Do you ever have such strong feelings that you’re afraid to let them out? After fifty-seven years of pent-up emotions, Artie Dam contemplates suicide. He feels too much about everything: his dead parents and sister, his son Rob, his absent friend Flossie, the kids in his history classes, and his dread of the president poised to take office in 2025.

It’s hard to reconcile Artie’s misery with the facts of his life. His marriage to Evie is solid, if imperfect. He communicates well with his...

I had to refresh my memory of Greek mythology to fully enjoy this novel. But don’t let that throw you. Authors Gary D. Schmidt and Ron Koertge wrote it for middle-schoolers who may be crossing the River Styx for the first time. You’re bound to enjoy it as much as they will.

For a kids’ book, Styx and Stones begins grimly. Simon, an ancient Athenian boy, finds himself plunged into Hades, where he spends 2,451 years feeding pomegranate seeds to Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Surrounded by...

Ordinarily, I would reject a book like Glimmer. Foul language always spoils the reading experience for me, and this book has plenty of it. But the power of Sam Aleks’s narration was too strong.

Onra Kang is an arsonist, driven by a miserable childhood into a state of numbness in which her only pleasure comes from setting things on fire. She burns trash, dumpsters, junk piles, and, her favorite media, TV sets. “I can think of no greater pleasure than the finality of flame,” Onra says. But other...