Kate's Tales of Books and Bands

by Kelly Bingham Formerly shark girl is a truly beautiful book written in verse. It is the story of a girl who lost her arm in a shark attack as she fights her way through her senior year. She is an amazingly determined character, who any teen can relate to, especially her struggles with her dreams and choosing a college. Unlike some books where things are a bit to cliche or overly dramatic, I think this really hit recovery from a major injury right on. She works long and hard to bring her painting skills back to what they were, since she lost her right hand, and struggles in science with tweezers during a dissection. The small things that don't seem that important and Jane's reaction to them is perfect. I especially loved her conviction that she is fine, that she has moved passed it and her determination to prove herself. When she faces water for the first time, a large swimming pool, and is too proud to admit how her whole world collapsed, I saw a lot of myself in her. I know...

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes The premise of this book is an interesting one.  It starts with the idea that when humans interact, they exchange energy that leave impressions on other people.  However, there are some people who do not exchange energy properly.  Nobodies cannot affect other people and Nulls cannot be affected.  Nix is a Nobody.  He has been raised by a secret society and is sent to kill people because who can get away with it better than someone no one can notice, and if they do happen to see him, they will certainly not remember him.  In general, he is sent to kill Nulls, who, because they cannot be affected by other people, are heartless sociopaths. Claire is a girl who has gone her whole life without being noticed and she does not understand it.  She seems pretty close to depression at the beginning when she allows herself her two minute annual wallowing session as she looks through her yearbook and the general, meaningless comments left to...

By Heather Davis Rob is killed when he runs off the road with Holly, his girlfriend, in his car. Unfortunately for him, he is earthbound. He watches Holly from his ghostly state for six months even though Holly cannot see him. Holly, who nearly died during the crash is devastated by Rob's death. The only friend she seems to have in the book, Marisa, doesn't understand what she is going through. On top of all this Holly's grandfather is diagnosed with a late stage of Alzheimer's disease and has to live with Holly and her family. Holly has to take care of her grandfather, Aldo, and her sister, Lena, by herself because her Mom has to work almost constantly to make any money. Aldo makes a list of all the things he wants to remember, memories of his diseased wife and things he did as a child in Italy. Jason, Rob's best friend, decides to help Holly help Aldo relive these experiences. Rob watches over this and sees as is girlfriend and best friend begin to fall ...

By Rebecca Lim A drink of cold water can be very refreshing.  The feeling of cold water on your tongue which then slips down through your throat can feeling amazing.  But now, make that water a little warm.  Not quite as refreshing but still pretty good.  Now, put some red, yellow, and blue food coloring into the warm water to make it brown. Then dump in something that makes the water a little chunky. The warm brown water  with chunks is not nearly as appetizing as the cold water.  If I was going to chose between warm brown water or almost anything else I probably would. Exile is about an angel who has been banished and calls herself Mercy -- mmm, water.  Mercy wakes up in different people's bodies, in Exile she is in Lela's body.  This idea was pretty interesting and I couldn't wait to start reading.  But, unfortunately, that wasn't all.  She is in love with Luc, an angel who has not been banished and talks to Mercy in her sleep. ...

By: Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, Kami Garcia, Nancy Holder, Melissa Marr, Beth Revis, Veronica Roth, Carrie Ryan, and Margaret Stohl When you want to try a new dessert there is almost always a taster tray.  The book Shards & Ashes  was just like a taster tray.  Taster trays are great except for the fact that a taste of each dessert is never quite enough of each dessert.  After each short story I couldn't help but feel unfinished.  I always wanted to know more.   Although the writing in the book was amazing, the plots didn’t seem finished.  At the end of each story I wanted to flip the page and begin the next chapter.  There was only one problem with that; there was no next chapter.  All of them felt like an introduction into something bigger.  Many of the stories felt post-apocalyptic or almost dystopian.  I wasn’t completely sure how some of the stories were related to the others.  The first story, “Hearken,” was lik...

By Barry Lyga , Published in 2007        This book follows the development of Josh Mendel as he relieves and faces his past where he was molested by his seventh-grade history teacher. Now, let me tell you: this book is not for the faint of heart. A lot of this book directly relieves those encounters with his teacher, so you might get pretty uncomfortable. This is a book that might be pulled from more conservative shelves, if you know what I mean.         But, that's only part of it. In fact, this level of description is probably intrinsic to the story, and allows you to come to a higher level of understanding with Josh and find a deeper meaning with the novel that would have been lost without this fearless exploration of Josh's past.         Anyway, if this book was to be written at all, I think Barry Lyga was the perfect author to do it. In many parts, I found his writing to be both beau...

by Jennifer Archer      While cupcakes are delicious, these days with cupcake shops on every corner and gourmet cupcakes are almost more common than simple ones, I can't help but feel they are over done.      Recently, I read The Shadow Girl by Jennifer Archer and I have to say, I was just like one of those gourmet cupcakes. The inside cover was very interesting, like a beautiful frosting maybe even a promising ganache, but like most cupcakes it just wasn't what it promised.      The Shadow Girl is about a seventeen year old named Lily. Her father's death unveils secrets about her and the mysterious 'shadow girl' named Ivy who only she can hear.  She investigates her family’s past with the help of the boy next door and the hot new guy in town. Although some of the ideas are outside what most YA Lit is doing right now, there are a lot of classic side plots, that are a bit over used. I think people who liked The Adoration of Jenna Fox by M...