Teen Art & Lit — Book Reviews

Looking for a good read? Or have you read a book that you'd like to tell others about? Check out what others have found in the library recently &mdash and add your own review, too!

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The Forest of Hands and Teeth
by Carrie Ryan

Zombies are really big these days. Maybe not as attractive as vampires, but they represent the dark side of undead lore. In this book, set in a post-apocalyptic world, we are introduced to a young girl named Mary, who lives in a tiny village surrounded by a chain link fence. Beyond the village exists the "forest of hands and teeth" which is home to the unconsecrated aka the zombies. Mary's world is ruled by a religious sect known as the Sisterhood, who oversee everything from marriage to funerals. They also promise protection from the unconsecrated. That is until a weak link in the fence releases the unconsecrated upon the village, and forces Mary and her friends to flee into the fence-lined paths of the forest, in a desperate search for a safe haven, and a hope that the ocean Mary's mother always told her about actually exists. This story is both touching and a little scary. It adds a kind of emotional factor you can't really feel in zombie movies.

California Demon
by Julie Kenner

The first of a series, this book opens up with a average suburban mom. Until she starts fighting demons off that is. Your main character Kate Connor is off on an adventure by the second chapter. She is trying to find a way to balance her new life as a suburban house wife and her old life as a demon hunter. All without letting her family know and still keep them and her friends safe. It's fun and fast paced. There is nothing as exciting as chicks kicking butt. Good for anyone who is 15 and up.

Pretty Little Devils
by Nancy Holder

Pretty Little Devils is about a girl who is about and becomes one of the most popular girls in school. Only once you get into it I'm pretty sure it's not a God-send. This book is about the tale of a girl and joining the PLD's and finding out what it's like to be at the top in the middle of a crisis. Will the deaths at her school ever stop? Who is behind it all? This book will keep you guessing til the very last page.

Eragon
by Christopher Paolini

I thought this book is good, even though I'm in the middle of the book at the time. There is a lot of action and adventure, there is a lot of violence for those children under the age of 3. Anyway it's a good book were a boy named Eragon finds a "stone" which is really a dragon egg, in a magical place called the Spine, when the dragon hatches his uncle dies and he meets an old man, named Brom, to help him fight the Ra'zac and get revenge over his uncle's death! It's a good book so you're a loser if you don't want to read this!

Wicked
by Gregory Maguire

Ready for fast-paced action, unlikely romances, and a whole new outlook on Oz? Set in the well-known but not well-understood- as you will see in this book- Land of Oz we can all recall from Frank Baum's classic Wizard of Oz, Wicked is a deep and multi-layered story of the truth behind the Wicked Witch of the West, the ruby slippers, and who the Wizard really is. Its elegant prose and richly descriptive imagery lead you on an adventure that starts in a Munchkinland minster's house, where a green-skinned, shark-toothed child has just been born, and further, through Elphaba's college years, unlucky romances, and finally to her finale as the misunderstood, brilliant, shunned Wicked Witch of the West. This book will give you a whole new outlook on the meaning of the word "wicked" and a deeply touching, can't-put-it-down read at the same time.

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