Review of All Better Now, by Neal Shusterman

Audiobooks, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

All Better Now

by Neal Shusterman
read by Greg Tremblay and Neal Shusterman

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025. 14 hours, 10 minutes.
Review written May 9, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Neal Shusterman knows how to write epic dystopian series. I still think the Arc of a Scythe series is unmatched, but All Better Now is a promising beginning.

The scenario: In the near future, there’s another pandemic. This one is deadlier than COVID-19, but for those who recover – all their problems are over, as far as they’re concerned. They’re happy and content and they care about others.

This gets people in power concerned. The Recoverees aren’t motivated by fear or greed. They get things secondhand, give things away, open their homes to strangers. Economies across the world will collapse if this happens to too many people. Another downside: If a Recoveree sees someone in trouble, they rush to help – forgetting to check if they are actually capable of helping. This results in multiple deaths if the situation is dangerous enough.

The main characters of the book are three teens. Mariel has been living in her car with her mother. When her mother catches the virus, nowhere will take her except a community of Recoverees at the Pier, and Mariel becomes a part of that community. Rón is the son of a billionaire with a pretentious accent in his name. He’s always been prone to depression and has survived suicide attempts, so when his father wants to cloister their family to protect them from the virus, he decides getting the virus is the right choice for his mental health, whether his father likes it or not. And Morgan has always been ruthless, doing what it takes to get ahead. So she’s recruited by the head of a charitable foundation who has gotten the virus. The woman is afraid she’ll give all the money away – so she gives Morgan charge of the money and a commission to work on a vaccine and change the world. Sure enough, when the woman recovers, she wants to thwart those plans. But Morgan’s in control now. Or is she?

The greater forces at work in the world of the novel are certainly going to change humanity. Recoverees have found peace and happiness – and they want to pass those things on. But powerful folks have too much to lose, and they’ll take drastic steps to stop the virus, ethical or not. Meanwhile there’s plenty of tension and danger as our three main characters interact in this scenario. And I won’t say how the book ends – but let’s just say the story isn’t finished.

I read Book 2 of The Arc of a Scythe, Thunderhead, the year I was reading for the Newbery Medal Committee – and I still maintain that book had the best plotting of any book I read that year. (It’s not really a book for children in my opinion, which is another discussion. But the plotting is incredible!) This book also had a set up of many different threads in a grand tapestry.

I did have a caveat that held me back from complete enjoyment – I couldn’t bring myself to believe that every single person who recovered from the virus would have the same exact effect. I’m willing to buy the premise that some kind of brain damage could do that to you – maybe – because some stroke victims have reported feeling one with all mankind – so maybe? But after seeing COVID-19 have so many different effects on so many different people – it’s hard to believe that a new coronavirus would affect everyone who recovers from it in the same way. Also, nothing was said about variants, and people were sure they couldn’t get it a second time – and that all was harder for me to believe after coming through our last pandemic.

I also didn’t really believe in the idea of an alpha spreader – someone who could still shed virus after they’ve recovered. And never stopped shedding the virus, in fact. The existence of this possibility makes the book more interesting – but it’s still hard to believe.

But given the premise, the book presents an intriguing situation. What would happen to humanity if we all became happy and altruistic? Would our current governments and economies collapse? But might it not be true that something better would arise to take its place? If it happened, would you want to get the virus, despite the 4% fatality rate? Recoverees say that at least those who die, die happy.

I definitely believed the part about people stirring up propaganda against the Recoverees and starting conspiracy theories against them. And it was funny when ruthless folks trying to stop the virus got thwarted by the kind, altruistic folks. Because after all, what they have is good for humanity! I also felt like the author realistically showed people’s motivations changing – but their keeping their main personality and still being able to make choices, sometimes against their new instincts.

