We recently got in a new shipment of YA books so I’m diligently making my way through them. For those who like mysteries with a supernatural vein, I’ve been recommended Carol Plum-Ucci. Her first two books, The Body of Christopher Creed and What Happened to Lani Garver, are both cliffhangers of a sort. The mysteries are never solved which ordinarily would drive me crazy but I like it here. Her newest book is The She. Seventeen year old Evan has begun to recall the events of the night eight years ago when his parents were lost at sea. Now he begins to investigate the memories that are resurfacing. Were his parents caught in a storm as their mayday suggests, were they trying to stage their deaths to avoid a DEA investigation for smuggling drugs or is there some truth to the local legend of The She, a shrieking sea hag who destroys whoever she finds in her path?

Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines is a look at a dystopian future where cities have left their static existence moored to the earth and now travel the countryside on tracks, hunting other cities to survive. On the traction city of London, young Tom saves his hero, Head Historian Valentine, from a mutilated girl bent on murder and ends up being thrown out of the city along with the would-be assassin, Hester. As Tom tries to get back to London, he learns Hester’s story and has to determine where his loyalties truly lie.