Blood Wounds, by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Blood Wounds was such a departure from Pfeffer's other books that I've read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! 

Blood Wounds is all about Willa, the ugly-stepsister type to two princess types. Willa's stepsisters are privileged, poised, and experienced - everything that Willa's not - but they've always considered each other family and gotten along really well. They live harmoniously with Willa's mom and stepfather (the girls' dad) in a nice house, and Willa only gets slightly annoyed that the girls get their every desire from their mother.

However, the idea of this "happy family" comes into question the second Willa starts receiving strange phone calls about a man named Budge. It turns out that "Budge" is Willa's biological father, and that he's wanted for the murder of his wife and three daughters - sisters Willa didn't even know she had. Hearing of her father's new family and difficulties sparks feelings in Willa that she didn't know she had, and leads her to question everything she's known up until this point. 

I loved Willa's character, and I loved the way Pfeffer explored the idea of family and the dynamics of blended families. It was interesting to read the "sisters'" different perceptions of each other and of the way things were in their family.

Also Try: Any book by April Henry; See Jane Run, by Hannah Jayne; If You Find Me, by Emily Murdoch; 

Unbreakable: The Legion Series Book 1, by Kami Garcia

The main character in Kami Garcia's new series, Legion, is named Kennedy Waters; she leads a pretty normal life. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her mom and beloved cat, has a best friend named Elle, and does really well in school.

However, all of that changes when Kennedy's mom dies unexpectedly of "heart failure", and Kennedy's whole world is uprooted. She's given two options: go live with her aunt in Boston, or attend boarding school in upstate New York. Knowing that her mother and her aunt did not see eye-to-eye on things, Kennedy selects boarding school. Before she's able to leave, though, something crazy happens. A ghost invades her home, and she learns that her mother's death was not from heart failure, but from a demon invasion.

Kennedy, desperate for answers, finds herself banding together with a group of misfit teens (twin brothers Jared and Lukas, a engineering genius named Priest, and a scary tough-girl named Alara) who claim to be descendants of the "Legion" - a secret society built within the Catholic church to combat the insurgence of the Illuminati.

The other four think that Kennedy is their elusive fifth member, but Kennedy's not so sure. Is she truly one of them? Will they be able to protect the world from demons.

I honestly was not expecting to enjoy this novel because I really didn't like the Beautiful Creatures series. However, I tried it anyway since the plot lines were so different. This book somehow seemed smarter than Garcia's other books that I'd read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the inclusion of secret symbols and seals, and I really enjoyed the quirky cast of characters.


Also Try: Beautiful Creatures series, by Garcia and Margaret Stohl; The Name of the Star, by Maureen Johnson

Seeing Red, by Kathryn Erskine

I thoroughly enjoyed Erskine's new book, Seeing Red, but I'm not sure how my students will respond to it. After reading  another one of her books, Mockingbird, I recommended it to several of my students whom I thought would enjoy it. Several of them abandoned it without finishing, and the few that did finish said it was just 'okay'. Hopefully there will be a better reaction to Seeing Red!

Red Porter, the novel's namesake, is a boy growing up in the South during the time following desegregation. Lots of things have recently changed in Red's life when the novel opens - his father had passed away and his best friend, Thomas (an African American), for some reason no longer wants to be friends. On top of that, his mother is trying to sell the home/store that's been in their family for years; she can't support it without her husband's help. Desperate to maintain his home and salvage its sale, Red gets caught up with a no-good group of boys who call themselves the Brotherhood. They're essentially mini-white supremacists and intend to wreak havoc on the town. It doesn't take Red long to realize he doesn't want to be a part of their shenanigans, but can he get out in time?

During his journey, Red encounters lots of other problems as well: an aging family friend, Miss Georgia, a new teacher whose methods are questioned by the principal, and a friend, Rosie, whose life is ravaged by abuse.

I think that one of Erskine's biggest strengths is the way she's able to develop her characters. In Mockingbird, she wrote about a character with Asperger's and made me feel like I was reading something written by someone with the condition. Similarly in this novel, the narration sounded exactly as it would coming from a pre-teen boy in the South during that time period.