Passenger

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

A new YA historical time-travel romance novel where said time travel occurs at the sound of orchestra music and the male protagonist is African-American and our first adventure back in time puts us on a pirate ship in 1776? Was this book written just for me?!

Etta is a seventeen-year-old violin prodigy. She lives with her mom, with whom she has a somewhat strained relationship, and she's never known her dad. Stories of her mother's life before Etta are riddled with inconsistencies, which have in part kept the mother and daughter at a distance.

One evening, while on stage at a violin performance, a strange sound pierces the auditorium, throwing Etta into hysterics and setting an incredible transformation into motion. The only other person who seems to hear the sound and know what is going on is a fellow teen violinist named Sophia. The girls are pushed through a time passage and land on a ship under attack, in the middle of the ocean, in the 18th century. 

How, and why, have Etta and Sophia managed to travel through time? As you might imagine, the answers are complex and span the centuries, as powerful time-travelling families fight to uncover a hidden artifact that could change the course of human history forever.

This book was...more work than I expected. It is long, and it took a while for me to get into it. However, the time travel sequences, the romance with a freed slave, and the treasure hunt leading to a surprise twist ending was enough to keep me going, and in the end I did enjoy it quite a bit. This is first in a series by Alexandra Bracken, who is also the author of the popular The Darkest Minds trilogy.

As Dead as it Gets

As Dead as it gets

By Katie Alender

I'll be completely honest I was waiting for the first book in this trilogy and I got tired of waiting so instead I decided to start at the end. Here at the library we often find ourselves unable to find the first book in a series and we don't always know if the books can be read out of order. Will the story stand on its own? I decided to see if this was the case with As Dead as it gets book 3 in the Bad Girls Don't Die series.

I was pleasantly surprised. I did not need to read the first two books to be able to follow along as Alexis tries to get her life back to normal after witnessing the death of a friend. Alexis has a special, if not annoying, ability. She can see and communicate with ghosts. Some may think this would be a wonderful ability but ghosts are everywhere and some can be really intrusive and even life threatening.

This story is filled with thrills and chills as an angry ghost named Lydia seams to be trying to exact revenge on our poor Alexis. Just when Alexis is starting to fall in love and settle into year book committee her life is turned upside down when young girls from school start going missing and turning up dead. If you are looking for a creepy and haunting read with a little romance thrown in then check out As Dead as it gets today also available through Hoopla streaming audio book.

Here is the book trailer too. Enjoy! Supernatural

Book of the Month: May - Carry On

by Rainbow Rowell

Simon Snow is your average foster kid in England, shuttled from care home to care home during his summer holidays from Watford School of Magicks.  Did I say average?  Simon's one of the most powerful mages in England.  Or he would be if only he could get his magic under control.  Usually when Simon uses his magic, the spells don't work or they work too well.  He suspects his roommate at Watford, Baz, is a vampire, and Simon and Baz don't get along very well.  Needless to say, Simon's afraid that Baz is going to sink his fangs into his neck while he sleeps.  To add insult to injury, Simon believes his girlfriend, Agatha, has thrown him over for Baz.  His best friend, Penelope, constantly breaks school rules by sneaking into Simon and Baz's room.  On top of all that, there have been attacks by the Insidious Humdrum, and strange dead spots have been appearing all over England where magic has just disappeared.

A series of strange events marks the beginning of Simon's final year at Watford, namely the fact that Baz's dead mother, Natasha, appears to Simon and delivers a cryptic message about the circumstances of her death for Simon to give to Baz; and an obviously ill Baz doesn't show up to the school until eight weeks into the term.  Once Baz returns to Watford, he, Simon, and Penelope team up to try and uncover the tangled mystery surrounding Natasha's death, while also trying to figure out how to defeat the Humdrum.

Rowell first introduced us to Simon Snow in her novel Fangirl, where it's a fictional fantasy series that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Harry Potter phenomenon.  Rather than write the book as the fictional author might have, Rowell has basically written a fan-fiction novelization of a fictional fantasy series she created.  Got that?  The Harry Potter influence is so strong in Carry On, that for the first third of the book, it's impossible not to mentally tally all the bits and pieces that are literary cousins to their Harry Potter counterparts.  Once Baz arrives on the scene, though, the story really picks up and races to the frantic and satisfying conclusion.

It's worth mentioning that although Rowell's magical world somewhat resembles that of Harry Potter, it diverges in significant ways.  Rowell's witches and mages live in the world of Normals, use smartphones, and create savvy Google searches.  Spells are common catchphrases or quotes from popular movies or songs, and witches and mages don't always use wands.

I was a little disappointed that Rowell didn't delve as deeply into the emotional lives of Simon or Baz as she did in her award-winning novel, Eleanor & Park.  Still, Simon and Baz's inner monologues probe their emotional attachments to each other and their families and friends.  As in her other novels, characters are allowed to unfold slowly across the pages of the book.  Character development is not rushed or forced, which also helps keep the reader on their toes as the resolution of the book approaches.

Readers of Rowell's other YA novels, Eleanor & Park, and Fangirl will probably love this novel.  So will readers of the Harry Potter series, if they can help themselves from comparing it to Harry Potter.  There's enough mystery to keep mystery fans engaged, too.

Other books like Carry On: The Magicians by Lev Grossman, A Hero at the End of the World by Erin Claiborne, The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness, and The Young Elites by Marie Lu.

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.