Tag Archives: Pennsylvania

Review: Ruptured by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz

Ruptured by Joanne Rossmassler-Fritz

Ruptured
Joanne Rossmassler Fritz
Holiday House
Published November 14, 2023

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About Ruptured

The sensitive, suspenseful story of a family coping with a life-changing tragedy, told in stunning verse.

Is it wrong to grieve for someone who is still alive?

Claire’s mom and dad don’t talk to each other much anymore. And they definitely don’t laugh or dance the way they used to. Their tense, stilted stand offs leave thirteen-year-old Claire, an only child, caught in the middle. So when the family takes their annual summer vacation, Claire sticks her nose in a book and hopes for the best. Maybe the sunshine and ocean breeze will fix what’s gone wrong.

But while the family is away, Claire’s mother has a ruptured brain aneurysm–right after she reveals a huge secret to Claire. Though she survives the rupture, it seems like she is an entirely different person. Claire has no idea if her mom meant what she said, or if she even remembers saying it. With the weight of her mom’s confession on her shoulders, Claire must navigate fear, grief, and prospects for recovery.

Will her mom ever be the same? Will her parents stay together? And if the answer to either question is yes, how will Claire learn to live with what she knows? This beautifully written novel speaks to kids’ fears and credits their strength, and stems from the author’s incredible experience surviving two ruptured aneurysms.

My Review

I devoured this entire novel in one sitting. Claire’s frustration with her parents, the pressure she feels at her mother’s secret, it all felt so real and raw. Then, after her mother had the brain aneurysm rupture, Claire’s fear and grief were palpable. I’ve never been through something like what she went through with a parent, but the author brought me with her through that experience.

Another thing that I really liked was the way that Claire built a community of support for herself and her family. It isn’t something she does intentionally, but she does make choices that help her to create those connections. From making friends with a boy at the hospital to joining a support group and attending counseling at school to leaning into her relationship with her aunt, Claire finds ways to connect with others.

I love that there are books about these experiences not only for kids who will go through them or have been through them, but also for kids who haven’t. Reading about a child whose parent has a brain aneurysm rupture and recovers can help someone respond with more compassion and understanding if someone they know has a loved one going through this.

I think this is actually the second book about a brain aneurysm rupture that I’ve ever read. In Cammie McGovern’s JUST MY LUCK, which is also wonderful, I think the dad has a rupture and a long recovery that impacts the family.

I loved Rossmassler Fritz’s debut novel in verse, and this one must be shelved right beside it. What an emotional journey! Whew. And bravo to a fabulous writer for finding the courage to share such a personal story.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Claire’s family is white. She befriends a Black boy whose mom has also had a brain aneurysm rupture. Claire’s best friend is Latine.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
People mention praying for Claire’s mom and her family.

Violent Content
Claire’s mom collapses after experiencing terrible head pain. Claire calls 911 and waits at a hospital to hear whether her mom will survive.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: With or Without You by Eric Smith

With or Without You
Eric Smith
Inkyard Press
Published November 7, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About With or Without You

New from Eric Smith comes a delightful YA rom-com about two teens caught in the middle of their families’ orchestrated rivalry between their Philly cheesesteak food trucks.

All’s fair in love and (food truck) war.

Everyone knows Jordan Plazas and Cindy Ortiz hate each other.

According to many viral videos of their public shouting matches, the Plazas and Ortiz families have a well-known food truck rivalry. Jordan and Cindy have spent all of high school making cheesesteaks and slinging insults at each other across their shared Philadelphia street.

But the truth? They’re in love, and it’s all just an act for the tourists.

When the fake feud lands them a reality TV show pilot, Jordan and Cindy find themselves having to lie on a much bigger scale. Trapped between pursuing their dreams or their love, can they find a way to have their cheesesteak and eat it too?

My Review

I think my favorite thing about this book is that it gives you a standalone romance storyline, but the kind of plot you don’t usually get unless you read a series. Jordan and Cindy are together at the start of the story, so there’s none of the figuring out if the other person has feelings. It’s all about the tension between the public rivalry between Cindy and Jordan and their families and their private lives, which include a romantic relationship.

There’s a lot of cool stuff happening in this book, too. From loads of musical references to very different approaches to food truck fare and ingredients, I felt like I got the characters and could easily picture their reactions to things that happened.

I also think the story has a great balance in focus on its characters. Both Jordan’s and Cindy’s parents have unique personalities, but none of them dominate the story. Understanding their characters helps us better understand Cindy and Jordan, but they also feel like fully developed characters on their own.

