Antigoddess (Goddess War #1)
by Kendare Blake
Genre: Young Adult - Fantasy
Publisher: Orchard Books
Published: September 10, 2013
Source: Publisher

Author's website | Goodreads

The acclaimed author of ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD returns with an incredible story about ancient gods, modern love and an epic fight for survival

He was Apollo, the sun, and he'd burn down anything that tried to hurt her... Cassandra and Aidan are just your average high-school couple. Or so Cassandra believes. Blissfully unaware that she was once a powerful prophetess, Cassandra doesn't even know that gods exist... Until now.

Because the gods are dying - and Cassandra could hold the answer to their survival. But Aidan has a secret of his own. He is really Apollo, god of the sun, and he will do anything to protect the girl he loves from the danger that's coming for her. Even if it means war against his immortal family...

Sexy, irresistible characters; romantic and mythological intrigue; relentless action and suspense - ANTIGODDESS is the YA novel you've been waiting for.

Don’t you ever just wonder how different your opinion of a book is before you have cracked it open, to your outlook of it after you have turned the last of its pages? Thanks to Antigoddess, I’m still in wonder.

THE NUB AND GIST: 4.5 STARS

My Life After Now
by Jessica Verdi
Genre: Young Adult - Contemporary
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Published: April 2, 2013
Source: Publisher

Author's website | Goodreads

Lucy just had the worst week ever. Seriously, mega bad. And suddenly, it's all too much—she wants out. Out of her house, out of her head, out of her life. She wants to be a whole new Lucy. So she does something the old Lucy would never dream of.

And now her life will never be the same. Now, how will she be able to have a boyfriend? What will she tell her friends? How will she face her family?

Now her life is completely different...every moment is a gift. Because now she might not have many moments left.

 

THE NUB AND GIST: 4.5 STARS

“The present moment can be chopped into infinitely smaller present moments. This moment is forever. And it is all that matters.”

“If you believed that thoughts were energy and energy is matter (∑=mc²) and matter never disappears, then a person can never truly leave you unless you stop thinking about them. Everything you shared with a person is still there swirling around in the universe. Love, Cam had to admit, might be real. And love endures. Relationships endure. Because thoughts are energy, energy is matter, and matter never disappears.”

“People keep talking about this unfolding. I can't trust the unfolding, okay? If there is some higher power making origami out of the universe, it hates my guts. I was a fat kid whose parents got divorced, whose father died, and then who got cancer herself. So no. I don't trust how things are going to unfold.”

Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn
Genre: Young Adult Horror
Published: June 11th 2013 by HarperTeen
Source: for review from publisher

Author's website | Add to Goodreads

On a cool autumn night, Annaliese Rose Gordon stumbled out of the woods and into a high school party. She was screaming. Drenched in blood. Then she vanished.

A year later, Annaliese is found wandering down a road hundreds of miles away. She doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know how she got there. She only knows one thing: She is not the real Annaliese Rose Gordon.

Now Annaliese is haunted by strange visions and broken memories. Memories of a reckless, desperate wish . . . a bloody razor . . . and the faces of other girls who disappeared. Piece by piece, Annaliese's fractured memories come together to reveal a violent, endless cycle that she will never escape—unless she can unlock the twisted secrets of her past.

If you're a sissy who can't handle blood, gore, or graphic violence then do not read this book. Seriously, it's for the good of your health and for the well-being of your weak stomach.

Annaliese Rose Gordon's problem is that she isn't Annaliese Rose Gordon. She woke up in the middle of nowhere and walked and walked and walked until a trailor park family steps in and helps her find her way back home; not an easy task considering the fact that her home is practically on the A side of the US of A. Everything's going to be fine because she's back where she belongs, right? Wrong, because she doesn't feel like it's where she belongs. She's the complete opposite of the Annaliese Rose Gordon everyone makes her out to be and she doesn't remember a single thing about her past; all she sees are little snippets of the lives of different girls- girls that have gone missing.

Another Little Piece isn't technically horror per se. The book is actually a pretty interesting contemporary read without all of the Stephen King-ness; it comes packaged with intense family drama, high school hierarchy, young love, and finding one's self and all that. The circumstances in Another Little Piece serve for a look at contemporary reality and how messed up teenagers' lives can get. Again, if it wasn't for the Stephen King-ness.

Take the King aspects into consideration and you're in for one psychologically disturbing ride. I may or may not be exaggerating, but I was serious about my cautionary warning: do not read this book if insanely graphic descriptions of blood bother you. It's twisted and spooky and made me feel a little sick to my stomach on more than one occasion. This book did not mince on death and morbid situations.With terrifying women called bruhas, an old razor covered with names of different girls, and a mysteriously dangerous character called 'The Physician' who seems to have a firm hold on everything that goes on in the story, reading Another Little Piece was like peeling an onion layer by layer- it’s hard to keep your eyes open but you can’t help but want to keep going.

A key factor to this book's brilliance was it's characters. We have Logan, the boy Annaliese loved before her disappearance; her hyperactive best friend Gwen who she feels is hiding something from her; and Dex, her next door neighbor that has a secret much like her own. It may sound like a perfectly normal line-up of characters right now, but don't be fooled. They all manage to walk the fine line between the unimaginably disturbing and the disturbingly familiar. I not only judge them as irreparably fucked up but also relate to them. The intricacy of the relationships Annaliese had with the other characters is also something worth mentioning. Annaliese comes into the story as a fragile and lost girl, and she holds on to these relationships to keep her sane but it was never that easy.

Kate Karyus Quinn managed to squeeze in a hefty amount of sweet romance in the middle of the madness however, and it amused me to the core. On one side we have Logan; sweet sweet Logan. Logan was the boy Annaliese prayed to have and to love prior to her disappearance, and now Logan seems willing to part oceans for her but she just doesn't feel the same way anymore. Scratch that, she feels like she never felt that way at all. And then there's her friendly neighbor Dex. Dex, the boy with the video camera; Dex, the boy who makes her feel like there's still hope for her to figure things out and make everything okay. Who she would choose was pretty obvious from the get-go, but her decision resulted in a series of terrifying events that I failed to anticipate. Needless to say, I loved every minute of it.

Kate Karyus Quinn has a darkly paranoid writing style that takes the reader on a hazy ride full of confusion and uncertainty. This is a book for readers who crave for the unknown, who like their presents wrapped up in tight packages that have to be opened layer by layer. In many cases, authors who try to confuse a reader through their writing do so at the expense of narrative cohesion, but Kate Karyus Quinn managed to give us just the right amount of understanding to get through the terrifying mist that is Another Little Piece.

THE NUB AND GIST: 4.5 STARS