The Killing Woods reviewed by Portia Rockers

The Killing Woods is about a girl named Emily whose father goes into the woods and comes out with a dead body. The dead body happened to be a girl named Ashlee Parker, the most popular and prettiest girl in the school. Emily's father gets blamed for the murder, and he confesses to it. Emily doesn't believe her father actually committed the crime and is determined to prove his innocence. Damon Hilary, who was Ashlee's boyfriend, puts most the blame on Emily for what her father has done along with the rest of the town. Damon and his friends, along with Ashlee play a game in the woods where they get high and try and find each other. The catch is when you find the person you beat then and take their dog collar. Did this game have anything to do with Ashlee's death?

I really enjoyed the plot of this book, the story had a lot of plot twisters that kept me turning the page and wanting to read more. I also really liked how descripted the author was with this book. When she described the dark woods, the place where Damon and his friends would play their game, I got chills and could picture it perfectly. Another thing about the book that I really loved was that it was written in two different point of views, Damon's and Emily's. One thing I didn't like about the book was the choices the characters choices. Damon despised Emily for what he thought her dad did to Ashlee, but the only reason he cared for Ashlee so much was basically for sex and her looks. Emily even though knowing Damon wasn't a good guy still continues to have a crush on him to the end. I enjoyed the book, because it was plot twisting and chilling with a shocking ending. I would defiantly recommend this to other who enjoy murder mysteries. If you like The Killing Woods you might want to  read Lucy Christopher's other book Stolen or a book called The Impossible Knife of Memory.









If The Witness Lied - Reviewed by Portia Rockers

If The Witness Lied- Reviewed by Portia Rockers

Author: Caroline B. Cooney

If the Witness lied is about a family who has a murder happen. The family has four kids: Madison, Jack, Tris, and Smithy. Madison Fountain who is the main character and the rest of her siblings are forced to live with their Aunt Cheryl, due to the death of their father's. Madison and Jack, two of the older Fountain teens start to learn that their father's death may not have been an accident. And maybe their aunt may not have been as innocent as she seems.

I really enjoyed the book a lot, it was a fast read, and made me want to keep reading. I loved the fact that  Madison acted mature and was smart yet calm. She handled a lot of surprising things in a very calm and adult way. Madison also took time to think about a lot of her plans and was a quick thinker. One of the problems I did have with the book was one of the Fountain siblings was Smithy, and she was a female which struck me as odd. Another thing I disliked about the book was how nasty Cheryl was. I also had mixed feelings about the ending, which had a twist to it. The reason I gave the book four stars was because I felt the book could of gone into more detail. Also there were few scenes that made me upset or angry. If you enjoy If the Witness Lied you might like Jane in Bloom and Bull Rider. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy murder and mystery type books.

Bunker 10-- Reviewed by Alexandra Lopez

Author: J.A. Henderson
Review: Alexandra Lopez

At eight o'clock in the evening, 24 December 2007, Pinewood Military Installation exploded. The blast ripped apart acres of forest and devastated the remote highland valley where the base was located. No official cause was given for the incident. Inside Pinewood were 185 male and female personnel a mixture of scientists and soldiers. There were also seven teenagers. This is the story of their last day . . .

I enjoyed it, but felt it was a cliche, to predictable. I didn't get to know the main charcter, Jimmy Hecks on a personal level/ the book was very plot driven. I'm not one for full blown science, but I would appreciate a bit of actual science to occur, some of the science mentioned seemed made up. However I didn't look it up, so either it was pointless or I just don't care in general. Overall enjoyed the story, but did not really think it was one of my best reads.

Star Crossed reviewed by Molly Varney

By: Elizabeth C. Bunce *****

Digger is just a regular street thief, until one night a job goes wrong and she’s forced to leave behind Tegen, her partner. She’s soon forced to flee Gerse for fear of the dreaded Greenmen. Luckily she finds herself saved by a group of slightly drunken Nobs led by Durrel Decath. She uses the name Celyn Contrare and pretends to have run away from the Celystra that her brother sent her to. The nobles are more than happy to take her with them and she soon finds herself offering to look after Lady Merista, the youngest girl in the group when she goes home with her parents. She’s as safe as she could be, or so she thought. Lord Daul, Merista’s uncle, knows Digger’s secrets and threatens to tell everyone if she doesn’t work for him. Now Celyn must find three things in the home of the nobles for Lord Daul or be put to death. She has no idea why he would want those things but she's left with no choice. Still grieving Tegen's death, Digger has to become a thief again, not a lazy lady-in-waiting. She knows picking sides can be fatal for a thief but she finds that she might be forced to.

