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Category: Spoiler Alert

Book Review: The Murder Game

Posted on by Maya Escobar

The Murder Game by Carrie Doyle

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I am a big fan of murder mystery books. I love the suspense, thrill, and excitement that comes with it, and how these books always leave you guessing at the edge of your seat until the end. So imagine my excitement when I received The Murder Game by Carrie Doyle as a gift from a friend last Christmas. I was beyond myself, ready to indulge in another great book.

However, as much as I like murder mystery books, to me, this one didn’t necessarily start off on a great foot. Now, I have to admit part of that is due to the fact that the story needed to build up the background first, but I felt like the place where the author started was in a pretty odd spot.

So to explain, our main character Luke Chase, the famous survivor of a kidnapping, and his trouble marker but best friend, Oscar. They are both teenagers who live in a boarding school and one night they sneak out into the woods to meet up with two of their other classmates, Kelsey and Pippa. While in the woods, they hear sounds from nearby adults, and they think they’re caught, so they head back into the boarding school.

The next day, they discovered that one of their teachers, Mrs. Heckler had been murdered. This leads them to believe that the sounds that they heard last night in the woods might have been the sounds of Miss Heckler before she was murdered. Now, I understand that this might have not been an idea starting spot for the book but to me as a reader expecting more from the murder mystery book, I felt like it was pretty slow for the first three or four chapters, and I was really bored. Actually, I almost stopped reading the book.

It wasn’t until a few more chapters later that the book started picking up pace when Luke and Oscar decided to look more into the murder to try to see who murdered Mrs. Heckler. Eventually as the police start looking more to the case, Luke and Oscar become suspects, especially Oscar, who had been known to be a troublemaker. Once they find out that they had been in the woods the same night Mrs. Heckler had been murdered Oscar was framed for the murder. Oscar sent away, and Luke, along with his other classmate, Pippa are determined to prove him innocent, and find out who the real murderer is.

After relentless research, they find out that the murderer was one of their teachers all along, who had been pretending to help them in this case. The teacher even tries to kill Pippa as well while framing another person, but Luke comes to the rescue and prevent this from happening, thus shining light on the true murderer and saving the day, once again.

Throughout this book, I felt like the real action came during the part when they were kind of searching for the murder but when it came to the big finale, they didn’t deliver as much as I’d hoped for. Maybe it was the start or how they ended, but out of a scale of ten, I probably give this book a seven or an eight. I feel like the author could’ve done so much more in the story, like add more action possibly more depth or make the conclusion just a little bit more exciting. After all, we did have all this build up, and for it to come down to a small little scene to conclude the story, it was not impressive at all. So, if you’re a murder mystery loving reader, such as myself, I’d suggest possibly picking up this book if you just want a little fun reading but if you’re really looking for a good story, this might not be cup of tea.

-Review by Teen Volunteer, 2/23/24

To submit a review of your own, email the YA Services Librarian at askbelmont[email protected].

Graphic Novel: Amulet Books 1-3

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

Below are summaries of books 1-3 with SPOILERS!

Amulet: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi 

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Our story begins with two siblings Emily and Navin and their mother and father. On the family’s way home, they get into a tragic accident and their father dies. After a two-year time jump and the disappearance of their grandpa, our characters move to their grandpa’s strange large house. Our protagonist Emily puts her hand on a scanner and it reveals an amulet on a necklace. The mother gets taken by a monster which leads the siblings to chase and end up at a strange house that feels alive. On their way, they meet with an elve that tries to attack Emily but with her amulet and her new powers, she defends herself. A robot takes them across a river to the new house known as the Charnon House. They meet many robots that seem to be taking care of their grandpa while he is on his deathbed. Grandpa Charnon gives some wise advice to Emily right before passing away. After that, through the use of advanced technology and aircraft, they catch the monster that has taken Emily and Navin’s mother. Emily uses her new powers to eliminate the monster but ends up crashing the aircraft into a deep and unknown forest. Our characters regroup and feel safe until they meet the elf that attacked them. With his stone, he quickly rips the monster and two and frees their mother. He grabs ahold of Emily and tells her to join him in defeating The Elf King. Emily breaks free from his grip and he runs away and once again our characters regroup at the Charnon House. With the help of the robots, their mother is starting to feel better. The house turns out to be a giant robot that can move. THE END.

