Shelter: a Mickey Bolitar Novel

Shelter : a Mickey Bolitar Novel by Harlen Coban

Life hasn't played fair with Mickey – his mother has fallen apart after the death of Mickey's father. She became a drug addict and is in a rehab facility. His father and his uncle got into a huge fight years ago, but he's the only relative that can give Mickey a home. And as a result, as a sophomore, he's starting a new school. The only thing that makes life tolerable is a girl he's met, named Ashley.

The janitor's son has keys to all the doors in the school. He helps Mickey find out where Ashley lives and when he goes to her house, the people there have never heard of her. Then they decide to scan the security tapes by her locker. The tapes reveal a tattooed man breaking into Ashley's locker. They trace the man through his tattoos and all hell breaks loose.

Aside of the mystery which is excellent, I loved reading about his relationships with Ema, a fat goth girl and Spoon, the janitor's son, who always has some odd factoid to begin every conversation. They balance out his being gorgeous and a great basketball player.

The Silence of Murder 
by Dandi Daley Mackall

Hope Long and her brother Jeremy are being raised by an abusive alcoholic mother. Jeremy stopped talking years ago after being slapped hard by his mother. His one joy is working at the stables where he can hang out with Coach Johnson. The coach has even gotten him a Panther's uniform and his own special wooden baseball bat.

When the Coach is found dead at the stables, suspicions become indictments and Jeremy is arrested and put on trial for the murder. He was seen leaving the stables covered in blood, holding his bloody baseball bat. No one knows Jeremy as well as Hope. She knows his sweet nature and that he loved the coach. There must be some other explanation, but can she find it before he's sent to jail or to a mental hospital?

Kill You Last 

      by Todd Strasser

Have to read more of his books, if this one is a sample of his writing. Shelby has a spoiled rich girl's life  thanks to her  father's fashion photography business.  However, he's never home which has affected her parent's marriage. Her luxury life style isn't enough to sustain her when there are three missing girls in the area and they all had their model portfolio pictures taken at her Dad's. Soon their life is shattered as reporters stalk the family and the police search his studio. Shelby believes him and looks at the people who work at the studio - Janet and Gabriel. The first missing girl's body is found. She's been murdered. And Shelby gets weird texts from vengeance13773288gmail.com. Wre I 2 die today, my dying wish would B 2 C Ur dad get what he deserves. She doesn't know what to believe especially when she discovers her Dad has been scamming girls her age.

The Name of the Star: Shades of London
            by Maureen Johnson


I almost gave up reading this book when I saw Book One on the title page.  I won't read a book that leaves me hanging. I flipped, skipped through the book and then slowed down and read, when I discovered it's a complete story, in and of itself.

Rory Deveaux accompanies her parents to England, where they are going to work and she is going to a boarding school in London. At the same time, someone mimicking Jack the Ripper's killings is on the loose in the city quite near her school. 
She settles into the routine of school and into a relationship with Jerome, a senior student. He takes her and her roommate Jazza to the scene of the second murder. There Rory bumps into a strange gentleman who is astonished when she apologizes to him. Later, looking out her window, she catches a glimpse of something or someone, but when she looked again, it was gone. 
She doesn't realize it, but everything changes for her after she has a near death experience. She and Jazzy sneak out one night and return to the dorm at 2:00 a.m. The same man appears as she's sneaking back in. He says, "Should you be doing that?"to which she replies "It's okay, I go here." He says "good night, girls" and walks off. Rory has a problem - Jazzy did not see the creepy man even though he was right there. From here, the book takes off a supersonic speed and you won't be able to put it down.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

It doesn't really matter that this is the first book. Why? This one will keep you reading for hours. The next one is The Evolution of Mara Dyer. There is book three in the works. 

It is also paranormal and a romance in addition to the mystery Mara tries to figure out. It concerns her. While exploring a closed insane asylum, the ancient building collapses, killing three of her friends and sending her into a coma for five days. She has post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and it's so bad the entire family moves to a different city in a different state. She is trying to remember what happened, that night but can't. Then weird things start happening. She looks in a mirror and sees her best friend's face. She comes home from a dance one night and things in the house have been moved, the bath she started has been turned off and she sees her earrings appear on the bottom of the tub.

She and her brother have transferred to an elite private school. On her first day, she enters her Algebra class and distinctly sees the walls collapsing in front of her and she falls to the floor to avoid a falling light.  Of course, it wasn't happening and everyone thinks she's weird and avoids her. 

Except this one very tall, slim beautiful boy. She's heard he's a heartbreaker and she resists getting involved, but she does. He cares for her. Even when it appears that she has killed her Spanish teacher just by imagining her choking to death. Maybe it's a coincidence. Or maybe not.

SHINE by Lauren Myracle

She is a miracle.  She has written a book that gives intimate portraits of life for teens in a distressed small town. It's a community where the industry has departed and meth is the preferred way of dealing with depression. The main character, Cat, had a traumatic experience three years ago and rather than telling about it, she has withdrawn from her friends. Especially painful was withdrawing from her best friend Patrick, unable to let him know her shameful secret.
As the book starts, Patrick has been a victim of a hate crime. He's in a coma. The fact that he was gay has been known in the community for a long time, but no one seemed especially vindictive towards him. Cat tries to make up for the time she abandoned him by trying to find out who did this. ]Among the suspects are: the meth dealer Wally; the group her brother Christian hangs around with: Beef, Tommy ( who she hates for a very good reason), Dupree, and Bailee-Ann; and perhaps some college boys passing through that Patrick pissed off by not selling them beer. She needs to do this because the sheriff will only to pretend to investigate. She is warned to drop it by almost everyone.
My synopsis sells the book short. I don't post many books because they don't live up to a great YA mystery. This one does.
Go to this website to see why the National book award committee screwed up by nominating her for a National book award.
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/18/the_national_book_award_nominee_that_wasnt/

What a shame that the label on the spine says Historical when it should say Mystery. Yes, it takes place during World War II. Yes, it has great descriptions of the clothes e.g. zoot suits and saddle shoes. Yes,  there are tons of things that are signs of the times. But it's a mystery, and a good one.

Iris's father is trying to run his own detective agency, but he's hindered, having lost part of one leg in the war. He can't walk fast or climb lots of stairs. Iris decides to help him out. She succeeds and instead of being grateful, he is irate. "You're a child. Be a child." She tries to be good, but can't. One of her father's new cases is about Tom Barney, someone she just met at her new high school. He's missing.

She starts hanging around with Tom's old crowd, a fast crowd, hoping to get information. She gets one piece that stuns her. Her former friend Grace dated him just before he disappeared. Iris, no longer attends an expensive private school as they are living on the edge of poverty. Grace is one of those rich girls from the upper east side of Manhattan. How did she meet Tom?

She ends up really liking the people in Tom's crowd. They take her to Harlem to dance at the Savoy, lending her their clothes and make-up. However, the lies she told to get into the crowd, catch up to her just as she's beginning to discover what she needs.