River Readers

This is one of my top books of the year. I really enjoyed how Jackson connected the past and the present. The fact that so many people, dealing with so many different things, end up connected basically through one wannabe star was so intriguing. I had no problem following the different plots and was not blind-sided by the ending. Character development was enough to keep you interested and involved without bogging you down. I listened to this and it was hard to stop,so I had to make sure I quit early sometimes or I would keep listening to the next chapter!

A group of teens struggle to navigate the complexities of adolescent life. The narrative switches from teen to teen (and graphic style to graphic style), each part picking up where the last one left off. In the background, there's frequent mention of a missing girl and the theories that she might have been abducted by aliens. Is it tied into the fact that everyone's phone seems to be out of service? Who knows? There aren't any real answers here. Presumably, they'll be addressed in future volumes.

An interesting read during my Halloween splurge, except for the SPIDER! I always wanted a dollhouse as a child, but I'm not sure this is the one I'd want.

Three years after wrapping up their award-winning, best-selling Locke & Key saga, the team that built Keyhouse returns to Lovecraft, Massachusetts with a new tale of terror and suspense! An impossible birthday gift for two little girls unexpectedly throws open a door to a monster on eight legs!
Goodreads.

This award winning series was worth reading even though it was outside my comfort zone. In any world, friends are a good thing to have, no matter what or where.

Maika has spent most of her life learning how to fight, but how will she fare when the only way to save her life...is to make friends? Collects issues 13-18 of the Hugo Award and British Fantasy Award series.
Goodreads.

This was a good story that explores more about how Maika ended up on the run. It's never easy to evaluate the choices in life,whether it's ones you made or will make or ones others made for you. Trust is had to understand.

An interesting start to a series I might end up liking. The artwork is amazing and I liked the steam punk backdrop. It was a good monster read for my Halloween-time needs.

Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900's Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steam punk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both and make them the target of both human and otherworldly powers. Collects MONSTRESS #1-6

This was not my childhood Sabrina, the teenage witch! Very dark and a bit more horror than I usually like. Not sure I appreciate the very dark witches in this story. I always liked that most of the ones in Sabrina were likable and made me wish being a witch was an honest possibility. Not this group!

Another fun adventure with Florian and Margaret. This time we got the chance to get to know Marcus better. Also the strain between the kids is stretched to the breaking point over the truth behind Margaret's birth parents. Here's hoping this isn't the last story we get to read about this wonderful group of people.

After months of boring work in a bakery and being turned down by every medical school she's applied to, Felicity strikes upon an opportunity that she can't resist. Her estranged former friend Johanna is set to marry Felicity's idol, Dr. Platt, who might be willing to take a woman on as an apprentice. Felicity concocts a scheme to get to Germany, which requires the assistance of a lady pirate with an entirely different set of motives. One should never meet one's idols though; Dr. Platt turns out to be far from the enlightened physician that Felicity has made him out to be.

Jeremy is a retrieval specialist. He gets things back that have been taken and has a booming business at his school. He has to be careful though because his arch-rival Becca is always looking for an opportunity to catch him. When Jeremy retrieves something that isn't actually stolen he causes huge issues for the school. He has to work with Becca to get it back before things go horribly wrong. 

Norah has spent the last two years battling cancer, but she is healthy now and ready to go back to school. The problem is that while Norah has been sick and homeschooled, her friends have moved on and things have changed. So it is a bit of a relief to be put in 8th grade math and science with a new group of kids who don't know her as the "cancer girl". There is also new boy Griffin to contend with. Norah and Griffin have similar interests and Norah finds herself not telling Griffin about her cancer. He treats her as a normal girl and she wants to keep it that way.

Alice and her mother Ella (real name Vanilla ugh!) have been on the run her entire life. They never stay very long in one place because bad luck always seems to find them. When Ella is kidnapped Alice decides she must find her grandmother's estate Hazel Wood. Grandmother Althea Proserpine is a reclusive author who wrote one book, Tales from the Hinterland. The book has a cult following and is extremely hard to find. Alice has only seen it once and never read it. So she teams up with schoolmate Finch who has read the book to find her mother and the Hazel Wood. 

The Civil War ends when the dead rise up and start eating their fellow soldiers at Gettysburg. Now shamblers are everywhere, but the good folks are fighting back. Slavery has been abolished and the war is over because everyone must focus on surviving. Except everything isn't sunshine and glory. There is an act of Congress that forces all Native and Black people to attend combat schools to fight the shamblers. Of course the white folks don't have to go to these forced boarding schools. The combat schools, like Ms.

Livvy hasn't been to see her grandma in Australia in five years and remembers very little about her first visit. She discovers that the reason she can't remember is Bob, a green not-zombie who has hid in the closet since she left five years ago. Livvy made Bob a chicken costume to hide him from everyone else when she was five, but it appears no one but her can see or hear him. 

Lu is the final book in Jason Reynolds' Track series. It follows Lu the final "newbie" on the Defenders Track Team. Lu is albino and has to deal with things like sunscreen and vision correction. He also deals with other kids teasing him for his lack of pigment. Lu's dad has a shady past that he has overcome, but it comes to light that part of that past intersects with Coach's past in a tragic way. Lu is trying to do hurdles for the team and struggling. He is also going to be a big brother for the first time.