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.

This Promise of Change: One Girl's Story in the Fight for School Equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy

Once again, I was fortunate enough to be able to review a book for ALAN Picks.  The novel that I was given was This Promise of Change: One Girl's Story in the Fight for School Equality.  This was such an important story and one that is often overlooked when talking about the fight for equal education in our country.

Jo Ann Allen was one of just 12 black students who, in August 1956, walked into Clinton High School for the first time and ended segregation in this small Tennessee town.  Two years after Brown v. The Board of Education, the town of Clinton, Tennessee decided to finally follow the Supreme Court’s ruling and end segregation.  While they may not have liked it, it was the law, and the people of Clinton were “good, law abiding citizens.”  Jo Ann Allen and 11 other black students became some of the first students to integrate into a Southern high school.  And as expected, it wasn’t always easy.  Protests, verbal and physical assaults, cross burnings, and other forms of racism followed.  But through it all, Jo Ann held her head high and continued to attend school as it was her moral right to do. 

This Promise of Change is a beautiful novel told in verse by Jo Ann Allen herself, along with award winning children’s author Debbie Levy.  It is a story that needed to be told and will give readers insight in to a part of history that is often overlooked when talking about the fight to end segregation.  Jo Ann’s story is not only told in beautiful lyrical verse, but also through the newspaper headlines, articles, interviews, and speeches of those who were directly involved in the fight in this small Tennessee town.  In This Promise of Change, Allen and Levy give voice to the Clinton 12 and the fight for equal education in the United States. 

From Amazon:

In 1956, one year before federal troops escorted the Little Rock 9 into Central High School, fourteen year old Jo Ann Allen was one of twelve African-American students who broke the color barrier and integrated Clinton High School in Tennessee. At first things went smoothly for the Clinton 12, but then outside agitators interfered, pitting the townspeople against one another. Uneasiness turned into anger, and even the Clinton Twelve themselves wondered if the easier thing to do would be to go back to their old school. Jo Ann--clear-eyed, practical, tolerant, and popular among both black and white students---found herself called on as the spokesperson of the group. But what about just being a regular teen? This is the heartbreaking and relatable story of her four months thrust into the national spotlight and as a trailblazer in history. Based on original research and interviews and featuring backmatter with archival materials and notes from the authors on the co-writing process.

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Angie Thomas made a name for herself with her exceptional debut novel, The Hate U Give, and her sophomore novel, On the Come Up, did not disappoint.  Thomas gives us an exceptional character in Bri, a girl who is striving to make it in the rap industry so she can help her struggling family.  But Bri isn't always perfect and makes plenty of mistakes along the way.  She has to try and learn not only from her mistakes, but the mistakes of her family, past and present.  And most importantly, Bri has to decide who she really wants to be.  Is it worth portraying herself in her music as someone she most definitely is not, especially when that means she has a legitimate shot to make her dreams come true?  Or does she stay true to herself even when those dreams may start to slip through her fingers?  On the Come Up is an incredible story about finding your voice and figuring out who you are even when the world seems to be crumbling down around you.  

From Amazon:

This is the highly anticipated second novel by Angie Thomas, the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning The Hate U Give.

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least win her first battle. As the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died right before he hit big, Bri’s got massive shoes to fill.

But it’s hard to get your come up when you’re labeled a hoodlum at school, and your fridge at home is empty after your mom loses her job. So Bri pours her anger and frustration into her first song, which goes viral…for all the wrong reasons.

Bri soon finds herself at the center of a controversy, portrayed by the media as more menace than MC. But with an eviction notice staring her family down, Bri doesn’t just want to make it—she has to. Even if it means becoming the very thing the public has made her out to be. 

Insightful, unflinching, and full of heart, On the Come Up is an ode to hip hop from one of the most influential literary voices of a generation. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; and about how, especially for young black people, freedom of speech isn’t always free.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

200 years after Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was first published, Kiersten White gives us a retelling of the classic in her novel The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein.  This novel was such a wonderful and unique spin on the old tale we have all come to know. 

White tells of an orphan girl who has been brought in by the Frankenstein family to help control and normalize young Victor Frankenstein.  And she does just that in many ways, while at the same time covering up the bits of madness that peak out from time to time.  Elizabeth knows that the only way she will have a future is by making sure Victor always needs her.  As Victor gets older and leaves to pursue his studies, Elizabeth worries that her future is slipping away.  She goes to find Victor and secure her place within the family.  But what she finds is a disturbing and deep madness that has taken a strangle hold on Victor.  He has become obsessed with the idea of finding a way for Elizabeth to never leave him, even if that means she must die in order to live forever.

This retelling of the classic story will keep you on the edge of your seats.  It is creepy and thrilling and everything you would want of a Frankenstein story.  If you are a fan of Mary Shelley's famous tale, you will also be a fan of this!

From Amazon:

Elizabeth Lavenza hasn't had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her "caregiver," and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything--except a friend.

Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable--and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.

But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth's survival depends on managing Victor's dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.

Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen M. McManus

After her amazing debut, One of Us Is Lying, I was really looking forward to the next book by Karen M. McManus, Two Can Keep A Secret.  It did not disappoint!  McManus is a master storyteller and knows how to keep an audience on the edge of their seats.  This murder mystery is another fantastic tale full of twists and turns that will keep the reader guessing who is responsible for the crimes that have happened.  This is a true page turner!

In her second novel we meet Ellery and Ezra, twins who are moving to Echo Ridge, the mysterious hometown that their mother has never spoken much about.  This beautiful town has a dark past.  When she was just 17, Ellery and Ezra's aunt went missing, never again being seen.  Just five years ago, Lacy, the beautiful homecoming queen was brutally murdered.  Now, new messages are showing up around town, hinting that it is going to happen again.  And when another girl disappears, everyone is a suspect.  This story will have you playing detective, trying to decide who you can trust and who you can't.  

From Amazon:

"When it comes to YA suspense, Karen M. McManus is in a league of her own. Fresh off her best-selling breakout One of Us Is Lying . . . the author has returned with a juicy second novel. It's even better than what came before." --EW

The New York Times bestselling "must-read YA thriller" (Bustle) from the author of One of Us Is Lying!

Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery's never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it's hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone has declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. And the longer she's in Echo Ridge, the clearer it becomes that everyone there is hiding something. The thing is, secrets are dangerous--and most people aren't good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it's safest to keep your secrets to yourself.