BLOG TOUR | Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson + My Undead Girl Gang

Title: Undead Girl Gang
Author: Lily Anderson
Pages: 272 pages
Release Date: May 8th, 2018
Source: ARC from Penguin Teen
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Mystery

Mila Flores and her best friend Riley have always been inseparable. There's not much excitement in their small town of Cross Creek, so Mila and Riley make their own fun, devoting most of their time to Riley's favorite activity: amateur witchcraft.

So when Riley and two Fairmont Academy mean girls die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone's explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.

Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders, but they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer...before the killer strikes again.

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Lily Anderson's newest novel follows a story of friendship, mystery and... the undead? Yep, that's right. The main character Mila Flores brings her friends back from the dead to uncover the truth behind their murders. This got me thinking: Who would I bring back from the dead if I had a mystery in need of solving? In today's post, you're going to be reading about the three women from history that I would bring back from the dead to be apart of my Undead Girl Gang. I took this opportunity not only to choose women that I thought would be successful to this mission, but I also chose women from history that I admire.

MY UNDEAD GIRL GANG!

Rachel Carson is one of my favorite women in history. I've done extensive research on her and have even written a scholarship essay about her. Carson has always been one of my inspirations for pursuing a field of research and the reason for why I am so dedicated to helping the environment. In her days, the world was relatively unaware of the consequences certain chemicals had on the environment. She exposed the harmful effects of a very popular pesticide back in the early 70s, which led to a ban on the harmful substance. To be honest, I don't know how helpful Rachel Carson would be on my mission to uncover a murder mystery, but I'd sure as hell bring her back from the dead just to have a conversation over a nice cup of coffee. Plus, she's a scientist so she definitely has a scientific way of thinking. 

I'm sure we've all read about Helen Keller when we were in elementary school. She truly is a notable woman in history. Keller has a different perception of our world, as she became deaf and blind when she was young. She became the first deaf-blind person to attain a bachelor's degree and was an influential social activist for political and disability issues. Of course, I'd love to meet her! But besides that point, I'd love to have her apart of my undead girl gang because her optimism and perseverance would most likely contribute a lot to the mission.  

Mildred Benson, better known as Carolyn Keene, was the original author of the Nancy Drew mystery stories. Those were some of the best mystery stories I had ever read when I was a young adolescent girl who craved adventure. Nancy Drew is such an iconic teenage detective, and I'm sure if she was real I'd bring her back to join my girl gang. But the creator of Nancy Drew, Mildred Benson, is the next best thing. I think her extensive background in writing mystery and crime novels could be the greatest contribution to our undead girl gang alliance. 

Author Bio

Lily Anderson is a school librarian and Melvil Dewey fangirl with an ever-growing collection of musical theater tattoos and Harry Potter ephemera. She lives in Northern California. She is also the author of The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You and Now Now, Not Ever. She tweets at @ms_lilyanderson. 

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi | Mini Review + GIVEAWAY!

Title: Emergency Contact
Author: Mary H.K. Choi
Pages: 391 pages
Release Date: March 27th, 2018
Source: Hardcover from Simon Teen
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5 stars

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonaevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

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Emergency Contact is a mature and adorable novel about two young people falling in love. Don't let the pink and light ambiance of the cover fool you. This book touches upon topics like alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual assault, and anxiety. I wasn't expecting it to be as hard hitting as it was, and it made every minute of reading this book completely worth it.

We usually read books to get off our cell phones and escape this age of mass texting and social media. Because people have become so consumed with their cell phones, communicating through text and social media has since received a bad rep. There has long been a debate over whether cell phones are doing more harm than good to users. Sure, it distracts students from schoolwork and diminishes the chances of face-to-face interaction. But it also brings communities of people together and connects long-distance relationships. Also, I'm not the first to admit that meeting people face to face can be daunting.

At the beginning of the book, Sam has a panic attack. As someone who has experienced what it's like to have a panic attack, it was incredibly hard to read. But after I made it through that part, I was grateful that Choi added it in the first place. It's an experience everyone should be familiar because it's incredibly hard to understand what someone goes through during a panic attack. And of course, Sam's experience will mirror everybody's, but it's a start to talking about mental health in young adult literature.

Emergency Contact is not your topical meet-cute contemporary novel. Penny's fear of confrontation and her awkwardness makes her such a relatable character in the story. The fact that this book also took place in a college setting was just the cherry on top. I feel like we don't get enough college YA's that actually have scenes where the character is in a class! If you're even in the slightest bit interested in picking this one up, consider entering my giveaway below!

ENTER TO WIN AN EMERGENCY CONTACT PRIZE PACK!

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