Toxic

Kang, Lydia. Toxic. Entangled Teen, 2018.

Hana has been hidden on a bioship her entire life. She is not allowed to leave her room, which her mother arranged to have hidden even from the ship's map. No one really knows she's there. But her ship is dying, and when a crew comes aboard to observe the slow death of the ship, Hana decides she wants to live.

This is a good book for fans of Across the Universe or other epic science fiction stories that focus more on the characters and their relationships than on the exploration or science aspects. It would also be easy to recommend this book to teens who enjoy John Green's stories, because these may have a different setting, but the plot is still quite similar.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley for the purpose of review.

Gone Rogue

Meyer, Marissa. Gone Rogue. Feiwel & Friends, 2018.

Iko is trying to find Alpha Lysander Steele, the leader of a gang of genetically engineered wolf hybrids who are demanding that Queen Linh Cinder restore them to their pre-engineered state. They are threatening war if their demands are not heard. Meanwhile, Linh Cinder has decided to abdicate the throne and turn the ruling of Luna over to a leader who will be voted into office. Things come to a head when Cinder visits Earth and the wolf hybrids make their demands in a more public manner.

This is a fantastic graphic novel that falls right in line with the previous installment and ties in nicely with the Lunar Chronicles novel series. It is possible to read this book and enjoy it without having read the Lunar Chronicles, but it's even better if one has read that series and knows the back stories of each of the characters. The steel-toned pages are perfect for this science fiction tale, and there are plenty of perfect subplots (Iko being judged for being an android, for example) that are easily interwoven into the overarching plot. Recommended.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: violence
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Spill Zone by Scott Westerfeld, The Sand Warrior by Mark Siegel, Plutona by Jeff Lemire

The Calculating Stars

Kowal, Mary Robinette. The Calculating Stars. 2018.

A meteorite crashes to Earth during the 1950s and obliterates Washington, D.C., killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving many more homeless and injured. The resulting steam and ash in the air sets off several years of cold weather, which will soon be followed by accelerated global warming. Elma is concerned that this is an extinction event, and she and her husband convince the fractured U.S. government to focus on colonizing the moon and Mars while there is still a chance to get off Earth. Elma served as a WASP during the second world war and would make a fantastic astronaut, be she and the other female pilots she knows are routinely passed over because of their gender. Will she be able to convince the good old boys that women would make excellent astronauts?

I was the first one to check out this book from my local library, and I finished it in less than a day, often choosing not to eat or sleep because I wanted to find out what happened. This book is set in the same general time period as Hidden Figures, so if you liked that story where "computer" refers to a woman who does math by hand and there is rampant sexism but women are fighting back, you'll love this one. If you enjoyed any of the myriad dystopian disaster books that followed on the heels of the Hunger Games (a la Life as We Knew It), then you'll enjoy this one. If you like astronauts and space and thinking about how they train and how they build the rockets and actually get them into space, you'll like this book.

With well-rounded characters, appropriate amounts of world-building, and a compelling plot, this book is highly recommended.

Recommended for: adults and teens
Red Flags: Not many as it's set in the 1950s and the characters are adults. Rampant sexism is obvious - more than one person refers to the female astronauts as "astronettes" and asks how they'll do their hair and makeup in space.
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Hidden Figures, Life as We Knew It,

Record of a Spaceborn Few

Chambers, Becky. Record of a Spaceborn Few. Hodder & Stoughton, 2018.


This book picks up near the end of A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and follows several different characters on board the ships of the Exodus Fleet. Reading the previous two works in the series is recommended but not required in order to enjoy this story.

This is a standard science fiction tale told from multiple viewpoints (which do eventually converge, for those who wonder), focusing on life on board the generation ship that left Earth decades ago in search of a new home for humanity. There is a lot of interaction with other sapients, some of whom look similar to humans and many who do not. If you enjoy watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, you will probably enjoy this story, as the Exodus Fleet has finished its journey and is now operating as a de facto space station.

I really enjoyed the world-building: descriptions of life in the ship and the way it is organized, the hi-jinks of the teen characters who just want off of the ship, the interactions with other sapient species, etc. While this isn't a plot-driven, action-focused page-turner, it is nonetheless highly enjoyable for its focus on character development. I found the writing compelling in spite of the lack of invasion by Borg or other such disasters. Also worth noting is the diversity within the human race: frequent use of gender neutral pronouns for persons whose gender identity is unknown as well as lack of assumptions regarding a person's sexual orientation, make this a relief and a comfort to read for those in the queer community. Highly recommended.

