Heroine by Mindy McGinnis

 Heroine by Mindy McGinnis left me breathless.  I was blown away by this one.  It was a gut-punch of a read and left me stressed out on so many occasions.  And I mean all of that in the best way possible.  This was a story exploring the opioid epidemic and how it can and does play a role in the lives of today's teens.  McGinnis gives us an in depth look at addiction, how it takes hold, and the effects in can have in the life of a teen.  I really can't recommend this book highly enough.

Heroine tells the story of Mickey Catalan, an exceptional high school softball player who is gearing up for her senior season and a run at the state championship.  But when a car accident badly injures both her and her best friend Carolina, the team's star pitcher, Mickey has to find a way to get back to playing faster than anyone thinks is possible.  Her solution comes in the form of Oxy, a drug that was initially prescribed by her doctor post surgery.  Not only does the Oxy take away her pain, it makes her feel good too.  When her prescription runs out, Mickey is stuck trying to find a way to get her fix, while at the same time figuring out a way to continue to perform on the field.  Trying to keep it all together becomes more and more difficult and opens the possibility that it could all come crashing down on a once promising career.  Now Mickey has to try and figure out how to be the heroine that everyone has always viewed her as. 

From Amazon: 

An Amazon Best Book of the Month! A captivating and powerful exploration of the opioid crisis—the deadliest drug epidemic in American history—through the eyes of a college-bound softball star. Edgar Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis delivers a visceral and necessary novel about addiction, family, friendship, and hope.

When a car crash sidelines Mickey just before softball season, she has to find a way to hold on to her spot as the catcher for a team expected to make a historic tournament run. Behind the plate is the only place she’s ever felt comfortable, and the painkillers she’s been prescribed can help her get there.

The pills do more than take away pain; they make her feel good.

With a new circle of friends—fellow injured athletes, others with just time to kill—Mickey finds peaceful acceptance, and people with whom words come easily, even if it is just the pills loosening her tongue.

But as the pressure to be Mickey Catalan heightens, her need increases, and it becomes less about pain and more about want, something that could send her spiraling out of control.

Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner

Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee is a book that I have been anticipating for a long time.  This is Jeff Zentner's third novel, and the first two were nothing short of incredible, and Rayne and Delilah did not disappoint.  Zentner has given us yet another novel that is so full of heart.  This one will not only have you full of hope and wanting more at the end, but it will also have you laughing out long during the whole journey.  This novel was such a joy to read!

Rayne & Delilah is a story of two teen girls, Josie and Delia, who are nearing the end of high school.  These two have been doing a TV show on public access television, watching old, terrible horror movies and injecting their own brand of comedy and skits.  Josie has always dreamed of being on TV and Delia has loved old horror movies since her now absent father introduced them to her at a young age.  Now that graduation is upon them, they must each figure out what is next.  Will the show continue on in its current form?  Will Josie take the internship that is hours away?  Will Delia finally track her father and make a connection?  Will Josie's new relationship survive these new life adventures?  Filled with laugh-out-loud moments, Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee gives us the story of two best friends who, through all of the uncertainty, are more than certain of at least one thing: they will always have each other. 

From Amazon:

From the Morris Award-winning author of The Serpent King comes a contemporary novel about two best friends who must make tough decisions about their futures--and the TV show they host--in their senior year of high school.

Every Friday night, best friends Delia and Josie become Rayne Ravenscroft and Delilah Darkwood, hosts of the campy creature feature show Midnite Matinee on the local cable station TV Six.

But with the end of senior year quickly approaching, the girls face tough decisions about their futures. Josie has been dreading graduation, as she tries to decide whether to leave for a big university and chase her dream career in mainstream TV. And Lawson, one of the show's guest performers, a talented MMA fighter with weaknesses for pancakes, fantasy novels, and Josie, is making her tough decision even harder.

Scary movies are the last connection Delia has to her dad, who abandoned the family years ago. If Midnite Matinee becomes a hit, maybe he'll see it and want to be a part of her life again. And maybe Josie will stay with the show instead of leaving her behind, too.

As the tug-of-war between growing up and growing apart tests the bonds of their friendship, Josie and Delia start to realize that an uncertain future can be both monstrous...and momentous.

Devils Within by S.F. Henson

Devils Within by S.F. Henson is a book that I think will haunt me for a long time, but I think that is the point.  It is an incredible story about guilt, growth, redemption, our past, and learning how to escape the ghosts of that past.  It is about nature vs. nurture and figuring out that you don't have to be someone you are not despite what you may have been told from a young age.  It is a story that will grab hold of you and force you to get uncomfortable, and will stay with you long after you have finished.

Devils Within is the story of Nathaniel Fuller, a young man with a dark past, who is starting a new life with an uncle he never knew existed.  Raised in a white supremacist group know as The Fort, Nate has a past that involves racism and violence.  His father, the leader of The Fort, has forced him in to a live that Nate doesn't want to live.  But one night, as Nate tries to run away, his father finally decides he has had enough.  But the tables turn and Nate kills his father in self defense.  After going through the court system and spending time in a psychiatric facility, Nate is being released to an uncle he has just met and is living under a new name.  He now how to learn to live with his past while at the same time figuring out how to live in a world that he has often hated.

The first person to reach out to him in his new school, Brandon, is someone that Nate had always been taught to hate on sight alone, simply due to the color of his skin.  But as Nate becomes closer with Brandon and others, he lives with the fear of his past coming back to haunt him.  When The Fort finally tracks him down, will he find a way to put a stop to their hateful ways, or will he lose everything that he has been difficulty working towards.  

From Amazon:

Killing isn't supposed to be easy. But it is. It's the after that's hard to deal with.

Nate was eight the first time he stabbed someone; he was eleven when he earned his red laces--a prize for spilling blood for "the cause." And he was fourteen when he murdered his father (and the leader of The Fort, a notorious white supremacist compound) in self-defense, landing in a treatment center while the state searched for his next of kin. Now, in the custody of an uncle he never knew existed, who wants nothing to do with him, Nate just wants to disappear.

Enrolled in a new school under a false name, so no one from The Fort can find him, he struggles to forge a new life, trying to learn how to navigate a world where people of different races interact without enmity. But he can't stop awful thoughts from popping into his head, or help the way he shivers with a desire to commit violence. He wants to be different--he just doesn't know where to start.

Then he meets Brandon, a person The Fort conditioned Nate to despise on sight. But Brandon's also the first person to treat him like a human instead of a monster. Brandon could never understand Nate's dark past, so Nate keeps quiet. And it works for a while. But all too soon, Nate's worlds crash together, and he must decide between his own survival and standing for what's right, even ifit isn't easy. Even if society will never be able to forgive him for his sins.

Like a teen American History X, S.F. Henson's Devils Within is gut-wrenching, thought-provoking, no-holds-barred look at the plague of white supremacy in contemporary American culture that may have you examining your own soul. A 2018 William C. Morris Award finalist.