Kearsten's Book Club Wrap-Up: The Program by Suzanne Young

The March wrap-up comes in just in time for our next meeting, this Monday April, 25!

On Monday, March 28, book club met at the Main Library to discuss Suzanne Young's dystopian, not-too-far-into-the-future YA novel, The Program.

When suicide becomes a worldwide epidemic, the only known cure is The Program, a treatment in which painful memories are erased, a fate worse than death to seventeen-year-old Sloane who knows that The Program will steal memories of her dead brother and boyfriend.

We had our usual spirited discussion, with MANY teen-submitted questions (28!!!), and while we strayed a bit to electro-convulsive therapy (for use in cases of extreme, therapy- and medication-resistant depression), for the most part we talked about the awful treatment of teens in this story.

Book club members were very upset about the way the adults in The Program acted as though any sign of sadness or grief was a death sentence, and they felt that the Program (which used drugs and therapy to "erase" bad or "infected" memories) was a horrible abuse. As one book club member asked, "Did all these adults forget that THEY were once teens?!?!?!"

Here are some of the questions/topics we discussed:

• "Is it ethical for the government to erase the memories of teens to protect them?" (The overwhelming response: "NO!")
• "Lacey's awesomeness." (We agreed that the main character's best friend-turned-erased-memories-turned-new friend was very cool.)
• "If teens can't talk or trust their parents, who can they talk to other than depressed teens?" (This was a major problem for us. In a world where The Program is the only option, the adults ignore the importance of therapy and talking about - rather than hiding - one's feelings.)
• "Would you choose to forget in order to get rid of depression? Would you send a friend or family member to have their memories wiped in order to protect them?" (Book clubbers overwhelmingly said no, but Kearsten said, as a parent, if her only two options were the Program/wiping her kid's memories or risking her child committing suicide - and losing her/him forever - she'd probably choose the Program. Kearsten is surprised the teens didn't throw things at her.)

Overall, our book club recommends this one, especially if you have the chance to talk to others about it once you're done...'cause you WILL want to discuss it!

Already read The Program? Why not try one of these teen-recommended readalikes?

Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, she falls in love. 

The Giver (and sequels) by Lois Lowry. At the ceremony of Twelve, the community's twelve-year-olds accept their predetermined Life Assignments. Jonas is chosen for something special.Gradually he learns that power lies in feelings. Then his own power is put to the test -- he may not be ready and he may not be able to save someone he loves.

Rash by Pete Hautman. In a future society that has decided it would "rather be safe than free," sixteen-year-old Bo's anger control problems land him in a tundra jail where he survives with the help of his running skills and an artificial intelligence program named Bork.

Shock Point by April Henry. Fifteen-year-old Cassie Streng is determined to expose her stepfather after learning that he is giving a dangerous experimental drug to his teenaged psychiatric patients, but he sends her to a boot camp for troubled teens in Mexico in order to keep her quiet.

Speak by Laurie Halse Andersen. A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman. In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives "unwound" and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs--and, perhaps, save their own lives. 

Teen Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Today's recommendation is the sequel to a very much beloved book (Divergent) and comes from Olivia: Allegiant!

Wanna to see your own review here? Fill out our What Did You Just Read form today!

What Did You Read?

Allegiant by Veronica Roth.

I'd say this book was *mostly* about...

An adventure, a love story, a magical world.

This book's main character(s)...

Inspired me.

If others were interested in this book, I'd tell them...

It should be required reading for ALL teens.

Any other thoughts about this book?

Allegiant was a very adventurous and inspiring, I recommend that you check at the book a.s.a.p!

Should We Know More About You?

I normally like to read science fiction, and uh... my name is Olivia. xD

Teen Review: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Today's teen recommendation is another classic, with a dystopian theme: The Fountainhead. 

Want to see your own review here? Fill out our What Did You Just Read form today!

What Did You Read?

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

I'd say this book was *mostly* about... 

A break-up; a love story; a scary future; the past (it was bleak); objectivism.

This book's main character(s)...

Had a rough time.

