Winter by Marissa Meyer

Published: November 2015

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Pages: 824

Copy Provided by: Bought

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

Review:

This was an incredibly long book.  I had it on my reader and I felt like it took me SO LONG to finish.  I don't read as quickly as I used to when I was younger.  Nor do I have the time (I tend to read on the train to and from work).  At first I thought I was losing interest but there were a lot of different events happening as the previous settings began to come together - Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and even Fairest (I would recommend reading this to get a COMPLETE understanding of Levana).

I am going to list some of my notes as I was reading but you should read this series or else my ramblings will make no sense at all.  Plus it will probably definitely have spoilers. 

The ship that Cinder and her  crew are on is called the Rampion but with this rag tag crew, it reminded me of the Millennium Falcon!!  Some of the interplay between characters was similar to the relationships from Firefly and Star Wars.

Artemisia is a little bit like the zones in Hunger Games.

I love how Jacin calls Cress Shortcake. She is a about half sweet and half crazy and it is so cute how Jacin loves her for all of it.  He is so accepting of her crazy bits and just believes in the good in her.  How she fights and wants to be a good, strong role model for her people.

Iko is one of my favorite characters in this series and makes me laugh out loud.  For an android, she has SO MUCH personality and such devoted loyalty to Cinder.    I would love to see her as a character in a movie or TV tie in.

This was a great end to a fantastic series!  I loved how Melissa wove elements of the fairytale re-tellings into her series.  For instance, Cinder loses her foot as she ran down the staircase from the ball, Winter is emmersed in a glass case because she is dying and Jacin comes to her rescue with an antidote.  

Overall, I think this would be a fantastic series to use as an ISU. There are so many factors to draw between the fairytales we know and "modern day" society.  Marissa masterfully integrated aspects of each fairytale into her sci-fi world and made them mould together.  I don't know how she did it because it seems like an impossible feat but she did.  I will be putting this entire series on my bookshelf as a top 10 to re-read again. Now...if you are more into the comic-book side of things, you should know that Marissa Meyer is working on a graphic novel series for the Lunar Chronicles.  To be honest though, I wish someone would make this series into a movie.  What an incredible movie it would be!!  The series ended exactly the way it was meant to be. As a reader, you always want a happily ever after but you want it to unfold and be placed at the exact right place. Miss Meyer found the sweet spot in her story and allowed the reader to make assumptions and imagine their own ending. If you haven't already started reading this series, you really, really should.

The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy

Published: August 2015

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 400

Copy Provided by: Publisher

Summary: Goodreads

Summary: 

Twelve years ago Stella and Jeanie vanished while picking strawberries. Stella returned minutes later, with no memory of what happened. Jeanie was never seen or heard from again.

Now Stella is seventeen, and she's over it. She's the lucky one who survived, and sure, the case is still cloaked in mystery—and it's her small town's ugly legacy—but Stella is focused on the coming summer. She's got a great best friend, a hookup with an irresistibly crooked smile, and two months of beach days stretching out before her.

Then along comes a corpse, a little girl who washes up in an ancient cemetery after a mudslide, and who has red hair just like Jeanie did. Suddenly memories of that haunting day begin to return, and when Stella discovers that other red-headed girls have gone missing as well, she begins to suspect that something sinister is at work.

And before the summer ends, Stella will learn the hard way that if you hunt for monsters, you will find them.

Review:

Right off the bat I was concerned that I would not enjoy this book.  I HATED the way Zoey talks to Stella. I realize they are friends but does this generation really call one another slut in a casual conversation?  It just about drove me mental.  However, the tone of the novel settled down as the reading continued.  It took some time but I was anti-Zoey for a little while.  She abandoned Stella when she needed to talk and blew her off so easily.  Real friends just don't do that and her actions are so inconsistent with the way Stella views their friendship.  As we get further into the novel, we see just how surface their friendship really is.  

