After the Woods~ Reviewed by Hailey Hinrichs

 



"I become very still, trying to make myself shapeless so he'll forget I'm a GIRL, because that feels the most dangerous of all."

     Julia and her best friend Liv beat the odds. When a man jumped on top of Liv, Julia did what any best friend would do. She tried to pull Donald Jessup off Liv and ended up taking Liv's place so Liv could get away. After she is found after two days of running from Donald, everyone she knows tries to make her believe that she should just forget about it. Julia begins to just bury it deep down and move on, like Liv begs her to do.

     Fast forward one year.

     Another girl's body is found in the same area Liv and Julia were attacked. When hearing about it, memories that Julia has tried to bury finally resurface.

     While Julia struggles trying to contain these awful memories, Liv starts hooking up with Shane Cuthbert and starving herself. Is it because she feels guilty for getting away from Donald Jessup while Julia took her place?

     When Julia finds out the truth about Liv, will they ever be able to get back to how they were?

     Will anything ever be the same after the woods?

     

      I really liked this book so I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I felt so bad for Julia's character. Her therapists were crazy. They literally didn't do anything to help her. Her family and best friends tried to make her forget everything when obviously she should've tried talking about it. Bottling things just doesn't help. At some point, it'll all come out. I also in a way felt bad for Liv because her mother was extremely hard on her and I think if I had a mother like that, I'd be like her. Obviously since I haven't been in that situation I couldn't necessarily connect with Julia's character but I feel like I would've handled it like her. I would recommend this to any of my friends.



The Dead House-- Reviewed by Hailey Hinrichs

“Either the Darkness alters- or something in the sight adjusts itself to Midnight- and Life steps almost straight.”

                It has been 20 years since a fire destroyed part of Elmridge High that killed 3 people. After the fire, Carly Johnson disappeared. The fire was believed to have been started by Kaitlyn Johnson after her diary was discovered years later, giving hints as to what really happened in the days leading up to the accident where she is caught in the middle of it. But the thing is Kaitlyn doesn’t technically exist because she is the alter ego of Carly. She gets the night while Carly gets the day. Many people believe that Kaitlyn appeared after her parents had died, but she had been around long before. Carly was always the good child while Kaitlyn was the reckless one. But one day Kaitlyn wakes up during the day and cannot feel Carly anymore and Kaitlyn, with the help of Carly’s best friend Naida, has to find a way to search through the Dead House if she ever wants to find Carly. But the Dead House holds the power to completely ruin the lives of anyone who dares to enter it.

                I absolutely loved this book so I gave it four and a half stars. I loved the plot to this book and I loved that it NEVER got boring. There was always something going on and things were never slow. I also loved the character developments throughout the book. I would definitely recommend this to all teens who enjoy more paranormal type books. Those kind of books usually aren’t what I read but this book was amazing and it makes me want to look into more books like this. This book was pretty good as a stand alone, although I wouldn’t mind finding out more about their childhood and their parents and when exactly Carly began having an alter ego. All in all, I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Panic - reviewed by: Portia Rockers

                                      

Heather is a young girl in her teens who lives in a town called Carp. Carp only has a population of 12,000 people, and is in the middle of nowhere. Since there isn't much to do in Carp the graduating seniors play a game called panic. Heather has never found interest in the game but, the thought of the large cash prize starts to change her mind. Even though the game is dangerous and her sister is paralyzed from last years game she decides to play. Dodge who isn't afraid of the game enters as well, and even though Heather is seen as one of the weaker competitors he and her form an alliance. And maybe something more. 

I thought this book was great and I really liked it. I gave the book four stars because I thought the concept of the game was a bit like Hunger Games, but the author was able to make it different and unique. I really liked the chemistry between Dodge and Heather, they were so cute. Heather was a really unique voice and you can really feel the emotions she goes through as the book progresses. I also like how the book is realistic, it takes place in modern times, and I like how she shows the flaws that the characters have. I would recommend this book to people who like thrill, action, and some romance. They are also making this book into a movie, which I'm excited to see how it will turn out. 

