Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

Bruiser is a mix of realistic fiction and fantasy about the sacrifices one makes for the people they love. In high school, Brewster “Bruiser” Rawlins is voted "Most Likely to Get the Death Penalty." Nobody understands him. Nobody can be friends with him, and he cannot afford to care about anyone. When he takes a chance and starts dating Brontë, she and her twin brother Tennyson start noticing strange things. 

Any injury that they have instantly disappears, and Brewster is hurt in exactly the same way. It does not take long for them to realize the truth- whoever he cares about, their injures always become his. Things take a turn for the worse when they realize that he can take emotional pain away, too, and he is saving Brontë's family from the burn of divorce. While the twins give him the love and friendship that he wants, he is forced to take on more pain than he can possibly handle.  

When I first picked up the book, my initial thought was that Brewster had healing powers, and it would just be an interesting book to read. Wow- it was way better than I thought! I did not expect the story to be so deep, and it was a wave of emotion. This story showcases the difficulties and struggles that come with not having any pain, as well as having too much. It shows the black and white, and gives readers a lot to think about. Usually you don't want to see someone you love hurting, and sometimes you wish you could take their pain away- but what if you could? 

Bruiser is inspirational. There are major themes of family and protection. They all wanted so desperately to help and protect each other. Brontë really wanted to protect Brewster, and Tennyson wanted to protect Brontë. They fought all the time before, and having Brewster around brought them together. I loved how they put aside their differences to help Brewster. They did this even when he was not around to take their pain. 

Brewster is basically an empath that also feels physical pain as well as mental and emotional. I loved that all of his passages were written in free verse! It helped to capture all of his emotions. What's crazier is that the emotions are not all his. The pain is not all his. Bruiser was a very depressing book. Not like a depressing concept, more like a depressing and painful tone. The variety of characters helped to make up for some of the sadness. Cody is young. He is Brewster's younger brother, and some of the things he says and does sounds like a little toddler, and other things he did and said were adult like. He really wanted to protect him.

I loved this emotional, inquisitive book, and I highly recommend that you read it!

Title: Bruiser

Author: Neal Shusterman

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 328 Pages

Series: No

Rating: 5 Stars

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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is the first book in this YA fantasy series. Jacob's grandfather always told crazy stories. So crazy, that Jacob's family thinks he is mental. Jacob keeps a bond with his grandfather and just chooses to forget the peculiar stories. But when his grandfather is attacked by monsters, he is forced to admit that his stories might actually be real. Jacob and his dad go to a remote island and find a house where the peculiar kids might still be alive.

I truly did not like this book. It was one of the worst books I have ever read! It had no imagery whatsoever and I could not imagine or picture anything. It was very uneventful and the plot dragged on forever. The beginning was great, but right after they got to that island the whole thing was like a flat line on a heart monitor. Basically the story stopped breathing.

 

Honestly, the book should be used as a bedtime story. I forced myself to finish it, in the hope that it would get better. Then, right before the book ended, it was like the heart started beating again. I was shocked at the sudden change, not to mention that the huge "revelations" were totally unexpected and not developed. Usually I like it when I cannot guess the ending of books, but this was just totally extreme.

I also disliked that his dad was not really a dad at all, more like a temporary babysitter. He basically let Jacob do whatever he wanted and paid no attention to anything. I was also very disappointed in the amount of magic. Really, the only power was the strange non-explained time travel. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that there was time travel in the book. Apparently peculiar people can go in a portal back in time to WW2 when the kids were still alive. There were pictures in the book, often cutting in the middle of a sentence. The book was written in 2011, but it felt like it was written in the 1700's, especially given the black and white photos.

I strongly disliked this book, and I will not read the next books, even though I already borrowed them from the public library. Apparently some people liked it enough to turn it into a movie, and I might watch the movie out of curiosity. However, I absolutely do not recommend this book!

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Author: Ransom Riggs

Publisher: Quirk

Pages: 352 pages

Series: Yes, Book 1

Rating: 1 Star

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Trapped by Michael Northrop

Trapped is a realistic fiction YA book about being stuck at a high school during a blizzard. When it started snowing, nobody could guess that it would keep snowing for a week. Scotty, Pete, and Jason are supposed to be getting picked up from Jason's dad. Four other kids are also waiting for rides. Eventual they realize nobody is coming for them. Spending the night at school does not sound so bad. That is, until the power goes out, the pipes freeze, and the roof collapses. As the days go on, the seven kids realize that they have no options left.

