Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Publisher- Balzer + Bray
Publication Date- September 18, 2012
Pages- 294

SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn't scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

I've never read Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, but I am always up for a good mystery/thriller. And that's what this was, a very good mystery/thriller.

It started off kind of weird, I didn't like it at first. I kept getting Meg and Minnie confused and I didn't know which one of them was supposed to be the main character, and they were both acting like immature pre-teens, they were not acting like older teenagers. But as the book progressed, I got less confused, and while Minnie still acted immature, we didn't see much of her, and Meg started thinking like an actual person.

There were times when I was yelling at the characters because they were being stupid and doing irrational things, but if they weren't making these decisions, there wouldn't be a book.

I did find this very suspenseful and I had to keep reading. The on;y reason I ever stopped was because I kind of needed to me mentally-present at school the next day, but I was reading through classes all day at school just so I could finish.

My Rating:

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Publisher- Dutton Books
Publication Date- September 29 2011
Pages- 338

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit—more sparkly, more fun, more wild—the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket—a gifted inventor—steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

I'm going to start off with the negative, just to get it out of the way.

This was not as good as Anna, but I still really enjoyed it. Throughout the first third of the book, I wasn't enjoying it too much. What kept me reading was the hope and anticipation for it to get better. I didn't like Lola too much and I didn't like her boyfriend. Lola seemed like a totally unrealistic person, and she really got on my nerves. But it did get better!

The second 2/3 of it were so much better. I remembered why I liked Stephanie Perkins' writing so much. 

The setting wasn't as good as it was in Anna. I'm not saying that the location wasn't good, I just couldn't imagine it as well. (I have been to both Paris and San Francsico).

And the love interest. I still think I like St. Clair better, but I really liked Cricket too. 

I honestly don't have too much to say about it, but I did enjoy it overall.

My Rating:

WOOHOO! I have now read 50 books this year! But I'm not stopping!

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Publisher- Dutton
Publication Date- December 2, 2010
Pages- 372
Awards- Cybils Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2011), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Goodreads Author, Young Adult Fiction (2010), The Inky Awards Nominee for Silver Inky longlist (2011),Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2013)

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home. As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?

I was a skeptic at first. I decided to get this from my state's eBook program (I swear they're not paying me to talk about them, I've just gotten a lot of books from them lately) because I thought it would be a nice light read. It was, but I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did.

I hear almost everybody say this about this book, but I didn't have any expectations, despite everyone loving it. I thought they were just crazy people who loved cliche YA romance. This was cliche YA romance, but there was just something about it that made me love it! I'm not one for cheesy romance, but this was wonderful.

The characters were very real. And Etienne St. Clair was totally swoon-worthy (I imagined him as an Aaron Johnson type; think Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging Aaron Johnson). I really felt for the characters. I read this almost all in one night, and I'm pretty sure my parents could hear me yelling at the characters in the middle of the night.

Plot: cliche as heck. But it so worked. It was lovely. It was cheesy. But it was amazing. I don't know how to describe this very well, just read it. I swear it's better than it sounds and better than the cover looks!

My Rating:

I will be getting Lola and the Boy Next Door as soon as one of my library books expires, which should be Friday. (I can only have 4 at a time) That is, if nobody has checked it out by then. They'd better not!

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Publisher- Ember
Publication Date- April 26, 1993
Pages- 179
Series- The Giver Quartet
Awards- Newbery Medal (1994), Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee for Children's Literature (1994), Garden State Book Award for Teen Fiction Grades 6-8 (1996), Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award (1996), Grand Canyon Reader Award for Teen Book (1995)
Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award for Senior (1996), Horn Book Fanfare (1994), New Mexico Land of Enchantment Award (1997)


Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

Most of the people I know have read this already, in about 3rd grade. For some reason, I never jumped on the bandwagon. I decided to read this recently because I wanted a short and easy book, so I got it from my state library's eBook program. All I knew was that it was a dystopian.

I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would. Despite this being in a totally different world, it seemed so real and familiar. It was very different from other dystopian because at first glance, this seems like the ideal world. You don't really see much of a problem. But underneath all of that, it is corrupt. They practice something called Sameness, which is basically where everybody is different in structure, but there is no color and everybody is treated equally. Although I really hope we never have a world like that, it was so real, and I could see everything clearly. Big A+ for world building. 

