Not my thing, but I know many teens and adults love these books: Jean M. Auel's The Land of the Painted Caves, the final volume of the Earth's Children series, is out and Carol Memmott reviews it for USAToday. (And Liesl Bradner reviews The Land of the Painted Caves for the Los Angeles Times.)
Susan Carpenter reviews Ruta Sepetys Between Shades of Gray for the Los Angeles Times "Not Just for Kids" Column. ("A story of hardship as well as human triumph, Between Shades of Gray is an eye-opening reimagination of a very real tragedy written with grace and heart.") More on this novel at Weekend News today.
Mandy Southgate considers Maria V. Snyder's Poison Study for BlogCritics.org (here in SeattlePI): "This ability to create completely unique, imaginative yet believable worlds and to weave great stories within those worlds puts Maria V. Snyder up there with my favourite authors Anthony Horowitz and Garth Nix."
Shelby Scoffield reviews Carrie Ryan's Dark and Hollow Places for Deseret News. ("Zombie apocalypse. Sisters falling in love with each other's former flames. New York City destroyed and surrounded by carriers of a lethal disease.") Scoffield interviews Ryan here.
Barbara McIntyre reviews Lisa and Laura Roecker's The Liar Society for The Beacon Journal. ("...quite dark, with intimidating adults, conspiracy theories and coverups")
My favorite Mal Peet reviews a new Australian novel Everybody Jam, by Ali Lewis, in The Guardian. ("So a nice, sweet book, then? Not if you look with a darker eye at the title and read it as: everybody tipped into a cauldron, brought to a rolling boil, then allowed to cool and set.")
Tony Bradman considers Irfan Master's A Beautiful Lie (a novel set in India before 1947) in The Guardian and offers up a mixed review.
Okay, now here's a review of Laura Kasischke's The Raising (review by Julia Keller for The Chicago Tribune) that has crossover potential written all over it: "...The Raising is that rare thing: a literary novel distinguished by splendid prose that is also a down-and-dirty page-turner, a creep show featuring empty caskets and walking corpses." Downloading...
