Remembering Raquel

Remembering Raquel by Vivian Vande Velde
Available in the Swift Current Library: Yes
General Topics: Death, Family
Rating out of 5: 4 out of 5

Summary: Ever wonder how will you be remembered by your friends and school mates? Have you made enough of an impression to even be remembered? Remembering Raquel explores these questions and more. Raquel was not a popular girl. She had very few close friends and did not stick out in school by being the smartest, funniest, or dumbest in class. When she dies in a freak accident, her family, friends and classmates give you their impression of how she was viewed by them. She would be surprised at the things some of them said. I bet we all would be surprised by what people say about us.


Good Points: -Thought-provoking
- Interesting characters
-Realistic view on humans and our society


Bad Points: -Very short


Overall review: I actually really liked this book, though it could have been longer. The book made me think about the impression I'm leaving, and whether or not I really care about what others think about me. I reccomend it for deep thinkers.

If you liked this book, also try: Stolen by Vivian Van Velde


Visit the author's website at: http://www.vivianvandevelde.com/

The Dead and the Gone

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Available in the Swift Current Library: Yes
General Topics: Natural disasters, enviromental, human relationships, survial, family (for more mature youth)
Rating out of 5: 4.5 out of 5

Summary: 17 year old Alex has life set out for him. He has a college picked out, he is on of the top of his class grade list, he has a job and all he wants is to be elected class president of his senior year. But on his way home from work he notices things are just not right. People are sobbing, praying and running on the streets. When he looks up, he sees that the moon is a lot bigger then usual. It is out of orbit. This affects evrything, from volcanoes to tides to amount of sunlight needed to grow food. When subways flood, stores close and his parents don't come home, will Alex be able to keep his two younger sisters alive and at what cost?

Good Points: -Thought-provoking
- Interesting characters
-Realistic view on humans and our society

Bad Points: -Not a very good stand alone book.
- Hard to get into due to the third person perspective

Overall review: This was an excellent book once I got into it. The book starts with a major event (the astroid) and does a hundred or so page decresendo. Although those pages were a struggle, they were important to the book and fundimental to the rest of the story. After I toughed that out, it instantly got better. I read without wanting to put it down.
This book would likely not work as a stand-alone. In order to fully understand the major event of the moon, it would be a good idea to read LIFE AS WE KNEW IT by the same author. That book is the first, so to say, of the series. LIFE AS WE KNEW IT was a first person journal perspective of a small town girl, where as THE DEAD AND THE GONE is a third person perspective of a boy in New York city. The only real simularity they have is the major event, the moon leaving orbit, which is better explained in LIFE AS WE KNEW IT.
The view on human society was well shown and it proved our desperation as a society to survive and how quickly a happy neighborhood can turn into a 'dog-eat-dog'/survival of the fittest jungle. When people are faced with tough times, we do weird things as this story portrays.
If you want a happy ending, then this is not your book. This is a major event, one that can not be solved in a matter of weeks, months or years. But it does provide a glimmer of hope for you to hang on to.

If you liked this book, also try: Life as we Knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Visit the author's website at: http://susanbethpfeffer.blogspot.com/

Freaky Green Eyes

Freaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oates

Available in The Swift Current Library?: Yes
General topics: Family, Arguments, Trust, Betrayal
Rating out of 5: 3.5/5


Summary: Fifteen-year-old Franky Pierson knows that her famous sportscaster father has a bad temper. She also knows that her parents do not get along and that sometimes violence erupts. When her mother moves into a cabin she owns and only visits a few days a week, Franky thinks they just need their own space for a little while. But things seem to get worse and her father's behavior becomes more extreme.

Franky's alter ego, Freaky Green Eyes, is a tough personality that saves her from dangerous and scary situations and is now needed more and more often at home. When her mother disappears, Franky does not want to know what happened. But the truth always seems to have a way of getting out.


Good Points: - The plot was okay
- The characters had at least one realistic quality


Bad Points: - While Franky's denial of her terrible home life is realistic, it goes on for far too long for the patience of readers.
- The plot was predictable
- The characters were very cliche and unrealistic, with few realistic qualities.



Overall Review: While the book looked interesting and wasn't difficult to get into, I found it far too predictable and quick-paced to make a decent novel. Things chugged along above the speed limit, and most things had little connection with others.
I was disappointed.


If you liked this book try: Big Mouth and Ugly Girl


Visit the authors website at: Unavailable At This Time

Cheating Fate

Cheating Fate By Audrey Pfitzenmaier

Available in The Swift Current Library?: Yes

General topics: Friendship, Love, Relationships, Family (For more mature youth)

Rating out of 5: 5/5

Summary: Cheating Fate is story of 4 teens all best friends who have grown up together in a small town in the BC interior. Their friendship is loyal, compassionate, and trusting they accept their friendship bonds with a resoluteness that only another teen could understand. When the 4 survive a serious snowmobile accident and soon discover that they share remarkable and frightening memorties of their near-death experiences. All of the 4 teens fear that their fates are sealed and that they will die at some unknown time-together. The book is narrated and paced through 4 distinct voices, the voices of the 4 teens who survive the accident.

