By: Kristina Mertz
Are you bored and stuck at home? Of course you are! I have put a list of books together that could lessen the enormous amount of boredom you are facing at this very moment. Don’t worry, they’re not all the same genre, so go pick up a book and have some fun!
*The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky: This is an impactful novel that really grips its readers with its realistic and coming of age story. It centers around a teenager named Charlie during the early 1990s, he’s fifteen and in his freshman year of high school. Charlie is very introverted and prefers to watch from the sidelines, that is until he meets two of the craziest friends named Sam and Patrick. They teach him many lessons and help him gain a new sense of confidence that he will never forget.- *The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle: This romance novel is about a girl named Wren, who has always set out to please her parents, but she doesn’t want the same thing. Charlie is a boy who has loved Wren since the first day he saw her, but he knows Wren doesn’t feel the same way and never would. When their lives suddenly collide and their feelings get in the way, complications start to arise.
*The Cruel Prince by Holly Black: This is a great fantasy story that follows Jude, her twin sister Taryn, along with her older sister Vivienne. When Jude was just seven their parents were murdered right before her eyes, and the murderer stole the girls away to live in the magical land of Faerie. As a mortal in Faerie, Jude faces many struggles against her peers, but as betrayal and deception take place, Jude learns more about herself and her intentions than ever before.- Taken by Erin Bowman: The Heist is what the townspeople call it in Grays town, every male on his eighteenth birthday mysteriously disappears, and never returns. Nobody knows where they go, and if they’re dead or not. Gray’s time is almost up, and he’s ready for his eighteenth birthday until he receives a strange note that makes him question everything about The Heist.
Educated by Tara Westover: This is a memoir, Tara Westover was 17 years old when she first stepped into a classroom. She was born in the mountains of Idaho, where her parents did not like modern medicine. If she were to get a gash, concussion, or burn, they were treated with herbs. One of her older brothers became abusive, and no one was there to stop it. Another brother left and went to college where he described a whole other world, which inspired Tara to teach herself for a better life. She went to several universities including Harvard and Cambridge, this incredible memoir demonstrates what an education really is. - 1922 by Stephen King: This novella is from Stephen King’s collection Full Dark, No Stars. This novella is a confession from Wilfred James for murdering his wife Arlette in Nebraska, in 1922. This was also adapted into a Netflix Original film.
The Cellar by Natasha Preston: Summer is walking to a party by herself when suddenly she is thrown into a van and kidnapped. There she meets three other girls who were also kidnapped. The thrilling story is told through Summer’s perspective and also shows her family’s and boyfriend’s perspective at times, to show how they are trying to solve the mystery.- All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: This is a Historical Fiction book that includes Marie-Laure Leblanc, a blind French girl, along with Werner Pfennig, who is a German orphan. They come across each other in France as they try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Dear Evan Hansen The Novel by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul: Based on the Broadway play, this novel is centered around the idea of belonging and how to be found. Evan Hansen is a boy who struggles with depression and just wants to belong. Connor Murphy is a boy who has family issues, bipolar struggles and is severely depressed. When Connor commits suicide and Evan writes a letter about a boy he never knew, acting as his best friend, Connor’s family takes Evan in as their own. Evan finally isn’t invisible anymore and becomes a new kind of Evan with confidence, but when everything starts to unravel and secrets are shown, Evan has to face his enemy, himself.
The Problem With Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout: Mallory Dodge has had a troublesome past from being with an abusive foster family, but now she is happily adopted with a wonderful family. Being homeschooled for most of her life, Mallory finally decides to try public school and runs into her foster brother in the abusive house. As they reconnect and realize the scars they share together, Mallory has to decide if she needs to speak out.
* Indicates that the book is in the PHS Library