Challenger Deep

Challenger Deep

by Neal Shusterman

Synopsis:

Caden Bosch is on a ship that''s headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.

Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.

Caden Bosch is designated the ship''s artist in residence, to document the journey with images.

Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.

Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.

Caden Bosch is torn.

A captivating and powerful novel that lingers long beyond the last page,Challenger Deepis a heartfelt tour de force by one of today''s most admired writers for teens.

My thoughts:

This novel takes readers into the mind of a 15 year old boy who is becoming schizophrenic.  Sometimes Caden is in the real world, and sometimes he is on a pirate ship bound for the deepest part of the ocean, under the control of a one-eyed captain and his cruel parrot.  The reader struggles to determine what is real, and what is not, just as Caden does.  Readers experience the development of Caden’s disease as his moments in reality become shorter and shorter.  His teachers, friends and family know something is wrong but are helpless as Caden spirals deeper into his psychosis.  Eventually Caden’s parents become desperate and admit him into a juvenile mental facility.  There readers see Caden’s thought processes, the effects of medication, or lack thereof, on his everyday functioning. We see his spiral into darkness, and his return to reality, and everything in between. Shusterman masterfully portrays the benefits and detriments of treatment, and how a lesser evil is often the only choice for someone at the end of their rope.

Knowing that Schusterman is drawing on his own son’s experience only makes this story more powerful and at times, painful.  Smart and funny, intelligent and poignant, frightening and thought provoking — this novel will stay with readers a long time.

Lies I Told

Lies I Told

by Michelle Zink

Synopsis:

Since Grace was adopted by the Fontaines, she has been carefully taught the art of the scam and has an uncanny ability to create a personality to help her "parents," but their latest job has her questioning everything she has been taught and the family she has grown to love.

My thoughts:

A girl struggles to hold onto her own identity within her family of thieves.

Grace disobeys her parents by keeping mementos from her family’s previous criminal jobs. She hopes she hasn’t completely become the deceptive creature her parents trained her to be from the time they adopted her as a young teen. Now 17, Grace has moved with her family to an affluent area as part of a plot to steal millions in gold from Warren Fairchild, a wildly wealthy but mentally unstable man. Her parents assign Grace to get close to Logan, Fairchild’s son, a task she finds only too easy, as she and Logan truly fall for each other. Grace likes her new friends in Playa Hermosa, making one truly good friend for the first time in her life, her family having moved incessantly to keep up with jobs and ahead of the police. She lives with the realization that she must lie to these good people constantly, and she knows she must betray Logan, whom she loves. Zink deftly weaves the story together, employing foreshadowing and symbolism to support the plot. Although readers know from the prologue that things will turn out badly, suspense ripples throughout the story. Grace’s character blooms as she balances between the good person she hopes to be and the bad one she’s forced to be.

The Last Time We Say Goodbye

The Last Time We Say Goodbye

by Cynthia Hand

Synopsis:

We just don't pay attention.
Until we do.

There''s death all around us.

The last time Lex was happy, it was before. When she had a family that was whole. A boyfriend she loved. Friends who didn't look at her like she might break down at any moment.

Now she's just the girl whose brother killed himself. And it feels like that''s all she''ll ever be.

As Lex starts to put her life back together, she tries to block out what happened the night Tyler died. But there''s a secret she hasn't told anyone-a text Tyler sent that could have changed everything.

Lex's brother is gone. But Lex is about to discover that a ghost doesn't have to be real to keep you from moving on.

My thoughts:

After her younger brother's suicide, ordinarily rational Alexis starts seeing her younger brother's ghost.

Seven weeks after Ty shot himself with a hunting rifle, Alexis' mom announces she's seen him in the house. Alexis, a math student with aspirations of attending MIT, is skeptical but soon sees visions of her own. Alexis watches Ty die in recurring dreams, reluctantly relives firsts and lasts in a journal suggested by her therapist, and tries to stay strong for her mom, who is drinking to cope and certain that her own life is over. Alexis herself hasn't cried since her brother's death. Instead, moments of intense emotion open what Alexis powerfully describes as a "hole in my chest." The hauntings here are more emotional than paranormal, and Alexis' journey primarily entails reconnecting with estranged friends and family and slowly moving on. The characters involved are many—a childhood friend–turned–occultist stoner, Alexis' emotionally absent father and Ty's last girlfriend, to name a few—but each storyline is distinctly important and carefully woven in. Details of Ty's last days, Alexis' sense of guilt and the incident itself are revealed slowly and are often unexpected but always believable.

Bone Gap

Bone Gap

by Laura Ruby

Synopsis:

Bone Gapis the story of Roza, a beautiful girl who is taken from a quiet midwestern town and imprisoned by a mysterious man, and Finn, the only witness, who cannot forgive himself for being unable to identify her kidnapper. As we follow them through their melancholy pasts, their terrifying presents, their uncertain futures, acclaimed author Laura Ruby weaves a heartbreaking tale of love and loss, magic and mystery, regret and forgiveness-a story about how the face the world sees is never the sum of who we are.

My thoughts:

A teenage boy wrestles against forces real and imagined in a small, rural town named Bone Gap.

Finn was the only one to witness the kidnapping of brother Sean’s beautiful girlfriend, Roza, at the spring festival. But when he looks at mug shots, all the faces look frustratingly similar. Meanwhile, a tall man with eyes like ice who demands her love traps Roza in an ever changing netherworld. But Roza is determined to find her way back to Sean and Finn’s backyard, no matter what the cost. Told from the viewpoints of multiple Bone Gap citizens, this inventive modern fable whimsically combines elements of folklore, mythology, romance and feminism. Finn starts out as a daydreaming cipher, but when he discovers he has a condition called “face blindness,” his vague character comes into sharp focus, and his mission to battle the tall man becomes clear. Both Roza and Finn’s love interest, Priscilla, develop over the course of the magically real journey into strong women to be reckoned with, while the secondary characters, including a sassy beekeeper, wise chicken farmer and self-aware horse, are charming and memorable. And if the transitions between reality and fantasy are a little rocky and the worldbuilding occasionally a little thin, it can be forgiven due to the sheer ambition of the refreshingly original plot.

Cleverly conceived and lusciously written.