Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Counting by 7s

Holly Goldberg Sloan

Stars- ☆☆☆☆
Rating- YR-T

Counting by 7s is an intriguing middle school to young adult book about a young, genius girl who experiences a terrible tagedy. As the story progresses it takes the reader on a journey of loss and recovery through the voice of the young genius Willow Chance. This book teaches valuable lessons about dealing with loss, as well as botany and medical conditions. The voice of the main character Willow is very distinctive and consistent throughout the book but comes across as choppy at times. This works well with her character, but not so well for reader comprehension. Despite this, Counting by 7s takes you on an adventure filled with fun facts and creates a heartwarming story. I would highly recommend it not only for the fun botany and medicinal trivia, but also for the valuable lessons it teaches. This book is appropriate for all audiences but is recommended for young readers to teenagers.

The Cure for Dreaming by Catherine Winters

The Cure for Dreaming

By- Catherine Winters

Stars- ☆☆☆☆ ½
Rating- PT-T

Set in the year 1900 this book focusses on young Olivia Meade, a educated and well read young woman as well as a budding suffragist. Then a young Hypnotist comes to town, Olivia's life is turned upside down when he hypnotizes her to see peoples true natures, that manifest in the forms of monsters. This book was amazing. Though it was written very recently, the style seems older and sounds rhythmic and musical. The plot had twists and turns and the ending is perfect. I had expected the book to become hypocritical as it ended but actually its ending was very fitting with the books morals and lesson. I thought it was perfect. I rated this book PreTeen to Teen because that seems to be its target audience and it briefly mentions sexual activity. This book was a great summer read and I highly recommend it when it comes out in October.

When Audrey Met Alice by Rebecca Behrens

When Audrey Met Alice

By- Rebecca Behrens

Stars- ☆☆☆☆
Rating- PT+

When Audrey Met Alice is a cute little novel about how First Daughter Audrey Rhodes copes with living in the white house, with a little help from Alice Roosevelt's diary. I found this book wildly entertaining and very unique. Behrens switches from the character of Alice to that of Audrey without missing a beat, and is able to keep them unique and defined by changing her writing style, an attribute of the book I found incredibly impressive. Behrens keeps the book light and funny, full of the daring escapades of these two young girls, while using the political platform to express her views on equality. The book is a good lesson teacher, and incredibly hilarious. My only qualm would have to be the ending. It seemed to happen a bit faster than the normal pace of the book, and if it was longer it would have felt more complete and whole. I rated this book PreTeen and up because it is appropriate for anyone above that age, and would for bellow if it was not for some difficult language.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

We Were Liars

By- E. Lockhart

Stars-☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Rating- T- MT

We were liars is a heartbreaking novel set from a first person narrative of Cadence Sinclair, a wealthy heiress to her grandfather's vast empire. The story circles around Beechwood, a private Island where the Sinclair family vacations every summer. The story uses artful flashbacks and memories to set the "Liars" of the title: Cadence's cousins, Miren and Jonny, and Gat Patil, the son of Cadence's aunt Carrie's longtime boyfriend. This book left me heartbroken, but it's tragedy was paired equally with artful beauty. It grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me until the point where it was a constant though, humming in the back of my head. I could not stop thinking about its mystery, and it's quiet catastrophe. This book was shocking and heartbreaking, but it also feels almost sadly accepting, and in the end, peaceful. We were Liars is a work of art.
I rated this book T-MT for mentions of intercourse.

Death Spiral by Janie Chodosh

Death Spiral

By- Janie Chodosh

Stars- ☆☆☆½

Rating- T-MT

Death Spiral is an intense novel about how 16 year old Faith Flores finds her mother dead from an apparent overdose of heroin. Unfortunately the police are all too eager to close the case, and when Faith begins to have doubts about the circumstances of her mothers death, she begins to investigate alone, a choice which will change her life forever. This book was intense and interesting, but I found it lacking in vocabulary. The secondary characters could have been more developed, but that said, Chodosh's use of simile and metaphor proved outstanding. It was an interesting, though not memorable, read. I rated this Teen to Mature Teen for mentions of illicit substances such as heroin, marijuana, and opium.

Jesus Jackson by James Ryan Daley

Jesus Jackson

By- James Ryan Daley

Stars-☆☆☆☆ ½
Rating- T-MT

Jesus Jackson is a dramatic story about a young 14 year old Jonathan Stiles starting his freshman year of high school when suddenly his idolized elder brother is found dead in a ravine just outside the school. As his entire world falls apart he meets and eccentric stranger who happens to look extremely like Jesus Christ. Jesus Jackson, as he calls himself, offers to give Jonathan a faith he will believe in and also begins Jonathan on a quest to find out how his brother actually died. In this spectacular book Jonathan battles psychologists, quips on religion, and eventually, falls in love. This book is at first tragic, then hilarious, and then spectacular. It was all together a knockout read. I highly recommend it when it comes out in September. I rated this book Teen to Mature Teen for mentions of illicit substances and sexual actions.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace

By- Leo Tolstoy

Stars-☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Rating- M

War and Peace is a very long and complicated book. With over 500 characters, I was not surprised when I discovered that it had taken me over a month to read. Despite it's reputation for being dull, I found it quite enjoyable. Despite the fact that I was not reading the original Russian, the language was still incredibly hard to decipher. I can't imagine what it must be like in Russian! Of course it was a difficult read, and of course there were incredibly drawn out, boring scenes, but in the end, War and Peace turned out to be an incredible and engaging book about love, politics, morals, and the concept of history. In this book there are many different families that interact to play out a passionate, romantic plot. Some of the men of these families leave for the war, where they explore more of Russian society and the ethics and morals of war. And finally Tolstoy speaks to us with his brief but eloquent passages about history, and cause and effect. He uses the book much like evidence for an essay, and his passages scattered across the book are quite interesting, and give the novel a new flavor. But, though most of the book is amazing, certain parts of it can get rather monotonous. War and Peace is comprised of several smaller "books," each about a hundred pages long. While most of these books are very interesting, there are always some that can seem more like a trudge through the mud than a pleasant read. Nonetheless reading this parts are worth it, because they always lead to a better chapter. I rated this Mature not because of the content but because this book is very difficult to read, and not for the young or faint of heart.