Author Archives: Claire Chandler

About Claire Chandler

My name is Claire, and I am a student at Oasis. My favorite genres are fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction. I read constantly, and love to talk about my favorite stories, much to the chagrin of my family and friends. Outside of reading I like to unicycle and bake.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

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Simon Spier is just your typical teenager. He has a small group of close friends, gets good grades, plays small roles in the school musical, oh, and he’s gay. And nobody else knows. Nobody that is except Blue, the guy he’s been secretly emailing since August. Blue’s also gay, also in the closet, also at Shady Creek High, also the perfect guy for Simon. The only problem is that neither of them has a clue who the other is. And Blue wants to keep it that way. Which Simon is okay with. Totally

Things get even more complicated when Martin finds out Simon and Blue’s secret. Martin has a crush on Simon’s friend Abby, and if getting a date with her means blackmailing Simon into setting them up, then so be it. Now Simon must find a way to help Martin get what he wants, or face the consequences.

Soon to be made into a major motion picture, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda is a wonderful coming-of-age style book with a wide and varied cast of characters. The reader will find themselves relating to Simon, to his friends, the mysterious Blue, and even Martin. Between the friendships, the secrets, and the way other kids handle learning that Simon is gay, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda is a well written and timely novel for teens to read.

 

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

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From monstrous Daeva to beautiful, fierce Asha, the world of the Bone Witch teems with myth and magic. Tea is a Dark Asha, a Bone Witch, the rarest and most reviled of all the witch-women known as Asha. Born in the village of Knightcross to a family with two low-level witch daughters, Tea was expected to follow in her sister’s footsteps and spend her life helping the village with whatever power she inherited. But when her brother Fox is killed by a monster called a Daeva, everything changed. At his funeral, Tea accidentally raised her brother from the dead, almost killing herself in the process.
Labeled as a Bone Witch, Tea (and Fox) are taken by the Lady Mykaela, one of the last Dark Asha, to the city of Ankyo to begin her training. In Ankyo, Tea will learn to control and use her gift, to sing and dance, and most importantly, how to fight and draw the runes that give an Asha her power. But while the life of an Asha is one filled with beautiful parties, powerful people, and amazing magic, danger lurks in the dark corners of the kingdom. A faction of powerful magic-wielders known as the Faceless hide amongst the normal people, waiting to tear the kingdoms apart; and Daeva rise from their graves only to be slain again by the Dark Asha. But the numbers of the Bone Witches dwindle, and soon Tea must find a way to change the way Dark Asha have lived for thousands of years, lest she lose her own life to it— and drag everyone else down with her.
In this dark and bewitching book, Rin Chupeco weaves a masterful tale of magic and monsters, friendship and betrayal, love and loss. Split between two times and places, Tea’s story is broken at intervals by short glimpses into her future, moments when we see not only who she was, but what she will become. The Bone Witch will draw you deeper into the story with every page, and leave you eager for the sequel.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

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Love YA fantasy? Subtle romance? A dark and twisting tale that defies all clichés and expectations? How about brilliant retellings of your favorite fairytales? If so, Girls Made of Snow and Glass is perfect for you.

Mina is a queen. She has wealth, power, a crown, and control over half a kingdom. Everything she could ever want, except one thing: love. Mina’s magician father cut out her dying heart and replaced it with one of glass when she was a child. But Mina’s new heart was made to function, not feel, so she cannot truly love or be loved.

Lynet is a princess who looks exactly like her dead mother, Queen Emilia, a beautiful, delicate, soft-spoken woman who was too frail to survive Lynet’s birth. The young princess has always been told that when she grows up she will be exactly like her mother, but Lynet isn’t so sure. She prefers scaling the castle walls to playing the harp or dancing; and she would much rather spend her time talking with Nadia, the intriguing new female surgeon, than listening to the Pigeons (a gaggle of gossipy old ladies) jabber on about how like her mother Lynet is. But Lynet doesn’t want to be like the dead queen, she doesn’t want to be delicate. She would rather emulate Mina, her fierce and beautiful stepmother, than the mother she never met.