Jeanie is a part of their past.  A very disturbing part of their past and it is hard to get away from her ghost. There is closure that has never been found when it comes to Jeanie's disappearance.  When something happens to Jeanie's mother, the story takes an odd turn and Stella turns to another group for help.  It was not a smooth transition but thinking about it now, after Jeanie's disappearance, Stella seemed to split into two different lives. The before and after.  We begin at the "after" side of Stella's life when Zoey is a huge influence.  However, more evidence appears about the disappearance of Jeanine, the "before" period creeps forward.

Sam is a part of Stella's life before Jeanie.  They were best of friends and did everything together.  I hate the way Zoey's friendship forces Stella to treat Sam horribly in front of the cool kids.  Personally, I think the teens who aren't afraid of being themselves are the best people to know.  And the ones who stick up for them are even better.  It shows character.  I hope to teach my child to stick up for the underrepresented.  That true friends don't have to act a certain way to be popular.  That being a real friend to a few people is more important than being acquainted with everyone.

I honestly wasn't sure what to think of the characters in this novel.  Zoey drove me mental.  I wasn't sure if she could be trusted or was just manipulating Stella the entire time.  Here are a couple of  my notes.

Chapter 12 - Zoey is a control freak. I hate how she is trying to bully Stella into having nothing to do with Sam.  When he is such a sweet guy and only seems to care about Stella's well-being.

Chapter 22 - I didn't think it would ever happy but I think that Zoey just dropped her bit@@ mask at the door

In the end, I enjoyed this book.  It was kind of edgy and while I keep going on about the relationship side of the novel, there are many suspenseful sides as well.  Think of it as 13 going on 30 meets the horror genre.  It keeps you thinking - what the huh?  Believe it or not, using The Creeping for an ISU might not be a bad idea!

In Case You Missed It - The Duff by Kody Keplinger

Published: September 2010

Publisher: Little Bown/Poppy

Pages: 280

Copy Provided by: Borrowed from a friend

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

Review:
Have you ever picked up a book only to be much more entertaining than you ever thought it would be?  The Duff was one of those books for me.  I'm sorry to say this but I was expecting something a bit shallow, easy to read and quick. Instead, I found it to be rather thought-provoking.  I enjoyed the characters and I'm sorry that I waited so long to read this title.

It spoke volumes of the stigmas attached to some of the names we give one another, especially in school as we are trying to discover our own identities.  DUFF was just a nickname, or so Wesley thought.  But to Bianca, it meant something different. She took it to heart and began acting in a way to reflect that name. Perhaps Wesley did as well.  When his grandmother assumed he was a womanizer, he started to act in a way that reflected this.

Bianca went on a journey in The Duff and I was glad to be a part of it.  Although...I wish she would have talked to her friends (Casey and Jess MUCH sooner).  True friends don't care about the labels and they would have squashed Bianca's insecurities quickly without a second glance.

In high school, during adolescence when there are so many cliques and people at trying to figure out who they are, this book is particularly relevant.  It addresses issues of self-identity, peer pressure, sex, friendships and self-image.  Looking back, I do think that this title would make an excellent ISU and I would go so far as to suggest it be required reading material for a pre-teen/teen audience because I feel that many students could identify with the characters presented. 

What I love is that The Duff is coming out as a film this year.  That is what prompted me to read this title (which has been on my TBR list for 4 years).  The movie is coming out next month and it looks pretty good.  My only reservation in seeing it is Ken Jeong. That guy drives me nuts...and not in a good way.  The movie plays up the funny references in the book which could take away from some of the more serious topics in this title.  In the end, what if we gave ourselves and others more positive identities, nicknames and values?  Would we live up to those images?  My take on The Duff?  I'd read it again...and of course recommend it to just about every teenager that I know....



3:59 by Gretchen McNeil

Published:September 2013

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Pages: 368

Copy Provided by: Library

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

Josie Byrne's life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she's betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can't get worse.

Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m.

Jo's life is everything Josie wants: she's popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they're just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo. 

Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo's perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day.

But Jo’s world is far from perfect. Not only is Nick not Jo's boyfriend, he hates her. Jo's mom is missing, possibly insane. And at night, shadowy creatures feed on human flesh.

