Category Archives: Young Adult/Teen 12-18

Review: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

Of Poseidon
Anna Banks
Feiwel & Friends
Published May 22, 2012

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After surviving a devastating shark attack, the last person Emma wants to see haunting the halls of her high school is the mysterious boy she met on her beach vacation. But try as she might, Emma can’t seem to escape Galen, nor can she find an explanation for the powerful connection she feels when she’s around him.

When Galen finally explains his reasons for following Emma across the country, she can’t – or doesn’t want to – believe him. But neither can she deny the inexplicable gift she possesses, a gift Galen says holds the key to saving his people from war. If Emma accepts Galen’s story, it will change everything and put everything she wanted and almost had squarely out of reach.

Despite the heaviness of the opening scenes, this is a fun, often humorous story about forbidden love with a bit of a new spin on mermaid – or Syrena – myths. Emma, a pure soul with a tragic past, and Galen, a duty-bound prince of a hidden realm, make perfect star-crossed lovers. Of Poseidon has recently been nominated for the 2013 YALSA Top Ten award.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild.

Sexual Content
Emma worries that her mother will assume she and Galen are having sex, though they aren’t sharing more than secrets and a few super-charged kisses.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
A bull shark attacks a young girl as she swims at the beach. Details are a bit gruesome. Two girls with super-strength tackle each other in a beach house, destroying furniture, but causing only minor damage to each other.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Broken Forest by Eliza Tilton

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, ,

Broken Forest
Eliza Tilton
Curiosity Quills PressPublished May 1, 2013

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Since the death of his little brother, Akivar has wanted only to get away and leave family and memories behind. Before he can have his chance, however, savage men kidnap his sister Jeslyn. Akivar and Derrick, his best friend and Jeslyn’s fiancé, pursue the kidnappers, determined to rescue Jeslyn and bring her safely home.

Jeslyn vows to escape her captors, but once she arrives in Daath, a place of legend which she remembers her mother fondly describing, Jeslyn can’t help being intrigued. Her captor, Lucino, seems a wealthy lord, and she is honored by his attention and wants to believe his claims that he had nothing to do with her kidnapping and will contact her family on her behalf.

Though at first she is reluctant to accept his offer of marriage, the longer she spends with him in his magical homeland, the more Jeslyn wants to embrace her role as his wife. She does not know that her brother and lover continue to track her and still plan for her rescue.

Lucino may seem like a stereotypical charming villain at first glance, but as the story unfolds, both his exposure to Jeslyn and something deeper from within his character bring forth conflicting desires, making him one of the most interesting and complex characters in the story. The narrative moves quickly, but sometimes jumps ahead, skipping over transitions and leaving the reader to fill in the blanks, causing some confusion. Still, Tilton creates an interesting fantasy landscape and weaves together the stories of several very different characters, leaving readers anxious to open the second book in her Daath Chronicles series.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
The Daath Lord keeps a house full of women, but no specifics are given as to what he does with them. It’s clear women, even Jeslyn, are attracted to him.

Spiritual Content
Akivar and his family worship a Creator god, and their planet’s two suns are cleverly described as the eyes of the god watching them.

Violence
Lucino’s advisor studies humans, sometimes torturing them as part of his “research.” Descriptions are brief.

Drug Content
Lucino poisons wine he offers guests at a ball so that he and other reptilian leaders can draw energy from the debilitated humans. The humans do not survive.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Running Lean by Diana L Sharples

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Running Lean
Diana L. Sharples
HarperCollins/Blink
Published August 6, 2013

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Haunted by a cruel playground song, Stacey is determined never to be fat again. With her best friend Zoe, she embarks on a rigid diet, rejecting the high-calorie, deep-fried southern dishes her family seems to thrive on. But just when Stacey has it all under control, a fainting spell alerts her boyfriend Calvin that things aren’t as well-ordered as they seem. Stacey brushes off the event as “female problems” and hopes Calvin will just forget it.

