One of the Boys by Daniel Magariel

I read this novel at the suggestion of author Andrew Smith. I completely understand why he was promoting this novel. It was a wonderful, but truly heartbreaking story of two young boys who must bond together to survive the emotional, mental, and physical abuse form their mean-spirited, yet charismatic father.

Through their father's manipulation, they leave Kansas, and their mother, to start a new life in New Mexico. So eager to gain the approval of their dad, the boys are willing to endure the abuse, until they finally realize that they can no longer do it.  It is a gripping story that will surely have you reaching out to help these two boys, only to understand that because they have each other, they may just be able to make it.

From Amazon:

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
A “gripping and heartfelt” (The New York Times Book Review) story about two young brothers contending with the love they have for their abusive father, One of the Boys is a stunning, compact debut by a major new talent.

The three of them—a twelve-year-old boy, his older brother, their father—have won the war: the father’s term for his bitter divorce and custody battle. They leave their Kansas home and drive through the night to Albuquerque, eager to begin again, united by the thrilling possibility of carving out a new life together. The boys go to school, join basketball teams, make friends. Meanwhile their father works from home, smoking cheap cigars to hide another smell. But soon the little missteps—the dead-eyed absentmindedness, the late night noises, the comings and goings of increasingly odd characters—become worrisome, and the boys find themselves watching their father change, grow erratic, then dangerous.

Set in the sublimely stark landscape of suburban New Mexico and a cramped apartment shut tight to the world, One of the Boys conveys with propulsive prose and extraordinary compassion a young boy’s struggle to hold onto the pieces of his shattered family. Tender, moving and beautiful, Daniel Magariel’s masterful debut is a story of resilience and survival: two foxhole-weary brothers banding together to protect each other from the father they once trusted, but no longer recognize. With the emotional core of A Little Life and the speed of We the Animals, One of the Boys is among the most remarkable debut novels you’ll ever read.

Little Monsters by Kara Thomas

I read Kara Thomas' debut novel, The Darkest Corners, last summer and loved it, so I was really excited to get to read her second novel a little early (even though I have had it since November). This title won't be released until July 25 so if you want to read it before then, let me know.

And just like her first novel, I really enjoyed this one. It is a fun story full of suspense. It will keep you guessing from very early on and you won't want to put this one down. After reading this novel you won't be sure who you can trust.

Thomas has quickly become a must read author for me.

From Amazon:

For fans of Pretty Little Liars, Little Monsters is a new psychological thriller, from the author of The Darkest Corners, about appearances versus reality and the power of manipulation amongst teenage girls.

Kacey is the new girl in Broken Falls. When she moved in with her father, she stepped into a brand-new life. A life with a stepbrother, a stepmother, and strangest of all, an adoring younger half sister.

Kacey’s new life is eerily charming compared with the wild highs and lows of the old one she lived with her volatile mother. And everyone is so nice in Broken Falls—she’s even been welcomed into a tight new circle of friends. Bailey and Jade invite her to do everything with them.

Which is why it’s so odd when they start acting distant. And when they don’t invite her to the biggest party of the year, it doesn't exactly feel like an accident.

But Kacey will never be able to ask, because Bailey never makes it home from that party. Suddenly, Broken Falls doesn’t seem so welcoming after all—especially once everyone starts looking to the new girl for answers.

Kacey is about to learn some very important lessons: Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes when you’re the new girl, you shouldn’t trust anyone.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Here is another book I wish I hadn't waited so long to read.  It was published several years ago, but I just now got around to it and I'm not exactly sure why.  I am a big fan of A.S. King, but haven't read much of her earlier works. 

Let's first say that I just loved this book.  It was a a wonderful story about a girl whose (former) best friend has recently died under mysterious circumstances.  She may know more about what happened, but it takes a journey of self-discovery to help her realize what she really knows. 

But most importantly along that journey she helps her dad discover who he really should be and their relationship blooms into something beautiful. 

Vera Dietz soon goes from invisible to invincible. 

From Amazon:

Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.

So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?

Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.

In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith

As usual, Andrew Smith does not disappoint.  Although In the Path of Falling Objects is one of his first novels, I just now read it.  I'm disappointed it took me this long. 

