Meredith: Why I Love YA

Let's face it. My friends and I - we're teenagers. Ninety percent of the population is pure idiocy to us. We see the world in cliques and drama, in hormones and food. Yes, definitely food.

 

So when you're in the group who is known for being nerdy and bookish (also known as us) you get a lot of condescending people thinking they're so much better than you. You get a lot of "Why do you read so much?" and "Don't you have a life?" You get weird looks and scoffing faces.

 

But we don't care. I love the world of literature so much... it's a dream. It's unlike anything you could possibly have known. It's falling into someone else's head. It's twists and turns and things that hurt and crash and burn. Strength, and love, and courage. And for that, I love it.

 

YA is such a perfect balance. The plot is thrilling, the romance is enticing, the action is enjoyable. The authors truly know how to relate it to teenagers; I call it magic.

Tehreem: Review of Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer

  


What happens when happily ever after... isn’t?

Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah.

And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.

Delilah and Oliver work together to attempt to get Oliver out of his book, a challenging task that forces them to examine their perceptions of fate, the world, and their places in it. And as their attraction to each other grows along the way, a romance blossoms that is anything but a fairy tale.

This book was a lot better than expected. I kind of assumed it would be a copy of a book I read recently, The Vampire Stalker, but it was nothing like it. The ideas presented in the book were original and refreshing. Almost everything ran along quite smoothly. Almost

While this book is good, there is little to no action. The book has other elements, such as romance and humor, but nothing to really keep a reader motivated. The whole story is just about Oliver trying to escape his world and find a way into Delilah's. Are there any hidden obstacles? No. Everything is easily foreshadowed.

Normally, I would give a book like this 1 to 2 stars. However, the writing is just so...enthralling. This is one of those books where the story telling is the element that keeps you going. You can't just stop when an author can twist such simple words into a wonderful sonnet. The story is breathing to you.

I also felt like this story deserved a better rating because, well, everyone deserves a happy ending.

 My rating:

Three out of Five Stars!