The writing is very simple and there is a lack of sensory details. The narrator (Scotty) speaks like a teenager. Yes, I get the point, the kids are teenagers. However, readers cannot go a couple sentences without reading the words "seriously", and "kind of" and things like that. The book was narrated toward the audience, but there were too many hypothetical questions, and if I did not know any better, I would think it is a diary. They were pretty lifeless characters. There was no character development and the characters are pretty standard- the regular guys, the troublemaker, the strange kid, and the girls. There was nothing really special about them. They also missed all types of foreshadowing. I could easily guess what was going to happen way before the characters did. 

The plot was not bad, it was just slow. The events were all necessary and important. A lot of what happened I might not have thought to include, in a good way and a bad way. Some events I was impressed with, but others just were very obvious. I liked the idea of the story, but the little things tore it down. The ending was not what I wanted it to be. The general conclusion was easily guessable, but it ended too suddenly, like someone just yanked the book out of the author's hand while he was still writing it. 

I do not recommend that you read this book. 

Title: Trapped

Author: Michael Northrop

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Pages: 232 Pages

Series: No

Rating: 2 Stars

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Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen

From the author of the 5-star book The Running Dream is the YA realistic fiction book, Runaway. Holly was in her fifth foster home in two years, and this one was the worst. Mr. and Mrs. Bender called her a "bad girl," and she was always accused of things she did not do. They make her sleep in the laundry room. Things reach a breaking point when Mr. Bender sticks her head in a toilet and flushes several times. Holly has run away before and has always been caught, but this time she is determined to run away for real and survive on her own.

The beginning was amazing, and I thought that it was going to be a 5-star book, just like The Running Dream, the first review I wrote! Soon after, my thoughts changed. The plot was all messed up. The climax happened too early, and most of the book was about her living and traveling by herself, all over the country. The thing I did not like was that there was no real conflict or intrigue. The conflicts in the beginning were never solved, just avoided. I was hoping for certain endings, but they never came.

Really, I just kept reading it to get to the end and find out what happens. A 12-year-old going all over the country, stealing, living under houses, and jumping trains - it just seemed way too easy and unrealistic. I would have liked to seen more conflicts and more hardship. Runaway made running away seem easy, while in reality we know that is not the truth.  In the author's defense, this was written 5 years before The Running Dream, so comparisons between the two might not be accurate.

I really liked how the book was a journal/diary. Readers saw a ton of thoughts and feelings about her past and her future. There was a lot of confidence in herself, and Holly was determined to succeed. But as I mentioned earlier, this was not as impressive since there were not many conflicts for her to grow upon. They also helped readers be more connected with Holly. I thought it was a really good thing, and the stories shared added to her current situation.

I also liked who the "you" was in the book. While most readers would assume that the "you" was just the diary/journal, it was directed towards her teacher who gave her the journal to begin with. Originally she hated the idea of writing in a journal, but along the way she grew to like it, so there was some character development. I really liked that she remembered throughout the book who the teacher was, and that she was trying to keep up with school. I enjoyed her hiding in the schools. Some of those scenes were really funny!

This book was worth reading, and I recommend it.

Read my review of The Running Dream, the first blog post I wrote.

Title: Runaway

Author: Wendelin Van Draanen

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Pages: 245 Pages

Series: No

Rating: 3 Stars

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House Arrest by K.A. Holt

House Arrest is a realistic fiction book appropriate for middle grade readers and YA readers about a 12-year-old boy who will do anything to help his brother. Timothy's baby brother (Levi) was born with Subglottic Stenosis that makes him unable to breathe normally. He had to have a tracheotomy done to insert a tube in his neck that goes directly into his windpipe. Unfortunately, germs and all kinds of viruses have the easiest access in the world into Levi's lungs. The medicine and medical bills are very expensive and puts huge financial pressure on their family.

His dad left one day and now the only one supporting the family is Timothy's mom. His mother is exhausted and there is barely enough money for food. Timothy's life was falling apart, and he only wanted to help. One day he saw a wallet lying around. He took it and used a credit card to buy a couple months worth of Levi's medicine. Now he has a year of house arrest and a court-ordered journal to write in where he has to prove that he is sorry for what he did. Throughout the book Timothy must come to realize that there are other ways to help his brother and the difference between right and wrong.