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands- reviewed by: Portia Rockers

                                         

Emily Shepard is a 16-year-old girl who lives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. She's in the middle of her junior year of high school when the power plant has a meltdown. Her parents were both killed during the meltdown, and what's worse is her dad was in charge at the time. Emily is at an evacuation camp with others from her school when she hears that her father is being blamed for the meltdown. Emily, who feels alone and is hurt by the accusations, decides to run away. She's now living on the streets and is comforted by the words of her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson.   

I absolutely loved this book because it was so sad and original. Emily was such a unique character, she was strong and made adult decisions. But, at the same time, I could tell that she was a teenager. A lot of times teenagers are written too mature so that they seem like adults or they are written as so naive that they look like children. I thought Emily had the perfect balance of character traits. The story itself was tragic, and it was something that could happen in the future and has occurred in the past, which is why it was so terrifying. I would recommend this book to everyone I know, it's such a heartbreaking story. Even though the story is not being marketed as YA, I do feel that teens will enjoy this book.   

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands - reviewed by Maggie Devero

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian

Reviewed by Maggie Devero

When your whole world comes crashing down around you, can you ever find the will to live on?

Emily Shepard is on her second to last day of junior year at Reddington Academy, when the school receives some devastating news -- the nuclear power plant called Reactor One, located on Cape Abenaki in the Northern Kingdom, had exploded and caused a radiation blow to the entire area. Now known as the Exclusion Zone, with radiation levels unfit for an living being, has left Emily homeless and orphaned, with her parents being the main directors of the plant and obviously killed in the explosion. Instead of seeking the help that would have reached out to her at the time, she chooses to avoid the general public who blames her parents for coming to work inebriated and causing this problem, and lives on the streets. She takes on the alias Abby Bliss, friend of her idol Emily Dickinson, and roams the streets taking up stealing and some others destructive habits. She struggles between survival and suicide...that is until she meets Cameron, a nine year old runaway who gives her a reason to live for.

I did in fact, like this book very much. Emily was the most accurately portrayed teenage girl in a disastrous situation, unlike characters in the many other YA books I've read before. Her panic and struggle, the solace she finds in the poetry and life of Emily Dickinson was very relatable to the reader,  and the sisterly love she gives to Cameron is one of the most endearing aspects of the story. Even so, she still makes mistakes like a human being (leaving Cameron while he's sick, doing drugs, cutting) which enhances the realistic aspects of her character. How Bohjalian depicts the setting gets you right there on the streets with Emily, in her garbage bag igloo. Beautiful wording, and accurate usage of modern social networks brings the story up to date, and puts you right in it. It was an amazingly written novel, and even without the perfectly happy ending it's an enjoyable read. Five out of five stars.

Empty-- Reviewed by Alexandra Lopez

Empty

By Suzanne Weyn

Reviewed by Alexandra Lopez

In the distant furture the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.

Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. Three young teens Tom, Nicki, and Leila are three young teens whose lives are very different from each others and their view points different. Will the they survive this madness? Will the world survive? Or will we resort to war, to take what little oil is left?

Empty is basically the world running out of oil. And it shows exactly how we are depend at of oil. For electricity, generators that require oil to run, which effect a lot house hold appliances. Then because oil is limited, the government raised the prices. In the story just the description of other teens, kids and even adults, t has taken a toll on them. They seem dirtier, angrier, and even more worried. Things I also enjoyed is that the world around them affected them. The country was on the verge with Venezuela, new treaty's with country that had valuable resources, oil being cut off from us and many other things that took a toll on everybody.

However even if oil was gone, life didn't end, yes it would be difficult, most of them had luxuries that would be missed, but the world wasn't dead. There is hope, life will go on. Overall this was a really good book and a big reminder that the oil will not be there forever, and we should look for alternatives before things get any worse.

Paper Towns--Alexandra Lopez

Author: John Green
Reveiwed by: Alexandra Lopez 

Quentin Jacobsen, most of the book referred to as Q, believes everybody gets one miracle. His just happens to be living next door to the girl of his dreams, Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo and Quentin go way back. Even when they were nine years old, Q thought she was the most perfect female on the face of the planet, and they played together.  After they found a dead man in the park, Margo appeared outside his window at night to tell him she investigated the dead man. However time goes on, they are older, in high school. They both have gone their separate ways, until one day, miss popular, Margo shows up in Q’s room asking for help. Will Q help Margo with her insane plane to get revenge on her ex?  Will Q be able to tell Margo how he truly feels?

