It’s a bit dated (early 80s) and of course a bit cliché (being a comic book) but I found this graphic novel to still be a lot of fun. First, you have a very multicultural collection of mutants here; Kentucky-coal boy Sam (Cannonball), Native American shaman-in-training Danielle (Psyche), hot-blooded South American Roberto (Sunspot), weeping Irish […]
Category: book reviews
The Blue Mirror by Kathe Koja
August 14, 2013Maggie flees to The Blue Mirror, a café that serves as her sacred space, nightly to escape her drunk, depressed mother. There she nurses a drink and spends most of her time drawing the things and people around her, translating them into her own world, which shares a name with her café hide out. It’s […]
Beautiful Dead: Jonas by Eden Maguire
August 12, 2013Darina thinks she’s going crazy. She’s seeing her dead boyfriend everywhere and having visions of beating wings and death’s head masks. If she’s off, though, the whole town is too. Four teens have died suspiciously in the past year, and the most recent was her boyfriend, Phoenix, who was stabbed during a fight. While the […]
Runaways vol. 1: Pride & Joy
August 9, 2013Runaways takes the idea that parents are evil and makes it come true. This gang of six life long associates (not really friends since they only still hang out because of their parents’ yearly get together) accidentally discover their parents killing someone. Ooops. In the course of one night, when trying to find out exactly […]
Beauty by Robin McKinley
August 7, 2013Without a doubt this is one of my favorite books ever. A retelling of Beauty and the Beast without sexy candelabras or misogynist hunter jerks, told in a vivid tapestry of language. I could leave it there, but where’s the fun in that? Beauty is the nickname given to a girl who is not, especially […]
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
August 2, 2013Crank is Ellen Hopkins’ controversial, and sorely needed, verse novel. Kristina Snow’s life changes forever when her father and the boy she’s crushing introduce her to meth. Unlike Impulse, which is raw and shredding in its emotion, Crank is almost cold at times, brutally showing a girl on the edge of being a woman, who […]
Review: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
July 13, 2013Many times in Wintergirls, the main character mentions feeling like a puppet whose strings are being pulled, which in turn is a fitting description for the feel of this book. Wintergirls is the story of Lia, who suffers from anorexia, depression, and a family who sees her as nothing but a burden. Her best friend […]
Review: Zombies Don’t Cry by Rusty Fischer
July 11, 2013A stray lightning strike burned out Maddy’s life but not her existence and after a few hours of unconsciousness she wakes up undead. Not that her life was wonderful (or terrible) to begin with, but now that she’s a zombie it’s definitely more complicated. And so are the things she wished could change—namely her pseudo […]
In my “Blast from the Past” readings comes Midnight Club, a wholly depressing novel about a group of teens in a hospice facing their own mortality. Every one of these kids is dying, and they know there is absolutely no chance to even extend their time. While the back blurb hints at ghost story, the […]
Review: Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
June 21, 2013Green Angel is without a doubt a post-apocalyptic fairy tale. Green lives with her family on a farm until the day that they go into town to sell their goods and leave Green behind to watch the farm. Disaster strikes and there is no doubt that her family will never return. So Green tries to […]