If others were interested in this book, I'd tell them...

It should be required reading for ALL teens.

Any other thoughts about this book?

Ayn Rand has a way of making the heroes seem different then they are in most stories, they can be unfeeling, they may try not to save everyone or they aren't as sacrificing, because it hurts, but they are still the heroes. Dominique sacrificed her true love because she didn't want to be happy, to be done with live and love, didn't know if she deserved it.

Should We Know More About You?

I live reading different things, classics that are classics for a different reason.

Kearsten's Book Club: Gone by Michael Grant

It's that time again!  Book club met last night, Monday, October 27th, to discuss Michael Grant's creepy, disappearing adults story, Gone.

In a small town on the coast of California, everyone over the age of fourteen suddenly disappears, setting up a battle between the remaining town residents and the students from a local private school, as well as those who have "The Power" and are able to perform supernatural feats and those who do not.

We spent a lot of our time talking about characters, dissecting their reactions to their strange and scary situations and wondering which we might most be like - are we caretakers like Mother Mary?  Thinkers like Astrid, determined to try and figure out the science behind the happenings?  Or might we see an opportunity and seize it like Caine?

Most interesting was our discussion of responsibility: if others look to you as a leader, do you have an obligation to lead them?  Many of the characters in Gone look to Sam, our main point-of-view character, for guidance, due to past actions, but Sam doesn't feel at all prepared to take charge of over two hundred kids trying to survive with no adults.  Book group seemed pretty split, with half of us saying, "yes, if others look to you for leadership, clearly that means you have the skills needed," while the other half of us maintained that if someone in a leadership role doesn't feel like they have those skills, it's better for them to decline that leadership role, as a true leader needs to be confident.  What are your thoughts?

Overall, we enjoyed the book for it's plot and the fun we had in speculating about what exactly happens to those who disappear...



Already read Gone?  Why not try one of these similar reads, recommended by book club teens?

For kids trying to survive in a world without adults, try these:

The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson.  When a plague sweeps over the earth killing everyone except children under twelve, ten-year-old Lisa organizes a group to rebuild a new way of life.

Variant by Robison Wells.  After years in foster homes, seventeen-year-old Benson Fisher applies to New Mexico's Maxfield Academy in hopes of securing a brighter future, but instead he finds that the school is a prison and no one is what he or she seems.








If you're intrigued by the way civilization and compassion can breakdown in in scary situations, try one of these:

The Enemy by Charlie Higson.  After a disease turns everyone over sixteen into brainless, decomposing, flesh-eating creatures, a group of teenagers leave their shelter and set out of a harrowing journey across London to the safe haven of Buckingham Palace.

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe.  Sixteen-year-old old Kaelyn challenges her fears, finds a second chance at love, and fights to keep her family and friends safe as a deadly new virus devastates her island community.









If having to "play by the bully rules" (As Gone character Quinn puts it) intrigues you, try:

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding.  Following a world war, a group of school boys survives a plane crash on a deserted island and creates a hellish environment leading to savagery and murder. Two leaders--one civilized, one depraved--epitomize the forces that war eternally in the human spirit.

Nothing by Janne Teller.  When thirteen-year-old Pierre Anthon leaves school to sit in a plum tree and train for becoming part of nothing, his seventh grade classmates set out on a desperate quest for the meaning of life.

For other great reads with themes of dystopia, survival, and war, try one of these!

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey.  Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them.

Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden.  While Ellie and her friends are away in the bush, the world changes. Suddenly they are in the toughest situations humans can confront, facing life and death decisions. They are thrown into a world where they find courage, initiative, spirit and wisdom ... or they die.

Kearsten's Book Club: Legend by Marie Lu

Last Monday night, book clubbers talked about dystopias and rebellion as we discussed Marie Lu's Legend, in which two teens caught on opposite sides of a totalitarian government become allies in a post-apocalyptic L.A.


