Angelina, Children’s Assistant (GR)–
Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready (YA) is a dark but moving story about an obsessive-compulsive, honor student, neat-freak named Claude, who lives in contrast to her messy, unpredictable, alcoholic mother in their small trailer on the coast of Maine. When Claude wakes up one morning to her mother gone and the house trashed, she is only a little surprised; it’s happened before, but she’d been 
sober for months and really cleaned herself up recently–for good, this time, or so her mother promised. Claude cannot bring herself to tell her peers at the children-of-alcoholics support group that her mother has fallen off the wagon again, and instead says that she finally agreed to go to rehab. Claude struggles with the mystery of her mother’s disappearance, and she becomes more and more obsessed with cleaning and organizing every aspect of her life. As she gets to the point where she can no longer function, her friends and teachers worry about her, but she refuses their help and continues into her spiral rather than admit her codependency and OCD. All the while, it becomes clear that Claude’s mother never went to rehab, and furthermore, isn’t coming back.
The suspense in this book builds slowly, and as fragments of the mystery fall into place via dreams and flashbacks, I became more engrossed in the story and needed to discover the truth. I felt for the main character because the author does a great job of getting inside her head and making the reader feel what she feels, while still being able to see the situation from the outside. Several times I just wanted to shake the main character by the shoulders and snap her out of her OCD spiral. Seeing small pieces of myself in Claude was a bit eerie, and I think most readers will be able to do the same. Anyone who is even a little particular about things will fully recognize themselves in the book, and begin to reflect on their own compulsions and how they might appear to others.
Rosiland, Circulation Assistant (Main)–
If you like dystopian type novels like Hunger Games, then you will love the Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where the flare has killed off most of the population. Scientists set up an experiment to find a cure. The experiment is in a harsh controlled environment called the Glade where the subjects try hard to find a way to escape every day before sundown through a shifting maze. However there is more to the maze then it seems. With their memories wiped clean, they must go through many trials and uncover many secrets on their journey in an effort to escape. What are they escaping? The maze, the flare, the scientists, or themselves?
Do you like books about the paranormal involving vampires, werewolves, witches, or others with abilities? Then how about one about a young necromancer? Then read the Darkest Powers Series by Kelley Armstrong where a young Chloe discovers that she is no ordinary girl and finds herself at Lyle House. It’s a rehabilitation house for troubled teens where she soon finds out that Lyle House is far from ordinary.
If you are an adult that likes YA Fantasy involving magic then you will like The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card. Card writes about a whole new magical world where a family of mages, called the North Family, are not of this earth although they are living among humans. Danny North is part of this family and he is a mage that is a late bloomer. The other young family members have already began to form what they call their outself. However, once he discovers that he is a Gate Mage he must escape to save his life, for his power is the rarest and most important of them all. Especially with a family full of secrets.