Fast Facts:
- Genre: Realistic Fiction/Fantasy/Mystery
- Recommended For: Fans of Mystery or Fantasy
- Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Intrigued by mystery? Love realistic fiction with a fantasy twist? Of Scars and Stardust, by Andrea Hannah is a great read for you. It all begins in the small, quiet town of Amble, Ohio. Claire Graham, the police chief’s daughter, is used to a quiet life, regardless of her father’s reputation. He allegedly messed up the biggest missing persons case the town has ever seen, when eight year old Sarah Dunnard went missing a month before. One night, Claire finds her younger sister, Ella, in the corn patch, her face covered in cuts and blood. She starts ranting about the “wolves” that got her sister and Sarah. Claire is sent to Manhattan to stay with her aunt and recover from the accident. Two years later, she is struggling to form a new life when all she can think of is Ella. In every bird, on every corner, in every sound she hears, all Claire knows is the pain her sister is going through, and how it was all her fault that Ella was alone in the cornfield that night. The only good thing she has to hold on to is the fact that Ella is still alive, even after her attack. When her aunt received a call from her mother saying that Ella has gone missing, Claire spirals out of control. Now, the wolves are everywhere. Paw prints on the side walk. Glowing eyes in the book store. Claire flees from Manhattan back to Amble in search of her sister. Embarking on a thrilling quest to find her, Claire quickly learns just how many secrets are buried under that quaint, small town façade.
Dissonance by Erica O’Rourke is a science-fiction/romance book. Delancey Sullivan, also known as Del, is a Walker. Walkers can “Walk” between dimensions. Every time someone makes a decision in our world, the “Key World,” a new world is formed where another version of the person (called an “Echo”) chooses a different path. Then all of those create different branches, and so on. The Walkers’ job is to find any mistakes with the Echoes or in the alternate dimensions. If one is found they “cleave” the world, destroying it. Del loves Walking, but hates cleaving. Walking calms and relaxes her, but when a world is cleaved she can’t help but feel bad for all the lost echoes, even though everyone says that they are just shadows, not real. When Del accidentally cleaves a world, however, everything goes downhill. She’s expelled from Walker school and is not allowed to go on Walks by herself. When Del starts running into her crush, Simon, every time she Walks with her sister, she thinks it’s just a coincidence. But when he starts seeing things through his Echo and appearing even more, Del realizes something is up. Working with her grandfather, sister, best friend, and Simon, she figures out that the Walker government is not as perfect as seems.
Words of Wiser 