By the end of the day, Josie is desperate to return to her own life. But there’s a problem: Jo has sealed the portal, trapping Josie in this dangerous world. Can she figure out a way home before it’s too late?

Review:

I really enjoy titles by Gretchen McNeil.  Her books tend to be stand-alone titles.  She does have a new title coming out entitled Get Even next week that is on my TBR list already.  The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars.  Sounds deliciously mysterious to me!

3:59 was a bit of a departure from my regular reads.  I really had to wrap my head around this separate universe that Josie had discovered.  What I enjoyed is that I had not encountered this concept in a YA stand-alone before.  Gretchen took a seemingly complicated concept and made it readable and identifiable.  There are several themes you could pull from this read to turn it into a challenging ISU title.  This was such an interesting read!  Josie has a chance to keep things in her life similar but live them better.  Pretty tempting when your life feels like it is falling apart, or is it?  

My question for you readers is this - if the same people in your life existed in a different universe, would you want to "switch" and have a chance to live your life differently? 

Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike

Published: April 2013

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 320

Copy Provided by: Library

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

Kimberlee’s dead. Has been for a while, actually. Stuck haunting the halls of her high school, she’s doomed to an afterlife of boredom. That is until the new kid shows up.

The first thing Jeff spots is Kimberlee lying on the floor as other students walk right through her. Pretty soon she’s harangued him into helping her escape to the afterlife.

Kimberlee guesses that once Jeff rights her mean girl wrongs she’ll be able to move on. But nothing is simple in life after death...

Review:

To be honest, I knew nothing about this title until I read the novella One More Day.  I added it to my TBR list because I am a fan of Aprilynne Pike's Wings series.  It was a good twist on a modern day thief trying to redeem herself in the afterlife by convincing someone to help her return the good she has stolen.  It reminded me of a made for TV movie and lacked the depth I am used to from this author but it was still a fun read!

Jeff goes through the usual peer pressure of trying to fit in at a new school while being coached by the ever popular Kimberlee only to realize that he is better off being himself to attract the girl he likes.  We also discover a few things about Kimberlee that are not so likeable.  Towards the end of the book, I felt like I wanted to punch this girl out.  There are definitely themes you could draw out for an ISU assignment - shop-lifting, peer pressure, dating, bullying.  Tons to analyze for a stand-alone title.  Overall I would recommend it to a pre-teen audience just heading into high school.

On a side-note, the beginning of Chapter 30 is like an updated version of Say Anything...without the boombox (for those of you old enough to know what a boombox is and can quote "Say Anything")....

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Published: May 2014

Publisher: Delacourt Press

Pages: 227

Copy Provided by: NetGalley

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
 
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

Review:

Where to begin with this novel? It was nothing like I have read to date and really hit me hard.  The synopsis doesn't tell you much about what this novel entails and the depth of the characters involved.  The entire time I was trying to guess what was actually happening in the story but I wasn't able to figure it out until right at the end.  

Cadence is a member of the Sinclair family.  A rich, affluent family who spends the summers with cousins at their second summer home.  All of the Sinclair daughters bring their children to the summer island homes to roam and relax until the fall.  They are a tight knit family with rules about the way you should act and behave.  There are expectations and a bit of snobbery but when the cousins are alone by themselves, they find themselves wrapped up in their own little world.

Lockhart has you captivated with the characters and their innocence.  How teens tend to bond and discover each other and the world around them.  How they take charge and hold onto things passionately and believe in something so fiercely that there could be no other answer than the one they believe to be true.  It is a complicated story about relationships between friends and family and the way we treat each other.  The ties that bind the family will ultimately be the undoing of the Sinclairs and the truths behind them will be just as horrific.

E Lockhart has created an incredibly dramatic story that may have your head spinning with an unexpected ending.  If you were to pick one ISU novel to read this year, you could do wonders picking this one apart.  A guaranteed A+.

