Monster by Walter Dean Myers

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Steve is 16 and on trial as an accomplice to murder.  This is his first person account of the trial and his time in juvenile detention.

This book is amazing.  Steve tells the story in the form of a film script.  We see everything from his perspective as the court case goes on.  It illuminates the feelings that prisoners have and how they interact with each other without preaching to the reader.  I would recommend this to boys especially those who have trouble staying with a story.  The story is fast and the illustrations help to highlight the action and move the story along.

The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart

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Ruby is seeing a shrink to deal with the panic attacks that she has been having.  (Five in one week is really too many.)  After Ruby starts explaining that she lost her boyfriend and all of her friends and became a social leper her doctor suggests that she make a list of all of her boyfriends, even if she thinks they don’t count.  She uses the list to tell the story.

This book is fantastic!  It really nails the pettiness and randomness of friendships in middle and high school.  It shows how one mistake, even something small, can change your whole world.  The characters are realistic, not over the top, and the situations are believable for the age group. There is no one “mean girl” that ruins the main character’s life.  She makes bad choices, and some other characters make bad choices.  That does not make them “bad people”.  (I would recommend this book to high school age girls that like realistic fiction.)

On the Day I Died by Candace Fleming

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This is a collection of short ghost stories.  A guy is driving home late, and he picks up a strange girl.  He dries her home, the notices she left a pair of shoes in the car.  He goes back to deliver them only to find that the girl has been dead for years.  He then meets a series of ghosts who explain how they all ended up dead.

Short stories are a lot of fun.  These in particular take a variety of classic ghost tales and tell them in new and interesting ways.  I liked the book.

The Challenge Part 2

Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede

I hated this book.  I’m not sure what it was that made me loath it, but over all I just didn’t like the writing style, the characters, or the pace. The book is set in 19^th century England, but with magic as an everyday thing.  One cousin was in the country and the other was in the city to find a husband.  The story goes back and forth in the form of letters between the two.  I really thought this book would fit the book club requirements because it has mystery and sorcery and intrigue, but it just did not work for me.  I will say that a coworker of mine loved the book and thought it was one of the best mysteries that she had read in a while.   

Shadowland by Meg Cabot

So the main character is 16 and moving from New York City to California to live with her mom and new Father-in-Law.  She has always been able to see ghosts and she is freaked out to be moving to a new place and maybe new ghosts.  She is right of course.  Soon there is a handsome ghost haunting her bedroom and a mean ghost haunting her school.  I liked this one and I would recommend it to younger teens.  Meg Cabot is always an easy and fun read.

The New Policeman by Kate Thompson

This one is more fantasy than mystery.  It has to do with a boy who discovers that time is leaking out of the human world and into the fairy world.  He investigates and finds out about a crime his grandfather has been accused of and a lot about his family history.  The book features lots of Irish music and is interesting.  I think it would be good for adults who like Irish music and for teens who are advanced readers.  (Some of the Irish terms might slow down already struggling readers.)

The Season by Sarah Maclean

This is a very girly read.  Lady Alexandra does not want to be part of the dinner parties and grand balls that a wealthy lady in the 1900s is supposed to attend.  She is soon able to find distraction when she helps the handsome Gavin try to figure out if his father’s death was an accident or murder.  The idea for the book seems great, but the reality is a lot more romance and a lot less mystery.  Some people might really like that, but not me.  The story was well written and the dialog was interesting, but I wanted a mystery not a regency romance. 

Through Her Eyes by Jennifer Archer

If I’m telling the truth I didn’t read this one.  Normally I would just not do the review, but because this book was on the list I feel like I have to say something.  It was recommended to me by someone who likes ghost stories (which I also like).  She loved the book and thought the twist on a ghost story was original and cool.  After reading the back of the book I decided that it was not really a mystery so I don’t have time to read it now, but I might come back to it at another time.

LuLu Dark Can See Through Walls by Madison Bennett

LuLu is a teen girl living in a big city.  She and her friends go out to a club to see a new band and her purse gets stolen, along with the phone number of the super cute band front man.  She tries to find the purse and figure out why people keep saying that they saw her acting crazy at the club hours after she was at home and in bed.  She and her friends get pulled into a mystery involving murder and identity theft.  It could have been a serious story, but it wasn’t.  I didn’t mind because I like imperfect even silly main characters, (think Stephanie Plum) but if you like your sleuths a little more serious this is not the book for you.  This was a fun teen read with just a little romance. 

Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

What’s a high school senior supposed to do when her best friend has been murdered by a white werewolf and a crazy extremist group has come to her town in order hunt down the killer? Well she tries to move on with her life, which is really hard because her friend is haunting her dreams. In the end she tries to figure out who really killed her best friend.  I liked this story because it’s a mystery, ghost story, werewolf story, and urban fantasy.  I would have liked it better if it was not going to be a trilogy, but you can’t always get what you want.  

Clarity by Kim Harrington

A family of psychics lives in a small tourist town.  They do readings for the tourists and make enough money during the tourist season to last them the winter.  Everything is going ok for the mom, sister, and brother until a girl turns up dead.  Clarity (Clare) is the main character and she soon finds herself trying to solve the murder because her brother is the prime suspect.  The book moved fast and the characters are all realistic.  Because the mystery moves fast it leaves little time for angsty teen romance.  (There is a little time but not so much that I wanted to throw the book.)  Overall I liked the book and would recommend it to teens looking for a fast read.

Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez

Daisy’s mom and sisters all have some supernatural / psychic ability and the book starts out with Daisy worrying that she will never come into her powers.  The mystery comes from the fact that her mother helps the police solve crimes.  When a seemingly unsolvable case comes up Daisy wants to prove to her family that she can help even without powers.  I liked the realistic interaction between the characters.  The mystery itself is a little thin, but the book is enjoyable. 

At the end of the day I chose to skip the supernatural and go for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.  My book club is an adult book club, but we only read Teen fiction.  I thought for a change we would read and Adult book that features a Teen (12 years old) main character.  We will see how that goes.