Gone by Lisa McMann

Fade by Lisa McCann

Description:

For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They're just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck. Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody's talking. When Janie taps into a classmate's violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open--but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie's in way over her head, and Cabe's shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.

Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability. And it's bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a Dream Catcher sealed, but what's to come is way darker than she'd even feared...

The second book in this series, seemed to start a little slow (but don't most books) or it could've just been me. I love the writing style. Short crisp sentences, not overly descriptive much of the time. Detail and narrative when it matters. Some books need a lot of narrative to draw you into and make you part of the story. As a matter of fact that is typical and wonderful. This author doesn't rely on it, and it works really well. The end of the book took an unexpected twist that totally sucker punched me. I can't see where she takes it with:

the planned third book, "Gone"
Description:

OPEN YOUR EYES

Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she'd made her peace with it. But she can't handle dragging Cabel down with her.

She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams. He's amazing. And she's a train wreck. Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves--she has to disappear. And it's going to kill them both.

Then a stranger enters her life--and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she'd ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils. And time is running out...

He reaches toward her, his fingers black and bloody, his eyes deranged, unblinking. Janie is paralyzed. his cold hands reach around her neck, squeezing tight, tighter, until Janie has no breath left. She's unable to move, unable to think. As his grasp tightens further around Janie's neck, his face turns sickly alabaster. He strains harder and begins to shake.

Janie is dying.
She has no fight left in her.
It's over.

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

Part of the Soul Screamers series. Can I just say that the covers are gorgeous?

Description:

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH
KAYLEE CAVANAUGH

She doesn't see dead people, but...

She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about the need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next...

SOUL SCREAMERS
The last thing you hear before you die...

The question is why does she know who is going to die, what compels her to scream bloody murder, and why are so many teenage girls dying?

Buy it.

To read an exerpt go to the Amazon website: here You can also get a free download of the prequel, My Soul to Lose, on Rachel's website

The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1 - PJ Haarsma,

Description:

A human boy with an uncanny link to computers finds danger and discovery on the rings of Orbis in this riveting sci-fi adventure.

Thirteen-year-old Johnny Turnbull has always known there was something different about him, even before he and two hundred other kids landed on the first ring of Orbis. But once their spaceship lands, he is identified as the first-ever "softwire" -- a human with the ability to enter and communicate with computers through his mind -- and becomes the focus of intergalactic intrigue. Johnny and the rest of the refugee orphans are put to work in alien factories, and very quickly things go very wrong. When the all-knowing, all-controlling, and technologically "perfect" central computer starts malfunctioning, suspicious eyes turn to Johnny. Is he the one responsible? This action-packed, fast-paced sci-fi novel will keep kids on the edge of their seats.

Something in this made me think of Orson Scott Card and "Ender's Game." Certainly not as complex and much warmer, still struck the same nerve that made me love "Ender's Game." It felt unfinished (gee, maybe because it is the first of a trilogy), but I didn't find that off-putting, I simply ordered the next book.

Definitely worth reading.

This was waiting for me

when I returned home yesterday from vacation:


Can you say Squeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!?

Unwind - Neal Shusterman

UNWIND - Neal Shusterman

Description:
In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would "unwind" them. Connor's parents want to be rid of him because he's a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev's unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family's strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can't be harmed -- but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.In Unwind,Boston Globe/Horn BookAward winner Neal Shusterman challenges readers' ideas about life -- not just where life begins, and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive.

The first question is why Unwinding? Maybe what is Unwinding? In some alternate future the war (which became an actual war) betwen Pro-Choice and Pro-Life was settle with a abolition of abortion. You could "stork" a baby by leaving it on someone's doorstep, as long as you didn't get caught. But other than that, every pregnancy had to attempt to succeed as a live birth and the parents were responsible for that child until they were at least 13. At that time a parent could choose to unwind a child.

The unwound child was harvested for body parts, and this compromise between pro-life and pro-choice was agreed on because if the parts lived on, then the child never really died. I guess the soul doesn't count. The book touches on whether "the parts" retained some memories of the original owner. Society had figured out a way to use nearly 100% of the body in transplants. Things like the appendix didn't seem to count.

The book description above gives reasons for the three chldren's unwinding. Every life is precious doesn't seem to apply.

The book was very interesting, even though it seemed slow in the beginning. That could be because I was reading it so slowly. It is hard to really get into a book when you can only read a couple of pages at a time. But I found myself really vested in the outcome of Connor and Risa. I seem to remember feeling the same way about "Everlost", so perhaps it is simply Mr. Shusterman's style.

Read it.

Unwind is available in both paperback and hardback.

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter. ~Thomas Helm