Review: Missing, Presumed Dead

Missing, Presumed Dead
by Emma Berquist

Publisher: Greenwillow/HarperCollins
Publication Date: May 21, 2019

MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD is a thrilling murder mystery about high school dropout, Alexandra “Lexi” Ivanovich, who teams up with a recently killed ghost, Jane Morris. Jane was murdered at the bar Lexi works at, but doesn’t remember who killed her and why. What Lexi is surprised by, however, is that Jane is not the only stabbing victim who went missing in the last month: Urie, Lexi’s boss, worries that they have a serial killer on their hands, who’s using their bar club as a slaughtering ground.

However, Lexi’s abilities branch far beyond just seeing ghosts: she can also see how and when people die just at a touch. Overwhelmed with the guilt that she had seen Jane’s death before it actually happened and couldn’t stop it, Lexi tries to help Jane find her killer before he harms anyone else. What follows is an exciting mystery/ghost story with a hefty dose of honesty, humor, and romance.

I actually really enjoyed this book. It was extremely creative and the story flowed so well, I wasn’t even paying attention to how far along in the book I was. Berquist does an especially great job with the characters, as they were not only complex in their own ways, but very likable and fun to read about! I highly recommend this book to mystery, romance, and horror fans alike. (A slight gore warning, but nothing too severe.)

Review: We'll Fly Away

We'll Fly Away
by Bryan Bliss

Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: May 8, 2018

WE'LL FLY AWAY by Bryan Bliss is the story of two best friends, Luke and Toby, and their senior year of high school. With the promise of a college wrestling scholarship for Luke, the two boys make their plans to leave their town, Toby’s abusive father, and Luke’s distant mother at the end of the school year. Carefully woven within the story of the boys’ year are Luke’s letters to Toby from death row. 

These letters ultimately allow readers to piece together the events leading up to Luke’s incarceration and complimented the other aspects of the novel well. However, the best part of reading WE'LL FLY AWAY was the vulnerability of each of the two main characters. This, along with the strength of the boys’ friendship made reading the novel and their growth apart from one another especially heartbreaking. 


Warnings: physical abuse 

Review: Calling My Name

Calling My Name
by Liara Tamani

Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: October 24, 2017

Taja Brown, an African American girl living in Houston, Texas, narrates CALLING MY NAME by Liara Tamani. Throughout this coming of age novel, Taja grapples with the expectations of her parents, her relationship with God, her sexuality, and her own personal aspirations.

Because the novel begins when Taja is in middle school and ends after she finishes high school, it felt as though I was growing up alongside her, instead of reading her stories as an outsider. Taja beautifully develops her narrative voice over the course of the story, which was a rewarding process for me to experience as a reader. This immediately personal relationship with the main character, along with Tamani’s subdued (while still powerful) writing style, makes CALLING MY NAME easy to connect to for any teenager. 

Readers who enjoyed the vignette-like structure and poetic language of Sandra Cisneros’s THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET will want to give CALLING MY NAME a try.  

Review: Eliza and Her Monsters

Eliza and Her Monsters
by Francesca Zappia

Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: May 30, 2017

High school senior Eliza Mirk is quiet and reserved. She rarely speaks at school and spends most of her time drawing in her sketchbook. What most people don’t know, however, is that inside of that sketchbook is a world that Eliza created – the online comic Monstrous Sea. Eliza runs her fandom of millions of followers anonymously under the screen name LadyConstellation, but this anonymity is threatened when Wallace Warland, the number one MS fanfiction writer, arrives at her school and makes Eliza wonder if she can have a life both on- and offline.

ELIZA AND HER MONSTERS was a beautifully written book. Both Eliza and Wallace deal with personal and familial struggles, but through their shared loved of Monstrous Sea they connect with one another and develop a profound relationship. I thought that Zappia did an excellent job of writing about introversion, creativity, and mental health. Between chapters, she included sections of Eliza’s webcomic, Monstrous Sea, which was an equally captivating story and added to my perception of Eliza’s growth as a character while I read. The book also contained one other story, THE CHILDREN OF HYPNOS, which Zappia has released on her Wattpad page and which I cannot wait to read.

Review: Spare and Found Parts

Spare and Found Parts
by Sarah Maria Griffin

Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: October 4, 2016

Spare and Found Parts is about a girl named Nell Crane with a ticking heart who lives in a city devastated by an epidemic, and who decides to create a robot companion. The author's writing style is one that might be a little confusing at first, but then adds to the total effect of the book. I enjoyed the plot and how people are afraid of computers ever since some mysterious epidemic devastated the people on this island. I wish that the author would elaborate a bit more on what exactly happened, because I feel like it would add a lot to the total story. I also liked how she introduced different cool aspects, like secret societies, throughout the book, but I feel as if she sometimes used them as plot devices and could have used them more to improve the total story. If there were a second book, I probably would read it to see where the characters go and hopefully find out more about this novel's mysterious past. I think people who are fans of futuristic post-disaster books will enjoy this book because there are lots of cautionary notes about the dangers of technology.