Spellhacker by M.K. England

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At first, when I went through the Spoilers page, I thought this book was about a hacker. It was called “Spellhacker,” so I assumed that there would be someone spelling the word “hacker.”

Nope. Kind of close, but not really.

The first page is called “The Periodic Table of Maz.”

Maz is magic, and it used to be an abundant natural resource. But when a mysterious plague sweeps the world, maz becomes contaminated. Anyone who touches it will contract the plague and perish in a few days’ time. The illness, known as the spellplague, kills thousands of people, creating thousands of orphans. A company called the MMC (Maz Management Company) steps up and creates homes for the orphans. In addition, they figured out how to filter out the contaminant from the maz to make it usable again, meaning that they have control of the maz and are able to charge ridiculous prices for it.

The story opens in Kyrkarta, ground zero of the spellplague. Diz, the protagonist, and her best friends, Remi and Jaesin, are plague orphans who have spent the majority of their lives without parents. None of them have very warm feelings for the MMC, even though the MMC gave them homes when they had no homes. The three of them combined have almost no money. Desperate, they decided to start an illegal maz siphoning business together with their wealthy friend Ania.

After two years of the siphoning gig and not getting arrested, Jaesin, Remi, and Ania decide that they want to move on with their lives and relocate to the city of Jattapore. Diz doesn’t want to leave her home of Kyrkarta, so she will stay behind while her friends abandon her. The four of them take on one final job, which is where we open. When they deliver the stolen maz, their client finds something strange in one of the vials. It’s an eerie violet color that is apparently a new strain of maz. Nicknamed Maz-15, it is much more valuable than the common strains of maz.

Somehow, later that night, a new client comes to Diz to ask her for a large amount of Maz-15 and will pay an incredibly large sum of money. Willingly, Diz accepts the job in hopes that her friends will stay with her in Kyrkarta. But Diz doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into.

When Diz and her friends try to siphon out the maz, a second spellplague is released. Maz-15 may have darker origins than Diz and her friends originally thought. Now it’s up to Diz, Remi, Jaesin, and Ania to find out why a second spellplague is released before it’s too late.

I really loved this book. I will say, the beginning is a bit boring, but once you get a few chapters in, it starts to become quite interesting. M.K. England does a wonderful job of telling the story with emotion. I don’t think I would have found this book without the Spoilers page, so thank you for showing me such a great
book!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark

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Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

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Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth stays true and shows a truly complex storyline of a book within a movie within a book. In the 1902 Brookhants School for Girls, the rebellious Flo and Clara are inspired by a feminist memoir by Mary MacLane in which they show their fervor for the book by creating a club: The Plain Bad Heroine Society. After various claims and the mysterious and tragic deaths of Flo, Clara, and other student’s who came in contact with the memoir, the school shut down and left this mystery to closed gates. Many years later, a bestseller book was published that admired the queer and feminist history that the schools legacy left. After the release of the breakout book, Hollywood wants to make a movie based off of the famous controversy and curse that Brookhants left after being shut down. This is when we get introduced to intertwining characters of the 21st century in this book, Meritt Emmons, Harper Harper, and Audrey Wells, each involved in adapting the film about the famous macabre deaths of the heroines. As more is revealed about the curses and the exploitation of Hollywood, the characters both present and past tell the story of what’s to become of this mystery.

When I started reading this book I was immediately put in a spiral of my own thoughts about “Can I finish this?” and “Is it worth it?” Although I can’t pinpoint why I reacted this way I know that I had an over exaggerated reaction to seeing the 619 pages of this novel. I enjoyed this novel in all it’s uniqueness and literary talent as well as the magnificent illustrations by Sarah Lautman. I felt especially connected to this novel with all of the queer characters and the great amount of representation in it. As a queer person, I felt like this gave me more motivation to read whether it was reading about the beautiful romance of Flo and Clara or having the main character, Harper Harper, who is open about her sexuality throughout the novel. This book gave me an almost safe feeling while reading about the queerness of it all and the badass heroines that gives incredible representation. Even if I enjoyed this book, I had trouble reading it due to the fact that the almost old and sophisticated style of literature is not something I usually read. I suggest reading a segment of the book before committing to reading it fully just to sample it before diving into the book. While I applaud Emily M. Danforth for developing the enticing, detailed, and amazing characters, I think that the amount of footnotes in the book got me confused along the way (which won’t be the case for everyone reading this awesome book).

This novel is for you if you love mystery, many subplots, surprising twists, and plain bad heroines that are inspiring in so many ways. In the end, I will probably re-read this book and I suggest that you read it if you think that this book sounds like your kind of novel.

