Category Archives: Young Adult/Teen 12-18

Review: Accountable by Dashka Slater

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Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater

Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed
Dashka Slater
Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Published August 22, 2023

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About Accountable

“Powerful, timely, and delicately written.” —Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times–bestselling and National Book Award-winning author

When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew.

Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults—educators and parents—whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse.

In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean?

Award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author Dashka Slater has written a must-read book for our era that explores the real-world consequences of online choices.

YALSA AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION WINNER ● From the NEW YORK TIMES-bestselling author of THE 57 BUS comes ACCOUNTABLE, a propulsive and thought-provoking true story about the revelation of a racist social media account that changes everything for a group of high school students and begs the question: What does it mean to be held accountable for harm that takes place behind a screen?

My Review

I read The 57 Bus earlier this year, and when I saw that Dashka Slater had another nonfiction book coming out, I knew I wanted to read it. She has this incredible ability to zoom in on the people involved in a situation, inviting readers to get to know them and think of them beyond the choices they made. Yet, she never minimizes the harm anyone causes. There’s never any backing down from how awful what happened was or how much it hurt people. But we are also not allowed to consider only the hurtful actions. She helps us look at the whole picture.

In some ways, this book was a harder read for me than The 57 Bus. It’s messier in some ways. Some of the way the community and school responded added to the harm in ways that may have made it even harder for people to find healing afterward.

As I read about the boys involved in the social media account that posted the racist images, I felt like I kept wanting to shake them. They would talk about how the whole group of them made racist jokes, and considered it edgy humor. They would continually be shocked and surprised that people were outraged and deeply hurt by the photos on the account. And it seemed genuine, like they genuinely didn’t think about what they were doing, like really think about it? But it made me want to shake them.

The book also made me think a lot about how we, as a community, respond to incidents like this. This morning I saw someone blaming parents for kids who bullied others. They must be learning that at home, the post implied. Maybe. But in Accountable, I read about how hurtful that sentiment was for the families of these kids who were also horrified by the social media posts. It made me think about people saying things like that after the murders at Columbine High School about the families of the perpetrators.

I think this is an important book, because it examines our relationship with social media, accountability, racism, and community, but because it asks hard questions and doesn’t leave us in a comfortable, easy place at the end.

If you haven’t read this or The 57 Bus, I highly recommend both.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The author interviews students, teachers, parents, school administration, and other community members of various races and ethnicities.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently, in quotes from statements, interviews, and videos.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Descriptions of racist images, including photos of lynching. Brief descriptions of the history of lynching. References to people arrested for sexual crimes against children. References to death by suicide and suicidal thoughts. In one section, the author describes a boy’s plan to harm himself. Parents worry that their kids are having thoughts of suicide.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Panic by Lauren Oliver

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Panic
Lauren Oliver
HarperCollins
Published March 4, 2014

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About Panic

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

My Review

This is still my favorite book by Lauren Oliver. Her writing always strikes me, her stories and characters are always compelling, but there’s something about this particular one that just really sticks with me. I’m not sure if it’s the small town setting, the high, high stakes, the flawed, underdog characters, or the complicated romance.

The small town setting makes for an intimate backdrop. Everyone kind of knows everyone. It feels like there’s nowhere to hide. It feels like ALL THE RAGE or SADIE by Courtney Summers.

The game brings high stakes right away. I found myself getting sidetracked trying to figure out how these struggling kids could afford the $180 entry fee to play the game, but ultimately, that’s a small detail I found I could let go.

The ending doesn’t neatly wrap up all the character’s stories. In fact, a couple are left in awkward situations but seem to be fine. I loved so much of the rest of the story that this didn’t really bug me much either. As the game went on, I felt like I couldn’t look away and needed to know that the characters would find a way through.

Over all, I think fans of suspenseful stories set in small towns like those by Courtney Summers will really like this one. It’s more like Oliver’s VANISHING GIRLS than DELIRIUM.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Main characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme word choice, moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content
A few crude references to sex, but no scenes depicting anything beyond kissing.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Several times kids get beat up in connection with the game Panic.

