None of the books on this list are quite like the other. Check out a second take on The Witch Hunter and an interesting twist on a dystopian society based on personal debt; in Hit, paybacks can be fatal. A couple of our reviewers also express their dislike of certain types of swearing in YA titles, comments worth listening to and considering.
ALIFIRENKA, Caitlin & Ganda, Martin. I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives. Little, Brown. Apr. 2015. Tr $18.00. ISBN 9780316241311.
Gr 7 Up—Caitlin comes from a fairly normal family that lives in the United States. She had never even heard of Zimbabwe until she was assigned a pen pal from there in school. Martin lives in Zimbabwe, where living in poverty is considered normal. Becoming pen pals changed both of their views on the world. This is a true story that happened just a few years ago. I did like the cover and how it showed North America and Africa connected. It makes you want to pick up the book. I like the airmail borders on the sides, but I don’t feel that they really reflect the book. A major point in the book is when Martin sends Caitlin a letter written on trash because that was all he could get. The book tells you the kind of paper that both the characters had, and neither of them used that. Martin especially did not use anything fancy.
The most compelling aspect of this book is that it is a true story and shows you what life for many people in Zimbabwe is like now. Caitlin sends Martin a dollar bill to show him what United States currency looks like. The money was equal to 24 Zimbabwe dollars and supported his family for two weeks with better food than they had eaten for a long time. None of the people in Martin’s family had ever worn a real pair of shoes until Caitlin sent him some. His mother would bounce up and down to show them off whenever someone asked about them. Poverty often seems like it exists in a different world here, even though we know it is real. This book has opened up my mind more to the impact of poverty and to different cultures.—Olivia C., 13
BOECKER, Virginia. The Witch Hunter. Little, Brown. Jun. 2015. Tr $18.00. ISBN 9780316327008.
Gr 9 Up—Elizabeth Grey must aid the witches that she’s always hunted in order to avoid being executed in this action-packed alternate history novel. The cover of The Witch Hunter is nice, I guess. It’s supposed to be an alchemical symbol, but granted that alchemy only gets a passing mention and there’s absolutely no Ouroboros symbolism, it’s kind of pointless. There’s actually not a whole lot of symbolism in the entire book, so a highly symbolic cover doesn’t go with the contents very well. At least it isn’t another photo of a girl in a fancy and anachronistic dress, although it’s falling into what I call the “Clip-Art Covers” trend. The image has little to nothing to do with the plot and is not particularly attractive.
The most compelling aspect of the book was the initial appearance of originality. The worldbuilding in The Witch Hunter is interesting, as it’s an alternate 16th century England, where laws for and against witchcraft take the place of the Reformation. It’s really quite well-done for the most part, with a gritty, paranoid vibe and a constant feeling that everything is about to collapse. In addition, the protagonist, Elizabeth, is genuinely strong and can definitely hold her own in a fight. I appreciated that, and I also liked that she was a ruthless witch hunter, rather than a wide-eyed newbie who’s never killed anyone. While violence isn’t something I enjoy in books, main characters who’ve engaged in violent actions or careers of questionable morality are always the most interesting, because they can become either sympathetic or repulsive by subtle development. This kind of protagonist really fits into the atmosphere of The Witch Hunter.
I was massively disappointed by this book, mainly because I loved it for the first 10 chapters, until Fifer was introduced. Girl rivals are perhaps my least favorite type of character in YA, because they’re very rarely played well or given much development. In fact, Fifer fluctuated between best friend and frenemy so frequently that it started giving me a headache, but not so much as the love triangle that popped up soon after did. Caleb and John were both absolutely insipid. Neither of them got much development, but John got so little, one would be excused for thinking he was a minor character and Elizabeth and Caleb were the main couple. Or more likely, Elizabeth and Fifer, since those two interacted more than anyone else.
Finally, there was Blackwell. Oh god, Blackwell. Talk about a cackling, mustache twirling, boring villain. He was the axis around which the predictability of this book turned. Every plot twist involving him could have been predicted about four chapters earlier. Maybe I don’t like him because right before I finished The Witch Hunter, I was watching a show where the only actually good characters are the princess who goes on an insane killing spree and the blind 13-year-old in a wheelchair, but Blackwell just irritated me. There were no shades of moral grayness and no real development to his character, and it was annoying.
Finally, there were the names of places. Slightly Latinized names were used for countries (Anglia for England, Iberia for Spain, etc), but places in “Anglia” had the same names as actual places in England, while others didn’t. If this was supposed to be alt-hist fantasy, then using the actual names might have made it feel less like a random online game or fantasy dating sim. This book almost seemed to be attempting to be Howl’s Moving Castle, but really didn’t succeed at it. Elizabeth is not Sophie, there were none of Howl’s drama queen tendencies in John, and Hastings may be one of the most boring ghost servants in YA.—Ella W., 15
Another take on The Witch Hunter from SLJTeen.
DAWSON, Delilah. Hit. S. & S. Apr. 2015. $17.99. ISBN 9781481423397.
Gr 9 Up—Set in a modern day world that will make you wonder how America is still functioning, readers meet teenager Patsy, roped into a debt caused by her mother. She is given two choices, die or be given a period of five days to deliver the same message to every single person on her hit list. Patsy, seeking to save her mother’s life and her own, takes the job. Things go tipsy when Patsy starts developing a love for an older hunky (every girl’s dream-squeal!) guy named Wyatt, who loves her in return. But when Wyatt’s brother is on the hit list for something he did, Pasty must make a choice—is her and her mother’s life worth more than the brother of the guy she loves? SUSPENSE!
I loved all the description and freshness of the topic. I also loved how she kept the topic narrow, and didn’t go off about less important things. In the end, Delilah, you wrapped up a really pretty book, but with a few ribbons hanging loose so you can write another one. The foreshadowing in the book was also quite fascinating and expertly written, so that readers could easily follow plotlines. I could, at least. It was written with expertise and skill, intertwining the real world into one that lay in shards.
As much as I loved the expert foreshadowing and constant description, I’d want to remove all of the parts in which the characters use “God” or “Jesus” in a derogatory and offensive way. I find that the books without those words tend to do way better publicity wise, and the use of those terms in a disrespectful way makes religious readers like me uncomfortable and a little upset. I’m okay with all the constant S- words and F- words, but for my sake and for the sake of the book, please consider removing them.–Sam G., 13
GOLDSTEIN, Lori. Becoming Jinn. Feiwel & Friends. Apr. 2015. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781250055392.
Gr 7 Up—I liked the freshness of the book. I liked how new the idea was: genies. But I thought the majority of the book was boring, and the way all the genies sounded sexy made me feel like an egg. I don’t like how “looks” were so important. Ugh…I also thought the love triangle was a little unnecessary. This book is a version of Twilight, from Edward’s perspective, only Edward isn’t a vampire; he’s a genie.—Sam G., 13
HOGAN, Edward. The Messengers. Candlewick. May 2015. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780763671129.
Gr 7 Up—The cover was confusing at first, and misled me. I thought the cover looked more like a concentration camp rather than beach huts. But here’s a fresh new idea in death: When Frances is sent to live with her aunt and uncle for the summer, she never thought that her blackouts would result in drawings that predicted the death-filled future for people living in her area. In order to harness this power, she meets Pete, who is way-way older than her and they…uh…talk? Yeah, Frances and Pete talk about their “messenger” abilities and complain about their crappy lives. I didn’t like all of the swearing (oh my Go- and Jesu- and Chris-). I overall just didn’t really like this book.—Sam G., 13
MATHARU, Taran. The Novice. Feiwel & Friends. (Summoner, Bk. 1). May 2015. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781250067128.
Gr 7 Up—An orphan boy finds an Orc scroll and summons a demon, entering a world of demons and people who can control them. The cover was a bit overdone with the animation and all. I think that the most compelling part about this book was that the elves, dwarves, and demons reminded me of Lord of the Rings and Eragon combined. I just love the voice and the way the book was written as well. It is disappointing that the book was not longer and I have to wait for the next book to come out. Great book!—Sam C., 14
