We'll Start with One I liked . . .

'Meridian' by Amber Kizer

I'm going to start out with one I like first, cause there's plenty of crap out there, but I want to give one of my favorite new reads now, then slaughter the rest later.

'Meridian' is a quirky out of place teenager but not just your average Joe outcast, she's different and it turns out she's special, not eat the paste special, but impressive special. The problem is Meridian doesn't know that. She thinks she's nuts, animals die around her, people stare at her, she's always in pain or sick and she doesn't know why and neither do the doctors and shrinks she goes to. She's about to turn 16 and things start happening. A car crashes into a group of kids from her school while she is near by and somehow she feels like she's been hit too. She's wondering what the hell is going on when all of sudden she's being forced into her dad's car and given a set of directions that she is to explicitly follow. She's being shipped away to her great aunts house in the outskirts of Colorado, to live with a women she's never even met.

Her journey is long and hard. She really doesn't know what is going on or who she is to trust. When she finally completes her journey worn out and beat up she learns that she's a Fenestra. She is the window for souls to pass through before they die. And it's become clear why things come to her to die, not die because of her. The only problem is she has to learn how to do it without killing herself and before her Great Aunt dies. Great Aunt Meridian needs to pass on the tricks of the trade sort of speak, Fenestra's are a dying breed and Meridian needs to learn and learn fast. And to quote a colleague of mine, "and then there was this guy".

Kizer writes with Wit and compassion and really nails the character of Meridian. You instantly identify with her in a she could be my best friend sort of way. Every character in the book is someone you know from her Great Aunt Meridian who is every ones grandma or off beat aunt, to the handsome boy who you just fell in love with, to the evil preacher of the local religious movement who your pretty sure you'd poke out his eyes out with a hot poker. It's a great book you can fall right into and turn pages faster than you think. She sets it up beautifully for more to come and I hope it does.

The teen book crack gives it a ****1/2 out of ***** stars.