The Rithmatist

The Rithmatist

  By Brandon Sanderson

Joel is a high-school student who, despite his poverty, attends the exclusive Armedius Academy.  He has access to some of the best teachers in the United Isles. Yet he squanders the opportunity to excel at most academic subjects because more than anything, he wants to become a Rithmatist.

Rithmatists are chosen by the Master (or God) at age 8.  They can create chalk drawings that are more than just lines on the pavement: the drawings have power and life.  Using defensive techniques that they study at school, Rithmatists must learn to defend against chalklings drawn by others.  The chalklings are creatures that eat away at Rithmatic defenses and can ultimately kill.  When students reach their last year of high school they go to apprentice in Nebrask, where an ongoing war against wild chalklings has been raging for years.  

Regular students and Rithmatic students have always kept their distance.  But things change at Armedius when a Rithmatic student disappears.  When two more go missing, the campus goes into lockdown mode.  

Inspector Harding, who is sent to locate the missing students, recruits Professor Fitch as the man to help him understand the Rithmatic aspects of these apparent crimes.  Strange new lines have been discovered at the scenes and these could be the key to solving the mystery.  

As Fitch’s assistant, Joel becomes involved.  Joel understands Rithmatic theory more than most, but he is not a Rithmatist.  Melody, however, is a remedial Rithmatic student and may be able to help Joel. As Joel and Melody become acquainted, their skills begin to meld together, taking Rithmatics to another level.  But can they really help solve a series of major crimes?

The Rithmatist is a fast-paced and suspenseful novel with an element of fantasy.  The very idea of the Rithmatic drawings and the theory behind them is fascinating – unlike any other fantasy novel I have ever read.  Joel is an immediately likeable character and readers will be rooting for his success.  I couldn’t put it down!

We Were Liars

We Were Liars

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

This book compels you to read to the end as soon as possible so you can actually find out what has happened to this group of  four that nobody will talk about!

The story begins simply enough;

Welcome to the Sinclair family.  
No one is a criminal. 
No one is an addict.  
No one is a failure. 

As we read along, we learn more about this family and how they deal with life, or don't and how important it is to keep up appearances, the family doesn't talk about things, divorce, death- these things are tucked away and the public face must be maintained at all times.

So as we learn more about this group of friends, we wonder- what really happened out there on that island that summer they were all last together? I developed some ideas as I read, but was never really sure what had happened, but i knew something  had. We read from the perspective of one of the Liars, a group of three cousins and a friend, who get together at the family island every summer vacation. Here they are in their own world, all that happens in their lives off the island throughout the year does not matter here, or does it?

This book is a quick read, a page turner and does not fail to keep you guessing right to the last minute. 

 E. Lockhart is the author of The Boy Book, part of the Ruby Oliver Series, and How to Be Bad.

Love in the Time of Global Warming

Love in the Time of Global Warming

By Francesca Lia Block

Penelope Overland’s life has been completely destroyed by the Earth Shaker, the global earthquake-turned-tsunami that has left the world in ruins.  Pen is one of the few survivors, although her parents, best friends and little brother have disappeared. 

Seemingly trapped in her Los Angeles home, which is now beachfront property, Pen subsists on the canned goods in her basement and tries to hide from the frightening world.  One day, she is visited by looters who have some very sinister plans in mind for anyone they find, especially girls and women.

Pen is forced to leave her home and is propelled into the world in a workman’s van.  Her journey is modelled on Homer’s The Odyssey and as she travels, she must contend with a modern-day Medusa, the Cyclops, Giants, and the Sirens.

Her sadness is palpable, but is reduced somewhat when she meets the androgynous Hex.  Pen has always been secretly attracted to girls (including Moira, one of her best friends), but for some reason, her feelings for this new boy in her life are overwhelming.

As Pen and Hex fall in love, they navigate their post-apocalyptic home searching for lost family and friends.  Rumour has is that Pen’s family is in Las Vegas.  As Pen and Hex set out across the desert, they encounter two more lost souls: Ash and Ez.  All four teens have lost everything but find a new kind of family in each other.

