Their Vicious Game

Wellington, Joelle. Their Vicious Game. 2023. 416p. ISBN 9781665922425.

Adina has always played her cards right. A Black scholarship student at the prestigious Edgewater Academy where the overwhelming majority of students are White, Adina has received early acceptance at Yale, her favorite school, and she sees her future traced before her. Going to Yale means escaping suburbia, where her parents, faculty members at Edgewater, built a comfortable but unassuming life. For Adina, Yale is her means of leaving her scholarship status, meaning being poor in the eyes of her classmates, behind. 

But her best friend Esme, who also applied to Yale, does not get in, and in a careless moment, Adina lets it slip that Esme's family is being investigated for insider trading and Esme is about to be poorer than Adina. Jealous at Adina's admission and furious that this family secret is out, Esme takes it out on Adina by having her parents pull strings, and Adina finds her admission to Yale rescinded. With her carefully constructed future crumbling, Adina turns to the Finish, a competition held by the Remingtons, the wealthy family that donated the school and its land. Every year, twelve girls of merit are invited to participate in games to determine which one will receive a full scholarship to any college of her choice, as the Remington's name can open doors anywhere.

The Finish, however, is different when a Remington boy graduates from high school. Pierce Remington, a classmate of Adina, is also graduating this year. Adina is admitted in the Finish, only to discover that the girls are competing to be Pierce's future wife. She's even more dismayed when she discovers that this competition is to the death, and the Remingtons have the power to make bodies disappear and stifle any questions parents may ask.

Now faced with the deadly possibility that she will not make it out, Adina must find a way to survive the Finish, especially since Esme is also participating, and she wants Adina dead. Plus, Adina does not love Pierce and she does not want to be his prize. With her roommate Saint's help, and with assistance from Graham, Pierce's older brother who is also enammored with Adina, she must succeed at three deadly events: the Ride, the Raid, and the Royale. In a deadly game, Adina soon discovers that sometimes one needs to change the rules to triumph...

An excellently written parody of dystopian books where teens compete in a deadly game for the one position available, Their Vicious Game is a quick read that is both entertaining and still manages to raise some important questions. How far would someone go to secure their future? Fans of might also enjoy the following: Arena One, Starters, Maze Runner, Ship Breaker, Reboot, Not a Drop to Drink, Birthmarked and Divergent.

In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers: The Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years After the 9/11 Attacks

Brown, Down. In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers: The Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years After the 9/11 Attacks. 2021. 120p. ISBN 9780358223573. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, struck at the heart of the American psyche. The events directly impacted thousands of people in New York City, Washington D.C, and in Pennsylvania. Hundred of thousands more then served to first rescue then retrieve bodies from the crash sites and from the collapsed towers, while others served in the military to bring the fight to those who had planned and sponsored the attack. 

The story is by now well known. What is not well known, however, are individual stories of valor, sacrifice, courage, and determination to survive. In this powerful graphic novel, the lives of people, from a cameraman who happened to be filming near the Twin Towers to heroic firefighters who ran into the burning towers moments after airplanes crashed into them. Each life was irrevocably changed by the attacks, causing permanent injuries and deaths.

Over the course of the next days and months, the fires in New York were put out, and the grisly task of clearing out the rubble and respectfully recovering the bodies of those still entombed began. At the same time, war started in Afghanistan as American troops, allied with local warlords, sought to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind behind the attacks. 

Readers who enjoy history will appreciate the attention to details the author provides for each and every panel. The story is engaging and serves as a reminder that individuals can make a difference and change the world.

The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll's House

 Gaiman, Neil. The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll's House. 1990. 232p. ISBN 9781563892257.

When Morpheus was imprisoned in Sandman, Vol. 1, one of the people who suffered greatly was Unity Kincaid. Caught in a dream, Unity rarely woke up, and as decades came and went, she floated through them and barely remembered anything. She did recall having a baby while she slept, however. After Morpheus was freed, Unity tracked her child, who by now had a daughter of her own named Rose, and she invited them both to come to England so she could tell them about her life and learn about theirs.

After the initial shock of learning they are related, Rose is tasked by Unity to track down her missing brother, Jed. She returns to the United States, and tracks her brother to Florida. She secures a room in a house filled with strange individuals. Her brother, meanwhile, is being abused by a foster family, who chains him in the basement of their house so they can collect the money the state gives them every month.

Meanwhile, some of Morpheus' dream creatures have escaped the dream world and found residence in reality. Morpheus sets to find his errant creatures and either bring them back or eliminate them. But he soon discovers that Rose is a vortex, a rare human being who can rip the barriers between the dream world and human reality, and therefore must be eliminated.

As Rose continues her search, she finds herself in the middle of a serial killer convention, which is attended by some of Morpheus's creatures, one of whom has captured Jed and plans on killing him. As dreams and reality collide, can Rose find a way to save her brother while escaping Morpheus' goal of eliminating her as a threat of his real?

Dear Medusa

 Cole, Olivia A. Dear Medusa. 2023. 384p. ISBN 9780593485736.

Alicia Rivers is known as the school slut. She'll get in anyone's car, and no one at school trusts her. But Alicia has a dark secret. She was groomed and abused by the Colonel, a male science teacher at her high school that dresses up as Colonel Sanders every Halloween. Known as the best teacher at the school, and appreciated by all staff and students, the Colonel is, in Alicia's eyes, a wolf who predatorily hunts students for his own sexual gratification. Like Medusa, Alicia has been convicted in the eyes of others and transformed from victim to monster.