Most of our discussion focused on rebellion and our two main characters: Day, a fifteen-year-old boy considered public enemy #1 in the government's eyes; and June, a fifteen-year-old prodigy, speeding her way through university and training to become the youngest military officer ever. Both of these characters are rebels in their own ways, and it was fun to debate about exactly which character was the bigger rebel.


Several of us agreed that Day was definitely a 'Robin Hood' type character, and several others shared that Day reminded them of Jace, from Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series. A nearly collective sigh may have been heard at that point...


We also talked a bit about the appeal of dystopias - why are they so popular? (Not that we're complaining) We talked about distrust of government, worries about money, and even about social 'classes.' Interestingly, today Kearsten read an NPR.org article posing this same question - "What Terrifies Teens In Today's Young Adult Novels? The Economy" - which, in addition to taking a look at teen economic fears, offers up many other awesome-sounding teen dystopias. Do you agree with the journalists' theory?


Already read Legend? Why not try some of these book-club-suggested, sci-fi titles?


1984 by George Orwell. Portrays a terrifying vision of life in the future when a totalitarian government, considered a "Negative Utopia," watches over all citizens and directs all activities, becoming more powerful as time goes by.




Brave New Love, edited by Paula Guran. Presents a collection of fifteen stories about finding romance and danger in repressive, futuristic societies by such authors as Steve Berman, Jesse Karp, Diana Peterfreund, and Amanda Downum.




Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Huxley's imaginatively futuristic novel warns of the dangers of sacrificing freedom and individuality for scientific progress and social stability.




Divergent by Veronica Roth. In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomoly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all




The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.




Robin Hood by Paul Creswick.

Looking for something a little like The Hunger Games?  You might like The Forsaken by Lisa Stasse.  In this dystopian world, teens are tested for anti-government tendencies (violence, the urge to overthrow their dictatorship,the ability to think for oneself, etc.) and if they fail the test, transported to a remote island where life expectancy is only a couple of years.  On this island, the kids divide into two tribes, at war with one another naturally.  Our main character, an orphan girl who has always toed the line after seeing her scientist parents hauled away by authorities and never to be seen again, expects that she will pass the personality test with flying colors.

Nope.

No great surprise to the reader, Alenna ends up on "the Wheel," with another hapless teen, a guy who gets captured quickly by the tribe you don't want to fall in with--that's the tribe led by a spooky figure known as the Monk, who seems to have brainwashed and brutalized all his minions.  Luckily, Alenna falls in with the other group, and before long she joins forces with them in a possibly hopeless effort to find a way off the island and on to an elusive better life.

I describe this book as part Hunger Games, part Lord of the Flies.  It moves fast, keeps the reader engaged, and has a few plot twists I didn't see coming, all very enjoyable.  Not as smoothly written as Suzanne Collins's work perhaps, but a nice addition to a growing list of teen dystopian fiction options.  Apparently, this is the first in a trilogy, so if you enjoy the tale, more will be coming out soon, in August of this year to be exact.  The sequel is entitled,  The Uprising.

Kearsten's Book Club: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Teenaged Amy, a cryogenically frozen passenger on the spaceship Godspeed, wakes up to discover that someone may have tried to murder her.

Last week was yet another book club meeting (you missed it?!). This time, our book of choice was Beth Revis' Across the Universe, which we very loudly discussed for a good hour and a half.

Our discussion leader, Zach, started us off with a tour of the awesome Godspeed schematics on the official Across the Universe website (it's very cool).  And then we started talking "Across the Universe"... And what, you ask, did we talk about?

• Do you expect science fact to be included in your science fiction? Does it matter if something is *wrong*? (though, thanks to the teens who'd read ahead, we discovered that the thing that was wrong - trying to avoid spoilers here - was explained in the second book)
• How much truth should our leaders tell us? Is it okay to lie to 'the people' if it will keep them happy?
• How crazy-pants and scary is genetic modification?! (according to book club: A lot. A lot scary.)
• And, finally, diversity and cover representations, specifically white-washing, where the cover models of a book clearly misrepresent the characters within. Elder is described in the book as a person of color, yet the cover model on the hardcover is clearly a Caucasian male. Grrrrrrrr....

