Dark Life

by Kat Falls

It's the future, and the world as we know it has fallen apart. It's so bad that living underwater has become an option, and some brave "pioneers" have chosen to set up their lives there. They farm on the ocean floor, and raise fish that they they send "topside." Ty and his family live below, and he loves his life under the sea. Everything was going swimmingly until the Seablite gang showed up and began terrorizing the settlers. The topside government charges the settlers with capturing the gang, and Ty wants to help. Meanwhile, he meets a very cute topsider named Gemma. She's an orphan, looking for her older brother, and she thinks he might be below. Ty and Gemma have to work together to solve the mystery of her missing brother, and save the colony from the evil gangsters.

I think this is a great book for guys, especially for the ones who enjoy fast-paced adventures like the 39 Clues series.

Conversion

by Katherine Howe

There's something wrong with the girls at St. Joan's Academy...

One day, everything is normal. Boys, college applications, grade point averages. Then Clara, the most popular girl in school, collapses in class with what appears to be a seizure. But afterward, she continues to have tics, and her speech is strange. One by one, other girls begin to get sick, but their symptoms are different from Clara's. They suffer from things like total hair loss, constant shaking, and coughing up strange, inedible items. The community is in fear, and the media blows the situation up and exacerbates the hysteria.

Colleen, who hasn't been infected yet, is studying The Crucible in class, but hasn't done her assigned reading yet. She starts to get mysterious text messages encouraging her to read it, and when she does, she thinks she may have figured out the mystery of the illness at St. Joan's.

The story is told in alternating perspectives, from modern day teen girls, to the girls who accused the innocent citizens of Salem during the infamous Witch Trials. An interesting new twist on a fascinating time in our nation's history.