BEST BOOK I READ IN 2021

The Grace Year

by Kim Liggett

read by Emily Shaffer

Wednesday Books | October 8, 2019

        No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.
        In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.
        Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.
        With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

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TORTURE DOWN TEEN ROMANCE LANE III

The Pledge

by Kimberly Derting

Margaret K. McElderry | November 15, 2011

     In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.
     Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.

THE SCORPION RULES

The Scorpion Rule (Prisoners of Peace #1)

by Erin Bow

McElderry | September 22, 2015

DNF @ somewhere around 50%

       The world is at peace, said the Utterances. And really, if the odd princess has a hard day, is that too much to ask?
       Greta is a duchess and crown princess-and a hostage to peace. This is how the game is played: if you want to rule, you must give one of your children as a hostage. Go to war and your hostage dies.
       Greta will be free if she can survive until her eighteenth birthday. Until then she lives in the Precepture school with the daughters and sons of the world’s leaders. Like them, she is taught to obey the machines that control their lives. Like them, she is prepared to die with dignity, if she must. But everything changes when a new hostage arrives. Elián is a boy who refuses to play by the rules, a boy who defies everything Greta has ever been taught. And he opens Greta’s eyes to the brutality of the system they live under-and to her own power.
       As Greta and Elián watch their nations tip closer to war, Greta becomes a target in a new kind of game. A game that will end up killing them both-unless she can find a way to break all the rules.

THE LAST OF IT | ALL IS SWELL

1Q84 (1Q84 #1-3)
by Haruki Murakami
Vintage International | January 22, 2013
Status: ALL 1,157 PAGES!

      The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
      A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - “Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
      As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
      A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s - 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

THE UNNECESSARY PART II | 1Q84

1Q84 (1Q84 #1-3)
by Haruki Murakami
Vintage International | January 22, 2013
Status: Part 1+2 complete

      The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
      A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - “Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
      As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
      A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s - 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

THAT TOOK A WHILE... | PART I

1Q84 (1Q84 #1-3)
by Haruki Murakami
Vintage International | January 22, 2013
Status: Part 1 complete

      The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
      A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - “Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
      As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
      A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s - 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

NEW CO-BLOGGER! | THE LEONARDO DICAPRIO OF NOVELS

Beauty Queens
by Libba Bray
Scholastic Press | May 24, 2011

       When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island's other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition. The result is a novel that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you never see beauty the same way again.

Teen beauty queens. A lost island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to email. And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives deep in the heart of every girl, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Oh, the horror, the horror! Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count.

FOR GAMERS & BOOK NERDS

Arena by Holly Jennings
Publishing Info: Ace | April 5, 2016

Status: Complete
Source: NetGalley eArc

         Every week, Kali Ling fights to the death on national TV. She’s died hundreds of times. And it never gets easier...
         The RAGE tournaments-the Virtual Gaming League’s elite competition where the best gamers in the world compete in a no-holds-barred fight to the digital death. Every bloody kill is broadcast to millions. Every player is a modern gladiator-leading a life of ultimate fame, responsible only for entertaining the masses.
         And though their weapons and armor are digital, the pain is real.
         Chosen to be the first female captain in RAGE tournament history, Kali Ling is at the top of the world-until one of her teammates overdoses. Now, she must confront the truth about the tournament. Because it is much more than a game-and even in the real world, not everything is as it seems.
         The VGL hides dark secrets. And the only way to change the rules is to fight from the inside...

CRIMSON SKY REVIEW

Crimson Sky (Dark Sky #1)
by: Amy Braun
Publish Date: February 2, 2016
Publisher: Self
Status: DNF

          They’re always watching. They’re always waiting. They’re always starving…
          Ten years ago, the sky shattered and the Hellions emerged. No one was able to keep them from destroying the city of Westraven. Now that the bloodthirsty monsters rule the skies and have forced the few remaining humans underground, Claire Abernathy lives in a nightmare. She survives by using her skills as an engineer for a ruthless tyrant connected to her mother and father’s past failure.
          Then Claire’s world is torn apart when her sister Abby is kidnapped by the Hellions, and Claire herself is taken by dangerous sky pirates known as marauders. But Claire will not be intimidated by them while her sister’s life hangs by a thread, and so she strikes a deal with them: If they help rescue Abby, she will fix their ship and give them the chance to take the revenge they desperately seek.
          As Claire fights for her sister’s life, she begins to realize that the Hellions are not the only dangers she’ll face. Burdensome secrets and devastating betrayals threaten her at every turn, and if she loses herself to them, it won’t just be her life that is destroyed…

End of Days Review

End of Days (Penryn & the End of Days #3)

by Susan Ee

Publish Date: May 12, 2015
Publisher: Skyscape

     After a daring escape from the angels, Penryn and Raffe are on the run. They’re both desperate to find a doctor who can reverse the twisted changes inflicted by the angels on Raffe and Penryn's sister. As they set off in search of answers, a startling revelation about Raffe's past unleashes dark forces that threaten them all.
     When the angels release an apocalyptic nightmare onto humans, both sides are set on a path toward war. As unlikely alliances form and strategies shift, who will emerge victorious? Forced to pick sides in the fight for control of the earthly realm, Raffe and Penryn must choose: Their own kind, or each other?

Red Queen Review

Red Queen (Red Queen Trilogy #1) by Victoria Aveyard (383 pages)
Publishing: HarperTeen on February 10, 2015