Thomas wakes up in an elevator with no clue what’s going on, who he is or any specifics of his past. Then suddenly, he sees a bunch of teens his age. “Welcome to the Glade.” The Glade, the middle of the maze, the center of activity out in wherever. Nobody knows what the place is. Some have been there for two years, and they haven’t got a clue. Every day runners go out into the maze that surrounds the Glade to look for a way out. Here’s the catch: the maze is filled with grievers, mechanical monsters with spikes and deadly surgical equipment arms. When the elevator comes up with a girl, everything starts to change. In an action-packed intriguing novel, James Dashner creates realistic characters and a setting that you can visualize. Full of suspense, twists and turns, The Maze Runner is a perfect book for fans of dystopians and puzzles. My thoughts: I went into this thinking that it would be like the third task from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire but in the form of a whole book. I can tell you that I was wrong. I was blown away by the story, such a unique idea that is played out seamlessly. It is completely different from the third task and, man, this book was so full of surprises and craziness I loved it so much. This was one of my favorite reads of the year and I can not WAIT to read the following books.

Meet Mia—a passionate cellist with a crazy awesome family and an amazing boyfriend. That was her old life. A snow day off from school and a drive to see family for a day. That’s all it takes for her whole life to change. Meet Mia—sad, lost and unable to decide. This is her new life. After the car accident, Mia is in critical condition. Her family is dead, and waking up will mean being an orphan. Even though she’ll still have Adam, will it be too hard? If I Stay is a story of love and loss, past and present, sadness and happiness. Gayle Forman writes a wonderful novel that shows you just how life can change in an instance. My thoughts: If I Stay was an enjoyable read. The narrative is fabulous—it switches from present to past and you totally forget that it is a flashback and not just happening then. I LOVED Mia’s crazy family—they are just super cool. I thought this was a GREAT concept and it was well executed. All in all, If I Stay was an awesome book for anyone looking for a cool concept that they have probably never seen before. Movie: Ok. The Movie. Woah. It BLEW me away. It was SO good. Like, the trailer almost made me cry. Yeah, so I obviously cried in the movie. It’s just a tear-provoking story. “I wrote you a song, Mia.” *bursts into tears* The acting was AMAZING, the crazy parents were A+ and it was just a PERFECT movie. It was as good as the book definitely. This is THE best book to movie adaptation I have seen. (Sorry Catching Fire) PLEASE do yourself a favor and watch the movie. It doesn’t disappoint!

The Socs and the Greasers are two gangs living in a town loosely based on Tulsa, Oklahoma. They have a natural dislike for each other, since they are complete opposites. The Socs are the west-side rich kids who drive tuff cars and beat up Greasers for fun. The Greasers, on the other hand, are the east-side poor kids, who have long hair with lots of hair oil in it. They are the bad kids, who steal, lie, and get chased by the fuzz (police). When an unintended action is committed, a string of grave incidents occur and the Greasers’ lives are changed. Told from the point of view of the youngest Greaser, Ponyboy, The Outsiders is a novel surrounding two conflicting groups of society in a classic coming-of-age story. My thoughts: This was a very moving book. It’s about friends and enemies, love and loss and good-hearted kids who are seen as the “bad” kids. The conflict between the Socs and the Greasers is at the heart of the story, and the climax is so crazy that it changes the path of the story. This story is sad and at the same time heart-warming, and has been and will be a classic for years to come. A short, but happening novel, The Outsiders is a great book for every middle-schooler.

Jarrett’s mom takes in foster babies. He is used to getting less attention than the foster babies and life is pretty predictable. Until Kevon comes. Kevon is a foster child a little older than Jarrett who gets taken in to be fostered. Jarrett and Kevon immediately dislike each other. But Jarrett doesn’t trust Kevon—he knows something is off. A nice, light read that touches on hate, this is a story about two kids who could just as well be brothers. My thoughts: This book was enjoyable. I had some problems with it, but overall I found it to be an easy and fast read. Ok, these kids HATE each other. I could not STAND it. Jarrett does this, so Kevon does that and Jarrett gets him back and it’s not my fault it’s his fault. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH. “Why does he have to share a room with me?” Me: “Why are you so selfish? He came from bad circumstances and ALL HE DOES IS SHARE A ROOM WITH YOU. Oh. My. Gosh” *end rant* Other than the aforementioned craziness, I did actually think this book was great. It was a nice story, and I loved how real it was. You connected with the characters (even if two of them could be jerks) and I really liked Kevon’s sister, Treasure. she is kinda sorta really cute. Even though I had problems with the characters, I understand that the book was ABOUT trying to be friends and kinda being like brothers. The back is why I picked this up at BEA: “Kinda Like Friends. Kinda Like Enemies. Kinda Like Brothers.” I just love that. So, this book did well emphasizing how people can be ignorant and could care less about someone else, and it shows you that if you just dislike someone just because, it will lead you nowhere. The book conveyed its message.

Cress has been trapped in a satellite for 7 years. She is the evil Queen Levana’s computer programmer and hacker, and yearns to get out of the satellite. So, when she gets in contact with Cinder and her crew, she jumps at the chance to leave. But all of a sudden, a quick turn of events has them all separated from each other. Cress and Thorne are stuck in a falling satellite. Cinder and Wolf are in Africa. Scarlet is trapped with the thaumaturge, heading to Luna. As Cress’s story starts and intertwines with Cinder and Scarlet’s, action, adventure and suspense rise with Kai and Levana’s wedding coming up and Cinder’s gang trying to figure out a way to stop the evil queen. The third installment of The Lunar Chronicles, fans of Cinder and Scarlet will devour this mixed-up futuristic Rapunzel retelling. My thoughts: Cress is a fabulous threequel. It introduces Cress (Rapunzel), who has been alone most of her life and has never been to Earth while continuing the story of the characters introduced in Cinder and Scarlet. It has steady rising action and builds excitement for the last installment, Winter. With a unique plot and a well-developed world, this series takes fairytales to a whole new level—dystopian and sci-fi. It’s just so cool seeing the aspects of the original fairytale taken to this whole new level and seamlessly stitched into the fabric of the futuristic world. Needless to say, I am in love with this series. The idea is just brilliant. I can’t wait for Fairest and Winter, and I can’t wait to see what Marissa Meyer will do next!

Liesel Meminger’s life isn’t so great; her brother died not too long ago, her mom is taken away and she is left to foster parents. When she sees a book lying on the ground at her brother’s funeral, she picks it up, and keeps it. So begins her childhood as a book thief—fascinated by books, by words. Her foster mother is not the nicest person—she calls Liesel words that shouldn’t be said to a child. She bonds with her foster father Hans though, over late-night story-times, writing lessons in the basement, and accordion playing. Hans isn’t quite a Nazi; his loyalties lie somewhere else. That life, knowing what to expect and that continuity is disrupted by the son of Hans’ friend from the war, who shows up at their front door. Max is a Jew, and he is looking for help. So the Hubermanns take him in, give him a hiding place in the basement to stay and provide him with food. Over the time, he and Liesel become friends and realize that they have a lot in common. They share memories, and spend time together. The only thing is, he has to be kept secret. If someone finds out, the consequences won’t be good. This is the story of a young girl, growing up and living life surrounded by Nazi Germany, stealing books and living with a Jew. Narrated by the unique voice of death, this acclaimed novel is definitely worth reading. My thoughts: This book was very enjoyable. With the narration of death, it had all sorts of fun different perspectives of looking at the world. It is written in a really quirky and awesome way; it’ll be in the middle of telling a story of someone dying, and then it’ll break into this little mini-paragraph and say something like “The sky was the color of burning newspaper.” It was intriguing and the story was great, as were the characters. You know, this was a weird book. In a good way. It kind of HAS no summary. Call me crazy, but in my mind it was one of those books that you can’t really describe, other than “a girl living in Nazi Germany.” Does that make sense? Probably not. I absolutely loved Zusak’s writing style, and I think this definitely deserved the Printz award. I look forward to more Markus Zusak!