Review + Giveaway: Don't Touch by Rachel M. Wilson

Don't Touch
by Rachel M. Wilson
Series: None
Released on: September 2nd, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: Truly TOUCHing (Yes I know, I'm hilarious)
Reviewed by: Mel

A powerful story of a girl who is afraid to touch another person’s skin, until the boy auditioning for Hamlet opposite her Ophelia gives her a reason to overcome her fears.

Step on a crack, break your mother’s back. Touch another person’s skin, and Dad’s gone for good.

Caddie can’t stop thinking that if she keeps from touching another person’s skin, her parents might get back together... which is why she wears full-length gloves to school and covers every inch of her skin.

It seems harmless at first, but Caddie’s obsession soon threatens her ambitions as an actress. She desperately wants to play Ophelia in her school’s production of Hamlet. But that would mean touching Peter, who’s auditioning for the title role—and kissing him. Part of Caddie would love nothing more than to kiss Peter—but the other part isn't sure she's brave enough to let herself fall.

Perfect for fans of Laurie Halse Anderson, this debut novel from Rachel M. Wilson is a moving story of a talented girl who's fighting an increasingly severe anxiety disorder, and the friends and family who stand by her.

Review: Magnolia by Kristi Cook

Magnolia
by Kristi Cook
Series: Standalone
Released: August 5th, 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word rating: the tropes are strong with this one
Reviewed by: Blythe

In Magnolia Branch, Mississippi, the Cafferty and Marsden families are southern royalty. Neighbors since the Civil War, the families have shared vacations, holidays, backyard barbecues, and the overwhelming desire to unite their two clans by marriage. So when a baby boy and girl were born to the families at the same time, the perfect opportunity seemed to have finally arrived.

Jemma Cafferty and Ryder Marsden have no intention of giving in to their parents’ wishes. They’re only seventeen, for goodness’ sake, not to mention that one little problem: They hate each other! Jemma can’t stand Ryder’s nauseating golden-boy persona, and Ryder would like nothing better than to pretend stubborn Jemma doesn’t exist.

But when a violent storm ravages Magnolia Branch, it unearths Jemma’s and Ryder’s true feelings for each other as the two discover that the line between love and hate may be thin enough to risk crossing over.

Release Day Review: The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet
by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick
Series: Standalone
Released on: June 24th, 2014
Publisher: Touchstone
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: YES. A THOUSAND TIMES YES.
Reviewed by: Mel

A modern adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice based on the Emmy Award-winning phenomenon, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

There is a great deal that goes into making a video blog. Lizzie Bennet should know, having become a YouTube sensation over the course of her year-long video diary project. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries chronicled Lizzie's life as a twenty-four-year-old grad student, struggling under a mountain of student loans and living at home with her two sisters—beautiful Jane and reckless Lydia. What may have started as her grad student thesis grew into so much more, as the videos came to inform and reflect her life and that of her sisters. When rich, handsome Bing Lee comes to town, along with his stuck-up friend William Darcy, things really start to get interesting for the Bennets—and for Lizzie's viewers. Suddenly Lizzie—who always considered herself a fairly normal young woman—was a public figure. But not everything happened on-screen. Luckily for us, Lizzie kept a secret diary.

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet provides more character introspection as only a book can, with revelatory details about the Bennet household, including Lizzie's special relationship with her father, untold stories from Netherfield, Lizzie's thoughts and fears about life after grad school and becoming an instant web celebrity.

Written by Bernie Su, the series' executive producer, co-creator, head writer, and director, along with Kate Rorick, the novelist, TV writer, and consulting producer on the series, the novel features a journal-entry format and design, complementing the existing web series, while including plenty of fresh twists to delight fans and new readers alike. The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet expands on the phenomenon that captivated a generation and reimagines the Pride and Prejudice story like it's never been done before.

Review: On the Fence by Kasie West

On the Fence
by Kasie West
Series: Standalone
Released on: July 1st, 2014
Published by: HarperTeen
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word rating: SHIIIIP!
Reviewed by: Blythe

She's a tomboy. He's the boy next door…

Charlie Reynolds can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn't know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at a chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world. To cope with the stress of her new reality, Charlie takes to spending nights chatting with her neighbor Braden through the fence between their yards. As she grows to depend on their nightly Fence Chats, she realizes she's got a bigger problem than speeding tickets-she's falling for Braden. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high.

Fun, original, and endearing, On the Fence is a romantic comedy about finding yourself and finding love where you least expect.

