The Woken Gods

Bond, Gwenda. The Woken Gods. Strange Chemistry, 2013.

All of the gods/goddesses have awakened and are now running amok across the planet. Kyra lives in D.C. with her parents. Her mom is a Seer and doesn't live at home anymore.  Her dad has just been taken by a god for stealing a relic. And Kyra has to figure out what to do.  Can she recover the relic and save her dad in time?

I thought this book would be really interesting. It sounded a lot like the Percy Jackson series.  It is very similar to that series, except the plot is more complicated, similar to one of the later Harry Potter books. The problem is that the reader doesn't have much backstory to go on, and the main character is not remotely sympathetic.  I didn't get to know her well enough, or figure out what's up with all the gods being everywhere (all of them?  Where do they all live?  How does this work? I never found out), to really enjoy the story.  This book kind of feels like Percy Jackson fan fiction meets NaNoWriMo.  I just was not impressed.

Recommended for: teens who read Percy Jackson and want a similar story

Red Flags: violence, lots of language

Overall Rating: 2/5 stars

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

Untraceable

Johannes, S.R. Untraceable. Coleman & Stott, 2011.

Grace's father is dead. At least, that's what everyone keeps telling her. But Grace is sure he is still alive, and she is using all of her tracking abilities to search for signs of him in the forest. Then she meets Mo and gets tangled up in an illegal bear poaching operation, and instead of searching for her father, Grace is fighting for her life.

I thought I would hate this book, but it ended up being fairly interesting. It starts out pretty slow, but it does pick up later on. Aside from the Grace/Mo insta-love, this was a good read. The tracking tips, along with the information about bear poaching, is interesting enough to keep a reader going, even if Grace isn't a very sympathetic character. And the ending was both surprising and unsurprising, which is an interesting combination.

Recommended for: teens, those interested in survival-type stories

Red Flags: Grace has a temper and a potty mouth to go with it. And there are some pretty graphic descriptions of injured bears. Also some mild fighting/shooting when the bear poachers discover Grace.

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars.

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

Navigating Early

Vanderpool, Clare. Navigating Early. Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2013. 

After Jack's mother dies, his father places him in a boarding school in Maine. Jack befriends Early, a strange boy who lives in a custodian closet and makes up stories about the number Pi. Early's brother was killed in World War Two just a couple of years ago, and Early is convinced that his brother is just missing, so if Pi ends, then his brother will die, too. One holiday break, Jack and Early go on an adventure to find the great black bear along the Appalachian Trail.

This was an okay book. Vanderpool has a beautiful writing style, so I am sure there are people who love her work, but I found it difficult to believe that no one at the school was bothered by the fact that Jack and Early just disappeared for the entire break, with no mention of them signing out or any adults checking in on them, etc. And Early's story about Pi got a bit annoying to me. I started skimming the chapters where it was Pi's story, just so I could get back to the actual story. Supposedly this book is a Newbery contender this year, probably because of the author's award-winning work, Moon over Manifest. Since the Newbery is chosen for beautiful writing and not for kid-appeal, I could see this happening.

Recommended for: tweens, historical fiction fans

Red Flags: some minor violence during their adventure

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Winger

Smith, Andrew. Winger. Simon and Schuster, 2013.

Ryan Dean West is a 14-year old junior at a boarding school on the West Coast. He's gotten in trouble and been placed in Opportunity Hall, the dormitory for kids who need the "opportunity" to be more supervised for a semester or two. Ryan Dean is trying to survive being a junior when he's the same age as many of the freshman, getting his best friend Annie to realize he wants to be more than just friends, and hoping his roommate, who's built like a linebacker, won't kill him in his sleep. Interspersed with Ryan Dean's story are illustrations and short comic strips.

At first I didn't think I'd like this book. I don't generally enjoy stories about rich, entitled kids at boarding schools,and I was annoyed that Ryan Dean was called two first names (technically, they are both his first name). Then there's the narration by 14-year old boy, which means practically every sentence has something to do with sex or hot girls or what's going on in Ryan Dean's pants. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ryan Dean developed some character throughout the book, and that even though he's at a boarding school, he doesn't always act like an entitled rich kid (beyond the "Hey, Mom, I ruined my Nikes so can you just buy me some new ones and send them ASAP?"). The illustrations were funny. Ryan Dean's mom's first package to him was hilarious. And the ending of the book was really surprising. So I guess my only other complaint is that the kid on the cover of book is wearing a uniform that doesn't match the description inside the book. Would it have been that hard to change the cover or the description so they matched? But maybe that's just me.

Recommended for: teens, fans of boarding school stories, rugby fans

Red Flags: lots of cussing, lots of references to sex, Ryan Dean's friend posts pictures of male genitalia online, the boys drink at two after-hours poker parties, there are several fight scenes that are pretty violent

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Gemini Bites

Ryan, Patrick. Gemini Bites. Scholastic, 2011.

Judy and Kyle are twins in the middle of a nine-member family.  They have been at each other's throats for years, in spite of Judy's recent supposed "conversion" to Christianity.  Then their parents decide to take in one of Judy's and Kyle's classmates, Garret, whose family is moving one month before school gets out.  Garret is a strange boy; he wears nothing but black, changes out his bedroom light bulbs for red ones, and refers to the rest of the family as "mortals."  With both Judy and Kyle crushing on Garret, is there any way this family can be saved?

This was an odd book.  First, we have the Judy/Kyle rivalry.  Judy picks on Kyle constantly and is always competing with him. Then we have Judy's fake conversion to Christianity; she did this to get close to a boy she likes.  Finally, we have Garret. He pretends he's a vampire because his family moves all the time and he's tired of trying to make friends, only to lose them again in a few months or a year when his family moves again.   Toward the end of the story, Judy and Kyle resolve their issues, Judy tells the truth to Bible boy, and Garret tells the truth about his vampirism (or lack thereof).  It had a very after school special-style ending.  Also, Judy's constant meanness to Kyle was grating. I started this book, but almost didn't keep reading because Judy was just. so. evil.  If I were stuck with no other books to read, I might pick this one up, but probably not until then.

Recommended for: teens

Red Flags: Judy has some very unsavory names for Kyle (generally related to his orientation), another boy in the school is a bit mentally unstable and attacks Garret on several occasions

Overall Rating: 2/5 stars