Recommended for: science fiction fans (teens and adults)
Red Flags: some mild action sequences; some dead bodies are seen (although we do not watch them die); teens use illicit drugs and attempt to obtain services from a sex worker (the issue here is that they are underage, not that they want sex).
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Edelweiss for the purpose of review. 

Hullmetal Girls

Skrutskie, Emily. Hullmetal Girls. Delacorte, 2018.

Aisha works as a janitor to support her brother and sister, but when her brother contracts the plague, she sends her siblings to live with her aunt and volunteers herself to become a scela, a cyborg bodyguard who works for The General Body. This won't earn her enough to move her family from the seventh ward up to the first, but it may be enough to save her brother's life. After Aisha's transition, she is placed with three other scela as a training group. Each is trying to keep secrets from the others, but when they uncover a hidden agenda during their training mission, they will have work together and trust each other to survive.

If you were to take The Hunger Games and set it in space on a fleet of ships filled with humans and Borg from Star Trek, you'd have Hullmetal Girls. I love the concept as a whole. I love the setting in space, three hundred years after humanity has left Earth behind. The scela transition was intriguing to me, and I enjoyed the political intrigue as well as learning about the different levels of their society.

However, the team Aisha is part of is a four-member team, and we really only learn about two of those people. Aisha and Key narrate this book, so we hear their perspectives on things and learn about the two of them, but it feels like the other two team members weren't really there. The book is even called Hullmetal Girls, yet there is also a male member of their team whom we barely get to know.

There is plenty of intersectional diversity in this book, although I am guessing that race isn't as much of an issue after three hundred years in space. One of the team members describes himself as pansexual, another member is transgender, and Aisha describes herself as aro/ace (we don't learn what Key's sexuality is, although it is mentioned that she had a boyfriend at one point). This isn't a coming out story, though; rather, the teens are fighting against the corrupt society and attempting to take down an evil leader, while also trying to save as many of their friends and family as possible.

The premise of this book is intriguing; however, the plot is fairly predictable, and the latter half of the book was so similar to every teen dystopia I've ever read that I found my mind wandering. That being said, this will be a popular book with teens who are science fiction fans.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: violence, some language
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Ender's Game, Old Man's War, The Hunger Games, Red Rising

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley for the purpose of review.

A Closed and Common Orbit

Chambers, Becky. A Closed and Common Orbit. Hodder & Stoughton, 2016.

Lovelace was supposed to be the AI aboard the ship, however, due to events in the first book in this series, her program was placed into a body instead and she has been sent to live with Pepper. Pepper is a human who has a complicated past as well, and this book alternates chapters of Pepper's past with the story of Lovelace adapting to being in a body instead of a ship.

That description makes this book sound really dry, which it definitely is not. Sidra (the name Lovelace chooses for herself) has to deal with all the overwhelming sounds and sights of the beings around her all the time, and she has to adjust to being confined to a body with certain programming protocols (for example, she can't lie). In addition, she's not actually allowed to inhabit a body, so her very existence is illegal. Add that to the descriptions of several alien species and their various languages, habits, festivals, etc., and you get a fantastic mix that's perfect for any Star Trek fan.

On top of this we have Pepper's story. Pepper was bred to be an employee in a factory. She and her fellow workers (it's never clear if they are all clones or whatnot) never see the sunlight and never interact with anyone else. When there's an explosion at the factory, Pepper doesn't even know what to make of the "big blue ceiling" she sees outside the walls. But she escapes and ends up living in an abandoned shuttle, which she works on repairing so she can escape. These sequences are equal parts The Martian, combined with any "escape from a cult" type story you can imagine, because Pepper doesn't know anything about the outside world.

Bottom Line: This book is positively fantastic, and my only complaint is that I've finished reading it and the next one isn't out until later this year. Highly recommended.

Recommended for: teens, adults
Red Flags: Pepper's language develops around the time she turns 14 - she learns to swear and therefore uses her new language abilities extensively
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Last Day on Mars

Liam and Phoebe are Martian children; that is, they are humans who have been raised in the Mars colony. Earth is no more, and the sun will soon go supernova, so the Martian colony is being emptied of its inhabitants as they head for a distant star and the hopes of another planet. The children of scientists, Liam and Phoebe are among the last to leave the planet. But then they discover a deeper plot behind the destruction of their home world.

