Review: Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty by Christine Heppermann

Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty by Christine Heppermann

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Received: bought
Publication Date: September 23rd 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Genres & Themes: YA, Fairy Tales, Poems, Real Life Matters, Feminism, Contemporary

BLURB:

Once upon a time…
you were a princess,
or an orphan.
A wicked witch,
fairy godmother,
prom queen,
valedictorian,
team captain,
Big Bad Wolf,
Little Bo Peep.
But you are more than just a hero or
a villain, cursed or charmed. You are
everything in between.
You are everything.

In fifty poems Christine Heppermann places fairy tales side by side with the modern teenage girl. Powerful and provocative, deadly funny and deadly serious, this collection is one to read, to share, to treasure, and to come back to again and again.

Review: Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Received: borrowed
Publication Date: September 9th, 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
POV: 1st (but mostly 3rd person)
Pacing: slow
Genres & Themes: YA, Contemporary, Friendship, Bullying, Mental Illness, Love, Death.

BLURB:

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.