One of my favorite things about the book (besides the excellent breakdown of a perfect breakfast sandwich) is the banter between the characters. I loved the snarky comments and goofy exchanges with friends. Those scenes felt natural and made me laugh out loud more than once.

I think readers who enjoy books about food and friendships or reality TV and sweet romance will find so much to love in this fun tribute to Philadelphia and food truck life.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Both Cindy and Jordan are Latine and American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A boy calls a girl some unkind names. Banter escalates into a bit of a scuffle, but it’s quickly defused.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of WITH OR WITHOUT YOU in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

Hell Followed with Us
Andrew Joseph White
Peachtree Teen
Published June 7, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Hell Followed with Us

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.

But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all.

Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own.

A furious, queer debut novel about embracing the monster within and unleashing its power against your oppressors. Perfect for fans of GIDEON THE NINTH and ANNIHILATION.

My Review

I don’t usually read horror, so this one is a little bit outside my usual book choice. I couldn’t resist checking it out, though. There’s something really compelling about the cover. I don’t know if it’s the pairing of the colors (obviously I have a thing for turquoise and orange) or the title, which references a Bible verse in Revelations? Either way, as soon as I saw the cover, I knew I needed to check out the book.

The plot: basically this cult takes the worst parts of humanity and clothes them in a twisted version of holiness. It’s bad religion taken to an extreme. Benji references all these scriptures he’s been taught as he’s trying to figure out what to do and what he believes. We get to see how they’ve been twisted for control or abuse. I felt like that was really powerful and also heartbreaking, especially when it was verses that I’ve also memorized and they were being used to cause such harm.

One of the things I liked, too, was that there are these moments where faith comes up and Benji really wrestles with whether God exists. He doesn’t believe what he’s been taught about who God is or what believing would command him to do. But he continues to pray, even if he’s not sure it’s doing anything. He has a conversation with another teammate who also is a person of faith. I liked that the story didn’t straight up demonize faith but created space to explore the difference between a religious terrorist organization and faith that uplifts or inspires people. That’s not what the story as a whole is about though. It’s just a moment in the book.

Character Elements versus Horror Elements

Benji is a pretty tormented character. He’s barely escaped what is obviously (mostly off-scene) a hugely traumatic upbringing in the Angels cult, so he still has a lot of processing to do about what happened to him. He’s only beginning to unpack what is actually true versus what he was told in order to control or manipulate him. The threads of thought he takes us through as he dismantles his abuse gripped me probably more than anything else in the book. That journey and the frank, in-process way that it’s related kept me locked into the story from beginning to end. Some of the cult exploration aspects of the book reminded me a little bit of THE PROJECT by Courtney Summers.

Would I have been more comfortable if there were less, er, slaughtering via teeth? Yeah. For sure. Ha. But I can’t help but be so glad I read this book. I get the hype about it. I love the ways it made me think.

Readers who enjoy fast-paced, post-apocalyptic stories or books that examine cults and recovery from being in a cult should check this one out. I don’t read much horror, but another in the genre that I enjoyed is IT LOOKS LIKE US by Allison Ames. If you liked the balance of character driven elements to horror elements, you would probably also like HELL FOLLOWED WITH US.

Content Notes

Graphic violence, transphobia, domestic violence and religious abuse, self-injury and attempted suicide.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Benji is a trans boy who grew up (and escaped) a radical cult. Nick is autistic. Other minor characters identify as queer.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. One scene leads up to oral sex but doesn’t describe it.

Spiritual Content
The Angels cult is loosely based on Christianity but is pretty twisted. They’ve created and unleashed a fatal pandemic as well as a disease that causes awful mutations. They kill anyone who disagrees with them or their ideas. Biblical scriptures are warped and used to defend murder and control.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle scenes with graphic descriptions of injuries and death. Graphic descriptions of mutations and death caused by the Flood. Graphic descriptions of bodies rotting. Some scenes show or reference execution. One scene (referenced more than once) describes domestic violence. Several scenes show or reference religious abuse. Several characters exhibit transphobia. In some scenes, a character is misgendered and referred to by his deadname.

