Something Strange and Deadly

I really, really enjoyed Something Strange and Deadly. It is set in 19th century Pennsylvania, where trouble is arising... along with a bunch of zombies! Eleanor is a rebel who doesn't want to live a perfectly proper life. When her brother goes missing, she realizes that his disappearance is linked to the rising Dead. She must hunt down the truth to find her brother, with the help of the Spirit Hunters. 

Usually I don't read books about zombies, as most of them are just pointless gruesome violence, and geared more toward boys anyways, but Something Strange and Deadly really transformed the idea of the walking Dead from something gross and freaky to something that is complicated and genuinely frightening. There are spirit bonds and dark energies at work, and the author makes all of this crazy fantasy world seem logical and realistic. This book is not at all cheesy, it is action packed and I couldn't put it down. I love the world that the author has created. Thank you for a fabulous read!

Kira, 13

Under the Never Sky is set in a futuristic world where most people literally live in a bubble because the outside world is too dangerous and polluted. However, there are also people who live on the outside. 

This book is about how a girl named Aria, from the inside, meets a man named Perry from the outside. I felt like this plot was a good idea, a good basis, but the writing was just disorganized. The reader doesn't understand the characters. The story jumps too quickly into the action. I realize that this is a way to interest your reader in theory, but it wasn't used very well in this situation. For example, I didn't feel attachment to Aria's friend when she was killed in a fire, because I had only met her about 30 pages ago. I kept thinking, This scene sounds like the end of a book, not the beginning.

I did like the characters surrounding Perry, though, especially his nephew Talon and Talon's father. They were better thought out than the characters that lived inside the bubble.

Kira, 13