We had a great discussion inspired by this tense science fiction book about big ideas and we think you might enjoy it, too. Already read it? Try one of these book-clubber-suggested titles!

Matched by Ally Condie - In the society, officials decide who you love, where you work and when you die. Cassia has always trusted their choices. It's hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen. Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one, until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices, between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path no one else has ever dared follow, between perfection and passion.

Rash by Pete Hautman - In a future society that has decided it would "rather be safe than free," sixteen-year-old Bo's anger control problems land him in a tundra jail where he survives with the help of his running skills and an artificial intelligence program named Bork.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver - Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, she falls in love. (Note: Kearsten's Book Club also discussed Delirium - read about that discussion here!)

Brave New World by Aldus Huxley - Huxley's terrifying vision of a controlled and emotionless future "Utopian" society is truly startling in its prediction of modern scientific and cultural phenomena, including test-tube babies and rampant drug abuse.

Kearsten's Book Club: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.

Last night, we talked LOVE. And power. But mostly, love and whether or not we believed that it could be as destructive as the creepy government portrayed in Lauren Oliver's Delirium thinks it is.

This sci-fi teen novel brought up more questions than answers for us:

- Is it just love that's bad? What about hate? Or is that an extension of love...?
- What, exactly, IS this cure? Is this society full-on lobotomizing their "willing" populace?
- What happens to your interest in hobbies - like Lena's love of running - when you get cured?
- Do government officials/regulators/guards get cured? If so, why are they so very ragey?
- Why must Lena be so gosh-darned hard on herself?! You sound just lovely, my dear!

We enjoyed our discussion, as well as the fact that it led us to wonder about our own government - in what ways do they try to 'protect' us by removing freedoms - and think you should try Delirium yourself!

Already read it? Why not try some of these?

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (for older teens). Through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore consistently useful to the ruling class.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.

1984 by George Orwell. In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.

Shock Point by April Henry. Fifteen-year-old Cassie Streng is determined to expose her stepfather after learning that he is giving a dangerous experimental drug to his teenaged psychiatric patients, but he sends her to a boot camp for troubled teens in Mexico in order to keep her quiet.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (for older teens). When She Woke, tells the story of a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of a not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned and rehabilitated but chromed-their skin color is genetically altered to match the class of their crimes-and then released back into the population to survive as best they can. Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder.

12 Days of Teen Lit: 8 Dudes in Danger

Because, really, when was the last time you saw a milk-maid?

The 12 Days of Teen Lit is proud to present: 

8 Dudes in Danger

Above. When insane exile Corner and his army of mindless, whispering shadows invade Safe, a secret, underground community of freaks and disabled outcasts, Matthew, traumatized shapeshifter Ariel, and other misfits go to the dangerous place known as Above, where Matthew makes a shocking discovery about the histories entrusted to him.

The abused werewolf rescue group. When Tobias wakes up in a hospital with no memory of the night before, a mysterious man tells him he has a dangerous condition, and he finds himself involved with a group of werewolves convinced he needs their help.

Dangerous boy. In this modern twist on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Harper is surprised by tumbling into an intense romance with Logan, a newcomer to her Enumclaw, Washington, high school, but soon Logan's sinister twin is pulling them apart.

Erebos : it's a game : it watches you. When sixteen-year-old Nick Dunmore receives a package with a mysterious computer game called Erebos, he hopes it will explain his classmates' strange behavior. He is quickly drawn into the cryptic world of the game, where players must obey a strict code. Erebos watches its players and begins to manipulate their lives in frightening ways. It soon becomes clear the game has a deadly agenda. When Nick sets out on a dangerous mission, reality and the virtual world begin to blur.

Fall from Grace. Inspired by an intriguing girl who is nothing like his shallow girlfriend, a high school senior whose life has been mapped out by his parents makes some surprising decisions that lead him to take dangerous--but exhilarating--risks.