The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Published: July 1st, 2014

Publisher: Harper Teen

Pages: 272

Copy: From Publisher, thank you

Summary: Goodreads

Girls started vanishing in the fall, and now winter's come to lay a white sheet over the horror. Door County, it seems, is swallowing the young, right into its very dirt. From beneath the house on Water Street, I've watched the danger swell.

The residents know me as the noises in the house at night, the creaking on the stairs. I'm the reflection behind them in the glass, the feeling of fear in the cellar. I'm tied—it seems—to this house, this street, this town.

I'm tied to Maggie and Pauline, though I don't know why. I think it's because death is coming for one of them, or both.

All I know is that the present and the past are piling up, and I am here to dig.I am looking for the things that are buried.

From bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson comes a friendship story bound in snow and starlight, a haunting mystery of love, betrayal, redemption, and the moments that we leave behind


One thing I have to make clear from the start - The Vanishing Season (aka The Moment Collector)  is not a creepy, supernatural ghost story. Not at all.  But it is a beautifully written, hauntingly sad ghost's story.  I read it very quickly, in just over 3 hours actually, and I loved every minute of it.  

I have not read anything else by Ms Anderson, so I had no preconceived notions going in, and I was just able to enjoy the tale.  It starts slowly, telling us about the lives and loves of three teenagers in a small town on Lake Michigan.  There is not a lot of action going on, but we do find out how Maggie, Pauline and Liam are affected by a series of murders that have taken place near their homes.  As the story moves towards the end, there is a building sense of urgency that made me feel slightly unsettled.  I knew what was going to happen, but I wasn't sure to whom, and I wanted to stop it - what's that old expression?  "If wishes were horses...'!

 It was somewhat refreshing to be reading about 3 teenagers who are not desperately trying to be something they are not, and who are reasonably happy within their own skins. Their parents were real, one a little strange, one a little damaged and Maggie's full of love and concern.  Their story was sad and somewhat bittersweet, but I loved it.  I've read several reviews that mention the lack of action as a negative, but for me I was able to just enjoy the language and the setting.  I was able to picture the lake and the woods.  Feel the heat of the sun and the cold of the snow.  Feel Maggie's disappointment and appreciation when she gets the wrong gift from her father, for all the right reasons. Remember what it was like to fall in love for the first time and to feel the loss of love for the first time.

     "This is what I think the world is showing me.  We are souls at a common cause.  We are only here to love.  That was my great story all along.  We are here to take chances, and fail, and keep trying."  (page 167 in my ecopy)

Thank you so much to Gina, at Harper Collins, for persevering and finally getting me a downloadable copy.  (My hardcover copy still hasn't arrived.)  I probably would not have picked The Vanishing Season up on my own, but I am very glad to have read it and will happily be recommending this beautiful story wherever I can.

Quarantine: The Burnouts by Lex Thomas

Published: July 22nd, 2014

Publisher: Egmont USA

Pages: 272

Copy: Publisher via Edelweiss

Summary: Goodreads

Lord of the Flies in a 21st-century high school setting.Welcome to Quarantine 3: The Burnouts , where readers of The Maze Runner, Gone, and Divergent go when they're hungry for more dark, compelling survival stories.

When an explosion rocks David and Will's suburban high school one morning, a deadly virus is unleashed on the school. After a year of quarantine, with no adults around, the students have created their own society. All of the social cliques have developed into gangs-The Nerds, The Geeks, The Freaks, The Sluts, The Skaters, The Burnouts, The Pretty Ones, and The Varsity-and each gang provides a service with which they can barter for provisions. Without a gang, it's almost impossible to secure food, water, territory, or supplies. In the final installment in the Quarantine trilogy, the brothers are reunited on the Outside and it appears as if, for once everything is going right. But inside the school, Lucy is alone with no gang and no hope, until the Burnouts welcome her into their filthy arms

I have loved this trilogy from the beginning ( you can find my reviews #1 here and #2 here) and I was just a little worried that Mr. Thomas would not be able to maintain the tension.  Well, I'm very happy to say I was wrong.  Tension abounds yet again in this third and final volume.

