The Humming Room

by Ellen Potter

When Roo's parents are murdered, she is sent to live with an uncle on a mysterious island called Cough Rock. The house is creepy--it used to be a hospital for children with tuberculosis. She hears strange sounds, meets some odd children, and finds a walled-off, almost dead garden.

If you've read The Secret Garden, you might know what happens next. This is basically a modern retelling of that story. I picked this one up because I loved Ellen Potter's other book, Slob, and because it looked like it might be quite a good mystery. It was good enough for me to finish, but sadly, not quite as compelling as I hoped.

Every You, Every Me

by David Levithan

Ariel, Evan's best friend, is gone, but we, the readers, don't know why. (It's not clear if she's dead, missing, or in treatment somewhere until the very end of the story.) He begins to find photos everywhere, that seem to be taunting him. He can't figure out who is behind the mysterious images, but they're driving him crazy. This book reads like you're inside Evan's head while he's having an internal conversation with Ariel. Much of the text is crossed out, showing his self-doubt.

I was really excited to read this. The photographer sent the author one photo at a time and let him build the novel around the pictures, so it was an interesting and unique premise. However, I honestly wasn't that intrigued by the photos, and the mystery, while compelling, was kind of a let down when all was revealed.

This one is at the high schools only, so if you do want to check it out, you'll need to hit the public library.

Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery

by Peter Abrahams

Ingrid hates her name, but loves acting, soccer, and her red Pumas. After an orthodontist visit one day, her mom is a little late picking her up, and she doesn't want to miss practice. She decides to run to the soccer fields, but gets lost, ending up at the house of local crazy lady, Cracked-Up Katie. Against her better judgment, she goes into Katie's house and lets her call Ingrid a cab. Katie acts strangely when Ingrid tells her she's into acting, and Ingrid hears footsteps upstairs, even though Katie lives alone. The next day, Katie is found murdered. In an attempt to stay out of trouble, Ingrid doesn't tell anyone she's just been at Katie's house, and she begins to pile lie upon lie.

I was so stressed out for Ingrid throughout this book--you know she hasn't done anything wrong, but you're so scared the police won't believe that if she gets caught. While it's no great surprise to the reader who the killer is, it is definitely a surprise to Ingrid, and it's great fun watching her piece together the clues.

The Tension of Opposites

by Kristina McBride

When Tessa is in middle school, her best friend Noelle is abducted by a stranger. There were no clues left behind except for Noelle's red bicycle, lying in the street. Then one day, Noelle's little brother gets a phone call. It's from Noelle. She's alive, and is taking her chance to escape. Tessa can only imagine what it's going to be like to have her best friend back, but is sorely disappointed when Noelle returns. She doesn't want to speak to Tessa, much less see her. Tessa realizes she has to move on with her life, and meets a new guy, Max, in her photography class. When he shows interest, she's so hung up on renewing her friendship with Noelle that she pushes him away. Eventually she and Noelle speak, but it's not easy. Noelle has been through terrible things, and no one understands why she didn't just run away. But Noelle has her reasons.

There have been several real-life headlines about cases like Noelle's recently. The kidnapped person isn't tied up, and is allowed to walk around in the community, and sometimes even make friends. But for some reason or another, he/she doesn't tell the police that they are being held against their will. Sometimes they are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, a condition where the kidnapped person begins to sympathize with his/her captor. Others, like Noelle, are afraid that the captor will take it out on their families.

I enjoyed seeing Noelle's perspective, and it was heart-wrenching as Tessa struggled to regain what she'd lost. I think the added element of Tessa's romance with Max was sort of unnecessary to this story, but other than that, I really liked this one.

The Catcher in the Rye

by J.D. Salinger

Holden Caulfield has once again been kicked out of his fancy prep school. He can't go home yet, or his parents will know, and he's just not ready to deal with them. He tries to stick around school for a couple of days, but manages to irritate, or be irriated by, everyone around him, so he takes all the money he has and catches a bus out of there. He hangs out in bars, theatres, and hotels, until he misses his little sister so badly that he has to go home.

I read this book in high school, but couldn't remember much about it, other than that I had loved it then. I was almost afraid to re-read it, worried that it wouldn't live up to what I remembered. I was laughing out loud by the end of chapter one. Holden is such a strange, dorky, little dude. He's just trying to figure out his place in this world. He's got so much bottled up inside--the death of his brother, his intense love for his little sister, and the fact that he comes from a pretty good home but he's still really angry sometimes. He doesn't want to talk about it, and he doesn't, but he tells us, the reader.

This is one of the most frequently banned books of all time. I think it's because it's such an honest look into the teenage brain, and sometimes it's not pretty. We don't have this in our library, but you can find this just about anywhere. Any public library will have it, and I'm sure you could pick up a cheap used copy at Half-Price Books. Put it on your list. At some point in your life, it's a must-read.

Endure

by Carrie Jones

Zara, once human, is now a pixie queen in this fourth and final installment of the Need series. She has saved her boyfriend Nick from Valhalla, but he doesn’t remember her good deed, and is now repelled by her pixie-ness. That’s okay, though—she has Astley, her pixie king, and she sort of has feelings for him, too. Lots of pining over Nick ensues, as well as quite a bit of male posturing between Nick and Astley. As Zara deals with her personal problems, kids are disappearing by the handful in their town. The evil pixies are rising up, and the apocalypse is nigh if Zara, her friends, and the good pixies don’t intervene. This means war, and just about every supernatural creature ever dreamed up plays a role, from were-tigers to a half-zombie.

I had to read this so I could review it for a magazine, and to be fair, I haven't read the first three, so I had a hard time getting into it. It was a little much for me with all the crazy supernatural beings, but maybe it's just because I haven't read the others.