Saturday, May 18, 2013

The Sweet Dead Life Book Review by Bri


The Sweet Dead Life by Joy Preble is a cute book that relates to the theme of angels, Jenna Samuels is a 14-year old girl is is having a very bad 8th grade year. Her mom
spends all of her time in bed, her dad has left, and her brother Casey is a prev but he’s trying to hold the family together. This was a very interesting book, it had a lot of twist and turns and it made the work very exciting.
Jenna is having a very bad year she thinks she might be dying ,and when she passes out one day Casey races her to the hospital only to get into a car accident. Jenna wakes up in the crash and sees her brother unconscious and she did something she hasn't done in a long time she prayed, she prayed for her brother to be alright and alive. She wakes up in the hospital and her brother is there looking better than ever angelic like, Amber the EMT who helped Jenna, figures out that Jenna’s condition isn’t all from the crash, the hospital runs tests on Jenna and finds out that she was being poisoned. Jenna is thankful at first however when Amber continues to hang out around Casey, she grows suspicious of Amber and with good reason, when Casey tells Jenna why Amber is hanging around. Jenna is caught up in a life changing moment, that will well change her life in ways she didn't even think possible.
This was a very good book a mystery book with a hint of something that I can’t describe, the scenes were realistic and the dialogue scenes between Casey and Jenna. How Preble infused the story with the theme of angels is something that should be praised. This book was very good I give The Sweet Dead Life by Joy Preble a 4 out of 6.  

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Deviant Book Review by Audrey


Deviant by Helen Fitzgerald is a book that takes you on a journey with Abigail Thom. This book is a great read, Ms. Fitzgerald is able to take you into the moment and keep you reading until the end.

Abigail has been living in the state (Glasgow) care since she was nine when Nieve (her mom’s best friend) died, today she was brought to the office and told her birth mother had died the previous evening at a local hospital and the nurse had a letter for her. Abigail was curious--her mother was so close but had never sought for her. Upon retrieving the letter and reading it she was stunned... Her father, was alive and lived in Los Angeles and she was to go live with him. She had a sister too, and they both have $25000 from there mother.

Abigail spends the next 24 hours helping a girl from her group home, she gets a passport, and sneaks out to get to the airport to fly and meet her father. She encounters some difficulty at the airport--they are going to send her back to Glasgow, until her father Grahame Johnstone pulled some strings to keep her here. Upon arriving at her father’s home she meets her sister Becky and her stepmother, Melanie.  The next few days are filled with a lot of changes for Abigail.  Melanie signs her up for driving lessons and gives her a welcome home party with all of her Dad’s friends.

Becky,  Stick, Joe, and Abigail go out her first night in LA.  They take her out to a billboard sign and have Abigail be the lookout while Joe tags the sign.  She is petrified of being caught and being sent back to Glasgow. She learns during the night that Becky is a very passionate person that leads a double life.  Becky is the perfect daughter when she needs to be --but also has a lot of the free spirit her birth mother did.  She liked to drink and smoke pot and she was part of an underground that was searching for answers to a question that she would not share with Abigail she doesn’t think she would understand.

I enjoyed the many twists and turns  that continued to keep me the reader entertained.  There was so much involvement of real everyday circumstances that makes it believable.  Drugs,  juvenile delinquent behaviors, the lifestyle of the rich, a corrupt group of adults and a passionate group of teens that are sure something is wrong and they will do whatever they have too, to expose the wrongs.  If you are looking for that book that pulls you in-this is it.  I rate it a 5 out of 6.



Saturday, May 4, 2013

Strangelets Book Review by Bri


Michelle Gagnon’s Strangelets is to say strange in the least, three teens die at the exact same moment in time thousands of miles apart, coincidence or a plan from a science experiment? The book has three narrators, Sophie from California, Declan from Ireland, and Anat from Israel, there is also three other teens Zain from New Delhi, Nico from Germany, and Tosh from Japan. And all of them wake up in a strange hospital with no nurses or doctors, no other patients, and no food; only to find out that they are trapped in the building with only the talents they have.
All of the teens are connected in someway or form and the only way that they can think of is the last day they remember August 31st, except for Nico which his last day was in April hiking with his father. After the unfortunate and unforeseen death of one teen out of six, the five split up in search of clues on how to get back home. The group separates and encounters things that should not exist like huge reptile dinosaurs that were suppose to be dead thousands of years ago, add teenage hormones and romance to the mix and you get a recipe for disaster. With the help of the scientist who started it all will the group back it to there correct universe and their correct time? Or will the push of a button kill the remaining life on Earth?
This book was fantastic! This book was quite different from what I usually read, but when I was engrossed within the story I didn’t care that it was my ‘usual’ type of book.  The plot was interesting on how the author laid the book out switching in between characters, and how she used the alternate universe was splendid. This book is great if you are looking for a Paranormal/Sci-Fi Romance kinda feel, there's humor and serious parts to the books as well and is very well round. Overall I give this book a 4 out of 6.