Sukhwinder the laidback Indo-Canadian teenager who loves his friends but gets lured into illegal activity with his irband cousins.

Kyle is a restless teen and the rebal of the bunch wanting to conquer the world of extreme motocross with his wreckless and extreme riding.

Jeremy is a sensitive, caring teenager, who craves attention from a busy single father and an absentee mother.

Cassidy the only girl in the group of 4 fears for the boys and their flawed sense of invincibility.

Tension builds as the group of friends decide together that they must separate into pairs in order to cheat fate rather than tempt it. But in their reckless and vulnerability, they surrender to the idea that life without each other just isn't worth living anymore, even if it means discovering that there are no human powers to alter fate.

Good Points: - the group of friends stop at nothing to keep their friendship alive, even when they don't see each other they stay in touch

- very well written

- Great book is you love suspense, thrill, mystery, love, friendship, or a good read

- Writen in 4 distinct views (you get to see all sides of the story)

Bad Points: - No bad points in the book

Overall Review: Cheating Fate was one of the best books i have ever read. It's suspenseful, thrilling, mysterious, keeps you guessing, doesn't spill any of the events ahead of time to ruin the book. This book is a good read for anyone who likes a longer book, but nothing that drags out to far. it's intended for young adult or mature youth. The book moves along smoothly as it switches back and forth between the 4 distinct views of the friends. it keeps them simple and straight so you don't get confused between who is talking and telling the story at the time.

If you liked this book try: Unavailable At This Time

Visit the authors website at: Unavailable At This Time

Life as we Knew it

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Available in the Swift Current Library: Yes

General Topics: Natural disasters, enviromental, human relationships (for more mature youth)

Rating out of 5: 5 out of 5

Summary: 16 year old Miranda is an average teenage girl. Her friends are fighting, her dad's new wife is preganant, and her mom refuses to let her figure skate after a painful accident. When a metoer is scheduled to hit the moon, millions of people go out to watch expecting an fiery ball and nothing else. All Miranda gets out of it is more homework. But when the meteor throws the moon out of orbit, everything begins to change. The high tides have flooded any place near a large body of water, earthquakes shake the least expected places. All the stores are closed due to lack of food, and gas has risen to 10 dollars a gallon. When dieseces that weren't around before start popping up, and there are so many dead that names are simply written on a bullietin board, will Miranda, her family and everyone else close to her survive?

Good Points: -Thought-provoking

- Interesting characters

-Realistic view on humans and our society

Bad Points: -None really.

Overall review: I haven't had a book that has made me stay up late reading for a long time. This book succeded in doing very that. It was interesting and thought-provoking. I have never really looked at the world the same. I can never look at gas prices, cold weather or hospitals quite the same as I did before I read this book. It made me think more about the everyday things, and has given me a completly different view on the world. It will make you imagine life in this same situation, what you would do or what you would do different. You will realize wehter you could survive or not, and how fragile life really is.

This book is a serious one, there are not a lot of oppurtunities for laughter. In fact, it made me cry. A lot. It is an interesting and realistic view on humans and our survival instinct. It also gave a different view on religion, specifically christianity. (The view was not positive, although it was realistic. There are some radicals out there....)

Written through the perspective of Miranda's diary, you get a glimpse into her thought process. You feel it when she is jealous, lonely, hopeless or excited. You feel the same things she does and you feel her main desire al throughout the book. She want to grasp reality again and she wants things to go back to how they were.

The best part was definatly the ending. Obviously, this is not a roses and daisies type of ending. It is very bittersweeet. But it is the way life is. Things can't be solved in the length of a book all the time. Serious problems don't just one day go away. Life is bittersweet, dificult and not instantly better. This book is the best book I have read in a long, long time, and I would recommend it to anyone mature enough to really understand.

If you liked this book, also try: The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Visit the author's website at: http://susanbethpfeffer.blogspot.com/

Empress of the World by Sara Ryan

Empress of the World by Sara Ryan

Available in Swift Current Library?: Yes

General Topics: Sexuality, relationships, friendship, love

Rating out of five: 4 1/2 out of 5

Summary: Teenage girl, Nicola (aka Nic) is a gifted student who has been sent to a gifted school to decide her future in archeology. There she meets all sorts of friends. There is Kevin, the gifted composer who is a little withdrawn. There is Issac, who is just to perfect for his own good. There is easily excitable Katrina, her favorite computer geek. And then there is Battle. Daughter of an over-eccentric preacher and named after Battle hall, this odd gifted teen is the best friend Nic has always wanted. But will the line between friendship and love be crossed, and will either of them be able to deal with their own confusion?

Good Points:

-Realistic emotions

-Interesting diverse characters

-Not extremely long, a fairly quick read

-Really interesting format

Bad Points:

-Unrealistic surroundings and reactions (everyone else was to understanding....)