So as usual, besides an entertaining ride, Neal Shusterman gave me plenty of philosophical questions to mull over. Now the only problem is waiting for the next book to come out.

storyman.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/all_better_now.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels, by Beth Lincoln, read by Nikki Patel

Adventure, Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Mystery, Starred Review 0

The Swifts

A Dictionary of Scoundrels

by Beth Lincoln
read by Nikki Patel

Listening Library, 2023. 9 hours, 53 minutes.
Review written October 2, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Swifts is a story about an adventurous family that sets themselves apart from common folk by taking their names from the family dictionary. Shenanigan Swift is a child in this family, and she’s constantly told “You can’t help your name.” People continually expect shenanigans from her, and they are not disappointed.

She and her sisters Phenomenon and Felicity live in the ancestral Swift estate while their parents are off adventuring. But adventures happen at home when Aunt Schadenfreude calls a grand Reunion of Swifts to look for the treasure hidden long ago somewhere on the estate by Vile Swift.

But this time, the Reunion is plagued by murder and attempted murder. Gumshoe Swift is obviously not up to the task of finding the culprit, so Shenanigan and her siblings — along with their nonbinary cousin Earth — take up the task.

The mystery is full of misdirection, sinister clues, and a bit of silliness, along with Shenanigan pondering whether your name is actually your destiny.

I listened to this audiobook mostly while getting way too absorbed in a jigsaw puzzle, and it provides a fun mystery adventure the whole family will enjoy (with the warning that there are some deaths). The author wasn’t going for realism, and ended up with delightfully quirky.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/swifts.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Enter the Body, by Joy McCullough

Audiobooks, Historical, Teen Fiction Review 0

Enter the Body

by Joy McCullough
read by a full cast,
including Joy McCullough, Valerie Rose Lohman, Annie Q, and Victoria Villarreal

Listening Library, 2023. 4 hours, 23 minutes.
Review written April 23, 2023, from a library eaudiobook

Joy McCullough’s debut novel, the amazing Blood Water Paint was published the year I was on the Newbery committee, so when I hear she’s written another book, I make sure to read it. This one has more of her innovative work, looking at history in a completely new way. Of course, in this case, it’s invented history — invented by Shakespeare.

The book is centered in a trap room beneath a stage. We’ve got Shakespeare’s tragic heroines spending eternity there. All of them died horribly.

Most of them go off into corners, but Juliet, Ophelia, and Cordelia get to talking. They tell their stories from their own perspectives. All of them died tragically, because of men.

But then the part I like is where they decide to make their own choices and rewrite their stories as they want them told.

I listened to this book, and the audio production is very well done, using separate voices for the different girls. But I suspect I would have enjoyed it more reading the print version, because it’s easier to notice the author’s craft — such as when the lines start going in iambic pentameter.

In the Author’s Note she mentions that Shakespeare was known for taking established work and making it his own, so she feels she’s following in his footsteps with this book.

joymccullough.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/enter_the_body.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Inheritance Games, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Mystery, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Inheritance Games

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
read by Christie Moreau

Hachette Audio, 2020. 10 hours, 45 minutes.
Review written March 24, 2023, from a library eaudiobook

Thanks to my friend Lisa for recommending this series to me. I’d seen the hype about the fourth book coming out this summer.

The Inheritance Games begins a series about a billionaire who died and who left puzzles for his family after him.

The biggest puzzle of all is why he left his entire multi-billion dollar estate to Avery Grahams, a teen who’d been living in her car before she got the news, in order to avoid her sister’s abusive boyfriend.

But Avery gets called to the reading of the will of Tobias Hawthorne, along with the whole family. She’s never met any of these people before. So she’s as shocked as anyone when she learns he’s left the bulk of his estate to her, passing over his grandsons, the four Hawthorne brothers.

There is a condition: She has to live in Hawthorne house for one year. It’s an enormous place, so it shouldn’t be difficult. But then someone apparently tries to kill her. And there’s the question of how she feels about the Hawthorne brothers. And she’s warned about the last girl at her new private school who lived at Hawthorne house and turned up dead.

Along with all that, the Hawthorne brothers tell her that their grandfather was always setting puzzles for them, and the letters left to them are obviously another puzzle. Avery thinks the solution to the puzzles may explain why he picked her to inherit.

