YA Pick: The Voice in My Head

The Voice in My Head
by Dana L. Davis
Ink Yard Press
2019
308 pages with Questions for Discussion
Resources
ISBN: 9871335998497

The Voice in My Head is a WINNER!

Twins Violet and Indigo have always been close, but since Violet's diagnosis, Indigo feels pushed away. Her pretty, popular, perfect twin is dying. There is no cure, and worse, Violet has decided to die on her own terms: with dignity. Choosing assisted suicide and her death date puts her twin Indigo into a panic. How can Violet  think about leaving her? And why would she choose death? How will she (Indigo)  navigate without her sister? Feeling lost, Indigo climbs a building, considering suicide herself. Before she lets go, she hears a voice in her head. She realizes she doesn't want to die after all. Choosing life, Indigo tries to save herself but falls.

Waking up in the hospital, Indigo tries to make her family see it was an accident. As the voice in her head keeps her company, Indigo decides to take Violet to The Wave, a remote rock in Arizona where the voice tells her Violet will make the trip and live. Violet has her own rules. The entire family packs up with the help of a preacher and the church bus and travels to the desert. The family each reads Violet a letter, and little brother Alfred asks Violet (when she dies) to promise to be his best ghost IRL (Alfred talks in text lingo!)

The voice in Indigo's head is comic, irreverent and sounds just like Dave Chapelle. The voice tells Indigo that God is omnipotent and can do what she wants. She can make a bet if she wants because she's God. At one point, God responds, "duh." Indigo tells the voice there's no way God would say Duh, but the voice retorts that it invented language and it can say whatever it wants.

Alfred, Indigo, Violet and God (Dave Chapelle) are characters that will stay with readers long after
closing the pages. The bond between sisters and the entire familial vibe is so perfect that Davis better be looking to bring this story to screen, and no one is better at it than her! (Dana L. Davis is an actress and Hollywood insider).

The Voice in My Head is on its way to award season! I predict several state awards including Texas Lone Star list (grades 6-8) and/or Texas Tayshas list (grade 9-12). I predict The Voice in My Head will be on @Cybils Fiction shortlist and top 10 Teen Fiction (and I'm never wrong)!

Highly, highly recommended grade 7 and up. Suicide, assisted suicide, and death. Discussion questions are included as are resources for suicide prevention. The family is religious and God plays an important part in this book. The Voice in My Head is perfect for private and parochial schools and church reading groups. No profanity, violence or sex.

FTC Required Reading: I received the book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Sci-Fi Pick: Scythe (Guest Reviewer Gloria James-Avalos)

This review is by guest reviewer Gloria James-Avalos, YA librarian, William Slider Middle School, El Paso, Texas. Follow Gloria on Twitter @GJAvalos_WDSMS

Scythe
Book 1
by Neal Shusterman
Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
2017
448 pages
ISBN: 9781442472426



First in a planned series, Scythe is set in a world that is not really dystopian, but nearly Utopian. Scythe is where everyone lives. No one dies: every illness, accident and even death can be remedied. Through technology, humanity can now go on forever. While this future world sounds wonderful, the biggest problem is overpopulation. To control the population, some young people are apprenticed to Scythes, legal assassins. Citra and Rowan are two teens who are apprenticed. Neither of them wants to be a Scythe, and only one will be chosen. One will face a lifetime of gleaning, or killing, and the other will face immediate death.

Scythe is a bold and thoughtful work, precise and fantastical, and not too far-fetched from what can be accomplished by science. Questions of what makes us human, our humanity, and who can pick and choose who lives and who dies will bother readers. A Printz Honor Book, Scythe delivers a sweeping tale that is sure to stick with readers long after they've turned the last page.

Highly recommended grade 7 and up. Fine for middle school but not for the faint of heart.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the book from the publisher. Neither I nor the guest reviewer received monetary compensation for this review.

Blog Tour and Extras: Dear Nobody

Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose
edited by Gillian McCain & Legs McNeil
Sourcebooks
2014
336 pages
ISBN: 978140228789

see the gallery of Mary Rose's drawings

Read an excerpt here

From the publisher:

Every word you read in this journal is the absolute, unvarnished truth. Told through Mary Rose’s actual diary entries, DEAR NOBODY is a raw and gripping account of a girl that grapples with the typical angst of teen life—love, happiness, heartbreak—but also struggles with drug and alcohol addiction and a terminal illness that loom over her life.  Intense and authentic, this an eye-opening account of a girl so desperate to be loved, so eager to fit in that she’ll go to extremes that could cost her life. 

 

Already critics are buzzing:

·        “A rare, no-holds-barred documentation of an American teenager’s life.”—Publishers Weekly

·        “The voice is authentic, this book is an experience.”—Kirkus Reviews

 

Mary Rose died when she was 17. As much as she hoped, a cure for her terminal illness has not been found.

 

“I feel like a real life loser—and the game is life. I’m failing everywhere—academically, emotionally, socially, and even intellectually. I am losing myself on a bet. A bet that I can survive, that I can still be what destiny wants me to be.”

 

Her editors, Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil, have given Mary Rose the voice that life and circumstances denied her. A vitally important and compelling read that’s sure to engender controversy and discussion, it’s a not-to-be-forgotten book, and destined to be a true diary classic.

 

My thoughts:

 

This is an unputtdownable page turner that is both heart breaking and life changing. Mary Rose is that teenager who is looking for love and belonging--she speaks to that need that is human in all of us. For fans of Go Ask Alice and books with a raw voice full of strife, longing and need. It will break your heart. This book is an emotional roller coaster that will pull you in. Teens will love this book.

 

Visit the publisher's webpage for more!