Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

 

Goodreads synopsis: Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. In just a few weeks she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty. And as a pretty, she'll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world—and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally's choice will change her world forever....

My rating: 3 stars.

Content warnings: PG. Some kissing and minor violence.

Thoughts: I think a friend summed this book up well when she described it as "middle grade, but YA." And that seems about right to me. The way it's written feels rather like a middle grade novel, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The story moves quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly for the high concept Westerfeld has, but quick enough to hold the reader's attention. It takes a while for the story to have actual stakes, but once it does I was surprised how heavy those stakes actually were. And the characters are pretty generic, but they fit their roles and have some interesting moments. All in all it's a fun read with an interesting (if rather juvenile) world, and a cliffhanger ending that makes the next book that much more intriguing. 

Into the Shadows by Troy Taylor

 

Goodreads synopsis: In this endlessly fascinating book Troy Taylor draws on his lifelong interest in stranger-than-fiction truth to explore history’s deepest conundrums. Ranging freely over American annals, he delves into mysterious occurrences, unexplained disappearances, unsolved crimes, buried treasures, and more.

Into the Shadows illuminates many of the history’s darkest corners; from the mysterious disappearance of the Anasazi to the identity of the continent’s pre-Columbian visitors. Taylor wades into hotly contested topics such as the location of the Lost Dutchman Mine, the strange fate of The Marie Celeste, and Harry Houdini’s life before—and after— his death. He asks provocative questions: Did Billy the Kid survive to a ripe old age? Was Jack the Ripper an American? Did Eliot Ness solve the homicide of the Black Dahlia? Was Edgar Allan Poe the culprit in the murder that made him famous?

Some of these cases seem to exist almost beyond the pale. Who but Troy Taylor could explain the Hornet Spook Light of Missouri or the eerie multiple sightings of West Virginia’s themselves? Dead men do tell tales, but it takes someone as skilled as this president of the American Ghost Society to coax out the story of Daniel Douglas Home, a Scotsman who could fly. Whether ferreting out the truth about multiple murders or the flying creature of the Devil’s Lake, Taylor remains open to all possibilities.

Like the very best books, Into the Shadows raises far more intriguing questions than it flatly answers. And like the very best books, it challenges each reader to decide for themselves……

My rating: 3 stars.

Content warnings: PG. Crimes are talked about, but never to great detail and never for very long.

Thoughts: While the book felt like a collection of short essays briefly talking about different subjects, they were all rather interesting, and many of them I hadn't even heard of before, so it's obvious the author put some work into it and wasn't just going for low hanging fruit. This book would be a good jumping off point for someone looking for new or interesting true crime cases they may never have heard of before, or as an introduction to the genre, and using the resources in the back of the book to begin to dig deeper into any given case. All in all it was pretty fun to read.