Quick Fire Review: The Half Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno

The Half Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno

Published: 2nd August 2016 | Publisher: HarperTeen | Source: Bought
Katrina Leno's Website

For all of her seventeen years, Molly feels like she's missed bits and pieces of her life. Her memory is perforated with holes and gaps. But then a horrible accident changes everything.

Now she's starting to remember her own disturbing secrets. And bit by bit, Molly uncovers the separate life she seems to have led--and the love that she can't let go. From The StoryGraph.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features descriptions of blood, mention of animal cruelty, a motorbike accident, death, depression, suicide ideation, and dissociative personality disorder.

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Quick Fire Review: Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

Published: 9th June 2020 | Publisher: HarperTeen | Source: Bought
Katrina Leno's Website

A magic passed down through generations...

Georgina Fernweh waits with growing impatience for the tingle of magic in her fingers—magic that has been passed down through every woman in her family. Her twin sister, Mary, already shows an ability to defy gravity. But with their eighteenth birthday looming at the end of this summer, Georgina fears her gift will never come.

An island where strange things happen...

No one on the island of By-the-Sea would ever call the Fernwehs what they really are, but if you need the odd bit of help—say, a sleeping aid concocted by moonlight—they are the ones to ask.

No one questions the weather, as moody and erratic as a summer storm.

No one questions the (allegedly) three-hundred-year-old bird who comes to roost on the island every year.

A summer that will become legend...

When tragedy strikes, what made the Fernweh women special suddenly casts them in suspicion. Over the course of her last summer on the island—a summer of storms, of love, of salt—Georgina will learn the truth about magic, in all its many forms. From Goodreads.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features drug use, animal cruelty/death, and rape.

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Review: Everything All at Once by Katrina Leno

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Everything All at Once by Katrina Leno

Published: 25th July 2017 | Publisher: HarperTeen | Source: Bought
Katrina Leno's Website

Lottie Reeves has always struggled with anxiety, and when her beloved Aunt Helen dies, Lottie begins to fear that her own unexpected death might be waiting around every corner.

Aunt Helen wasn’t a typical aunt. She was the author of the best–selling Alvin Hatter series, about siblings who discover the elixir of immortality. Her writing inspired a generation of readers.

In her will, she leaves one last writing project—just for Lottie. It’s a series of letters, each containing mysterious instructions designed to push Lottie out of her comfort zone. Soon, Lottie’s trying some writing of her own, leaping off cliffs, and even falling for a boy she’s only just met. Then the letters reveal an extraordinary secret about the inspiration for the Alvin Hatter series. Lottie finds herself faced with an impossible choice, one that will force her to confront her greatest fear once and for all. From The StoryGraph.

Purchase from Bookshop.org*

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features panic attacks, breast cancer, death of a family member, and discussion about suicide.

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: The Lost & Found by Katrina Leno

The Lost & Found by Katrina Leno (Bought) - Sometimes you have to get lost before you can be found.

Lost: Frannie and Louis met in an online support group for trauma survivors when they were both little and have been pen pals ever since. They have never met face-to-face. They don’t even know each other’s real names. All they know is that they understand each other better than anyone else. And they both have a tendency to lose things. Well, not lose them, exactly. Things just seem to…disappear.

Found: In Louis’s mailbox is a letter, offering him a tennis scholarship—farther from home than he’s ever allowed himself to think of going.

In Frannie’s mailbox is a letter, informing her of her mother’s death—and one last wish.

Setting off from opposite coasts, Frannie and Louis each embark on a road trip to Austin, Texas, looking for answers—and each other. Along the way, each one begins to find important things the other has lost. And by the time they finally meet in person, they realize that the things you lose might be things you weren’t meant to have at all, and that you never know what you might find if you just take a chance. From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book discusses suicide and self-harm, but neither happen on page. Also features ableist language that is challenged, and outdated language (which is quoted as it's used in a good point about ableism).

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