I enjoyed the idea of a Martian colony, of the kids sneaking around and getting in trouble like kids do, and of the various catastrophes that befell the duo as they attempted to save their parents and get to the colony ship before it left orbit. The big, hidden, twist in the plot that made things complicated at the end, however, seemed a bit much for a kids' book. In an adult novel, there would have been more room to address this twist; in this kids' book, it seemed like a bit of a stretch.

Recommended for: tweens
Red Flags: "fantasy violence" - people nearly dying, etc.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: The Silver Six

Artemis

Jazz lives in Artemis, the only city on the moon. She's a courier and a smuggler, and ends up involved in a complicated plot to take over the city's oxygen business.

If you are looking for another Martian story, this isn't it. If you're looking for a story similar to The Martian, this isn't it. What this is is a mystery-thriller type story that happens to take place on the moon, so there are complications one wouldn't expect on Earth. Weir's "voice" is very clear in this book and I enjoyed it, but it is not, I repeat, another Martian story.

Recommended for: adults, teens
Red Flags: language, violence
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley for the purposes of review.

False Hearts

Lam, Laura. False Hearts. Tor Books, 2016.

Tila and Taema were raised in a cult outside of future San Francisco. Conjoined twins, they escape the cult at adolescence and are surgically separated in order to save their lives. Now banished from the cult, they start new lives in San Francisco. But when Tila shows up on Taema's doorstep covered in blood and is immediately arrested, Taema begins to discover the seedy underbelly of San Francisco as she goes undercover to find out the truth about her sister and the man she murdered.

I picked up this book for lots of reasons: the main characters had been raised in a cult, which I found interesting; the setting of San Francisco was definitely interesting; and I enjoy both science fiction and mysteries, so I thought I'd like this one.

I did like it, although the mystery aspect is completely predictable. Fans of mystery stories will likely figure out the secret sooner than Taema as well. As with many mysteries, this one took a while to end, and I found myself skimming simply to confirm my suspicions. Also, most of the San Frnacisco details are spot-on; however, those familiar with the city will scratch their heads when reading that the protagonist was living near the panhandle and was able to see Grace Cathedral from her window. Nonetheless, this is a good read and was worth the time.

Recommended for: adults
Red Flags: violence, language, etc - this is a book for adults
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Running Out of Time, My Life with the Liars, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

A Wish After Midnight

Elliott, Zetta. A Wish After Midnight. CreateSpace, 2016.

Genna wants to get out of Brooklyn and away from her bad neighborhood. She makes a wish in a fountain and her wish is granted - she is transported back to Brooklyn during the Civil War. She tries to survive in this new time, when she has significantly fewer rights. Eventually her boyfriend shows up in the past as well, and together they try to return to their own time period.

This book was extremely similar to Kindred, and I could easily recommend it to a teen who enjoys historical fiction or time travel. The insta-love between Genna and her boyfriend did not thrill me, nor did the fact that Genna returns to our time period on 9/10/01 - that date is mentioned specifically. I think the book itself had enough going for it that the reference to 9/11 was unnecessary.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: racial slurs, violence toward people of color
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Kindred, The Freedom Maze

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books Set in Space

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.

Space: the final frontier ... Here are the top ten books set in space:

1. Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card. The author's personal beliefs aside, I really liked this series.
2. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. This book is set on Earth, but a comet/planet/something from space - they call it Calamity - comes to Earth and sets the whole story in motion.
3. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman. This was an excellent book to listen to as an audio selection. I don't know that I would have enjoyed the print version as much as I enjoyed the audio, which was excellent.
4. Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay. Beauty and the Beast set in space on another planet. Shut up and take my money.
5. Cress by Marissa Meyer. This is book #3 in the Cinder series, and Cress is a Rapunzel-esque hacker trapped in orbit of earth. 
6. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett. To be fair, I'm not a big fan of the rest of the series, but this first book in the Long Earth series is really good.
7. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Love this one. 
8. Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires. Binky doesn't technically go into space, but he does build himself a rocket ship and prepare to leave orbit. In the end, though, he doesn't want to leave his people behind.
9. The Martian by Andy Weir. I still love this book. I have read it maybe five times already and I haven't gotten bored yet.
10. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Again, the author's personal beliefs turn my stomach, but this is by far one of my favorite books ever. The movie was on the yucky side of "meh," but the book is excellent.

