NBS recommends tales of death and danger
DIVERGENT
By Veronica Roth
P329
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue: Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all 16-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is, and she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As the initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are and where exactly a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she has chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves or it might destroy her.
THE 39 CLUES, CAHILLS VS.
VESPERS: THE DEAD OF NIGHT
By Peter Lerangis
P495
The Vespers have crossed the line. Amy and Dan were devastated when the Vespers kidnapped seven Cahills around the world, holding them hostage until Amy and Dan deliver an impossible ransom. But at least the hostages were Cahills--members of the world’s most powerful family, trained to face all odds. They’ve kidnapped Atticus, an innocent 11-year-old boy, and Dan’s only friend. Now Dan and Amy are in the struggle of their lives, because if they can’t outwit the Vespers, the unthinkable will happen — Atticus will die.
STARTERS
By Lissa Price
P525
Sixteen-year-old Callie lost her parents when the genocide spore wiped out everyone except those who were vaccinated first — the very young and very old. With no grandparents to claim Callie and her little brother, they go on the run, living as squatters, and fighting off unclaimed renegades who would kill for a cookie. Hope comes via Prime Destinations--run by a mysterious figure known only as The Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to seniors, known as Enders, who get to be young again. Callie’s neurochip malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her rich renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, even dating Blake--the grandson of a senator. It’s a fairytale new life until she uncovers the Body Bank’s horrible plan.
BEYONDERS: SEEDS OF REBELLION
By Brandon Mull
P385
After the cliffhanger ending of A World Without Heroes, Jason is back in the world he’s always known, and yet for all his efforts to get home, he finds himself itching to return to Lyrian. Jason knows that the shocking truth he learned from Maldor is precious information that all of his friends in Lyrian, including Rachel, need if they have any hope of surviving and defeating the evil emperor. Meanwhile, Rachel and the others have discovered new enemies as well as new abilities that could turn the tide of the entire quest. And as soon as Jason succeeds in crossing over to Lyrian, he’s in more danger than ever. Once the group reunites, they strive to convince their most-needed ally to join the war and form a rebellion strong enough to triumph over Maldor. At the center of it all, Jason and Rachel realize what roles they’re meant to play and the answers are as surprising as they are gripping.
PARTIALS
By Dan Weels
P349
The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials — engineered organic beings identical to humans — has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island, while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade, and time is running out. Kira, a 16-year-old medic-in-training, is in the frontlines of this battle, and seeing that RM ravages the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what’s left of humanity to the brink of civil war, she’s not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them — connections that humanity has forgotten or perhaps never even knew were there.