House Arrest was great! The book was written in poetry that made it even better. He even mentioned that one time. It is inspirational with the theme of family and sacrifice. Timothy was willing to do anything to help his brother. His mom wanted to take care of the family at all costs and constantly worked. Timothy wrote at one time that his life was pretty much house arrest anyways. He always stays at home and has to help and take care of Levi. Timothy pretty much gave up his life to help Levi. He also just gave up on school. He claimed that taking care of his brother is more important than doing his homework. The amount of emotion from Timothy was huge. In the beginning he steered away from emotion, but then he gave in and really started writing. The anger at his dad was tremendous.

The internal conflict was huge in the book. On one hand, he knows stealing is wrong. On the other hand, he knows that it would have helped. He was very determined to find help for his brother. There were sweet moments in the book, too. He has a crush on his best friend's sister, Isa. Their relationship was sweet and a little relief from the rest of his problems. House Arrest is a book that readers of all ages can enjoy. I would say that the reading level is middle grade, but the themes and the content can also be for YA readers.

The only thing I did not like was the ending. I need there to be a second book. There has to be! If there is not going to be a second book in the future, then the ending is really bad and shows no character development. It also has the biggest cliffhanger in the world. Now I have to make up my own second book story. That was easy, though. If I wanted to, I could write the whole second book right now.

UPDATE: There now is a sequel! Knockout was published in March 2018- I can't wait to read it!

I recommend that you read this book!

Title: House Arrest

Author: K.A. Holt

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Pages: 304 Pages

Series: No

Rating: 4 Stars

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Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti

Zeroes is the first book in a YA science fiction fantasy trilogy. These six teens have powers, and they consider themselves not to be heroes, but zeroes. Nate is Bellwether. He is the leader, and has the ability to change the desire of crowds. Chizara is Crash. She can destroy anything electronic. However, this power hurts her physically when she uses it. Riley is Flicker. She is blind, but she can see the world from other people's eyes. Thibault is Anonymous. Nobody can remember him unless they’re looking at him. Ironically, he is a very memorable character and a huge influence. Kelsie is Mob. She can change the mood of a crowd. It can make them happy and united. However, if her emotions slip, then the crowd can experience fear and anger.

Ethan is Scam. He has another voice that takes over. It knows everything about everyone. It can be effective if he wants something, but it gets him into trouble. Ethan's voice gets him into stealing money, and he goes to a bank to make an account. While he is in there, a bank robber comes in. To save his life, Ethan's voice starts taking. Things quickly get out of hand, and he becomes a huge interest to the police, and the world. The other Zeroes unite to help Ethan despite old rivalry. It turns out that the bank robber's daughter has powers, too, and this could change everything that they have ever known.

I love how much the other Zeroes look out for each other. They put aside everything and made it a top priority to keep Ethan safe. A thing that I loved the most is that unlike most superhero books or books about powers, this focuses on the negatives and the challenges that come with powers, not the benefits. Usually people think that it would be so cool to have powers, but lots of people probably do not understand the responsibility that comes with it.

Thibualt was my favorite character. I do not know how he coped with being forgotten. I would be so upset if people constantly forgot me. I liked how he was just outside the picture, like there and not there at the same time. There was a lot of drama between the characters, and that kind of took away from some of the action. However, I liked having the background knowledge and reading their thoughts about each other. I also really liked Ethan's voice. It was very interesting and entertaining to find out all this knowledge about all the characters, even the very unimportant ones. Some of the information was very funny.

I cannot wait to read the second book, Swarm!

Title: Zeroes

Author: Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Pages: 546

Series: Yes, Book 1

Rating: 5 Stars

Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday: New YA Book Releases in Early 2017

One of the most exciting things about a new year is new books to read! Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the Broke and the Bookish blog. If you want to participate, click here. The theme for this week is Top Ten Books I'm Looking Forward to for the First Half of 2017.

 

I really want to read all of these exciting new YA books! This list is a mixture of YA realistic fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. Since I cannot decide which I want to read more, the following are in order by the expected release date, with the earliest listed first.

1. Life in a Fishbowl by Len Vlahos

Expected Publication: January 3rd, 2017

Everything Jackie Stone says and does is on live television, 24 hours a day. Her dad is dying of a brain tumor, and they are on a reality television show called Life and Death. 

2. The Book Jumper by Mechthild Gläser

Expected Publication: January 3rd, 2017

The main character in this book, Amy, has the power that I have always wanted- the ability to physically go inside a book and interact with the characters inside!

3. Silver Stars (Soldier Girl Book 2) by Michael Grant

Expected Publication: January 31st, 2017

I am so excited to read the second book in Soldier Girl! Frangie, Rainy, and Rio are once again on the front lines in battle, this time at Sicily, Italy. Read my review of the first book, Front Lines.

