I’ve seen How a Woman Becomes a Lake by Marjorie Celona listed as a thriller in a few different places, and went into this book expecting a wild ride. However, what I read wasn’t what I was prepared for at all. Instead of a story full of twists and turns, I found a beautifully written mystery about how the lives of a handful of characters unfortunately crossed.
“She was here, in the daylight. She is breaking all her own rules. She is going to finish what she started.”
Friends, I did it: I finally read a book that takes place in the woods that didn’t scare my pants off! Sure, it made me uncomfortable at times, but it didn’t give me nightmares (yet). Instead, Some Kind of Animal by Maria Romasco Moore used a creepy setting to create thriller centered around the love two twin sisters have for each other.
If you had the option to clone yourself, would you? I know, it sounds wild, but having two versions of yourself means you could do and be so much more, right? Well, that’s what Lucille Harper, the main character in Half Life by Lillian Clark, thinks. But what we want isn’t always what we get.
“Everyone knows about the dare. Each week, the king of Fairvale Academy, Bryson Keller, must date someone new—the first person to ask him out on Monday morning. Until a boy asks him out, and everything changes.”
When I first saw the description for Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye I was expecting a cute, fluffy gay romance. While aspects of that were definitely in the book, there was also so much more included in this story.
“This is an attack. The scientist said the infected are here. Zombies. He called them zombies. The zombie apocalypse is here now.”
When I first received my copy of Girls Save The World in This One by Ash Parsons, I did not think I would be reading it during a global pandemic. This horror-comedy is about a group of best friends that attend a zombie convention and then find themselves in a very real zombie outbreak, and certain parts felt a little too off-putting to read during a worldwide viral outbreak.
Reading about quarantine zones and fighting for survival was a little too close to home, but after I put those aspects aside, the rest of the story was enjoyable.
“You were white as milk this morning,” Valentina said to Dyadya Sergei.
“I’ve never tanned so quickly in my life,” he said, sounding pleased. “There must be something in the air.”
Reading these lines in a book set in the backdrop of the Chernobyl disaster was absolutely haunting. I didn’t know what to expect from The Blackbird Girls, but Anne Blankman wrote a stunning middle grade novel that brings readers through a whirlwind of emotion.
“The weird thing about being a victim is, no one expects it to be them. Victims are always someone else, somehow tragically naive who foolishly trust the wrong person. I’d never make bad decisions like that. I was always careful. And yet, it wasn’t enough.”
I’ve always said the hardest book reviews to write are for the books I absolutely loved, and this sentiment applied to The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly by Meredith Tate. I devoured this book in three sittings, and was totally immersed in the story from beginning to end. It’s easily one of the best YA contemporary thrillers I’ve ever read, and deals with incredibly important topics.
Before we get any further, I’ll note that the author has a list of content warnings for this book on her website.
As part of my blog tour stop for The Grey Sisters with Penguin Random House Canada, I also did a Q&A with Jo Treggiari about her wonderful book. She was kind enough to answer these questions over email, and provide some more insight into the story and its characters.
I’m super excited to say that today is my stop on The Grey Sisters blog tour! Thank you so much Penguin Random House for including me, it was lovely being able to partner with you to talk about this wonderful book. My full review is below, and later today I’ll also be sharing a Q&A with the author, Jo Treggiari.
“Do you want to know where Lucy went? She went to play the game. You can play, too. Find a partner. Find a key. Find the road. You have two days.”
What would you do if your entire school received the same ominous text message? I’d probably go home and hide in my room until people stopped talking about it, but the characters in Rules for Vanishing aren’t afraid of much, and decide to play this eerie game.
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