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Moskowitz, Hannah
7 Reviews
(4)
YA
Gena, eighteen, and Finn, twenty-two, meet in a television show's online fandom and complicate each other's real lives. Told through texts and online communication, the story calls for some suspension of disbelief, but it explores and legitimizes relationships that are more recognizable to today's teens than to older generations. A traumatic event toward book's end creates a significant shift in tone.
Reviewer: Shoshana Flax
(2)
YA
The arrival of creatures called tightropers in ancient fairy city Ferrum escalates tension between fairies and gnomes into out-and-out war. Beckan, a fairy girl, strikes uneasy alliances with gnome prince Tier, his fiancée Rig, and tightroper boy Piccolo. Reminiscent of Holly Black and Laini Taylor, this gritty fantasy/war story is also an exploration of love in many forms and creating a family of choice.
Reviewer: Katie Bircher
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
November, 2015
(3)
YA
This tell-it-like-it-is book questions labels of teens who live on the edges of high school social groups. Etta, the unpredictable, authentic protagonist, is many things at once: smart, a recovering anorexic, bisexual, a theater geek, and black. Her Nebraska town is becoming too small for her New York City aspirations. The dialogue holds true to the gutsy characters, and the plot is believable.
Reviewer: Lauren Causey
(4)
YA
Rudy's family moves to a remote island to benefit from magically curative Enki fish, which ease his brother's cystic fibrosis, but when Rudy becomes involved with merboy Teeth, his divided loyalties endanger his brother's supply of the fish. Though a combination of implausible plot elements defy belief, gritty language and an undercurrent of sexual abuse gives this hard-hitting fantasy a real-world edge.
Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam
(4)
YA
Eighth-grade best friends Marco and Stephen are always up for challenging missions. Openly gay Marco devises a plan to crash the high school prom so he can declare his love for exchange student Benji; Stephen is dedicated to--and under the thumb of--self-centered Marco. Told from Stephen's point of view, the story humorously skims issues of bullying, tolerance, and friendship.
Reviewer: Rita Soltan
(3)
YA
Craig is "unavailable" because he's hung up on his first boyfriend, who went nuts after 9/11. Lio is a survivor of childhood leukemia that killed his twin brother. Craig and Lio are powerfully drawn to each other, but can they overcome past hurts and move on? First-person narratives alternate in this raw, immediate love story set outside DC during the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks.
Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam
(3)
4-6
Wil would do anything to bring back his brother, Graham, who died during an asthma attack. When Wil discovers a bell that revives (but then destroys) the dead, he rings it with unexpected results. Zombie-Graham returns, but as an emotionless shell of his former self. Wil's realistic struggle with loss anchors this sometimes absurd yet funny and honest exploration of grief.
Reviewer: Bethany Templeton Klem
7 reviews
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