Drug Content
References to smoking weed. Teens drink beer at a party. One teen girl sips whiskey before completing her Panic test. A girl walks in on her mother and other adults after they’ve been using cocaine.

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Review: Desert Echoes by Abdi Nazemian

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Desert Echoes
Abdi Nazemian
HarperCollins
Published September 10, 2024

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About Desert Echoes

From Abdi Nazemian, the award-winning author of Like a Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment, comes a suspenseful contemporary YA novel about loss and love.

Fifteen-year-old Kam is head over heels for Ash, the boy who swept him off his feet. But his family and best friend, Bodie, are worried. Something seems off about Ash. He also has a habit of disappearing, at times for days. When Ash asks Kam to join him on a trip to Joshua Tree, the two of them walk off into the sunset . . . but only Kam returns.

Two years later, Kam is still left with a hole in his heart and too many unanswered questions. So it feels like fate when a school trip takes him back to Joshua Tree. On the trip, Kam wants to find closure about what happened to Ash but instead finds himself in danger of facing a similar fate. In the desert, Kam must reckon with the truth of his past relationship—and the possibility of opening himself up to love once again.

Desert Echoes is a propulsive, moving story about human resilience and connection.

My Review

I think I have at least one other of Nazemian’s books, but this is the first one that I’ve read. The writing and characters are so compelling in this book. I usually have a really hard time with long chapters, but I couldn’t stop reading this one, even though it only has about nine chapters which are each somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 pages long.

The story follows two different timelines: the present, in which Kam faces a return trip to Joshua Tree, the park where he last saw his boyfriend Ash, and the early days of Kam’s relationship with Ash two years earlier leading up to Ash’s disappearance.

Because the chapters are long, there aren’t a lot of transitions back and forth between these two timelines. This helped keep me immersed in each storyline and meant that I was going to get a lot more information every time I switched to a new chapter. I liked that.

I’ve sometimes read books that show a reflection back to a lost loved one or relationship that didn’t last, and sometimes those stories leave so many unanswered questions that reading the book can feel unsatisfying. Desert Echoes does provide Kam some closure, though it’s not the information he expected to uncover. He does begin to process his feelings and see his life in a new way once he has the information he needs, and once that happens, other things that felt left in limbo in the story begin to shift into place.

It has the kind of ending that might feel too easy to some people, but readers looking for an uplifting ending will definitely appreciate the way that Nazemian closes Kam’s journey. The back of the book has a moving note from the author explaining his emotional connections to the story, too. It explains why he writes about these topics with so much authenticity.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book a lot, even though it’s a story of grief. I’m glad I read it, and I am excited to read more by Abdi Nazemian.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Several major characters are queer. Bodie, Kam, and their families are from Iran and recently moved to the United States from Canada.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some f-bombs and profanity used here and there. Some references to homophobic comments, particularly by Kam’s dad.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. Very brief descriptions of sexual contact in a couple of scenes.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A character is missing, presumed dead. There’s some question as to whether this person died by suicide or an accident of some kind.

Drug Content
References to drug addiction. One scene shows a person with drugs and an intent to take them. Kam’s dad is an alcoholic and is frequently drunk when he’s in the house.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

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

The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1)
Melissa Albert
Flatiron Books
Published January 30, 2018

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Hazel Wood

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away-by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother’s tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

My Review

A friend gave me a copy of this book years ago, and I’ve been on the fence about reading it since then. I knew it was a popular title, but never really read a lot of reviews or saw specific coverage of it. I can’t believe it’s been six years since The Hazel Wood was published. That doesn’t feel possible. At any rate, my library has an audiobook version available, so I decided to listen to it while I was waiting for a book I had on hold.

For some reason, I expected the book to have more of an Irish or English folklore feel to it? More like Deep is the Fen by Lili Wilkinson or The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson. (It doesn’t.)

Some of the fairytales from Alice’s grandmother’s book are recorded in full in the text of the book. The narrative will introduce the story and then the next chapter tells the full tale. These fairytales are dark, grim tales of girls locked in a room to starve, or promised in marriage to men who plan to abuse them. They have a horror-esque feel to them.

