Read This!: UNDERWATER by Marisa Reichardt

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UnderwaterUnderwater by Marisa Reichardt

Summary: Morgan didn’t mean to do anything wrong that day. Actually, she meant to do something right. But her kind act inadvertently played a role in a deadly tragedy. In order to move on, Morgan must learn to forgive—first someone who did something that might be unforgivable, and then herself. But Morgan can’t move on. She can’t even move beyond the front door of the apartment she shares with her mother and little brother. Morgan feels like she’s underwater, unable to surface. Unable to see her friends. Unable to go to school. When it seems Morgan can’t hold her breath any longer, a new boy moves in next door. Evan reminds her of the salty ocean air and the rush she used to get from swimming. He might be just what she needs to help her reconnect with the world outside.

This story easily could have become maudlin or trite in less skillful hands, but in Reichardt’s sensitive telling, it is a deeply compelling tale of a teenage girl finding her way back from tragedy. Morgan hasn’t left her apartment for months – she can’t shake the terror of the shooting at her high school, where she had an encounter with the shooter himself that she can’t admit to anyone. Anxiety, PTSD, and more than a little survivor’s guilt have kept her trapped in her apartment, pushing away her friends. Then Evan moves in next door, sparking her interest and her desire to venture out again, and she begins to take baby steps – to the welcome mat, to the top of the stairs, to the post office on the corner. The reader feels the difficulty of every step along with Morgan, the fear of opening herself up to other people even as she grows to understand that it’s the only way she can heal. With the help of her therapist, Morgan is finally able to move outside of focusing on her own pain and sympathize with that of others – her friends, the alcoholic father who abandoned her, and even the shooter himself. This book handles the shooter with remarkable humanity, never excusing his horrible actions but going far beyond the paint-by-numbers villain treatment that so many books about violence offer as Morgan tries to make sense of his actions. Morgan is a sensitive, brave, caring character trapped in a horrible circumstance, and her story demonstrates all the resilience of the human spirit.

UNDERWATER is out now.

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Read This!: GENESIS GIRL by Jennifer Bardsley

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Genesis Girl (Blank Slate, #1)Genesis Girl by Jennifer Bardsley

Summary: Eighteen-year-old Blanca has lived a sheltered life. Her entire childhood has been spent at Tabula Rasa School where she’s been protected from the Internet. Blanca has never been online and doesn’t even know how to text. Her lack of a virtual footprint makes her extremely valuable, and upon graduation, Blanca and those like her are sold to the highest bidders. Blanca is purchased by Cal McNeal, who uses her to achieve personal gain. But the McNeals are soon horrified by just how obedient and non-defiant Blanca is. All those mind-numbing years locked away from society have made her mind almost impenetrable. By the time Blanca is ready to think for herself, she is trapped. Her only chance of escape is to go online

Blanca’s been kept digitally pure her whole life – away from the internet, with no virtual identity. Her future depends on it, because she is days away from graduation, when her digital identity will be harvested by a corporation who will make her the face of its advertising. Vestals like Blanca are considered trustworthy by the public because they have no nasty real identity to detract from the products they pitch. But Blanca’s fate changes when a virus – a viral blogger – takes her picture and posts it online. Purchased by the blogger’s father in attempt to reunite with his son, Blanca is soon drawn into a world she never imagined – one where actual feelings, relationships, and choices matter. Her purchaser, Cal, turns out to be a decent guy who wants to give Blanca a real life, and when she falls in love with his son, she begins to question everything she has been taught. When Blanca tries to help her Vestal friends, she is drawn into secrets and lies that go back to the very founder of the Vestal order. But Blanca’s greatest struggle is internal, as she fights against years of conditioning to become her own person and save the people she loves. A fast-paced cautionary tale about the dangers of technology and the even more insidious dangers of extremism.

GENESIS GIRL is out now.

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2016 Debut Authors Bash – and a brand-new SWORD AND VERSE story!

Extras, Sword and Verse, Young Adult Fantasy

Debut-Banner

I’m so excited to be participating in the Debut Authors Bash, hosted by YA Reads!  Check out the complete schedule to see extras, interviews and more from your favorite debut authors!

My stop on the tour was hosted by Carly at Across the Bookiverse, and I was thrilled to share “Iron and Silk”, a short story from Jonis’s point of view about his first attempt to recruit Raisa to the Resistance.  You can read it here.  There’s a giveaway too, so click on the link above to enter!

Read “Iron and Silk” here.

Read This!: HOW IT ENDS by Catherine Lo

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How It EndsHow It Ends by Catherine Lo

Summary: It’s friends-at-first-sight for Jessie and Annie, proving the old adage that opposites attract. Shy, anxious Jessie would give anything to have Annie’s beauty and confidence. And Annie thinks Jessie has the perfect life, with her close-knit family and killer grades. They’re BFFs…until suddenly they’re not. 

Any female can tell you that friendships – especially best friendships – during adolescence can be as full of drama as any romantic relationship. And it can hurt a lot more when they implode, too. Very rarely are the nuances of female friendship so well explored as they are in HOW IT ENDS, where we see the alternating points of view of Jessie and Annie as they meet, connect, become best friends, and fall apart. I went in expecting, based on the title, that this would be chronicle of Jessie and Annie’s friendship from beginning to end; as I neared the end of the book, I was dreading the idea, because both girls were such winning characters and watching their friendship fall apart was painful. I am happy to report that the title doesn’t refer to what you think it does, and the book ends exactly as it needs to. Both Jessie and Annie have complex family lives and personalities that both drive them together and try to tear them apart. They face very real challenges – mental illness, teen pregnancy, bullying, a parent’s remarriage – but these elements never feel tacked on or heavy-handed.

I admit that, as a bookish introvert, I identified far more with Jessie than with Annie. I especially appreciated the way the author explores the intricacies of girl bullying, with the character of Courtney picking on Jessie so subtly, maliciously, and chronically that Annie doesn’t even see it. This story felt both universal and extremely personal and specific – these girls aren’t anybody’s symbols, but fully realized people struggling to figure out what’s most important in life.

HOW IT ENDS is out now.

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Read This!: PLEASE DON’T TELL by Laura Tims

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Please Don't TellPlease Don’t Tell by Laura Tims

Summary: Joy killed Adam Gordon—at least, that’s what she thinks. The night of the party is hazy at best. But she knows what Adam did to her twin sister, Grace, and she knows he had to pay for it. What Joy doesn’t expect is that someone else saw what happened. And one night a note is shoved through her open window, threatening Joy that all will be revealed. Now the anonymous blackmailer starts using Joy to expose the secrets of their placid hometown. And as the demands escalate, Joy must somehow uncover the blackmailer’s identity before Joy is forced to make a terrible choice.

These characters! Joy and Grace are twins, both ripped apart and bound together by the secrets they keep for and from each other. Some of those secrets are dramatic (what really happened the night that Adam Gordon fell to his death?) and some are of the everyday variety (what if they never discover who they are without the context of each other?), but all of them weave into a story that will keep you up late turning the pages. The two girls alternate in their narration, with Joy telling about the aftermath of Adam’s death and Grace filling in the details of the months before. Some of my favorite characters were the girls’ friends, especially November, the bold high school newspaper editor who has more in common with the quiet Grace than she thinks, and kindhearted, self-deprecating, sweet, and funny Levi, half-brother of the dead boy (and OMG MY NEW BOOK BOOKFRIEND). With taut writing and characters you will want to spend time with, this is a compelling debut you won’t want to miss.

PLEASE DON’T TELL is out now.

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