Imaginary Girls-- Nova Ren Suma

In rural New York there is a town that surrounds a massive reservoir. Ruby, Chloe's big sister, is the queen of this town. Not in the literal, monarch type of way, but somehow everyone bends to Ruby's every whim. Literally. Once, in the middle of the night, Ruby decided she wanted cheesecake from a bakery in Manhattan, and people were fighting over who got to be the one to fetch it for her. Ruby is idolized by all the girls in the town and lusted after by all the boys. The hold she has over all the people in the town is hypnotizing... but nobody loves her more than her little sister Chloe.

Ruby is fiercely protective of Chloe. She always warned her to never, never swim alone in the reservoir because the people of Olive would want to snatch her away. Olive was the town that once existed before it was flooded by what is now the reservoir. Ruby has a theory that the people of Olive didn't die when their town was flooded; they simply transformed and can now breath underwater.

But one day, when a seemingly innocent dare drives Chloe to take a dip in the reservoir, she comes upon the corpse of her classmate, London. And when London somehow is brought back to life months later, Chloe is the only one who remembers that she was once dead. Knowing that Ruby is somehow connected only confuses Chloe more. But as time goes on, and Ruby's mystical hold over the town falters, Chloe has to learn to be her own true self for the first time in her life... and figure out how to exist in a world where Ruby isn't the perfect and loving sister Chloe once thought she was.

This book has strong magical undertones that are wrapped up in the mysterious plot. I enjoyed the writing style of the author, and I think teen girls will like this book. It could easily be recommended to girls who request books with a slightly fantastical plot but aren't exclusively supernatural creature readers (you know, vampire-zombie-werewolf readers). Is it a book I'll remember a year from now? Naaaah. Still, I think this is better than a lot we are seeing in that genre lately.

The Magnolia League-- Katie Crouch

When her mother dies suddenly, Alex Lee is forced to leave the California commune where she was raised and move to sultry Savannah, GA where her grandmother lives. Grandmother Lee, descended from the famous general, is the leader of the most exclusive social club in the south: The Magnolia League. Dread-headed, pudgy, fashion eschewing Alex not only experiences a strong sense of culture shock when she enters society for the first time, but she also knows that her morals and values differ from the debutantes who now surround her.

Still, the longer she spends with Hayes and Madison, the two young Magnolias Grandmother Lee arranges for Alex to learn from, the more Alex realizes what she was missing her whole life on the commune. The temptation to be thin, rich, pretty, and popular is hard to resist when you're a high school girl. Although some strange supernatural occurrences scare Alex, she is still seduced by the benefits power and privilege bring. But when Alex takes things too far, and has to choose between the two most significant people in her life, she knows it's time to stop letting the Magnolias dictate her journey and she must make her own path.

This was a nice fluffy read, something I needed after months of slogging through "good literature." I would promote this book as a read-alike for the other recently published southern-magic-romance series, Beautiful Creatures being the first. The Magnolia League isn't going to win awards, and it's not particularly compelling, but it was fun enough. I would recommend this books to teen girls who enjoyed Beautiful Creatures, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and similar series, or any of the magic book series that were popular before vampires took over the world.

White Cat-- Holly Black

This book surprised me. I didn't expect to like it, but it kept getting high marks from review sources I value... so I gave it a chance.

And what do you know? I really enjoyed it!

In this tale of an alternate reality that highly resembles real life, there are curse workers. Curse workers are basically people who can use magic but only to do one thing. For example, Cassel's mother can control people's emotions, his brothers can control memories and even bring about death. Somehow, though his whole family was blessed with the skills to use this magic, Cassel is the one dud. He can't do anything magical, so his mobster family shipped him off to a boarding school where he won't get in their way-- so he thinks.

But there's this white cat who stalks his dreams. And one night this cat causes him to sleepwalk onto the roof of his dorm and come within seconds of plummeting to his death. And somehow he feels a little more awake now, like fuzz has been removed from his head, and he is learning things about himself, and his family, that he never thought possible.

This book is realistic fantasy with action and a little bit of romance. I think a variety of teens will like it, and it's the first in a promising series. I would give this book to fans of the author, Holly Black, or teens who enjoy authors like Melissa Marr, Charles de Lint or any other urban fantasy author.

Beautiful Creatures-- Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Ethan Wate dreams of the day he can kiss his sleepy southern town goodbye. His mother died last year, his depressed father literally never leaves his study, and the family housekeeper Ama is getting crazier by the moment. When beautiful outsider Lana moves to town, Ethan can't get her out of his mind. Ama warned him to stay far away from Lana and her family, but Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her.

When I say Ethan can't get Lana out of his head, I truly mean that. They have a strange telepathic connection, and from the moment he meets her, Ethan's life is totally changed. He no longer cares about being popular, being a basketball star, or any of his friends except his BFF Link. Add in some voodoo, Daughters of the Revolution, magic, and graves and you've got Beautiful Creatures.

I'm kind of torn about this book. On one hand, I did enjoy it, and there will likely be a sequel which I will likely read. On the other hand, it was advertised as a southern gothic book, and while it was indeed southern, I felt it was a bit lacking in the gothic part. Either way, I would recommend this book to teen girls who are into the whole supernatural fiction thing, especially if they want books about witches.

Andromeda Klein-- Frank Portman

Yes, I've finally done it.

I finally finished reading Andromeda Klein. So, I've kinda had a bad attitude about this book... I wanted it to grab me from the beginning (it didn't). I wanted it to be compelling (it wasn't). I wanted to like the protagonist (I did. YAY. Small victories.)

So, I read the first two hundred pages on breaks, on the elliptical machine, in line at the grocery, you know all those places where you need to distract yourself from reality a little bit. That wasn't the best way to read this book. Last week I needed to drive to a library branch that is over 2 hours away, each direction, so I listened to the book on CD. And that's when I really started to like it.

Andromeda Klein is a teenage occultist. NOT a wicker girl (wiccan) or a bacon (pagan). She works at the the international house of bookcakes (library), sneaks her dead BFF's little brother bagel worm agony (girly mags) in exchange for some of her weegie (spooky and magical) possessions. After some consumption of christmas trees (gin martinis), she meets a boy who's an emogeekian (emo occultist) and at the urging of Huggy, (her holy gaurdien angel otherwise known as alterverse AK) Andromeda agrees to take Byron the emogeekian on as a neophyte as long as he helps her save the library books from the sylvester mouse list (aka extra hours weeding list).

Wha?????

So you can see why this book was a struggle at first. It's told from Andromeda's perspective, so you have to really get used to her special lexicon in order to understand what the heck she's talking about at all. Also, there are hundreds of pages of Andromeda's perspective on all things occult. As a person who has a decent amount of knowledge on such topics, even I was pretty floored by the sheer mass of it all. Still, there was something charmingly compelling about this book, and no matter how much I wanted to toss it out the window, I just kept coming back to it. And, when listening to the audio, the lexicon isn't as much of a struggle and the funny party came shining through. So yay! I've officially read all of the Mock Printz books for this year!

I would recommend this book to... um...well... that precocious teen who won't stray from the 133s who is obsessed with all things occult and doesn't mind dense reading. I'm sure there's one or two out there, right?

Mortal Instruments Trilogy-- Cassandra Clare

So you might have noticed I haven't blogged since early last week... and for that I do apologize... but I swear it was for a good reason! I kinda fell down a rabbit hole and couldn't come back out until I ate the Mortal Instruments books for dinner. And boy were they yummy!

Book 1: City of Bones



Meet Clary Fray, a teenage girl who lives with her mother in Brooklyn. For most of her life, things have seemed rather ordinary, until one day she witnesses three tattooed teens murder another teen... but when the murdered teen's body literally disappears before her eyes, Clary knows something supernatural is going on. Mysteries pile up, her mother is abducted, and out of the blue Clary is attacked by something preternaturally evil... a demon. Almost dizzyingly fast, she discovers there is a band of Shadowhunters, a race of beings akin to angels, whose whole purpose in life is to slay demons. Think Buffy but without the vampires... well not entirely without vampires, but I don't want to give too much away. Clary and her best friend Simon befriend a small group of Shadowhunters and try to find Clary's mother... learning that Clary was born into this life in a way she never knew before.

Book 2: City of Ashes



In this book we dive more deeply into the world of the Shadowhunters. Clary and her friends unravel a larger plot of evil than they earlier expected. Her mother's disappearance is not random; a Voldemort-like villain named Valentine is trying to gather the mortal instruments so he can call upon the Arch Angel and purify the race of Shadowhunters once and for all. Clary is slowly falling in love with Jace, her Shadowhunting partner, and while he returns her feelings, there is a major moral and social issue that keeps their love contained. While many second books in a trilogy serve as only a bridge between the first and third, City of Ashes definitely holds its own and drives the reader frantically to the third book.

