Uptopia, Iowa
by Brian Yansky
This novel has a little bit of everything: suspense, mystery, supernatural, family dynamics, and relationships. Jack Bell, and many other residents in Utopia, Iowa have "gifts/curses", whether they have psychic powers, can talk to ghosts, etc. Jack, a high school student is trying to help recently murdered college students in town find answers to who killed them and why. With the help of friends and family members, who also possess "gifts" they hope to find closure for the supernatural lost souls.
by Brian Yansky
This novel has a little bit of everything: suspense, mystery, supernatural, family dynamics, and relationships. Jack Bell, and many other residents in Utopia, Iowa have "gifts/curses", whether they have psychic powers, can talk to ghosts, etc. Jack, a high school student is trying to help recently murdered college students in town find answers to who killed them and why. With the help of friends and family members, who also possess "gifts" they hope to find closure for the supernatural lost souls.
How I Became a Teenage Survivalist by Julie L. Casey
What would it be like if a modern-day-completely-dependent-on-modern-technology community lost all of their electricity? The answer to that question can be found in this novel. Bracken, a teenage farm boy, learns not once, but twice, what it's like to live without today's conveniences that most of us take for granted. Being forced to live like a pioneer, he starts to appreciate the simple beauties in life. With some conflict to keep the plot moving, the reader will learn a lot about how most people in the Midwest lived 100 years ago based on how Bracken and his family are forced to adapt to their new environment if they want to survive. There seems to be a passive-aggressive message that focuses on the downside to being to absorbed in technology and electrical gadgets, posing the question, "Is more technology always better?" Let this fictional story help you decide what you feel is the best answer to that question.
Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
This seven book series came out when I was in high school, but I finally set time aside to read the first book in the series after years of students and teachers recommending this award-winning young adult novel to me. I don't regret reading this dystopian storyline about families that are required to have no more than two children in their family. Of course, some parents have a third child and thus have to secretly hide their children from the outside world, loving them, but yet secluding them from everything their older two children are able to experience. Luke, the main character, is a third child and you can't help but feel sorry for his imprisoned situation. He notices that a family who moved in nearby seems to have activity taking place at their house even though both parents and two children are at work and school. He soon realizes that they're hiding a third child as well. The story picks up from there and makes you question, as the reader, human decisions and authoritative power. A short, but suspenseful read, I recommend the first book in the series and I plan to read the rest of the series as well to see how it all pieces together.
Bruiser by Neal Shusterman
When you first start reading this novel, you'll assume it's realistic-fiction, until Shusterman (the author) throws in a fantasy element into the mix. This unique story is told from the point-of-view of four different characters: Bronte (teenage girl, fraternal twin to Tennyson); Tennyson (teenage boy; fraternal twin to Bronte; Brewster ("unique" and mysterious male classmate to Bronte and Tennyson; and Cody (Brewster's little brother). Once Bronte starts dating Brewster, the twins soon realize that Brew possesses the ability to take away the pain that others are feeling whether it's physical pain or emotional pain. Of course though, there's a catch and it could cost Brewster, and those he cares about, the ultimate price.
When you first start reading this novel, you'll assume it's realistic-fiction, until Shusterman (the author) throws in a fantasy element into the mix. This unique story is told from the point-of-view of four different characters: Bronte (teenage girl, fraternal twin to Tennyson); Tennyson (teenage boy; fraternal twin to Bronte; Brewster ("unique" and mysterious male classmate to Bronte and Tennyson; and Cody (Brewster's little brother). Once Bronte starts dating Brewster, the twins soon realize that Brew possesses the ability to take away the pain that others are feeling whether it's physical pain or emotional pain. Of course though, there's a catch and it could cost Brewster, and those he cares about, the ultimate price.