4. At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson

Expected Publication: February 7th, 2017

Tommy and Ozzie have been best friends since second grade, and suddenly Tommy disappears from everyone's memory, except for Ozzie! Ozzie's theory: the universe is shrinking.

5. The Football Girl by Thatcher Heldring

Expected Publication: April 4th, 2017

This book is about what happens to a girl's life when Tessa decides to try out for the football team instead of the cross-country team.

6. Perfect (Flawed #2) by Cecelia Ahern

Expected Publication: April 4th, 2017

Perfect is the second book in the Flawed series where everyone has to be perfect, and those who aren't are branded flawed. In the second book, Celestine continues to fight for rights and equality. Read my review of the first book in this series.

7. Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

Expected Publication: April 4th, 2017

Noemi Vidal is a teen soldier from the planet Genesis that was once a colony of Earth, but now it is at war for its independence. After a surprise attack, Noemi gets stranded in space on an abandoned ship.

  8. Dreamfall by Amy Plum

Expected Publication: May 2nd, 2017

Cata Cordova's insomnia is so severe that she agrees to take part in an experiment, but while the procedure is happening, a malfunction occurs in the equipment. She, along with the six other patients, are stuck in a dreamworld with all their worst fears, and the only way to wake up is to face them.

9. Cold Summer by Gwen Cole

Expected Publication: May 2nd, 2017

Teenager Kale Jackson has time traveling powers, but he can't control them. He accidentally goes to WW2, where he is a soldier fighting. The next day he is back in his life, but he has been given PTSD, and there is a history article that states his name as one of the casualties of the war.

10. The Original Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

Expected Publication: May 2nd, 2017

Ginny Moon is a teenager with autism who has just been given an amazing foster home. However, she does not understand why she can't be with her birth mom. The story shows the thoughts and confusion of a girl who just wants her real mom and a normal life. 

Bluescreen (Mirador Book 1) by Dan Wells

Bluescreen is the first book in the YA dystopian series, Mirador. In Los Angeles in the year 2050, the world is controlled by robots, and almost everyone has a djinni. A djinni is basically a chip that is implanted in your head. Imagine putting the smartest computer in the world inside your brain. That's basically what it is, and for the people who have it, being online is their life. They can literally "plug in" to a virtual world and be anything they want. The problem? Privacy is a thing of the past, and everyone can find out anything, especially if they can code. 

Marisa Carneseca is a genius coder. She can hack basically anything, and get anything that she wants. Normally, she is just a normal girl who helps out in her family's restaurant and goes to school and hangs out with her friends online. Everything changes when her friend Anja gets her hands on a new drug called Bluescreen. It plugs into your djinni, and gives you a temporary "high". The problem is that then the user passes out and then sleepwalks for 10 minutes. When Marisa investigates the code written for it, she finds a secret that lands herself in a conspiracy that threatens everyone in the world, and she knows that she has to stop it.

 

I think that the year this book takes place is very unrealistic. 2050 is only 34 years later than we are currently, and to have robots and chips to implant in your head and all this technology would be pretty impossible to happen in that amount of time. In the book the cars are basically the same as what we have here. In a world with robots and virtual worlds they still have normal cars. Somehow I find that strange.

Also, the language was hard to understand. Not in the sense of reading level, but so much information is just thrown at the reader that it is hard to understand. There were so many names of things that I kept having to stop and try to remember what it is. No background information is given about anything, and a reader has to constantly infer. The characters are not very memorable. There is so much technology that it completely takes away from who the people actually are. I just read the book, and when I think of the characters, I literally have to think for a few seconds to remember who they are. That should not happen! 

However, there were a lot of things in the book that I love! For one, the cover. The cover gives a really cool look into the story. The character on the cover is Marisa, because of the robotic arm that she got after a car accident. One can obviously tell how she is feeling, and if you look closely, you can see streaks of electricity on the buildings and in the air in the background. The detail on her clothes and on the buildings is really quite amazing. 

The pace and plot were how every writer should write their books. The pace was perfect. It escalated in the right moments and deescalated where it should have. Right were I would go "wait, what???" Then it would actually slow down for a page so the reader can process what happened. There were a lot of twists that I never saw coming, especially with the different characters being evil or good. The sense of betrayal was convincing and fit in perfectly. 

The book also teaches how dangerous technology and social media can be. Everything can be tracked and you cannot delete every trace of what you post or take it back. What you post on chat rooms, anything can still be seen and traced and hacked. The book was basically a very escalated version of what can happen, and gives a painful reminder about what coders can really do. 

