CHOPSTICKS by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral - REVIEW

Glory, a young piano prodigy, is missing. 

Glory’s mother died when she was young, leaving her alone with her father and a strict practice schedule. With about an hour of free time a day, Glory lives an isolated life revolving around practice, school work, and recitals. 

When Frank moves in next door, Glory is immediately drawn to him. Frank’s artistic and romantic nature is exactly what Glory needs. Frank nurtures Glory and gives her something she’s been missing from her demanding father – love.

As her relationship with Frank deepens, Glory begins to have trouble at her recitals. For reasons unknown to her or her father, she randomly breaks into playing Chopsticks in the middle of her classical pieces.  

The reader is left to put together the pieces of Glory’s life using handwritten notes, YouTube videos, IM transcripts, etc. The mystery of Glory’s disappearance and the validity of the reality she relies on unfolds in the pages of this unique multi-genre book.

PERFECT by Ellen Hopkins-REVIEW

Ellen Hopkins does it again. PERFECT, written in her signature novel-in-verse style, follows the lives of four teens as they struggle to live up to the expectations of family, friends, and most importantly, themselves.

Stress leads Cara, Kendra, Sean, and Andre to respond in different ways. Two have secrets from their parents, one stresses to perform athletically, and one is determined to have the perfect body. Their choices lead them down paths they didn't know were possible.

What I love about this book is its connection to IMPULSE. During Cara's sections of the book the reader gets to see what her and her family are going through while her twin brother, Connor, is in Aspen Springs, a psychiatric hospital for those who have attempted suicide.

PERFECT is one of the best novels Ellen Hopkins has written. It also has one of the BEST covers!!! PERFECT is also the first of Ellen Hopkins' books I listened to on audio. Each character has a different narrator which really adds to the enjoyment of the book. I think I'll go back and listen to her others on audio too.

ROTTERS by Daniel Kraus-REVIEW

When Joey’s mother is killed he is sent to live with the father he never met – Ken Harnett. In addition to dealing with the grief of losing his mother, he has to suffer through high school as the new kid where he immediately becomes the target of ridicule and pranks. No one in town likes Harnett and now, by association, Joey. To make matters even worse, Harnett doesn’t even speak to him. Joey doesn’t have food in the house, he sleeps in the corner of a dark and dirty cabin, and spends most of his time alone since his father leaves for days at a time for “work.” After a while, Joey can’t stand it any longer and decides to follow Harnett to see what he does when he leaves the house. Harnett is a grave robber. Now, Joey knows. He doesn’t know whether to turn in Harnett or ask to go with him.

Eventually, Harnett begins to train Joey in the art of grave robbing. He forces him to practice digging, learn the history of the profession, and research where the best graves will be. Soon, digging is his only relief since school is nothing but continuous torture. Joey learns the ins and outs of being a Digger and even meets others from around the United States. When one of the best Diggers suffers a mental break he begins to endanger all the Diggers. Will Joey and Harnett be able to stop him and prevent the Diggers from being revealed?

ROTTERS isn’t for the squeamish. The book is filled with death and detailed descriptions of what the body goes through during decomposition. The life Joey is forced to live is heart-breaking and I was brought to tears several times toward the end of the book. Never would I have thought I could call a book about digging up dead bodies beautiful, but ROTTERS is. Daniel Kraus does a fantastic job creating characters that you definitely feel for. Harnett is an especially surprising character and maybe even my favorite from the story.

I listened to ROTTERS on audio and it was fantastic. I have looked at this book on my shelf for a while, but finally moved it up my list when it won The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production from YALSA in January. I’m very glad I did.

Sexual Content: None
Language Content: Moderate
Violence Content: Moderate

 

FORBIDDEN by Tabitha Suzuma-REVIEW

Lochan and Maya are a great team. They share in the responsibilities around the house to where cooking, cleaning, and caring for their younger siblings is like a well-oiled machine. They have their routine. They support each other. As long as they can keep their mother’s attention long enough to get money from her to pay the bills, usually they are okay.

One wonders if things would have turned out differently for Lochan and Maya if they’d had a proper mother. One that didn’t force them to act as parents to the three younger children. One that, if she had done her job, would have given Lochan and Maya time to be “normal” kids – go out with friends, meet new people, participate in school activities.

But, that isn’t their reality. Lochan’s and Maya’s lives are much more complicated than the typical teen’s. They have fallen in love and can’t tell anyone about it – because they have fallen in love with each other. As their feelings solidify, Lochan and Maya grow more desperate to spend time together, but at the same time, feel terror that someone will find out. They know it is wrong. They know it is illegal. They know it would tear their family apart if their affair were revealed. They know something else, too. They know they can’t stop.