Overall Review: Wow! This was a wonderful book! I highly recommend it to anyone! I think it tackled a controversial topic with grace, and the characters are lovable and unforgettable. It made me cry at least once, and it made me laugh a lot too. Nic's confusion and inability to confront her own feelings could be clearly understood by anyone due to the wonderful description. It showed how she felt towards both guys and girls and how she didn't understand how she could care for both. Throughout the book, there are small journal entries (called field notes) that more deeply reveal Nic's feelings.

The only thing I dislike is that the other characters do not seem fazed by this drastic news. None of her friends are even remotely shocked, let alone disapproving. Members of the general public, (other then two obnoxious boys) don't even give them much of a second glance. I find that slightly odd, because most friendships, especially new ones, do not survive that sort of catastrophic news. Also, our society, though getting better, still does not really approve of homosexual relationships. I would think there would be more then two opposing, obnoxious boys. Great book though.

Visit the autor's website at: http://sararyan.com/

Dead Is The New Black by Marlene Perez

Dead Is The New Black by Marlene Perez

Available in The Swift Current Library?: Yes

General topics: Vampires, physic, family relationships, friendships, love, life

Rating out of 5: 4/5

Summary: Daisy Giordano lives in the small town of Nightshade that is full of the unknown, the unusual, and then unexpected. Daisy's family is well known around the town of Nightshade for their physic abilities. Daisy however is the unlucky one in the family who was born without any physic abilities a "norm" as they call her, which makes Daisy feel like the outcast has she lives with a family of physics. But things in the town of Nightshade start to get stranger when Daisy's mom is using her powers to help solve the unexplained death of a cheerleader. When the head cheerleader Samantha Devereaux shows up looking like the living dead and several other cheerleaders on the squad come down with a mysterious illness, which ages them and leaves them with white streaks in their hair. Daisy (normally she social outcast) joins the cheerleading squad to investigate Samantha and see if she may be the vampire in order to help her mom solve the case. As daisy makes the squad and begins to investigate further along with the help of a long life friend Ryan (the hottest guy in school and Daisy's best friend) she finds herself entangled in a romantic relationship with Ryan, and Daisy Giordano soon finds out that she may not be a "norm" after all.

Good points: - the main character Daisy is just your average everyday girl

- some realism - some fantasy (makes for a good read)

- only 190 pages, a good book for someone with not alot of reading skills

- appropriate for teenage readers

Bad points: - the end of the book moved to quickly

Overall review: the overall view of the book was good. it was well written, and is a good read for anyone who is not a strong reader, or anyone who is interested in vampires, physics. or just the unknown and unexpected in general. its a good book for anyone who also likes a good love story. the book moved along smoothly and was never boring, the ending, ended a little to quickly but any longer and the book would have gotten boring. it was a good length and is appropriate for teenage and adult readers.

If you liked this book try: - the two sequels coming out sometime soon (watch for them) also written by Marlene Perez

- the Twilight Sega (including: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and

Breaking Dawn) written by Stephanie Meyer

Visit the authors website at: Unavailable At This Time

Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott

Perfect You By Elizabeth Scott

Available in Swift Current Library: Yes

General Topics: Life, Friendship, Family, Love

Rating out of 5: 3 1/2 out of 5

Summary: 16 year old Kate Brown is a normal girl until things start suddenly going wrong. Her best friend Anna has found her way into the popular crowd while forgetting Kate exists. Her father has decided to follow his dream, selling Perfect You vitamins at the mall while dressed like a bumblebee, and he has decided that he needs Kate's assistance. Her overbearing grandmother has moved into her house and her collage aged brother refuses to move out. To top it all off, she has fallen for the most annoying guy at school, Will. But is life as bad as it seems or does she make herself believe it is?

Good points:

- Realistic

- Short chapters make for easy "Pick-up-and-go" Reading.

- Interesting main characters

Bad points:

- Cliche and predictable

- Extremely fast paced

Overall review: It was good. The main character was witty and sarcastic and made the reading more enjoyable. However, it was completely cliche. The ending though, was very sudden and unexpected, the most realistic part of the whole book. It would have been better if she would have drawn the plot out more rather then rushing through it all, but the well made characters can make up for some of the flaws. The realistic family issues will have you relating, and Kate's inner monologue occasionally had me laughing. If I had one reason not to recommend this book, it would be how painfully cliche it is. Until almost the end it is almost completely unrealistic. My father would freak out on me if he walked in on me french kissing someone. I probably won't get the most popular guy at school. My popular friend might not really miss me and feel bad. My brother might not get his life together and my parents might fight in front of me. HOWEVER, at the end, that cliche was dropped. It became more like life, a little bittersweet.

If you liked this book try: My Mother is a French Fry and Further Proof of my Fuzzed Up Life by Collen Sydor

Visit the authors website at: www.elizabethwrites.com