#ya books

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★★★

I really, really wanted to like this book, but I didn’t. I guess I expected it to be a little like The Serpent King, but other than the weirdly “religious” dad it was nothing like what I expected. First, the cover is actually pretty nice. It’s a dark matte red, the title is written in a way that the first line is Con, which I thought was fitting, and the ‘t’ is a cross—also, there is a car that has obviously been in an accident of some type, and illuminated by the headlights is “A lie will set him free.” Braden is a wealthy, white teenage boy, who happens to be a really good pitcher with a bright future in baseball. From the outside, Braden’s life looks pretty envy worthy—but things are never what they seem. Braden’s dad is abusive, manipulative, and just generally awful—not to mention he’s been accused of murdering a cop, because he did literally murder a cop. Braden does a lot of soul searching, he punishes himself for so many things, and he tries to bargain with God regularly throughout the story. He has been conditioned to think that everything that does wrong is his fault, and that if he were a better kid, a better pitcher, a better student, a better Christian—just generally better—then the bad things would be rectified. This book was incredibly realistic, but I guess I still hoped for something good to happen. I hated that Braden literally had no one tell him that the things happening weren’t his fault, and that no matter what he did terrible things would just happen sometimes. I was also incredibly disappointed that he chose to testify the way he did—though I likely would have done the same thing, if I am being honest. I had hoped for more from the ending, but realistically it was probably about as good as it could have been—anything different would not have fit with the rest of the story.

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★★★★

Some Girls Are is very similar to other books by Courtney Summers. It was sort of a Mean Girls (on steroids) meets Speak. Regina, the main character, is self-admittedly a mean girl. She, along with her group of friends are basically the Plastics from Mean Girls, but worse. They are awful to pretty much anyone outside of their group—and even pretty awful to each other. One night at a party Regina is almost raped Anna’s boyfriend, Donnie. Anna is the leader of their little group; she is probably the most awful of them all, but that’s still up for debate. For some reason, instead of going to the police or some other adult who could have helped her, Regina runs to Kara—who still (rightfully?) holds a grudge for Regina suggesting she develop an eating disorder if she wanted to be a part of their group. Kara sees this as the perfect opportunity for payback and tells Anna that Regina slept with Donnie. Chaos ensues, and Regina is ostracized from the group and bullied by her ‘friends’ among others at school—many of whom she had bullied in the past. I wanted to be shocked at how awful these kids were to one another—I wanted to be shocked that not a single adult realized that this level of bullying was going on—but after thinking about it for a bit I realized it was entirely realistic and the shock wore off. I still don’t understand why these girls got off on ruining other people’s lives, just like I don’t understand why it happens in real life. The thing that was most disappointing to me is that a teen who is experiencing something like this might pick up this book and still have no idea how to help themselves or get help. At least in Speak Melinda had someone offer to listen to her—in Some Girls Are there was basically no encouragement to reach out to an adult for help.

★★★★
To Stay Alive: The story of Mary Ann Graves and the Tragic Journey of the Donner Party was a very emotional read. Just like the title says, the story is incredibly tragic, but it is told so beautifully. The prose is situated on the page in a way that you can almost get an idea of what Mary Ann and other pioneers felt while they were making the journey West. Even the really disturbing parts about cannibalism and all the death were still somehow beautifully conveyed. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, or fiction written in prose, but this book has inspired me to read more. I think the author choosing to tell this story in prose was the right move, it was a really heavy story, but it felt a little less so because of the way it was written—I don’t know if I could have made it through 300+ pages of this story written any other way.

★★★★☆

“Had our hearts really become so numb that we needed dead bodies in order to feel a beat of compassion in our chests?” 

All American Boys was another tough one to read. I read it after The 57 Bus, and my emotions were already running high—I kept waiting for it to get worse. Luckily, though, it never got as bad as I anticipated. This book did a really good job of showing that your heroes are human, and not always deserving of the pedestal you put them on—not to say that they are bad people, but that even decent people can do bad things. Though this story ended on a fairly good note—I know it would have been an entirely different story if Quinn had not been at the scene and seen with his own eyes what happened. This would be a good book to help encourage readers to stand up for what is right, to question their heroes even though that is really difficult, and not to not be complacent and expect that problems will just fix themselves—especially when those problems are ones that you could ignore from a place of privilege.

Absolutely love the design of The Archived. Can’t wait for the third book to finally be published when Victoria’s done writing it.

clockworkbibliophile:

such a good book

Definitely will read this duology soon.

aelinashrver:

“Blue was perfectly aware that it was possible to have a friendship that wasn’t all-encompassing, that wasn’t blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening. It was just that now that she’d had this kind, she didn’t want the other.”

hafsahfaizal:

She was going to bring her father justice, kings and witches be damned.

So in love with this art of Zafira by @sncinder​! Read more about WE HUNT THE FLAME!

bookwormungandr:

IG:hoarding.chapters

courtofbookworms:

“I also like to escape inside their world,
tucked behind their colorful spines. It forces me to fully invest
my mind into what I’m doing, not just my ears or my eyes.”
―Katie Kacvinsky,Awaken

IG | @courtofbookworms

nomoreheroestwo:

if it’s a phase, so what? if it’s your whole life, who cares? you’re destined to evolve and understand yourself in new ways you never imagined before.

- gabby rivera ; juliet takes a breath

sese-dille:

We do not remember days, we remember moments. @jenniferniven

almondaire:

↳ character busts for the raven gang

fionnsykes:

ON THE FAVES SHELF | done dirt cheap by sarah nicole lemon

all the same people. all the same places. it was up to her to change it. no one else could.