“Veronica Mars, The Thousand Dollar Tan Line,” by Rob Thomas and
Jennifer Graham, is a mystery [written in third person] where the obvious
suspect is not the perpetrator of a serial kidnapping, and the serial
kidnapping, surprise, surprise, isn’t.
But Veronica, filling in for her father as he recovers from an incidental
but nearly fatal murder-by-car, upholds the stellar reputation of Mars
Investigations for finding out the truth and living to tell it all (except for
those parts she wants to keep secret).
Guest starring Veronica’s mother, and (in a cameo appearance) little
step-brother.
“Half Bad,”
by Sally Green [well written in first person] is Act 1 in the story of Nathan, half
Black Witch, half White Witch, whose father is the most feared Black Witch in
the world. Nathan is essentially persecuted and tortured his whole short life by
White Witches. He may be half bad, but
what’s their excuse?
“Allegiant,”
by Veronica Roth is written in alternating first person accounts from the points
of view of Tris (aka Beatrice) and Tobias (aka four), but you cannot tell most of the time which
character is speaking. It’s all in the
author’s voice. This is the third and
final book of a trilogy and serves to explain that their whole life was one big
experiment to try to clear the world of people with Genetic Defects (GDs), who
are blamed for all the violence on earth, even though the Genetically Perfect
(GP) people already had wars before GD’s came along, and even though the GP’s
don’t care about the deaths or mistreatment of the GD population. They only care about continuing the
experiment to keep their jobs.
“Dumb Luck,”
by Tyrolin Puxty is a first-person story of a (former) “mean girl” who gets to
be “new girl” at a different school for three weeks where she endures the
torment of the entrenched bitcherazzi, and learns compassion and caring from other,
not-so-popular groups, and luckily makes up with her break-up boy, and with her
ex best-friends before going back home.
This is a great illustration of how not to treat people.
