The Impossible Knife of Memory is a whopper of a book. I don’t mean that in terms of length – it’s a fairly standard YA length. I mean it in terms of content. I felt pummeled by this book. Dealing with themes of childhood giving way to adulthood without a stop at adolescence, how to […]
Panic is a YA novel set in a small town in New York State. A coming-of-age story, the novel centers itself around a group of high school seniors all involved in a town ritual known as Panic. As our narrator – Heather – explains, Panic is one of those things that would never exist in […]
Everything, Everything is an arresting YA novel from Nicola Yoon that is both a completely conventional YA (girl is shy and in her shell, boy brings girl out of shell, etc.) and a surprising subversion of the genre. When we first meet Maddie, she’s the girl in the bubble. She hasn’t left her house since […]
Awake is an odd book at first. You know that the new boy, Noah, who is interested in our girl Scarlett is a bit off. He’s a little too attentive, a little too perfect. My internal “stalker!” sensors were going off, until it’s revealed that Noah has actually been sent by someone to make Scarlett fall in love […]
So I’m Scottish. Well, partially. But enough that I should know things about the history of the place. My mom and I went on a trip through our ancestral homelands a few months back and both of us were increasingly ashamed how often we had to Google information and stories. When we climbed back into […]
*Trigger Warning: School violence* This book took my breath away. I was on a flight from Copenhagen to Dublin and my husband kept trying to talk to me and I just kept holding up my hand. I simply HAD TO KNOW the end of this. The narrative is stunning, the way everything weaves together, how […]
Oh my gosh was I gripped by this book. I adored Baldwin’s writing and how she wove her characters. I would recommend this one to readers interested in strong women and early 19th century history, whether they’re in the YA genre or not. While I wouldn’t use it as lecture material (there are a few […]