The Warning and The Fallout by Kristy Acevedo

A two-book series by Kristy Acevedo was published by Jolly Fish Press in 2016 and 2017.

1.  Consider, 2016
2.  Contribute, 2017

The books were republished in 2023 by Sourcebooks Fire under new titles.

1.  The Warning, 2023
2.  The Fallout, 2023

The books are no longer available under their original titles.  The books must have been revised at least slightly when they were republished.  From The Warning, page 110:

I really hope I don't pass out and some custodian finds me naked on the gross tile floor.  Probably crawling with foot fungus.  E. coli.  COVID.  Ebola.

The term "COVID" originated in early 2020, so it would not have been present in a book published in 2016.  It must have been added to the new version in 2023.

Publisher's summary of The Warning:

The end is coming.  What would you do?  The first in a fast-paced and gripping YA dystopian series for anyone who's ever felt like their life—their world—is on the brink of destruction.

Like most high school seniors, Alexandra Lucas is caught between living in the moment and an unknown future.  Her anxiety disorder doesn't make that any easier.  But she's coping—until her train stops on the way home from a concert with her boyfriend.  At first, she's worried about breaking curfew.  Then terror echoes through their train car.

A mysterious doorway has appeared beside the tracks, and a hologram claiming to be a human from the future shares a sinister warning.  A comet is on a collision course with earth.  All life there will end in six months' time.  To survive, people must step through one of the many portals that have opened around the world.

The holograms claim to offer safety.  But how can anyone be sure?  Stay or go—everyone must make their own choice.  Alex's family, her friends, her boyfriend all have different ideas.  Alex is only sure of one thing: she wants to decide for herself. But every decision comes at a price.

These books fall under both the dystopian fiction and science fiction categories. 

Alex has generalized anxiety disorder and suffers from panic attacks.  Even minor stress causes her to have paranoid thoughts.  Significant stress makes her spiral out of control to where she can end up in the fetal position, shaking uncontrollably.  Some readers might find this aspect of the books to be either disturbing or annoying.  Those who suffer from anxiety will likely be able to relate to it. 

Here is one example from the first book.

Page 74:

You would think that remembering I forgot something would make me feel better, but instead it justifies my anxiety, which starts a loop in my brain thinking that I must be forgetting something else.

What else am I forgetting?  There's something else.  I know there's something.  Something.  Something.  If I forget it, something bad will happen.  Something really bad.  And I won't be able to fix it.

STOP IT.

The loop continues.

I dig through my dirty laundry, then open and close every drawer in my room, searching and double-checking for something to remind me what I could be forgetting.  My body sweats as I spin in circles. 

STOP IT.  Everything's fine.

But what if it's not fine?  What if I left an iron plugged in?  What if I start a fire?  What if I go fishing and then come back and the house is burned down?  What if my parents and Benji are burnt to a crisp and they have to use their dental records to identify the bodies?  What if the police think I did it on purpose?  What if—

I take a pill and wait for it to rescue me.

For me, Alexa's anxiety added to the suspense and even caused me some anxiety.    At one point in the second book, I quickly swiped through over 50 pages to verify what would happen with a certain character.  I just had to know in order to reassure myself.

I also worried that Kristy Acevedo was going to pull a Veronica Roth with her ending.  If you've read the Divergent Trilogy, then you know what I mean.  [Upon rereading this review prior to publication, I realized that I indirectly spoil the ending of the third book in the Divergent Trilogy, so if you care, then skip the rest of this paragraph.]  I will never read the Divergent books again because of how the third book ended.  I decided to have faith that Alex would make it out of the second book alive.  That calmed me down. 

The countdown in each book fuels the reader's anxiety.  Each chapter begins with how many hours remain before humans must make an important decision.  For instance: 

Chapter 7

Day 24: August—3,854 hours to decide

Each time I started a chapter, I took the number of hours and divided it by 24 to see how many days remained before the decision would be final.  For 3,854 hours, 160.6 days were left.

These books have some very unexpected twists.  I truly didn't know what was going to happen.

These are excellent books.  It took me just 4 1/2 days to read both books, and the books are moderate in length.  How fast I read is a good measure of how much I enjoy a book.  These books make for great reading.

Judy Bolton #7 The Mystic Ball Glossy Internal Illustrations

The early Judy Bolton books have glossy internal illustrations.

Click on each image in order to see it at a higher resolution.

Glossy frontispiece used from 1934 to 1942:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1934 to 1937:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1934 to 1937:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1934 to 1937:

They're Watching You by Chelsea Ichaso

They're Watching You by Chelsea Ichaso is a YA thriller published by Sourcebooks Fire on January 3, 2023.

Publisher's summary:

When a secret society has you in their sights, it can lead to power, privilege... or death.

