The Box in the Woods (2021) is the fourth of a young adult mystery series, Truly Devious, with the difference from the first three books being that while those formed a connected mystery/set of mysteries, book 4 is a complete book in itself. The Truly Devious series is set around Stephanie ‘Stevie’ Bell, who gets…
Book Review: Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
My second ‘wolf’ themed book this week, and to my own surprise (or do I say shock), the second book from my own TBR pile (not NetGalley) that I’m reading in a month. Wolf by Wolf is a young adult book that I came across through YouTube/Booktube and was intrigued by its description—the plot itself…
Book Review: The Light of the Midnight Stars by Rena Rossner
My thanks to Orbit/Little, Brown Book Co and NetGalley for a review copy of this one. This, like the author’s previous book The Sisters of the Winter Wood combines history, fantasy, Jewish folklore, and fairy tales (the previous book didn’t have a fairy tale but Christina Rossetti’s Gobin Market as its base). In 14th-century Hungary,…
Book Review: The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
My thanks to Penguin Random House Children’s UK and NetGalley for a review copy of this compelling and heart-rending read. Spain in the 1950s, the Spain of General Franco provides the setting for this young adult novel. This was a regime where Franco ruled supreme, those that conformed could get by but those that ‘dared’…
Book Review: The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
The Black Kids is set in 1992 around the events of the Rodney King incident, the trial in which the officers who brutalized him were acquitted, and the riots in its aftermath in LA (see Wikipedia here). The book tells the story of a teenaged Ashley Bennett who attends a posh high school and hopes…
Book Review: Lock the Doors by Vincent Ralph
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK for a review copy of this exciting YA suspense mystery/thriller. Lock the Doors is told in first person, opening with Tom/Thomas Cavanagh who is just moving in to a new house with his mother, stepdad Jay and stepsister Nia. The house is his mother’s dream home,…
Review: The Hunger Games (series) by Suzanne Collins
Over the end of 2020 and start of 2021, I read The Hunger Games trilogy (not the newly released prequel, though). The books are set in a dystopian world in which life is much changed from what we have at present, but people perhaps remain the same. The country is—Panem where the Capitol ruthlessly rules…
Shelf Control #122: The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
Wednesday, the 13th of January, and time again for Shelf Control! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, simply pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it--what its about, what makes…
Book Review: One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
One of Us is Lying is a young adult mystery that really kept me hooked (and guessing) from start to finish. This story is told in four narratives/voices side by side, each telling things from their points of view so that we follow both developments in the mystery and each character’s life. The story is…
Book Review: House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig
House of Salt and Sorrows is a young adult fantasy novel which is essentially a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses but with a dark, in fact, a very dark twist. This one I came across purely by chance in a YouTube video by Hailey in Bookland and got a copy because it sounded so…
Literary Potpourri 