Blindsided by Priscilla Cummings

Pages: 226

Intended Audience: Teens and Tweens

Genre: Real life

Notes for Parents: Contains some mature scenes

The Back Cover

Natalie is a typical fourteen-year-old girl: a great student, lots of friends, a loving family. Her life seems perfect. But when a routine visit to the eye doctor reveals that she will soon go blind, she is devastated. As if this wasn’t shocking enough, she is then forced to leave everything behind and go to a school for the blind to learn the skills she will need to survive. While she does what she’s told, inwardly she desperately hopes for a miracle that will save her sight. But ultimately, Natalie must decide how to go on when her future isn’t what she expected.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

The back cover is a bit misleading. Natalie was born without irises and that put her at high risk for glaucoma and she’d had seven surgeries to relieve pressure in her eye before the story even begins, so it isn’t a “routine visit to the eye doctor” where it’s reveal that she will suddenly and unexpectedly go blind.

What’s good?

This was a quick and easy read with a lot of interesting information about how blind people adapt to their surroundings. The simple storyline follows Natalie as she reluctantly learns skills that will help her if she loses her sight completely. Natalie is a sympathetic and believable 14-year-old who doesn’t want to accept that she may lose her sight completely. The excellent cast of supporting characters include: her mom, who encourages Natalie to prepare for the worst; her dad, who doesn’t want to admit the worst; Meredith, Natalie’s best friend, who’s trying her best to be a good friend; and the students and teachers of the Baltimore school who teach her that losing her sight doesn’t mean she will no longer see the world.

Best Part: Nuisance the goat.

What isn’t good?

The story reads like an afterschool special. It unfolds in a series of events that are uncomplicated and very predictable.  

Worst part: The back cover description.

Recommendation þþþoo

The story was good, but very simple. There were several interesting parts and a couple of very intense scenes which were well executed, but overall, this was a fairly straight forward story about a girl who is forced to accept her challenging circumstances. I recommend this for anyone looking for a light, interesting read.

Cummings, Priscilla. Blindsided. New York: Scholastic, 2010.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Pages: 408

Intended Audience: Teens

Genre: Supernatural adventure

Notes for parents: Some mature scenes

The Inside Cover

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them – until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.

His name is Gansey, and he’s a rich student at Algionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn’t believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

What the Inside Cover doesn’t tell you:

This is the first book in a series.

What’s good?

Outstanding characterization drives this intricate mystery about psychic ability, Welsh legend, and tragic prophecies. The multifarious narrative, full of wide twists and turns, unfolds slowly around a large group of highly developed characters. The women – Blue, Maura (Blue’s mom), Neeve (Maura’s half-sister), Orla (Blue’s cousin), Persephone and Calla (Maura’s best friends) – have a tenuous relationship, a mix of familial bonds, eccentricity, and a link to the world of psychic energy. The boys, however – Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah – are a complex but strong fraternity of intensely loyal friends with a rock solid goal that they would risk life and limb for.

Subplots abound as we see Adam’s home life, learn about Blue’s father, wonder about Gansey’s fate, witness a blooming romance, fear Declan wrath, question Neeve’s intentions, and so much more…this is not a simple story!

Best part: The best part was the part I didn’t see coming. Some reviewers claimed it was obvious, but it took me completely by surprise. I love when a book does that.

What’s not so good?

I was lost at the beginning and considered quitting this book a couple of times before I finally caught on to the rhythm of the story. I was relieved to read in other reviews that many people felt the same way. However, no one could really come up with a clear reason why the first several chapters were so muddy. I suppose, with its plethora of characters and back stories and subplots and mysteries, it just took a while for all of these loose yarns to knit together. When they finally did, I was hooked.

Worst part: I didn’t buy how easily they accepted the identity of the bones.

Recommendations þþþþo

While I felt overwhelmed by the story itself, I was easily hooked by the characters and am excitedly awaiting the next installment. This will not be a book for everyone – it is not a quick and easy read – but it’s got a haunting charm and a deluge of mystery that draws in the inquisitive reader. The bottom line is: I recommend this book.

Stiefvater, Maggie. The Raven Boys. New York: Scholastic, 2012. (Hardcover)

The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress

Pages: 437

Intended Audience: Teens

Genre: Mystery, steampunk

Notes for parents: Some mild language, drinking, inferred drug use, and mature scenes

The Inside Cover

The Friday Society follows the stories of three intelligent and talented young women who work as assistants to powerful men: Cora, lab assistant; Michiko, combat instruction assistant; and Nellie, magician’s assistant. Their lives become inexorably intertwined after a chance meeting at a ball ends with the discovery of a murdered mystery man. It’s up to these three, in their own charming but bold way, to solve the murder—and the crimes they believe may be connected to it—without calling too much attention to themselves. Of course, blending in has never been these ladies’ strong suit, especially with so many eligible men around.

What the Inside Cover doesn’t tell you:

I believe this is the first in an intended series.

What’s good?

The characters were fantastic. Well drawn and interesting, the three main characters and their supporting cast made this a unique and promising adventure. The writing was good, the dialogue was witty—albeit not often fitting for the time period—and there’s a complicated plot that involves a serial killer, grave robbing, a break-in, a mysterious dead man at the door, explosions, evil scientists, Japanese swords, a head, roof hopping, and much, much more.

Best part: Hayao.

What’s not so good?

The plot was slow and predictable, dotted with many hackneyed moments that were probably meant to be funny but felt more awkward than anything else. Speaking of awkward, the bi-polar plot couldn’t decide if it was historical, mystery, romance, steampunk, or comedy. Actually, there wasn’t a whole lot of history or steampunk, the little hints of romance were fairly dull, and there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of urgency in solving the mystery, so it was more like a comedy with a few gadgets, a little kissing, some corsets, and lot of corpses.

Worst part: When Alice’s mom offers them a “cuppa” after they drop off her daughter’s dead body.

Recommendations þþþoo

Two checkmarks didn't seem like enough, but three seems too many. Consider this a two and half. The steampunk cover is what drew me to this story, as did the promise of three strong female characters. While the characters were excellent and some parts were highly entertaining, I was disappointed by how long it took for the story to unfold. It was cute, but not great.

Kress, Adrienne. The Friday Society. New York: Dial Books, 2012. (Hardcover)