ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card

 

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Ender’s Game is about a brilliant boy named Andrew “Ender” Wiggin. Throughout his life, he has had a monitor tracking and watching his every move. If he passes the adults examination of him, then he will go to Battle School, which is where the army is trained to battle the Buggers. The Buggers are aliens with whom the humans have been battling for one hundred years. Then, Ender turns six and the adults remove his monitor. He has failed, just like his other brilliant siblings, Peter and Valentine. Peter was too violent for Battle School, while Valentine could not hurt a fly. Ender’s parents are disappointed in him, since the only reason he was born was because the government told Ender’s parents to have a third child. The government thought Ender would be a perfect mix of his siblings and a perfect applicant to go to Battle School. The next day, Graff, the person who was monitoring him, shows up at Ender’s house. Apparently, he has been accepted to Battle School, and the adults have high expectations for him. Ender accepts the invitation and is sent into space. While in Battle School, he will encounter many obstacles and hardships. He will also discover puzzles and games, including the Battle Room. The Battle Room is basically laser tag in zero gravity. Ender’s Game is a fantastic book that never lets you put it down. There are many surprises that keep the book suspenseful. I really recommend this book.

PANIC by Lauren Oliver

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In Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people, there is nothing to do during the summer except for one event, Panic. Panic is a competition that puts people’s fear to the test. High school seniors can participate the summer after they graduate. The competition’s prize is $67,000 and is really the only way to escape their tiny town. Panic puts the participants in dangerous situations, which sometimes lead to death. Heather goes to the opening ceremony to support her friend Nat. While she is waiting, she sees her boyfriend cheating on her and in rage, decides to participate in the competition. Two years ago, Dodge’s sister lost in the finals of panic. She also lost the use of her legs. Dodge wants revenge and plans to win Panic. Every player had someone or something for which to play, and for each player, the motivation is different. From jumping off cliffs to walking across a highway, the events are extremely dangerous and can kill the contestants. Both Heather and Dodge need the money to move away from Carp and help their families. Who will win? Panic is a great book that always keeps the reader on the edge of their seats. There are constant twists in the book that keep you reading it. I personally could not put Panic down. Friendship and love are also explored, along with the intense drama of the competition. Lauren Oliver did a great job in writing this fast-paced young adult book.

FLAWLESS by Sara Shepard

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I recently finished the second book in the famous Pretty Little Liars Series, Flawless by Sara Shepard. As a fan of the hit ABC Family T.V. show, I had to read the series for myself. Flawless shows the progression of the lives of four teenage girls; Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer, as more and more information is dug up regarding their deceased friend Allison DiLaurentis. The novel follows the girls as they attempt to live a normal junior year in high school. However, the mysterious ‘A’ is using the secrets the girls shared with Allison as blackmail.

Since Allison’s death, the girls have drifted apart as friends. We see this in the beginning of the book as the girls live out their individual lives. They all have their separate social groups and only see each other with the occasional ‘hello’ in the hallway. Each feels alone and helpless with her own secret, when in reality, they all share the feeling. As the novel progresses, ‘A’ finds a way to bring the band back to together. As the reader, I see the flames of friendship rekindled through the disturbing ‘A’ messages. I think part of the message that Sara Shepard is trying to portray is how dangerous secrets can be. Even though Allison is gone, the secrets between her and the girls are still causing havoc on their lives and the ones around them. Each page brings the reader one step closer to discovering who ‘A’ is and I think I just figured it out.

 

SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson

 

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a novel about a girl named Melinda who during the summer before freshman year, goes to a party and ends up calling the cops. Something horrible happened to her, which no one knows about, and she is shunned during school because she called the cops which led to many people getting arrested. She starts to withdraw into herself, barely speaking to anyone, including her parents. She starts to ditch school and skip classes, hiding in an old closet she found and fixed up for herself. All of the adults believe that she is just trying to get attention by staying silent except Mr. Freeman, who is her art teacher. She starts to express herself through her art class, where she is supposed to make a tree tell a story. While in art class, she begins to slightly reform a bond with an old friend. She also befriends a new girl, Heather, who tries to worm her way into “the Marthas”, the popular group in school. Her lab partner, David, slowing encourages her to speak out for herself. When her ex-best friend starts to date a boy Melinda knows is trouble, she tries to speak out to her friend, but her friend thinks she’s just jealous. As she retreats further and further into her head, Melinda does everything she can to make sure she doesn’t think about the night of the party because she doesn’t want to face the truth. The truth about him, the boy who started it all. Speak is a must read about how one event can change your life, especially if you don’t speak up.

