Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books December 2017 Reviews

What the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books says about Alone by Cyn Balog: "Hints of both The Shining and The Turn of the Screw haunt this tense thriller."

​Alone by Cyn Balog

Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: November 7th, 2017

Buy It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Book Depository

When her mom inherits an old, crumbling mansion, Seda's almost excited to spend the summer there. The grounds are beautiful and it's fun to explore the sprawling house with its creepy rooms and secret passages. Except now her mom wants to renovate, rather than sell the estate—which means they're not going back to the city…or Seda's friends and school.

As the days grow shorter, Seda is filled with dread. They're about to be cut off from the outside world, and she's not sure she can handle the solitude or the darkness it brings out in her.
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Then a group of teens get stranded near the mansion during a blizzard. Seda has no choice but to offer them shelter, even though she knows danger lurks in the dilapidated mansion—and in herself. And as the snow continues to fall, what Seda fears most is about to become her reality…

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Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books calls We Can't Be Friends by Cyncy Etler "a gritty, hard-hitting, and, for many readers, unfortunately necessary exploration of what’s really behind the lures of self-destructive behaviors, and what real recovery is and isn’t.”

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We Can't Be Friends by Cyndy Etler

Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: October 3rd, 2017

Buy It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Book Depository

This is the story of my return to high school. This is the true story of how I didn't die.

High school sucks for a lot of people. High school extra sucks when you believe, deep in your soul, that every kid in the school is out to get you. I wasn't popular before I got locked up in Straight Inc., the notorious "tough love" program for troubled teens. So it's not like I was walking around thinking everyone liked me.
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But when you're psychologically beaten for sixteen months, you start to absorb the lessons. The lessons in Straight were: You are evil. Your peers are evil. Everything is evil except Straight, Inc.
Before long, you're a true believer.

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