Book 3: City of Glass



As Clary is learning to control her Shadowhunting power, the rest of her friends travel through a portal to find the last clue which will lead them to Valentine. Although they were trying to protect Clary who has little experience fighting demons, Clary is determined to find a way to defeat Valentine so she can find her mother and basically save the entire human race. Teaming up with the Children of the Night (Vampires), and the Children of the Moon (Werewolves), Clary battles to the death to save the world as she knows it. Twists and turns in the plot will keep readers motivated, and let's be honest, the battle scenes are pretty awesome too.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series. Although some of the elements of this urban fantasy tome were not original, they still felt fresh because the characters were so multidimensional. No one has good intentions 100% of the time, and even the uber-villain, Valentine, can almost seduce you into believing he has the universe's best intentions at heart. Clare touches on some taboo topics in these books, and I admire her dedication to her story, even if there are elements some people might not like. I would recommend these books to fans of supernatural and urban fantasy.

Tender Morsels-- Margo Lanagan

First I must apologize for my brief blogging hiatus... I was on a vacation, but mostly the blame for why I have not been writing can be pegged on this book, Tender Morsels.

WHAT?! I hated Tender Morsels?? But it won a Printz Honor!
Yup. Sorry. It kinda killed my will to read and sucked the joy out of retold fairy tales for me...

I should say that I typically love retold folk and fairy tales. This usually makes me biased IN FAVOR of them. And, furthermore, I was reared on East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Peter Asbjornsen and I love the brutal gory tales of the north. So, it really took me by surprise how much I didn't enjoy Tender Morsels.

Tender Morsels tells the story of two worlds: the real and true world where men rape women, fathers abuse daughters, and mothers die, and the heavenly world where Liga and her daughters Branza and Urdda live happily and peacefully. The novel transpires equally in both worlds, and the reader is sometimes left to figure out which world is being featured and which version of each character we are seeing. After a lifetime of sexual abuse and impregnation by her father, Liga's fragile spirit is crushed irreparably when she is gang raped and impregnated by local ruffians. Just as Liga is about to throw Branza, and infant, and herself (pregnant with Urdda) off a cliff, a spirit appears to her and transports her into a heavenly dimension. In this personal heaven, Liga raises Branza and Urdda. In the real world, a local witch and dwarf man in search of easy fortune, decide to poke holes in the space-time continuum and ultimately disrupt Liga's perfect heaven. First Urdda, then Branza and Liga are transported back to the real world and have to learn how to exist in a land that's brutal and real.

I can see why some people might consider this work worthy of a Printz honor. It was a complexly written book, and Lanagan mostly succeeds with a Norse influenced prose. Still, I think that complexly written doesn't always equal great, and this is where Tender Morsels falls short for me. To me, the story itself got a bit lost, and if the plot isn't driving the reader forward, what will? I would love to hear other people's opinions about this book, as I know there are big fans of it out there!

I would recommend this book to older teens, as it's a quite complex read. It would be good for teens who liked East by Edith Pattou (one of my all time favorite books), Norse fairy tales, and books that play with the space-time continuum. Just a note so you know what you are recommending, in case you haven't read it: there are multiple rape scenes, incest, and some blurry relationships with animals.

Impossible-- Nancy Werlin

I am always looking for books that have a little bit of magic to take me out of my normal day-to-day. I don't mean actual magic, not hocus-pocus stuff, Harry Potter stuff, or witchie stuff. I mean the magic that transports you from your couch to the time and place in which a really good story takes place. Impossible, by Nancy Werlin, is one of those magical books.

We've all heard that folk song right? You know, the one Simon and Garfunkel made popular...

"Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme..."

This novel is based on that folksong... mostly. Lucy Scarborough is the foster daughter of Soledad and Leo. Her mother, Miranda, is an insane bag lady who wanders the streets singing snippets of the Scarborough Fair song. When Lucy turns 17, Miranda starts pursuing Lucy in earnest; she has an important message for her and will get through to her no matter what. The women in Lucy's family are cursed, and have been for generations. They must accomplish three nonsensical tasks as laid out in the Scarborough Fair song, and will go insane at 18 if they do not succeed. Luckily, Lucy has what the other women in her family did not: very supportive foster parents and Zach, a boy who loves her unendingly. This story is a little bit fairytale, a little bit romance, and very engaging.

I would recommend this book to teens who like retellings of fairy tales, fantasy, fairy-lore, and romance.

Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange-- Melissa Marr

Ahhh, urban fantasy. There is more and more to choose from these days!