I gave Star Crossed five stars because I thought it was a really cool book. It had a lot of action and I loved the characters. The beginning of the book was really intense and exciting but it did get a little slow. It picks up a few chapters later and I could hardly put it down. I really liked the book because it had magic in it but also because Digger could take care of herself and wasn’t totally helpless. Overall I loved it and the sequel to it.

Whispers --- a review by Amy Lyon

Whispers
by Dean Koontz

****

From his first meeting with Hillary Thomas, Bruno Frye knew he wanted her...dead. After his first attempt, Detective Anthony Clemenza gets involved. The two start to dig into Frye's past when she is attacked again, but that's not possible...he bled to death a few days earlier. The deeper the Hillary and Tony go, the more disturbing things get. Can they discover the truth? Or will Hillary end up dead as intended?

As Dean Koontz first novel, it wasn't disappointing, perhaps less gruesome. The twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat throughout the novel. Definitely recommmend.

Angel -- A review by Ian Zig.

Angel

by James Patterson

****

Angel knows it all! Everyone is back, but not together.. Max is back leading the flock, minus Fang, and things are quiet... But Where's Fang?.. He's out recruiting, and making a gang of his own. But who does he just happen to recruit into his group?.. None other than Max II, the clone of Max!.. Which Max is not happy about.. But who or what are they fighting this time?.. A rather doom and gloom group called the Doomsday Group, which is spreading and gaining support faster than anyone ever could've expected, and it appears that all of their followers are teenagers. The biggest question in the matter, is the group hypnotizing its followers?... Now to Angel... She's staying in line supporting Max, but will she remain in line?.. you'll have to read to find out!

I liked this book, it was kinda dissapointing with some things, but the action never fails to hold my attention! I really think that the author could've ended it better though.. But if you've read the series, you have to read the end, so check it out. And of coarse, if you haven't read the rest of the series I highly suggest you do, cause its just plain amazing.

Angelfire --- a review by Amy Lyon

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

****stars

Ellie has had nightmares for as long as she can remember, but now things are escalating. And after the murder of her economics teacher, Ellie meets a strange guy, Will, who seems to have taken a special interest in her. Then one night, Ellie is out in her front yard, when Will mysteriously shows up "to talk". Not long after, an unrecognizable monster arrives wanting blood(specifically Ellie's). When Will touches Ellie's forehead, her mind goes blank except for the need to kill this thing and swords appear out of nowhere, enabling her to succeed. Ellie wakes up hoping that everything was a dream, but no such luck. Ellie just entered a war thats lasted thousands of years, and it seems she's been fighting in it from the beginning.

Angelfire is an interesting twist on the new fallen angel genre recently exploding in fiction. It seemed predictable at first, but I can honestly say that I didn't expect the ending. I actually liked the main character, she wasn't the typical twit(thank gawd). I can't wait for the second in this trilogy.

I Am Number 4--- a review by Amy Lyon

I Am Number 4
by Pittacus Lore
****

Nine Loriens--aliens from the planet Lorien--have come to Earth after their natural resources were destroyed by the Mondagorians. The Mondagorians destroyed their own planet--Mondagore--and hoped to restore it with Lorien resources, but that failed and now they've come to Earth. The Mondagorians are no longer concerned with the welfare of Mondagore, they plan to take over Earth, and in the process kill the nine Loriens taking refuge on Earth. They've succeeded in killing three and now they're after number 4. This is his story.

I am Number 4 was an interesting twist on the paranormal love scene(normal girl falls for paranormal guy). Number 4, currently going by John, is confused about his identity. He is Lorien, but he's only really known Earth. He and his Cepan, Henri, move and change names a lot to stay ahead of the Mondagorians. This novel is more about John's self discovery than the war between aliens, the war the Earth may soon be a part of. The characters were a bit predictable, but overall the book was good and the plot kept me reading. I can't wait for the next in this series. I would definitely recommend this book.

Payback -- A review by Ian Zig.

Payback

by Andy McNab and Robert Rigby

****

Danny and Fergus Watts are back and ready as ever! They've been on the run from the British government for six months now, and "It's time to stop running." Danny has grown tired of his grandfather's ever-present routines to avoid discovery, and nearly gets killed when he deviates from the routine while staying in Spain. So once again, they're on the run. But Marcie Devoureux still has plans for the two, and contacts them with a deal and a way back to Britain. Elena, Danny's best friend, is still helping them as much as she can, but Marcie knows who she is and has included Elena in her fiendish plan. Will Danny and Fergus finally find evidence of Fergus's opperation as a K? Will they once again fool Fincham before he or his SAS team kills them?... You'll have to read it to find out!

I quite liked this book, it is definitely my type of fiction! I gave it four stars because I felt it was dragging slightly at points. I love the detail put into it, and how the authors incorporated all of the military lingo. If you like lots of action and military precision and detail, you will certainly like this book. I recommend this to anyone who leans towards action- packed thrill rides for this is certainly in that catagory!

