Staff Review: The Forgetting

 

The Forgetting

Sharon Cameron

Scholastic

$18.99

Available September 13, 2016

Every twelve years, the city of Canaan falls into the Forgetting, a day where everyone’s memories vanish. The only way to remember events from before the Forgetting or even clues to who you are as an individual is by keeping detailed entries in your personal book. Your book is your identity, but the truth can easily be twisted or misrepresented and no one truly knows exactly what has happened. Except for Nadia. She has never forgotten. She remembers exactly what has happened. She knows who’s telling the truth and who isn’t. Nadia’s memories allow her to investigate how the city of Canaan came to be. Because she remembers her past, she is less afraid than her neighbors and ventures over the stone wall that is supposedly protecting the city. When Gray catches her coming back over the wall, he threatens to expose her secrets unless she helps him. With the next Forgetting approaching, Nadia and Gray must figure out what is destroying Canaan. Or this time everyone will forget what the truth really is.

Staff Review: With Malice

With Malice
Eileen Cook
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
$17.99
Available now

Jill Charron wakes up in a hospital bed not remembering anything for the past 6 weeks. She doesn’t remember the once in a lifetime trip to Italy she just took with her best friend. The trip which was supposed to be fun and exciting, that instead turns into a deadly car accident. Jill is told that her friend Simone was killed during the accident, but now questions are being raised about whether the accident was intentional. As Jill slowly regains her memory, she tries to piece together bits of information that will explain what really happened to Simone and what led up to the accident. Is Jill responsible for Simone’s death, or is she being framed? With Malice is a great summer read for anyone who loves mysteries.

~ Lana

 

Morse Pond Review: Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray

Ruta Sepetys

Speak

$9.99

Available now
Between Shades of Gray is an amazing book. The reason I started reading it was because it was assigned in  school. I started reading it after school every day. I had an addiction. Ruta Sepetys’ skill shows throughout this book like a flashlight that never runs out of battery. Some parts made me cry, and some parts made me laugh out loud. Every single person in my book group buzzed about this book with me in and out of school. This book is at the top of my list for the best books I’ve ever read in my life.   

~ Grace, age 11

 

Customer Review: Walk on Earth a Stranger

Walk on Earth a Stranger

Rae Carson

Greenwillow Books

$17.99

Available September 22, 2015

Besides the beautiful cover a wonderful story follows surrounding the gold rush in America.  Leah Westfall possesses a special power, she can sense the presence of gold. The day both her parents are murdered she bravely runs from her wicked uncle and sets off to find her best friend Jefferson and accompany him to California to find gold. In the beginning of her journey she decides to pretend to be a boy, so she won’t be found by her evil uncle. Will she ever find her friend Jefferson? Will she be found by her uncle and be used for her sense of gold? You will have to read to find out! ~ Emily, 17

Staff Review: The Walls Around Us

The Walls Around Us

Nova Ren Suma

Algonquin Books

$17.95

Available now

If you’re a young adult looking for the ultimate suspenseful mystery book, then The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma is in fact the book for you. Once I started The Walls Around Us, I was instantly hooked and couldn’t put the book down. I can really appreciate the  descriptive writing style which put an image in my head, playing out as a movie as I read. This suspenseful novelwill have you at the edge of your seat. The story is told through the eyes and thoughts of two separate girls: one living and one long dead.

Violet an eighteen year old perfectionist ballerina who is the top ballet dancer at her studio and has been accepted to Julliard in the fall. She feeds off the audience’s attention and applauses, although she really hates them all. Behind the tutu and ribbons and point shoes and laces lies a psychotic murderer with a terrible dark secret about what really happened behind the theater. The secret, if revealed, could ruin her whole future and send to the cold stone walls of the juvenile correctional facility Aurora Hills, rather than Julliard. Violet’s whole side to the story much reminds me of Nina in the Black Swan with how suspenseful and scandalous it is.

Then there’s Amber, who is an inmate at Aurora Hills detention center. Amber tells the stories and histories of all the other prisoners and why they are locked up. She has been locked up for more than three years since that summer night in August and has forgotten the feeling of freedom. When the gates open up one rainy, stormy Saturday night due to the malfunction of all the locks, she and all the other locked up girls run for freedom, knowing they wont get far, but desperately needing to feel freedom for those few brief minutes.

