One of the best things about teen reviews is that when a reader loves a book, you know it right away, and ditto when they don’t—there is no holding back. As SLJTeen prepares to bring a new Teens’ Top Ten group on board for 2015, let’s send a big shout-out to the Young Adult Advisory Councils from Johnson County (KS) Library for all the honest and sincere reviews they’ve provided this year.

BRUGMAN, Alyssa. Alex As Well. 224p. Holt. Jan. 2015. Tr $13.99. ISBN 978162779014.

Gr 10 Up—When you are told something you know isn't right, it's natural to want to correct the mistake right? Well that is all Alex is doing, correcting the mistake of her gender. She knows she isn't like everyone else. She feels she is a girl, or at least pretty close to it, so why does everyone keep telling her she is a boy? Tag along with Alex on her journey to self-discovery and what it means to not be defined by the norm.I really liked this book. It was strange being inside Alex's head, but it was really cool to see her thought process through everything. The most compelling aspect of this book was being in Alex's head, and getting to see not only the female Alex's thoughts, but also the male Alex's too, as they went through all of the hardships of trying to define themselves in a society that isn't very accepting, or welcoming to intersex teens. Readers 16 and up would likely more comfortable with the mature content than younger readers.—Chari P., age 17

JACOBSON, Jennifer. Paper Things. 384p. Candlewick. Feb. 2015. Tr $15.99. ISBN 9780763663230.

Gr 6 Up—Ari's mom and dad died so she lives with a guardian, but her brother doesn't get along with Jenna, the guardian. So her brother leaves and Ari is forced to choose: should she go with her often homeless brother, or stay with Jenna and have an easygoing life? Ari is torn because her mom’s dying wish was for Ari and her brother to stay together, but if she goes with her brother she might not have enough time to get her homework done, and then she will not make it into Carter, an advanced middle school, which was also her mother’s wish.This book takes you on a wild ride while Ari is trying to decide what to choose. The ending is so good, and doesn't end on a cliff-hanger. I think the best aspect of this book is the plot. I’d recommend this for people who like adventure books and like sad books with happy endings.—Kaya F., age 12

MYERS, Katie Kae. Inherit Midnight. 400p. Bloomsbury. Feb. 2015. Tr $15.99. ISBN 9781619632196. Gr 7 Up—After attempting to escape a private school, Avery is told she must return to her Grandmother's home to compete in a challenge against her other family members in order to win the family heritage. Based on the summary, I was led to believe that there were three different points of view in the book. However, I quickly realized that was not the case. Avery rambles on and on and on all throughout the entire book to the supposed love of her life, Riley, (though we never truly understand why she is attracted to him other than that he beats up everyone who is mean to her) and we never learn much about him other than that he is a lawyer's son. I was also extremely confused as to what challenges they were participating in because it seemed like the author jumped between them extremely fast and I was unable to understand what was going on. I was two steps behind the entire book and had to give up on it because I had a feeling I wasn't going to be able to understand or enjoy the ending. My favorite part of this book was when I decided to stop reading it. Anyone who loves useless dialogue to fill their pages will enjoy this boring story that really should have been exciting and wasn't.—Sophie, age 14

ANOTHER TAKE:

Similarly to The Westing Game, but with a whole lot more romance thrown in, Inherit Midnight chronicles the competition of the VanDemere family as they jockey to inherit their grandmother’s fortune. Avery is the scorned illegitimate child who's been told all her life that her father is missing and her mother is dead. She and her relatives compete in a series of seven trials. There is backstabbing, romance, opulence, and danger. This book had an amazing idea. Unfortunately, that's where the greatness ends. It is very well-written, but only to a point. The characters are underdeveloped and remain so. Because of this, they don't seem like real people because they're lacking depth. It could be argued that some of the characters underwent a character arc. If they did, their arc loosely fits the definition. They remain static characters for the most part and any development was rapid,  forced, and then quickly faded. All of the challenges that Avery won were predictable. There were far too many happy coincidences. The "big surprise" that Grandmother VanDemere thought was oh-so-clever was one of the easiest things to figure out. With two words, I figured it out. The characters’ stupidity made it almost painful to read. All of the "romantic" scenes between Avery and Riley were also extremely forced and terribly random. For example, they're walking along, and then kissing passionately, then walking along. And almost all the times they do this they're under a time crunch, or they are in physical danger. Where is the logic here? There is none. The relationship seems like it's just inserted to get the ratings up, but let's be real here, most teens are really tired of all this forced romance. It's getting really old. And Avery does the most random things when she's under a time crunch; aside from the passionate kissing, she sleeps for hours, complains, and goes on shopping sprees. Why? And then somehow, magically, the answer they're looking for comes to her out of the blue and Riley kisses her for "having the knowledge within her all along." That's just plain ridiculous. Almost worse, the entire reason Avery wants to win is so that she doesn't have to go back to boarding school. While it may not have been an awesome place to live, that's not a very good reason to put your life in danger. This one-sided drive makes her not seem particularly real. And Gavin  tries to kill her because Avery accidentally got the school closed? What  kind of person does that? Not a well-written character, that's for sure. Overall, I liked the premise, and that's it. This book could have been so much better. I kept reading just so that I confirm that the ending was as bad as the rest. Also, I wanted to see if Warren and Stasia would stay together. People who really like awkwardly forced teen romance would enjoy this. People who enjoyed The Westing Game and now enjoy bad YA fiction would like this book. YANSKY, Brian. Utopia, Iowa. 336p. Candlewick. Feb. 2015. Tr $15.99. ISBN 9780763665333. Gr 8 Up—Jack Bell lives in the mysterious town of Utopia and has a gift—he sees the dead. Lately in the town there have been several murders, which doesn't usually happen in Utopia. The ghosts of the victims have been bothering Jack, which leads him to the crime scenes. Detective Bloodsmith has found Jack at the scenes, which means trouble because it puts him at the center of an investigation into the death of two dead girls. What the detective doesn’t know is that the two dead girls are pressuring Jack to find out how they died. Overall, it was a good book but some things could have been changed to improve it. The beginning of is not that great, which almost made me not want to read it. It was slow to start, and the author used a lot of pop culture references which makes sense, at first, because it shows that the character Jack Bell has a passion for movies, but it goes overboard. The book had good pace after the beginning though. It has a interesting plot and is a highly original idea. What grabbed my attention was when more history of the town was given, such as the background of the founder, Jack Bell's ancestor. The story had some sections about what turns out to be the antagonist which provided the back story and intentions which tie in at the end. Fans of supernatural and romance genres would like this.—Ashley Y., age 16