Amulet: The Stonekeeper’s Curse by Kazu Kibuishi 

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Our story begins when the Elf King orders Luger, who is an experienced stone keeper, to join the elf prince in his quest to find the stone keeper (Emily). Our protagonists have just arrived at the city of Kanalis with their robot house. Our main characters start looking for a doctor because it seems that Emily and Navin’s mother has gotten a severe disease from the monster that took her. On their way, they find a fox bounty hunter that seems suspicious but later proves that he is trustworthy. Leon (Fox Bounty Hunter), Emily, and Miskit (Rabbit Robot) together get split up with the rest of the group after being attacked. Emily and Leon defeat all the elves in their ways. Emily and Leon take the subway and find the underground resistance that leads them towards the tree of fruit that can save Emily’s mother from her disease. Meanwhile, Navin and his robots sneak back into their house and deceive the elves. Then Leon tells the story of the storekeepers that lost control. He tells Emily that the stone keepers turned into colossal beasts because the stones took control of the body. Fortunately, the resistance was able to destroy the power-hungry stone keeper except for one. He was a lonely elf and the elders were able to separate him from his stone and they locked him. He blew up the prison and that was the day the elf king was born. The elf prince gets captured after going rogue. Luger finds Emily and Leon in the forest of gadoba trees and attacks him and the elf prince saves Emily in the nick of time. Luger turns into a colossal beast and he rips both arms off their robot house. Emily gains control of the robot house using the amulet and defeats Luger controlling the house and faints because she used too much power. She woke up days later and recovered and her mother has healed as well. The End.

Amulet: The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi 

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Our story begins with Prince Trellis finding Luger hiding in a cave destroying his amulet. They get orders from the king to return to the base immediately but they are worried that they will get killed when they return. The Elf King sends out an assassin in order to kill the stonekeeper, Prince Trellis, and Luger. According to Leon, the only way to stay low is without traveling with the robot house. After a bar fight breaks out between Emily and Trellis against the elf guards, Enzo the bartender takes them into his ship and escapes the fight. Enzo and Rico, the pilots of our ship, believe that the lost city of ceilis can be found. While flying towards Ceilis Enzo warns the crew that thunderheads (flying drakes) will take you out unless you are inside. Foolishly, Miskit and Cogsley get taken and Emily wants to go back but Enzo tells them that the only way is to move forward. Our characters arrive at a gas station for ships and they plan to stay until morning. The assassin that the Elf King sent is lurking around ready to pounce. In the meantime, Prince Trellis tells Emily about his father, the Elf King. He explains how the Elf King is dead and the only thing that is keeping him alive is his stone. He explains that the key to bringing peace for the elf nation is to destroy the Elf King’s stone. In the morning while the crew is distracted setting up their ship the assassin sneaks his way into the ship. After Emily and Prince Trellis defeat the assassin, Max Griffin, a stonekeeper , arrives and tells them to board his ship and they will be safe under his command. Max has the location of Ceilis and can assure that no elves will be able to find them. THE END

-Summaries provided by Teen Volunteer, 9/18/22

To submit a review of your own, email the YA Services Librarian at [email protected] for our review submission form.

Game Review: Splatoon 2

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

Splatoon 2

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The game starts with choosing character which is a squid and you get to choose how the squid human looks like after that you are sent to a map for starter guide the game will teach you the controls how to play and how it works. After you finish the starter guide you are now sent to a city with other people after that the game tells you to go to the biggest tower in the map which is the place where you get too choose the game you want to play but since you are still a starter you will be chosen to play the game mode the regular battle which is tram battle and try to paint the most in that map you can paint on top of the enemy’s paint and sometimes get rid of the enemy with the paint shooter. When you get shot by the paint shooter and die you will respawn in about 3 seconds. While playing the game you can start to play other game modes such as ranked, story mode and more. You also can unlock new shooters, roller which is also a weapon, sniper and more. You will also level up while playing this game. You can also play with some other friends and have fun. You may also unlock new shirts, hats and shoes that gives you special ability such as reduce the amount of damage you take when hit by a paint or walk faster or refill ink faster you can get all of these kind of ability’s by buying clothes and such with coins. You also can reroll the abilities if you want a new one or you also can unlock new ability space which is up to 4. I would recommend this game a lot if you like colorful and bright and a relaxing game.

-Review by Teen Volunteer, 9/10/22

To submit a review of your own, email the YA Services Librarian at [email protected] for our review submission form.

