Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth, 2011 Harper Collins

     Tris Prior lives in a city held together by four factions--Dauntless the Brave, Abnegation the Selfless, Amity the Peaceful, Candor the Truthful, and Erudite the Intelligent. At sixteen every youth is tested and given the opportunity to choose a new faction and new life or to continue in their path.
     When Tris is tested, something goes wrong and her results have to be reported manually. The test administrator tells her that she's different--that she's Divergent and to keep it secret. Tris makes her decision and causes a rift in her family, but it is her decision and leads her into a moment of real happiness. But all around the initiation of new faction members tensions between the factions are rising. When everything shatters, Tris's Divergence is a useful tool and helps to keep her alive.
     Veronica Roth's first novel is a fast-paced read about a teenager trying to find her way in the world and to make her parents proud. While she struggles with the decisions that will change her life, Tris discovers herself and realizes things aren't always what they seem.
     There is a large amount of violence throughout the story, some of it more graphic than other points. Some language and mature content are sprinkled throughout. A suggested audience is seventh to eleventh grade, with a focus on 15-16-year-old. Divergence is the first of Veronica Roth's trilogy, followed by Insurgent.

Evernight

Evernight by Claudia Gray, 2008 Harper Collins

     At an academy set aside to assimilate Vampires into the mainstream world, Bianca is a rare creation--the child of two Vampires. She has lived her life knowing that one day she will join her parents in their undead lifestyle. When she meets Lucas Ross, a fellow student, something new starts to grow. Their new romance is challenged by the introduction of humans to the Evernight Academy.
     Tensions rise when humans, alongside the Vampires, begin to notice something is wrong at Evernight. When wraiths make an appearance at a school dance, seeming to attack Bianca and her human friends, the school's Vampire population goes on the attack. Within a few weeks Bianca and Lucas' relationship becomes taboo and Lucas's family comes for an unwelcome visit.
     Lucas's family is part of the Black Hand--an organization of militant vampire hunters--and Lucas was placed at Evernight to help infiltrate the stronghold. But his love for Bianca keeps him from revealing her fate to his family. When he leaves Evernight, Lucas pledges his love to Bianca, promising to come back for her.
     This supernatural love story follows the same lines as Romeo and Juliet: lovers from two feuding entities who will challenge all obstacles to be together. Where the story diverges from Shakespeare's work is in Bianca and Lucas's hope that they will be together even when present circumstances seem hopeless. Rather than run away and end up killing themselves, Lucas goes back to his family and Bianca stays with her family.
     There are a few mature scenes, and the occasional bout of foul language, but the main negative sentiment is one of race (vampire vs human vs wraith) and of class. This is Bianca's journey to discover who she is in light of Lucas's love and to either accept or create an ideology for her life. Evernight is the first of a series dealing with the Evernight Academy.

Paranormalcy

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White, 2010 Harper Collins

     Evelyn has grown up finding and capturing Paranormals for the International Paranormal Containment Agency (IPCA)--making the world safe for humans like her. But is she really human? When Paranormals begin to die mysteriously and Evie's strange ability to see through their Glamours reveals something that could help, no one is listening. Her only hope is a Paranormal who can shape-shift.
     The strange creature comes after Evie and her new friend, Lend, but they escape. Then the strange dreams she's been having begin to feature Vivian, the Paranormal who's been on a killing spree, and she reveals a strange connection to Evie.
     Vivian wants Evie to join her as she travels the world and "saves" Paranormals from their imprisonment on Earth. Evie just wants to be normal, to enjoy her blooming relationship with Lend, to attend high school, to attend Prom! She must make her choice--join Vivian on her killing spree to form some sort of family or fulfill a mysterious Fairie prophecy without definite knowledge of what comes next.
     Evie's tale is one of self-discovery--everyone else has a plan for her life, but she must realize her own dreams and fight for them. And not only does someone else hold the reins to her life, Evie doesn't even know what she is. The language and content of Kiersten White's Paranormalcy are suitable for nearly any age group, but a suggested audience is fourteen years or older.

Wildwood Dancing

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier, 2007 Macmillan

     If you weave together the Twelve Dancing Princesses, a Transylvanian Baba Yaga, vampires, and the Frog Prince what do you get? You get the tale of five sisters learning to take their place in a superstitious male-centric world.
     Jena is the second of her five sisters; Tatiana is the eldest and the pretty one, Paula is the scholarly one, Iulia is the passionate thirteen-year-old, and Stela is the tender-hearted five-year-old. Jena, as the sensible one, is put in charge of her father's affairs when he goes south for his health. The girls are getting by, continuing their monthly trips into the Other Kingdom to dance at the fairy court, but things begin to go downhill when the Night People appear in the Fairies' Enchanted Glade.
     Suddenly all the rules that've governed the girls interactions with the Other Kingdom no longer seem effective. Tati falls in love and begins to waste away, Jena is drawn to the leader of the Night People, yet is held back and grounded by her constant companion Gogu.
     Gogu is a frog Jena found in the forest after a traumatic incident with her cousins as a child. For nine years Jena and Gogu have been best friends, each the other's confidant with Jena the only one who can hear his thoughts. As things begin to change, so does their relationship. When Jena's cousin Cesar has taken over her responsibilities and locked the sisters in their home, things take a turn for the worse--Gogu turns into a human. Jena doesn't know if she can trust this new version of her friend.
     This is a story of Faith and Loyalty, Truth and Trust. The choices before Jena are difficult, but if she could just have faith and trust in the truths and friendships around her, the rewards will bring a lifetime of happiness. Along the way Jena experiences the ardor of her cousin's unwanted attentions, the loss of both friends and family, and she must give up control and allow her world to change. In accepting the changes around her, Jena grows into her new-found place in a shifting world.

Wondrous Strange

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston, 2008 Harper Collins

     Lesley Livingston's Wondrous Strange is an interesting take on the fairy stories of the English-speaking world. It focuses on Kelley Winslow, a seventeen-year-old actress trying to make her big break as A Midsummer Night's Dream's Titania, as she discovers that the world she has accepted as home is overshadowed by the Fey world of folktales. When she discovers the changeling Sonny, Kelley isn't sure what to think of this handsome stranger. But when he appears to be just another New York City stalker, she is prepared to write him off as a lunatic, despite his handsome appearance and his insistence that he knows something about Kelley that she doesn't even know about herself. Add to that the strange appearance of a roan horse in her bathtub and things are becoming more and more strange for Kelley and her NYC theater dreams.
     The story deals with several of the characters from William Shakespeare's plays and other English fairy tales including Queen Mab, Titania, Puck, Auberon (or Oberon), the Wild Hunt, and  Changelings. First and foremost this is a tale of a young woman trying to discover who she is, where she belongs, and what place her new-found relationship has set against the backdrop of impending war between the Elizabethan world's vindictive sprites in their Fey kingdoms.
     Wondrous Strange is the first in a trilogy written by Lesley Livingston that follows Kelly while she attempts to fully understand the world opening before her and her relationship with Sonny Flannery, all the while dealing with new-found power and achieving her childhood dreams. It is written for the high school age-range, with content and language that would be found anywhere from a local grocery store to the public high school. It's a fun read and a refreshing take on classic literature.