When I first saw that Tell Me My Name by Amy Reed was being marketed as a gender bent Gatsby retelling in the vein of We Were Liars, I immediately jumped on board. After reading it I 100% see the comparisons, but I unfortunately enjoyed the book much less than I thought I would.
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There’s something about YA thrillers that hit different, and this one was a non-stop, heart-pounding ride. I knew this book was going to be fast-paced, but friends, I was SPEED READING as fast as I could to get to the end.
“I hope you aren’t afraid of ghosts.”
I first heard about Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour during Penguin Teen Canada’s fall preview event this past summer. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about Nina LaCour’s books from friends, but I’ve never actually read one . . . until now. The way this book was described—a beautiful story full of ghosts and grief—piqued my interested a lot, and I knew I needed to read it.
“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.
In April I put together a list of books to read if you love reality TV, and I wish I waited to put it together because Followers by Raziel Reid is perfect for fans of the Kardashians, any of the “Real Housewives” series, or teen dramas such as Gossip Girl or The O.C. I devoured this book, and it left me reeling.
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.
Do you ever wonder if there is another version of yourself living in a parallel universe? And if so, how their life is playing out differently from yours? This is exactly what Again Again by E. Lockhart explores. In her latest book, we see how one girl’s life changes across different timelines based on the choices she makes.
“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.
“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.
literarylizard.com 