FacebookXInstagramPinterestTumblrLinkedInRss

Young Adult Book Reviews

Review: Detention Land (Book 1) by Susan Orion

★★★★ Detention Land (Book 1) by Susan Orion

Detention Land by Susan Orion is a wholly unique and affecting young adult novel about Roger Prism, who’s trapped in a prison of his own making. Roger keeps acting out at school, including drawing his teacher on a blackboard in permanent ink, which lands him in the strange zone dubbed Detention Land, in which a woman’s voice behind the wall probes Roger about his misdeeds. This limbo reflects Roger’s own mind, and his feeling of being trapped in his life, and he must come to a better understanding of himself if he’s ever going to be free of Detention […]

2017-02-17T05:40:52+02:00January 14th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |
Read More

Tainted by Hate (T. D. Book 3) by Patrice M. Foster

Tainted by Hate (T. D. Book 3) by Patrice M. FosterTainted by Hate by Patrice M. Foster is a harrowing but important book about friendship, racism, drug abuse, self-cutting, and trying to rise above it all. Angela and Jessica are good friends, but Angela’s family comes between them, as Angela’s father is a virulent and abusive racist and forbids their relationship.  Angela turns to self-harm in the form of drug abuse and cutting, threatening not just the friendship, but her own life. Jessica must help her friend, and Angela must muster the strength to transcend her family and all the damage it has wrought.

Though this is a book laden […]

2018-02-27T06:15:46+02:00December 8th, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |
Read More

Review: Finding Moana by James Halemanu

★★★★ Finding Moana by James Halemanu

Moana is a 13-year-old Hawai’ian orphan from Kau’i. He is an outcast, with his wild hair and ways, but now must survive an attack on his village by cannibal snake zombies and their evil queen! If that doesn’t sound amazing, maybe a rescue party of cave-dwelling beings who teach Moana magical skills, or a time-traveling island and a couple of rather bizarre animal companions might just intrigue readers looking for something completely different.

Will Moana find out what really happened to his parents? What dark and mysterious feelings will he have to overcome to find out the truth about […]

2017-02-10T03:11:09+02:00December 6th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
Read More

Review: Blowback ’07 by Brian Meehl

★★★★½ Blowback '07 by Brian Meehl

Blowback ’07 by Brian Meehl is a stunning start to an exciting new series.

Time travel is a popular theme in fiction – YA and otherwise – and Blowback ’07 stands out immediately within the sub-genre for its original plot and charismatic heroes, Arky and Iris. The context of the story is revealed rather quickly, and we soon learn that Iris is in possession of a family heirloom – the Jongler cor anglais – a musical instrument with unknown powers that their mother left to the twins before she disappeared.

Arky and Iris don’t always get along very well, […]

2020-03-02T09:39:48+02:00November 6th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , , |
Read More

Review: Goodbye, Rudy Kazoody by A.A. Freda

★★★★½ Goodbye, Rudy Kazoody by A.A. Freda

Growing up as a teenager in a big city is hard for the youth of any generation, but being an immigrant from Italy growing up on the mean streets of New York City in the 1960s was a bigger challenge than most. In Goodbye, Rudy Kazoody, author A.A. Freda gives us a picture of his own life as an immigrant in the Bronx from that historic time period. This semi-autobiographical tale is strikingly heartfelt and has the ring of deep truth, which makes it difficult to put down.

Joey is an innocent kid trying to make his way […]

2019-01-22T04:36:41+02:00November 2nd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |
Read More

Review: Tomorrow We Die by E.R. Raabe

Tomorrow We Die by E.R. Raabe

In this strange and troubling land, all young men are doomed to turn into dogs and die before they can reach the age of thirty. The curse leaves many with no hope for a future, either hoping for something great at a young age, or simply accepting an empty existence.

Seventeen-year-old Hippolyte Falcor is one such young man, caught up in a life of crime and escaped convictions. When he and his pack of fellows pick the wrong pocket, Hippolyte ends up in the mercy of the law, shackled to bodyguard duty for one Alex mac Fauks. But Alex offers […]

2019-02-11T08:42:44+02:00October 13th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |
Read More

The Emperor Returns by William Durkin and Shayne Durkin

TERIn 2014, a ten-year-old girl asked her father if he could assist her in writing a book. That book was Emperor Norton’s Treasure Hunt, a “real life adventure” based in 1950s San Francisco – a local paper devises a treasure hunt with clues in their publication in order to boost sales and win the war for newspaper supremacy in the city.

The Emperor Returns is the sequel to the Durkin duo’s debut hit, starting off at the launch of Sputnik 1, two years after the San Francisco Chronicle’s infamous endeavor. The team are ripe for a new venture, […]

2019-01-22T06:00:07+02:00September 21st, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , , |
Read More

An Interview with Eli Bloom: Author of SEER: The Ghosts of Gray Fable

Eli Bloom Author PhotoEli Bloom is a mysterious young adult writer living in Los Angeles. He believes in ghosts. SEER: The Ghosts of Gray Fable is his first novel.

Tell us something about your book. The basics: what’s it about?

SEER is about 15-year-old girl, Grace Fable, who’s been able to see ghosts since she was six. When her single-father dad moves in with his girlfriend, Grace has to transfer to Willowbrook High School in California, the scene of a school shooting five years earlier. Soon she meets the ghosts of everyone involved in the shooting that day who tell her about someone […]

2020-02-21T07:21:12+02:00September 6th, 2016|Categories: Interviews|Tags: , |
Read More
This site uses cookies. Read our Privacy Policy. ACCEPT
Go to Top