All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Theodore Finch meets Violet Markey when both climb to the school's bell tower to contemplate what it would mean to jump.  Forever searching for a way to justify living, Finch combines two projects--a geography class assignment to visit special places in the state (Indiana) and helping Violet to deal with her despair at the recent loss of her older sister.  The pair's developing relationship is told in alternating viewpoints that contrast Finch's irrepressible nature and attraction to Violet with her reluctance to be associated with someone commonly known as Freak.  The dialog is witty and the teens are sympathetic and engaging. The book deals with  love, responsibility,  family dysfunctions, school bullying and peer pressure, and mental illness.  This is both a satisfying and heart-wrenching story.

Alice & Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis by Alexis Coe

Coe explores Southern society in the 1890's from the perspective of sensationalist coverage of the trial that followed Alice Mitchell's murder of her former fiancee Freda Ward.  The public and doctors of the day were incapable of understanding the same-sex attraction that compelled nineteen-year-old Alice to propose marriage to seventeen-year-old Freda and then drove Alice to desperation when Freda's family discovered the affair and forbade any future contact between the two.  Terms such as deviancy, perversion, and insanity appeared often during the trial. Coe delves into the limited roles and possibilities of girls and women during the Victorian era.  The author also compares the type of justice applied to genteel white women to the lynching of three black men. The narrative is enhanced with primary source materials, particularly the impassioned love letters between Alice and Freda.  This is a fascinating glimpse of social mores in a distant place and time.  Recommended.

The Thicket by Joe. R. Lansdale

About 10 years ago HBO carried a series called Deadwood about the wild west as lived in Deadwood, South Dakota in the 1870's.   The series was memorable for its depiction of the squalor, ugliness, violence, and random acts of kindness in a free-wheeling frontier town .  The Thicket gives much the same feel, only this time in East Texas.  The story revolves around 16-year-old Jack Parker who loses his parents to smallpox, his grandfather to murder, and his sister to kidnapping by a band of low-lifes, all in a matter of days.  Determined to rescue his sister, Jack joins forces with a dwarf bounty hunter, his sidekick--a huge black man with an oversized shotgun, and, eventually, a prostitute, newly retired.  Their adventure has more than its share of evil doings by evil doers, all described in excruciating detail.  Nonetheless--or maybe because of--the slaughter and ever-present dangers, the book is hard to put down.  Jack tells his story with much dark humor and understatement, and he makes his partners at once engaging and ruthless.  Trigger warning:  some sex and frequent violence.

Audacity by Melanie Crowder

Membership in labor unions in the U.S. has significantly declined in the past 10 years, both as a result of legislative action to eliminate compulsory union dues and as a general disillusionment with union effectiveness in meeting member demands.  What we tend to forget, and what this novel by Melanie Crowder reminds us of, is the reason for the birth of unions.  Crowder presents a fictionalized account of the life of union activist Clara Lemlich.  As a young woman, Clara emigrated from a small village in Russia to escape the pogroms targeting Jews.  Clara and her family eventually arrived in New York City and Clara, needing to help support her family, took a job in a sweatshop, sewing for a garment manufacturer. Young women employed in these factories were forced to work 7 days a week and 10 hour days with only the briefest of breaks for lunch and bathrooms.  Each day, upon leaving work, they were searched and fondled by supervisors ostensibly looking for anything the girls were trying to smuggle.  Protests were met with immediate dismissal.  The author chronicles the women's struggles in the face of inhumane conditions and physical violence.  Clara's story makes for a fascinating and thoughtful read.

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith

The term sideways miles refers to Finn Easton's preferred way of measuring time, by distance covered by the earth every second.  Finn is a teenager with epilepsy and heterochromatic eyes. His life was upended when, at the age of 7, he and his mother were struck by a dead horse falling out of a truck.  Finn's mother died and although Finn survived, he was left with his condition--unexpected and definitely inconvenient grand mal seizures.  Now a teenager, Finn struggles to escape from his sheltered life and figure out who-- or what--he is.  In his journey of self-discovery, Finn is accompanied by the love of his life,  neighbor Julie Bishop, and by his  borderline crazy, uninhibited (one reviewer says "raunchy") but devoted sidekick, Cade Fernandez.  Finn's narrative swings between the awkward, embarrassing, sad, and downright funny things that can happen to teenage boys.  Very entertaining.

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon

Magoon's novel is relevant and current, given the spate of black teenage deaths due to gun violence.  Told from the various perspectives of neighborhood residents and gang members who witnessed the shooting  and friends and family of the victim, the novel addresses issues of justice for black youths and the challenge of staying clear of gang life.  Tariq Johnson, the main character, dies in the first pages but the nature of his involvement with the local gang and details of the incident that led to his death are full of contradictions.  Did he have a gun?  Was he wearing gang colors? Tension mounts as the main characters--the young woman who administered CPR and his best friend, Tyrell, try to come to terms with the the  hopelessness of life in a world of poverty and violence.  Very thought-provoking and moving.

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins

Rumble is a fast-paced and emotionally gripping story told in verse.  At the center is Matt, a teenager struggling with his anger against all of those in his community--parents, school counselors,  and friends, who failed to help his younger brother, who was mercilessly bullied for being gay and who committed suicide.  The only person who can take him away from his grief is his girlfriend, Hayden, but she is becoming increasingly preoccupied with her church group, a fact which further enrages Matt because he does not believe in any god who would let his brother suffer and die.  Hopkins pulls no punches when talking about the issues Matt faces--parents splitting up, homophobia, teen suicide, gun control, and his own responsibility for Luke's death.  Matt is a character easy to root for and to hate.  This is a great read!