Calvin just wants Stacey to be okay, and he’s willing to pay just about any price to make that so. He endeavors to support her, but his own emotions become increasingly strained as his bike – and through it his way of coping with life – begins to fall apart. Though Calvin wants to believe he can love and encourage Stacey through her insecurities, it becomes impossible to ignore the downward spiral her life is taking. Calvin isn’t sure he can push her into recovery without breaking her.

In her brave debut, Sharples captures the raw driving intensity of emotional insecurity and the terrible tension it places on a relationship, boldly describing a tragic teen issue. The reactions of Stacey’s friends and family, the helplessness Calvin wrestles with all felt very real and true to character and life. Though a message of hope is woven through its pages, the story Running Lean isn’t dominated by its spiritual messages. Rather, each character wrestles with thoughts about and feelings toward God in his or her own timing and way.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
Stacey and Calvin share kisses and hold hands, but both have made a commitment to abstinence until marriage. Things get a little hot and heavy between them as Stacey’s emotions spiral further out of control and Calvin tries to reassure her of his love by pressing her physical boundaries further than she’s comfortable with. Clothes stay on, and nothing much ultimately happens before Stacey stops Calvin. There are brief references to a past sexual abuse situation. While the scars of the experience, both physically and emotionally still manifest in the victim, not a lot of detail is given about the events.

Spiritual Content
Since his brother’s death, Calvin has had difficulty thinking about spiritual things. He’s grieving and angry and offers of prayer from his friends and family only frustrate him further. As his relationship with Stacey becomes more and more strained, Calvin begins to rethink his “okay on my own” religious stance and consider asking for God’s help with the situation, since he’s way past knowing what to do on his own.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
Stacey visits a party at which alcohol is present. She doesn’t drink anything, but others around her do.

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Review: The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

The Iron Traitor
Julie Kagawa
Harlequin Teen
Published October 29, 2013

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Ethan returns from a week-long disappearance into the Nevernever with his girlfriend MacKenzie and a lot of explaining to do. After passing off the adventure to parents and police as an impulsive New York getaway, Ethan hopes to return to life as normal. But with his faery Sight keeping him aware of the fey all around him and making him something of a target, “normal” seems like an awfully tall order.

When Ethan and MacKenzie receive a request for help from a desperate faerie and friend, they prepare themselves for another dive into the faerie world. Together with Kierran, they seek to uncover a dark secret and prevent the death of Kierran’s true love. Ethan only hopes the price to save her won’t prove more than they can pay.

Once again Kagawa brings forth a dark and dangerous world of faeries and monsters, in which the most dangerous move of all is to bargain with the fey. As Ethan and his friends seek to do just that, they collide with a cast of characters both familiar and foreign, fun and freakish. While other novels in this series possessed powerful narrative and strong central characters, this one seemed to keep readers at bay in a tone that tells the story but doesn’t draw readers in to experience it. Ethan’s standoffish manner and constant overthinking made connecting with him difficult. Kagawa’s writing seems to shine more in her female-led narrative, packing more punch with earlier books like The Iron Daughter and her Blood of Eden series.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme. No F-bombs until near the end, though.

Sexual Content
Ethan and his girlfriend discuss whether/when to have sex briefly. He states that he will wait until she is ready. She wants to engage in sex before she dies of leukemia.

Spiritual Content
Brief references to a time during which faeries were worshipped and feared by humans.

Violence
Brief battle scenes. No graphic details.

Drug Content
A vendor at a faery market offers Ethan several different potions. Ethan refuses.

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Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

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Divergent
Veronica Roth
HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books
Published February 28, 2012

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Sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior lives in a world in which faction comes before family. Upon turning sixteen, each society member must choose to commit life to one of five factions. No turning back. Though Beatrice loves her family, she can’t imagine living out the rest of her life wholly committed to serving others selflessly as the Abegnation faction members do. But if she chooses to leave her faction, she will lose her family for good.

Beatrice discovers making her choice puts more at risk than her connection to family. Her mind carries within it a deadly secret, one she must keep at all costs. As she prepares to join the faction of her choice, she renames herself Tris and braces herself for the battle of her life.

Roth’s debut novel packs quite a punch, drawing readers into a world in which survival depends on securing one’s place within a group and virtue is everything. But while the virtues chosen by each faction may have started in purity, time has warped some so that instead of coming together to form a society that is a balanced whole, some factions have become twisted and parasitic.

Though the early chapters spend a lot of time setting up the story, the pace picks up quite a bit once Beatrice/Tris chooses her faction and the initiation rites begin. From that point on, the reader scarcely has a chance to pause for breath, and may need intervention from friends and family in order to put the book down for things like dinner and sleep.

Series fans are already eagerly anticipating the March 2014 release of the movie starring Shailene Woodley based on this first book in the Divergent Series. The series will conclude with the release of Allegiant on October 22, 2013.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
While romantic tensions run high between Tris and her boy, both seem committed to taking the relationship slowly. Lots of kissing scenes and one pretty intense make-out scene in a train, but nothing goes beyond that.

Spiritual Content
The Abegnation faction believe in God and serving others. Though she has always struggled to live up to the pure virtues of her faction, Tris returns to those beliefs in a moment when things go horribly wrong.

Violence
Some initiation rituals are a bit violent. Other initiates, motivated by jealousy, attack their rivals and even attempt to kill them. Divergent climaxes with an intense sequence of battles, but graphic details are limited.

Drug Content
To celebrate or mourn, Tris’s new faction members drink alcohol. Tris herself doesn’t participate. Faction leaders use a serum to create simulations in the minds of the initiates as part of the process of admittance into the faction.

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Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

Delirium
Lauren Oliver
HarperCollins
Published February 3, 2011

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In a world with closely controlled borders, seventeen-year-old Lena counts down the days until she receives the cure for what her government labels, “the deadliest of all deadly things,” or Love. Lena can’t wait to finally be cured, to know she’s safe from this vile and unpredictable thing. Then she meets Alex, and everything goes sideways. She isn’t sure what to think about the disease or the rumored uncured people living outside the safe borders of the town or Portland. And Alex is different. Special. Before she can stop it, her attraction toward him blossoms into something deep and forbidden, and for once, dutiful Lena doesn’t care if she’s breaking all the rules. How could anyone not break rules when they feel so wonderful?

But her procedure date approaches, and once it arrives, her feelings for Alex will be gone. Alex knows how to live away from town, but leaving means walking away from her family and her best friend Hannah. How can Lena do that? With time quickly running out and enforcers so close to discovering her secret relationship, Lena must decide what to do and find a way to escape before it’s too late.

Since her stunning debut Before I Fall, Oliver has delivered sharply brilliant prose framed around powerful characters and themes. Her exploration of love rockets readers through a dangerous world in which love is a disease scientists are now able to cure. Lena’s roller coaster ride of emotions becomes a little difficult to believe at times, as she both carefully controls her stoic public face and privately reels from the wild emotional highs and lows of her infatuation with Alex. Her best friend’s perfect understanding and lack of jealousy at being ditched for the boyfriend also felt a little hollow. Despite this, the story is intense and its narrative finely honed. Lena’s recollections of her mother and the descriptions of the Wilds beyond Portland are deeply captivating.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent but severe.

Sexual Content
Whether or not Lena and Alex engage in sex is left pretty vague. Lena describes her feelings at allowing Alex to see her without a shirt, and how before that moment she felt awkwardly put together, but his opinion of her as beautiful changes Lena’s perception of herself. The couple frequently kiss one another.

Spiritual Content
Some biblical characters and references are altered, as if they’ve been rewritten by a government with an agenda against love. Deeper spiritual pursuits are not really explored.

Violence
Police with weapons and dogs surround a house filled with people listening to forbidden music. They attack the party-goers, attempting to punish and subdue them. Some details are intense and a little grisly. A girl infected with “the Deliria” is bound to her bed until she can receive surgery to cure her from the disease of love. Later, police chase down a young couple trying to escape and attempt to shoot them.

Drug Content
Lena’s sister gives her a tranquilizer pill to calm her. Lana believes it is ibuprofen.

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