The setting was incredible, and I was able to follow and picture all of the settings. They went a lot of places, and I vividly remember every single one. The ending was a cliffhanger and it was not. It was in the fact that it left room for another book (which is coming) but it still gives an ending to the book and leaves the adventure with a satisfying ending.

I am quite torn about his book, so I will recommend it and readers can judge for themselves. The second book, Ones and Zeroes, will be published on February 14, 2017. I will be reading it!

Title: Bluescreen (Mirador Book 1)

Author: Dan Wells

Publisher: Balzer & Bray

Pages: 352 pages

Series: Yes, book 1

Rating: 3 Stars

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A Halo Sun by Christy A. Campbell

I received A Halo Sun for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. A Halo Sun is the sequel to The Sharing Moon, and it is a unique mix of YA realistic fiction and fantasy. Damian Cass was left to burn in a fire set by his dad. Damian did not want to die, and is in the In Between. When the Messenger sends him back with another chance, he ends up trading places with his father. Now he is alive, and his father is dead.

He arrives with no memories and lands in a psychiatric hospital, and hears his father's voice in the back of his head. He has to live with a mother he never knew and a past that is just as horrible as his real one. He is always angry and upset, but one person can change that. Aurora is set on making Damian more happy and open about himself. She has the same secrets as him, and they bond over time.

I liked A Halo Sun more than The Sharing Moon, mostly because of Damian. I liked the choice of Damian as the main character! We saw a tiny bit of him in the first book, and I like that readers can find out more about him. His emotions were very real, and I could connect a lot with him. The amnesia was more visible in A Halo Sun, and that helped the character development. He developed tremendously over the book. There was less romance than in the first one, and A Halo Sun is more about emotion and character development.

There was a lot more about Damian in the book than there was of Aurora, and I unfortunately could not connect with her. Aurora was distant, but she was the ray of sunshine that helped Damian overcome what happened in his past. The plot was great, and there was a very steady climb to the climax, which I loved! The Sharing Moon did not have as much as a build to the climax. Peter, the therapist, was very strange. There is a mystery left at the end of the book about him, and I can still keep guessing!

The writing style was the same as the first book- amazing! I could still believe every word that was written, and readers can dive into the book and be an eye-witness to all the excitement! I enjoyed that the book started at the hospital, and it made me instantly hooked.

I recommend that you read this book!

Read my review of the first book, The Sharing Moon.

Title: A Halo Sun

Author: Christy A. Campbell

Publisher: CreateSpace, Inc. and Lightning Source, Inc.

Pages: 308 Pages

Series: Yes, Book 2 of 2

Rating: 5 Stars

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The Sharing Moon by Christy A. Campbell

I received The Sharing Moon for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. The Sharing Moon is a unique mix of YA realistic fiction and fantasy, and has a sequel. Elijah Solomon died. He lost all of his memories and is a lost soul in the In Between. The Messenger sends Elijah back to a different reality without his memories to change the life of a girl. Seraphina Adams lost her father and lives with her mother, who does not really care about her. She finds it extremely hard to trust anyone and be happy, but Elijah makes it easy. Both of them have to eventually face their past, but they can do it together.

Elijah is almost too perfect. He is a beam of light and pure goodness. Seraphina is the darkness, the one who is insecure with a really hard past and likes to give up. They balance each other out, and they were meant to be. I liked the mystery of the Messenger. I kept trying to picture this mysterious character that can leave notes whenever and wherever. Elijah's dreams were very engaging. I loved his amnesia, and it was incredible to watch him begin to regain his memory.

The book tackled some important issues and everything felt real, like it was all happening right in front of me. I could feel the emotions of the characters while I was reading, even though the characters do not exist in real life.  There was way more thoughts and actions than dialogue, and I felt that was a wise choice.

I liked that the characters called their parents by their first names. It made them feel like real people, and that they had a purpose. In a lot of books I read, the parents and adults are just figures in the background, but in The Sharing Moon the parents were real characters that had big impacts. All the characters held a significance, even if they were little background characters.

The only thing that I would change if I was the author would be to make a more distinct difference between reality and the dreams. Sometimes I had to go back and think whether or not a scene was a dream. There was a little too much romance for my liking, but there was not anything inappropriate.

I recommend that you read this book! I cannot wait to read the second book, A Halo Sun, which I have also received for free from Christy A. Campbell.

Title: The Sharing Moon

Author: Christy A. Campbell

Publisher: CreateSpace

Pages: 318 Pages

Series: Yes, Book 1 of 2

Rating: 4 Stars

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