Review: Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

Say What You Will
by Cammie McGovern
Series: Standalone
Released on: June 3rd, 2014
Published by: HarperTeen
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word rating: MY EMOTIONS
Reviewed by: Blythe

John Green's The Fault in Our Stars meets Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park in this beautifully written, incredibly honest, and emotionally poignant novel. Cammie McGovern's insightful young adult debut is a heartfelt and heartbreaking story about how we can all feel lost until we find someone who loves us because of our faults, not in spite of them.

Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can't walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, and crippling fear. Both in desperate need of someone to help them reach out to the world, Amy and Matthew are more alike than either ever realized.

When Amy decides to hire student aides to help her in her senior year at Coral Hills High School, these two teens are thrust into each other's lives. As they begin to spend time with each other, what started as a blossoming friendship eventually grows into something neither expected.

Review: One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva

One Man Guy
Michael Barakiva
Series: Standalone
Release Date: May 27th, 2014
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: Pure, pure joy
Reviewed by: Blythe

Funny and heartfelt, One Man Guy serves up the raucous family humor and gentle romance of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, as told with David Sedaris–style wit.

Alek Khederian should have guessed something was wrong when his parents took him to a restaurant. Everyone knows that Armenians never eat out. Between bouts of interrogating the waitress and criticizing the menu, Alek’s parents announce that he’ll be attending summer school in order to bring up his grades. Alek is sure this experience will be the perfect hellish end to his hellish freshman year of high school. He never could’ve predicted that he’d meet someone like Ethan.

Ethan is everything Alek wishes he were: confident, free-spirited, and irreverent. He can’t believe a guy this cool wants to be his friend. And before long, it seems like Ethan wants to be more than friends. Alek has never thought about having a boyfriend—he’s barely ever had a girlfriend—but maybe it’s time to think again.

Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl
Rainbow Rowell
Series: None
Released: September 10th, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: FANGIRLed my way through this
Reviewed by: Mel

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder
Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles, #1
Released: January 3rd, 2012
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: I know, finally
Reviewed by: Blythe

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Review: Evertrue by Brodi Ashton

Evertrue
Brodi Ashton
Series: Everneath, #3
Released: January 21st, 2013
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: Feelsplosion
Reviewed by: Blythe

Now that Nikki has rescued Jack, all she wants is to be with him and graduate high school. But Cole tricked Nikki into feeding off him, and she’s begun the process of turning into an Everliving herself... which means she must feed on a Forfeit soon — or die.

Terrified for her survival, Nikki and Jack begin a desperate attempt to reverse the process using any means possible. Even Cole, who they expected to fight them at every turn, has become an unlikely ally — but how long can it last? Nikki needs to feed on Cole to survive, Cole needs Nikki to gain the throne in the Everneath, Jack needs Nikki because she is everything to him — and together, they must travel back to the Underworld to undo Nikki’s fate and make her mortal once more. But Cole isn’t the only one with plans for Nikki: the Queen has not forgotten Nikki’s treachery, and she wants her destroyed for good. Will Nikki be forced to spend eternity in the Underworld, or does she have what it takes to bring down the Everneath once and for all?

In this stunning conclusion to the Everneath trilogy, Brodi Ashton evokes the resiliency of the human spirit and the indomitable power of true love.

Review: These Broken Stars

These Broken Stars
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Series: Starbound, #1
Released: December 10, 2013
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: Hell yeahs!
Reviewed by: Mel

It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

--

A timeless love story, THESE BROKEN STARS sets into motion a sweeping science fiction series of companion novels. The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.

“She’s not looking at me and seeing a guy brought up on the wrong type of planet. She’s not seeing a soldier, or a war hero, or an uncultured lout who doesn’t understand how hard this is for her, or an idiot who knows nothing about the right kind of anything.
She just sees me.”

Coming Attractions: Maybe One Day

Coming Attractions is inspired by The Perpetual Page Turner's Save The Date. Coming Attractions showcases a book that is not released for a while that I've read, and gives you a sneak peek (like a pre-review, if you will) as to what I thought about the book, since I can't post the review until closer to the release date.

Maybe One Day
Melissa Kantor
Series: None
Release Date: February 18, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Rating: 4 stars
Word Rating: Must. Stop. Crying.
Full review to come: February
Reviewed by: Mel

Critically acclaimed author Melissa Kantor masterfully captures the joy of friendship, the agony of loss, and the unique experience of being a teenager in this poignant new novel about a girl grappling with her best friend's life-threatening illness.

Zoe and her best friend, Olivia, have always had big plans for the future, none of which included Olivia getting sick. Still, Zoe is determined to put on a brave face and be positive for her friend.

Even when she isn't sure what to say.

Even when Olivia misses months of school.

