Insurgent: Even more action packed!

Insurgent

by Veronica Roth

Genre: YA Fiction

Review: Insurgent is even more action-packed than Divergent. The story begins right where the previous book left off. Tris faces many new challenges and must decide who to trust as the characters move from an Amity safehouse, to faction-less headquarters and later, to the Erudite building. Her relationships with Tobias and her brother Caleb will be tested, all while she struggles to overcome the grief from her parents' deaths and outcomes of violence. She must use her Divergent skills from Dauntless, Abnegation, and Erudite. At the end, we find out what is "outside the fence" and we're left with an awesome cliffhanger!

Can't wait for the third book of the trilogy!

Mystery and Mayhem on Shutter Island

Shutter Island

by  Dennis Lehane

Genre: Adult Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Review: Haunted by memories of the war and his wife's death, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels arrives on Shutter Island. This island on Boston Harbor houses a hospital for the criminally insane. A young woman, a murderer, is at large on the island, with a hurricane on the way. With his partner Chuck, Teddy investigates the missing person, uncovering a bigger conspiracy about the real reason he was brought to the island.

As Teddy begins to doubt everything he once believed, memories of his wife come raging back.

 The suspense is tight, yet setting and characterization are lavishly developed. The writing style is moody and atmospheric.

More info: The movie (starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, directed by Martin Scorcese) was also pretty good, although a bit graphic and disturbing for my taste: www.shutterisland.com

Suspenseful and Timely: One Breath Away

One Breath Away

by Heather Gudenkauf

Genre: Popular Adult Fiction

Review: A brother and sister move to a small Iowa town in while their mother recovers from an accident. P.J. and Augie live on the farm with their grandfather. Yet this is no pastoral farm tale.

Amidst a blizzard, a school is taken hostage by an unidentified gunman. The events are seen through the eyes of Augie, Grandpa Will, Augie's mom Holly, a female police officer, and a teacher.

As the suspense tightens, the action and memories/character exposition are woven together expertly. The author takes her time developing characters, while also using short chapters to maintain tension and keep readers turning pages.

Author Website: http://heathergudenkauf.com/

Also recommended: The Weight of Silence, her first novel, and These Things Hidden

Coming of Age in West Virginia

Ugly to Start With

By John Michael Cummings

Genre: YA Fiction

Review: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia is a fulfilling setting for this coming-of-age tale. Jason is figuring out where he fits in this strange world. His angry father, brushes with the stark realities of adultery and domestic violence, friendships fraught with conflict, a yearning for the larger world of art and culture—all come together in this collection of related short stories. The writing style is richly descriptive, the small town enlivened for the reader.

Jason struggles to retain his strong sense of self as he navigates the contradictions and hopelessness of the people around him.

Song to read by: "Landslide" live by Fleetwood Mac

Bittersweet Teenage Years--Book to Movie!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

By Stephen Chbosky

Genre: YA Fiction

I read this book in preparation for the film which comes out in September, starring Emma Watson (the smart and lovely Hermione)! Watch the trailer here . And guess what? The author of the book is directing the movie.

Review: This novel, which has become a modern YA classic since its publication in 1999, is written in the epistolary style, as letters from Charlie to an anonymous friend about the ups and downs of his freshmen year of high school. Two Seniors, Sam and Patrick (sister and brother), befriend Charlie and induct him into a world where he can move from being an observer of life to a real participant, who experiences the beauty and pain of life. The voice and style of the novel sound authentic to a teenage boy, but the novel also touches on issues related to Charlie's experience that would be difficult for even an adult to handle. Follow Charlie on the best and worst year of his life.

Song to Read By: "Asleep" by The Smiths, as featured in Charlie's mix tape in the novel

Disturbing Tale of Rural Sweden

Drowned

by Therese Bohman

Genre: Adult Literary Fiction

Review:  This mystery is different from crime novels readers have come to expect from Scandinavia. In this novel, twenty-year-old art history student Marina visits her older sister, Stella, in the countryside of Sweden. The sensual descriptions of the garden, the pond, and the woods make the novel a delight to read; the setting descriptions are as savory as any poem. However, this tale has a darker layer. Something is not quite right with her sister's relationship with the reclusive author, yet Marina finds herself drawn to him. The novel has wonderful layers and symbolism and foreshadowing, clues given in poems and paintings.

Song to Read by: "Fragile No. 4" by Dustin Halloran

Some Kind of Fairy Tale

Some Kind of Fairy Tale

by Graham Swift

Genre: Adult Fiction, Mystery/Suspense

Review: Tara arrives home on Christmas Day, surprising her family who has not seen her for twenty years. She looks almost the same as when she disappeared when she is sixteen. Most unbelievable of all, she claims to have been spirited away to the land of the fairies. Her brother Peter insists on getting to the bottom of this, and the novel follows the story of his family and children as well as Tara's sessions with a psychiatrist and her ex-boyfriend Richie's life. The reader is taken to a bizarre land of the fairies, a beautiful yet disturbing place.

Overall, this book was strange but an interesting mystery and well-written.

Song to Read by: "Orinoco Flow" by Enya