Goodbye, Rebel Blue by Shelley Coriell

Rebecca (better known as Rebel) Blue is not what anyone would consider a joiner, not even a group of misfits to have lunch with.  She has blue hair and took up smoking at age 12 because it "bugged the hell out of Aunt Evelyn."  Rebel is familiar with detention and when a teacher decides to have them make a bucket list Rebel has no plans to take it very seriously. In this particular detention though Rebel crosses paths with Kennedy Green, and aside from both having a last name that is a color and being in detention that day, they have nothing in common with one another. Kennedy is a perky over achiever who actually relishes putting her bucket list together.  However, when Kennedy dies shortly after leaving detention and Rebel is one of the last people to talk to her.  Now she can't get Kennedy's voice and bucket list out of her head. Eventually (partially to spite her cousin) Rebel decides to complete Kennedy's bucket list.  In working on the bucket list Rebel is forced to take part in a world she's being doing her best to avoid.

While Rebel completing Kennedy's bucket list and beginning to grow as a person and forge real friendships, etc. is a predictable path to take Coriell makes the path bumpy and interesting.  Even though this experiment has her working with and trying to help others she is still by no means someone with any desire to conform.  Goodbye, Rebel Blue has Rebel opening herself up to people (including a cute boy, who belongs more to Kennedy Green's world than hers - who is really a bit of a flat character at times, but his little sister is hilarious), dealing with the loss of her mother who died years earlier, and trying to do it all on her own terms.

Mysteries

Looking for a little intrigue or hoping to perfect your sleuthing skills? Read one of these great mystery and suspense novels!

 Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator by Josh Berk
Guy Langman can't be bothered with much. But when his friend Anoop wants Guy to join the forensics club with him in the hopes of impressing some girls, Guy thinks why not. They certainly aren't expecting to find a real dead body on the simulated crime scene they're assigned to collect evidence from but, after some undignified screaming, the two realize they have stumbled across a real, dead murder victim. Meanwhile, Guy has been looking into the past of his father who recently passed away. He apparently had a whole past Guy never even knew about. Could his father's past and the dead body be linked? Does Guy want to know? He's going to need all his new forensics skills to find out.

The Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredericks
When Wendy Geller's body is found in Central Park after the night of a rager, newspaper headlines scream,"Death in the Park: Party Girl Found Strangled." But shy Rain, once Wendy's best friend, knows there was more to Wendy than just "party girl." As she struggles to separate the friend she knew from the tangle of gossip and headlines, Rain becomes determined to discover the truth about the murder.

Social Suicide by Gemma Halliday
Twittercide: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting. Hartley figured writing for the Herbert Hoover High Homepage would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper's brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on her first big story, Hartley discovers Sydney Sanders, a homecoming queen--hopeful, dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH's resident body finder, Hartley is stuck trying to prove that Sydney's death wasn't suicide.

The Night She Disappeared by April Henry
Gabie drives a Mini Cooper. She also works part time as a delivery girl at Pete's Pizza. One night, Kayla - another delivery girl - goes missing. To her horror, Gabie learns that the supposed kidnapper had asked if the girl in the Mini Cooper was working that night. Gabie can't move beyond the fact that Kayla's fate was really meant for her, and she becomes obsessed with finding Kayla. She teams up with Drew - who also works at Pete's - and, together, they set out to prove that Kayla isn't dead - and to find her before she is.

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga
Jazz is a likable teenager. A charmer, some might say. But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, "Take Your Son to Work Day" was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could--from the criminals' point of view. And now, even though Dad has been in jail for years, bodies are piling up in the sleepy town of Lobo's Nod. Again. In an effort to prove murder doesn't run in the family, Jazz joins the police in the hunt for this new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret--could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan
Farrah "Digit" Higgins has left her geek self behind in another school district so she can blend in with the popular crowd at Santa Monica High and actually enjoy her senior year. But when Farrah, the daughter of a UCLA math professor, unknowingly cracks a terrorist group's number sequence, her laid-back senior year gets a lot more interesting. Soon she is personally investigating the case, on the run from terrorists, and faking her own kidnapping--all while trying to convince a young, hot FBI agent to take her seriously.

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield
Becca has always longed to break free. Free from her backwater hometown. Free from its small-town gossip and dead-end lives. But the horrifying discovery of a dead body--an outsider, Amelia Anne--on the morning after graduation sends Becca into an unexpected tailspin. As the violence of the real world creeps close to home, Becca retreats, paralyzed from moving forward for the first time in her life. The details of Amelia Anne's final, harrowing moments play out against Becca's own out-of-control summer as Becca's and Amelia's parallel stories twist the reader closer and closer to the horrifying truth.

Kimberly

More Anti-Valentine's Day Books

Here are some books about why love sucks...just in time for Valentine's Day. 