The book was something else. It starts right off with our main character Q to encounter a dead body. This will latter affect his relationship with Margo. I enjoyed that later on they separated, went their separate ways. Whether it has to do with the dead body they found as a child or not. However I think that was probably be of the few realistic parts.  Everyone grows older, and high school you meet new people.  I also wish Q would have just told Margo straight off the bat, he loved her. Maybe Margo wouldn't felt the need for revenge.

Hate List - a review by George Morejon

Hate List
by Jennifer Brown
**** stars

What would you feel like if your school was shot up by another student? Now what if that other student was the person you were going out with? And what if you were accused of helping them? This is what happen with Valerie, the young girl in Hate List whose boyfriend, Nick, one day in may decided to put 'their' plan into action. After struggling to get over the tramatic experience, she got shot in the leg, not to mention was a prime suspect for making the 'hit list', she has to go back to the same school for her last year. What will people think of her?

They'll hate her, that's what. The unity presented in the newspapers isn't real she sees, with all the normal fighting and argueing still happening. But she makes a friend in an unlikely person, one of her worst tormenters from the year before, and takes on a project to honour their classmates.

This was a 5 hour book that had an interesting concept that i hadn't put together before, a list of people a person hates whichh leads to a school shooting. It plays out where you can see Valerie as either a cause of the problem or the victim, and i saw her as a victim. The mother was too overprotective, always worrying about protecting the world from her daughter after the event. I agreed with Valerie's unlikely friend when she said "It's not your fault. After all, you didn't shoot anyone."

Bee Season - Review by Halea Coulter

Bee Season
By Myla Goldberg

* * * * 3/4 stars

Eliza is a nobody. She isn't very smart, not very pretty, and not noticed, at least, not until she almost wins the national spelling bee. Aaron an ex-Jew turned Hare Krishna. Miriam is a lawyer, and a kleptomaniac, on a mission to become whole again. And Saul in an ex-hippie Jewish rabbi that loves studying mysticism. So what do these four people have in common? They are one big dysfunctional family.

Saul was a Jewish hippie that did a lot of acid and did a lot of girls, but when he met Miriam, it was the end of that. She enticed him intellectually and she was innocent, she was the one. For Miriam, a very smart, and slightly unstable girl, Saul was an intellectual match and he made her feel a bit more whole. Years later, they have two children, Eliza and Aaron. Aaron is the perfect child, smart like his mother and like his father, poised to become a rabbi. Eliza on the other hand, is a let down; she isn't very smart and shes nothing special. But when suddenly Eliza starts winning spelling bees, she gains the attention of her parents and send the whole family spinning off into directions that made the book very interesting. Saul becomes obsessed with his daughter winning, so he pushes Aaron aside. Aaron feels like he doesn't matter anymore, and strays away from Judaism, and Miriam, like always, she's off in her own little world, it's just worse than before.

This isn't a YA book, it is adult fiction, and I absolutely am in love with it. This is probably one of my favorite books I have ever read, and that is saying something. The family dynamics in this book were very interesting. The relationship between the children and the father changed so rapidly after Eliza started winning spelling bees it was incredible. I felt terrible for Aaron, who starting having issues with his religion around the time his father stopped focusing on him. He turned to a very different type of religion which later in the book created an interesting tension between father and son. There was also the relationship between Saul and Miriam, the mother and father, it was just so strange. Mostly because Miriam was off her rocker, but still, the relationship between them was tense at times and at other times they really just floated around each other. Their sex life was interesting to hear about, mostly because it told us a lot about who Miriam is and how screwed up she really was. Overall, the four main characters were amazing, the book constantly switched from one to another and I always found myself eager to get to the next one. They all had such interesting point of views and story lines, and they were such complete and well developed characters that not only could I not put the book down, it was the only book I've ever read that I consider close to perfection. Between the struggles with faith, and family, and all the terrible things in between, this was an amazing book. The reason I did not give it a perfect five stars is because the ending wasn't exactly what I was looking for but it wasn't bad. The ending to the book was excellent, to me though it just left a few things unresolved, but looking back, they were things that were fine left the way they were. My advice is to read it, Bee Season was amazing.