As I mentioned before there are many parallels to Lord of the Flies in this Quarantine trilogy, but it's more like Lord of the Flies on steroids, 10 times over.  One of the most horrific things about it for me is the absolute plausability of it all, and that scares me to death.  Part way through this book there is a comment that the parents on the outside are sure they have solved the food problems, but readers see that this is definitely not the case - the troubles have just gone underground and have become so much worse.

We are made aware that almost 2 years have gone by.  2 years in which hundreds of kids have reverted to savagery to get by.  It's amazing that any of them have survived. Some of the descriptions of the Burnouts and their means of escaping reality had me almost gagging, but I could see it happening!  And just wait until you find out about the cure.  All I'll say is O.M.G.

You will be rooting for Will, David and Lucy and you will cry along with them and keep hoping that they will survive. What poor Lucy has to go through this time will have you gasping. This is a really gritty and horrifying story from beginning to end, but it is so worth reading if you like this type of thing.  Definitely not for the squeamish though and you have to start at the beginning.

Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown

Published: May 2013

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 288

Copy Provided by: Borrowed

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

Ashleigh's boyfriend, Kaleb, is about to leave for college, and Ashleigh is worried that he'll forget about her while he's away. So at a legendary end-of-summer pool party, Ashleigh's friends suggest she text him a picture of herself -- sans swimsuit -- to take with him. Before she can talk herself out of it, Ashleigh strides off to the bathroom, snaps a photo in the full-length mirror, and hits "send."

But when Kaleb and Ashleigh go through a bad breakup, Kaleb takes revenge by forwarding the text to his baseball team. Soon the photo has gone viral, attracting the attention of the school board, the local police, and the media. As her friends and family try to distance themselves from the scandal, Ashleigh feels completely alone -- until she meets Mack while serving her court-ordered community service. Not only does Mack offer a fresh chance at friendship, but he's the one person in town who received the text of Ashleigh's photo -- and didn't look. 

Acclaimed author Jennifer Brown brings readers a gripping novel about honesty and betrayal, redemption and friendship, attraction and integrity, as Ashleigh finds that while a picture may be worth a thousand words . . . it doesn't always tell the whole story.

Review:

If you are looking for a light read, it is best to move past Thousand Words.  It is a heavy subject and tore at my heartstrings.  Jennifer Brown has a way of taking you for a roller coaster ride of emotions...but it's a good thing.  She connects with the reality of the situation so you can see all points of view and have true empathy for the characters involved.

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, does things that they regret later in life.  Mistakes are how we all learn but sometimes, mistakes can be a bit more public than others.  With the new culture of social media and a younger generation that is open with information in their lives, where are our limits to privacy?  How do we draw the line to those things that should not be shared with others?  

At one point I got that "sick to the pit of your stomach" feeling as Ash realized that her photo had been distributed amongst her peers. So many questions raced through my head.  Particularly - WHY?? Why would he do something like that to her?

Thousand Words will make you question some of the texts and images you send to friends and how they affect others.  Ashleigh was a victim of her ex-boyfriend's actions but in sending the photo, the consequences had never crossed her mind.  She was humiliated and treated with contempt and bullying from her peers once it went viral.  Jennifer Brown also explores how Kaleb's life changes from his actions, something I had not considered before.

For me, Jennifer Brown is the Jodi Piccoult of YA.  She takes these incredibly difficult topics and sucks you into the vortex of the situation so you are no longer an observer but a participant in what is going on.  If you haven't yet read Hate List, I also highly recommend that title as well.  I would recommend Thousand Words to high school students for ISU projects and as a contemporary novel.  Because of the topic and the language in this book, it might not be suitable for advanced, yet younger readers.

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Published: November 2010

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 332

Copy Provided by: 

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

Some schools have honor codes.
Others have handbooks.
Themis Academy has the Mockingbirds.

Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way--the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds--a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers.

In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl's struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone--especially yourself--you fight for it.