Just One Day by Gayle Forman
Allyson Healey's life has been carefully planned out by her parents until a single event comes to define a year in Allyson's life. Underwhelmed by her postgraduation trip to Europe, she makes the uncharacteristic decision to follow Willem, a Dutch actor she's just met, to Paris for a single day. When Willem disappears the next day, Allyson is left trying to discover the truth of what happened. Back in the U.S., Allyson begins to break away from her mother's expectations, realizes her passion for theater and language, and tries to gather clues about Willem's whereabouts. This tale offers the perfect blend of mystery, drama, and an evocative portrait of unrequited love.

The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George
Jesse cuts her own hair with a Swiss Army knife. She wears big green fisherman's boots. She's the founding (and only) member of NOLAW, the National Organization to Liberate All Weirdos. Emily wears sweaters with faux pearl buttons. She's vice president of the student council. She has a boyfriend. These two girls have nothing in common, except the passionate "private time" they share every Tuesday afternoon. Jesse wishes their relationship could be out in the open, but Emily feels she has too much to lose. When they find themselves on opposite sides of a heated school conflict, they each have to decide what's more important: what you believe in, or the one you love?

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped.

Getting Over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald
Sadie is in love: epic, heartfelt, and utterly one-sided. The object of her obsession--ahem, affection--is her best friend, Garrett Delaney, who has been oblivious to Sadie's feelings ever since he sauntered into her life and wowed her with his passion for Proust (not to mention his deep-blue eyes). For two long, painful years, Sadie has been Garrett's constant companion, sharing his taste in everything from tragic Russian literature to '80s indie rock--all to no avail. But when Garrett leaves for a summer literary retreat, Sadie is sure that the absence will make his heart grow fonder--until he calls to say he's fallen in love. With some other girl! A heartbroken Sadie realizes that she's finally had enough. It's time for a total Garrett detox! Aided by a barista job, an eclectic crew of new friends, and a customized self-help guide, Sadie embarks on a summer of personal reinvention.

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in Zanzibar Bay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there's a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there's something she hasn't told Frankie---she's already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie's older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.

The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg
Brie's life ends at sixteen: Her boyfriend tells her he doesn't love her, and the news breaks her heart--literally. But now that she's D&G (dead and gone), Brie is about to discover that love is way more complicated than she ever imagined. Back in Half Moon Bay, her family has begun to unravel. Her best friend has been keeping a secret about Jacob, the boy Brie loved and lost--and the truth behind his shattering betrayal. And then there's Patrick, Brie's mysterious new guide and resident Lost Soul. With Patrick's help, Brie will have to pass through the five stages of grief before she's ready to move on. But how do you begin again, when your heart is still in pieces?

Kimberly

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

I was a little reluctant to read this book because it sounded like a disease-of-the-week movie with a J.D. Salinger type of character thrown in to give the book a twist. I was pleasantly surprised and ended up thoroughly enjoying The Fault In Our Stars. While at its most basic level the book is what I described, it never presents stereotypical characters or trite solutions to their problems.

Hazel Grace, the novel’s narrator, is a sixteen year old cancer patient. She meets Augustus Waters, a handsome boy about her age who was once a star basketball player before losing his leg to cancer. He comes off initially as something of a James Dean, tortured rebel type, but Green quickly develops him into a believable and unique character. One of my favorite touches is how Augustus puts cigarettes into his mouth but never lights them. Hazel is horrified when she first sees him put one in his mouth, but he tells her that “It’s a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.” Augustus and Hazel’s relationship becomes deeper when Augustus reads Hazel’s favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. This is apparently the most important novel ever written, at least for the two of them, and their obsession with its cryptic ending and the whereabouts of Peter Van Houten, the book’s reclusive author, set in motion much of The Fault In Our Stars’ plot.

While I enjoyed two other John Green novels, Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns, The Fault In Our Stars is by far the best of the three. It maintains the unique and quirky characters from the other two novels while also being a rare case of an author taking on more significant subject matter without becoming heavy handed. I can’t recommend this book enough.

John

Cures for Heartbreak by Margo Rabb

As she navigates adolescence, ninth-grader Mia must deal with her mother's recent death and her father's illness while she searches for friendship and love in the world around her. Cures for Heartbreak explores everyday life in the face of family tragedy, offering hope, humor and a light touch of romance along with sorrow and loss.
KC

Sometimes the truth is a long way down.

As the book jacket states, "What really happened on the cliff that night? Three students went up to the cliff -- but only two came back alive." Find out what really happened to Russell and why Luke and Hayden have to come to terms with the decisions they made and the following consequences.
Freefall by Ariella Anhalt. 9th-12th grades. YA ANHALT