Ship Breaker - a review by George Morejon

Ship Breaker
by Paolo Gacigalupi
**** stars

Ship Breaker is set in the future, somewhere along the Gulf coast. Thanks to things like giant sea storms, among other things, it's a harsh life in the day of someone on light team, what the scavengers who strip light materials from the old ships call themselves. Nailer's the main character, and around 15 and scrawny with a mother who's not there and a father who doesn't care. Perfect for a light crew worker. Life's hard in the crew though, always having to get enough goods like copper to survive. Miss your quota and you're done. There's no other work.

One day Nailer's out and about in the ship getting some copper like usual when the floor breaks and he's dumped in a room flooded with oil. After being betrayed by one of his fellow crew mates, he makes it out alive. Next time he goes down after a big storm, he finds a girl in an untouched ship. Would he return the favour of not saving someone in trouble, or would he save the girl?

Ship Breaker's an interesting book. It's also big, at around nine hours of reading. Everything's all super poverty, which is something I don't usually read. It's amazing how bad everything can seem, how cut throat. Nailer's personality made me feel on his side throughout the book, and the girl was interesting. For a rich girl, she was very street smart.

Trapped - a review by George Morejon

Trapped

by Michael Northrop

*** stars

Trapped is told from Scotty's point of view, one of the kids trapped. That day, it started snowing. A LOT. As the afternoon goes on, it gets worse and worse. People leave, even the teacher that's suppose to stay with them. After a hours and hours of waiting, it's just Scotty, some friends of his, 2 girls, and 2 other guys. And they realise that no one is going to come get them.

At first it doesn't seem so bad. A sleep over at school. Getting to see what's different about it. Not to mention the fact that the girls there a pretty hot. Great time, yeah?

Wrong. Things quickly go from kinda bad to much worse. People getting upset over little things, arguing, and people's plans not working correctly all push everyone's buttons in the wrong way. The way they start annoying each other so fast is just a baaad sign. And then a giant accident happens...

I thought this was a good book, and it was funny that I got it right after we had a big snow storm since that made it real easy saying "What if this was people I knew?" I took ~4 hours to get through, and while it had some slow parts, I kept wanting to read more to find out what was happening. The ending was kinda abrupt though, like the publisher cut out the last few chapters. And unrelated thing, but one thing I like is how the chapter title pages have snow falling, and it slowly build each chapter, until it's just completely overwhelmed. Cool, random detail.

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares - Review by Sarah Gnefkow

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares

by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

*** and a half stars

Dash and Lily are both teenagers who meet within the bindings of a moleskin notebook. Dash finds this notebook on the shelves in his favorite library during his first Christmas break he is at home alone. Inside there are dares left for him from a girl named Lily. Lily is set up by her brother to do this so she can find a boy who she can spend her Christmas break with while her parents are in Fiji and her grandfather is in Florida. In return, Dash must write dares back to Lily to keep the relationship going. They end up running all over town in New York City following the path each one of them have left for the other. Both Dash and Lily yearn to meet each other but are afraid that their exchanged words have built up more than the other really is, and they are afraid of disappointment. But with each dare comes the need to meet and when they finally due it is definitely not the first impression either of them have expected. They are both pushed to get past what their expectations have built up for the real deal.

I found this book was pretty good. It has some really great parts where I didn't want to put it down, but other parts I felt it was going to go on for hours. This book was written from both Dash's point of view and Lily's alternating chapters. The thing that bothered me the most was definitely at the beginning when it was confusing to understand what was going on. Towards the middle it kind of smoothed everything out though. It wasn't one of those books where I just had to keep reading but it was one that I wanted to find out what was going to happen next. During the last couple of chapters it really showed how the whole book came together with all the random pieces of information it gave me throughout. All in all I think that this would be a good book to check out if you want to read something that's fun and interesting on the side of more important things.

Everwild -- Review by Ian Zig.

Everwild

by Neal Shusterman

*****

Where to start?... Everwild is the second book in the Skinjacker Trilogy. The first book, Everlost, introduced the afterlife-ish world with all the kids who had short lives and died before their time. The main characters of the trilogy are Nick, the Chocolate Ogre, Mary, the Sky Witch, and Allie, the Outcast. Everwild is all about Nick and Mary, lovers pitted against each other, exploring Everlost with the intentions of building an army. Allie is just the wild card that's thrown into the mix. Will they get their war? Will Mary and Nick make up their differences and go on loving each other? You'll have to read it to find out.

Now, I'm sure that this blog does this book absolutely no justice, but suffice to say that I loved it! I cannot wait for the next book in the trilogy to come out! If you like reading fantasy and out of the ordinary books, then you'll like this. I would reference this book to all of my friends. You can trust me when I say there's a reason I gave this book 5 stars.