But as Lynet grows older, her father seeks to force his daughter into her mother’s place and in doing so force Mina out. As Lynet is slowly given more of the queen’s power, stepmother and daughter grow farther apart, and Lynet must fight to keep the only mother she has ever known. But there can only be one queen, and when Lynet learns a shocking secret about the circumstances surounding her birth, the princess is forced to reexamine everything she thought she knew about her family, her home, and most of all — herself.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a lovely and haunting tale of love and loss, adventure and politics, and most of all: family. In this beautiful, heartbreaking story, Bashardoust reimagines the fairytale Snow White, to create a vivid and powerful cast of characters to populate the fantastical world that she has conjured into existance on the page. If Girls Made of Snow and Glass isn’t yet on your reading list, add it now, for this is an incredible book that will stick with you for a long time to come.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeymi

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Magic is entrenched deep in the heart of Orïsha. For centuries the silver-haired Maji lived alongside humans, passing their magic down through the generations of their bloodlines. With the help of their patron gods and goddesses they call fire and storms, tame wild beasts, craft great structures out of metal and stone, and even summon the souls of the dead.
But eleven years ago magic disappeared. The defenseless Maji were captured and killed by the soldiers of a ruthless king, sparing only the smallest of their white-haired children. Now those children live in fear, as the lowest caste of the Orïshan society.
Zélie Adebola is a divîner, the daughter of a Maji mother, and was born with the white hair that signals a potential for magic. When Zélie meets Amari, a rogue princess in possession of a stolen magical scroll, everything changes. Chased by the king’s soldiers and Amari’s own brother, the new friends set off on a quest to bring back magic, before it is gone forever. But even with Zélie’s newfound powers, the road will be difficult and dangerous, and soon Zélie finds herself fighting not only the monarchy, but her own treacherous heart.
In this vibrant and beautiful book Tomi Adeymi weaves a story filled with myth and mystery, adventures and romance, and of course- magic. Told from the point of view of three different people, the world of Orïsha, the characters, and the story itself grows deeper and richer with every page. The story will grab you from the first paragraph, and draw you deeper with every page. Children of Blood and Bone is undoubtedly one of those all-too-rare books that worms it’s way into your heart, and stays there forever.

Love, Hate, & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed

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In her debut novel Love, Hate, and Other Filters; Samira Ahmed weaves a story that is bittersweet and beautiful. In Ahmed’s tale we can easily see the similarities and differences that both create and bridge the gaps between us. The story follows Maya Aziz, an Indian Muslim girl growing up in modern day America and the challenges she faces at home and at school after a terrorist attack whose main suspect is a Muslim.

After the attack Maya faces bullying and prejudice at school and work. As the only Muslim family in town- one with the same last name as the suspect, Maya’s family receives threats and hate from the people around them. As their fear grows, Maya’s parents begin to tighten their grip on Maya’s life, making her dreams harder to follow, and her future seem more full of fear than hope. As Maya does her best to walk the line between her parents wishes and expectations for her, and her own dreams, she encounters a wide cast of characters, both friend and foe.

These will help her find her way as Maya navigates the treacherous waters of high school and college. Love, Hate, and Other Filters is a timely novel that many people would benefit from reading. Not only does the story address racism and prejudice, but also manages to capture the essence of what it is to be a teenager.

Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi

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The city of Kos is a place of divisions. From the dust of the city commons, the Forum, to the gold and marble halls of the royal palace, the line between the lives of the rich and poor is clear and unbroken. But perhaps even more pronounced is the line between the normal people, and those with gifts: the mages, and the Aki.

Mages have the power to draw a person’s sins from their hearts, forcing them to take the form of great beasts made of shadow, the inisisa. Taj is an Aki, a sin-eater. He and his kind kill and absorb the insisa that the mages conjure. But despite what they do for them, Aki are despised by the people of Kos, shunned for the “sin spots” that mar their skin. But Taj is special, his sin spots don’t fade like others do, and more importantly, he can command the insisa. But as Taj’s gift grants him privilege and prestige in the palace, Taj is drawn into a web of conspiracy and deception. With traitors in their midst and rebellions on the rise, Taj must find a way to keep himself– and the beautiful princess Karima– safe, and the city of Kos standing.