Have you missed one of these excellent titles? Then add it to your to-read list. Is there one I'm missing? Let me know in the comments.

Star Wars: Lost Stars

Gray, Claudia. Lost Stars. Disny-Hyperion, 2015.

A new installment to the Star Wars cannon, this novel provides similar material to what is covered in other books and does not, unfortunately, provide the reader with a story on the same epic scale as any of the Star Wars stories.

This book is told in alternating chapters between two children who were born on the same planet and attended the Imperial Academy at the same time. After graduation, one character chooses to defect and become a rebel while the other rises through the ranks as an Imperial officer.  This novel covers many of the major events in the original movie trilogy while also covering the Romeo and Juliet-esque story of two young adults on opposite sides of a major conflict.

I wanted this story to be an amazing page-turner. I was so excited to read a new installment in the Star Wars universe, especially with the new movie coming out soon. Unfortunately, this was more a story of "star-crossed lovers" than it was anything to do with Star Wars. The Star Wars universe floated in the background as a non-integral part of the story, which was disappointing to me as I had hoped to read a Star Wars story, not a story told in the Star Wars universe.

I would recommend this book to teens who are not interested in the Star Wars universe, but who want to learn a bit about it because of the hype or because their friends like it, etc. etc.  I would not recommend this book to a die-hard Star Wars fan.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: sex, violence, minimal amounts of language; lots of people die because there's an intergalactic war happening
Overall Rating: 2/5 stars

Ghosts of Heaven

Sedgwick, Marcus. Ghosts of Heaven. Roaring Brook Press, 2015.

Four different stories, all involving spirals. The first story tells of ancient people, the second takes place during the witch burnings of the 1700s, the third in an insane asylum in the early 1900s, and the final story is in the future. Three historical fiction stories and one science fiction combine into one very strange novel.

I generally enjoy Marcus Sedgiwck's writing, and this book was no exception. The stories are beautifully told, even though it took me a very long time to get interested in the first one, which is told in free verse. I enjoyed the second and third stories and was excited for the connection I was sure would come from the fourth one. Unfortunately, even though there are hints of previous stories in each successive tale, the fourth story didn't tie the whole book together for me as neatly as I'd have hoped. I would recommend this book for strong teen readers who don't need everything tied up neatly at the end.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: violence in all four stories
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Firefight

Sanderson, Brandon. Firefight. Delacorte Press, 2015.

This is a sequel to Sanderson's Steelheart, and the reader returns to the Reckoners, who have now moved on to what used to be Manhattan in order to defeat Regalia, who has been sending minor Epics to harass the Reckoners in Newcago.  David is convinced that Epics can defeat the darkness within by choosing not to use their powers, and he wants to get some reformed Epics on the side of the Reckoners to help them in their battle.  Meanwhile, Prof, himself an Epic, is convinced that all Epics are the enemy and must be killed.

I listened to Steelheart on audio CD during my commute, and I really enjoyed both the story and the narrator's interpretation. I could hear that same narrator in my head as I read Firefight, and I think this would be an easy book to book talk to even reluctant teen readers and is a great read-alike for many superhero comics.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: violence, "fake swearing" (new words are used as profanity, and it's pretty obvious that the words are swears, but it isn't as bothersome as standard profanity since the words are next to meaningless in our world)
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Fairest

Meyer, Marissa. Fairest. Feiwel and Friends, 2015.

This is an "in between" book that has been added to the Lunar Chronicles series. It tells the story of how Queen Levana came to rule the moon and a bit of her back story. This book serves both to give more information about the characters' back stories as well as to give readers something to chew on while they wait for the arrival of Winter.

I enjoyed this story and was glad to hear a bit about why Levana is the way she is. This story reminded me a lot of the TV show Once Upon a Time. I have heard some buzz about the book being violent, and it is, but I don't think the violence would be overwhelming to those who've read the other books in the series.

Recommended for: teens, fans of fairy tale retellings
Red Flags: violence - several people die, there is mention of blood on sheets after a character's first sexual experience
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Beastly, Splintered, Dorothy Must Die

Steelheart

Sanderson, Brandon. Steelheart. Delacorte Press, 2013.

Imagine a world filled with superheroes, evil superheroes. When a bright light appeared in the sky and gave select people superpowers, David was just a child. He watched as an Epic took out customers at a bank, then was taken out by a greater Epic, one who also killed David's father. Since then David has been obsessed with the Epics and more than anything he wants to avenge his father's death. He wants to kill Steelheart. To do that, David must find the Reckoners and convince them to take out a major Epic.

