frightened of going to prison because of his past misdeeds, and he thinks about this often. Even though Jem does not want to end up in prison, he does not feel bad about stealing. Instead, Jem seems to think thievery is acceptable. Jem, “had always favored the idea of bogling, because bogling was such a flash occupation, like smuggling or highway robbery.” As Alfred and Jem go about the city, they spend time in a tavern, where alcohol is served. (Although Jem would like some, Alfred won’t allow it.)

Sexual Content

None

Violence

When Jem picks a morsel o’ cheese off the floor and eats it, he is beaten.
Jem is in a circle of salt when a bogle puts its two viscous arms around him. Then he jumps out of the way when he hears “a cry and a loud hissing noise. The air filled with foul-smelling steam,” and the bogle is dead. (In total there are three bogles that are killed, in a similar fashion.)
Jem thinks about Newgate prison, a place he fears, because he knew “several people who had been hanged there.”
At one point in the story, Jem remembers a time when he “once helped to rob a woman’s house while she was making her regular weekly visit to her dead child’s grave.”

Drugs and Alcohol

A child was working for a tavern. She was sent to fetch some sherry when she disappeared; she’s presumed to be eaten by a bogle.
Jem sings the following song: “There is a nook in the boozing ken,/Where many a mug I fog,/and the smoke curls gently, while cousin Ben/keeps filling the pots again and again,/ if the covers have stumped their hogs./The liquors around is diamond bright,/And the diddle is best of all;/ But I never in liquors took much delight,/For liquors I think is all bite.”
After Alfred and Jem dispose of a bogle, they go to a tavern where Alfred was jostled by “loud men in dirty clothes, many of whom were so drunk that only the press of bodies kept them upright. Jem noticed at least two gaping pockets just asking to be picked-pockets belonging to men who would never know, by morning, whether they had spent their missing money or been fleeced of it.”
The following is another song Jem sings: “The heavy wet in a pewter quart/ As brown as a badger’s hue, More than Bristol milk or gin,/ Brandy or rum I tipple in, With me darling blown, Sue.”

Language

None

Supernatural

To catch a bogle, Alfred must lay out a circle of salt with a gap in the ring so the boggle can enter it. In order to kill a bogle, it must be hit with a spear.
When a bogle is near, a child feels a sense of despair.

Spiritual Content