City of Saints & Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

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Christina Masika doesn’t exist. For four years she’s been a ghost, a shadow. It’s been four years since she’s been a girl with a family and a home. Four years since her mother was found dead in her employer’s office. Now living with the Goondas (Sangui City’s local gang), Tina is out for revenge. It is with the Goondas that she finally finds a way to strike back at the man who murdered her mother and destroyed her life.

But with the reappearance of a familiar face everything Tina thought she knew is called into question. With the help of Michael (her childhood playmate), and Boyboy (a tech genius from her time with the Goondas), she travels to her birthplace for answers. But some secrets are better forgotten and the more Tina uncovers about her mother’s past– and her own– the deeper she is pulled into a world of corruption, violence and danger.

La Belle Savauge by Phillip Pullman

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Over a decade and a half after the release of The Amber Spyglass, the last book in his groundbreaking  His Dark Materials trilogy, Phillip Pullman returns to the world of Lyra Belacqua. In this debut novel La Belle Savauge, first, of a new trilogy titled The Book of Dust, Pullman introduces new characters, while at the same time giving us a closer look at the pasts of some old ones. Set in a time when the church has nearly every scrap of power, Pullman manages to perfectly demonstrate both the good and bad sides of religion.

Nearly a decade before the events of The Golden Compass, a boy named Malcolm roams the streets and canals of Oxford with his daemon Asta at his side. As the son of an innkeeper and the holder of a dozen odd jobs, Malcolm is the kind of boy who hears a little too much for his own good. When he finds a message meant for an agent of an organization known as Oakley Street, dedicated to fighting the church’s chokehold on politics and science, he is drawn into a world of secrets and spies. However, when he meets Lyra, the baby girl the nuns in the local priory are taking care of, his entire world is flipped upside down. Since Malcolm has no siblings, he begins to think of Lyra as his little sister, one he would do anything to protect. And Lyra needs protection.

Malcolm finds himself caught between the opposing sides of the Magisterium and Oakley Street. In a web of secrets and conspiracies Malcolm and Asta struggle to keep themselves and Lyra safe, but as the forces of the church close in, together with mysterious strangers and dark rumors, that is not an easy task. With the help of a peculiar and unlikely cast of characters, Malcolm and Asta navigate their way through this surprising and wonderful tale.

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

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Wolf by Wolf is a harsh and beautiful book, vivid and brutal and haunting from the from the first page.  Wolf by Wolf is set in 1956 Germany, with one twist– the Nazi’s won the war, and Adolf Hitler rules most of the world. The protagonist, Yael, is a girl with the ability to alter her appearance at will, due to experiments conducted on her in the prison camp before she escaped. Now Yael is an agent of the resistance, an agent with the most important mission of all upon her shoulders—assassinate Hitler.  Yael is one of the strongest female characters I have ever encountered in YA literature, strong and smart and fearless. Wolf by Wolf provides a hauntingly plausible look into an alternate past that is powerful and engaging.  The book is brutal and beautiful at the same time, making for an amazing story as Ryan Graudin blends historical fiction with science fiction, and adventure in this brilliant YA novel.

Jane Unlimited by Kristin Cashmore

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In a tale as delightfully confusing as the mismatched halls of Tu Reviens, Kristin Cashore brings to life a world of art and mystery. The story winds through five alternate universes that take place if Jane had made a different choice in the first half of the book. Each retelling solves a separate mystery that takes place at the same time and place but is never really revealed in the others. Each choice spins the tale into a new direction and genre, be it sci-fi, mystery, adventure, fantasy or romance. With its colorful setting, dark secrets, and unique and quirky characters Jane, Unlimited more than lives up to Cashore’s previous books.