Lies
By Michael Grant
Series: Third in the Gone series

Warning: Review contains spoilers to Gone and Hunger.

It has now been seven months since everyone fifteen and older poofed and conditions only continue to worsen for those left behind. “Are you eating?” has replaced “How are you?” as the standard greeting. Electricity is out. The absence of water pressure gives no alternative but to let any fires burn themselves out. Then rumors begin spreading about the big poof when the kids reach the exact age of fifteen being a way to leave the FAYZ and return to the loving arms of parents who are waiting just outside the FAYZ wall though not everyone is convinced this is true. To make matters even worse, Caine talks Zil, leader of the Human Crew, to set the town on fire as he and his declining number of followers pursue Caine’s latest plan. As the town begins to erupt into flames, Sam begins seeing images of the one person he fears, the one who had almost killed him, back from the dead and ready to continue where he and Sam left off. Grant does not disappoint readers in this latest installment of the Gone series. While action sequences take a step back in this installment, giving the suspense center stage, readers will be eager for the fourth book when they reach the end.

Infinity
By Sherrilyn Kenyon
Series: First in the Chronicles of Nick

Fourteen year old Nick Gautier is the “scholarship kid” at a private school where the other students are attending because parents are rich while Nick lives in a small condo cut from an old house whose mother works at a strip club and barely makes enough to get by even when she does double shifts. One night after Nick stops some “friends” try to kill him when she stops them from mugging an elderly couple. Luckily, or unluckily, he is saved from a mysterious stranger who offers to pay for Nick’s hospital bills, but since Nick and his mother does not accept charity, also agrees to hire Nick to work for him to pay off the debt. When Nick returns to school after his hospital stay a crowd is gathered outside complete with an ambulance and police. A student had bitten off a chunk of another student’s arm. Suddenly, Nick’s schoolmates are being turned into brain-craving zombies at an alarming rate and this is only the beginning of Nick’s entrance into the supernatural world of the Dark-Hunters. The Chronicles of Nick is a prequel series from Kenyon’s adult Dark-Hunters series, but readers do not need to be familiar with the first series to enjoy this YA series opener, though it might help with the back story of some of the characters and their place in the Dark-Hunters world. Fans of the supernatural genre will enjoy the numerous supernatural creatures that appear in this installment from zombies (both “living” zombies who are actually only brainwashed individuals as well as the traditional dead-brought-back-to-life zombies) to shape shifters to a variety of demons each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and powers.

The Light
By D. J. MacHale
Series: First in the Morpheus Road trilogy

Marshal Seaver is looking forward to spending the summer with his friend best friend Cooper Foley. However, these plans immediately change when Cooper is forced to spend the entire summer with his parents at their lake house. As Marshal prepares for what is sure to be a boring summer, his father leaves for a business trip. This is when Marshal begins being haunted. It begins with strange sounds and a rouge breeze. Then Marshal comes face to face with a character straight from his own sketchbook. There is only one person Marshal can talk with about these happenings and that is Cooper. However, when he tries contacting his friend, he finds out that Cooper is missing. As Marshal begins piecing together the events that lead to his friend’s disappearance and the reason he is suddenly being haunted by a character of his own creation, he begins to consider if these two events might actually be part of the same mystery. Readers will find this story un-put-down-able as the suspense builds and what seems to be two separate mysteries begin to blur into one large puzzle. There are scenes, although suspenseful, have little or no dialogue and long paragraphs though most of these occur when Marshal, who serves as narrator, is alone. There are also a few occurrences where a phrase is repeated nearly word for word within a couple of paragraphs. All in all, horror and supernatural fans will devour this book and become eager for the next installment when they reach the end.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
By Seth Grahame-Smith

Abraham Lincoln is well known for saving the Union and freeing millions of slaves during his term as the sixteenth president of the United States. What is not as well known is the time he spent in his youth hunting vampires. That is, until Grahame-Smith, as he describes in his introduction, stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln and became the first living man to lay eyes on it in 140 years. Using this journal as a guide, Grahame-Smith gives the general public the real story of one of America’s greatest presidents while also revealing the true cause for the Civil War as well as other events in American history. Okay, it is obvious this is a work of fiction, but Grahame-Smith’s use of a biographical style gives the story a “realistic” tone. This book will be enjoyed by vampire buffs as well as Lincoln and history buffs.

Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film about The Grapes of Wrath
By Steven Goldman

Mitchell Wells, a high school junior, could be the biggest loser on the planet. He has one best friend, David, though this gets a little awkward when David comes out to Mitchell. His decent GPA is about to be tank because of a Claymation film Mitchell turns in as an alternative project for a typical three to five page paper on The Grapes of Wrath containing violence, nudity, ketchup packet blood bursts, and a flying monkey sequence among other interesting additions that has little actual connection to The Grapes of Wrath, though Steinbeck does make a cameo appearance as Satan played by a nude dancing Ken doll with Steinbeck’s photo tapped to its face. And girls… well, does hanging out with his sister and her best friend count? Goldman captures the reality of male adolescence in his young adult debut, though slightly ridiculous, but what average, contemporary American high school experience isn’t? This humorous, at times laugh-out-loud story will be enjoyed by all kinds of readers, even those who actually like their high school experience.

Beastly
By Alex Flinn

A modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, told through the point of view of the Beast. Kyle Kingsbury is a vain, good looking, Manhattan private school student who treats everyone by their looks. When he goes too far with his vainness at a school dance, he is transformed into a beast and given two years to break the curse by having a girl see through his hideousness and love him with him loving her back and kissing to prove it. For the first year of the curse, Kyle feels he will forever remain a beast, only going out at night and watching the world go by through the windows by day with only a maid and his blind tutor as company. Then he meets Lindy using a magic mirror given to him by the witch that put him under the curse. When her father tries breaking in he agrees to send Lindy to live with Kyle. During their acquaintanceship, Kyle begins to fall in love with Lindy, something that would not have happened pre-transformation because of Lindy’s “average” looks. But can Lindy look past Kyle’s beastly form and love him before the remaining year runs out? Flinn combines aspects from several versions of the Beauty and the Beast story along with references to other transformation stories and characters that are forced into hiding because of their appearance. Readers who enjoy retellings of classic stories would not be disappointed with Beastly.

Son of the Mob
By Gordon Korman

Vince Luca is your basic seventeen year old high school student. His best friend Alex is constantly vicariously trying to score through him with “This is my love life we’re talking about” every time Vince is about to go out on a date. His older brother is a pain. His father has a successful vending machine business. Well, that was the cover up his mother told him when he was little to explain his father’s different working hours from the other fathers in the neighborhood, telling him “you never know when a vending machine is going to break.” It isn’t until Vince is older when he learns his father’s true occupation and what brings in the money that provide a roof over his head, the clothes on his back, and the food in his stomach – Vince’s father is a Mob boss, which explains why Vince has listed sixty plus “uncles” during his youth without knowing exactly how they were related as his father was an only child. Vince wants nothing to do with his father’s “vending machine” business, but, as one could expect, being the son of a Mob boss can put a serious crimp in his dating life; particularly when he begins dating Kendra, who father is the FBI agent who wants more than anything to put Vince’s father in jail. Vince’s voice as he tells the story is full of his wonderfully dry, sarcastic sense of humor which this reader found immensely entertaining and appropriate to the story being told. The pace of the story is quick with something always going on or a new twist about to be discovered. However, the ending, at least to this reader, felt a bit rushed though it did tie together the subplots.