POSITIVE by Paige Rawl

 

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Positive is an autobiography written by Paige Rawl that explores her life living as HIV positive. Paige’s father slept with many women and gave her mother HIV, which passed on to Paige. Even though Paige was born HIV positive, she did not know about her medical condition when she was young. She grew up with friends and participated in many activities such as pageants without knowing her HIV status. HIV never made her look different than people without the disease. The only difference was that Paige would visit the hospital often and take medicine once a day. Then, Paige entered middle school. She was an honor roll student and a popular cheerleader. Paige tells her most trusted friend about her status, and her friend betrays her by telling the entire school. Immediately, everyone stops being her friend and begins to bully her. The administrators ignore the situation, and Paige leaves school. Even outside of school, she is bullied. Because of her situation, Paige tries to kill herself. The book is about her experiences as a child through high school. The most touching thing about Positive is that the whole book is true. Every horrible experience from the words the bullies said to physical assault is written down. In my opinion, the worst part was her friends betraying her. They did not care about who she was as a person. They only cared about her HIV. Positive by Paige Rawl shows the life of a girl who is not accepted in society. Everyone should read this book and learn how bullying is a problem in society.

WANT TO GO PRIVATE? By Sarah Darer Littman

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Want to Go Private? By Sarah Littman is a heartbreaking story about a lonely freshman named Abby. As she begins her first year in high school, she feels the distance between her family and friends growing and can only confide in her online friend BlueSkyBoi or Luke.  However, “Luke” isn’t exactly who he says he is. As time progresses, he grooms Abby into befriending him and eventually manipulates her into running away with her. Once she disappears it’s up to her family and friends to decipher the puzzled mess that Abby left behind in order to safely find her. Abby learns that “Luke”, the man she thought loved her, is actually a thirty-two year old pedophile that takes advantage of her for his own twisted ways. Thankfully she is safely found and is able to return home where she eventually takes slow steps into understanding and overcoming what happened to her.

This book not only shows the harsh truths about online predators, but also the harsh reality of the danger today’s teens are in. Despite being a very bright young girl, Abby feel into BlueSkyBoi’s manipulative web. She repeatedly mentions the Internet safety assemblies she has seen at school. Littman shows us that despite those efforts, they are not getting through to teens. This book shows that something has to change so more teens understand the signs and severity of those types of situations. Every teen should read this book because it excellently displays the horrors of our world today. Every teen thinks they have some sense of invincibility. Abby did and look what happened.

 

Feed by MT Anderson

I recently read Feed, by M.T.  Anderson. It is a dystopian novel about a world in the not-too-distant future where, through corporate ownership of just about everything, the world is practically falling apart. The book follows the story of Titus, a fairly average teen who lives a fairly mediocre life. He has what’s called a feed, which is a computer chip programmed to integrate with his entire brain, suggesting products for purchase and allowing him to chat feed-to-feed with his friends. Anyone who does not have a feed is ostracized and unable to progress in society. The story begins with Titus and his friends traveling to the moon for Spring Break, but he never could have guessed that he would meet Violet, the girl that would change his life forever. She joins him and his friends on their “exciting” trip to one of the moon’s many clubs, but things go horribly wrong. A hacker from the Coalition of Pity, an anti-feed, anti-government group, tapped into the feeds of Titus and his friends while at the club, causing them to yell anti-government propaganda until the police arrived. Luckily, they were all able to get it worked out and get their feeds fixed… Except Violet. To find out what happens to Titus and his new love interest, you’ll have to read Feed.

You’ll really like feed if you’re interested in dystopian fiction, especially those dealing with teens. M.T. Anderson may have overestimated a little bit how “stupid” the average American teenager is, but that’s up to interpretation. Other than that, the book is well-written and I highly enjoyed it.

It’s a fairly quick read at 240 pages.