The pacing of the book surprised me, too. I expected Alice to spend the majority of the book in the Hazel Wood, but she really only reaches it around the halfway point, I think.

One of the things I liked a lot is that this isn’t a romance. This story focuses on Alice, her identity, her connection with her grandmother’s stories, and her mission to rescue her mother from whoever has taken her. I loved that the author put together such a compelling tale that stands on those things.

As I read the book, I wasn’t sure how much I truly liked it, but as I think back on reading it, I think I like and appreciate it more each time I reflect. I looked up the second book, The Night Country, and based on the book description, I think I would read it. It’s hard for me to fit audiobooks in during the summer, but I’ll probably try to listen to it in the fall when school begins again.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Representation
Alice is white. Her friend Finch is biracial.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sex.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to do a kind of magic. The magic in the book is very dangerous, usually used to harm someone. Some characters live in an alternate world.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some brief but gory descriptions of harm and death. References to suicide. Some chapters tell the fairytales included in Alice’s grandmother’s book. They have a horror-esque quality to them, with dark, dangerous magic and often brief graphic violence.

Someone pulls a gun on Alice. She remembers being kidnapped as a child. Someone demands that Alice take her own life. Alice witnesses someone cut the throat of another person.

Drug Content
Some characters drink alcohol. Some characters smoke cigarettes.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

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Compound Fracture
Andrew Joseph White
Peachtree Teen
Published September 3, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Compound Fracture

Bestselling and award-winning author Andrew Joseph White returns with a queer Appalachian thriller, that pulls no punches, for teens who see the failures in our world and are pushing for radical change.

A gut-wrenching story following a trans autistic teen who survives an attempted murder, only to be drawn into the generational struggle between the rural poor and those who exploit them.

On the night Miles Abernathy—sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian—comes out as trans to his parents, he sneaks off to a party, carrying evidence that may finally turn the tide of the blood feud plaguing Twist Creek: Photos that prove the county’s Sheriff Davies was responsible for the so-called “accident” that injured his dad, killed others, and crushed their grassroots efforts to unseat him.

The feud began a hundred years ago when Miles’s great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, incited a miners’ rebellion that ended with a public execution at the hands of law enforcement. Now, Miles becomes the feud’s latest victim as the sheriff’s son and his friends sniff out the evidence, follow him through the woods, and beat him nearly to death.

In the hospital, the ghost of a soot-covered man hovers over Miles’s bedside while Sheriff Davies threatens Miles into silence. But when Miles accidentally kills one of the boys who hurt him, he learns of other folks in Twist Creek who want out from under the sheriff’s heel. To free their families from this cycle of cruelty, they’re willing to put everything on the line—is Miles?

A visceral, unabashedly political page-turner that won’t let you go until you’ve reached the end, Compound Fracture is not for the faint of heart, but it is for every reader who is ready to fight for a better world.

My Review

I only learned about the miners’ rebellion in 1920 earlier this year when I read Mine Wars by Steve Watkins. It was hard to imagine the bloodiness and violence of those events, but having read a historical account, I couldn’t help thinking about how the violence in this book echoed the horror of those real-life experiences.

Every time I pick up a book by Andrew Joseph White, I worry that it will be too much for me. I tend to be more sensitive to violence in media, so it’s hard for me to read certain things. Yet, every time I pick up one of his books, I’m swept away by the writing and the unapologetic storytelling that centers characters who survive some of humanity’s darkest treatment.

Compound Fracture drops its readers into the middle of a generations-old feud in a small West Virginia town. Early in the story, the main character, Miles, is beaten severely. We know what happens largely because we see him surrounded by people with ill intent, and then we get an account of his severe injuries when he wakes up in the hospital later. I appreciated that this scene, in particular, wasn’t shown in detail.

I couldn’t stop reading this book. The story feels urgent and intense in the kind of way that makes you want to squeeze in one more chapter. And one more. And…

Which is how I read this whole book in less than 24 hours. If you love dark Appalachian stories or stories with a strong tie to historical events, check this one out. It reminded me a little bit of The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning.