But the question is: Is Avery’s existence at Hawthorne House just a part of the puzzle, or is this amazing inheritance due to something special about her?

This puzzle novel is fun, though I was a little disappointed that the clues weren’t such that the reader could really play along. Fun to watch them get solved, though. And I’m proud to say that I saw a twist at the end coming long before it happened.

And although they did solve a major puzzle in this book, the ending hints that there are more puzzles to come. The series was originally advertised as a trilogy, but book four is coming out this summer. I think I have been enticed into reading more books. And who doesn’t like a Cinderella story where a worthy but poor heroine comes into great wealth?

jenniferlynnbarnes.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/inheritance_games.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Kill Joy, by Holly Jackson

Audiobooks, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Kill Joy

by Holly Jackson
read by Bailey Carr, Raymond J. Lee, and Bruce Mann

Listening Library, 2023. 2 hours, 37 minutes.
Review written March 12, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Kill Joy is a prequel novella to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. It is just plain fun. I was relieved about that, having recently finished Holly Jackson’s utterly terrifying Five Survive. This one is actually not scary.

What we’ve got is the story of how Pip chose her senior capstone project that led to her investigating the murder of Andie Bell, which started the events in the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy.

It all begins with a murder mystery party.

The party happens toward the end of Pip’s junior year. Her friends are there — friends whose names I recognize from the series. It happens at Connor Reynolds’ house, and his big brother Jamie runs the mystery and plays the part of a Scotland Yard detective.

I was waiting for the mystery party to turn sinister, and, well, I won’t tell you about that. But let’s just say that unlike any other Holly Jackson book I’ve read, this one was more fun than scary.

So that’s why I think this is a good book to read after you’ve read the whole trilogy. It’s fun to get more insight into the characters and have some fun with them and understand how it all began. If you start with the prequel, you’re going to be very misled about the level of tension in the later books. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Oh, and the audio version has the same excellent production as the trilogy, with multiple voice actors and the same theme music at the beginning and end. A great listening experience!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/kill_joy.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Max in the Land of Lies, by Adam Gidwitz

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

Max in the Land of Lies

by Adam Gidwitz
read by Euan Morton

Listening Library, 2025. 9 hours, 6 minutes.
Review written April 16, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Max in the Land of Lies is the second half of the duology begun in Max in the House of Spies – and, yes, together they make one story, so you will want to read both parts in order.

In my review, I said that Max in the House of Spies is a whole lot of fun. This one? I wouldn’t use the word “fun” to describe it. Max is still super clever and outsmarts many of the people he’s up against – but now he’s in Nazi Germany. I do have to mention that Adam Gidwitz is still narrowly walking the line of believability – that the British would send a 12-year-old Jewish boy into Nazi Germany and that he could possibly get away with it. (This is a kids’ book – that’s not really a spoiler.)

There’s a huge amount of tension in this book. Max is a genius with radios, and he infiltrates the Funkhaus – the radio station in Berlin, getting a job there. And during the course of the book he meets Herr Fritscher (the “Voice of Germany”), Goebbels {the minister of propaganda), and has lunch with Adolf Hitler.

So along the way in Max’s journey, it’s not so much about fun pranks he pulls, as the first book, as about the changes happening in Germany. We see that there are as many reasons to be a Nazi as there are people in Germany, and we hear some of the people tell their reasons. We hear about how Germany was humiliated after World War I and folks’ life savings were worthless and they simply hoped that Hitler could make Germany great again. And how people were willing to turn in their neighbors, but others look the other way.

We also learn about how people are more apt to believe the Big Lie than small lies – because everyone tells small lies, so they know to watch for those, but they don’t believe that someone would tell a truly Big Lie. Even if they don’t believe it at first, they will start getting used to the Big Lie if it’s repeated often enough. The author’s note says that Hitler never admitted to doing this – but this strategy is what he said Jews were doing, and Fascists then and now accuse others of the things they are doing themselves. In the radio station, Max learns about the invented “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and how this was used to blame the Jews for everyone’s troubles. He learns about the “science” of phrenology and how the shapes of Jews’ skulls show they are inferior – but funny thing, it doesn’t give him away. Another interesting propaganda thread that I hadn’t heard about before was about all the countries Britain had already invaded and colonized – so clearly Germany needed to defend themselves against Britain. (Never mind that Hitler started this war – how was he any worse than the British?)

