No animals died in this one :)

Oh goshhhh I love A. S. King. This reminded me of like a fusion of [b:The Handmaid's Tale|38447|The Handmaid's Tale|Margaret Atwood|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1294702760s/38447.jpg|1119185] with... uh... other A. S. King novels. Mixed with a bat.

Glory's visions of the future were super haunting to me, in the way that Handmaid's Tale and other prescient political dystopias are. But her narration of the past and present were equally compelling. It's so realistic that Glory would be in some ways very self-aware and in others clueless--I think we all have blind spots like that. She's someone to cheer for as she figures things out. <3

Cool and weird! Lemony Snicket is just my cool, weird, MG jam. This one made me feel slightly like I was forgetting stuff from the last 2 books, but overall I dug it and look forward to the FINAL INSTALLMENT.

I enjoyed this story, and I'm glad there's a MG fiction with a transgender protagonist.

Howeverrrr it did feel a bit simplistic to me? And also, I know it's a MG novel and maybe the author didn't want to be too much of an "issue" novel, but I'm a little surprised the word "transgender" is never used in this? Like Grayson starts to accept her feelings that she's a girl, not a boy, and

Spoiler

starts wearing feminine clothes to school

. But it seems like it wouldn't be that much of a stretch for the Understanding Drama Director to say, "Hey, BTW, have you ever heard the word 'transgender,' because maybe that label would be useful to you?" All we get is dancing around it like "always been like this." Like it could almost easily be a story about an effeminate boy coming to terms with getting bullied for liking "girly" stuff?

Still! Like I said, I enjoyed reading it. Certainly a good contribution to the MG LGBTQ canon.

*whispers* I never read any Christopher Pike books in the 90s and I am here to tell you that this one, at least, does not read well for a non-nostalgic 20-something.

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-05-scavenger-hunt/

I think I picked this up when it was a Kindle Daily Deal and held onto it until I needed a quick portable read. I've seen it on some John Green-readalike lists, and yeah, it's got the Quirky Smart Kids with Tragic Happenstances down pretty pat. Reading this kind of felt like a rollercoaster (as pictured on the cover!) Or really, a reverse roller coaster. I started off high, because I do love that John Green-y quirky kids thing, and this starts off strong. Then in the middle I got a little weary of it and felt like it was getting pretty predictable. Then, high note ending!! Not what I predicted!

Not necessarily groundbreaking YA fiction, but if you (or your teens) like This Kind of Thing, I'd recommend it.

Diversity note: casually-but-definitely Jewish protagonist.

PS I FORGOT TO MENTION: THE DOG DIES

I'll start by saying mystery/crime procedural isn't really my jam, so I know I'm not the target audience for this book. I read it with an eye toward maybe booktalking it to the local junior high kids, since mysteries/MURDER are very popular with them, and some reviews recommended this for grades 7-9. I'm ultimately NOT going to booktalk it--I definitely do think a lot of kids in that age range would enjoy that, and most of them probably wouldn't be too shocked by it, given other media they're exposed to. BUT this is a book about profilers of serial killers, and they talk about serial killers & sexual assault, and I'm just... choosing not to promote this to every junior high kid.

I think the concept--teens who are Natural profilers/lie detectors/emotion readers/whatever are collected by the FBI and sent to live in a training house that's kind of like an un-televised Real World situation--is cool if implausible, and a lot of teens would be into it.

Some teens might like the love triangle? For me, aside from being a little ~over~ love triangles, as many are these days, I was also confused by this one because I could NOT tell the two boys apart and I kept forgetting which one of them was supposed to be the ~bad boy~? Like, they are both broody FBI profilers-in-training.

Overall, a fast, enjoyable mystery (I def did not predict the ending!) and like I said--not my genre. If you (or your teens) are into mystery/procedural you'll probably like this more.

I read this and [b:All-New X-Men, Vol. 5: One Down|19539377|All-New X-Men, Vol. 5 One Down|Brian Michael Bendis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411227655s/19539377.jpg|27665932] in the same day and now they blur together. They were both fine but confusing, due to time travel and the fact that I didn't read the Age of the Atom event (I THINK?) I don't remember which volume had the cute alternate realities? Maybe 5? anyway that was my favorite part.

I read this and [b:All-New X-Men, Vol. 5: One Down|19539377|All-New X-Men, Vol. 5 One Down|Brian Michael Bendis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411227655s/19539377.jpg|27665932] in the same day and now they blur together. They were both fine but confusing, due to time travel and the fact that I didn't read the Age of the Atom event (I THINK?) I don't remember which volume had the cute alternate realities? Maybe 5? anyway that was my favorite part.

mmmm.... I liked this well enough. It's a lot of the kind of thing I don't necessarily enjoy...? Sweeping family saga, confusing magical realism and all that.

I think I also had a bit of an attitude problem about this because I had to read it in a rush for tonight's book club. I think it is a book that would probably be better savored in small bits, rather than crammed in over a weekend.

Also I think it took a hit for me since I read it right after [b:Blue Lily, Lily Blue|17378508|Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3)|Maggie Stiefvater|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398366292s/17378508.jpg|24170141], which I LOVED SO MUCH.