Aftershock -- Review by Ian Zig.

Aftershock

by Kelly Easton

****

Aftershock is a story of an adventure. You could call it a sort of "walk-about." Seventeen-year-old Adam, begins his journey with a fatal car wreck that kills both of his parents. His trip with his parents leaves him an orphan, stranded in the middle of nowhere, on the opposite side of the country from where he lives, and quite literally speechless. Adam, still in shock from the wreck, begins a trek of a lifetime. As he hitch-hikes across the country, he must weed out all the travelers who don't mind giving a ride to a mute, ragged, dirty teenager. Will he make it home?.. Will he starve?... Read and find out.

This book did a pretty good job at keeping my attention, but at times I felt that it was dragging a little bit. I gave it four stars because I thought it wasn't a really realistic story. The author did a good job showing the desperation that such bad luck would bring, and I liked the transitions for the flashbacks. All in all, it was a fairly good book that I would suggest for some but not for others.

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.

Nailed – a review by Curtis McNeill

Nailed by Patrick Jones
***** stars
In the book Nailed the main character is Bret Hendricks a student at Flint Southwestern High school. He doesn’t fit into his school where people who play sports are more important. He’s bullied by baseball player Hitchings constantly in class. He’s in a band called Radio Free Lint with his friends Sean and Alex. His father doesn’t understand him; he spends more time with his vintage red Camaro. The only one who truly understands him is his girlfriend Kylee Edmonds. But soon things start to fall apart around him and he finds help from some people who he would never imagine.

I personally loved this book because Jones makes it seem like I’m there with Bret through out the book. I would definitely recommend this book to others it is very good. The author Jones also wrote another book called Things Change I shall read that book next. But Nailed is a book that stands alone but I do wish it was series so I could just read a little bit more. Because all of the characters are great! Also if you liked this book you might like Skate it also deals with a teenage boy who doesn’t fit into his high school. The genre for this book is a mix of romance and teen angst. It’s a perfect book for high school students because you can connect to the characters.

Hoppergrass – a review by Curtis McClintock

Hoppergrass by Chris Carlton Brown

***** stars

Hoppergrass is a stand alone book that teaches kids what it is like in an institution where there are kids who had parents who could not take care of them and it affected them throughout their lives causing them to make bad decisions. They now have to learn from what they did and be punished for it.

Bowser, the main character is new to the other boys in the story. The other boys think he is different coming from a nice wealthy family, but Bowser has also done things they have done. At the beginning of the book not much thrill happens. In my opinion, you must be patient when you read this book to wait for the excitement of it.

When you pick up this book, you wont be able to put it down. It will have you tired in the morning because you stayed up all night. The genre of this book would be teen angst and the dialogue can be a little gritty but how else would these kind of kids talk? Bowser isn’t friends with many of the boys except one, and his name is Nose. When one of the boys is killed in an accident and it looks like Nose is going to be made a scapegoat for the death, it’s up to Bowser, crazy or not, to stand up for the truth.

The author of this book is Chris Carlton Brown. Hoppergrass is by far his best book. If you like books that really make you think, I think you should choose this one. It is full of excitement.

Because I Am Furniture-- a review by Katie Hayes

Because I Am Furniture
By: Thalia Chaltas
** Stars

In Because I Am Furniture, Anke a teenage girl entering her first year of high school goes through many hardships. Some of those hardships are making the volleyball team, trying to get the cutest boy, Kyler, to actually notice her and many hard struggles with abuse at home. During volleyball Anke meets Rona, who becomes a very close friend of hers throughout the book. Anke has a brother Darren and a sister Yaicha. Anke feels like furniture at home...Like no one even notices her. Maybe that’s a good thing, considering her siblings aren’t getting noticed in good ways, better yet they are protecting her from being noticed by their Dad. Anke’s mom tries to stay out of everything, not even supporting Anke at volleyball or doing what is right for their family. When Anke goes to her father’s work one evening to help a friend Angeline out, everything changes.

