The Nest by Kenneth Oppel

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Genre: Middle Grade / Fantasy
Pages: 244 pages
Published Date: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers 
Series: None
Rating: 4.7 out of 5

“Sometimes we really aren’t supposed to be the way we are. It’s not good for us. And people don’t like it. You’ve got to change. You’ve got to try harder and do deep breathing and maybe one day take pills and learn tricks so you can pretend to be more like other people. Normal people. But maybe Vanessa was right, and all those other people were broken too in their own ways. Maybe we all spent too much time pretending we weren’t.”

Steve is an anxious kid who worries about germs, lists, and has a little obsessive compulsive disorder. When his brother is found to be less than healthy and not getting better, Steve’s problems seem to come to a head. He knows what it’s like to be different and he doesn’t want his younger brother, Theo, to have to deal with the same problems he has. Steve wants him to be healthy. Then one night, “angels” come to him in his dreams and tell him that they are there to help his brother. Later we find out that the “angels” are wasps and Steve has been talking with the Queen Wasp. She tells Steve they are there to make him perfect. All they want is for Steve to help them and if he does, they will then work on him to make him perfect. Can Steve turn the “angels” down? Can he tell his parents when they have so much to deal with already?

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Cry Pilot by Joel Dane

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Genre: Science Fiction / Military Sci-Fi
Pages: 415 pages
Published Date: August 6, 2019
Publisher: Ace Books
Series: Cry Pilot Series (Book 1)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

So I have been hearing a lot of good things about this series and particularly the first book, “Cry Pilot”. Now I will start off by stating that I have not read a lot of Sci-Fi books, but that’s not saying that I dislike the genre. I love sci-fi and I liked this book, just did not love it for reasons that pertain to me.

The story is set in a future where the Earth has been devastated by three A.I.’s that no longer exist, but may have left something behind. Something so terrible that there is no way to stop them. Maseo Kaytu wants to join the military to help fight, but with his criminal past he knows that he is unable to become military. The only way to be a part of the military, he volunteers to become a ‘cry pilot’. This is a suicide mission where only six percent of the the volunteers survive, but he figures out a way to cheat the system and beat the odds. After he does this he is assigned to a squad where he grows and bonds with his fellow recruits, but can the hide his past and still keep the trust of his new friends?

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