Fang -- A review by Ian Zig.

Fang

By James Patters0n

****

Fang is the sixth book of the Maximum Ride Series. The other five books are: The Angel Experiment, School's Out Forever, Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, The Final Warning, and Max. The Entire series was a great story, however I kind of wish that the author would've stopped at the fifth book, Max. The newest book, Fang, was a good book and it takes an odd turn with the Flock, the five human-avian kids group. Fang takes a completely different direction than the other books, because this book is mainly about the Flock breaking down and falling apart... Of course there is still the evil, mad scientists thrown into the mix, but the book doesn't put the same emphasis on them as the previous books have. But this new direction isn't neccessarily a bad thing, I enjoyed it fairly well, just not as much as the previous books. Also the series has the reputation of being an action-packed thrill read, but Fang just didn't seem to have as much energy and commotion. But don't get me wrong, there was definitely some action! I enjoyed this book thoroughly, especially the bitter sweet ending...

All in all Fang was a good read. I gave it four stars because I found the story periodically dragging for short periods. Again though, I really wish the author would have stopped at Max, mainly because it seemed like a proper ending, there's no way to tell the ending unless Patterson is a super-author. To end my spool, this book was a great read, and I recommend it to anyone... BUT, ONLY if you've read the whole series!

Virals -- Reviewed by Ian Zig.

Virals

by Kathy Reichs

****

Tory Brennan was just an ordinary girl struggling to get through everything that was thrown at her.. Then it all turned downhill with a simple formation of a question in her mind... Whose name was on a single, badly damaged military dog tag? She always felt compelled to answer every mystery she came upon. Tory and her friends start investigating and end up in a lab trying to clean off the tags when everything goes wrong. Her and her friends tried to do the right thing for an infected wolf-dog pup that they found, that was being experimented on.. Next thing, the dog tags pointed them to a 40 year old missing persons case, and strange things were happening to them! Super-human things.. They had become virals! Infected by a designer virus, the group of friends starts a non-stop thrill ride all to solve a little mystery that became a huge mystery for them to work through.

I felt that Virals had a really good mystery, the way that Kathy Reichs unfolded the mystery was well thought out. It kept me guessing. The addition of the super-human abilities was what really grabbed my attention. I gave Virals four stars because I felt that some of the things that happened in were a little far fetched, like sophmores knowing how to pick locks.. Also I really wish that Tory was a bit older, the things she was doing seemed way too mature for someone thirteen years old.. But that's just me. All in all I really liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy and mystery.

Erak's Ransom -- a review by Jacob Duerr

Ranger’s Apprentice: Erak’s Ransom

By: John Flanagan

***** stars

Ranger’s Apprentice: Erak’s Ransom is all about a trade agreement gone all wrong. The story begins with Erak, the highest ranking person from Skandia, a country far north, raiding a town in the deserts of Arridia. Needless to say, he gets captured and a ransom is required to get him back. His fellow Skandians go to their friends the Aruleans Halt, Gilan (both rangers), Will (ranger in training), and Horace (a young warrior). One of Erak’s trusted men, Svengal, arrives and asks them for help. Halt contacts the royal family of Arulea and they agree to help him, since Arulea and Skandia are good friends of each other. Cassandra, the princess, is assigned to negotiate a price for Erak’s safe return.

Cassandra, along with Halt, Gilan, Will, Horace, Svengal and his crew, all go to Arridia to negotiate a price. After a few days stay in Arridia, a price is determined, but Erak is on his way to a prison city for holding, so the party of Aruleans and Arridians must go get him. Along the way, a sandstorm crosses their path and Will loses his horse. Once the sandstorm passes, Will decides to go looking for his horse while the main party continues on to get Erak.

From this point on, Will goes searching for his horse and the main party intercepts a nasty battle scene, in which Erak’s party was attacked, and Erak is nowhere to be found. What has happened to Erak, and will they ever find him? Is Will ever going to find his beloved horse ever again? Find out in the events that follow in Ranger’s Apprentice: Erak’s Ransom.

In my opinion, this is a very excellent book and you should definitely read it. I particularly enjoyed the adventure aspect of this book, mixed in with multiple fights, twists and turns, and many other various things. The suspense comes in when you read about one part of the story and then you're left hanging while you read what has happened while the part you read happened. However, this is book seven in a series, and as such you should at least read books one through four. Reading books five and six is not entirely necessary, but reading in order is always helpful. I would not recommend reading this book as a stand alone book, for you will understand nearly nothing about the characters and what is going on. I still highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good adventure in medieval times, especially if you like crazy turns and twists in the story and astonishing outcomes. Much more is to come at the end of this incredible book!