Book Review: Spy School Project X

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

Spy School Project X by Stuart Gibbs

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This book is a fairly good book – however, it definitely isn’t as good as some of the previous Spy School books. The plot basically revolves around Murray Hill – the nemesis of the main character, Ben Ripley – posting lies about Ben on the internet under the name Agent X (a mysterious top-level agent at the CIA) accusing him of being at the center of a conspiracy as well as putting a bounty of $20 million on Ben’s head to try and get him killed. And to make things worse, people are actually buying Murray’s lies, absurd as they seem, and even expanding on them! Not only do they believe Ben is part of a plot to overthrow the government; they also believe that Ben’s a lizard alien! Ben has to try to find Murray and get him to clear his name and remove the bounty before it’s too late. And it’s not just assassins that are hunting Ben down – so are Joshua Hallal, Ashley Sparks, and Warren Reeves – all former members of the evil organization SPYDER, which Ben helped destroy.

So most of the book is basically Ben trying to figure out where Murray is and running away from bad guys. This really makes the book a lot less interesting and suspenseful – there were no big plot twists unless you count when Ben realizes that Joshua is actually after Murray, not him. However, that’s nowhere near as big as the revelations Ben normally makes where he figures out Murray/SPYDER’s evil genius plot that I never saw coming. I didn’t really like the ending either – Erica and Ben get Murray to try to clear Ben’s name but him telling the truth only causes people to believe his original lies even more (people believe Agent X has been brainwashed and that Ben is behind the brainwashing). So, in the end, a lot of people still believe Ben is an alien trying to overthrow the government. Usually, Spy School endings leave some sort of obstacle/challenge still present for Ben but he also has some sort of victory. However, in this case, there doesn’t seem to be much of a victory, which I highly disliked. Okay, enough criticism of this book – it does deserve some praise! As with the other Spy School books, this book is told through Ben’s perspective so we get to see everything through the eyes of a 13 year old boy.

Stuart Gibbs does a great job of not making Ben seem too mature for his age and Ben’s hilarious humor does make me laugh! Also, Gibbs does a great job keeping the book light, even while there are so many people hunting Ben down, making it a lot less intense (I really do appreciate this).

Finally, there’s some aspects of this book that I’m not sure whether I like or dislike. First, Erica Hale was always depicted as doing everything spy-related perfectly in previous books but in this book, Erica actually starts to doubt herself when she fails Ben, which is so unlike her! This change definitely made her seem more human but Erica was always known for being so UNhuman that it just seems kind of weird. Also, Ben has had a crush on Erica this whole series, but Erica used to think that relationships were too messy for spies so they never actually became a thing. But, in the previous book, Spy School at Sea, Erica realized that she may have been wrong and agreed to try a relationship with Ben. So now Ben and Erica are a thing and on the one hand, I’m glad that Ben is with Erica now because he deserves it, but on the other hand, it’s another sign of Erica starting to change in a way that I’m not sure I like. Overall, this is not a terrible book but it just doesn’t have the same spark as the previous Spy School books.

-Review by Teen Volunteer, 9/08/22

To submit a review of your own, email the YA Services Librarian at [email protected] for our review submission form.

Book Review: Dig Two Graves

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

Dig Two Graves by Gretchen McNeil

Arrives March 29, 2022

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When I first learned of the concept for this book, I was excited. As a personal fan of Alfred Hitchcock and his mastery of suspense, as well as the YA, meets Murder genre as a whole, I immediately chose this title because I felt I had enough frame of reference but also enough excitement to tear through it at once.

I also want to preface this by saying, This is just my personal opinion, based on my individual tastes in literature and writing styles.

Ok.

Neve is an interesting character. To describe her as an apathetic loner would not be inaccurate. She makes an interesting point of re-affirming herself that she does not want unnecessary attention while craving it deeply. I found her internal dialogue to be a perfect exemplifier of her conflicting attitudes. If a character were to come into mind, she is not unlike Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She is for the most part well-meaning, no-nonsense, fiercely loyal, and generally rejected by others. (of course, this is where the comparison ends because Faith’s struggles and circumstances were completely different, and she was very annoying lol.)

At the beginning of the book, she is betrayed by her best friend and outcasted in a humiliating experience at her wealthy high school. She is then put in a preppy summer camp called GLAM. Her narration is very angsty and obsessive, but it is not difficult to sympathize with her.