Review:

Stunning.  I absolutely LOVED this title!!  I have wanted to read The Mockingbirds for such a long time because I everyone always raved about it but I never knew what it was about.  The Mockingbirds deals with REAL issues and the main character Alex is exactly how I would imagine my best friend to be.  She is normal. She is not overly pretty, not overly popular and there is no reason why she would stand out but this horrible thing happens to her and she is given the opportunity to right the wrong.  She is given a voice to speak out and stop being a wallflower and stop others from being wallflowers as well.  Ms. Whitney stays true to the character as she questions why she should say anything at all.  She feels guilty, she questions what really happened, she feels exposed and goes through a plethora of complicated emotions that contradict what she is thinking but in the end, she asks for help and the Mockingbirds take a look at her case.

At first I thought this novel might be more about the Mockingbirds than Alex but it wasn't.  It focused on Alex as a victim and her stuggle to get past date rape and bring the boy who did it to justice.  However, instead of going to the police, The Mockingbirds provided a more internal police/legal system which actually used (to a certain degree) peer pressure to monitor the behavior of your fellow students.  It was a brilliant!!  In fact, after this book was published, I wonder if there are any schools out there who have established their own "Mockingbirds" systems of accountability.  Like The Hate List by Jennifer Brown, I think the Mockingbirds should be on EVERY ISU reading list for school.  A+ Ms. Whitney.  :)  Well done!

Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin

Published: October 2012

Publisher: Tanglewood Press

Pages: 576

Copy Provided by: Library

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.

Review:

This is one of those series where you CAN'T just jump into book #2 and carry on as if you know what is happening.  Mr. Mullin has done a lot of character and story development with Ashfall and it would be hard to begin with this title.  That being said, if you haven't already read Ashfall, now would be a good time to do so.  This is  fantastic apocalyptic series and if this is a genre you appreciate, it is certainly not to be missed.  

SO IF YOU HAVEN'T READ ASHFALL, BE PREPARED FOR PLENTY OF SPOILERS IN MY REVIEW....

Ashen Winter picks up right where Ashfall ends and Alex feels the desire to look for his family.  Darla, even though she is fully accepted with his family, cannot let him leave on his own and accompanies him back into the fray.  I'm not sure I would have the courage to do what he does in this novel.  He is constantly thrown into impossible situations and has to dig deep to make decisions that are not always in his best interests but are morally correct.  Alex and Darla are a team to be reckoned with when together but when they become separated, Alex will stop at nothing to get her back...all the while, opening themselves up to more and more dangers.  

At 576 pages, this was an incredibly long book for me but at the same time, Mike Mullin jam packs the second book with so much action and so many new characters that I flew through the pages, wanting to devour more.  I came to really appreciate Alex and his level of courage.  For a teenager, he has developed some incredible character skills.  I do want to mention that as the need for food and medicine wears on, the level of survival escalates and Mr. Mullin introduces the idea of cannibalism into the novel.  Not a great topic for a younger audience but realistic (and a little disturbing) nonetheless.  This would make for an excellent ISU title series (obviously not for someone who doesn't like to read long novels) and I would highly recommend it for all genders.  

Ashfall by Mike Mullin

Published: October 2011

Publisher: Tanglewood Press

Pages: 466

Copy Provided by: Borrowed

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

Many visitors to Yellowstone National Park don’t realize that the boiling hot springs and spraying geysers are caused by an underlying supervolcano, so large that the caldera can only be seen by plane or satellite. And by some scientific measurements, it could be overdue for an eruption.

For Alex, being left alone for the weekend means having the freedom to play computer games and hang out with his friends without hassle from his mother. Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, plunging his hometown into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence. Alex begins a harrowing trek to seach for his family and finds help in Darla, a travel partner he meets along the way. Together they must find the strength and skills to survive and outlast an epic disaster.

Review:

This was actually a pretty violent book.  It was very depressing at first and shocking how many instances of tragedy Mr Mullin managed to pack into this title but when disaster hits, people get desperate and start to leave part of their humanity behind as the environment becomes more of a "survival of the fittest".  