It's been two weeks since Polly St. James went missing.  The police, the headmistress of Torrey-Wells Academy, and even her parents have ruled her a runaway.  But not Maren, her best friend and roommate.  She knows Polly had a secret that she was about to share with Maren before she disappeared— something to do with the elite, ultra-rich crowd at Torrey-Wells.

Then Maren finds an envelope hidden among Polly's things: an invitation to the Gamemaster's Society.  Do not tell anyone, it says.  Maren is certain her classmates in the Society know the truth about what happened to Polly, though it's no easy feat to join.  Once Maren's made it through the treacherous initiation, she discovers a world she never knew existed within her school, where Society members compete in high-stakes games for unheard-of rewards—Ivy League connections, privileges, favors.

But Maren's been drawn into a different game: for every win, she'll receive a clue about Polly.  And as Maren keeps winning, she begins to see just how powerful the Society's game is—bigger and deadlier than she ever imagined.  They see, they know, they control.  And they kill.

The characters in this book are flat.  I felt nothing for any of them, including the protagonist.  Maren is worried about her missing friend, Polly, but I never cared about Polly in the least.  If I don't care, then why would I want to read the book?

I did find the story interesting enough that I ended up reading the entire book.  The story is decent but nothing special at all.  I would rate this book as overall good.  By "overall good," I'm saying that the book is either borderline good or good in some places but not others.  My feelings are lukewarm, even though I "overall" enjoyed the book.

Judy Bolton #6 The Yellow Phantom Glossy Internal Illustrations

The early Judy Bolton books have glossy internal illustrations.

Click on each image in order to see it at a higher resolution.

Glossy frontispiece used from 1933 to 1942:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1933 to 1937:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1933 to 1937:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1933 to 1937:

Plain paper frontispiece illustration used from 1943 to 1967:

That's Not My Name by Megan Lally - A Thrilling Debut YA Novel

Note:  This post contains no spoilers.  This is a deeply suspenseful book, and it's best not to read online reviews since many people are a bit careless with what they reveal.  Below is the publisher's summary, which only reveals information that the reader learns very early in the book.

That's Not My Name by Megan Lally is a YA thriller published by Sourcebooks Fire on December 26, 2023.

Publisher's summary:

It was a mistake to trust him.

Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there—or who she is.  A passing officer takes her to the police station, and not long after, a frantic man arrives.  He's been searching for her for hours.  He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos.

He is her father.  Her name is Mary.  Or so he says.

When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they just needed some time to cool off.  Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew murdered his girlfriend.  Forget proving his innocence, he needs to find her before it's too late.  The longer Lola is missing, the fewer leads there are to follow… and the more danger they both are in.

This book is very suspenseful, and the reader will be kept guessing until the end.  Readers may have an inkling about part of the plot's resolution, but it's highly unlikely that they will guess the entire resolution.  I had a suspicion but wasn't sure.  I was shocked at the full reveal.

That's Not My Name has alternating viewpoints.  This is usually annoying in books, but it is quite effective in this case.  The alternating viewpoints between Mary and Drew move the plot forward steadily in an interesting fashion that keeps the reader engaged and guessing as to what is really going on.

There's no problem telling Mary and Drew apart because of their vastly different situations.  Mary can't remember anything about her past, and Drew is desperate to find his girlfriend, Lola.

This book has a newspaper article after the conclusion of the main action which is followed by an epilogue.  The newspaper article is interesting, and the epilogue is quite captivating and effective.  The epilogue satisfactorily wraps up the plot and is well worth reading.

I despise epilogues and consider the abomination at the end of Harry Potter Deathly Hallows to be the worst offender, but the epilogue in That's Not My Name is great.

I love Megan Lally's delightful descriptions.

Page 14:  His hair looks like it's thinking of going gray but hasn't committed to the change.

Page 49:  A motion light over the door flickers on, illuminating us and the driveway.  The darkness pushes back to the tree line and hovers there like a living thing.

Page 55:  Incredibly soft jersey sheets stretch across the mattress with a massive white fluffy down comforter that weighs a ton and smells like a good night's sleep.

One character is obsessed about sleuthing and uses that word repeatedly.  On page 109, another character thinks to himself, "Wannabe Nancy Drew over here probably thought she'd get me to confess and then backflip out the window or something."

I also wonder whether it's just a coincidence that one of the protagonists is named Drew.

This book could be turned into an excellent movie adaptation.

That's Not My Name is an outstanding book.

Judy Bolton #5 The Ghost Parade Glossy Internal Illustrations

The early Judy Bolton books have glossy internal illustrations.

Click on each image in order to see it at a higher resolution.