The characters were all so real. Despite all of them being relatively the same, they all had distinct personalities. I really felt for Jonas, we grew with him. We saw him learning and we could imagine how he felt in all the different situations. That goes for all of the other characters too. Although I didn't agree with a lot of their views, I understood why they acted how they did; it was all they knew. That was how they were taught. They were told how to go about their lives. I keep saying this, but it was all so real.

I'm going to stop talking (typing!) now, and tell you my rating!

My Rating:

If for some reason you have not read this yet, do it! You can get through this in a day, and it is really good!

Notes From The Dog by Gary Paulsen

Publisher- Wendy Lamb Books
Publication Date- July 28, 2009
Pages- 144

“Sometimes having company is not all it’s cracked up to be.” Fifteen-year-old Finn is a loner, living with his dad and his amazing dog, Dylan. This summer he’s hoping for a job where he doesn’t have to talk to anyone except his pal Matthew. Then Johanna moves in next door. She’s 10 years older, cool, funny, and she treats Finn as an equal. Dylan loves her, too. Johanna’s dealing with breast cancer, and Matthew and Finn learn to care for her, emotionally and physically. When she hires Finn to create a garden, his gardening ideas backfire comically. But Johanna and the garden help Finn discover his talents for connecting with people.

I hadn't ever heard about this book prior to reading it. I was falling behind on my 50 book reading challenge and I decided to Google "Quick YA book to read" or something along those lines. This popped up, the cover and title drew my attention, so I got it from my library's eBook program; I didn't even read the description.

This book was very cliché at some points, but that was to be expected, it was more of a middle grade book. Despite that, it dealt with some issues in real ways. As it says in the description, Johanna is dealing with breast cancer. I have known many people with cancer, and I felt that they portrayed it in a very realistic way. This was a very character driven book, not plot. With that, I would say that the characters were pretty real and accurate for the age they were trying to represent.

I had a few minor problems with this:
As implied in the title, it seems like the dog is writing notes to the main character. And he just accepts it. He was kind of like, "Oh, it couldn't have been any of my friends. It must have been the dog." Like there was no other explanation. He jumped to conclusions while every other reasonable human being would use the dog explanation as a last resort.

Also, Finn is supposed to be this very antisocial kid. He was (sort of) trying to get over that. And he got over it almost immediately. I think it would take a normal people-hating person a while to become socially comfortable. But within weeks of us "meeting" him, he goes to parties and on dates and he's perfectly fine, which I don't think was realistic.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, and those issues I pointed out were very minor, I felt.

My Rating:

I will have a review of The Giver by Lois Lowry up either tonight or tomorrow.

Small Update and a Question

Hey guys! It's been a while, hasn't it? I've been extremely busy lately, and I apologize for that. Honestly, I have no idea when my next review will be up or what it will be on. I'm right in the middle of a few books at the moment, you can look at my Goodreads if you really want to know what I'm reading.

The main point of this post:
How would you guys feel if I made a YouTube channel?
I would continue to put reviews on here, but I feel like YouTube would be more personal in a way, people can get to know me better and I can get to know you guys better. I've been watching Booktuber videos for about 2 years now, so I feel really close to it, and I would like to become a part of it.
So how would you guys feel about that?

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Publisher- Puffin
Publication Date- January 1, 1999
Pages- 208
Awards- National Book Award Nominee for Young People's Literature (1999),Golden Kite Award for Fiction (1999), BCCB Blue Ribbon Book (1999),Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult (2000), Printz Honor (2000)

South Carolina Book Award for Young Adult Book Award (2002),Horn Book Fanfare (2000), ALA's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (2000), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2005)

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

I really, really liked this book. It reminded my of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Looking for Alaska in the teen-angst kind of way. This book took me about a day to read. It's been awhile since I've read a book that keeps me up until I finish.

I really enjoyed the way this book was structured. There was hardly any dialogue. When there was ome it was in the format of:

Dad:

Me:

Mom:

Sort of like a play. It's written in the first person point of view of Melinda. She is very smart and intellectual, and she uses tons of great metaphors.

The plot was very good and realistic. I could see what was coming, but I still really wanted to keep reading. 

The characters are what I loved the most. They were extremely relateable. They evolved and grew and the reflected real high-school students. I loved some and hated some, as I do in real life.

My Rating: 

I highly recommend this book to anybody! I think Laurie Halse Anderson is one of those rare authors that have an amazing ability to say things like they are. Everyone needs to read this book.