Then there’s the missing piece to this complex puzzle. The piece that holds the secret to Violet’s and troubled past is Orianna, who used to dance side-by-side with Violet, the perfect ballerina Violet never was but so desperately wanted to be. This suspenseful novel will have you questioning who all the people around you really are and all their secrets. The Walls Around Us should definitely be on everyone’s TBR list.

-Eryn, 16

Interview an Author: Lori Goldstein

On May 9th I had the opportunity to interview Lori Goldstein, the author of Becoming Jinn, which was an amazing experience. Lori Goldstein was inspired to write Becoming Jinn by a mother and daughter who survived an earthquake in Turkey the daughter was named Azra which lead to the amount of research she had done for this book. Lori Goldstein had read an Encyclopedia of Jinn and another work surrounding morrocan, middle eastern Jinn. The setting of her great novel is in Massachusetts which she chose because of the shortage of books based in Massachusetts and because of the beautiful beaches that are important locations in her novel. Lori Goldstein also shared with me that the hardest part of the book to write was the first page and that Shay Mitchell from Pretty Little Liars would make a good Azra on the big screen. Finally to my favorite question — if she were working on any other works —  I am delighted to report that she is brainstorming ideas for a stand-alone contemporary novel as well as book two for the a Becoming Jinn series!  Thank you Lori Goldstein for giving me the chance to interview you and I hope you come back to Eight Cousins for your future books.

~ Emily, 17

Customer Review: Dreamland

Dreamland

Robert L. Anderson

HarperTeen

$17.99

Available September 22, 2015

Dreamland by Robert L. Anderson is perfects for fans who love books that leave you on the edge of your seat.  The book takes on a unique plot where Odea Donahue has the ability to walk people’s dreams. There are three rules, do not change anything, never be seen, and don’t walk the same person’s dream twice.  When a boy with a dark past moves into town Odea breaks these rules, sparking changes in her life and the people around her.

~ Emily, 17

Customer Review: Elusion

Claudia Gabel and Cheryl Klam

Elusion

Katherine Tegen Books

$17.99

Available now

I first noticed this book because of its cover. People say not to judge a book by it’s cover, but once I had read the description, I realized the cover fit the description perfectly and this made the book even more appealing. This story is about a girl named Regan whose dead father has invented technology that puts the brain into a trance state and allows it to ‘travel’ to different ‘escapes’ that are based on different natural landscapes all over the world. The story is based in the future where the world has become overly polluted by ambitious companies and people work seven days a week for almost all hours. These conditions make people anxious to escape, and that is what the Elusion app allows. However, things may not be as safe and perfect as they seem in Elusion. People have started to go into comas from the app, and Raegen with the help of Josh have to figure out why. People have found a way to disable the safety controls and it is allowing them to stay in Elusion too long, with possible brain damage. And Reagan’s friend Patrick who worked with her father in designing the project is not telling her anything. There is a rumor that it has something to do with the firewall in elusion that is supposedly just like a firewall in a computer but it may be something more and Regan and Josh have to figure out what is causing the comas before people start to die.

I liked the idea of an app that allows us to escape to a place in our subconscious, and it posed important questions such as, “what will happen when technology becomes a larger part of our life than it already has? What will we do about it?” It was an engaging story with a heroine who, while she had her flaws, was determined to fix the problem. Overall this book was a good read, although it was a little confusing at parts when elusion seemed to take over the brain, as it confused the writing style of the book. Nevertheless, I do recommend this book for anyone who likes to read about adventure, technology, and science fiction.

~ Marissa

Customer Review: Becoming Jinn

Becoming Jinn

Lori Goldstein

Feiwel & Friends

$17.99

Available Now

Upon finishing this amazing book the only thought running through my head was “please tell me there is a sequel!!” This book has so many amazing qualities such as being based in Massachusetts, a love triangle, and a race of genies or Jinns. When Ara wakes up on her sixteenth birthday she is transformed into a true Jinn with magical abilities and a new face. In one summer her whole life changes she becomes closer with her Zar sisters, finds herself in a confusing love triangle with her neighbor and a life guard, and discovers that she is more powerful than an average Jinn. This book should be at the very top of your TBR list!

~ Emily, 17

Note: Meet Lori Goldstein at Eight Cousins on Saturday, May 9 at 4pm!

Customer Review: Magonia

Magonia

Maria Dahvana Headley

HarperCollins

Available in April 2014

$17.99

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley circles around a girl with a mysterious lung disease when one day she is transported to another world where she is healthy and has the ability to do incredible things with just her voice.  This story has a handful of snarky intelligent characters, and a beautiful setting.

~ Emily