Full Tilt

by Neal Shusterman

Summary: Brothers Blake and Quinn couldn't be more different--Blake is the good boy, and Quinn is the troublemaker. When a strange invitation to an eerie theme park comes for Blake, he wants to ignore it, but Quinn intercepts it and goes in alone. Blake and their friends Russ and Maggie follow Quinn in to try to get him home, not realizing quite what they're signing up for by walking through the gates. They must each complete seven rides--rides that are composed of their greatest fears--by dawn, or they become a part of the theme park...forever.

My thoughts: Whoa! Talk about creepy! Shusterman has a gift for creating suspense. I couldn't stop turning pages, because I was so nervous for these characters!

Another Whole Nother Story

by Dr. Cuthbert Soup

Summary: In this rip-roaring follow-up to A Whole Nother Story, Ethan Cheeseman, his three children, a sock puppet, and a dog named Pinky head back in time to 1668. Their goal? To break a centuries-old family curse by returning the White Gold Chalice to its owner, and to stop the murder of their wife and mother Olivia Cheeseman just before it happens. Unfortunately, landing in 1668 damages their egg-shaped time machine, and the family must go in search of a blacksmith to find materials for its repair. Meeting a lively, and mostly underdeveloped cast of characters along the way, including Big, a Pocahontas look-alike, and the Mailman (so named because his many piercings resemble chain mail) the Cheeseman family and company wreak havoc wherever they go. To complicate matters, Olivia’s murderer, Mr. 5, is right on their tails. The story is narrated by the self-described “incomparable” Dr. Cuthbert Soup, and punctuated by his mini-chapters, which usually have only loose connections to the story, but are hilarious on their own. It’s over the top with a sometimes annoyingly frantic pace. However, the laugh out loud moments are many, and the puns are clever and sarcastic. Should appeal to fans of titles like A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Name of this Book is Secret, and other stories that capitalize on the absurd.

My thoughts: You like silly? This is the book for you. It won't be published until December.

Num8ers

by Rachel Ward

Summary: Jem has a big problem. She sees numbers floating over every person's head, and she has seen them her whole life. These numbers represent the date that person is going to die. She's never seen the numbers lie, and it's a terrible burden for her to bear. Jem's own life is less than perfect, jumping from foster home to foster home, and more or less living the street life. When fellow outcast Spider comes along, she tries not to let herself feel close to him, but a mass tragedy at the London Eye causes them to become the focus of a nationwide manhunt, and they find themselves on the run from the law. Jem starts to fall for Spider, but there's just one catch: his numbers don't look so good. Can she figure out a way to save Spider in the week he has left?

My thoughts: This book is sort of like a cross between a horror movie and an episode of CSI. It's very, very, British, so you'll have to get past the English slang, but it's easy to figure out pretty quickly. I love the concept, and the story was pretty good. Not my favorite book this year or anything, but worth reading for the great ending.