This novel is grimy and gritty and unforgettable.  It is the story of two brothers, Jonah and Simon, who are leaving home in search of their older brother, or maybe their dad, or maybe anyone who can help them figure it all out.  They are picked up in a beautiful car by a strange and dangerous young man and a beautiful young girl. 

The road trip quickly becomes dangerous and violent and the boys will soon have to figure out who they can trust during this journey. 

This is a beautiful story of self discovery, trust, love, and the incredible bond between brothers.  It may take an improbable path to get there, but these two young boys must figure out how important it is to love one another and know that they must always have each others back. 

If you have every read and enjoyed anything by the amazing Andrew Smith, you will love this one just as much. 

From Amazon:

Two brothers leave home looking for their father, and find themselves hitching a ride with a violent killer – here is a road trip from hell.

Jonah and his younger brother, Simon, are on their own. They set out to find what's left of their family, carrying between them ten dollars, a backpack full of dirty clothes, a notebook, and a stack of letters from their brother, who is serving a tour in Vietnam. And soon into their journey, they have a ride. With a man and a beautiful girl who may be in love with Jonah. Or Simon. Or both of them.

The man is crazy. The girl is desperate. This violent ride is only just beginning. And it will leave the brothers taking cover from hard truths about loyalty, love, and survival that crash into their lives.

One more thing: The brothers have a gun. They're going to need it.

Saint Death by Marcus Sedgwick

Marcus Sedgwick is a Printz Award winning author and multiple time Printz nominee.  I have never read any of his novels because he writes primarily fantasy, and fantasy is generally not a favorite of mine.  All of that being said, Saint Death was a wonderful novel.

Set in the border town of Juarez, Mexico, this novel deals with the dangers of growing up among the gangs and violence, especially the violence coming from the cartel.  For young people, the lure of the gang life is often too much.  It promises a life away from the poverty and the destitution that can be a part of so many lives.

When Arturo's long time friend comes to him needing help in escaping a dangerous situation involving the gang that has helped bring him a better life, Arturo does whatever he can to help his friend.  This not only puts Arturo in a quite dangerous situation himself, but it also helps him discover who he truly is and what it means to grown up and make the most difficult decision of his young life.

I really enjoyed this novel and would recommend this to anyone who will listen.   

From Amazon:

A propulsive, compelling, and unsparing novel set in the grimly violent world of the human and drug trade on the US-Mexican border.

On the outskirts of Juarez, Arturo scrapes together a living working odd jobs and staying out of sight. But his friend Faustino is in trouble: he’s stolen money from the narcos to smuggle his girlfriend and her baby into the US, and needs Arturo's help to get it back. To help his friend, Arturo must face the remorseless world of drug and human traffickers that surrounds him, and contend with a murky past.

Hovering over his story is the unsparing divinity Santa Muerte, Saint Death―and the relentless economic and social inequalities that haunt the border between Mexico and its rich northern neighbor. Crafted with poetry and cinematic pace and narrated with cold fury, Saint Death is a provocative tour de force from three-time Printz Award honoree Marcus Sedgwick.

This title has Common Core connections.

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

I have to say that I was not as impressed by Universal Harvester as I expected to be.  Based on the synopsis that I had read, I was expecting more of a horror type story.  While there were some creepy elements to it, it was not as much of the story as I hoped.  It was kind of dense and at times hard to get through.  It was okay, but definitely won't be in my end of the year top 10. 

From Amazon:

New York Times Bestseller
“Brilliant . . . Darnielle is a master at building suspense, and his writing is propulsive and urgent; it’s nearly impossible to stop reading . . . [Universal Harvester is] beyond worthwhile; it’s a major work by an author who is quickly becoming one of the brightest stars in American fiction.”
―Michael Schaub, Los Angeles Times

“Grows in menace as the pages stack up . . . [But] more sensitive than one would expect from a more traditional tale of dread.”
―Joe Hill, New York Times Book Review

“The most unsettling book I’ve read since House of Leaves.”
―Adam Morgan, Electric Literature

Life in a small town takes a dark turn when mysterious footage begins appearing on VHS cassettes at the local Video Hut. So begins Universal Harvester, the haunting and masterfully unsettling new novel from John Darnielle, author of the New York Times Bestseller and National Book Award Nominee Wolf in White Van

Jeremy works at the Video Hut in Nevada, Iowa. It’s a small town in the center of the state―the first a in Nevada pronounced ay. This is the late 1990s, and even if the Hollywood Video in Ames poses an existential threat to Video Hut, there are still regular customers, a rush in the late afternoon. It’s good enough for Jeremy: it’s a job, quiet and predictable, and it gets him out of the house, where he lives with his dad and where they both try to avoid missing Mom, who died six years ago in a car wreck.

