Kind of a Mean Girls meets X-Men type thing, which should totally be my jam. You kind of have to overlook the fact that these kids getting telepathy from the flu shot makes no sense, and the mechanics of how their telepathy works doesn't make sense either? Ehhh.

My favorite part of this book was Olivia, whose social anxiety is helped by getting telepathy because she used to worry that people were judging her all the time, but after being able to read minds she realizes that most people are just thinking about themselves and not noticing what Olivia is doing, which I think is actually a really great message for a teen book to convey.

Some of the other characters are less well developed, but, overall I thought it was a pretty quick, fun read.

Will prob appeal to younger fans of Gossip Girl and the like--there's a lot of lifestyle porn about exclusive Sweet 16 parties and the like. There's talk of drinking and sex, but nothing terribly explicit. (Only one of the telepathic kids has had sex so far and the others are super curious about it, and there's talk of smuggling alchol into parties in the past, but they all swear off drinking for fear it will mess with their telepathy.)

First of all, the audiobook was an Oydssey honor, and I think I'm probably awarding an extra star here for that. The audio version is really great, with lots of cool accents and voices and stuff. I'd definitely recommend this on audio if you have access to it.

The story itself is... kiiiind of bonkers? It was great for a long drive because I was never bored. There were a lot of twists I didn't see coming (and some I did see coming).

Also I was a little annoyed by the modern-day protagonist's decision that since her family is cursed that the mothers always die after giving birth to their first child, she's not going to ever date because it will automatically end in babies and DEATH. (She briefly mentions that birth control isn't 100%, but like... really?? It's in the 2010s and we're still on dating = babies? I get that it's important to the narrative, but I was pretty annoyed by it.

Content warning for rape! Not recommended for younger teens. Or anyone who doesn't want to read about rape. If you want to read about mermaids AND ghosts AND curses AND witches AND murder, this is a book for you. If you are wondering how many things are all stuck into one book... well, me too, but it mostly worked.

I give definite props to George O'Connor for digging so deep into the well of mythology and finding unique angles for these stories. Also they have great backmatter, including the discussion question, "Zeus's dad tries to eat him. Has your dad ever tried to eat you?"

Really solid, recommended for tweens & teens alike, especially as ~Percy Jackson readalikes.~

I thought this was lovely and funny. A worthy exploration of the concept--Travis Coates was a 16-year-old kid dying of cancer. His head was cyrogenically frozen and 5 years later, medical technology had advanced to the point where his head could be reattached to a donor body. (NOTE: there is a certain type of reader who will probably want more medical detail than is given. The concept is pretty glossed-over, and I am 100% fine with that.)

To Travis, it's as if he went to sleep and woke up the next day, but everyone else--his parents, his best friend, his girlfriend--has had 5 years to mourn his death. Plus, Travis is kind of famous--he's only the 2nd person in the USA to have been successfully brought back to life with this procedure. The kinds of negotiations that follow are funny and heartbreaking. I hate to say it's a [b:The Fault in Our Stars|11870085|The Fault in Our Stars|John Green|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1360206420s/11870085.jpg|16827462] readalike, but, uh... it kinda is.

What a funny, weird little story! I don't really know what I thought this was about, but I wasn't expecting it to be so gleefully goofy. Great for tweens-adults, includes a diverse & adorable cast of little space students who take classes in stuff like "Anti-Gravity Gymnastics" and "Driving Dinosaurs." More than anything this reminded me of Scott Pilgrim Jr, but in space.

Also I would just like to mention that there is a panel where a robot speaks entirely in Tori Amos references: "Caught a light sneeze, but at least they didn't ruin my precious things. But it looks like I'll be putting the damage on." I feel like this book's intended audience probably does not appreciate that joke, but I would like to take a moment here to acknowledge it.

I read a manga so I could understand Carrie's jokes about it!!

It has alchemy and a cult in it!!

I really dug the art and raw honesty of this queer coming of age memoir. The ending was a little abrupt, but I guess how do you really decide when to end your coming of age memoir?

I'm not super sure who the best audience for this is? Like, I think that probably queer teens would relate to the coming out narrative, BUT a lot of this is also very ingrained with coming of age in the early 90s--no internet, no way to experience the punk subculture except by seeing Green Day on MTV and then eventually learning that by being on MTV, other punk groups considered Green Day to be sellouts. So in that sense it might be better appreciated by 20 & 30-somethings.

The main thing is that the language and art are explicit--definitely don't hand it to a tween. I think I will keep it shelved in teen, though--ultimately it is a high school story.

Oh... huh. Well, I think I'm one of the last people left who hadn't read this yet. I don't really know what to say about it. I dug it, but it felt maybe a little overhyped by the time I got around to it? I did enjoy the found photography aspect of it for sure. I waffled between 3 and 4 stars on this. I guess I went with 4 because the photos were cool? I kind of wasn't that invested in the story, but the last 25% or so was a page turner.

I wasn't sure if this would live up to the hype, and I don't usually like realistic war novels.

But it lived up to the hype & I like realistic war novels when they're this one.

I mean, Jesus, I don't know what to say. Verity and Maddie were such wonderfully realized characters, and their friendship was beautiful to read about. The adversity of war was heartwrenching, as it should be, of course.

You guys, I'm kind of scared that I have friendships that will not endure my opinion about this book, but I just gotta speak my own truth.

Spoiler

I just thought this was rill boring!! I couldn't believe how long it was! Or how little I cared about all the Nazi backstory! I cared sooo little omg. IDK I guess this was rebooting/recontextualizing an existing, confusing canon? Brubaker... probably did the best he could with it? But honestly just like... so many convoluted threads happening and yet all of them seemed boring. Why. How. There is literally a frozen-in-stasis brainwashed guy with a metal arm. How is that boring?

IDK, it just wasn't... fun. I guess I mostly prefer fun superhero comics to these serious, angsty ones.

Also, Captain America is easily my least favorite Avenger, so I'm sure that didn't help my feelings about this at all.

SORRY I HOPE WE CAN STILL BE FRIENDS. I STILL THINK THE MOVIE LOOKS PRETTY DOPE.