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Welcome to a new review series featuring book reviews written by teens, for teens! Each season, our reviewers will share their thoughts, critiques, and recommendations based on what they’ve read.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Ketterdam is a mischievous city filled with gangs, robbers, and shady businessmen, but the main character, Kaz Brekker, may be the most cunning of all. In Six of Crows, Brekker leads an unlikely gang of six to try and pull off the biggest heist Ketterdam has ever seen; if they succeed in their impossible journey, the gang will end up becoming some of the richest people in the whole city. With this novel, Bardugo creates an creepy, yet infectious world with complicated rivalries and shocking twists by using vivid, grimy imagery. She develops each character in such a way that the reader cannot help but root for them, despite their many human flaws.
Scythe by Neal Shusterman 
In a future world, humanity has found a way to get rid of death, sickness, and sadness, which could only be described as a utopia. However, to help deal with overpopulation, scythes are instructed to be the only killers in the world. The book follows two teens’ journey to becoming the only people who can take another’s life, crushing any dreams of creating a perfect society. Shusterman creates one of the most well-developed worlds in any sci-fi book, taking time to set up a complex, yet easy to grasp dystopia. On the other hand, the novel takes a long time to set up the world and develop the characters, and only towards the end of the book and in future novels in the series does the plot truly begin to pick up.
Lying in the Deep by Diana Urban
After the feeling of betrayal and heartbreak have taken over Jade’s life, she embarks on her Campus on Board journey, hoping that she will make new friends and forget about the old, all while learning and exploring 11 different countries in a span of 4 months. Jade’s plan is foiled, though, when her ex-best friend and ex-boyfriend show up on the ship as well, hoping to enjoy their own journey together. To top it all off, after traveling to both London and Lisbon, Jade and her newfound friends realize they aren’t safe when their fellow CoB classmates start turning up dead. Now it is up to Jade to clear her name before the ship reaches the mainland, and before any more bodies turn up. This fast paced story line will have any reader on the edge of their seat, as the characters develop and the plot unfolds. Most of the story takes place in the span of about two days, and Diana Urban executed this perfectly, keeping the story engaging all throughout.
Want to share your book opinions as a reviewer? Email the YA Librarian at abigail.hsu@mmt.mainlib.org.