Drug Content
A few characters sip wine that someone saved for a “special occasion”. Benji does not and a Muslim character does not.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of HELL FOLLOWED WITH US in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Don’t Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd

Don’t Hate the Player
Alexis Nedd
Bloomsbury YA
Published June 15, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Don’t Hate the Player

By day, Emilia is a field hockey star with a popular boyfriend and a mother obsessed with her academic future. But by night, she’s kicking virtual ass as the only female member of a highly competitive eSports team. Emilia has mastered the art of keeping her two worlds thriving, which hinges on them staying completely separate.

When a major eSports tournament comes to her city, Emilia is determined to prove herself to the male-dominated gaming community. But her perfectly balanced life is thrown for a loop when a member of a rival team—Jake—recognizes her . . .

From an exciting new talent, this sweet and charming YA romance will win the hearts of gamers and non-gamers alike.

My Review

Okay, to start with, the voice in this book is simply fantastic. The dialogue is funny and nerdy and I absolutely loved it. It was a super entertaining read.

DON’T HATE THE PLAYER follows two points of view: Jake’s and Emilia’s. Emilia’s chapters are all in first person, and Jake’s are a combination of third person narrative or chat logs from online conversations with his teammates. I liked that format a lot. The only time it felt a little strange to me was in the prologue, because it’s kind of recapping something that happened in the past between Jake and Emilia. Once I realized that all of Jake’s narrative sections were going to be written that way, I think it made more sense, but it was maybe just not what I expected from the opening? Like I said, once I got into the book, that opening made a lot more sense.

I liked a lot of the characters. They were each so unique that I could tell who was talking, and I loved that. I also loved the way their relationships with Emilia changed through the story. There’s a scene toward the end with her parents that I just LOVED.

One of the things I noticed is that I don’t think there are any good white girls in this book. It’s possible that I only noticed this because I read DON’T HATE THE PLAYER right after reading HANI AND ISHU’S GUIDE TO FAKE DATING and I noticed this same thing in that book, too.

That’s not a criticism. I think books are allowed to have zero good white girls. It was just a thing I noticed and wanted to sit with, you know? To think about what it’s like to read and enjoy a book that doesn’t include/feature a positive representation of myself. I think that’s a good thing to think about. I tried to think about how I’d feel about books if the only girls who looked like me acted like mean girl bullies. (Which is not the case for white characters by any stretch of the imagination, of course.) Anyway, it gave me some time to think about how critical good representation is when there aren’t a huge ton of stories featuring a particular community.

Another thing that I felt like this book did really well was to dive into some of the conversations about gaming behavior, specifically predatory and cruel behavior toward girls and female-presenting players. It doesn’t get deep in the gross stuff, but the story does not shy away from what it’s like to be a girl gamer. Additionally, I loved the way DON’T HATE THE PLAYER showcased the different relationship dynamics between players on team Unity and players on team Fury.

All in all, this book has a LOT to love. Reader who enjoy witty banter and rich characters will definitely want to give this one a read.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Emilia is Puerto Rican. Her best friend is Black. One minor character is transgender and a couple more are gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger warning for sexual bullying.
Kissing between boy and girl. Emilia recalls receiving unwanted sexual pictures in her messages. She also received messages saying people wanted to rape her.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
See above for bullying content. Most of the violence described in the book is video game violence. Emilia and Jake each play on a team of five who battle each other, trying to guard treasure and kill the opponent’s players using weapons and magic attacks.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of DON’T HATE THE PLAYER in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The People We Choose by Katelyn Detweiler

The People We Choose
Katelyn Detweiler
Margaret Ferguson Books
Published May 4, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The People We Choose

When Calliope Silversmith meets her new neighbor Max, their chemistry is instantaneous, but the revelation of her biological father’s identity throws her whole life into disarray.

Calliope Silversmith has always had just two friends in her small Pennsylvania town, Ginger and Noah, and she’s fine with that. She’s never wanted anything more than her best friends, her moms, their house in the woods, and their family-run yoga studio–except maybe knowing who her sperm donor is. Her curiosity has been building for years, and she can finally find out this summer when she turns eighteen.

But when Max and his family move into the sad old house across the woods from Calliope, she realizes it’s nice to get to know someone new, so nice that she decides to break her no dating rule. The stability of her longtime trio wavers as she and Max start to spend more and more time together.

When Calliope finally finds out who her sperm donor is, she learns a truth more shocking and unfathomable than she could have ever dreamed: her donor is Max’s father. How is this even possible? As she and Max struggle to redefine their friendship, Calliope realizes that she can turn a horrific situation into something positive by recognizing and accepting that family is both the one we are born into and the one we choose to make.

