1) "The Memory Key" by Liana Liu
Mysteries abound as one girl struggles to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death while grappling with a malfunctioning memory device and the monolithic company behind it.
Lora’s world was turned upside down when her mother, a senior scientist at Keep Corp, was killed in a car accident five years ago. As manufacturers of the memory key, the device created to function like a normal human memory but with the added benefit of guarding against the once-widespread degenerative Vergets disease, Keep Corp holds unknowable power. When Lora’s memory key begins to deteriorate, memories long forgotten re-emerge in a painful wave, and one in particular stands in contrast to the familiar narrative of her mother’s death. Suddenly she can’t trust anyone, her headaches become overwhelming, and the secrets of her family’s connection to Keep Corp unravel at a startling rate. Liu’s addition of an Alzheimer’s-like disease to the popular memory-loss trend makes for an absorbing start. But her penchant for repetitive phrasing and short, stilted sentences distracts from the plot. Supporting characters such as Lora’s one-time uncle, an activist, and Lora’s elusive mother read authentically and keep the pages turning, while Lora herself rings hollow; she’s more a moody pawn than a compelling protagonist. However, the unexpected ending satisfyingly subverts easy clichés.
A fascinating spin on the memory-loss trope weighed down by a wooden lead. (Thriller. 13-18)
2) "Weightless" by Sarah Bannan
Cyberbullying and old-fashioned cruelty have devastating consequences in this debut novel.
When new girl Carolyn Lessing starts high school in small-town Adamsville, Alabama, she draws a lot of attention. Beautiful, sophisticated, and talented, she immediately becomes someone everyone wants to know. She even gets nominated for homecoming court and dates one of the most popular boys in school. But soon, she finds herself the target of the high school’s mean girls. Gossip about Carolyn spreads like wildfire across social media, and eventually she’s more social pariah than golden girl. The story’s unusual point of view—first person plural—makes the reader feel involved and question who’s really to blame for what happens. The heavy subject matter and deep unpleasantness of the characters make this book difficult to read, though. It’s clear that Carolyn is dealing with serious problems, but no one steps in to help her. The cruelty of teenagers is put on full display as she’s mercilessly tormented. This leads to a conclusion that has an emotional impact but feels slightly too moralistic.
This cautionary tale about technology and bullying explores the nastiness that exists in high school halls and online.
3) "The Fire Sermon" by Francesca Haig
A suspenseful post-apocalyptic adventure about a world cleaved in two.
Hundreds of years ago, the world was destroyed in a blast of fire. Now, just as history has been divided into Before and After, humans have been divided into Alphas and Omegas. Every whole, healthy Alpha child is born with a mutated Omega twin who’s missing an arm or an eye—or has one too many. And when one twin dies, the other dies, instantly, inexplicably, inevitably. Most twins are separated as infants, but Cassandra and her twin, Zach, are both born physically whole, so Cass is able to hide her mutation—the fact that she can see things that haven’t happened yet and places she’s never been. The link between Cass and Zach has the potential to change their world forever, as Zach climbs the ranks of the ruling Alpha Council, and Cass starts to dream about an island where, rumor has it, an Omega resistance is brewing. Debut novelist Haig builds a richly textured world and creates characters who immediately feel real. The suspense of the plot, driven by the fear and anger underlying this unbreakable bond between twins, never flags. Haig’s experience as a poet shows in her writing, which is clear, forceful and laced with bright threads of beauty.
With its well-built world, vivid characters and suspenseful plot, this book, the first in a planned trilogy, is poised to become the next must-read hit.
4) "The Cost of All Things" by Maggie Lehrman
Reeling from the death of her boyfriend, a girl enlists the help of a hekamist to forget him just as other spells taken by those closest to her reveal their true, unforgiving costs.
When Ari visits the hekamist who lives behind her high school, she’s well-aware this won’t be the first spell she’s ever taken. When she was a little girl, her parents were killed in a fire, and her wrist still aches as a side effect of the trauma-erasing spell she took then. The death of Win, her boyfriend, drives her back without regard to the compounded consequences of taking on multiple spells. Through the alternating voices of Ari, Win, and their friends Kay and Markos, readers see a dense knot of intertwining spells—cast knowingly on some and unknowingly on others—slowly unraveling. And as the hekamist’s daughter relates, spells protect themselves. They don’t want to be broken. As the magic reveals its true power, each character charts remarkably complex courses in painful growth. Perspectives propelled by angst and obsession, like those of Kay and Markos, can drag, but the stories of Ari and Win shine in their depth. Though he’s absent, Win’s journey resonates, and the mark he leaves is felt long after the final page.
An engrossing, emotionally resonant spin on the old adage: Be careful what you wish for. (Urban fantasy. 14 & up)
5) "The Lost Marble Notebook of Forgotten Girl and Random Boy" by Marie Jaskulka
Trying to escape their broken worlds, two teens fall in love with devastating results.
The story begins with the first meeting between Random Boy and Forgotten Girl. They are never given proper names, and their labels indicate their template relationship—“insert your name here,” Jaskulka seems to invite readers. Forgotten Girl and Random Boy write their first-person free-verse poems in notebooks—this is the structure of the narrative—sharing their doubts, fears, hopes and needs as they fall in love and hope to erase the pain of their home lives. Readers learn that Forgotten Girl’s father has recently abandoned her, and Random Boy’s father physically abuses both Random Boy and his mother. Eventually the love between Random Boy and Forgotten Girl teeters into obsession and then worse. “As much as he loves / is as hard as he hits, / which makes the pain / reassuring / in a sick way.” Why Random Boy begins abusing Forgotten Girl and why she stays with him (ultimately getting herself out) is told with such complete believability that the descent seems almost foregone, given the wounds that each has brought to the relationship. Jaskulka’s narrative explores the hows and whys of an abusive teenage relationship with heartbreaking honesty, and her delicate touch renders the dark story even more powerful.
Graceful. Searing. Haunting. (Verse fiction. 12-17)
6) "No Parking at the End Times" by Bryan Bliss
Even though the end of the world didn’t happen, it still feels like it to Abigail.
After the teen’s down-and-out parents sell all their possessions in North Carolina and give the money to smarmy Brother John in California—who claims that the end of the world is near—Abigail, her twin brother, Aaron, and her still-trusting parents find themselves homeless, living out of their van in San Francisco. In this debut novel informed more by adult sensibility than teenspeak, Abigail begins to see her parents’ manipulation by Brother John and questions her own faith in the world. Aaron, meanwhile, escapes the insanity by sneaking out each evening to meet up with the city’s other homeless teens. As Abigail notices her once-close brother’s increasing detachment from her and the family, she wrestles with a range of emotions, from jealousy to separation anxiety. Packed with some lovely phrasing, the story has good intentions, but a slow, repetitious plot and a lack of tension will keep it from fully engaging most adolescent readers. A hopeful yet too-tidy ending offers instant resolutions.
Thoughtful readers may take interest in Abigail’s self-discoveries. (Fiction. 14 & up)
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