New Release Round-Up: September 3-9, 2012

Young Adult


The Edge of Nowhere
by Elizabeth George

Release date: September 4, 2012
Available as: hardcover, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 448
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Suggested tags: young adult, mystery, paranormal



First in the Saratoga Woods series. From Goodreads:

"The first young adult book by a #1 New York Times bestselling author

Whidbey Island may be only a ferry ride from Seattle, but it's a world apart. When Becca King arrives there, she doesn't suspect the island will become her home for the next four years. Put at risk by her ability to hear "whispers"--the thoughts of others--Becca is on the run from her stepfather, whose criminal activities she has discovered. Stranded and alone, Becca is soon befriended by Derric, a Ugandon orphan adopted by a local family; Seth, a kindhearted musician and high school dropout; Debbie, a recovering alcoholic who takes her in; and Diana, with whom Becca shares a mysterious psychic connection.

This compelling coming-of-age story, the first of an ongoing sequence of books set on Whidbey Island, has elements of mystery, the paranormal, and romance. Elizabeth George, bestselling author of the Inspector Lynley crime novels, brings her elegant style, intricate plotting, incisive characterization, and top-notch storytelling to her first book for teens."

Monstrous Beauty
by Elizabeth Fama

Release date: September 4, 2012
Available as: hardcover, Kindle edition, ebook, audiobook
Pages: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Suggested tags: young adult, paranormal, mermaids



First in the Monstrous Beauty series. From Goodreads:

"Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences.

Almost one hundred forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect . . . or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean—but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago."

Other YA new releases for this week:

Middle Grade


The Broken Lands
by Kate Milford

Release date: September 4, 2012
Available as: hardcover, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 464
Publisher: Clarion Books
Suggested tags: middle grade, fantasy



From Goodreads:

"A crossroads can be a place of great power. So begins this deliciously spine-tingling prequel to Kate Milford’s The Boneshaker, set in the colorful world of nineteenth-century Coney Island and New York City. Few crossroads compare to the one being formed by the Brooklyn Bridge and the East River, and as the bridge’s construction progresses, forces of unimaginable evil seek to bend that power to their advantage. Only two orphans with unusual skills stand in their way. Can the teenagers Sam, a card sharp, and Jin, a fireworks expert, stop them before it’s too late? Here is a richly textured, slow-burning thriller about friendship, courage, and the age-old fight between good and evil."

A Dog Called Homeless
by Sarah Lean

Release date: September 4, 2012
Available as: hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 208
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Suggested tags: middle grade, contemporary



From Goodreads:

" "My name is Cally Louise Fisher and I haven't spoken for thirty-one days. Talking doesn’t always make things happen, however much you want them to."

When Cally Fisher sees her dead mother, real as anything, no one believes her. So Cally stops talking – what’s the point if no one is listening?

The only other living soul who sees Cally's mum is a mysterious wolfhound who always seems to be there when her mum appears. But without a voice, how will Cally convince anyone that her mum is still with them, and how will she ever persuade her Dad that the huge silver-grey dog is their last link with her?

An outstandingly assured debut novel from a sparkling new talent."

Other Middle Grade new releases for this week:

Review: Quarantine: The Loners by Lex Thomas

Quarantine: The Loners
by Lex Thomas

Available as: hardcover, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 416
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Publication date: July 10, 2012
Suggested tags: young adult, thriller, survival



First in the Quarantine series. From Goodreads:

"It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.

A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school.

In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive."

{ I received this as an ebook ARC from NetGalley. }


I love survival stories. Exploring how characters react when their survival instincts kick in is fascinating to me. Quarantine: The Loners follows brothers David and Will as they struggle to survive in the aftermath of an explosion that traps all the students in their school and the spread of the virus that's slowly making them deadly to not only adults on the outside, but to each other on the inside as they grow older. It is indeed "frighteningly dark" - there is some pretty graphic detail of dangerous and deadly situations, but it makes for a fantastic feeling of fear and heaviness that swallows you up and lets you get totally lost in this gripping read.

The story is told in 3rd person, with the focus bouncing back and forth between the main characters. I liked this approach because you got to see what was happening all around the school, how one character's actions affect another and what sorts of plans are being made behind other characters' backs. The action was nearly non-stop; with all the students fighting for resources, territory, and respect, there was always something dramatic happening. I flipped pages like crazy, staying up way into the night because I just couldn't tear myself away in the middle of the action.

The only small complaint that I have is that I would have liked a little more detail about the first weeks after the explosion, when they're all trying to adjust to life trapped inside their school and the dawning realization that help may not be coming anytime soon. The book skips forward pretty quickly to months after the explosion, when they've already formed their own sort of society with gangs and leaders and jobs and trade. I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority here, but I wish I could have read more about how they got to that point. I can appreciate why that was all cut out, though - it keeps the action moving by cutting right to the heart of the plot.

The dynamic between David and Will is great. Will has epilepsy, so his older brother David has always played the role of protector for him. Now that Will is older, he's getting sick of it and is ready to play the hero on his own. But no matter what he does, he always ends up in David's shadow. And no matter how hard David tries to make the right choices, he seems to always anger Will. Will is so desperate to strike out on his own that he makes reckless, dangerous decisions that he knows are foolish, but he can't seem to help himself. (SPOILER - highlight to read: Like when he's raiding Varsity's stuff in the gym, and he decides to stop and throw a basketball... I was like, "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!? You just got away with stealing from Varisty - forget the ball and GET THE HECK OUT OF THERE!!" And I honestly almost shouted all this out loud at my Kindle.)

In the midst of all the chaos happening in the rest of the school, I was surprised to find a nice little love triangle between David, Will, and Lucy, a girl that Will met the summer before. It's alternately touching and frustrating. Frustrating for Will because he knew her first and then David moved in, but also frustrating as a reader because the two guys do ridiculous things when she's around. Will puts his desire to impress her over his need to provide for himself and his brother, and David becomes uncharacteristically, devastatingly careless about all other things when the chemistry between he and Lucy heats up. You know they're both putting themselves in terrible situations, and you just want to scream at the book to make them snap out of it and act right.

The action all leads towards a seemingly inevitable conclusion: you know the gangs are going to fight until only one is left standing. But at the last minute, the plot gets flipped into an unexpected cliffhanger of an ending. Right when you're sure there's about to be an epic final encounter between two rival characters, things you didn't expect (at least not yet) suddenly happen, and you're left in suspense with the last line. I desperately wished the next book was already out - I would have snagged it and kept right on reading.

Anyone interested in survival stories (or curious about what would happen if you were trapped for years in a life-or-death situation in your own high school with your fellow students) should definitely give Quarantine: The Loners a read. I can just about promise you'll be scoping out your own long-term hiding places the next time you walk down the halls of your school.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars