Skip to main content

Reviews

Reviews

by Monica Hesse - Fiction, Historical Fiction

It's 1944, and World War II is raging across Europe and the Pacific. The war seemed far away from Margot in Iowa and Haruko in Colorado --- until they were uprooted to dusty Texas, all because of the places their parents once called home: Germany and Japan. Haruko and Margot meet at the high school in Crystal City, a "family internment camp" for those accused of colluding with the enemy. With everything around them falling apart, the teens find solace in their growing, secret friendship. But in a prison the government has deemed full of spies, can they trust anyone --- even each other?

by Erin Chack - Essays, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult 14+

By turns hysterically funny and heartbreakingly poignant, BuzzFeed senior writer Erin Chack recounts everything from meeting her soulmate at age 14 to her first chemotherapy session at age 19 to what really goes on behind the scenes at a major Internet media company. She authentically captures the agony and the ecstasy of the millennial experience, whether it's her first kiss or her struggles with anxiety. Yet Erin also offers a fresh perspective on universal themes of resilience and love as she writes about surviving cancer --- including learning of her mother's own cancer diagnosis within the same year and her attempts to hide the diagnosis from friends to avoid "un-normaling" everything.