ya contemporary

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Eliza and Her Monsters — Francesca Zappia

TITLE: Eliza and Her Monsters AUTHOR: Francesca Zappia RELEASED: May 30th, 2017; Greenwillow Books GENRE: Contemporary AGE RANGE: YA SYNOPSIS: Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster. In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try. Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school....

Long Way Down – Jason Reynolds

TITLE: Long Way Down AUTHOR: Jason Reynolds RELEASED: October 24th, 2017; Atheneum GENRE: Poetry/Contemporary AGE RANGE: YA SYNOPSIS: A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer. A tool for the RULE. Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that...

Letters to the Lost – Brigid Kemmerer

TITLE: Letters to the Lost AUTHOR: Brigid Kemmerer SERIES: Letters to the Lost, #1 RELEASED: April 4th, 2017; Bloomsbury Children GENRE: Contemporary AGE RANGE: YA SYNOPSIS: Juliet Young always writes letters to her mother, a world-traveling photojournalist. Even after her mother’s death, she leaves letters at her grave. It’s the only way Juliet can cope. Declan Murphy isn’t the sort of guy you want to cross. In the midst of his court-ordered community service at the local cemetery, he’s trying to escape the demons of his...

When My Heart Joins the Thousand – A. J. Steiger (ARC Review)

TITLE: When My Heart Joins the Thousand AUTHOR: A. J. Steiger RELEASES: February 6th, 2018; HarperTeen GENRE: Contemporary AGE RANGE: YA SYNOPSIS: Alvie Fitz doesn’t fit in, and she doesn’t care. She’s spent years swallowing meds and bad advice from doctors and social workers. If she can make it to her eighteenth birthday without any major mishaps, she’ll be legally emancipated. Free. But if she fails, she’ll become a ward of the state and be sent back to the group home. All she wants...

Nice Try, Jane Sinner – Lianne Oelke (ARC Review)

TITLE: Nice Try, Jane Sinner AUTHOR: Lianne Oelke RELEASED: January 9th, 2018; Clarion Books/HMH Teen GENRE: Contemporary AGE RANGE: YA SYNOPSIS: The only thing 17-year-old Jane Sinner hates more than failure is pity. After a personal crisis and her subsequent expulsion from high school, she’s going nowhere fast. Jane’s well-meaning parents push her to attend a high school completion program at the nearby Elbow River Community College, and she agrees, on one condition: she gets to move out. Jane tackles her housing problem by signing up for House of Orange, a student-run reality show...

The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas

TITLE: The Hate U Give AUTHOR: Angie Thomas PUBLISHED: Feb 28 2017; Balzer + Bray GENRE: Contemporary AGE RANGE: YA SYNOPSIS: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug,...

Girl Made of Stars – Ashley Herring Blake (ARC Review)

What else is there to do? What else is there for any girl to do, when everyone but her can forget everything like a random bad dream? After breaking up with her girlfriend/best friend, Mara’s greatest comfort comes from her twin brother, Owen – until her best friend accuses him of rape, and Mara’s entire world is thrown into a whirlwind of confusion, heartbreak, and traumatic memories of her own. Let me say, first of all, that this book is...

There’s Someone Inside Your House – Stephanie Perkins

I had a looooot of feelings about this book – actually, about how people have reacted to this book. So, I’m going to get a rant out of the way. Feel free to skip this paragraph if you don’t like rants. People told me it was going to be absolutely horrible, that no self-respecting horror fan would enjoy it, that it didn’t fit the horror genre, so on… alright. Lemme tell y’all something. I’ve been obsessed with horror movies AND books since I was five years...