Elsewhere

Elsewhere
by Gabrielle Zevin

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It's the eternal question: what happens when you die?
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For Liz, it's answered far too soon when she's killed by a taxicab as she's riding her bike on her way to help her best friend buy a prom dress. However, she's unwilling to accept the truth, even when she befriends a girl who died after being shot in the head, a man who died from a drug overdose, and even her own grandmother, who died before she was born.
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Elsewhere is a land of impossibilities where people age backwards from the day they died to the day they are ready to be born again. It's both magical and familiar, as is Liz's quest to find out who she is, who she was, who she wanted to be before she died, and who she wants to be now.

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Will Liz be able to accept her life in the afterlife? Or will she be so desperate to get back to what she thought she once knew and loved that she'll abandon the life she's worked so hard to build?

The Host

The Host

by Stephenie Meyer

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Aliens have invaded Earth and the humans lost. Years after the successful invasion, a group of rebel humans who did not succumb to the initial assault are in hiding in the Arizona desert. Wanderer, an alien who was recently implanted in one of those humans (who was captured during a failed raid to find other free humans) becomes involved in the plight of those same humans when her host body's soul refuses to leave.
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Even when captured and invaded by Wanderer, Melanie will not leave her body. She will do almost anything to stay and try to protect both her brother, Jamie, and her soulmate, Jared. These two men dominate her thoughts, which eventually means that they dominate Wanderer's thoughts, as well.
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Together, they search out the humans in hiding, only to find themselves in danger from those same humans who suspect that Wanderer is a spy sent to destroy them all. Melanie and Wanderer must work together to help the very humans who want to kill them, while trying to gain their trust. They must also fight the jealousy that's caused when both Melanie and Wanderer find themselves in love with Jared.
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Can they find a way to save themselves, the humans, and the aliens without sacrificing themselves in the process?
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Fans of the Twilight series, by Stephenie Meyer, will find The Host to be both different and familiar.

Sweet-Blood

Sweet-Blood
by Pete Hautman

Lucy Szabo is your normal teen, or at least she thinks so. Of course, to her, everyone around her is far too concerned with appearances and behaving according to a code to be normal, which makes them abnormal.
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Of course, Lucy has a secret. By her own definition, she's the Undead. To her, anyone who must rely on modern medicine and technology to survive is Undead. And, since she can't survive one day without insulin to treat her diabetes, that makes her one of the walking dead. She even has a theory about people with diabetes: they are the original vampires.
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Recently, Lucy has been letting her vampire theory dominate her life. She's dyed her hair black, taken to wearing only black clothing (but don't you dare call her goth), and begun going to late night parties when she's supposed to be grounded at home.
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Could Lucy's new friends really be vampires? Could she really be getting in a little too deep with them? And could her new outlook on life actually be the thing that leads to her death?

The Plain Janes

The Plain Janes

by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

Jane was your typical high school student. She was pretty, blond, and popular. But after a bomb goes off next to her, she changes. She begins writing letters to a guy in a coma who was also a victim of the bomb. She cuts her hair and dyes it black. She starts drawing everything that's around her. When her parents move her out of the city and into the heart of boring suburbanville to keep the family safe, Jane realizes that she can't just sit on the sidelines of life anymore.

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In the cafeteria, Jane is invited to sit with the popular girls, but rejects them to go to the Jane table. Jane, Jayne, and Jane are all a little different, but want to belong; and Jane wants to belong with them. Together, they form People Loving Art In Neighborhoods, or P.L.A.I.N. and they begin to create art attacks around town. Unfortunately, instead of acceptance, the town reacts very badly to their art, and Jane must decide between being true to herself or staying safe.

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This is a graphic novel that has the look of manga, but a story that will resound with all girls (and even a few boys).