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McGinnis, Mindy
7 Reviews
(3)
YA
McGinnis's frank and frightening novel helps redefine the narrative of opioid addiction. Mickey is a star softball player, but when injuries from a car crash threaten to derail her season, she needs help to power through the pain. Her need for opioids escalates until she's using heroin. Frank depictions of drug use and an all-too-plausible trajectory combine for an intense and vital read.
Reviewer: Norah Piehl
(4)
YA
As groups clash and war looms, a prince, a religious sacrifice, magical twins, and the leader of an enemy nation alternately narrate this novel. Superstition and heartbreak threaten them as much as the sea that continues rising. Short chapters make for brisk pacing; a love quadrangle overshadows the fantasy's more intriguing political drama, which emphasizes duty and sacrifice.
Reviewer: Lauren Chambers
(4)
YA
After high-school senior and good girl Sasha starts having blackouts and memories of sex with bad boy Isaac, she discovers she was once a twin who reabsorbed her sister Shanna in the womb. She still has Shanna's heart, and that's what governs Sasha's darker desires. The paranormal elements feel forced, though readers who love unreliable narrators may still find much to enjoy here.
Reviewer: Norah Piehl
(3)
YA
Alex always felt rage. But when her older sister was raped and murdered, she acted on it--so brilliantly she got away with her crime. Now a senior, solitary Alex befriends preacher's daughter "Peekay" and falls for popular Jack; the three small-town teens' fates intertwine dangerously. With hard partying, sexual violence, and a razor-sharp voice, this novel is provocative but eminently captivating and thought-provoking.
Reviewer: Sian Gaetano
(3)
YA
Impregnated by her senator father and temporarily discarded in an abusive "lunatic asylum," Grace poses as a mute victim of brain surgery and escapes to a kinder asylum with Dr. Thornhollow, who employs Grace's intelligence and sharp memory to help profile criminals. McGinnis astutely blurs the lines between sanity and insanity and captures the changing mental-health environment of late–nineteenth century America.
Reviewer: Rebecca Fox
(3)
YA
Lucy (the orphan Lynn saved in Not a Drop to Drink), now a teenager, lives in relative safety with friends and her adopted family. But after a polio outbreak--potentially stemming from their pond--devastates the community, Lucy and Lynn set out for California, which is rumored to have desalination plants. McGinnis's bleak but skillful narrative explores what it means to hope and to survive.
Reviewer: Shara Hardeson
(3)
YA
Water is scarce, disease is rampant, and humanity is in short supply. Sixteen-year-old Lynn spends her days defending the pond on her property by any means necessary--including murder (described in graphic detail). When a group of men threatens to steal the water and harm a family taking refuge with Lynn, the violence escalates. Survival is a bloody, brutal business in this bleak dystopia.
Reviewer: Shara Hardeson
7 reviews
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