(3) YA Hirsch explores what happens to ordinary people at the end of the world. After a national crisis strikes on prom night, Lucy and her friends attempt to navigate horrifying new realities and dim future prospects while still engaging in ordinary teen rites of passage. Readers will enjoy seeing a range of responses to impending doom in Hirsch's compelling narrative, marred only by a somewhat hurried ending.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) YA A virus ravages Black River, robbing residents of memories. A few are spared, including teen Cardinal Cassidy, but without a family or home left he squats in a refugee camp–like quarantine. With a dark past, Cardinal must decide whether he is lucky to remember or would prefer to forget. A plodding plot hinders elements of psychological poignancy.

Reviewer: Jessica Bushore

(4) 4-6 39 Clues: Unstoppable series. Cahill siblings Amy and Dan continue their dangerous mission to stop evil media mogul Pierce from world domination in the spinoff series' second and third books. Relationships are tested and loyalties questioned when Amy takes matters into her own hands in Breakaway and makes a rash decision in Countdown. Plot development feels a little sluggish, but action-heavy moments raise the stakes. Review covers these 39 Clues: Unstoppable titles: Breakaway and Countdown.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(4) YA This unceasingly grim look at a future taken over by a murderous religious cult requires a strong reader with a taste for true dystopias. Aside from the dark content (even little brothers and cute stray dogs aren't safe), Hirsch occasionally threads his dialogue with far too much exposition. Still, Cal, searching for any semblance of peace, is a deeply compelling protagonist.

Reviewer: April Spisak

(2) YA Glenn's plan: finish school early and travel into deep space, leaving her inventor father, who's preoccupied with trying to cross the Rift (the border between their society and the unknown). When Dad's arrested, Glenn and her best friend flee, finding themselves on the other side of the border. Hirsch's fans (The Eleventh Plague) will again be intrigued by how individuals cope when their worlds fall apart.

Reviewer: April Spisak | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2012

(4) YA Stephen and his father are wanderers in a post-apocalyptic world. After a run-in with slave traders ends in violence (and Dad in a coma), some townspeople take the two in--to mixed reception. What's more, Stephen must decide if he can be part of a community larger than his father and himself. Though some characters remain undeveloped, the narrative itself moves swiftly.

Reviewer: Jenn Matters