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 12/29/20

York: The Map of Stars by Laura Ruby

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In the third and final book of the York series, two twins, Tess and Theo, along with their close friend Jaime are working to save their city while a rich man, Darnell Slant, and others are working to tear it down. While dealing with this, Tess and Theo are still trying to comprehend a photo from long before they were born with people that look… just like them? Meanwhile, they’re also trying to figure out their friendship with Jaime. Throughout the book, they work on solving the Morningstarr Cipher and learn more about their pasts.

I would recommend this to people who enjoy science fiction, mysteries, and time travel. I did not read the first two books, but I was still able to understand. It was interesting to see Tess, Theo, and Jaime work through their friendship while also preventing a catastrophe. I would give this a 3/5 because it could be difficult to follow and understand which time period the section was in. However, I do think that it could very enjoyable to some, it was just not my preferred style.

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 1/15/21

Forget This Ever Happened by Cassandra Rose Clarke

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In the summer of 1993, teenager Claire is forced by her mother into taking care of her sick grandmother in the small town of Indianola, Texas. Claire is less than thrilled about this arrangement. She doesn’t want to leave her life in Houston or her crush Josh, and she and her grandmother don’t exactly get along. On top of that, her grandmother’s house is old, dark, and hot, and Indianola is not exactly the most exciting place in the world. Claire quickly discovers that there is more to Indianola than there seems though. Soon after Claire arrives she meets Audrey, your typical perky, blonde cheerleader who lives down the street. Claire can’t shake the feeling that there’s something a little off about Audrey though, and can’t figure out why her grandmother keeps forcing them together. And then of course Claire discovers that there are monsters living in Indianola, alligator-like creatures with fur that can speak and stand up like a human. It’s at this point that Julie, the other main character of the story, is introduced. Julie has lived in Indianola all her life, and her family owns many of the businesses in town, including the local exterminator service charged with returning any monsters that stray too close to town to their home at the Indianola power plant. Julie, forced by her father to work at the exterminator’s, meets Claire when she comes to pick up a monster at Claire’s house. Claire and Julie bond over their shared love of movies and video games and begin developing feelings for each other. They also work together to determine why the monsters keep visiting Claire’s house talking about an “astronaut” that Claire needs to stop, how the monsters first came to Indianola, and how Claire and Julie’s families are connected.

Forget This Ever Happened is a mystery filled with suspense, though it can move a little slowly at times. The book has many plot twists that I enjoyed and never saw coming, including who the true villain of the story is and how Julie’s cousin Lawrence plays into Audrey’s plan. I also liked how the author developed the relationship between Claire and Julie. I think it is realistic in that many people experience the anxiety of not knowing whether their crush feels the same way, and can relate to questioning their sexuality.

My biggest issue with the novel is that although it does have many plot twists, certain aspects of the mystery are revealed too quickly. For example, it’s clear from almost the moment we meet Audrey that she is not what she seems, and it very quickly becomes obvious that she is the “astronaut” the monsters keep referring to. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the perspective of the novel alternating between Claire and Julie. As the reader I had access to more information than Claire and Julie did individually and was able to put the clues together before them. I found it rather frustrating having to wait for them to arrive at the same conclusions.

Overall, I would give this book a 4/5, and would recommend it to anyone who likes mystery and sci-fi with a little bit of romance mixed in.

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 2/21/21

Half Life by Lillian Clark

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This book is about Lucille Harper, a high schooler who strives for perfection in everything she does. This obsession with overachieving causes her to become isolated from her friends as she repeatedly chooses school over spending time with them. When she receives an email from a company called Life2 asking her to be a beta-tester for producing a human clone, she accepts the request, hoping a clone of herself will mean she won’t have to choose between friends and good grades. However, Lucille soon finds that having a clone is a lot more complicated than she originally thought. She wasn’t expecting her clone to have a mind of its own, and she’s forced to go along with all of the decisions that Lucy, her clone, makes. The workers at Life2 also plan to take Lucy back to their laboratory after a month so that they can present her to other companies. As it becomes clear that Life2 will do anything they can to ensure the success of their business, including tearing Lucy away from the new friends she’s made as a human being, Lucy and Lucille have to think of a way to take down the company…before it’s too late.

My favorite thing about this book is how relatable parts of it are. The author highlights the negative side effects of aiming for perfection, and she also shows how split-second decisions sometimes lead to involvement in something much bigger than expected.

I thought this book was really well-written, and I would give it 5/5 stars. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys science fiction novels!

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 2/27/21