Wicked Lovely is a modern version of an old tale. You know, that old tale about a fairy king finding a mortal to be his queen etc etc. Holly Black wrote a version of this story in her novel Tithe a few years ago. Anyway, just like most retold folk and fairy tales, the story isn't new and usually there are many other retellings. The author just needs to make sure their version isn't too similar to everything else... or to the original story. In Wicked Lovely, Aislinn is one of the rare humans gifted with The Sight, aka she can see fairies. When the summer king claims her for his own, she has to make choices and sacrifices to preserve the existence of both the fairy and human races. Although the story was paced well and held my interest throughout, I kept feeling like I was reading a slightly tamed-down version of Tithe. I know there are many, many differences between these two books, but as a reader, I felt that I shouldn't be quite so reminded of Black's novel.

Ink Exchange, in my opinion, was better. I didn't *love* it, but I did hold my interest, and teens who are into urban fantasy and fairy stories will like it. The story felt fresher. Leslie, who was a minor character in Wicked Lovely, comes from a terribly broken home. Her father is an alcoholic, her brother is a drug dealer and abuses her, and she has to work as a waitress to bring in enough money to pay the household bills. Wanting something for herself, Leslie decides to get a tattoo. Little did she know that the tattoo artist is a halfling, and he tattooed her with an ink made of fairy blood, fairy tears, and shadows. Leslie is now intimately connected with the leader of the Dark Court, who is the enemy of her friend Aislinn (main character of Wicked Lovely), and has to fight for her autonomy once again.

Both books have strong female protagonists, and don't treat right and wrong like dichotomies. I like that Marr writes the "evil" characters in a multi-dimensional way. Also, there is a gritty edge to the books that adds to the overall ambiance.

I would recommend these books to teen girls (boys may like them too if they can get past the female protagonist thing) who like urban fantasy and/or books like: Charles de Lint's The Blue Girl, any Holly Black, Herbie Brennan's fairy books, O.R. Melling's The Summer King, any Francesca Lia Block, and Will Shetterly's Elsewhere and Nevernever.

P.S. Don't you just *love* the book covers?

House of Night Series-- P.C. and Kristin Cast

What am I thankful for? I am thankful that I got to spend the weekend following Thanksgiving reading books in the bathtub! Seriously, what could be better?

The series I couldn't get enough of was House of Night by mother-daughter team P.C. and Kristin Cast. There are four books currently published (Marked, Betrayed, Chosen, Untamed), and according to their website, there will be nine total in the series.

House of Night is the name of the series, but also the name of the boarding school Zoey Redbird attends. After being tracked by an adult Vampyre, Zoey has to leave her normal, human life behind and join the other fledgling vampyres at the House of Night, where vampyres get a crash course in what to expect when they officially go through the change (transitioning from human to vampyre). We soon find out that Zoey is more than just a normal fledgling. She is chosen by the Goddess Nyx to be her high priestess, and the Goddess has gifted Zoey with the power to harness the elements to accomplish her goals. This is not your typical vampire story, and I think it will appeal to Twilight fans.

What made this series enjoyable for me was the magic and religion that was present. The vampyres practice Wicca, and although they don't officially call it that, the presence of Wiccan traditions (like casting a circle, calling the elements, etc) are central to the plot. Usually Wicca and witchcraft are terribly misrepresented in teen fiction (Rhymes with Witches by Lauren Myracle anyone? Ug.) Although the main character Zoey got on my nerves a bit with her goody two-shoes attitude, it was great to read a story with a strong female main character who is a Goddess worshiper. This is not a work of fine literature, but teens will love this series. AND it's a perfect bathtub read.

I would recommend the House of Night series to teen girls who liked the Twilight series, Stolarz's Blue is for Nightmares series, stories about romance or friendship, or Wicca and vampires in general.

Gakuen Alice-- Tachibana Higuchi

I should start out this post with a small disclaimer... I have tried really, really hard to get into manga, but I just don't love it. I really enjoy regular graphic novels, howver manga has been a struggle. I do like the series After School Nightmare and FLCL. Maybe I am just super picky when it comes to manga? For what it's worth, I did moderately enjoy Gauken Alice, but will probably not read more in the series.

Gauken Alice features a ditzy girl named Mikan and her rather mean best friend Hotaru. Some people are born with magical powers, which are called Alices, and when their powers are discovered they are sent to a special school in Tokyo to develop those abilities. When Hotaru is sent away to the Alice Acadamy, Mikan decides she cannot live without her. Mikan travels to the Alice Acadamy, is assaulted by a few boys, but is rescued by Professor Narumi. The professor believes Mikan possesses a secret Alice too, and sends her on a mission to discover what it is.

This is defiantly shojo manga (written with a female audience in mind). Teens who like shojo manga, magical powers, fantasy, and cute little spirits and animals will enjoy this book.