Hold me closer, necromancer. Sam LaCroix, a Seattle fast-food worker and college dropout, discovers that he is a necromancer, part of a world of harbingers, werewolves, satyrs, and one particular necromancer who sees Sam as a threat to his lucrative business of raising the dead.

Infernal devices. When sixteen-year-old orphan Tessa Fell's older brother suddenly vanishes, her search for him leads her into Victorian-era London's dangerous supernatural underworld, and when she discovers that she herself is a Downworlder, she must learn to trust the demon-killing Shadowhunters if she ever wants to learn to control her powers and find her brother.

Where things come back. Seventeen-year-old Cullen's summer in Lily, Arkansas, is marked by his cousin's death by overdose, an alleged spotting of a woodpecker thought to be extinct, failed romances, and his younger brother's sudden disappearance.

12 Days of Teen Lit: 12 Dystopian Futures!

In celebration of the Holiday Season, we proudly bring you the 12 Days of YA Lit! 

Today we feature:

12 Dystopian Futures

Article 5 by Kristen Simmons.   Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller has perfected the art of keeping a low profile in a future society in which Moral Statutes have replaced the Bill of Rights and offenses carry stiff penalties, but when Chase, the only boy she has ever loved, arrests her rebellious mother, Ember must take action.

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick.  Alex, a resourceful seventeen-year-old running from her incurable brain tumor, Tom, who has left the war in Afghanistan, and Ellie, an angry eight-year-old, join forces after an electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky and kills most of the world's population, turning some of those who remain into zombies and giving the others superhuman senses.

Blood Red Road by Moira Young. In a distant future, eighteen-year-old Lugh is kidnapped, and while his twin sister Saba and nine-year-old Emmi are trailing him across bleak Sandsea they are captured, too, and taken to brutal Hopetown, where Saba is forced to be a cage fighter until new friends help plan an escape.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer. As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.

Divergent by Veronica Roth.  In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Enclave by Ann Aguirre. In a post-apocalyptic future, Deuce, a loyal Huntress, brings back meat while avoiding theFreaks outside her enclave, but when she is partnered with the outsider, Fade, she begins to see that the ways of the elders may be wrong.

Feed by M.T. Anderson.   In a  society dominated by the feed, a next-generation Internet/television hybrid that is directly hardwired into the brain. Teen narrator Titus never questions his world, in which parents select their babies' attributes in the conceptionarium, corporations dominate the information stream, and kids learn to employ the feed more efficiently in School. But everything changes when he and his pals travel to the moon for spring break.

Legend by Marie Lu. In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner.  Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden.  While Ellie and her friends are away in the bush, the world changes. Suddenly they are inthe toughest situations humans can confront, facing life and death decisions. They are thrown into a world where they find courage, initiative, spirit and wisdom ... or they die.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.  Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there. But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano.  After modern science turns every human into a genetic time bomb with men dying at age twenty-five and women dying at age twenty, girls are kidnapped and married off in order to repopulate the world.

After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia

Welcome to a nineteen post-apocalyptic/ dystopian worlds.  What does society look like after disaster or after Utopia goes wrong, as it always seems to do? Each of the YA authors in this anthology has answered that question, created characters you won't forget, and crafted story lines that will haunt you, leave you wondering if these things could truly happen, because each author's story convinces you that they can--and more disturbingly, very likely will. This anthology is stunning in its diversity, plots, and sheer good writing.

In "Faint Heart," a group of young men, some trained, some forced by poverty, fight in a maze to win the hand of the queen, who just happens to be a clone.  In "The Segment" the evening news turns into carefully scripted and acted shots that twist the concept of "reality" as much as it does reality TV to the extreme. "Rust with Wings" introduces a terrifying plague of bugs that devour metal, including teeth fillings and pacemakers, that devastate the Southwest and challenge one teen and his family to survive the insects' deadly descent.  "All I Know of Freedom" gives us the story of one orphan who escapes the family she has been sold into and gives her the chance to escape a crumbling Earth in a rocket ship manned by a group of kind but fanatic cult leaders and followers.

