The House of YA

Loge of Lies

 Book Review of Hover by Melissa West

Hover is the second book in “The Taking” series. The story picks up after Ari was taken to Loge when a neurotoxin was released on earth. Ari Alexander and Jackson Castello, the grandson of Zeus, must save the Ancients and the humans by trying to get them back to earth. However, this entails a dangerous mission that is put in Ari’s hands. She must kill Zeus, the ruler of Loge. Will she succeed or not? Will her relationship with Jackson make it through his secrets and lies?

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I read this book without reading the first one, except for the summary, and honestly was expecting to be lost in the book. I don’t mean being lost as in attention but as in not understanding. However, that wasn’t the case. Throughout the story I discovered bits and pieces from the previous book and was able to follow along clearly through the story. This second book was so captivating there is a lot of action going on and I was able to learn a lot about the world of Loge, including the unrest of some Logean people against Zeus.

The House of Paranormal YA

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

“I had been in his arms, but I hadn’t seen his face for a century. It was the same…. ‘You… you’re still the same Nikki. You survived…. I mean, I’ve searched for you—for someone like you—for thousands of years…. You have no idea what this means. This. Never. Happens. Nik, you don’t have to go to the Tunnels. You can stay with me. Become an Everling.’” (Page 5)

Nikki is a seventeen-year-old girl, wrenched from her normal world into Everneath, where she must stay for a century with a guy named Cole. Everneath is a place in-between earth and hell; in this place there are immortal creatures who are called Everling. However, in order to stay immortal they must feed off the energy of humans. Most of the humans, though, do not survive, being fed off, and go to a place called the Tunnels where the humans must spend eternity suffering. However, Nikki survived, because she has special ties to the Everling. After Cole fed off her, she was given a choice: stay with Cole and become an Everling or go to the Tunnels.

The House of Paranormal YA

Smokeless Fire by Samantha Young

“I can’t have anything happen to you. And being around me… not good. Starting now I have to walk away from all of this. From Ohio. From Dad and Rachel and Staci… and you.” (A conversation between Charlie and Ari, page 251)

Ari is a normal eighteen-year-old girl dealing with normal eighteen-year-old girl problems. She deals with anxiety of graduating from high school, trying to communicate better with her dad, and helping out Charlie, her best friend (and the guy that Ari claims to love), during difficult times that had led him to drug and alcohol problems. However, all of these problems change in one dream that turns out to be reality. Aria is pulled out of her normal life and thrown into the world of Jinn.

The House of Paranormal YA

Marked by Oil, Caught in Love 

Book Review on Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast

*May contain spoilers!!!

“Zoey Montgomery! Night has chosen thee; thy death will be thy birth. Night calls to thee; hearken to Her sweet voice. Your destiny awaits you at the House of Night!” He lifted one long, white finger and pointed at me” (P.C. and Kristin Cast 3).

Marked by P.C Cast and Kristen Cast is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Zoey who, on top of being a teenager, has to deal with a huge change in her life: being marked as a vampyre. After being marked, Zoey must leave her family and friends to go to a boarding school called “House of Night” where all of the marked teenage vampyres must go to be educated and trained on how to live if they survive the “change.” This change is when fledging vampyres become full, adult vampyres and unfortunately some are killed in the process.

Book Review: Mercy by Rebecca Lim

“There’s no discernible pattern to the Carmes, the Lucys, the Susannahs that I have been and become. All I know is that they stretch back in an unbroken chain further that I can remember – I can sense them all there, standing one behind the other, jostling for my attention, struggling to tell me something about my condition.” (Page 30)

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Mercy is the story of girl/ angel who has fallen; she has no memory of where she came from, she has no body of her own, and the only thing that she remembers are her physical features. Since she does not have her own body she is forced to dosomethingunnatural: inhabit other people’s bodies and sort of take over their lives. While she is the body of the stranger, that person has no idea what is going on, and, when they come back, have no recollection of what happened — in other words it is as if they are asleep. She has no control over what person she will inhabit next or for how long. The only thing that remains constant in Mercy’s shifting life is Luc. A guy/angel that appears in her dream, she loves him. Luc keeps telling her that she should find him but she does not know how to do that, or where to start.

Book Review: “La Sombra de lo Que Fuimos”/ “The Shadow Of What We Were” by Luis Sepúlveda

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The Shadow Of What We Were is a book that is written from the perspective of communist exiles, who have travelled through many countries in Europe and have come back home. Home for these exiles is a low-income neighborhood. The main characters of the story are Cacho Salinas, Lolo Garmedia, and Lucho Arencibia. However, when these three men come back home they’ve discovered that the country has evolved while they have not. These three men however when they come back to Chile realize that the country is no longer the way they are. This book is one of those books that in order to understand it better you must at least know a brief history of Chile. There are a lot of references to different protest music, poetry, and different political figures throughout the Chilean revolution.

Book Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

I was afraid again…. I didn’t want to be here, in this eerie forest, with this person I only though I knew. I wanted to go home. Only, home had become a frightening place as well, almost as much as the Nevernever. I felt lost and betrayed, out of place in a world that wished me harm.

Ethan, I reminded myself. You’re doing this for Ethan. Once you get him, you can go home and everything will go back to normal.

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The Iron King is a Young Adult book that incorporates, adventure, romance, and social commentary that has interested me into reading the whole series. This book also combines characters and references from stories like Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Alice in Wonderland. Regardless of your previous knowledge of these two stories, you will still find that this book is very unique and quite enjoyable. These additions are entertaining because it is not a retelling of the two stories but just using certain aspects of them, an example is Meghan the main character many times at the beginning of the story talks of remembering Alice in Wonderland and as if she had stepped into a similar world. What makes the story unique however, is that the author has created a world unlike any which influence is heavily based on nature, as well as she has given a clear imagery of that world.

On Meghan’s sixteenth birthday she finds out that the world is not as it seems. That day when she returns from school she finds out that her six year old brother Ethan was kidnapped by evil faeries. She is determined to bring him back home but she needs the help of her best friend Puck/ Robin Goodfellow to get into the magical world of the Nevernever.  The Nevernever is a world of fairies and other fantastical creatures as well, and to her it seems as if she were dreaming when she steps in. One of the creatures we meet in this book is a cat named Grimalkin; who is similar to the Cheshire cat of Alice in Wonderland since he tends to disappear and appear once again when Meghan needs help. Ash the Winter Prince also helps her with his amazing fighting skills. Through her journey Meghan learns the truth about herself- that she is indeed a powerful girl- and the world she thought she knew. The world around Meghan changes further when she realizes that there are faeries everywhere in the real world outside of the Nevernever but only those with “The Sight” or great imagination, such as children, are able to see them. The story explains the reason for this with a bit of social commentary on the reliance of technology that people experience today. It explains that once we grown up we start to lose our imagination and creative thinking by using science and technology to find the answers for us. These booms of scientific progress that are assumed to be good because they help make our lives easier, also begin to destroy the magical place of the Nevernever and bring an entire new group of Faeries into it which are a threat to everyone.  Through her adventures and the interesting creatures she meets, the story tries to display how technological progress must be done in moderation or it will severely affect imagination and creativity. This book was entertaining and an amazing way to escape reality by getting sucked into this alternate one. It not only has well developed characters and an exciting plotline, but it teaches the reader a little about society and challenges them to question the world they live in today. 

Written by Gilma Velasquez