Glossy frontispiece used from 1933 to 1942:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1933 to 1937:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1933 to 1937:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1933 to 1937:

Finding Modern Young Adult Books to Read

I have a lot of trouble finding young adult books that are of the type that I enjoy.  I have read Kindle samples of dozens of YA books over the years that I have not found interesting enough to read past the sample.

I seldom find anything I want to read from YA lists found online in various places.  It's like taking a stab in the dark trying to find something good.  It doesn't help that a lot of people lump adult books in with the YA books.  I'll check a book that's on a YA list and discover that it's aimed at adults.  Not helpful.

Even worse, we now have to deal with books written by artificial intelligence.  I've heard that Amazon is now full of such books, and I wish to avoid them.  I want to read books written by actual people, not a fake book created by a computer that copied content from real books.

This means that I must now be wary of books published by independent authors.  With some care, I can still partake of works by independent authors, but I will have to vet them first.

But still, there's the problem of finding books that appeal to me.

I got really lucky in early February when I stumbled across the book That's Not My Name by Megan Lally.  I wasn't even looking for a book to read.

I was reading this post on Reddit:

The lack of appealing teen literature is causing teens to stop reading

It's an odd post that was debunked by commenters.  Something about the post or its comments which I now can't remember caused me to run a Google search for YA books.  I ended up looking at teen book pages on both Simon & Schuster's and Barnes & Noble's sites.  Based on my browser history, I apparently saw the title These Deadly Prophecies on the Barnes & Noble site and then visited Amazon's page for that book. 

Immediately after I viewed the page for These Deadly Prophecies, I visited Amazon's page for That's Not My Name.  Amazon has dynamic content on all pages listing other books and products for sale, and I must have seen That's Not My Name and clicked on it.  The summary intrigued me, and I enjoyed the free sample.  That resulted in me purchasing and reading the book.  

That's Not My Name is the best book I've read in months (aside from Keeper of the Lost Cities).  I would love to duplicate this serendipitous sequence of events.  But how?  I found the book solely by chance.  I guess that's also what happened with Keeper of the Lost Cities nearly a year ago. 

If only I could do this more often!  Many great books exist that I would love reading, but I have to find them myself.  Books have to be in a certain style with a certain tone in order for me to enjoy them.  Many books are recommended to me that just don't appeal to me.  I'm on my own here.

I always read through reviews right after I finish a book.  As I read through the reviews for That's Not My Name, I saw praise for Sourcebooks Fire.

Sourcebooks is a publishing company, and Sourcebooks Fire is the imprint it uses for its young adult books.  One reviewer said that they get excited whenever Sourcebooks Fire has a new YA book, and they immediately read it.  I was intrigued.  Could the Sourcebooks Fire imprint lead me to some good books?  Off I went to the Sourcebooks website, checking out the YA section.

Sourcebooks Fire books for young adults

I'm interested in YA books that are dystopian, suspenseful, or have a really good mystery.  I like romance if it's just secondary to the main story.  I am uninterested in YA books that are just romance novels.  I find those tend to be a bit tedious and annoying.  I like romance only when it's part of a story where the characters are in a dangerous situation or have a lot of intense problems of some sort (zombies, deadly viruses, nuclear war, murderers on the loose, etc.).  

I began checking the Sourcebooks Fire listings, focusing mainly on the YA Thrillers subcategory. I also checked out the YA Sci-Fi subcategory.

I found a number of good books to read.  Since early February, I have read these Sourcebooks Fire books.

That's Not My Name by Megan Lally - outstanding
They're Watching You by Chelsea Ichaso - a bit flat but overall good
The Warning and The Fallout by Kristy Acevedo - excellent
The Plague Land trilogy by Alex Scarrow - very good to excellent
What Happened on Hicks Road by Hannah Jayne - very good
Swarm by Jennifer Lyle - excellent
Don't Let In the Cold by Keely Parrack - excellent
The Last to Die by Kelly Garrett - good to very good

I then decided that I should look directly on the sites of other publishers.  I checked a few, and I found it interesting that the Sourcebooks Fire inventory is much easier to navigate than the inventory offered by other publishers.  Sourcebooks Fire also seems to have more books that are to my liking.  As a result, I ended up right back on the Sourcebooks site, looking for more books.

I am now reading The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Tiffany Brooks.

I will stick to Sourcebooks Fire to see if any others are to my liking.  After that, I'm going to check on some of the authors whose books I've read in the last 10 years.  Perhaps they have some new books that will appeal to me.

Judy Bolton #4 Seven Strange Clues Glossy Internal Illustrations

The early Judy Bolton books have glossy internal illustrations.

Click on each image in order to see it at a higher resolution.

Glossy frontispiece used from 1932 to 1942:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1932 to 1937:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1932 to 1937:

Glossy internal illustration used from 1932 to 1937: