Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Frannie seems like a normal high school senior; only, she's not. Gifted with special "supernatural abilities," she's caught the attention of Satan himself. In an effort to beat Heaven for her soul, He sends his most trusted demon, Luc (aka Lucifer) to tag her soul and send her straight to Hell where she can help Him defeat his old nemesis, God, once and for all. The only problem is that God knows about her talents, too, and isn't giving her up without a fight. He sends Gabe (aka Gabriel) to intercept Luc and save Frannie from the temptations that Hell has to offer.

There will be a lot fo people who love this novel simply because they love angels and demons, love triangles, and good girls who catch the attention of the bad boy. Unfortunately, for readers who enjoy strong plots and in-depth characters, they won't get it here.

The first "sore-thumb" that stuck out in this novel was that the author tried to write it from two different points-of-view - Luc and Frannie. Other reviewers have commented on this, and I agree that it wasn't executed well at all. In fact, Luc sounded like a cliche, sex-driven teenager instead of a 7,000 year old demon from hell. In addition, his voice was so similar to Frannie's that I had to look at the title of the chapter to remember who was talking. Not only that, but Gabe was "supposed" to be an integral part of the love triangle, but the reader never read his POV, which left him out on the fringe. Instead of doing the alternating POVs, the author should have taken an omniscient voice to make the reading more fluid and believable.

Now, the love triangle. It was simply contrived. I mean, it's not like I didn't see it coming, but it was so poorly done that I honestly didn't care. For instance, one minute Frannie is wanting to have sex with Luc, then out of nowhere she fantasizes about Gabe. In fact, Gabe disappeares for chapters at a time, then all of a sudden, Frannie gets mad at Luc, and runs to Gabe for "comfort" and wonders if she's in love with him. In the real world, this is called a rebound. Also, I never felt like Frannie was in love with either of them with how easily she flip-flopped. Instead, it just seemed that she wanted to have sex and was willing to be with whichever showed the most interest.

Now, Frannie. She claims to be a strong female and doesn't need a male in her life to feel self worth; yet, within a few chapters, she's obsessing about Luc, Ryan, and Gabe. A little contradiction? In fact, her goal becomes getting the two "hottest" guys on campus interested in her before her best friend, who seems like a nymphomaniac, can.

Now, the language. This may seem minor, and, in fact, I'm pretty liberal with my views on curse words when they're used in the proper context. But, the characters used so much language in this book that it came off like they were trying to "play like adults" instead of representing high school seniors. When I teach a young adult novel, I'm very straightforward when I tell my students that language is part of character development, and it adds to the authenticity of the novel. For instance, if we're reading about inmates on deathrow, we aren't going to see them say, "Brother John, let us break bread together." No, they are going to use the "F" word as well as a few others that aren't so PC. But, even then, the author has to choose the language and decide what adds and takes away from the novel. This one relied too much on puns like "Go to hell" to the point that I was rolling my eyes.

I have other frustrations, but, overall, I wouldn't suggest this one.

Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

Violet Ambrose has a special gift; she senses the echoes of people who have died brutally and tragically. Not only can she sense the echoes of the dead, she can also see the imprint on their killers. The only downside to this gift is that Voilet never reaches the victims in time to save them. 

When the echo of a young boy leads her to his body, she gains the attention of certain law enforcement who want to use her "talents" to crack a cold case. Not sure if she's ready to expose her secret, she retreats into the security of her perfect family, boyfriend, and friends only to be unsettled by eerie phone calls, threatening notes, and little "presents" left for her at her home. The more Violet tries to deny her gifts, the more the dead refuse to let her. 

This is the second book in the series, and other than a few references to the near-death experience at Homecoming and serial killers, it's completely stand-alone. I had no problem getting to know the characters or following the plot - maybe because it was so simplistic. This leads to the downside to this book. It was boring and predictable. The book jacket boasts of suspense, but the author's writing style left little doubt as to who the stalker and killer were long before the end of the novel. Not only that, but too much attention was spent on Violet's perfect relationship with her perfect boyfriend Jay. Even when they were fighting, he was perfect. Instead of adding to the story, it became annoying, and I found myself gravitating towards Chelsea, the spunky, off-color, totally inappropriate best friend.

Spirit by J.P. Hightman

Tess and Tobias Goodraven are a wealthy, seventeen-year-old married couple living in Mass. during 1892. Both of them lost their parents in a theatre fire when they were young, which led them to become intrigued by the phantom world, and each other. Their morbid fascination with the occult helps Tobias stumble upon an old legend about the 1662 Salem Witch Trials and the "First Accused," who was a real witch and purely evil. Unable to resist, Tobias convinces Tess to take a train to Blackthorne to see if the legend is true, and what they find is spirits who refuse to let go, and a witch bent on making sure there are no survivors. 