But when a local schoolteacher comes in to return her copy of Targets―an old movie, starring Boris Karloff, one Jeremy himself had ordered for the store―she has an odd complaint: “There’s something on it,” she says, but doesn’t elaborate. Two days later, a different customer returns a different tape, a new release, and says it’s not defective, exactly, but altered: “There’s another movie on this tape.”

Jeremy doesn’t want to be curious, but he brings the movies home to take a look. And, indeed, in the middle of each movie, the screen blinks dark for a moment and the movie is replaced by a few minutes of jagged, poorly lit home video. The scenes are odd and sometimes violent, dark, and deeply disquieting. There are no identifiable faces, no dialogue or explanation―the first video has just the faint sound of someone breathing― but there are some recognizable landmarks. These have been shot just outside of town.

In Universal Harvester, the once placid Iowa fields and farmhouses now sinister and imbued with loss and instability and profound foreboding. The novel will take Jeremy and those around him deeper into this landscape than they have ever expected to go. They will become part of a story that unfolds years into the past and years into the future, part of an impossible search for something someone once lost that they would do anything to regain.

“This chilling literary thriller follows a video store clerk as he deciphers a macabre mystery through clues scattered among the tapes his customers rent. A page-tuning homage to In Cold Blood and The Ring.”
―O: The Oprah Magazine

“A stellar encore after the success of [Darnielle’s] debut novel, Wolf in White Van . . . Beneath the eerie gauze of this book, I felt an undercurrent of humanity and hope.”
―Manuel Roig-Franzia, The Washington Post

“[Universal Harvester is] so wonderfully strange, almost Lynchian in its juxtaposition of the banal and the creepy, that my urge to know what the hell was going on caused me to go full throttle . . . [But] Darnielle hides so much beautiful commentary in the book’s quieter moments that you would be remiss not to slow down.”
―Abram Scharf, MTV News

“Universal Harvester is a novel about noticing hidden things, particularly the hurt and desperation that people bear under their exterior of polite reserve . . . Mr. Darnielle possesses the clairvoyant’s gift for looking beneath the surface.”
―Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

“[Universal Harvester is] constantly unnerving, wrapped in a depressed dread that haunts every passage. But it all pays off with surprising emotionality.”
―Kevin Nguyen, GQ.com

“Darnielle writes beautifully . . . He builds a deep sense of foreboding by giving pieces of the puzzle in such a way that you really can’t see the solution until that final piece is in place.”
―Salem Macknee, News & Observer

Bang by Barry Lyga

This was a really powerful novel.  It is a story that leaves you wracked with emotions.  One minute you are happy at the good things that are starting to form in Sebastian's life, the things that are taking him away from the knowledge that when he was just 4 years old he shot and killed his infant sister.  In this next moment you are pleading with him to fulfill the terrible destiny he has decided he deserves.  And in the end, you are filled with a hope that the healing has begun and the future very well may be bright for this young man.

This is definitely a worthwhile read.  It is fairly short and is a quick read.  But when you pick it up, know that you will be jumping on to an emotional roller coaster.   

From Amazon:

This is Where it Ends, Hate List, and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock readers will appreciate this heartbreaking novel about living with your worst mistake from New York Times bestselling author Barry Lyga.

A chunk of old memory, adrift in a pool of blood.

Sebastian Cody did something horrible, something no one--not even Sebastian himself--can forgive. At the age of four, he accidentally shot and killed his infant sister with his father's gun.

Now, ten years later, Sebastian has lived with the guilt and horror for his entire life. With his best friend away for the summer, Sebastian has only a new friend--Aneesa--to distract him from his darkest thoughts. But even this relationship cannot blunt the pain of his past. Because Sebastian knows exactly how to rectify his childhood crime and sanctify his past. It took a gun to get him into this.

Now he needs a gun to get out.

Unflinching and honest, Bang is the story of one boy and one moment in time that cannot be reclaimed, as true and as relevant as tomorrow's headlines.