Gateway Reviews

THIS GOLDEN STATE Poppy knows the rules. She can't tell anyone her name. She can't ask her parents any questions. And when it's time to go, there can be no hesitation and no mistakes. After seventeen years on the run, these rules are all Poppy knows. She doesn't know why her family is running. She doesn't know her parents' real names. She doesn't know who she is, not really. And after seventeen years without a clue, she thinks it's high time she found out. Even if that means sneaking behind her parents' back to take a DNA test. She's not the criminal, right? Surely nobody will be looking for her. THOUGHTS This book was really, really good, but I also... didn't have strong feelings about it. There's nothing wrong with it, really. There's a lot that's great about it. It just doesn't feel like something that'...

THE MOTH GIRL Anna used to be just a regular girl. She ran track at school. She hung out with her friends. She studied to get good grades, even went out to parties on the weekend. But then everything changed. One day at track, Anna falls unconscious... and also falls up, floating away from the ground. She wakes up in the hospital to a brand new diagnosis: lepidopsy, a rare manifestational disease. Perilous gravity-defying spells are just the first symptom of her new illness, and this isn't something that goes away. This diagnosis changes everything for Anna, forever. Anna's old friends don't understand her, and her diagnosis makes her an object of curiosity in the school hallways. It's a long journey back to normalcy, whatever that means when hospital visits and weekly manifestational clinics are a major part of life. Can a new normal be achieved, or will Anna be pushed to let go and float away? ...

EXTASIA Amity, Mercy, Temperance, Silence: these four saints keep the village safe. As the daughter of a village Elder, soon-to-be Amity Barrow can't wait to step into her new role, to take the sins of the community on herself and keep the dark world at bay. And she's got to step up soon, to stop whatever has been ripping men to shreds in the forest and leaving their bodies out for the crows. But on the day of her sainthood ceremony, Amity sees something she shouldn't: two of the saints conspiring and... kissing. There are murmurs of witchcraft and real magic, and with her mother already a disgrace, Amity knows she should tell the Elders what she saw. Yet something stops her, a new path opening before her--a new option to save her community. If she's strong enough, can she walk among the witches to save her people from their master, the Devil himself? THOUGHTS ...

WHAT WE HARVEST Hollow's End is a picture-perfect American town with a twist: all of these family farms produce miracle crops. From rolling fields of iridescent wheat to veiny ghost melons and russet red livestock, visitors and locals alike flock to the annual harvest festival for these miraculous products--products that imbue those who consume them with health, strength, and wellness (or so the brochures claim). But this year, the harvest festival has nothing to show. When the quicksilver blight first arrived, it went for the crops. One by one, the farms were infected, losing fields inch by inch to creeping mercury-like infection. The animals were next, infected beasts both wild and domestic staggering into the woods only to return at night, white-eyed and ravenous. And then the blight went for the neighbors. Wren is among the last standing in Hollow's End, but the blight has come for her farm at last. And with no one else to defe...

THE GIRL WHO FELL BENEATH THE SEA Deadly storms have ravaged Mina's home for generations. Each time the storms come, the villagers pick a girl to sacrifice to the sea, a bride for the Sea God. But each sacrifice has lasted fewer months than the one before. This year, they know they have found the Sea God's "true bride," beautiful and smart and ethereal: Shim Cheong. The problem? Mina's brother is in love with Cheong, and sacrificing Cheong will mean losing Joon, too. Mina isn't about to let her brother get swallowed by the sea, and so she does the unthinkable. She sneaks aboard the sacrificial vessel, and when the Sea God's dragon rises up to inspect the bride, she throws herself into the sea instead. Mina wakes in the Spirit Realm, foggy and shifting, and she finds a red ribbon tied around her wrist. She follows this ribbon to the palace, to the Sea God himself--and he is fast asleep, lost to the world. With ...

ONLY A MONSTER Joan's family is full of monsters. They can do things that nobody else can do. Things appear out of thin air around them. Things disappear, too. Joan has spent every summer with the "monster" half of her family since she was little, and she has some small talent in this disappearing gift herself. This summer, she's back at her grandmother's house in London, surrounded by the monsters she loves. She loves her eccentric cousins, loves her job at the historic Holland House, and just might love one of her coworkers, too--or at least like him enough to think about him all the time. And Nick likes her back, too. But then everything changes. Joan learns the truth about her "monster" relatives, and they're not just eccentric. They don't just have the ability to slip object in and out of existence. They're truly monsters, as they've always claimed, with abilities that exceed anything she would ...

THE RUMOR GAME Everything changed for Bryn after the accident. She lost her friends, lost her boyfriend. She's going to lose her role as class president if the special election her classmates are calling for goes through. But Bryn has a plan to change all of that. For Georgie, things are different. She's got friends now, new friends, and she's getting attention like she hasn't ever before. That might be thanks to all the weight she lost over the summer. When rumors start circulating about Cora's boyfriend and Georgie, Cora isn't sure what to believe. And without her best friend Bryn in the social good graces, she doesn't know where to turn when jealousy starts getting the best of her. THOUGHTS As much as I wanted to like it, this book was ultimately bland and forgettable. Sure, there will be people who like it. There's nothing wrong with...