msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

Dare Me has been dubbed The Fight Club of cheerleading stories, and for good reason: it is a dark, subversive, unique look at teen girl boredom, power, and misbehavior. Mean girl cheerleaders Addy and Beth are BFF; Beth is squad leader and Addy her bad lieutenant. When new beautiful bad-ass coach Colette French arrives on the scene, the squad willingly answers her jump with a how-high, and Queen Bee Beth is removed from the top of the totem pole with a dismissive shake of Coach French's perfectly-manicured hand. As the squad falls in love with captivating Coach French (Addy is completely twitterpated, "driving by her house like a boy might do"), Beth's resentment and need for revenge rises, culminating in a surprise ending that will leave you gritting your teeth. Teen readers will eat this up. Give it to fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Brett Easton Ellis. Click here for a full review. Grade 10+

A sweeping, gut-wrenching, intergenerational, epic story of love, war, and the Armenian genocide that moves between modern day Bronxville, New York, and Aleppo, Syria, in 1915. After receiving a call from a friend informing her that a photo of her grandmother has appeared in a local newspaper advertising an exhibit about "the Slaughter You Know Next to Nothing About," middle-aged novelist Laura Petrosian begins to explore her Armenian roots, uncovering a history that is unsettling and complex. Flash back to 1915, and we meet Laura's grandparents, fresh out of college Elizabeth Endicott, who has accompanied her father to Aleppo as a volunteer for the Friends of Armenia, and Armen Petrosian, an Armenian engineer who has recently lost his family to the genocide. When the two meet, sparks collide, and a relationship builds against the backdrop of WWI and the decimation of one and a half million Armenians at the hands of the Turks. Stunned by the painful reality of her famil...

When seventeen-year-old Eddie Reeves' once-famous photographer father jumps off of a building and commits suicide, he leaves behind little more than a two-sentence goodbye and a host of unanswered questions that are pushing Eddie towards her own jumping-off point. To make matters worse, her best friend, Milo, has taken back up with his Marilyn Monroe look-alike ex-girlfriend, her comatose Mom, who hasn't stopped wearing Dad's bathrobe, has completely checked out, and Mom's annoying best friend Beth has moved in to help them 'get on with their lives.' When one of her father's photography students, good-looking older guy Culler, shows up on the scene, he and Eddie pair up in an attempt to discover the why of her father's suicide, with surprising results. An honest and raw portrayal of suicide's particular strain of grief. Give it to fans of Nina LaCour's Hold Still . Click here for a full review and here for the book trailer. Grade 8+

A sublime book gleaned from another sublime book, The Tree of Codes is Jonathan Safran Foer's homage to his favorite book, The Street of Crocodiles, written by Bruno Schulz . Read it out loud as your hands turn the thick die-cut pages and you'll be astounded by its beauty. Click here for an interview with the author . Grade 8+

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade... so begins this clever, witty, love letter to the Reader. Calvino masterfully turns you, the Reader, into the protagonist, and, alternating between the second and third person, begins ten stories, each followed by a passage linking back to the Reader. This is the sort of book that would have blown my cynical teenage mind in high school, had someone given it to me, and should be on every required reading list for teens. Give it to fans of The House of Leaves. Click here for a full review. Not to be missed! Grade 9+

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi from Picador on Vimeo . An unconventional and eerie tale, WIFW takes place in Dover, in the family home of Miranda and Eliot Silver, who have recently lost their mother, Lily. Their father, a Gallic chef of few words, has converted the family home to a B & B, and in doing so, angered the house, who is set on consuming Miranda, as it consumed her mother and grandmother before her. Narrated by multiple voices, including the house itself, the story turns darker and darker as Miranda, suffering from a rare eating disorder exacerbated by her mother's death, slips further and further away from her brother and father. A literate ghost story that will please fans of Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. Click here for a full review. Grade 9+

Former award-winning architect and MacArthur genius Bernadette has had it with Seattle: its volunteering helicopter moms clad in Birkenstocks, its timid drivers, and its endless rain are sending her over the edge. She loathes leaving the house so much that she hires a virtual assistant in India to manage her affairs. When her daughter Bee asks for a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for years of perfect grades and her Microsoft bigwig father agrees, the prospect of the trip causes Bernadette's slim grasp on the day-to-day reality of her life to slip. When she disappears, Bee gets right on the case, and, via a series of intercepted emails, letters, and, yes, FBI reports, figures out where her mother went. The perfect beach or rainy day read. Click here for a full review . Grade 10+

The most comforting, delightful, and pleasurable read I have had in a long time, AO tells the story of 16 year-old Morwenna, who has just been sent off to boarding school in order to escape her evil witch of a mother and connect with a father she has never known. Grief struck after the death of her twin sister (while evading her evil mother), Mor finds solace in the world of books and magic. She has incredible appeal for oddball bibliophiles around the world: "What I mean is, when I look at other people... and see what they like and what they're happy with and what they want, I don't feel as if I'm part of their species. And sometimes - sometimes I don't care... Sometimes it feels as if it's only books that make life worth living..." A gorgeous book, endorsed by Ms. Le Guin herself, and a perfect match for sci-fi book clubs. Give it to fans of Le Guin, Vonnegut, Rowling, and magic. Guaranteed to make you feel less lonely. Grade 9+

This prequel to The Maze Runner takes place 13 years before Thomas gets to the Glade. Mark and Trina are in the underground when The Flares hit the city, wiping out most of humankind and life as we know it. The two make it out alive, but harsher scenes await them when a man-created plague begins to wipe out earth's remaining survivors. Although it was my least favorite in the series, it delivers what fans of Dashner have come to expect: fast-paced, violent, ruthless action that doesn't stop. Click here for a full review. Grade 7+

How can you be afraid of becoming a zombie if you already feel like one? Abandoned by her older sister Lily and left behind to endure her father's physical and emotional abuse, Sloane Price is just waiting for the bite that frees, with a suicide note tucked into her pocket to prove it. Now she's holed up in her former high school with five other students, watching them fight for their lives while she waits for the inevitable. A unique take on the zombie genre that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned. Give it to fans of Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth . Grade 8+