Love in the Time of Global Warming is a magical book that leaves you feeling as though the mythological creatures of the new world are real.  But despite that element of fantasy, the book has a serious side.  Climate change is a legitimate threat and could lead to a worldwide catastrophe.

And aside from all the politics, magic and myth, Love in the Time of Global warming is about falling in love and the deep bond we feel for our closest friends and family.

Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

by Beck Albertalli

Becky Albertalli’s "Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" is a cute, zippy romance between two teenage boys who have never met each other. Technically they have­-they go to the same high school- but they don’t know who each other are. Then they begin speaking anonymously using the school’s gossip Tumblr. I don’t normally read romance, but this was a sweet story about falling for someone’s personality over their appearance.

Simon Spier is very aware he’s gay and even more aware that he isn’t ready to come out yet. Obsessed with Harry Potter, loving mopey-music, and not into drinking, Simon isn’t always the most popular or confident teen in the room. This novel follows him as he attempts to work his way through the minefield that is adolescence - dodging too-cool hipster parents, bickering best friends and a blackmailer- while preparing for a role in a school play and attempting to woo a boy over the internet. 

The characters are diverse and defy stereotypes (even the most annoying one is still a bully-fighting powerhouse), and most teens will find Simon’s contemporary world laden with pop cultural references to be relatable and reflective of their own. The writing is often witty and sometimes memorable (though I could have done with a few less of Simon’s trademark ‘freaking’s in-between many-a sentence). Such repetitive dialogue ticks aside, this is a great GLTB coming of age novel.

Book of the Month: April - This Shattered World

by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

The first book of this series, These Broken Stars, grabbed my attention because the cover looked amazing! But This Shattered World is more of a companion novel than a sequel because we follow two new characters on the war-torn planet of Avon. 

Captain Jubilee "Lee" Chase is a badass. She's good at what she does - being a soldier, being a leader, crushing the rebels - and she knows it. But when she meets the charming rebel Flynn Cormac, she's literally knocked off her feet as he captures her and brings her back to the rebel base. 

Decades ago, the rebels were given empty promises of a better life by the terraforming corporation, Terra Dynamics. Flynn's sister, Orla, led a notorious attack which she paid for with her life. And now with Flynn as the leader of the rebellion, his people expect him to be like his sister. Instead, Flynn struggles to convince his people that communication, not war, is the key to progress. He meets resistance with every choice he makes, like capturing instead of shooting Avon's most famous soldier, Lee. 

Their unlikely alliance begins when Flynn decides to help Lee out of the rebel base as the rebels prepare to execute her. Together they unveil the truth behind Avon's history and why the planet has stayed unchanged and swamp-like for the past two decades. 

I loved These Broken Stars. So I was disappointed that Tarver and Lilac weren't the mains in the second book and it actually took me awhile to get into This Shattered World because the two books are so different. This book has much more world and culture building which the first one lacked as it was so focused on the characters. It's also much faster-paced, with the only "breaks" being the flashbacks in between the chapters. That said, once you get going, it's a hard book to put down.     

One of the things that makes this book so awesome is that the romance doesn't take over the story. In fact, it takes a backseat to the plot because they're not supposed to be together. Soldiers and rebels shoot each other on sight. To be allies and in love? Well, let's just say that Kaufman and Spooner did a phenomenal job developing their characters. Never did I question these characters' thoughts and actions (and I do a lot of questioning and eyebrow-raising when it comes to romance-heavy YA novels) and it was fascinating to see them learn, grow, and work through their thoughts and feelings. 

The writing is beautiful (there's so much life injected into these characters through the chosen points-of-view and style of writing). The cover is beautiful. This entire world Kaufman and Spooner created is beautiful. And the fact that the characters from the first book actually make a significant appearance in this one? Beautiful. I don't have any bad things to say about this trilogy and I cannot wait to read the third book!

The first and third books in the Starbound series are These Broken Stars and Their Fractured Light. You may also enjoy Avalon, For Darkness Shows the Stars, Illuminae, and Starflight.