I haven't finished all nineteen stories yet, but I can't wait to see what else is in store.  What is it about the end of the world as we know it that is so intriguing to read?  Maybe it's the question each reader has to ask him or herself:  what would you do in these dire circumstances?

Fever

What a good read! Book Two of the Chemical Garden trilogy exceeds the momentum of the first book, Wither, and now I am eager and anxious for the third and final installment.  See my earlier, glowing review of Book One here:
http://bookobsessiongpl.blogspot.com/search?q=wither

Fans of The Hunger Games are sure to enjoy these books.  The author writes brilliantly.  The world she has created pits her characters against grim, nearly hopeless odds. "Grim" is really the best adjective to describe Fever.  Without wandering too far into spoiler territory, suffice it to say that it is out of the frying pan and into the fire for our main characters in this novel.   The stakes have risen for Rhine, a young woman who was forced into a sham marriage in the first novel.  The world she lives in has become only more poisonous, more deadly, more sinister than when she was first "gathered"  and sold into a beautiful, but unmistakably evil prison. Freedom is short-lived and seemingly impossible and what appear to be insurmountable obstacles rise up to halt Rhine's desperate search for her twin brother and true freedom.

A sinister, crazy woman in the red-light district is only another prison warden, one who runs a demented carnival that is really a brothel, a place where she keeps her girls drugged up on angel's blood and literally sells them to the highest bidder.  People who seem to be offer refuge turn out to be cracked and apt to turn on a dime. Orphaned children, the "malformed" who were born with serious birth defects, are abused and abandoned. The ice-chilling villain of the first novel has only grown more eager to continue his scientific experiments on unwilling young women.  And if all of this isn't enough, every child born into this world dies between the ages of twenty and twenty-five.  How easy it would be to give up.  But Rhine doesn't give up.  Her strength and steely resolve combined with unfaltering kindness and love make her an excellent narrator.  And the return of intriguing characters from the first novel in addition to the introduction of new heroes and villains will keep the reader hooked.

Start with Wither and then hurry on to Fever.  The second book is even better than the first and the third, Sever, will hopefully be the best of them all.  Sever is due out in February, 2013.

Is it February yet?

Kearsten's Book Club: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Last night was loud. I don't know if we were all channeling the Dauntless, but even the librarians out at the youth desk commented on how rowdy book club was.  I'm not gonna lie: I participated happily in the shouty-laughter.

The book that got us riled-up was Veronica Roth's dystopic science fiction novel, Divergent.

In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

This is a book full of action, fear, tough chicks, evil overlords (of a sort), guilt, conspiracy and a little bit of romance - and you'll be dying to take the aptitude test to discover in which faction you belong...

Unsurprisingly, we spent a good amount of time discussing the factions, each of which value a different trait: selflessness, bravery, intelligence/knowledge, peacefulness, and honesty. Can you be brave without selflessness? Is it worth it to be honest regardless of whom it might hurt? Does an awesome female character ALWAYS have to have some pretty boy tell her how amazing she is before she'll believe it herself?! (Okay, that last one is a personal beef I've been having with teen fiction lately. I'll back off now.)

Already read Divergent? Put the second book in the trilogy, Insurgent, on hold, or try one of these book club suggested titles!

The Maze Runner by James Dashner.  Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

Blood Red Road by Moira Young.  In a distant future, eighteen-year-old Lugh is kidnapped, and while his twin sister Saba and nine-year-old Emmi are trailing him across bleak Sandsea they are captured, too, and taken to brutal Hopetown, where Saba is forced to be a cage fighter until new friends help plan an escape.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce.  Eleven-year-old Alanna, who aspires to be a knight even though she is a girl, disguises herself as a boy to become a royal page, learning many hard lessons along her path to high adventure.

Not enough to satisfy your interest in tough, smart teen girls? Take book clubber Tiffany's suggestion to check out season one of the awesome TV show, Veronica Mars. Tiffany says that the main character of Divergent reminds her of Veronica, in her willingness to stand up for others and to not just go-along with the crowd. (And I agree - Veronica Mars was amazing!)