Also, shout-out to Lady, Miles’ dog and one of my favorite characters in the whole book. I love that she’s pictured on the cover!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Miles is an autistic transgender boy. A friend is nonbinary. Another friend is queer. Miles speculates about another possibly transgender character.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some f-bombs and other profanity. A few instances of transphobic and homophobic comments.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. References to romantic relationships and mention of queerplatonic partnership.

Spiritual Content
Miles sees an apparition when he’s in intense situations.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Threatening and bullying behavior. Three boys jump Miles, nearly beating him to death (off scene). A boy hits another boy in the face and knocks him down. Two people dispose of a body. More than one person shoots another person, sometimes fatally. More than one person leaves a victim bleeding out and expects them to die.

References to someone causing a car accident that left one person dead and another with severe burns. Someone sets an occupied building on fire. References to and brief descriptions of Miles’ ancestor’s brutal murder and other instances of violence between miners and others.

Reference to cruelty to animals. Miles recalls someone killing a dog as a way to punish someone.

Drug Content
Miles’ dad recovered from an opioid addiction. Other people in the community still struggle with addiction. Miles experiences withdrawals from stopping opioid medication after being injured. Miles and another boy drink alcohol together. Another character smokes cigarettes.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

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

Once Upon a Broken Heart (Once Upon a Broken Heart #1)
Stephanie Garber
Flatiron Books
Published September 28, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Once Upon a Broken Heart

How far would you go for happily ever after?

For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings… until she learns that the love of her life will marry another.

Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing.

But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game—and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after or the most exquisite tragedy…

My Review

It’s been a while since I read the Caraval series, but I enjoyed them, so Once Upon a Broken Heart has been on my reading list since it came out. I hadn’t planned on waiting until the whole series was published before reading them, but I’m honestly not sorry I did. It took a few weeks to get the audiobook version of this one from my library, but they do have the whole series, so I’m now back in line for the second one.

I liked this book. It has some of the same things I liked about Caraval, but it has a more open world rather than the more closed-circle experience of that trilogy. It’s got unpredictable, sometimes brutal magic and a brooding, unattainable love interest. It’s got the sweet, starry-eyed girl at the center who has more power than she realizes but whose ability to believe in something may prove to be her greatest strength.

One of the things I liked best was the relationship between Evangeline and her step-sister, Marisol. I wish that a little more of the story had centered around them, actually. They have a tenuous relationship that, for a long time, Evangeline struggles to truly understand. She wants a relationship with her, but worries she can’t trust her, and her guilt over turning Marisol and her entire wedding party to stone definitely interferes.

Oh. So there’s a moment late in the book that I won’t spoil, but I literally sat there saying, “Don’t do it. Nope. Don’t!. You’re about to get Tess of the D’Urberville’d*. Don’t do it!”

Anyway. So I knew I was pretty invested in the story when I was literally shouting at the recording. Haha!

There were a couple of moments that I kind of just had to go with. For instance, at one point, a super-hungry vampire bites someone, but instead of feeding, they inject the person with venom. It seemed very bizarre that they didn’t try to feed since there had been this whole buildup about how hungry this vampire was. But nope. The bite just injected venom for some reason. Maybe that will be explained more later?

For the most part, though, I was absolutely carried away with this wild magical story. I’m looking forward to book two in the series.

*If you haven’t read Tess of the D’Urbervilles, there’s a part in the book in which someone confesses a dark secret to her. It’s a person she has been keeping her own awful secret from (something she feels terrible about, but which isn’t even her fault). So they confess, and Tess is like, oh, whew, you’ll understand my secret then. So she confesses, and nope. It’s not okay. Not at all. I really hated that book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Main characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Evangeline spends the night curled up in a boy’s lap as part of a medical recovery.

Spiritual Content
A group of immortal Fates have limited special abilities. If a human finds the chapel of a Fate, they can pray to them and make a bargain. The Fate may choose to help them but will ask for something in return.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Evangeline hears about a wolf attack that leaves a boy horribly scarred. A boy dies, apparently from some kind of poison. Someone poisons a girl. A large number of vampires bite people. Someone ties up another person and threatens to torture or kill them.

Drug Content
Evangeline drinks wine at a social event.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.