The Unidentified (A Library Find)

straight from Rae Mariz website

The summer is up with exciting new adventures both outdoors and indoors (especially indoors). On a rainy day is good to grab a few books at your local bookstore or library. So be prepared, this summer is packing.

Recently, I picked out a few books in the YA section at random and found this one.

Written in first person narrative this book shows a world in which school is a game composed by companies selling and marketing products to not only the kids but also the adults. Each student gets a chance to improve their skill by creating, designing and even modeling for the companies they get sponsorship from. Classes are no longer about the basics (i.e math, english, biology); it's about the bonus points.

 The main character, Katey, aka "Kid", gets smack dab in what seems to be a protest from a group who call themselves "The Unidentified." And just for kicks, (I am not kidding, this girl is a Nancy Drew), "Kid" ventures out to find out who are "The Unidentified" and what is their purpose within the Game. Little does she know what twisted Jump Shot ride is waiting for her. 

This book is Nancy Drew meets "A Brave New World." There is sarcasm within the voices in the characters you will appreciate and quirky language that might just be catchy. The writing is great in capturing the archetypes and the social setting of the basic day-to-day high school is captured juuust about right. Personally, this book will do well without being a series since the ending was nor cliff-hanging or cliche. However, your imagination will follow with how advanced the technology in here is depicted. I recommend this book for those days when you want a mental distracting mini adventure. 

New Year's Cheer and a Ghost Breath in the Midst

Hello! I hope you all had an awesome holiday cheer and I wish you the best for this new year. Since I am on vacation for the holidays I took the opportunity to grab a handful of books to read and review. Unfortunately for Giacomo, I left him just when things got all Rubik's cube and so that book review is on hiatus. (BOO!)
However, I was able to begin and finish reading one of the novels I burrowed at the library titled Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen.

Taking place in South Carolina, this novel starts in the voice of Charlotte Silver talking about her life as the daughter of two paranormal researchers and the sister of a charming Annelise.

After dealing with a life of being on the road to haunted places with her parents, Charlotte gets a change of scenery and gets settled at a house near Charleston, South Carolina. From then on things get wacky as she ends up finding out she is haunted by a ghost that seems to have followed her from a recent trip to a haunted place with her parents in Charleston.

At first reading the novel, I thought it was going to be one of those stories of a plane Jane or a dorky girl being changed by an extreme paranormal event. As the novel progressed I realized I wasn't wrong.

Pertaining in the YA paranormal/fantasy genre, this novel gives a bit of a twist to the stereotypical ghost story.

Instead of having the main character being a random person, she ends up being the offspring of what she herself quotes as the daughter of "ghostbusters." I did find the narrative to be a bit reminiscent of Meg Cabot and a pinch of R.L.Stine and also found some interesting scenes of the novel; like when Charlotte encounters the ghosts and communicates with them.

Because I've read a lot of paranormal YA novels, I wasn't scared at all reading the novel. However, I would recommend this novel for teens who are slowly getting into the paranormal genre and don't want to get scared too easily. Besides that I would say it's "cute."