I listened to the audio version of this book in my car and it was wonderful. It made my long commute that much easier to bear, and I often wanted to speed up the CD somehow so I could find out what would happen next. This book would be easy to recommend to teens who enjoy action flicks. Recommended.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: violence, lots of "fantasy profanity" - cuss words that are not considered profanity here but definitely are in the world of the Epics
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Hero, The Young Elites, The Lost Gate

The Eighth Day

Salerni, Dianne. The Eighth Day. Harper Collins, 2014.

Jax has been orphaned due to a horrible accident, and rather than living with his aunt, uncle, and cousins, he is forced to live with Riley - an friend of his father who is barely older than Jax and doesn't know the first thing about caring for a teen. The Wednesday night after Jax's thirteenth birthday, though, he discovers something odd - a day exists between Wednesday and Thursday, and Jax is from a long line of people who can inhabit the regular week and the 8th day. But just as there are good people on this 8th day, there are also bad people, and soon Jax has to determine whom he can trust.

I thought this book was very cleverly done, and it would be an easy one to book talk with middle grade students. Jax's age makes it possible to recommend this book to middle school students as well, and the action will keep even reluctant readers still reading. This would be a fun book to read aloud in an English/Language Arts classroom as well.

Recommended for: middle grade
Red Flags: fantasy violence (minor)
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: The Merchant of Death, Far Far Away, Sky Jumpers

The Haven

Williams, Carol Lynch. The Haven. St. Martin's Griffin, 2014. 

Shiloh is one of the Terminals who have spent their lives in The Haven, a quarantined hospital where she can live out her days until the disease takes her life. Her food, her sleep, her exercise, and her health are carefully monitored. She attends classes and watches her classmates disappear, one by one. When one of her classmates offers her a "red pill or blue pill" option, Shiloh has to sort through all she's been told to find the truth among the lies.

This book is extremely similar to Never Let Me Go, and as such would make a great read-along or extra book if a patron/student really enjoyed that book. It was very obvious to me from the outset both what was happening to the Terminals as well as how the book would end, but I enjoyed the story enough and know that my students, especially fans of science fiction, would like this book. With the movie based on Lowry's The Giver coming out soon, this book could be easy to book talk in a library.

Recommended for: fans of science fiction, young adults
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Never Let Me Go, The Giver

The Fourteenth Goldfish

Holm, Jennifer. The Fourteenth Goldfish. Random House BFYR, 2014.

Ellie is in 6th grade, and she's finding middle school to be a difficult adjustment. On top of that, she doesn't really understand her parents' obsession with theater. When her mother brings home a thirteen-year old boy who has a startling resemblance to Ellie's grandfather, Ellie begins to question what she knows about life.

This is a weird, weird book. Ellie's grandfather has been trying to discover the fountain of youth, which he apparently found in some jellyfish's DNA. So now he looks thirteen and has to live with Ellie and her mom. He teaches Ellie a lot about science and helps her develop her interest in it, a topic he loved and his daughter, Ellie's mother, rebelled against by joining the theater. Ellie helps her grandfather attempt to retrieve the rest of his jellyfish from his lab and makes some decisions about the cycle of life. All in all, this is pretty obviously a "shove science in front of kids to make them want to learn about it" type of book, but the entertaining story will keep many middle graders interested, and this would be a great read-aloud book for an upper elementary science class.

Recommended for: middle grade
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alike: The 14 Fibs of Gregory K.

Scan

Fine, Sarah. Scan. Putnam Children's, 2014.

Tate is frustrated with his father's expectations for him.  Tate has to get up at 4:30 every morning, learn to speak twenty different languages, eat a very carefully balanced meal, and excel in school. Tate's father always tells him that he'll explain why when it's the right time.  The right time never comes, though, and one decision soon changes everything in Tate's life. He will need to use every bit of his father's training just to stay alive.

This book was filled with action sequences, surprises, and technology that would make it a great Apocalyptic-esque film. I enjoyed the story until it became obvious that the author was stretching it to create at least a sequel, possibly an entire series.  Then it lost me. I did enjoy this book, though, and could easily recommend it to my students, especially those who are obsessed with the Special Forces divisions of the armed forces. 

Recommended for: teens, those who enjoy action/adventure

Red Flags: lots of violence

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars