Kirkus: An enterprising loser hustles his way to ultimate popularity, at a cost. Adam’s older brother, Sam, was a star hockey player in his high school years, and by all rights, his younger brother should have been a high school god. Instead, Sam is paralyzed after a nasty body slam, and Adam is a wannabe in off-brand clothes who can’t score an invite to a single party. Tired of sitting at home playing video games and watching Scarface—the plot of which is handily and self-consciously summarized for readers who haven’t seen it—Adam launches a scheme to make himself useful to the school’s elite, initially by doing homework for pay. As his empire of term papers, booze and fake IDs grows, so does his status. The third-person narrative voice is slick, breezy and highly stylized, littered with hashtags and phrases like “our boy” and “Achievement Unlocked.” Chapters are short—none more than a couple of pages and some only a single line—creating a fast-moving and suspenseful tale. The unquestioned intensity with which the narrative voice despises Adam’s nerdiness and pities Sam for his disability is at first troubling, but it soon becomes clear that these views are Adam’s and that the overall story offers a more complex view. For all its slick hipness, surprisingly substantive.
Dec 122014
December 12, 2014
Publishers Weekly: In this impressive dark fantasy debut, witches are anything but cardboard embodiments of good and evil. They are modern, yet plagued by a 200-year-old curse; they are sometimes untrained and unaware, but still have incredible power flowing in their veins. Lauren Reardon thought she was a perfectly normal person, until her father’s death revealed her family connection to the witches from the tiny town of Gideon, Ill., who are tasked with keeping demons from entering this world. After John Reardon’s death, uncanny and frightening events start Lauren on a trip to find her roots, along with the power to combat an evil spirit that has terrorized Gideon since 1836. 
Boing Boing: “Jacobs isn’t afraid to take YA horror into dark places, and this book has some chilling glimpses into sinister sexuality, violence, and psychological torture — but, amazingly, this stuff is never played for cheap thrills or shocks. … Jacobs is a master of racheting up the tension and never offering release.”
Publishers Weekly: In this haunting tale of grief and recovery, 17-year-old Andrew Brawley lives like a ghost in the sprawling wings of Roanoke General Hospital, working in the cafeteria, visiting patients, and borrowing what he needs to get by. When he’s not trying to play matchmaker for his friends Lexi and Trevor—both battling cancer—he’s talking to nurses or working on his comic, Patient F, all while avoiding the tragic circumstances that took his family and left him behind. When Rusty, a boy badly burned by homophobic bullies, enters the hospital, Drew finds the courage to reach out, find love, and confront his deep-rooted guilt and confusion. Hutchinson (fml) takes some liberties with Drew’s unusual day-to-day circumstances, but spins 
Booklist: Recommended for readers seeking the thrill of the chase. Minnesota BCA agent Kirk Stevens (Kill Fee, 2013) is camping with his family when he’s called to the nearby scene of a rural deputy’s shooting. A young woman found next to the body could be either killer or witness; she’s hysterical and barely speaking English. When they finally convince the girl, Irina, to trust them, they learn that she’s escaped a ring of human traffickers who still hold her teenage sister captive. Stevens and his partner, Carla Windermere, get the case, and, assisted by FBI Agent Derek Mathers, they track the ring through a maze of shell companies and a string of bodies left like breadcrumbs as they race to find Irina’s sister before she’s sold beyond their reach. True, the human-trafficking story isn’t breaking new ground, but Laukkanen is gifted at creating relatable characters, and readers will happily tear through his version of this familiar plotline. The combination of breakneck pacing, scarily plausible evils, and steadily rising stakes culminates in an explosive, and only slightly improbable, finale.
Kirkus: The story swiftly knots itself into steampunk-ishly surreal complications, with dauntless (and, by this point, love-stricken) Karen in the thick of the action. Supplies all the Bear necessities: strong female characters, existential threats, intriguing developments and a touch of the light fantastic. Steampunk: Something of a new venture for Bear, whose previous output (Steles of the Sky, 2014, etc.) has ranged from heroic fantasy to science fiction, often with an embedded murder mystery. By the late 19th century, airships ply the trade and passenger routes, optimistic miners head in droves for the Alaskan gold fields, and steam-powered robots invented by licensed Mad Scientists do much of the heavy (and sometimes delicate) work. 
Kirkus: “The quick turns of the mystery plot make this a speedy and enjoyable read, and Finn’s world is a lively one, packed with all manner of weird and wonderful ghosts and goblins. Genre fans looking for a fix will enjoy the gleefully ghoulish setting and engaging, suspenseful plot.”