Reanna's Book Realm

  Simon’s a pretty open book. His family is super close, he has awesome friends, and overall a comfortable life as a junior in high school. There’s just one, kind of big thing: he’s gay. It’s not that he’s ashamed of being gay (he’s not), it’s just that he’s never found the right time to tell anyone. Well, not anyone. There’s Blue, an anonymous boy from his school that he emails back and forth. One day, Simon gets impatient and checks his email on a school computer and forgets to log out. His sort-of friend Martin finds the emails, and begins to blackmail him. Simon can either do Martin’s bidding or decide to come out, something he isn’t quite ready to do.   For some reason, I really did not want to read Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda. It’s been wildly popular since its release two years ago, but, like always, I was being stubborn and refused to read it. Finally, I listened to the audiobook this winter break, and it was spectacular. Arguably one of the best audiobooks ...

Adam’s dad is the head of the church in his small, conservative town, which means he’s under constant scrutiny. His brother’s on his way to become a priest, but Adam can’t even think about the future. He’s still got one last year of high school, a hard enough feat without being gay. His parents seem to know about his sexuality but ignore it, he has a boyfriend that he thinks he loves, and a boss that’s sexually harassing him at work. Everyday stretches out to a lifetime in Adam’s world, and today is no different. I have mixed feelings about Patrick Ness’s work. Overall, he always has really good concepts for his books. He wrote a trilogy about a world where everyone hears each other’s thoughts and a book about all the sidekicks of superheroes. Yet, they all fall short for me. I was still drawn to Release because of the plot, the cover, and the quote from Andrew Smith on the front. After reading it, this could’ve been one of my favorite books of the year but there was one major is...

Eliza is a mystery to everyone, including herself. At school, no one dares talk to her, and at home, where her family is obsessed with all things sports, her parents assume all of her reclusive behavior is due to a “teenage thing.” Yet, inside her room, she is the mastermind behind the worldwide famous comic series, Monstrous Sea. The very people who call her weird at school are huge fans of her work, not knowing who she is. At the beginning of her senior year, Eliza meets Wallace, who not only wants to talk to her, but is a huge fan of Monstrous Sea. As their friendship turns into something more, Wallace starts confiding in Eliza all of his secrets, but she’s still hiding the fact that she’s the author of Monstrous Sea. Deeper and deeper their relationship goes and Eliza must decide when she wants to stop hiding. Right of the bat, the premise of Eliza and Her Monsters remind me a lot of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. In both books, the main characters are behind successful webstories/...

*Lord of Shadows is the sequel to Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare It’s been only weeks since Emma killed Malcolm Fade, the high warlock of Los Angeles. While that should’ve been the end of Malcolm's game, it doesn’t look like it is. His body is still somewhere in the ocean, and it’s woken up sea demons throughout the coast. To try to combat this problem, the Ceturions arrive to the Los Angeles Institute, a highly skilled group of Shadowhunters. However, it seems that the Centurions have a different motive for being there, and that’s not the only thing that going on at the institute. Kit, who just discovered he was a Shadowhunter, is not settling in well is dragging Ty down with him. At the same time, Julian is trying to deal with the complications of his parabitai bond with Emma and Mark’s faerie past is catching up with him. The problems are adding up, and soon the structure of the Los Angeles Institute is going to collapse. Lord of Shadows is a seriously daunting book. I...

Justyce is not allowed to be a care-free, regular teenage boy. He’s not allowed to be these things because he is a person of color, and in present day America, that puts a target on his back. And on the night he’s arrested, it doesn’t matter that he’s on his way to Yale or that he is a loving person, all that matters is he’s a black boy seen with a drunk, white-passing girl at two a.m. He hasn’t done anything wrong, but he’s arrested and held for hours, only to not have any charges filed against him. In the months following his arrest, Justyce is forced to examine his relations with American culture while being in an environment that denies his struggles. The minute I heard the premise of Dear Martin I knew I wanted to read it. In the past years, the collection of published YA books has broadened in diversity, not to say that there isn’t always room for improvement. Originally, this book reminded me of The Hate U Give , one of my favorites this year. Now that I’ve read both books...

After a year of staying at the neighbor’s house, Eleanor is finally being allowed to come back to her house. Except, her house isn’t what it use to be. Now, it seems like all of her siblings worship her abusive step-dad and her family is even poorer than what they use to be. Across the neighborhood lives Park, a teenage boy who’s always had a stable family and loves all things punk. Eleanor and Park are total opposites so when they end up sitting next to each other on the bus they have nothing but displeasure for each other. But on the next bus ride, things change. Things change again on the bus ride after that and the bus ride after that. Soon they’re sharing comic books and then speaking to each other and even better, holding hands. Set in the backdrop of the late 1980s, Eleanor and Park’s relationship seems to come straight out of a movie. Unfortunately, it’s real life and it’s crashing down on them. Eleanor & Park is a really good concept for a book. What I mean is, it gli...

Mateo is going to die. Of course, he has to die sometime but he’s going to specifically die today. He knows because DeathCast called him at midnight letting him know. Mateo is eighteen. Rufus is seventeen and he is also going to die today. Neither of them are ready to go out. Mateo’s anxiety has made it so that he’s barely lived and Rufus is just rebuilding his life after his family died three months ago. Through the Last Friend app, Mateo and Rufus are able to connect and attempt to live their last day to the fullest, literally. Oh, and they might fall in love along the way. So my love for Adam Silvera is at full capacity right now. Not only is he basically the coolest person ever, he released two books this year. The first one, History Is All You Left Me was an automatic all time favorite of mine. Also, exciting news, he’s coming to my library in December (AHHHH)! Basically, my life is made. Of course, I had to read They Both Die at the End as soon as it came out and I feel like...

In Henrietta, Virginia, magic is brewing. For Blue, this is no surprise. Blue lives in a house full of psychics. Some can predict times of events and some can predict things as a grave as the way someone will die. Blue’s only ability is to amplify other’s. Oh, and the fact that if she kisses her true love, they will die. For Gansey, the magic of Henrietta holds the key to the future. For a year and a half, he’s been searching Henrietta for the ley line that supposedly has the power to awaken a historical Welsh king that, when awakened, is able to grant powerful wishes. Enlisted in his search are his friends Ronan, Adam, and Noah. And now Blue. In a psychic reading gone wrong, the boys and Blue are put together, now all on the hunt for the ley line. There’s only one thing Blue isn’t telling them: she’s predicted to have a role Gansey’s death. Gansey, who’s alive right now. As they get closer to the ley line, it becomes clear that they’re not the only ones after the king and the conseq...

Kell is one of two people in the world who can jump through the Londons. There’s Gray London, Red London, White London, and the untouchable Black London. Spread across the Londons are various degrees of magic leaving his home world of Red London with a pulse of magic in the air. Because of his power, he works for the kingdom of Red London, giving and receiving messages between the other kingdoms on their behalf. On his own time, he illegally transports items across worlds for individuals desperate for different tastes of magic. When a trade goes wrong, Kell ends up with a piece of powerful magic that could potentially change the balance 0f magic between the worlds forever. Even worse, in a robbery gone wrong, Lila, resident of Gray London, ends up with this very special piece of magic. Lila is hungry for an adventure and hopes that this magic can give it to her. Unwilling to let go of the magic, Kell must work with Lila to get the magic back where it came from before it lands in the w...

It’s been five years since the end of the Dark War the took place in Cassandra Clare’s previous series, The Mortal Instruments. Since then, Julian and Emma, who were last seen at age twelve are now both seventeen and Julian basically runs the Los Angeles Institute. Now, the two of them are parabatai, sworn to serve and protect each other. Even though it’s been awhile since the Dark War, Emma and Julian are still reaping the consequences of it. Julian now is the head of his family and Emma is on a mission to figure out who killed her parents. When bodies start showing up in a similar fashion to Emma’s parents, Emma is given another strand of hope. Julian wants to be supportive but he has his own battle: he’s in love with Emma, something forbidden under parabatai codes. Regardless of his feelings, he has to help Emma because it seems that his family are involved in the murders, which is a puzzle to all. A round of applause to me, who got through this massive, 700 page book in a reaso...