Our teen book spotlight this week is on books that are all about ones that have unlikeable characters!!! Now this is a very opinionated aspect of books as we all have characters we like and those we do not but we soon find ourselves arguing our points with another who has read the same title. I encourage you to read some of the books below and see if your opinion is the same as with others who may have a not so favorable aspect of one of the main characters in their plots. These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #yaunlikeablecharacters as well as on Libby and Hoopla. Check back next week for a new teen book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki--Each summer when Rose travels with her parents to their Ontario lake cottage, she renews her friendship with slightly immature Windy, who nonetheless possesses sound instincts that Rose lacks and is like a younger sister to Rose. But this summer, their comforting bubble of childhood is burst by the increasing disintegration of Rose's parents' marriage, Rose's infatuation with a convenience store clerk, and painful new revelations about their impending womanhood.
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver--Driving home from a Friday night party, popular Samantha Kingston is involved in a car accident and dies. But then she wakes up the next morning and gets the chance to relive that fateful Friday over and over again, for a total of one week, to change the past. With a new perspective, Sam -- who initially sets out to prolong her own life -- realizes the damage she's caused during her lifetime and struggles each day to right her wrongs before it's too late. Perhaps Sam won't be able to change her future, but just maybe she'll be able to make someone's life better.
Renegades by Marissa Meyer--Renegades are prodigies with extraordinary abilities who've established peace in the city. But Nova hates the Renegades for what happened to her family ten years earlier, and now, at sixteen-years-old, Nova befriends a Renegade boy named Adrian with the intention of infiltrating the Renegades and exacting her revenge.
How To Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller--Only in Mandel Academy could a meth dealer, a prostitute, and a serial killer be considered prodigies—the Academy actually trains criminals in the underhanded arts. For Flick, a 17-year-old crook living on the streets of New York, the Academy offers an opportunity to hone his skills so he can avenge his brother's death. However, when he meets the headmaster, Lucian Mandel, he discovers a secret plan to create a genetically enhanced army of psychopaths to take over the whole city for riches and fame. Flick has just decided he needs to destroy the school when Mandel brings in Joi, an old flame of Flick's, and pits the two in a contest together, the loser of which will be cast out of the school and most likely killed.
West of the Moon by Margi Preus--There is a fairy tale from Scandinavia called “East of the Sun and West of the Moon,” where a young girl is carried away by a white bear, who turns out to be a prince, to live in a wonderful castle. Norwegian orphan Astri is not that girl. When her mother died (her father is in America) Astri is separated from her sister and sold to a troll-like hunchback goat farmer. Astri, longing to live out her fairy tale, escapes the goat farmer, retrieves her sister and embarks on a journey to America to find their father.
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert--Alice’s grandmother wrote a volume of fairy tales and then became a recluse in the Hazel Wood. Now Alice has spent her entire life with her mother on the run from constant bad luck. Then her grandmother dies, her mother is kidnapped, and the only recourse seems to find Hazel Wood, despite her mother’s warning to stay away.