Queen’s Peril by E.K. Johnston

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I want to start this off by saying I am not a huge fan of Star Wars. I have nothing against it, I am just not a person who knows a ton about it. So I was really curious how I would like this book, considering it is set in the Star Wars universe, which I do not know a lot about, and how much I would feel like I understood it.

This book is about 14-year old Padmé, the newly elected queen posing as Amidala. Panake, her Royal Guard, has found her a handmaid, a girl names Tsabin. Tsabin looks very similar to Padmé, which is the reason Panake chose her. Panake’s plan is for Tsabin to be Padmé’s body double, in case of any danger that may arise. However, Padmé points out that having only one double wouldn’t work very well, as it would be suspicious if the “queen” was left all alone. Because of this, Panake agrees to try and find more doubles. Eventually, he finds 4 more doubles, and Padmé and the group start to get closer. Padmé plans to host a summit, and she informs Senator Palpatine of her plan (spoiler alert- he’s evil). The girls later sneak out to a party, and Sabé ends up having to pretend to be Padmé because Padmé gets glitter on her hand that won wash off. Sabé then gets mad at Padmé because Padmé offended Harli while posing as Sabé, and Harli got angry with Sabé. But will the girls be able to bond together as true danger approaches? Read the book to find out!

I ended up really liking this book, for multiple reasons. First of all, I think Padmé’s character was similar to how a 14-year-old would act, and I think the author did a great job creating the characters. Additionally, the storyline was really interesting in my opinion. I was able to understand (most of) it despite not knowing a ton about Star Wars. Last but not least, I loved that there were multiple strong female characters in the story, but it wasn’t mentioned too many times that they were girls. I liked the fact that they were powerful as a female, and it wasn’t their biggest characteristic. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Star Wars, books about adventure, and books with strong female characters. 

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

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

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The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel set in the New England area of the United States, which is known as the Republic of Gilead. In this society, the former United States government has been overthrown and has changed into a military dictatorship under Gilead. Since then, this new regime quickly expanded its power, ultimately controlling everything from the rights of individual people to religious studies. Offred, a Handmaid (a fertile woman whose role in this society is to provide children for high ranking men), narrates the story, which focuses on her individual experiences as well as the general day-to-day life of a Handmaid. Through Offred’s narration, she reveals her past and present, retelling how Gilead came to be, her current life as a Handmaid, the family she had and lost, the fall of women’s rights, and rising resistance. As Offred brings her story to life, she uncovers the horrors hidden beneath the utopia that Gilead appears to the outside world.

The thing that astounded and made me enjoyed this book immensely is that the details Atwood incorporates into the book draws from real events in history, thus making The Handmaid’s Tale under the category of speculative fiction. It’s incredible that when I read the book, I believed that every single detail came from Atwood’s imagination, because, in a way, they were too horrid for me to perceive they’re part of our history. It truly changes how I view the world from now on. Another thing that’s incredible about this book is how Atwood uses colors to describe the roles of different women in Gilead—Handmaids wear red, Wives wear blue, Marthas wear green, Aunts wear brown, and Econowives wear red, blue, and green stripes. For me, it’s interesting that every color fits the role of each category of women and because I believe it plays a vital role in the story though it’s not highlighted; it reveals the morals of Gilead and a glimpse of its functions. Overall, The Handmaid’s Tale presents warnings of all sorts to its readers and proves a wonderful read, that stands the test of time (did I mention it was published in 1985?!)

Though The Handmaid’s Tale is a great book, it’s certainly not for everyone. I would recommend this book to those who are not disturbed by darker themes and are open-minded; after all, it does not shy away from the corruption it presents.

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 12/18/20

Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus

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This book follows Liv Fleming, a high schooler whose biggest worry is performing well in school and maintaining her friendships – that is, until her dad goes missing for four days and makes his return by streaking through town, an act that is witnessed by most of Liv’s classmates. Upon Mr. Fleming’s return, he sets about teaching Liv and her friend Doug how to prepare alien traps, claiming he was in an alien lair during the time that he was missing. When Mr. Fleming disappears for a second time and doesn’t return, Doug assumes that the aliens captured Liv’s dad once again, and he thinks that the only way to bring him back is to continue monitoring the traps. Liv follows through the motions half-heartedly, not wanting to upset Doug but also not truly believing that aliens are real. However, on a day three years after her dad’s disappearance, she has to reconsider her version of reality when she discovers a creature in one of her dad’s traps that’s unlike any other being she had ever seen. She’s forced to make a difficult decision: should she turn this creature into the authorities, or should she try to collect information from it about where her father is?

I’ll admit, I was a bit hesitant to read this book at first because I don’t normally enjoy sci-fi novels, but I was drawn into the storyline after the first chapter, and I could barely put it down after that. My favorite thing about this book is how complex it is, with several plot twists, so the storyline isn’t too predictable. By the time I reached the final 50 or so pages, I found myself twisting my blanket anxiously because I was so nervous to see how the book would end. The one thing I didn’t like about this book is that there were some confusing aspects of the plot. Overall, I would give this book a 4.5/5 rating. It’s a great book for anyone looking for a thriller to keep them reading past their bedtime!

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 12/18/20

Poe Dameron: Free Fall by Alex Segura

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This book is about Poe Dameron, a teenage boy who is yearning to escape his home planet of Yavin 4. He often gets in trouble, and all he really wants to do is be able to fly his plane and have adventures like his mother often did. So when a group approaches him saying they are looking for a pilot to get them of off Yavin 4, Poe immediately wants to accept. The group seems a little shady though, and is he really willing to leave his whole life behind? But Poe realizes that this might be his only chance to get off the planet so he accepts. What he doesn’t realize is that he has just joined one of the most wanted groups in the whole galaxy… the Spice Runners of Kijimi. But Poe is already too deep in to escape now… what will happen to him now? This books goes on to show Poe’s adventures with the Spice Runners.

I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Star Wars, flying, and maybe adventure. However, if you are a fan of realistic fiction or dystopian like I am, I would not recommend this book. I found this book a little bit boring and it felt a little bit drawn out. Other than that it was a pretty good book, just not my style. The author did do a really nice job of writing the book, and I could see the thought that went into making this book easy to read.Overall I give this book a 3/5. If you like Star Wars or flying, this may be a good book for you, but other then that, I don’t necessarily recommend it. Thanks for reading my review 🙂

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 12/16/20