en-US Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:03:07 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 28954189 Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

An alternate cover edition of ISBN: 9781442472426]]> 435 Neal Shusterman Colleen 0 4.32 2016
author: Neal Shusterman
name: Colleen
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2020/07/27
date added: 2020/08/27
shelves: my-recommendations, apocalyptic, assassin, bullying, crime, death, friends, future, gangs, immortal, mentor, paranormal, parties, politics, power, religion-gone-wrong, risk-taking, science-gone-wrong, secrets, secret-organizations, suicide, survival, suspense, tech-gadgets, weapons
review:
Love, love, love this book. Such a cool idea. I mean, it's creepy. But, it's awesome. Neal Shusterman's brain comes up with creepy but awesome stuff. That's all I'm going to say.
]]> 32075671 An alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062498533 can be found here.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.]]> 454 Angie Thomas 0062498533 Colleen 0 4.46 2017
author: Angie Thomas
name: Colleen
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2020/06/10
date added: 2020/07/02
shelves: my-recommendations, betrayal, bullying, check-out-the-movie, contemporary, cops, crime, drugs, family, friends, gangs, high-school, lawyers-legal, parties, power, revolution, risk-taking, tragedy, weapons
review:
A gripping narrative and a compelling heroine. Powerful and thought-provoking throughout.
]]> 18811324 Right before my eyes, my beautiful islands are changing forever. And so am I ...

Sixteen-year-old Leilani loves surfing and her home in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. But she's an outsider - half white, half Hawaiian, and an epileptic.

While Lei and her father are on a visit to Oahu, a global disaster strikes. Technology and power fail, Hawaii is cut off from the world, and the islands revert to traditional ways of survival. As Lei and her dad embark on a nightmarish journey across islands to reach home and family, she learns that her epilepsy and her deep connection to Hawaii could be keys to ending the crisis before it becomes worse than anyone can imagine.

A powerful story enriched by fascinating elements of Hawaiian ecology, culture, and warfare, this captivating and dramatic debut from Austin Aslan is the first of two novels. The author has a master’s degree in tropical conservation biology from the University of Hawaii at Hilo.]]> 384 Austin Aslan 0385744021 Colleen 0 3.67 2014
author: Austin Aslan
name: Colleen
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2020/05/17
date added: 2020/07/02
shelves: hawaii, apocalyptic, gangs, adventure, aliens, ancestors, cops, crime, dreams-nightmares, family, food, gods-goddesses, hotel, island, kidnapping, military, mountains, ocean, outdoors-camping, outer-space, prison-prisoner, risk-taking, road-trip, science, setting, sickness-disease, survival, surfing
review:
This story felt so real, I could smell the plumeria blossoms. Is it weird that I think this could actually happen? I loved all the references and the epileptic dreams and conversations with the goddess who was actually...well, you'll find out. I don't want to give it away. On to book two!
]]> 34513785 A thief. An officer. A guardian.

Three strangers. One shared destiny . . .

When the Last Days came, the planet of Laterre promised hope. But five hundred years later, it’s now a place where an extravagant elite class reigns supreme; where the clouds hide the stars and the poor starve in the streets; where a rebel group, long thought dead, is resurfacing.

Whispers of revolution have begun—a revolution that hinges on three unlikely heroes…

Chatine is a street-savvy thief who will do anything to escape the brutal Regime, including spying on Marcellus, the grandson of the most powerful man on the planet.

Marcellus is an officer—and the son of a traitor. Groomed to command by his legendary grandfather, Marcellus begins to doubt the government he’s vowed to serve when he discovers a cryptic message that only one person, a girl named Alouette, can read.

Alouette is living in an underground refuge, where she guards and protects the last surviving library on the planet. But a shocking murder will bring Alouette to the surface for the first time in twelve years…and plunge Laterre into chaos.

All three have roles to play in a dangerous game of revolution—and together they will shape the future of a planet.

Power, romance, and destiny collide in this sweeping reimagining of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece Les Misérables.]]> 582 Jessica Brody 1534410635 Colleen 0 3.89 2019
author: Jessica Brody
name: Colleen
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2020/01/14
date added: 2020/01/14
shelves: based-on-a-classic, sci-fi, chbc-author, crime, death, gangs, outer-space, politics, power, prison-prisoner, retelling, revolution, robot-automaton, secrets, secret-organizations, survival, tech-gadgets
review:
If you are a Les Mis fan you HAVE to read this book. I HEART musicals, big-time, but I have to admit Les Mis isn't my favorite, the Hugh Jackman version being the exception. I know...I know...you're all ready to argue. I just don't like war stuff. Or revolution. Or songs about it. Anyhoo...I did, however, really like this. The characters I usually don't like in Les Mis, I loved in this adaptation. It was such a clever reimagining. My hubby loves Les Mis and I think he'll really enjoy this one!
]]> 22552026 A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE

Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.

And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.]]> 306 Jason Reynolds 1481438255 Colleen 0 4.25 2017
author: Jason Reynolds
name: Colleen
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2018/10/30
date added: 2018/10/30
shelves: death, contemporary, gangs, based-on-a-classic
review:
I love that the author said this was based on the idea of The Christmas Carol and being visited by ghosts of the past. Thought provoking and masterfully told. The poetic way the story is crafted makes it all the more powerful.
]]> 18079631
WHAT HAPPENS when the teenage heirs of two bitterly FEUDING FAMILIES can’t stay away from each other?

The Rhodales and the Whitfields have been sworn enemies for close on a hundred years, with a whole slew of adulterous affairs, financial backstabbing, and blackmailing that’s escalated the rivalry to its current state of tense ceasefire.

IT’S TIME TO LIGHT THE FUSE . . .

And now a meth lab explosion in rural Whitfield County is set to reignite the feud more viciously than ever before. Especially when the toxic fire that results throws together two unlikely spectators—proper good girl Victoria Whitfield, exiled from boarding school after her father’s real estate business melts down in disgrace, and town motorcycle rebel Mickey Rhodale, too late as always to thwart his older brothers’ dangerous drug deals.

Victoria and Mickey are about to find out the most passionate romances are the forbidden ones.

. . . ON A POWDER KEG FULL OF PENT-UP DESIRE, risk-taking daredevilry, and the desperate actions that erupt when a generation of teens inherits nothing but hate.]]> 369 Lucy Connors 1595147098 Colleen 0 3.57 2014
author: Lucy Connors
name: Colleen
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2018/03/26
date added: 2018/03/26
shelves: abuse, animals, the-south, contemporary, based-on-a-classic, high-school, gangs, drugs
review:
I am a huge fan of horses. I've read all the Black Stallion books and have always dreamed of owning a horse ranch. This is probably the only YA book I've read with thoroughbreds. Love the bad boy on his motorcycle and the good girl on horseback. The drug running stuff scares me. I'd get as far away from that as I could. I'm really hoping these two make a run for it.
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