Young Adult

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is really interesting less as a villain origin story and more as a reflection on the early days of The Hunger Games. Coriolanus Snow is 18 during the events of this book, and the tenth Games are about to start. Ten years previous, when he and his classmates were 7 or 8 years old, the rebels attacked the Capitol, killing tons of people, causing mass starvation (some people even resorted to cannibalism), and leaving the city in shambles, both physically and economically.

In Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, final installment of The Hunger Games, the most deadly and costly games are launched as the district rebels and the Capitol fight to the bloody finish for power over Panem. Katniss Everdeen continues to be the pawn, but as the games unravel, it’s never quite clear what side she should be playing for and who she should trust.

Catching Fire starts up not far from where The Hunger Games ended. Katniss is living in the Victors Village with her family. You'd think she could finally be able to relax and live the cushy life. Well that wouldn't make a good book. There are rumors of rebellion and since Katniss and Peeta won the Hunger Games in defiance they have become the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol, particularly President Snow, is not happy with them. Now Katniss has to worry about looking as in love with Peeta as possible to quiet down the rebellion, but is that what she really wants?

Written along the lines of Stephen King’s The Long Walk or George Orwell’s 1984, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins still feels very original and sucked me in completely with its modern day Survivor-esque retelling. The Hunger Games is the ultimate in reality TV, suspense, scripted realism, romance and survival that you should not miss.

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott was such an endearing, engaging and a sweet Teens & YA novel featuring two teenage main characters, Stella and Will who are both patients in the hospital with Cystic Fibrosis that fall in love.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a character driven novel about a girl named Melinda who has just started high school. She is withdrawn, feels like an outcast, and has troubling talking as a result of being raped at a party over the summer.

They Both Die at the End is the story of Mateo and Rufus, two very different guys who live in New York and then, one day at dawn, they receive the call from Death-Cast, a company that alerts people the day they're going to die.

The story of If I Stay by Gayle Forman is told in a serious of flash backs where we get to see that Mia is a normal teenager, living in Oregon, with a bright although conflicted future ahead of her.

All the bright places by Jennifer Niven is just one of those books that is fantastically written with such poise and brilliance that it leaves the reader wanting for more.