This is the first time I have read a book by Thalia Chaltas, and I actually wasn’t too impressed. It was a very fast read, if I actually sat down one day and read it, it may at most take about two hours. In the book, the author would talk about one thing, such as Anke’s school life, and then quickly switch to her home life. I felt like I didn’t get enough information. I gave it two stars because I feel like it wasn’t a book for me, I enjoyed parts of it, and I just felt like it didn’t exactly keep my interest at most parts. I would recommend this to other though because that was my opinion about this book but I feel like others could actually really enjoy it. This book isn’t part of a series but it does stand good alone, she starts the book off well and ends it well. The genre of this book would be teen angst, because it deals with abuse and high school issues.

Forged by Fire -- Review by Brianna Massey

Forged by Fire

By: Sharon Draper

*****

In, Forged by Fire, Gerald was fascinated by fire when he was three. His mother, a drug addict, leaves him alone one time too often and he accidentally sets the apartment on fire. His substance-addicted mother is taken from him. Then he loses the loving generosity of a favorite aunt. A brutal stepfather with a flaming temper and an evil secret makes his life miserable. The one bright light in Gerald's life is his little half sister, Angel, whom he struggles to protect from her father, Jordan Sparks, who abuses her, and from their mother, who’s irresponsible behavior forces Gerald to work hard to keep the family together.

As a teenager, Gerald finds success as a member of the Hazelwood Tigers basketball team, while Angel develops her talents as a dancer. Trouble still haunts them, however, and Gerald learns, painfully, that young friends can die and old enemies must be faced. In the end he must stand up to his stepfather alone in a blazing confrontation. I believe Sharon M. Draper has interwoven characters and events from her previous novel, Tears of a Tiger, in this unflinchingly realistic portrayal of poverty and child abuse. It is a very inspiring story of a young man who rises above the tragic circumstances of his life by drawing on the love and strength of family and friend.

Forged by Fire is the second book in the series of the Hazelwood High Trilogy. Reading the first book is not necessary, but I would recommend it just to get the feel of the whole series. I would definitely recommend this book to others along with the rest of the trilogy. Forged by Fire would fall under the genre “teen angst” along with a similar book called “The First Part Last” by Angela Johnson. I also would recommend that book and give it five stars just like Forged by Fire.

Inside Out -- a review by Connor Burke

Inside out

By: Terry Trueman

*****

Zach Washhsted is not a normal boy. He has a brain condition that makes him a whole lot different from everyone else. An incident happened that would change his life forever, Because of this Zach is put into an even bigger incident. While waiting on his mom to pick him up at the diner, it gets robbed by two teens who call them self’s frosty and stormy. Things go wrong for frosty and stormy because as they are about to leave the cops show up and ruining there heist. Zach starts asking them questions about movies and has conversations with them. Zach has medicine that he takes to keep his imagination from going wild. During this heist the cops are trying to get the hostages and frosty and stormy aren’t trying to go to jail, or get in a lot of trouble. The others that are getting held hostage are two suits, two old women, a mom and child and two workers. All those people are getting mad at Zach because he is asking random questions and is the only one no scared. The cops ask frosty and stormy release all the hostage, but they think that if they do that they’ll just bag in. so Zach says that he will stay back. By this time Zach really really needs his meds or he could have another incident…

This book has a genre of teen angst. if you liked No Right Turn by Terry Trueman you'll most likely like this book as well

Candy --- a review by Alex Keffer-Swaney

Candy

by Kevin Brooks

* * * *

Joe is a well rounded kid that has a nice house, goes to a good school, and enjoys music, and playing in his band, the Katies. Although his family situation is a little messy, whereas his parents who were once married, are now divorced. But they are dating again. Joe’s sister Gina says that their mom wanted a divorce from the kids and not their dad. While out of town at the train station Joe is distracted by a girl. From that moment on his life had changed. Her name is Candy and she takes Joe for the ride of his life. With the first day that they meet trouble seems to be around them at every corner, whether they are at McDonalds, the London Zoo, or a club that Joe has a show at that night. Gina and her boyfriend Mike don’t really approve of Candy and Joe hanging out, after the night in the club when Gina walked in on her smoking heroin in the bathroom. Also because Candy is a prostitute and her “friend” Iggy, seems to always be there in the mix of the trouble.

I would recommend Candy to others. Not only is it about teens and how we all feed off of the other people that we hang around but also what those people do when we are around them. The choices that they make and how they affect us could end up fatal to some. This book is also about how even though we are scared we still need to think out actions and take small risk. As when Joe did when he first called Candy out for a date.

Can't get there from Here -- Book review by Carmen Corsino

Can't Get There From Here

By Todd Strasser
****
The book ‘Can't get there from here’, by Todd Strasser, is rated a 4 to me. It is an adventure or teen angst book about a girl, Maybe, and her struggles growing up on the streets. A ‘gang’ is created and Maybe watches as, one by one, the friends she hangs with die from disease, abuse and illness. The other teens on the street with Maybe include Maggot, Rainbow, Jewel and then Tears, a 12-year-old runaway. On a day to day basis, their life consist of begging for change, doing chores for money, finding food and shelter, and ripping off tourists with fake drugs. Being clean is a luxury and Rainbow and Maybe are sexually harassed in a public library restroom. "Street urchins," as they are called, like Maybe, cant afford medicines so they are out of luck if something goes wrong.

It’s a generally serious, life telling story about the life of young people on the streets. Rebellious, Rainbow refused to be helped by adults as there are freedoms on the street, but warm beds in shelters. A night at one of these shelters shows Maybe that the rules might just be worth it and makes her realize Tears could have more than all this. When Maybe meets a hopeful librarian, will she realize she can't get a better life from refusing help? Find out in ‘Can't get there from here’ by Todd Strasser. Over all I liked the book but would only recommend it to people into books about hardship.

Castaway Kid --- A Review By Skyler Young

Castaway Kid

by R.B. Mitchell

****

In this book you meet a young boy named Robby who is going through a rough part in his life right now. One day his mother drops him off at a place where there are alot of kids and a few adults. Robby soon realized that where he was was a home. Wondering why his mother doesnt love him? Why she would do this to him? He goes into a depression stage. Robby meets a lady named Nola in the home who he wishes would have been his birth mother. Nola looked out for Robby and took care of him more than she did the others.One day, Robby's mother came back for him on a rampage she snatched him and rushed out the home. Nola worried and distraught thought of Robby everyday he was gone and scared for his saftey.Robby and his mother lived in a terrible apartment with no television and one bed. When Robby was home one day and his mother drunk in the other room the police knocked on the door and arrested the mother and put Robby in a detention home.Robby goes into a stage of anger and vows never to let someone else hurt him this bad.

Follow Robby's troubled life and future with love & family in this novel and I promise you will not regret it. Castaway Kid is very similar to many people's lives in this world. Kids wondering why their parents gave them away ? Why they cant live with them? So many people can relate to this book and that is why I think it is a good book. I also like this book because it puts you in the mind of a unwanted child and what are the things that go through their mind and it makes you feel sad and blessed that you have the life you have. I recommend this book to people who are intrested in real life issues and like to read about them.

Catalyst -- A review by Ian Zig.

Catalyst
by Laurie Halse Anderson
*

The Catalyst is about a regular "plain-jane" girl who excells in chemistry and relies way too much on her original plan. Kate is a bright daughter of a minister, with extremely high hopes for going to MIT. MIT is her dream, it is her goal, it is her life. The problem is, she has absolutely no fall back plan. Good Kate, against all logic and reason, has only applied to MIT. But as she waits expectantly for the acceptance letter of her dreams, her life refuses to hold its breath as well. Her neighbor's house suddenly burns down, and her father being a good friendly pastor and neighbor, invites "miss" Teri Litch and her younger brother to stay with them. Teri Litch is pretty much a brute of a woman. Teri is always getting into fights with the football team at school. Not only that, to Kate's displeasure, but Teri is also a compulsive thief. Kate, who already was the woman of the house taking care of her little brother, now has quite a handfull.

The Catalyst started out perfectly, it really drew me in and grabbed my interest immediately. Unfortunately after a few chapters, it quickly ran downhill. I thought it wasn't at all realistic. Kate's made out to be such a smart girl with a bright future ahead of her, except for the fact that anyone with half a brain would apply to several colleges and have a fall back plan. That is the main reason I gave this book only one star. I felt that Kate's inability to sleep was horribly pathetic, sleep is something that comes naturally and if you really can't sleep you tell your parents or go get something to help you sleep. All in all, I definitely would not recommend you read this book, just because of how disappointing the story becomes.