All The Truth That's In Me

All The Truth That's In Me

by Julie Berry

Synopsis: 

Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family.

Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas.

But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever.

This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last.

My thoughts:

Judith was kidnapped at age 14 by a madman that the townspeople thought was dead.  At 16 the madman released her and she was able to return home but she had been silenced in an effort to protect her and was unable to tell anyone her tale.  Now two years later Judith lives as a mute and is treated as an outcast in her village, even her mother acts ashamed of her. With the threat of an attack on her village Judith willingly goes back to the madman for help which causes shocking discoveries to be made and forces Judith to decide if she will remain silent or if she will reclaim her voice and let all the truth that's in her be heard.  All The Truth That's In Me is truly an original take on what could be consider a fairly simple story.  This story is told through a monologue that runs through Judith's head and which is almost exclusively directed at Lucas, the boy that Judith has loved for as long as she can remember. Berry artfully reveals characters and plotlines with easy, marking almost every page with little (or sometimes major) clues that help to build up the suspense.  The time and setting of the story is never discussed, one gets the sense that it is the 1800s in North America but this is never confirmed which lends even more mystery to the story.  As all the pieces fall into place the reader with be amazed with Berry's story telling abilities and haunted by Judith's voice. This novel is a hidden gem and one that needs to be raved about to everyone.

Death Sworn

Death Sworn

by Lean Cypess

Synopsis:

Ileni is losing her magic. And that means she''s losing everything: Her status as the renegade sorcerers'' most powerful rising star. Her purpose in life. The boy she loves. Her home.

Exiled to teach sorcery to the assassins hidden deep within the mountains, she expects no one will ever hear from her again. The last two tutors died within weeks of each other. As Ileni unravels the mystery surrounding their deaths, she''ll uncover secrets that have been kept for decades-and she''ll find an unexpected ally and dangerous new love.

But even he may not be able to protect her. Not when she''s willing to risk everything.

My Thoughts:

Three of my favorite things...murder, mystery and magic...top with assassins and romance and Cypress has a guaranteed bestseller!!  I was ensnared from the first page.  Ileni is losing her magic and that means losing her status as the renegade sorcerers’ most powerful rising star, the boy she loves and her purpose in life.  Giving up on life she volunteers to leave her home to teach sorcery to the assassins deep within the mountains.  She doesn’t expect to come out alive.  The last two teachers sent were murdered.  Her only hope is that before she too is killed that she will discover who is behind the murders of the previous tutors.  This is a well written engaging story that lovers of fantasy will devour.

Tumble & Fall

Tumble & Fall

by Alexandra Coutts

Synopsis:

The world is living in the shadow of oncoming disaster. An asteroid is set to strike the earth in just one week's time; catastrophe is unavoidable. The question isn't how to save the world-the question is, what to do with the time that''s left? Against this stark backdrop, three island teens wrestle with intertwining stories of love, friendship and family-all with the ultimate stakes at hand. 

Alexandra Coutts''s TUMBLE & FALL is a powerful story of courage, love, and hope at the end of the world. 

My thoughts:

What would you do in the last days of life if you knew the world was going to be destroyed in one week? Coutts intertwines the story of three teens, as they, and the rest of society, stare down the end of the world. Sienna has just returned home from a rehabilitation centre after a suicide attempt.  Zan is struggling  cope with the death of her boyfriend, and finally, Caden is confronted by the father who abandoned him and now, in the final days of life, wants to reconcile.  Coutts’ creates characters that offer both depth and appeal.  The stories, rather than focussing on end of the world scenes like rioting and chaos, instead focus on stories of forgiveness and family.  This is a well crafted refreshing read that appeal to a wide variety of readers.  

A House in the Sky

A House in the Sky

by Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett

Synopsis:

As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress in Calgary, Alberta, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia-"the most dangerous place on earth." On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road.

Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic, receives "wife lessons" from one of her captors, and risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert, she survives on memory-every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity-and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark, being tortured.

Vivid and suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman and her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity.

My thoughts:

I first heard Amanda’s story when she was a keynote at teachers’ convention. There must have been 3000 people in the packed room and while she told her story not a murmur could be heard.   This memoir is just as captivating.  She begins by telling the story of as a child of a dysfunctional family.  To escape, she travels to Calgary after high school, where she earns enough money as a waitress to begin her lifelong dream of travelling the world.  She went from South America to Asia to increasingly risky trips into Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan. While working as a freelance journalist, Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan, an Australian photographer, travelled to Somalia where they are kidnapped and held for ransom.  A ransom that both the Canadian and Australian governments refused to pay.  She writes of her months of captivity with an honesty that at times is difficult to read.  She talks about the teenage soldiers who guarded them with an understanding  voice that places no blame on the teenage boys that brutalized her while in captivity.  She is betrayed by Nigel, beaten and sexually abused and, as her health declines, she creates “a house in the sky” to hold  everything she loves.  Teens will appreciate the honesty and be inspired by the survival of Lindhout. They will also be amazed by forgiveness that Lindhout demonstrates by her current work establishing a school for Somalian refugees in Nairobi.