Willow

The Bookworm says... Yes! Willow by Julia Hoban was a fantastically real book. It was a dark and rainy night, and Willows parents had an extra bottle of wine at dinner, so they asked Willow to drive them home. On the way home, Willow hit a tree and both of her parents were killed. Now she is stuck living with her older-college professor-brother David and his wife and daughter, and the pain that she killed her parents. She has to move out of her house, and start a new school. The only way she is able to deal with the pain is by cutting herself. She engages in this activity daily, and it is her secret. Until a student she is helping at the library names Guy spots the bleeding scar ripped open. He immediately makes Willow his project- but she eventually becomes less of a project and more of a friend. Will they become more than friends? Will Willow be able to talk to her brother like a normal person? Will she stop cutting? Will she ever turn the page of this tragedy that happens to be her life? This book was brutally honest, which isn't something you see every day. The only thing I didn't like was the ending. The book ended with a "..."  The story actually finished with a dot dot dot. I HATE books that end like that. The three little dots almost killed the book. But, aside from the dot dot dot, this book was stunning. 

Florida Teens Read Nominee

"It's hard to keep a secret when it's written all over your body..."

Hate List

The Bookworm says... Yes! Hate List by Jennifer Brown is a very original story. A good original. Valerie is going out with a boy named Nick, and couldn't be happier. They are the "losers" at school, and are picked on often. To vent, Valerie starts a "Hate List". Nick helps her with this list, and they hate the popular kids together. On May 2nd, 2008, one of these "popular kids" broke Valerie's MP3 player, and Nick says he has the perfect revenge. Valerie assumes he is going to insult her, maybe spit on her shoes or punch her boyfriend. But instead, he walks over to Christy Bruter, and says "You've been first on the list for a long time", pulls out a gun, and shoots her. He then proceeds to shoot many people on the list, and some that were just in his way. Valerie jumps in front of a girl named Jessica Campbell, with whom she is not even close to friends, and saves her life. Nick then turned the gun on himself. It is a long recovery for those injured,and a long grieving process for those who lost loved ones. Valerie is a suspect of the shooting, because it was her hate list. Valerie struggles to get her name cleared, her leg healed, and her conscience cleared. Will the stress of this event be too much to handle? This book was excellent, and surely not anything I have ever read before. 

ALA Best Book for Young Adults

VOYA Perfect Ten

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

"The list was my idea. I didn't mean for anyone to die. Will you ever forgive me?" 

Love and Other Perishable Items

The Bookworm says... Maybe. Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo was not a bad book, it just wasn't outstanding! Amelia is 14 years and 9 months old, and working her first job at a supermarket. Leave it to Amelia to fall in love with her co-workers. That in itself is an issue, but this particular co-worker happens to be a 22 year old uni student named Chris. Amelia tries to keep her cool around Chris, and succeeds. They become close friends, but nothing more. Until one night at another co-workers birthday. They are both drunk, and Chris kissed Amelia. They both leave the party with very different expectations of where their relationship will go. This book starts out in Amelia's point of view, then transfers into Chris's point of view through his journal entries. 

William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist

"Love is awkward. Amelia should know."

Brain on Fire

The Bookworm says... Definitely. Brain on Fire -My Month of Madness- by Susannah Cahalan was an outstanding memoir of disease. Susannah has her life put together, living on her own in Manhattan, working at the New York Post. Then, she has a bedbug scare. She begins to obbsess over this bedbug scare. You could call this the beginning. There were never any bedbugs. Susannah begins to have extreme mood swings, and high anxiety, until one night with her boyfriend Stephen, she has a seizure. She is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, then schizophrenia, then alcoholism, and multiple other things. None of these diagnosises seem to make sense. She is admitted to the epilepsy floor of NYU, and is a very difficult patient. Many doctors join and depart from her case, but the most effective will be Dr. Najjar and Dr. Dalmau. Almost a million dollars are spent on blood work, PET scans, CT scans, MRIs, and more tests, to figure out what is going on with Susannah. It turns out all they needed to do was have her draw a clock. The doctors discover that the right side of her brain is inflamed. Through a brain biopsy and multiple spinal taps, it's confirmed that Susannah is dealing with anti- NMDA receptor autoimmune encephalitis. She is the 217th person to be diagnosed. She will survive this, but will she ever be the Susannah everyone knows and loves? This was an outstanding book, based off of an article written by Susannah entitled "My Month of Madness". Susannah is an inspiration for young women around the globe fighting anti- NMDA receptor autoimmune encephalitis.  

Heaven Is For Real

The Bookworm says... Wow. Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent was a stunning story. Todd Burpo is a pastor in Imperial, Nebraska. His health slowly starts deteriorating. First, he breaks a leg in three places and his ankle. Then, he passes kidney stones. Finally, a breast cancer scare. On the way to their family vacation celebrating good health, their son Colton begins throwing up. He has to have an emergency appendectomy, and his future is grim. He barely makes it through the surgery, but he does. In the months following his surgery, Colton begins hinting that he was lifted from his body during the surgery. He describes sitting with Jesus, what his parents were doing during his surgery, and features of Heaven that no illiterate three year old would know. It becomes apparent that Colton had a heavenly encounter, from meeting deceased family members to giving exact details about Heaven. I haven't been to church in a few years, but this book makes me want to be a nun. 