Her father is one of the most complex characters in the book. Neve’s whole family dynamic is well-written and detailed. Neve and her relationship with her family evoked me to empathize more with her than the Yasmin plot ever did. Diane is a weird villain. She is a Barbie doll meets a psychotic murderer. I really like that element. To not waste time, Javier was ok as were the other characters.

Alright, I’m actually going to get into the plot of the book now. Apologies.

The suspense and what led up to the ending were well done. I felt intrigued and entertained by Diane’s penchant for murder and Neve’s careful dance around death. After an awkward beginning, the plot began to pick up as soon as Neve had realized Yasmin was murdered. By the time the book had reached the end, I was invested in Neve’s success.

Overall this book is generally a good read. I would recommend it if you are a fan of teen-murder fiction or you just want to read something light and breezy. 😉

-Review by Teen Reviewer, 12/30/21

Book Review: All the Bright Places

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

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All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is a wonderfully well written book that focuses on the importance of mental health. All the Bright Places takes place in modern day Indiana and follows two teenagers named Violet and Finch. Finch is a boy with a harsh past who struggles with mental illness, even though his family and friends won’t admit it. He is known as a “freak” at school and gets bullied frequently. Violet is almost his complete opposite, she is the girl with the picture perfect life, the one who everyone wants to be. Until her sister died and everything changed for her. Now she has been retreating from family and friends and spending more and more time alone. She blames herself for her sister’s death and this is why she is finding it hard to move on. Violet and Finch are both struggling in different ways and come from very different crowds at school so their paths don’t tend to cross, until one day where they meet on the edge of their high school’s bell tower. This day is when their whirlwind journey begins. Finch is able to help Violet find closure for her sister’s death, and Violet gives Finch something to live for. Unfortunately Finch’s mental health struggles are too deeply rooted for Violet to untangle on her own, so he will need to seek professional help before it is too late.

When I was looking for something new to read and came across this book, I was intrigued by the bright sticky notes on the cover and the lure of a story about characters my age. I knew I was going to like this book within the first few pages when I became aware of the rebellious and interesting character, Finch. I like how Finch adds humor and sadness to this story and how his character has many layers that we get to see unravel throughout the book. I also liked how this book was a quicker read and was easy to understand since it wasn’t too wordy. Sometimes I did find it challenging to follow Finch’s thoughts, but I think that is what the author was trying to convey since Finch also can’t follow his own thoughts sometimes. Overall I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

This novel is for you if you enjoy bittersweet endings, romance, and coming of age stories. It is also for you if you want to learn more about, or feel like you can relate to, a character struggling with serious mental illness.

-Review by Madeleine Morawski, 12/30/21

Book Review: Lion of Mars

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm

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The story The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm is a science fiction novel about an 11-year old named Bell who lives in an American settlement on Mars, far from Earth. All of the adults get sick and the kids must find help. The book is rather short and the problem is solved easily compared to other books and it has a happier ending, so it is good for children. This book explains that politics is not in the interest of the people of the country in which these politics happen. This book also tries to explain to young children that aggressive foreign policy can be destructive for everyone including the people of the aggressive government. However, this book also does it in a way so as to make younger readers of the book understand the message without making the book too dark or traumatizing for young readers. However, the book also contains the theme of friendship and communicating with people who may have ideas that are different from your ideas and your thoughts, which is a valuable lesson for people of all ages. Another theme in the story is that you should always remember your roots and where you came from, but you shouldn’t let it decide who you want to be friends with and who you trust.

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 12/21/21

Book Review: Vespertine

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

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This novel features a girl, Artemisia, who is training at a covenant to become a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the body of the dead so that their souls can continue without becoming spirits that want revenge. When her covenant is attacked by possessed soldiers, Artemisia awakens and takes on a powerful spirit, the revenant, to defend her covenant. However, it is soon revealed that there is much more at stake and Artemisia might be the only one who is able to save everyone.

First, the characters. The revenant was by far my favorite character with its prickly attitude. The constant banter between Artemisia and the revenant was also extremely entertaining and engaging. As for Artemisia, my feelings vary a little more. Artemisia is portrayed as a socially anxious girl due to her tragic past. When she was young, Artemisia was possessed by an Ashgrim, a spirit that died from fire. Her family isolated her and in the end, Artemisia continuously burned herself to keep the Ashgrim away before getting help from the covenant and has physical scars to show her difficult past. Despite her past, Artemisia is able to rise up to the challenges presented. She was quite plain in my opinion though her character definitely grew on me as the story progressed. I also liked how there was no apparent love interest. I was able to solely invest myself in the characters without having to think about relationships and whether or not they were going to last.

