Run by Daisy Whitney at daisywhitney.com

Note: I first ran this review in September and am re-running it because this book releases today.

You think vampires that want to kill you in high school are scary? Or maybe werewolves who could rip your throat out?

They’re cotton candy compared to the high school in Courtney Summers “Some Girls Are,” the January 2010 follow-up to her well-received debut “Cracked up to Be.”

No, there’s nothing like the high school hell she makes her characters endure in “Some Girls Are.”

Even standard high school misery, like clueless teachers, cliques and gym are kittens next to Hallowell High, where the Fearsome Fivesome roam the halls. This girl bully gang loves to hate — they devise cruel tricks and horribly mean pranks in a game of chess with other students as the pawns. Their targets have no recourse, nowhere to go. They become nothing when the quintet is through with them.

Regina Afton is part of this crew. Until she’s kicked out for something she didn’t do. Now, she can’t duck fast enough because they’re pulling out all the stops as the four remaining members seek to destroy her. She hides out in the storage room, in the washrooms, with the so-called “losers,” but even they don’t really want a mean girl hanging with them. Because, can a Grade-A Henchwoman really change her stripes?

That is exactly what Regina desperately wants to do in this story — put her past as a very bad girl behind her — only she has to battle the now Fearsome Foursome, their toady boyfriends who do their dirty work, and worst of all, her own self doubts about whether she can be brave enough. The one bright spot is a loner boy who comes to see the good that is still inside her.

“Some Girls Are” is about what it means to be good, what it means to be bad, what it means to change. It’s about how to stand up and how to forgive and, especially, what not to do. It’s about — like the “Kiterunner” — “how to be good again.”

If you’ve talked to me about books for more than two minutes, you’ve certainly heard me mention Courtney Summers and “Cracked up to Be.” It is one of my favorite books of all time and also inspired me to switch genres from women’s fiction to young adult. Naturally, I was nervous reading “Some Girls Are,” hoping it would stand up to its predecessor. I can’t believe I’m saying this but “Some Girls Are” is even better. I was gripped with fear, anticipation, and intense, white-knuckling nerves during the second half of this book, wondering how on earth Courtney would possibly pull of a satisfying ending after she’d tortured her characters.

I won’t spoil the ending, though. You will need to read to find out! The countdown begins to the book’s January release date!

Take a deep breath and steel yourself for Amy Reed’s debut novel “Beautiful.” It’s beautiful for sure, but it’s not easy, nor is it supposed to be. Consider the verbs Reed uses: punched, scraped, gutted, crush, explode, smash, destroy, cutting, burning, scarring. But really, what better words are there to describe thirteen-year-old Cassie’s harrowing descent into the world of drugs, alcohol, abuse and the sex she wishes she weren’t having?

“Beautiful” is a gut check of a young adult novel. It’s the slippery slope of how one choice, one decision marks the line between the good road and the very wrong path. Neither drugs, nor alcohol nor thirteen-year-olds with their legs spread are glorified here. Instead, Reed depicts with a stark kind of poetry how Cassie is ripped apart by each and every decision she makes or doesn’t make. “Beautiful” is a living, breathing organism. With sharp, shattering emotions, the novel reads like a memoir so you feel a part of it, Cassie’s pain your pain, the novel’s pulse the fear of a crash and burn.

Or maybe not.

Because, remember that for a novel like this to work, there has to be redemption. Where and how and if Cassie can find a way out is what will keep you turning the pages. That, and the hope that she will.

It’s rare that I will quote from the actual text in my recommendations, but “Beautiful” is true to its title so share I must. Here are some of the parts I read over and over:

“At first I see a shadow, a blue-black shadow on ribs and side and stomach. But the shadow becomes liquid, a lake of blood under the surface, pain turned into pigment. Then it is solid, bruised flesh stretched over porcelain bones.”

“But not because of the usual reasons I don’t speak, not because I am concrete and my mouth is stuffed with glass.”

“I am not the girl with the fire or the shovel. This is not my forest. These are not my doll parts burning, not my legs, my arms, my head, my smooth pink torso.”

“This is what I am now: beautiful, with this new body and face and hair and clothes. Beautiful, with this erasing of history.”