Max is also looking for his parents – and let’s just say that the book doesn’t flinch from telling the reader about the cruelty of concentration camps. So yes, this book is sobering.

The author’s note at the back is fascinating. Max is fictional, but most of the characters he encounters are actual historical figures. Of course this book was written long before Trump was reelected, but there are plenty of things about Nazi Germany that resonate with America today. As the author says, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

So besides an intricate and well-written spy novel, in this book you’ll also get a history lesson and a timely warning.

adamgidwitz.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/max_in_the_land_of_lies.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, by Heather Fawcett

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales

by Heather Fawcett
read by Ell Potter and Michael Dodds

Books on Tape, 2025. 11 hours 44 minutes.
Review written April 2, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Oh, I love the Emily Wilde books more with each volume! You’re going to want to read these in order, especially to watch Emily’s relationship with Wendell develop, but it was okay not to remember every detail of the previous books. I love these books so much, I decided to purchase my own copy and preordered it, but listening has been such a delightful experience, I still put the audiobook on hold.

The charm of the book is found especially in the character of Emily Wilde, the foremost dryadologist in the world – at least in this alternate world where faeries are real and studying them is a serious academic discipline. Her encyclopedic knowledge of faery lore means she has what it takes to now survive becoming a queen of faerie – or so we hope. For his stepmother is dead, and Wendell is ready to take his throne in the Faerie Kingdom of Where the Trees Have Eyes.

Except – it turns out that Wendell’s stepmother isn’t actually dead yet, and she’s found a way to poison the realm so that it is dying as she dies. Now it’s up to Emily to find the tale that applies so she can defeat the old queen’s plans. Though she does get plenty of help from characters we’ve met in the earlier books.

Something I love about these books is what a serious academic Emily is – even compelled to cite sources and include footnotes. The reader Ell Potter does an excellent Footnote Voice, so I wasn’t surprised to see that’s what’s found in the text. Wendell, on the other hand, tries to get her to lighten up and enjoy his beautiful kingdom. And it’s all completely delightful.

Even though Wendell and Emily are now king and queen of a faerie realm, they’re still traveling together, and Emily is still doing research, so I hope there will be more books to come. I’m sure Emily Wilde’s adventures – and publications – are not over.

heatherfawcettbooks.com
randomhousebooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/emily_wildes_compendium_of_lost_tales.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Legendary Scarlett & Browne, by Jonathan Stroud

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

The Legendary Scarlett & Browne

by Jonathan Stroud
read by Sophie Aldred

Listening Library, 2025. 13 hours, 13 minutes.
Review written April 8, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Legendary Scarlett & Browne is the conclusion to the trilogy about the teen outlaws Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne, living in post-apocalyptic Britain.

We’ve got the books in the juvenile section of the library, probably because there’s no sexual innuendo whatsoever, but fair warning is that it’s more for the 10-to-14-age crowd, and there’s lots of violence, death, and enslavement.

But oh my goodness, I love these books so much! And Sophie Aldred makes the characters come alive.

I won’t give a lot of details, because of it being the conclusion of a trilogy, but Scarlett and Albert are outlaws, because they defy the evil powers that run the surviving towns after the cataclysm. I do hate that the most evil forces are the Faith Houses – they have a menu of religious options to suit everyone. But I’m afraid that feels realistic, because religion always attracts those who want to control others. Those powers support slavery and leaving “deviant” children to die – anyone with any “defect” or special powers developed after the cataclysm, like Albert’s telekinesis.

In this book, there’s a new threat, with the Faith Houses discovering powerful ancient weapons and using slaves to recover them. They will then raise up an army to find and defeat outlaws like Scarlett and Albert and the friends they’ve gathered around them in the first two books.