The plot, in my opinion, was very slow at the beginning and I was unable to be fully engaged. However, the pace picked up near the middle as the plot started revealing the direction it was going in. I flew through the end as I got more invested in the story as well as the addition of more action packed scenes with higher stakes. A negative I have is that the plot twist was predictable. It wasn’t too hard to figure out who was behind the Old Magic and attacks and it was slightly frustrating at times when Artemisia wasn’t able to figure out until near the end even if there were obvious clues.

The worldbuilding was one of the stronger aspects of the novel after it got less confusing. The system present has a hierarchy with clerics, saints, nuns, the Divine, and more. At first, the new terminology prevented me from fully understanding the story and hindered my ability to be invested but because it was repeated many times throughout the novel, I was able to understand the system better by the end.

Overall, this book was a fun read, especially with the relationship between Artemisia and the revenant. I recommend this book to fantasy lovers who want something a little different from the typical fantasy world.

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 12/19/21

Book Review: The Ravens

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige

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Ever wondered what would happen if a sorority had magic and a mystery to solve?- this is your book.

The Ravens follows the narratives of two witches, Scarlett Winter and Vivi Devereaux, as they attempt to save their coven, the Ravens, from a mysterious past secret knocking at their door. Scarlett Winter is a powerful witch in her own right, despite always having to prove herself to her family, with a boyfriend, Mason, who after a summer of freedom does not want the same suburban life Scarlett has set out for them. Scarlett is set to become the president of the Ravens just as her sister and mother had been, but a dark secret threatens to take everything away from her. Vivi Devereaux on the other hand, has moved around her entire life with her kooky mother and has never had enough time to make friends or any sense of community for that matter. Vivi has no idea that she is a witch, but when she arrives on campus at Westerly College, she will discover her community and what she will do to protect it. 

I had an absolutely thrilling time with this story. I loved Scarlett and Vivi in all of their many flaws- what can I say, I love an enemies to friends storyline. The sorority initiation games were so much fun to read, though not so much for the characters, because it felt like I was watching the games from Monsters University- remember that move? The side characters were all well rounded with distinct voices and personalities. I especially loved when the story arrived at the magic system which is semi-based on tarot cards (which I purchased after reading this book in my own hopes of becoming a witch because my letter from Hogwarts never came) and the collective power of the witches performing magic together. There were several different plotlines happening at once which I enjoyed because it is realistic to real life in that sense that people are living their own lives, trying to figure things out, and then come together in the end with all of the information. The only thing that was not my favorite was the chapters ending on a cliffhanger but then switching narratives, so by the time the book got back to the plotline you had just been reading you’ve just ended on another cliffhanger and you’re not as interested as you were about what was happening before. Or the cliffhanger would just be resolved quickly with too perfect a bow. The ending though was also just [insert chef’s kiss here]; absolutely perfect for all of the characters.

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 6/2/21

Book Review: Girls Save the World in This One

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

Girls Save the World in This One by Ash Parsons

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In my lifetime as a fellow bookworm 📚🐛 I haven’t read many survival YA books and basically close to zero books that have zombies in them. So, when I read the synopsis of the book, I knew I got to read it ASAP. I mean, there’s nothing more that I enjoy reading than strong female friendship groups, especially if the said friendship group has to save the entire world from an army of zombies when all hell breaks loose at the TV show convention they’re attending.

The thing that stood out to me in the book is the trio of friends (June, Siggy, and Imani) constantly supporting each other through the ups and downs. It was honestly a DELIGHT to read, and I was constantly rooting for them. Like, I want to have their type of friendship in my life, lol. #squadgoals

However, the thing I had issues with was the book’s writing style. Personally, I like my dialogue and actions to be pretty evenly balanced, but in this book, there was a bit too much of the characters “doing”. Honestly, it makes sense why this book had more “doing” because of all the action-packed events, but it was kinda a drag at some points. Also, there’s Hunter. To be frank, I think the romance in this book (June and Hunter) was completely unnecessary and took away from the actual book, which was a surprise to me because I love romance books…I guess it wasn’t my cup of tea in this case 🤷‍♀️

So, to sum it all up, this was a quick read with great MCs, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I definitely think that other people might really love this book…it just wasn’t for me since I think it could have wayyyy more potential. 

Rating: ⅗ stars

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 4/18/21

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