FORBIDDEN is intense. When finished, the reader will be emotionally drained. It is the kind of book that sticks with you for a while. The kind you find yourself thinking about at random times.

Not to compare it with FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC by V.C. Andrews, but…..if you had to stretch it you could definitely say that this is similar in the sense that the brother and sister fall in love. FORBIDDEN just actually has meat – story – quality.

Language Content - None
Violence Content - None
Sexual Content - There is a lot of sexual tension between the two main characters. Some scenes of interaction.  But, the most important thing when it comes to the sexual content in this book is the fact that the two main characters are siblings.

THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD by Donna Freitas-REVIEW

Antonia wants to become the first “living saint”. She has been learning about saints and keeping a saint diary for 9 years. She has petitioned the Vatican over the years to make her a saint.



Antonia is 15 and goes to an all-girl Catholic school. Her mother owns and runs the family market located on the bottom floor of their apartment. Her grandmother lives with them. Her father passed away several years before. He gave her her first saint diary.


Antonia has never been kissed. She loves one of the neighbor boys that goes to the all-boy Catholic school right next door to the all-girl school. She has dreams of one day being kissed by him. The problem is that her childhood friend Michael seems to be the one that makes her heart quicken every time she sees him.


Will Antonia ever get that first kiss by the “boy of her dreams?” Will the Vatican ever accept one of her proposals of sainthood? Antonia prays to every saint she knows on both subjects.


I thought this was a cute story. Antonia’s character is funny, innocent and quirky. She is way obsessed with the saints, but that is what makes her character likeable. I really enjoyed reading this book.

DARK SONG by Gail Giles-REVIEW

Ames lives a good life with her parents and younger sister. They take family vacations together, enjoy each other’s company, and have everything they want – a nice house, friends, and luxuries. Little does Ames know, but everything is about to come crashing down around her.



After returning home from a Christmas vacation isolated in Alaska, Ames begins to hear the rumblings of rumors at school. Rumors involving her father and something that happened at work. At first, she doesn’t give it a second thought. Her parents have always been open with her and she knows her father would tell her if anything was wrong, but soon she can’t ignore the fact that her parents are acting strange. Her mother is openly angry and belittles her father and her father hides in his office all day and won’t talk to anyone.


Eventually, Ames finds out her father lost a lot of money at work doing something illegal and cleaned out all of their personal savings in an attempt to pay it back. They are left with nothing. Forced to move away from her best friend and everything she has known, Ames is angry.


Ames gets even more surprises when they move to Texas to live in a rent house that belongs to her dad’s parents. It is while working on the mess inside the house when she meets Marc. With only Marc to help her with the worst jobs in the house she begins to feel a connection to him. He offers attention, support, and protection from her parents and their misplaced anger. Ames feels betrayed by her parents and only Marc gives her back a feeling of power, but can she afford to pay the price it takes to get back at them?


DARK SONG is a fast-paced, intense story. The reason it only received 3 pitchforks is because I felt Ames fell into Marc’s trap a little too easily. I also felt the family dynamics didn’t ring true. While I understand the anger that would be in the household, I didn’t feel Ames parents would have turned on her as much as they did. After discussing this book with a colleague, I was told I felt this way because I didn’t have any experience with dysfunctional families. So, my question to you is, what do you think? Did the story work for you?


My favorite character in the story was Ames’ little sister Chrissy. She is the smartest and most insightful character in the book.

GLIMPSE by Carol Lynch Williams-REVIEW

Lizzie and Hope are as close as two sisters can be; so, when Hope walks in on Lizzie with a shotgun in her mouth, Hope is thrown into a world of confusion. She can’t imagine what would drive Lizzie to such an extreme action.

After Lizzie is taken to the hospital and put in lockdown, Hope is left alone in the house with her inattentive, prostitute mother. She does her best to keep up a normal life even though Lizzie is always in the back of her mind.


In a visit with the hospital’s therapist, Hope finds out about a journal Lizzie kept and after seeing how anxious it makes her mother, Hope realizes she needs to find it. She knows her mother did something to make Lizzie attempt suicide, but can’t decide what. Her mother has been acting guilty and scared ever since she found out about the journal and Hope knows if her mother finds it before her, no one will ever find out what Lizzie wrote.


GLIMPSE is a heart-wrenching story about the deep love between two sisters and Hope’s courage as she finds a way to rescue Lizzie from the hell her life has become. Told in verse, GLIMPSE is a fast-paced story that will grab you as soon as you finish the first page. Carol Lynch Williams handles this edgy topic with grace and finesse. If you enjoyed THE CHOSEN ONE, you’ll definitely want to read GLIMPSE