Crave

by Tracy Wolff

Week 7:  Fantasy 

            When I began this book I didn't realize it was a "young adult" book.  I have recently gotten into where I love listening to audio books, because I can cook, clean, and be productive while listening to a good book.  My new favorite audio books are the ones done by a company called "Graphic Audio."  They not only read the book, they have actors come in and read different parts and put music and sound effects to the book.   It's like listening to a movie.   I had just finished  "Fourth Wing"  by Rebecca Yarros and it was done by Graphic Audio, it was not a young adult book. However, I enjoyed it so much I started looking for other audio books by the same company and "Crave" was one of them. 

        I could tell right off that this was made for a younger audience, so I started researching the book and saw that it was indeed a "young adult" fantasy book. It felt like a newer version of "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyers, which I never read it but saw the movie.  It's about a girl named Grace whose parents are killed in a car accident and she has to move to Alaska.  There her Uncle runs a boarding school that is very isolated in the mountains. It looks like a normal school until events start happening that are not normal.  She meets a boy named Jackson and after some time learns that he is a vampire. I prefer not to give too much of the books away in my blogs in case someone ones to read it, I don't want to spoil it. 

             This is not a normal book that I would read but it was entertaining, so I did manage to make it through the book.  Where in "Twilight" there are vampires and wolves, this book has students that are witches, dragons, wolves, and vampires.  They all have their own cliques also.  The book did leave me longing to find out "what happens next."  So I looked and "Crave" is the first of a series of seven books.  "Graphic Audio" did make one for the second book called "Crush."  I figure I'll listen to it also. I do think that book series are good for young readers because it makes them want to keep reading.   

            I'm glad that I did read it though, in spite of it being for a younger audience, because now if a teacher asks if it is age appropriate I can tell them. "Crave" was better than some that I have read, there were no explicit sexual scenes that were inappropriate for a young adult. It does have some inappropriate language and cussing if that is a concern of a parent or teacher.  If it was a movie I might give it a PG-13 rating due to language and some violence.  I do know that there are lot of books are being read by young adults right now that are not age appropriate and parents don't know they aren't.  They are learning about them on social media and teachers and parents don't know they reading adult books.  We do need to make sure that the books that our young adult readers are reading are age appropriate and not for adults only.  I'm not talking about banning books, I'm talking about making sure the content is not to explicit for young readers.  "Crave" is a good book that I would feel comfortable with older students reading and feel good about it because I have read it as well.