Side Effects May Vary

The Bookworm says... Yes! Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy was an outstanding novel! 

Then

Alice was diagnosed with leukemia one year ago. She always thought life was guaranteed, but now tow weeks aren't even guaranteed. So, there are some things she must do before she dies. Blackmail her ex boyfriend into embarrassing himself after cheating on her, telling people her private information, and making fun of a gay boy in their grade. She must break into the amusement park from when she was little and go on the tea cups. She has to humiliate her former dance rival, and constant enemy onstage during the school play. She needs to buy a puppy for the little girl next door. And finally, she has to go to a prom. For all of this she enlists her childhood best friend Harvey. 

Just after all of Alice's issues are settled, she feels she could die peacefully. She tells Harvey her feelings for him, and falls asleep content with death. Only to learn the next day she has gone into remission. She was living life like she was dying, but now she is going to live. 

Now

Things are extremely awkward between Alice and Harvey. Alice has to return to school. Alice is still weak. She returns to school and faces her dance enemy Celeste. Celeste and her side kick Mindi are horrible to Alice, saying she should have died. While Alice tries to figure out her feelings for Harvey, she doesn't realize that she is leaving his feelings in the dust. She kisses him, but won't say she loves him. She doesn't talk to him at school, yet she is jealous when she sees him with other girls. She doesn't know what to do. Celeste and Mindi are trying to plan something awful for Alice, and it happens. They make her a shrine type memorial that would have happened if she had died. Alice witnesses her own memorial. Harvey has a girlfriend. Alice confronts her mom about what she saw in the window one day. Life is going down hill. Alice realizes that in her quest for revenge and good deeds, she never did soemthing for Harvey. So, she tries to find his dad, and in the process finds her feelings for him. 

This book was excellent. It switches point of view and time period every chapter which is usually enough to make me close a book. But, it works. Julie Murphy, well done. 

It's Kind of a Funny Story

The Bookworm says... YES. It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini was am excellent book. Craig Gilner was always a model students and studied his butt off for the admittance test for Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School. He spends all his time studying, and the pressure pushes him to his breaking point. He begins to become more and more depressed. Once he gets to the school he realizes that he will never be an A+ student, just normal 93's which aren't bad but they aren't outstanding and if they're not outstanding, he won't get into a good college and he won't get a good job. The stress keeps piling on and Craig stops eating and sleeping. He finally decides to kill himself. In the middle of the night, he prepares to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. He calls a suicide hotline and they tell him if he is considering harming himself he should check himself into a hospital. Craig decided that death probably falls under the category of harming yourself, and checks himself in. While in the Brooklyn Mental Health Facility, he finds people that are non-verbal, transsexuals, depressed teens, drug addicts, and... love? Will Craig manage to get his depression under control (or experience the Shift as he calls it)? And what will he use to make this happen? Will he escape this hospital and find true love? 

The Impossible Knife of Memory

The Bookworm says... Maybe. The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson was a pretty good book! It is the touching story of a girl named Hayley Blue who lives with her father who struggles with sever PTSD from fighting in the army. Hayley has been traveling the country in her Dads truck, but it's been decided she needs to live a real life. Hayley struggles with depression and anxiety. She very clearly knows how to spot people that are living their lives, and those spending it trying to fit in. She refers to the latter as zombies. She is constantly worried about her dad, and does not try very hard in school. When her dads horrible ex Trish makes an appearance, her life starts to go downhill. Her dad seems to be getting better, but then there's a bar fight. And he starts drinking again. Will she get her dad to turn his life around before he starts playing around with the lines between life and death? This book didn't have a major climax until the end, but it was great! It was also somewhat confusing, but it was great for the most part. 

Laurie Halse Anderson is the author of previously reviewed novel Speak. 

Asylum

The Bookworm says... YES (if you like scary things)! Asylum by Madeleine Roux was an excellent book, and a thriller to top it off! I am a huge fan of scary things, so this was an upside for me, but it could also be a downside. If the cover creeps you out, I would advise you not to look any farther. Sixteen year old Daniel Crawford is going to a summer college prep program at New Hampshire College Prep, or as referred to by the locals NHCP. But, before beginning the program Dan received a letter saying that the dorms were under construction, and college prep students would be staying in the newly renovated Brookline Phsyciatric Hospital dorms. This would be enough to make a sane person shaken, but not driven Daniel Crawford. Upon arrival, Daniel meets two people named Abby and Jordan. They become friends instantly. When Daniel is shown to his dorm room, he finds a picture of a man wearing glasses, but the problem seems to be that his eyes had been scratched out rather brutally in pen. This rattles Dans bones. That night, Jordan, Dan, and Abby begin exploring the locked up hallways of the asylum. They find more disturbing photos, and one particularly gory photograph of a young girl. They continue to explore, and Dan begins recieiving strange notes. One night as they sneak up from the cellar, they realize they have walked straight into a crime scene, and someone has been attacked. More attacks, more strange notes, mysterious texts, and hidden relations. As the students dig deeper into the asylum than they should, behavior begins to waver and ancestry starts to show between the students and patients. There are some secrets meant to stay buried, and some doors meant to stay locked. It seems the only way to stay sane is to get out of the place whose very purpose is to make people sane. Asylum was an excellent book, full of haunting photos from real life asylums. This is a must read for all horror lovers, also for lovers of Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.