The twin events of her abuse at the Colonel's hand and her parents' nasty divorce have shattered her life, causing her to retreat inside of herself. Alicia is now on a quest, to see if the wolves out there, men, will ignore or restraint themselves in her presence. She keeps hoping that someone will walk away, restoring part of her faith in the world, but they never do. Her brother is just as lost, abusing marijuana and hanging out with bad influences. Her mother is dealing with her own demons, and just can't be there for her daughter, while her father has left and is dating a much younger woman.

Spending more time in detention than in classrooms suits Alicia fine, since she can't totally ignore the stares and the gossip. Plus people keep leaving nasty notes in her locker. But the arrival of a new girl, Deja, who is not intimidated by her reputation provides a ray of sunshine in an otherwise drab existence. She's also attracted to another new student, Geneva, who reciprocates her feelings. 

When one of the note indicates that a student knows about the abuse, Alicia's world is once again thrown into turmoil. Can she really fight off the teacher she's been trying to ignore? With the help of her friends, and through a process of self discovering involving therapy where issues of ownership of one's body and labels, Alicia learns to reconnect with the girl she once was. Will she be able to own up Medusa's monstrosity to rediscover the humanity that lays inside of her?

1900-20: Linen & Lace

Mee, Sue. 1900-20: Linen & Lace. Part of the 20th Century Fashion series. 2002. 32p. ISBN 9780836825985. Available at 391 MEE on the library shelves.

The world was in effervescence at the beginning of the 20th century. Automobiles were filling up roads. The globe was now connected through wires, allowing messages to be distributed almost instantly. Technology was rapidly improving lives. For most, modernity represented progress and better living conditions. But then the First World War destroyed illusions that technology could only be used for the better. By the time the war ended, life had changed for everyone.

Clothes provide an image of society. At the beginning of the 20th century, most women were wearing corsets and several layers under their dresses. Clothes were meant to be seen, and displayed the wealth of person wearing them. As habits changed and marketing and advertisement became more important, clothes had to adapt, from motorist outfits to changing silhouettes and tastes. Styles from all over the world also began to appear in European and American fashion, from those inspired by orientalism to those exotic clothes of the Russian ballet. 

The war strained economies, and fashion became more practical. Uniforms were produced in the millions, and rationing shortened dresses, revealing more leg. After working in factories and elsewhere as men went to war, women had gained economic freedom and learned new skills, and the clothes of the post-war period adapted to this newly-found independence by freeing women from some of the constraints they had experienced during the war and even before. One of the most revolutionary item of clothing to emerge from this period is the bra. Invented by Caresse Crosby from two handkerchief and a ribbon, the bra freed women from the tightening confines of corsets, and allowed a wider variety of clothes to be worn while providing support at a cheaper cost.

Readers interested in the history of fashion or the social changes that affected the clothes we wear will appreciate this short volume.

Big Bad Ironclad!

Hale, Nathan. Big Bad Ironclad! Book 2 of Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series. 2012. 128p. ISBN 9781419703959.

At the beginning of the American Civil War, the Union's leadership decided to strangle the trade of the Confederate States by blockading its ports and destroying its ships. The South fought back by equipping blockade runners. They also recuperated a burned ship hull and decided to clad it in iron, resurrecting the Merrimack and renaming it the Virginia, the first iron ship. The North entered the race to build an iron ship,  and soon the Monitor, which adopted a radically different design, was put out to sea. Designed by John Ericsson, the ship featured a turret above water, with the rest of the ship below the water line.

The two steam-powered ironclads met in in waters known as Hampton Roads, near Norfolk, Virginia, and though the battle was a draw, with neither ship able to disable or destroy the other, the limitation of the Merrimack forced it to depart the battle, and advancing Union forces led to the ship being scuttled to avoid it falling into enemy hands. The Monitor, for its part, sank on December 31, 1862 on its way to support the naval blockade of North Carolina.

Filled with memorable characters and significant history, the ironclads ushered in a new era of naval warfare and revolutionized the way combat was conducted. Illustrated with vivid pictures, and filled with details and impressive feats by sailors and soldiers, Big Bad Ironclad! will be appreciated by fans of the Civil War and of history.

Friends Like These

Rosoff, Meg. Friends Like These. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781774881101.

In the summer of 1983 and fresh out of high school, Beth scores the perfect internship. She joins the crew of one of New York City's most prestigious newspaper as an intern, learning the business from the inside. But life in New York City is expensive, the city is hot and dirty, her lodgings with her sister and her boyfriend, who are fighting all the time and obviously on the way to a nasty breakup, are cramped, and Beth has lost her reference points. New York feels like it will suck her soul out. 

Thankfully, Beth meets Edie, a Jewish girl with a larger than life personality. Edie has met everyone that is anyone, she knows where all of the good parties take place, and she is very experienced sexually, unlike Beth who has yet to be kissed. She also meets Daniel and Oliver, two boys who loom large in Edie's life. 

Through one hot and sweaty summer, Beth learns what it is like to become an adult. She has to navigate drama, relationships, work, and family as she learns more about herself, her wants and desires, and where she hopes to go.