By Jennifer Trend, Staff Writer
With fall underway, there is nothing better to curl up with a blanket and read a heartwarming or heart-wrenching book. From thriller to romance to action and adventure, these books will either take the stress off of school, or stress you out with a roller coaster of emotions.
- The Apothecary
By Maile Meloy
Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Historical
Set in 1952, Janie Scott moves from sunny Los Angeles to cloudy London. There, she meets an odd boy whose father runs an apothecary and has mysteriously disappeared. The boy, Benjamin Burrows, instantly begins to search for him, dragging Janie along his travels. Now on the run, both of their lives are at stake with what they’ve uncovered. With the help of the Pharmacopoeia, a book with incredible knowledge, along with friends met along the way, the two embark on a dangerous mission to find Benjamin’s father and to stop those who took him.
- Little Monsters
By Kara Thomas
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
After fighting with her mother, Kacey moves from Rochester, New York to Broken Falls, Wisconsin to live with her step-family. Welcomed warmly, she soon makes friends with Bailey and Jade, two students from school. After a séance goes wrong, Bailey and Jade start ignoring her, which leaves Kacey questioning why. When Bailey disappears, Kacey is pointed to as the suspect, and the more she tries to investigate the disappearance, the more everyone, including the police, suspect her. Perhaps Broken Falls isn’t the place Kacey once thought it was.
“So [Little Monsters] seems really interesting and I really want to read it. It looks really interesting, and the dynamic of it of where [Bailey and Jade] start ignoring [Kacey] seems almost a little familiar. I feel like it makes [the book] more interesting that they stopped being her friend, and it adds to the story line,” said sophomore Caitlyn Weight.
- They Both Die at the End
By Adam Silvera
Genre: Romance
During the early hours of Sept. 5, Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio receive a call from Death-Cast, a company that informs people that they will die in the next 24 hours, but not when or how. The two find each other through an app called Last Friend, which pairs up people who will die soon. Mateo wants to try new things, as he’s always stuck to the safe side of life and Rufus wants to find out who he really is. They both set out together to have an adventure and live life for one last day, when they both unexpectedly fall in love with each other before they die.
- Wicked Like a Wildfire
By Lana Popović
Genre: Fantasy
Twins Iris and Malina come from a long line of women who have the magical ability to “gleam”, or to bring forth and manipulate beauty. Their mother has forced them to not use their magic, as it could label them as witches. Suddenly, strangers appear in their peaceful town, and their mother, Jasmina, is trapped in a place between life and death. The twins are forced to embrace their magic that had been suppressed in order to save her. But on their journey to do so, they will have to face a curse, and what they learn may tear them apart or bond them closer together.
Sophomore Emily Nguyen said, “So I like Wicked Like a Wildfire- it’s a really cool story, it’s written really well [and] I like the concept of it. [The author] used a lot of figurative language, analogies, idioms, similes, foreshadowing, descriptive language [and] imagery. You can really imagine what’s going on. It’s like getting picked up and dropped into another world. It was a good book.. and when I was finished I was like what am I going to do now?”
- This Savage Song
By Victoria E. Schwab
Genre: Fantasy, Thriller, Romance
August Flynn is a Sunai, a monster who can steal the souls of people who have sinned, but all he wants is to be normal. Kate Harker is the daughter of a wealthy mayor who lets monsters roam in his city, but forces people pay for their protection. Both families are at a never-ending war with each other, but August and Kate get tangled up with each other after meeting in school. While running and fighting for their lives from the other monsters in the city, they become close and must help each other if either of them want to survive in a city overrun by monsters and war.