Both Scarlett and Albert have a further quest. Albert’s is to find out more about where he came from before he got to Stonemoor. And Scarlett’s is always to find her little brother Thomas, who was left out to be eaten by creatures, but may have been sold into slavery instead. As the end of the trilogy, both quests get some resolution.

And it’s hard to explain how good these books are. There are narrow escapes throughout the books, highlighting Scarlett’s cleverness and physical prowess, and Albert’s special powers. It’s also gratifying how they fight the forces of evil and stand up for enslaved children, outsmarting evil people along the way. But most of all, the characters’ personalities and interactions make you love spending time with them.

jonathanstroud.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/legendary_scarlett_and_browne.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Kings of B’More, by R. Eric Thomas

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

Kings of B’More

by R. Eric Thomas
read by Torian Brackett

Listening Library, 2022. 9 hours, 58 minutes.
Review written January 25, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
2023 Stonewall Honor Book

Kings of B’More is a story of two friends on an adventure. Harrison and Linus are two black gay boys, who’ve just spent every day together in the summer before their junior year of high school. And then Linus tells Harrison that he and his dad are moving from Baltimore to North Carolina on the very next weekend.

Harrison is devastated. It’s not a friendship he wants to lose. When his father chooses “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” for Family Movie Night, Harrison gets an idea. He’ll plan a Ferris Day for Linus! They’ll take off from their jobs and go off and have an adventure, doing things that scare them and things they’ve always wanted to do. It will be a grand gesture that will make sure Linus doesn’t forget him and cement their friendship forever.

Of course, there’s a catch. Both Harrison’s and Linus’s parents use an app that tracks their movements. So they’re going to need someone to take their phones as a decoy to the places where they’d normally spend the day. They find an app and an old ipad to use in place of phones.

Harrison makes elaborate plans and sets his heart on making Ferris Day a grand success. Of course, it turns out that his plans start going awry from the very beginning. But could it be that the adventure turns out even better than he’d planned?

This is a refreshingly lovely story of friendship. Oh, and it made me resurrect my intention of visiting the Museum of African American History in Washington, DC, which I’d put aside when the pandemic started. I did enjoy the way the book is grounded in real places, even if I only recognized the DC ones.

rericthomas.com
PenguinTeen.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/kings_of_bmore.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Girls Like Her, by Melanie Sumrow

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Girls Like Her

by Melanie Sumrow
read by January LaVoy

Clarion Books, 2024. 9 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written April 2, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 Odyssey Award Honor Audiobook

Wow. Odyssey Award Honorees are always worth listening to. Every time. This one had me riveted from the moment it started.

It starts off telling about a prominent citizen who’s been murdered. And that police have arrested a suspect. Then we meet the 15-year-old girl who killed him, already in juvenile hall for months, meeting with a new social worker before a hearing where the prosecution wants to have her tried as an adult.

The prosecution gets its way in that hearing, so Ruby is moved to a women’s jail. And she knows that if she doesn’t win her case, she will be in prison for life. The book uses multiple formats to tell the story – some news clippings (with a news show sound effect), some court transcripts from her trial, some notes from the social worker, some letters Ruby writes to a friend on the outside, but the bulk of the book is Ruby’s meetings with Cadence, the social worker, as she tries to get Ruby to open up and tell her story.

And it’s a hard story. Ruby was kicked out by her mother when she was 13. She fell in with someone she thought loved her (still thinking that in prison), but was sex trafficked by him. (I don’t think I’m giving too much away here. The reader/listener has the idea much sooner than Ruby does.) But we don’t find out what happened the day of the murder until the end of the book.

The production quality of this audiobook is excellent, with plenty of sound effects to give you cues about the different types of material used. The narrator’s voice adjusts to the different materials and speakers so much I thought there was more than one person reading until I looked it up at the end.

It’s a powerful story, but sad. The author has worked as a lawyer, so it all has the ring of truth, and she has listed some resources at the back. May our justice system do better for girls like her.

melaniesumrow.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/girls_like_her.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?