Teen Book Reviews

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman is about seven families who reside in the small town of Ilvernath. Every twenty years at the Blood Moon, they send seven teenagers, one per family, to participate in a tournament. The object of the tournament is to kill all the other players, and the prize is access to the “High Magick,” a source thought to be long extinct.

I thought this book was a fantastic read, and I enjoyed it a ton. These two authors are extremely talented, and you can almost bet that anything they write will be a success. They combine multiple points of view, a complicated history, and magical elements into a wonderful story that sweeps the reader up and away into the mysterious world of Ilvernath. A few things that could be improved are the ending, which was a bit confusing, and the diversity of the characters. When there are more diverse characters, it is easier for us teenagers (the audience) to relate to the story. Other than those two details, the book is constantly surprising you and is never too predictable. The competitors are secretive and dynamic, and they will never let you know their next move. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games series, this is the book for you.

Rules is the story of a twelve-year-old girl named Catherine, who is torn between caring for her autistic brother David and finding her own place to find friends and expand her mind and life. Catherine spends a lot of her summers making lots of rules for David, and a few include "Say 'excuse me' after you burp" or "You can yell on the playground, but not during dinner." Then she meets Jason at one of David’s appointments, who has a disability and is in a wheelchair, which completely changes her outlook on life and friendships.

Rules is a heartwarming story about friendships, finding a true path, and inner acceptance. I love Rules because of the heartwarming story. Once I found this perfect book, it was incredibly difficult to put it down because the author makes me want to know more, even though sometimes it is sad. This book made me laugh and also made me cry. Because of the excellent writing, it is really easy to feel the family’s pain, love, and happiness together. Catherine and her brother David’s bond grows stronger over time. Becoming friends with Jason, who is unable to speak other than using cards, Catherine realizes that her brother David could be thought of more as a brother than a burden. Jason is a true friend to Catherine, unlike some of her other friends, which teaches Catherine what real friendship should feel like. Similar to Rules is Fish in A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, and it would be another great book.

A girl named Jess finds herself having to live with her father in the forest due to her mother’s death. As her father teaches her how to hunt and survive in the wild, Jess is faced with a tragedy: the death of her father. She is now stranded in the forest with only the company of her father’s dog. Jess strives to survive, trying not to get killed by the harsh winter in order to get revenge on who killed her father.

I recommend this book because it leaves you at the end of your seat, wanting to know what happens next. In the book, Jess goes through great deals of ups and downs, and the way she shares her experience makes you feel as if she’s talking to you directly about her story. There is plenty of action and suspense in the book that I greatly appreciate because it makes you more intrigued and engaged. This book also does a great job of slowly building the suspense and thoroughly explaining Jess’s story and obstacles without being too straightforward. Overall, this book is very entertaining but also inspiring to get up every time you get knocked down because you’re still alive and must survive.

Amari is a young African woman who lives in the village of Ziavi peacefully. Until one day, Americans break into her village and murder her family. Amari survives and is taken to America on a boat where she is sold to a plantation owner named Mr. Derby. He beats his slaves whenever they don’t do something right. Once at the plantation, she meets an indentured servant named Polly. Now that she has a friend, can she escape the plantation?

Copper Sun is a great book to read for anybody who wants a historical fiction book. Sharon Draper does a great job telling the story of an African American slave’s daily life on a plantation while still making it an enjoyable book to read. I really enjoyed how there were a lot of historical facts in the book that taught me a huge amount about the Atlantic Slave Trade. I also enjoyed how the book taught me about how bad slavery was back at that time. There wasn’t anything that I didn’t enjoy about the Copper Sun. I would recommend this book for people over twelve years old who would like a lot more helpful information about the Atlantic Slave Trade that is not taught at school. Copper Sun is a very interesting book packed with adventure, romance, and plot twists that will surely captivate the reader from the start to the end.

Juliet always writes letters for her mom and puts them on her grave. Declan works at the graveyard for court-ordered community service. They both have connection together that starts...in an unusual way. One day, Declan finds a mysterious letter next to a grave and starts reading it and it goes on from there. Brigid Kemmerer's Letters to the Lost shows two teens communicating through letters without ever knowing each other’s identity.

I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did! I’ve been trying to expand my horizons with book genres I wouldn’t usually read. One of them being a YA romance book. But this didn’t feel like some of the other books I’ve read in the same category. It goes into depth on what it’s like to lose a loved one and to accept others and not judge them. With that being said, it is more on the heavy side and I would check the trigger warnings. But overall I really enjoyed it! I loved the dynamic between Juliet and Declan and also the foreshadowing happening throughout leading to the climax of the book.