13 to Life [Paperback]

Shannon Delany (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 2010 | Series: 13 to Life

Everything about Jessie Gillmansen’s life changed when her mother died. Now even her hometown of Junction is changing.  Mysterious dark things are happening. All Jessie wants is to avoid more change. But showing a hot new guy around Junction High, she’s about to discover a whole new type of change. Pietr Rusakova is more than good looks and a fascinating accent—he’s a guy with a dangerous secret. And his very existence is sure to bring big trouble to Jessie’s small town.  It seems change is the one thing Jessie can’t avoid…

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up–Jessica knows what it is like to lead a false life. Wrestling with the emotions surrounding the death of her mother, she is also keeping her best friend, Sarah, from learning the truth about her role in this tragic accident. Complicating matters, Jessica is drawn to the mysterious and good-looking new boy at school. Pietr Rusakova is unlike anyone she has ever met and seems to possess the ability to see right through her. But he is also troubled by a family secret that has major ramifications for his life. As the teens' relationship intensifies, they are forced to face certain truths and come to grips with events that will change their futures. Delany spins an original story with great characters and a powerful plot that is full of twists and turns. It ends with a bang but there are times that the story seems to drag. Still, it's an enjoyable read that will leave fans waiting for the next installment.Donna Rosenblum, Floral Park Memorial High School, NY
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Jessica Gillmansen's junior year is already difficult because she recently lost her mother in a tragic car accident, and now she has to deal with the hot new guy at school, Pietr Rusakova, who just won't leave her alone. Things get more complicated as she deals with the aftermath of the crash, discovers she and Pietr share an odd connection, and continues her investigation of local news stories about werewolves and the Russian Mafia. Delany's first novel has a lot going on—too much, perhaps. Instead of focusing on a few plot points, Delany spreads herself thin and doesn't do justice to the many strands. For example, Jessica's supposed grief over her mother is minimized by its near absence in the text, and the Mob plotline feels contrived. Still, the kitchen-sink approach may pay off for Delany as she moves further into the planned series, and teen girls will eat up the Twilight flavor. Grades 7-10. --Cindy Welch

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1 edition (June 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312609140
• ISBN-13: 978-0312609146
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #222,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Previously a teacher and now a farmer raising heritage livestock in upstate New York, Shannon Delany has always been fascinated by history, myths, legends and paranormal research. Learn more about her at www.ShannonDelany.com. Explore the world of Junction at www.13toLifeSeries.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing happens...?, August 28, 2010

By 

iReadBooks - See all my reviews

This review is from: 13 to Life (Kindle Edition)

I'm gonna be brief because i don't particularly enjoy reading long reviews. All I'll say is I was sadly disappointed. I was looking forward to reading this, intrigued by the caption, and bought it as soon as I could. It took me a month to get through, and I'm surprised I even finished it. And I read books FAST. The characters make decisions that I simply don't understand, cause most of their problems due to these silly decisions, and there is honestly no depth to the plot. The book is like reading a list of problems and seeing a bunch of characters you don't particularly care about mope around in self pity. I don't mean to sound harsh, but this book really was such a let down. Though the author does leave potential for an interesting sequel, indicating toward the end (which, if you do read the book, I'd skip to because it's the only time in which anything happens) that the plot may pick up from there, I don't know if I'll bother to read it because of my extreme disappointment with this one. Maybe I'm just getting a wee bit tired of all this repetitive paranormal romance, but I haven't had any other problems in the genre recently. Maybe the sequel will be better. Anyway, unoriginal (or for those that were original, incomplete) plot lines and some characters that just fell flat with me. It seems that the majority of reviews differed from mine, which surprised me, but maybe I'm just impatient for a really riveting read which this was not. Disappointing, but not the worst I've ever read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother..., December 12, 2010

By 

The Don (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 13 to Life (Paperback)

I can't bring myself to give it one star because it wasn't quite dismal, but it sure came close. I got about a third of the way through and skimmed the rest. The characters are annoying, the writing style is annoying and the plot is all but none existent. The main character has all this chatter in her head that leads us to believe she is a strong independent girl who is intelligent and motivated, but everything she does suggest she is ridiculous, immature, narcissistic and has no sense of worth at all. I finally got so irritated I had to stop reading it. Oh, and the whole Russian spin was completely uninspired. The Aurthur obviously took no time to research Russian culture, and chose to just put 'da' in front of everything the main male character said. I was officially done when this guy started dating Jessica's friend because she told him to and because she couldn't bring herself to admit that she liked him. I lost all respect for the characters involved and even feel insulted for the intended target audience (high school) who are way more intelligent and mature than this book gives credit. I would definitely save your money.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent werewolf YA--the series will probably get better from here on., June 28, 2010

By 

Tiger Holland (North Alabama) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: 13 to Life (Paperback)

Jessica lives in the small town of Junction (every time I read the name, I start humming "Conjunction Junction, what's your function?"), and she's healing from her mother's death when Pietr Rusakova, a Russian-American student from Farthington, the site of a highly publicized and gory wolf attack, moves to her school. She's assigned to show him around, and though she's not falling at his feet like other girls, she still finds him intriguing. Pietr's hiding major secrets, but the back cover tells us the two secrets (werewolfism and mafia connections), so there's not really a mystery to unravel.

I thought Jessica was funny, and she has a talkative sort of brain, so whenever she's thinking, her thoughts will get chatty/rambly in an endearing way. I also like how she's not interested in the new guy right away--she's still in raptures over her longtime crush, football player Derek, and can't spare much time to drool over Pietr, who she reacts to with annoyance.

I was frowning, though, when Jessica pushes Pietr into a relationship with one of her friends, a relationship he doesn't want. Jessica and Pietr continue to see each other, discuss their feelings, and sneak kisses, all while he's technically supposed to be dating this other girl. I don't feel comfortable with anything about this situation; not Jessie pressuring Pietr because she feels sorry for her friend, or Pietr going along with it and being unable to stand up for himself and tell the girl he doesn't like her, or with either of them for continuing to get cozy when it means being dishonest. They're not shady people--I really don't get why they decide to behave this way.

13 to Life is written in an easygoing, conversational style, but it takes a while for anything much to happen--the mafia angle appears in the final fifth of the novel. I might be grabbing the sequel, and as always, if you're into werewolves and YA, you should still try it out.