I first heard about The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly a couple weeks before its release. I think I saw it mentioned on Goodreads, so I placed a request through the library network. This young adult novel was written by Stephanie Oakes.

Minnow Bly spent most of her life in a cult that lived in the wilderness, completely isolated from the rest of society. Discipline is swift and brutal: Minnow lost her hands because she was disobedient. Minnow no longer lives on the group’s compound; it was burned to the ground, and the prophet was killed. Minnow is confined to a juvenile detention facility, and as she adjusts to her new surrounding, she must come to terms with her past as she faces an uncertain future. Read more

I picked up I’ll Give You the Sun when it was the Audible Daily Deal. I had it checked out from the library at the time, so I was very excited to get the audiobook. I’ll Give You the Sun is a young adult novel written by Jandy Nelson.

This is the story of a pair of twins who live in California. Noah narrates half of the story, which takes place a couple of years in the past. Jude narrates the other half, which takes place in the present day when the twins are 16 years old.

When Noah narrates, he is a gifted young artist with a quirky way of looking at the world. He is also falling in love with the boy next door, who is home from boarding school for the summer. Noah has plans to apply to the special art school, but his twin sister isn’t interested. She is much more interested in surfing and hanging out with the popular crowd. Read more

I found Backlash at the library. It was on the new release shelf in the young adult section. I was not familiar with author Sarah Darer Littman, but I certainly plan to pick up her other books after this.

It’s hard to describe Backlash without venturing into spoiler territory. The story is told from multiple perspectives, and this is an absolute necessity when it comes to getting the whole story. As Backlash begins, a girl named Lara tries to kill herself because Christian, the boy she had a crush on, just publicly humiliated her on Facebook and told her the world would be a better place without her. Lara has a history of depression beginning when she was in middle school, but she gained new insight through therapy, lost 30 pounds, and just made the cheerleading squad. Read more

I found Extraordinary Means at the library. I had read one of Robyn Schneider’s other Young Adult books (The Beginning of Everything), so I was pleased to find this newly released book.

Extraordinary Means is the story of Lane and Sadie, two teenagers with an incurable strain of tuberculosis. They have been placed at Latham House, which used to be a boarding school, and now serves as a sanatorium. Lane and Sadie met before, several years earlier at a summer camp.

The chapters alternate between Lane’s perspective and Sadie’s. As the book begins, Lane is just arriving at Latham House; Sadie has been there for months. Lane’s biggest concern is keeping up with his AP coursework. Despite the diagnosis, he will not be deterred from his goal of getting into Stanford. The lackadaisical attitude of the teachers, and the busywork that the students are given comes as a shock to Lane. But everyone there is sick, and not everyone has energy to keep up with traditional coursework. Read more