The basic premise of this book was great. In fact, another reviewer sums it up when she says, "Excellent idea, terrible execution." First of all, this book is slotted for 6th-9th grades. The fact that the protagonists were married made the story unrelatable. I know why the author did it - it ties into the ending/climax - but it creates a disconnect from the first page. In addition, there is no plot development, just action. Every time someone would die, I would think "Who was that?" and I would read on because I really didn't care to go back 50 pages to figure it out. 

Overall, this book rambles in a lot of places, then has scary scene after scary scene. The legend is alluded to, but the reader never gets the real story of the murdered lovers or how Widow Malgore (the evil witch) became evil. I would have LOVED to read flashbacks of their lives so that the ending was more powerful. 

Shallow writing, at best.

The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti

Quinn comes from a long line of betrayed women. In fact, her father is the culprit who broke her mother's heart, then abandoned the family. While visiting him one weekend, Quinn notices that her father has an interesting collection of artifacts. Upon closer examination, she discovers that each of her father's prized possessions actually belongs to ex-lovers, which he stole. Determined to find the truth about her father, she enlists the help of her half sister to find these women, return their possessions, and learn their stories of what went wrong. 

Although Caletti's storytelling ability is flawless, the plotline is boring and cliche. I got really tired of the "he done me wrong" theme that permeated throughout the entire novel with no real solution - and the list on the refrigerator doesn't count. I will say that the story became more engaging once Jake came into the picture - several places made me laugh - but it wasn't until I was 200 pages into the novel, which was too little too late.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

"Because when you turn a short span of time into a "season," you create an echo chamber for all of its associations." - Dash 

While perusing the shelves of New York City's The Strand, Dash comes across an innocent-looking, red moleskin, challenging him to a series of dares...Because he's curious and has nothing to lose, Dash accepts the challenge, and creates some of his own for its author, Lily. As they lead each other on random dares, Dash and Lily learn each others' hopes, secrets, and fears, and have to decide if they want to meet and risk losing the magic of the moleskin. 

I really liked the character of Dash; he was witty, sarcastic, and multidimensional. I found his sections interesting and wished they wouldn't end. Unfortunately, I wasn't so excited about Lily. To me, she was too stereotypical (i.e. overprotective family, never had a "real" kiss, and a goody-two-shoes-wanting-to-be-bad) and bland. 

Overall, this was a cute story about two teenagers who found friendship (and a little bit more) during a holiday season that started out not so promising.

After by Amy Efaw

Devon is the perfect kid: straight A student, team leader on the soccer field, and responsible daughter. So, what makes a girl like this hide a  pregnancy, deliver IT on a dirty bathroom floor, and wrap IT in a garbage sack to make IT disappear? 

The novel begins after the baby’s cries from the dumpster attract the attention of a neighbor walking his dog in the early morning hours. The baby survives but a manhunt for the “coldhearted psycho” who placed her there leads to Devon. No one cares who Devon was before she placed her baby in the dumpster. All they care about its after.
 
The ending to this novel salvaged the entire book for me. It wasn’t that I couldn’t empathize with Devon, or I felt like she should have been demonized for her actions. Many readers can’t get past what Devon did to realize the true message of the novel. For me, the plot seemed very stagnant and repetitive until the scenes with the hearing that decided whether or not she would be tried as an adult. Once this portion of the novel progressed, the plot developed depth and Devon was humanized, allowing the reader to develop a connection. Until this point, she was a very two-dimensional character that the reader could care less what happened to her. 

Efaw uses a nonjudgmental voice to present the story of a young girl who committed a horrible crime. This novel shows  readers that there are reasons behind actions. Maybe we don’t understand them, but that doesn’t invalidate them. Also, just because we can empathize with someone doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be held accountable. Sometimes, however, we need to know what happened before, so that we know how to reactafter. 

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

What happens when 50 Teen Dream beauty contestants' plane crashes, and a handful of survivors find themselves stranded on a deserted island with no food, no drinkable water, and no beauty products? ThinkLord of the Flies meets Miss Congeniality. As the days tick by, and hope of rescue diminishes, the survivors begin to realize that there is more to them than being pretty: they learn that they are intelligent and resourceful, and that the Corporation has been feeding them an image that they readily accepted and perpetuated. It's not until some sexy pirates show up and mysterious men-in-black that the beauty contestants start to wonder if they're really alone on the island and if their perception of "reality" is being manipulated for evil purposes. 

The best way that I can describe this novel is: too much.  There were too many characters, too many subplots, too many underlying themes...just too much. In fact, even as I write this review, I can't remember all of the characters who survived the plane crash because there were too many. In fact, the author didn't even bother naming several of them: Miss Ohio, etc. As a result, their development was superficial along with the political message (gltbq, racism, abstinence, feminism) each represented. Granted, the dialogue was laugh-out-loud funny in several places, but it got old after 200 pages when the plot refused to move. 

Basically, I was going to give this book 2 STARS after reading 250 pages because it became irritating and monotonous; however, if the reader can stick through the end, Bray does a good job of redeeming the storyline. This book would have been better with fewer characters who were better developed. In effect, by doing this, the themes of anti-Corporation would have been more effectively communicated and addressed.