Even when Zoe starts falling for Calvin, Olivia's crush.

The one thing that keeps Zoe moving forward is knowing that Olivia will beat this, and everything will go back to the way it was before. It has to. Because the alternative is too terrifying for her to even imagine.

In this incandescent page-turner, which follows in the tradition of The Fault in Our Stars, Melissa Kantor artfully explores the idea that the worst thing to happen to you might not be something that is actually happening to you. Raw, irreverent, and honest, Zoe's unforgettable voice and story will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.

This book. Wowza. Just...gosh. If you are looking for a book with an achingly beautiful friendship, this is the one to seek out. Also, if you are interested in a little bit of insanely sweet romance, this is also the book to get. And if you want to be thrown off your feet; this one is your book. Read it and you won't be sorry.

What didn't work for me:

THE CONSTANT CRYING: I get it. Your best friend has leukaemia and you feel absolutely hopeless. What do you do? You cry. That is perfectly okay. Touching even. But when you start crying because you made someone else cry or just crying for the slightest little problem is just plain annoying. And very wimpy. And not pitiful at all.

What did work for me:

THE FRIENDSHIP: This, ladies and gents is how you write a good friendship. Zoe and Olivia's friendship was heart-achingly deep and genuine. We all have friends, but there are only one or two that we can spill everything; our troubles, thoughts, fears and passions towards. To be honest, I felt like crying halfway just because it was so authentic and I could completely relate to their relationship. I have a best friend that I treat like I sister, so when I read this, I was completely immersed. This friendship of Zoe and Olivia's had flaws. They have fights. But they soon forget and forgive after realising how stupid the fight was. This friendship had me in more fangirling moments than I normally do when I start shipping a romantic couple.

THE ROMANCE: Melissa Kantor's latest novel is not about finding your true love. It's about friendships and futures and hope. It's about finding strength to live even though the thing you loved most is no longer by your side. Yet I still couldn't help but love the romance in Maybe One Day. It may start with a bit of lust but the feeling between the two soon catch up and seriously, Melissa Kantor nailed the romance and what it's like when one of them is experiencing a difficult time to cope with the world around them.

PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING: My main two loves was the friendship and romance but everything else that was combined into this novel was pretty much close to perfection. The characters, all so deftly drawn and easily distinguishable grew onto me like a leech.

This is my first 2014 favourite, and I have a feeling it could be one of the best I'll ever read.

Full review to come on the blog in February.

Review: Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Girl of Nightmares
Kendare Blake
Series: Anna, #2
Released: August 7th, 2012
Publisher: Tor Teen
Rating: 4.5 stars
Fright Scale: 5 out of 10
Reviewed by: Mel

It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. 

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

In the sixth row of the theater, in the third chair in, Anna winks at me. Or maybe she just blinks. I can't tell. She's missing half of her face.

Review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Anna Dressed in Blood
Kendare Blake
Series: Anna, #1
Released: August 30th, 2011
Publisher: Tor Teen
Rating: 4.5 stars
Fright Scale: 5 out of 10
Reviewed by: Mel

Cas Lowood, armed with his late father's athame knife, kills ghosts. In Thunder Bay, Anna, forever 16, drips blood on her white dress from throat slit in 1958, and rips apart anyone who enters her house - except Cas. He makes new friends - high school queen Carmel, jock Will, admiring nerd Thomas and Tom's voodoo grandpa Morfran - to fight this demon.

Review: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray
Ruta Sepetys
Series: None
Released: March 22, 2011
Publisher: Philomel Books
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: What do I do with my life now?
Reviewed by: Mel

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

"We'd been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean."

Review: All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry

All the Truth That's in Me
Julie Berry
Series: None
Released: September 26th, 2013
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: Different in a VERY good way
Reviewed by: Mel

Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever. This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last.

Release Day Review: Crown of Midnight

Crown of Midnight
Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass, #2
Release Date: Today! Go get it!
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: *clutches heart*
Reviewed by: Blythe

An assassin’s loyalties are always in doubt.

But her heart never wavers.

After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes.

Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king's bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice. 

Where do the assassin’s loyalties lie, and who is she most willing to fight for?

Mini-Review: The Beginning of Everything

The Beginning of Everything
Robyn Schneider
Series: None
Release Date: August 27th, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: DAAAAAAMN
Reviewed by: Blythe

Golden boy Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: in one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra’s knee, his athletic career, and his social life.

No longer a front-runner for Homecoming King, Ezra finds himself at the table of misfits, where he encounters new girl Cassidy Thorpe. Cassidy is unlike anyone Ezra’s ever met, achingly effortless, fiercely intelligent, and determined to bring Ezra along on her endless adventures.

But as Ezra dives into his new studies, new friendships, and new love, he learns that some people, like books, are easy to misread. And now he must consider: if one’s singular tragedy has already hit and everything after it has mattered quite a bit, what happens when more misfortune strikes? 

Robyn Schneider’s The Beginning of Everything is a lyrical, witty, and heart-wrenching novel about how difficult it is to play the part that people expect, and how new beginnings can stem from abrupt and tragic endings.

Reader's Choice Review #2: Two Boys Kissing

Reader's Choice is a weekly meme inspired by Christina at Reader of Fiction's Sadie Hawkins Sunday, where you, the readers of this blog, get to choose what I read and review on the blog each Saturday/Monday, depending on the circumstances.

Two Boys Kissing
David Levithan
Series: None
Released: August 27th, 2013
Publisher: Knopf BFYR
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: Important
Reviewed by: Blythe
Recommended by: Scott of Scott Reads It and Gillian of Writer of Wrongs

New York Times  bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS. 

While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other. 

This follow-up to the bestselling Every Day showcases David's trademark sharp-witted, warm-hearted tales of teenage love, and serves as a perfect thematic bookend to David's YA debut and breakthrough, Boy Meets Boy, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2013.

We gather the things we learned, and they don't nearly add up to fill the space of a life. You will miss the taste of Froot Loops. You will miss the sound of traffic. You will miss your back against his. You will miss him stealing the sheets.

Do not ignore these things.

Release Day Review: Unseen by Karin Slaughter

This is a review for an adult novel.

Unseen
Karin Slaughter
Series: Will Trent, #7
Release Date: July 2nd, 2013
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: Exhilarating
Reviewed by: Kate

Karin Slaughter’s New York Times bestselling novels are utterly riveting and masterfully drawn. Her latest thriller, Unseen, pits detectives, lovers, and enemies against one another in an unforgettable standoff between righteous courage and deepest evil.

Bill Black is a scary guy: a tall ex-con who rides to work on a Harley and trails an air of violence wherever he goes. In Macon, Georgia, Bill has caught the eye of a wiry little drug dealer and his cunning girlfriend. They think Bill might be a useful ally. They don’t know that Bill is actually a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent named Will Trent. Or that he is fighting his own demons, undercover and cut off from the support of Sara Linton—the woman he loves, who cannot be told of the risk Will is taking.

Sara herself has come to Macon because of a cop shooting: Her stepson, Jared, has been gunned down in his own home. Sara holds Lena, Jared’s wife, responsible: Lena, a detective, has been a magnet for trouble all her life, and Jared’s attack is not the first time someone Sara loved got caught in the crossfire. Furious, Sara finds herself involved in the same case that Will is working without even knowing it, and soon danger is swirling around both of them.

In a novel of fierce intensity, shifting allegiances, and shocking twists, two investigations collide with a conspiracy straddling both sides of the law. Karin Slaughter’s latest is both an electrifying thriller and a piercing study of human nature: what happens when good people face the unseen evils in their lives.

Review: Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn

Another Little Piece
Kate Karyus Quinn
Series: None
Release Date: June 11th, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Number of Pages: 432
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: WUT

The spine-tingling horror of Stephen King meets an eerie mystery worthy of Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series in Kate Karyus Quinn's haunting debut.
On a cool autumn night, Annaliese Rose Gordon stumbled out of the woods and into a high school party. She was screaming. Drenched in blood. Then she vanished.

A year later, Annaliese is found wandering down a road hundreds of miles away. She doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know how she got there. She only knows one thing: She is not the real Annaliese Rose Gordon.

Now Annaliese is haunted by strange visions and broken memories. Memories of a reckless, desperate wish . . . a bloody razor . . . and the faces of other girls who disappeared. Piece by piece, Annaliese's fractured memories come together to reveal a violent, endless cycle that she will never escape—unless she can unlock the twisted secrets of her past.

Unquestionably one of the strangest, most stunning, and original novels I have ever read in my entire life, Another Little Piece seems like it was practically written by Kate Karyus Quinn with me in mind. What other readers have said about Another Little Piece is all true--reading this novel is an undeniably confusing, mind-boggling, and downright ambiguous experience. Yet, while those very attributes caused Another Little Piece to be a disappointing read for some readers, the ambiguity of the entire novel, and the brilliant atmosphere deftly crafted by Quinn among the confusion, is in essence what made me love this novel so much. Love Another Little Piece or not, there is no doubting the fact that, upon turning the last page, it is a novel that will linger in your mind and likely haunt you, and ultimately, that's all I can ever ask for in a novel.