I felt that this title was well-researched with plausible scenarios and situations where the aftermath of a huge volcanic eruption and its continuous falling ash could actually occur.  We often see the apocalypse occur after a tidal wave or an earthquake or an alien invasion but this is the first book I've read about a volcanic eruption throwing such chaos across the nation.

I was shocked by how quickly the division between right and wrong was struck.  Alex encounters many things to make him toughen up and "grow up" quickly just like many soldiers encounter during war.  I grew to respect this character and his decision making skills.  

This was such a thought-provoking novel and I was so engrossed in reading it that I started book #2 right away - Ashen Winter.  I will have the review of book #2 up shortly.  This series is a definite recommended read.  It exemplifies the tenacity of the human spirit when faced with adversity as Alex trudges on in search of his family.  There are so many themes to draw from this title!  A definite ISU recommendation!  Well done Mr. Mullin!

Game Plan Blog Tour - Author Q & A

Ella Parker seems to have everything: great friends, an awesome family and a star position on her high school basketball team. The only thing missing is a boyfriend.That changes once she catches the eye of Sam Cleveland. With Sam by her side Ella has it all. When a drunken night results in an unwanted pregnancy, her perfect life is turned upside down and she’s faced with an impossible decision.

Katherine Frayne has always wanted to be a mother. But with the last results of her in vitro fertilization pointing to chance of a baby, her hopes are dashed. Then her husband Danny suggests they adopt. At first Kat is resistant, but she soon realizes that it may be her only chance at being a mom.  

Game Plan is honest and heartbreaking at times. The story follows Ella and Katherine as they both navigate their lives amidst tough decisions that not only affect them, but those they love the most.

Sounds like a great ISU novel, eh fellow librarians?? AND a Canadian author to boot!  

Please stay tuned for my upcoming review...

A quick Q and A with Natalie Corbett Sampson

How did you get started in writing?  

I don’t remember – I’ve always loved to write things as far back as elementary school. In university I majored in Biology and English – biology for the career that would make some money and English because that’s what I loved. During the process of adopting my daughter I wrote a blog and a lot of Game Plan came out of that – from the experiences I documented there. Originally I wanted to try to publish the blog but in the end it wasn’t relatable enough – putting the experiences into a narrative story made it more complete.

Where do you find your inspiration/ideas?

All over the place! My kids, my own experiences. I love lines in music that carry emotion and impact, and sometimes imagine a whole story growing out of one line. I have found stories by asking ‘what if…?’ Most of the ideas aren’t worth a novel but it only takes one!

What do you normally do when you experience writer's block?  Any weird quirky rituals that you'd like to share with your reading audience?  

Ugh. I hate blanking! I’ll typically just force myself to get something down; a dialogue, a description of a location, some introspective thought a character might have… eventually the writing will become worthwhile and I can either edit or delete the proceeding parts – it’s much harder to work with a blank page than to try to improve bad writing. Sometimes I just have to walk away. I get worried if I’m not in the mood to approach writing that I may do more harm than good by forcing it – especially if I’m editing something that’s already not too bad.

Favourite author?

Impossible! I can’t list one. I love all sorts of authors. There are some whose books I’ll read just because of the author’s name; Phillipa Gregory, Tish Cohen, Jodi Piccoult, Wally Lamb, Lawrence Hill, Robert Munsch…

If you could give advice to any aspiring writer, what would it be?

I think it’s pretty simple: just write. Don’t write for fame or money or because someone wants you to. You have to want to write and enjoy it, and if you do, then the process is just as valuable as the end result which means if the end result isn’t what you hoped it’s not that big of a deal. I’m so lucky and happy that Game Plan was picked up by a publisher and still can’t believe it’s a ‘real live book’. But if that hadn’t have happened I’d still have my story and the things I gained in the process.

Learn more about Natalie and her new book here -

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ncsampson

Twitter: @Nsampson17

Blog: http://www.nataliecorbettsampson.com