The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett - Chelsea Sedoti

Title: The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett
Author: Chelsea Sedoti
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: January 1, 2017

Hawthorn, a teenage girl with a hippie mom, an older brother named Rush who seems stuck in the past, and a pretty traditional dad, becomes obsessed with the disappearance of Lizzie Lovett.  Lizzie, four years older than Hawthorn, disappeared one day while on a camping trip with her boyfriend.  Hawthorn doesn't think much about it at first, but slowly becomes obsessed with Lizzie - and also believes that Lizzie did not, in fact, get killed or kidnapped or anything like that but rather that she turned into a werewolf.  Yep - Hawthorn thinks Lizzie turned into a werewolf. 

The story includes some history about Lizzie - including a photo of Lizzie from junior high where she had black hair and goth style clothing.  It turns out Lizzie just kind of changes who she is when she moves to a new place - perhaps so she doesn't have to let anyone see the real her.  Anyway, the story is not really about Lizzie, or at least not completely.  It's mostly about Hawthorn - a sort of coming of age story. 

I couldn't think of a single thing I didn't like about this book.  I loved it all.  There were moments that made me laugh, and there were moments that made me cry, and a couple times I thought this book was just going to break me wide open and leave me like that.  Hawthorn experiences a lot of...change and growth and some hard truth throughout the book.  When both her best friend Emily, and her brother tell her that life is not all about her, and that she seems to think it is, Hawthorn is kind of forced to open her eyes and evaluate who she is.  She and the other characters in this book all experience development in the book.  They all grow in some way, which is good.  It adds depth to the characters that so many books are lacking!

The story itself was great.  Sometimes it was a little weird - but even in the weird moments (like Hawthorn thinking Lizzie was a werewolf, or finding out that Hawthorn's mom prefers to be called Sparrow) the story was still great.  It had ups and downs, enough tension and dramatic moments, and the writing was excellent!  There wasn't a single moment when I wanted this book to end - and when it did, I felt just really sad at what had happened and at the fact that it was done. 

This book gets a solid 5 stars - read it and give it to your teens as well.  You will love it!

The 100 - Kass Morgan

I started listening to The 100 on audiobook without even knowing that it was semi popular and had been made into a TV series.  This is one of those book series I've been woefully behind on.  Apparently, that's okay.

When the book started, I was mildly intrigued.  I mean, radiation kills off humans on earth and only a handful escape to make their lives in outerspace on a spaceship? That sounds like a good story!  While the idea for this story is great, the actual story itself falls flat.  The writing is great - Kass Morgan is a good writer.  But, there are so many diverging plot points and so many different characters that it's hard to keep everything straight. 

If their had been one narrator, that would have made the story much easier to flesh out.  The author could have still revealed all the details that needed to be revealed and followed the story well with one narrator.  Also, because their were so many characters with their own POV in the story, it made it hard to get attached to any of them.  Things kept switching back and forth so much I felt like my head was spinning. 

Because of all the different main characters and the lack of one POV, their was also a noticeable lack of character development.  Their wasn't a lot of growth in any of the characters, and that was too bad.

I wanted to like this book - but found it to be just mediocre at best.  Read it if you want - but overall, I'd give it just 3 stars.