2018-04-30
A teen swaps bodies with her best friend after a fatal car crash, but with a twist.Rich, stylish, high school senior Morgan Frost and her best friend, whip-smart junior Olivia Burnham, have bright futures ahead of them until Olivia is killed in a car crash. She is survived by Morgan and the girls' boyfriends, brothers Clay and Nathan Claymore. Well…not so fast. Olivia is alive, but she's trapped inside Morgan's long-legged body instead of her own petite frame. Horrified, she tries to get a handle on Morgan's privileged life, eventually turning up sordid secrets, including her friend's affair with a much older, and very creepy, politician and disturbing details surrounding the death of Morgan's mother 10 years ago. Olivia, who narrates, deep dives into the darkness that lurked underneath Morgan's picture-perfect exterior, putting herself in danger in the process. Olivia's struggle to avoid losing herself as she's forced to live Morgan's very different life is realistically rendered, and Aguirre (The Wolf Lord, 2018, etc.) builds considerable suspense, but the abrupt payoff after so much time spent digging into Morgan's mother's suspicious death is disappointing. While the main characters are white, diversity can be found in Morgan's multiethnic group of artistic friends.The book offers a compelling twist on the body-swap trope, but this still doesn't quite elevate an otherwise standard thriller. (Romantic thriller. 14-18)
Spaceships, body swaps, quests for missing family members, remakes of Wuthering Heights and The Tempest, and some seriously twisted horror stories have us jonesing for July. Whether you’re into contemporary murder mysteries, spy games, Zen Buddhism, or unconventional bucket lists, this month delivers introspective takes on a variety of genres, not to mention the highly anticipated conclusion to Kiersten […]
The best YA books this month include historical fantasy (Guy Fawkes and Lady Dracula, anyone?), outer space adventures, body swaps, and tales of horror, whether around a campfire or set at a cult film studio that serves as a twisted family home. And did we mention not one but two fantasy debuts with serious feminist chops come […]
This week’s new YA books are all about relationships. Whether the focus is best friends, a healthy twin and a recovering twin, demons and exorcists, or fathers, sons, and grandfathers, these teens will discover that honest connections are vital, but it’s okay to let go of certain expectations and people if it means living your […]
In Ann Aguirre’s new thriller Like Never and Always, best friends Liv and Morgan are in a car crash on a dark road, with one of their boyfriends behind the wheel. When Liv wakes up in the hospital, the people around her insist on calling her by her best friend’s name…and when she finally looks […]