My Review

I love relationship books– and this is definitely a relationship book. Calliope has two lifelong best friends, one of whom is in love with her. She doesn’t return those feelings, though, and for a while, things go unsaid and unacknowledged. Max’s arrival and the obvious chemistry between Calliope and Max changes that, though.

I identified with that conflict so much– the complicated situation that a friendship where one person has greater feelings can become. I still have a lot of feelings of guilt and regret over a relationship in my own past, so it was both heartbreaking and cathartic to see that conflict on the page. I remember literally thinking some of the things Calliope thinks in wrestling with the relationship, so that felt real to me. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen another book tackle that situation in such a real, frank way.

Another thing I liked is the fact that while the story has some romantic feelings in it, it doesn’t center around romance. It really explores what makes a family and how to redefine relationships in the face of difficult changes. I liked the way Calliope’s moms were protective and paying attention, but that they also gave her space to find her own way. I felt like their relationships had a great balance in that way.

On the whole, I enjoyed reading PEOPLE WE CHOOSE. I think people who enjoyed YOUR DESTINATION IS ON THE LEFT by Lauren Spieller or who like books exploring relationships will enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Max is Black. Ginger is a lesbian. Calliope has two moms.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger Warning for Incest
Brief descriptions of kissing between boy and girl (who turn out to be siblings and really grossed out about it later.)

Reference to a kiss between two girls.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of heated arguments between adults. Brief description of a woman’s accidental death.

Drug Content
One minor character is an alcoholic.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of PEOPLE WE CHOOSE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: It Came From the Sky by Chelsea Sedoti

It Came From the Sky
Chelsea Sedoti
Sourcebooks Fire
Published August 1, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About It Came From the Sky

This is the absolutely true account of how Lansburg, Pennsylvania was invaded by aliens and the weeks of chaos that followed. There were sightings of UFOs, close encounters, and even abductions. There were believers, Truth Seekers, and, above all, people who looked to the sky and hoped for more.

Only… there were no aliens.

Gideon Hofstadt knows what really happened. When one of his science experiments went wrong, he and his older brother blamed the resulting explosion on extraterrestrial activity. And their lie was not only believed by their town―it was embraced. As the brothers go to increasingly greater lengths to keep up the ruse and avoid getting caught, the hoax flourishes. But Gideon’s obsession with their tale threatened his whole world. Can he find a way to banish the aliens before Lansburg, and his life, are changed forever?

Told in a report format and comprised of interviews, blog posts, text conversations, found documents, and so much more, It Came from the Sky is a hysterical and resonant novel about what it means to be human in the face of the unknown.

From the author of The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett and As You Wish comes the unforgettable story of the one small town’s biggest hoax and the two brothers who started it all.

“A page-turner as engrossing as any classic Twilight Zone starring two spirited brothers who run circles around the Hardy Boys.” – Ben Philippe, Morris Award-winning author of The Field Guide to the North American Teenager

My Review

I have mixed feelings about this book. The whole situation– the explosion that leads to the alien encounter hoax– is kind of funny. I’m generally a fan of stories in which the characters land themselves in bizarre situations and then have to panic-slash-mastermind their way out of them only to have unanticipated consequences result. So this story definitely scratches that itch for me.

I just… didn’t like Gideon. I appreciated his intelligence. And I sympathized with his struggle to communicate his emotions and his aversion to sticky foods. But all of it seemed so selfish to me. He seemed so selfish. Even the idea that he could perpetrate this large-scale lie without any remorse, because it’s for science! I had a lot of trouble connecting with him.

Even though I didn’t connect with Gideon, I read the whole book because I hoped that it would have the kind of resolution that would make it all make sense and that if he really learned his lesson, it’d be worth the investment in the book.

And he does learn some things and make some changes. There’s growth. One of the things I didn’t like (and I’m going to be vague for spoilers reasons) was that toward the end, Gideon is faced with someone who has committed two different types of crimes. In my mind, one was much more personal and damaging than the other. But it felt like because the other frustrated Gideon more, he prioritized reporting it.

All in all, I thought the idea was fun, and the story was interesting, but this one isn’t for me. If you like goofy heist or prank stories, though, IT CAME FROM THE SKY is one I think you’ll want to check out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Gideon is gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. References to sex between an adult and minor.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Gideon discovers an adult who is drunk and behaving unsafely.

Note: I received a free copy of IT CAME FROM THE SKY in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.